Iran state TV blasted over report on secret oil sales

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian officials slam the country’s state television today for airing a program on oil sales to China that contravene US sanctions, saying the report went “against national interests.”

The “Hello, Good Morning” talk show featured on Tuesday a program on the Salina, an Iranian-flagged tanker under US sanctions that reportedly had delivered 1 million barrels of crude oil to China’s Jinzhou port in late June.

China — along with Britain, France, Germany and Russia — is one of the partners in the nuclear deal and has rejected US President Donald Trump’s administration’s efforts to cut Iranian oil exports to zero.

“This shows that sanctions are ineffective and Iran’s path to sell its oil is not blocked,” the program’s host said, showing what he claimed were satellite photos of the tanker berthed at the Chinese port.

The state broadcaster comes under fire from local media who call the program “suspicious,” with officials weighing in the next day.

“This will hurt (Iran’s) national interests,” semi-official ISNA news agency quotes Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying. “Thank God I don’t watch TV.”

Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh says the program “has undone what the ministry set out to do.” He had said previously that Iran was keeping up oil sales through “unconventional” means kept secret to skirt US sanctions.

State television responded by saying the information was already public, pointing to a Financial Times report published last week.

— AFP