Iran to react to tougher Western oil sanctions

Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said Monday that the Islamic republic would react to the West's possible tougher sanctions on the country's oil industry, the official IRNA news agency reported. The Iranian minister said Iran will reconsider its oil exports, implying that the country may stop or reduce its crude exports to the international market. "The lack of Iran's oil in international markets would lead to an increase in its global price," Qasemi said, adding that in that case people in consuming countries will suffer. He further pointed out that despite the tough sanctions by the West, Iran's oil industry has "successfully" overcome problems and made remarkable progress, according to IRNA. Qasemi said last month that Iran had embarked on an endeavor to develop green energy in order to reduce its domestic fossil fuel consumption. He said his country had plans to increase the production of alternative energy like solar energy, wind energy and bio-fuels in order to reduce the usage of its own oil and gas reserves for internal purposes. The European Union (EU) decided last month to enforce fresh sanctions against Iran, including a ban on the import of natural gas from Iran to the EU. It also agreed to broaden the existing export ban on key equipment and entities for Iranian oil, gas and petrochemical industries. The EU imposed an embargo on Iran's oil export on July 1.