TEHRAN – Iran will not stand idly by and watch others export their oil if it is deprived of crude exports under a U.S. plan, Iran’s deputy foreign minister has said.

“If Iran cannot export its oil, it will naturally not stand idly by and see others export theirs,” Abbas Araqchi said in an interview with Al-Alam news website which was published on Monday.

“If we are not able to export, others will not be either,” he added.

Pointing to Iran’s numerous options for dealing with the U.S. plot to drive the country’s oil exports down to zero, Araqchi expressed the hope that Tehran would not have to resort to its options, saying the U.S. allies, the Europeans, Russia, China and India are negotiating to fulfill Iran’s demands and prevent the conditions in which Iran would have to take up its options.

His comments came after President Rouhani warned his U.S. counterpart not to “play with the lion’s tail” as Donald Trump is pushing to halt Iran’s export of oil.

Rouhani also said a war with Iran would be “the mother of wars” and that control over the strategic Strait of Hormuz is only one of Iran’s advantages.

During a recent visit to Austria, Rouhani pledged that Tehran will stand firm against the U.S. threat to halt Iranian oil shipments, saying no other country in the region could export oil if Iran is to be deprived of oil exports.

A number of top Iranian military officials supported the idea afterwards, saying Iran has the ability to shut down international oil shipments in the Strait of Hormuz if necessary.

EU should present its package by August 6

Elsewhere in the interview, Araqchi said the European Union has a time limit of two weeks from the date to present its package of “practical proposals” to save the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, officially known as the JCPOA.

“There is a deadline for the EU to offer its practical proposals and the date is August 6,” Araqchi said.

The package addresses various sectors, including oil, gas, and insurance and banking services, the benefits that Iran was supposed to receive from the full implementation of the JCPOA, the diplomat underlined.

The senior diplomat said that the first round of U.S. sanctions would go into effect in August, followed by ones targeting Iran's oil exports in November.

“We are in talks with Europe to hammer out an executive mechanism for fulfilling the European Union’s commitments,” Araqchi said.

Last week, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the 28-nation bloc were doing all they could to save the deal but conceded Trump's administration could still wreck it.

Mogherini said so as she announced that the European Council had endorsed the update to a statute to shield European firms from the effects of the sanctions.

The blocking statute forbids EU firms from complying with U.S. sanctions, allowing them to recover damages from such penalties and nullifying any foreign court rulings against them, she said.

After Trump pulled out of the JCPOA in May, the EU vowed to fight to preserve the deal.

The blocking statute is due to enter force on August 6, when the first set of U.S. sanctions are due. The second set is due November 4, just before U.S. legislative elections.

The move came after the Trump administration rejected an EU call for an exemption of European companies working with Iran from U.S. sanctions.

SP/PA