Tehran, April 13: Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast says a dispute with India over payments for Iranian crude oil has been resolved, stressing there is no legal problem in this regard.
“There is no legal problem regarding oil trade [with India]. Even the illegal sanction of the United Nations Security Council does not include Iran’s trade transactions of oil and gas,” Mehmanparast said Tuesday.
“Determining how to receive oil and gas payments requires technical calculation and an agreement on the part of the two countries [of Iran and India]. An ambiguity had briefly emerged, but the issue was resolved once specialist meetings were held,” he added.
There is a technical formula on how to transfer payments for Iranian crude oil, the Iranian spokesman emphasized.
In February, Iran and India agreed to set up a new mechanism to route oil payments through the Hamburg-based European-Iranian Trade Bank AG (EIH Bank).
On April 7, Germany rebuffed excessive pressure by the United States and the European Union to close down the EIH Bank, arguing that it has no proof of illegal activity.
The German Foreign Ministry spokesman Andreas Peschke said that the EIH Bank will continue its activities in the European country.
The remarks came after the The New York Times reported that the US “is concerned about recent reports that the German government authorized the use of EIH as a conduit for India’s oil payments to Iran.”
Iran’s Central Bank Governor Mahmoud Bahmani also stated last Wednesday that EIH will continue its financial transactions despite pressures from the US.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Shamseddin Hosseini said Monday that the oil dispute with India had been resolved.
“About the payment for oil bought from Iran by India, a problem was created for a bank by the German central bank, which has been solved by negotiations with Indian and German officials,” Hosseini said.
India imported 21.3 million tons of crude oil from Iran from March 21, 2009 to March 21, 2010.
Last year in June, the UN Security Council imposed a fourth round of US-engineered sanctions against Iran’s financial and military sectors.
Washington and its European allies have also imposed unilateral measures against Iran’s energy sector.
Western powers accuse Tehran of following a military nuclear program, a charge repeatedly refuted by the Islamic Republic.
——-Agencies