Iran ready to attack as US exemptions on Iranian oil expire



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The Iranian armed forces must prepare as if an attack was imminent, General Abdolrahim Mousavi said Thursday, while US waivers of Iran's sanctions on crude oil have expired, according to Radio Farda.

"All forces must prepare as if an attack could take place tomorrow and engage in continuous war exercises," Mousavi told IRNA, the official Iranian news agency, accusing the United States of continuing with force the change of regime.

"We will crush America's killer at the pinnacle of its power," Mousavi had said at the end of March, when an extension of the derogation was still possible.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei tweeted a similar warning on Wednesday, suggesting that "the enemy's war posture" was present, even though it did not seem to be so publicly. The United States has denied the goal of changing the regime in Iran.

"Today, the enemy is attacking us in all areas: they are designing plans to strike Iran against the economy, the infiltration of intelligence and cyberspace," he said. Khamenei said on Twitter in one of five tweets on the subject, adding that the current US administration was more transparent in its positions, unlike previous US administrations "who wore velvet gloves on their iron hands ".

The United States has decided to end the eight exemptions it granted to Iranian oil buyers in order to reduce the country's exports to zero, or as close to zero as possible. This decision provoked many retaliatory reactions from the country sanctioned against the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as pressure on its crude oil exports intensified.

"Using oil as a weapon against two founding members of OPEC [Venezuela and Iran], [they] Bijan Zanganeh, Iran's oil minister, said on Wednesday that OPEC's solidarity was dividing and was causing the death and collapse of OPEC.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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