Iran has no plans to leave OPEC

Iran has no plans to leave the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries despite being treated like an enemy by some fellow members, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said in an interview published on Saturday.

“Iran has no plans to leave OPEC...and regrets that some members of OPEC have turned this organization into a political forum for confronting two founding members of OPEC, meaning Iran and Venezuela,” Zanganeh told the Iranian parliament news site ICANA, as reported by Reuters.

“And two regional countries are showing enmity towards us in this organization. We are not their enemy but they are showing enmity towards us...and use oil as a weapon against us in the global market and world."

Zanganeh did not identify the two countries.

Tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - both US allies - have spiked this year after the two said they would increase oil production to make up for Iranian crude cut off from the market by US sanctions.

On Friday, US President Donald Trump's administration added Iran's largest petrochemical holding group to its sanctions list, accusing it of indirectly supporting Tehran's Revolutionary Guards. Washington said the move aimed to dry up revenue to the elite Iranian military force, but analysts called it largely symbolic.

The fresh sanctions come amid weeks of escalating tensions between Iran and the US.

Last month, US officials accused the Iranian government of planning to attack American forces and interests in the Middle East.

Zanganeh was also cited by ICANA as saying the US had made it increasingly difficult for Iran to sidestep sanctions, but it had come up with "unconventional" ways to circumvent them, according to the Times of Israel.

“We have unofficial or unconventional sales, all of which are secret, because if they are made known America would immediately stop them,” he said, quoted by ICANA and reported by the Times of Israel.

Zanganeh declined to give details on Iran’s oil exports, saying he would not disclose figures until sanctions were lifted.

"We have thought about confronting America's actions and constantly have found and will find new ways, and anyway this is a war where we are standing strong and will not retreat." he said, without elaborating.