US President Donald Trump should stop interfering in the Middle East if he wants the price of oil to cease climbing, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh has said.

“Mr Trump is seriously trying to reduce exports of Iran’s oil and also ensure the price of oil does not go up, but these two things cannot happen together,” Zanganeh was reported as saying by quoted as saying by the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA).

Zanganeh’s September 26 remarks came shortly before Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif countered speculation that the second biggest buyer of Iranian crude, India, under pressure from Washington which wants a worldwide embargo on Iranian oil in place by November 5, would stop importing oil from Iran.

After meeting his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj in New York on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly, Zarif, according to a video shot by news agency ANI, said: “Our Indian friends have always been categorical in terms of their intention to continue economic cooperation and [the] import of oil from Iran. And I heard the same statement from my Indian counterpart.”

In his comments, Zanganeh added: “If [Trump] wants the price of oil to not rise and the market to not become destabilised, he should stop unwarranted and disruptive interference in the Middle East and not be an obstacle to the production and export of Iran’s oil.”

Trump, not the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), was the cause of the recent rise in the oil price, Zanganeh stated, saying: “Trump blames OPEC for what he has created and caused: the rising price of oil and disturbance in the market.”

Iran is the third largest oil producer in OPEC. The other members of OPEC do not have the capacity to increase their production to replace Iranian output that Trump wants to drive out of the market, Zanganeh said.

In a speech at the UN on September 25, Trump repeated his call to OPEC to pump more oil to put a brake on growing prices.

Not unequivocal
Unlike China, which is the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, India has not been unequivocal about continuing to take shipments of Iranian oil in the face of Trump’s call to the world to back his policy of strangling Iran’s economy with sanctions to drive Tehran to the table to renegotiate its role in Middle East Affairs. Lately, New Delhi was given some encouragement by the US that it might receive temporary sanctions waivers allowing it to import a percentage of the Iranian oil volumes it typically buys, without fear of penalty.

Iran is India’s third biggest oil supplier. During the previous round of heavy sanctions aimed at Iran—which were imposed by the Barack Obama administration and a multilateral set of allies, unlike the Trump sanctions which are unilateral—India was one of the few counties that maintained trade with the Islamic Republic.

“We have comprehensive cooperation with India and that … includes energy cooperation because Iran has always been a reliable source of energy for India,” Zarif added.

To encourage India to continue taking consignments of Iranian oil, Tehran has offered near-free shipping and an extended credit period. Shipping companies will from November 5 be very wary of hauling Iranian oil as that would expose them to secondary sanctions from Washington.

Tolerating Chabahar
In attempting to win India round to its hardball policy on Iranian oil, the US has said it might tolerate India continuing to invest in the Chabahar port complex in Iran. The hub, on the Gulf of Oman—a strait of the Indian Ocean—is Iran’s only oceanic port. India wants to send exports to Afghanistan and Central Asia via Chabahar and a new transportation corridor. It is barred from sending exports to those destinations via sometimes-hostile neighbour Pakistan.

The Chabahar complex is expected to be operational by 2019.

According to an Indian government source quoted by Reuters, India is looking at providing a $3.5mn-equivalent bank guarantee for the further development of the port through UCO Bank.

No orders from India
The assurances Zarif said he received on India continuing to take Iranian oil conflict with a September 26 report from Bloomberg that Indian oil importers have not ordered any oil imports from Iran for November.

Indian Oil Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation, India’s two largest state-owned refiners, had not requested Iranian oil cargoes for the month, the report said, citing officials at the companies. India’s Nayara Energy also reportedly stated that it does not intend to import Iranian crude after the resumption of US sanctions on Iranian oil.

India has imported an average of 577,000 barrels a day of Iranian oil this year, accounting for 27% Iran’s oil exports.

Separately, several Iranian tankers are now recorded as missing by global satellite ship tracking systems, Bloomberg also reported. Iran appears to be shifting its oil exports under the radar to help sanctions-busting. Around a dozen Iranian tankers have reportedly switched off their signals to avoid being easily tracked by the US.

The tankers were estimated to hold around 13mn barrels of crude and condensate and to be heading in the direction of East Asia.