US Demands Tehran to Supply Gasoline to American Forces in Region
News number: 8908241591 16:52 | 2010-11-15
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8908241591

TEHRAN (FNA)- Washington has asked Tehran to supply gasoline to its forces
deployed in the region, an Iranian official announced on Monday, reminding
that the US has made the demand while it has recently passed a legislation
to boycott global fuel supplies to Iran.

"A country which was the main actor behind fuel sanctions against Iran has
now stretched its needy hand to Iran to purchase gasoline for its military
forces in the region," Iran's Deputy Welfare and Social Security Minister
Ali Yousefpour said.

He said the demand indicates the weakness and failure of Washington in its
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and reiterated that such failures show the
astonishing demise of the so-called superpower in the world.

Iran increased its gasoline production after the United States and the
European Union started approving their own unilateral sanctions against the
Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, mostly targeting the country's
energy and banking sectors, including a US boycott of gasoline supplies to
Iran.

After the UN Security Council ratified a sanctions resolution against Iran
on June 9, the US Senate passed a legislation to expand sanctions on foreign
companies that invest in Iran's energy sector and those foreign companies
that sell refined petroleum to Iran or help develop its refining capacity.

The bill, which later received the approval of the House of Representatives,
said companies that continue to sell gasoline and other refined oil products
to Iran would be banned from receiving Energy Department contracts to
deliver crude to the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The bill was then
signed into law by US President Barack Obama.

But Iran's self-sufficiency in gasoline production made Washington's plots
fall flat. Iran boosted gasoline production so much that in September 2010,
the country started exporting gasoline.

"The first shipment of Iran's gasoline has been exported," Manager of
International Affairs at the National Iranian Oil Company Ali Asqar Arshi
announced at the time.

Also in the same month, Iranian Oil Minister Massoud Mir-Kazzemi announced
that the country has increased domestic gasoline production to 66mln liters
per day, meaning that Iran no more needs foreign imports.

Iran has increased its gasoline production by 50 percentage points to become
self-sufficient in the sector, Mir-Kazzemi said at the time.

Iran's daily gasoline production increased from 44 million to over 66
million litters, which means Tehran no longer has to import gasoline, he
added.

Also, an Iranian oil official announced in October that the country can
still boost its gasoline production capacity by activating the potential
production lines existing in different parts of the country.