Twitter Suspends Account of Iranian Oil Minister, under sanctions

On Monday, Twitter suspended the account of Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh, who was personally sanctioned by the United States at the end of October. 

The profile page on this social network of the head of Iranian Oil @BijanZanganeh is no longer visible and simply displays the message "account suspended". 

This move comes after the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Zanganeh and a dozen companies of the sector such as the National Oil Company of Iran and the National Oil Ship Company on October 26. 

The US Treasury Department accused both the minister and the companies of supporting "terrorist entities" and "financing destabilising activities".

As a result of these penalties, the assets that these entities may have under US jurisdiction are frozen and financial transactions with US citizens or companies are prohibited. 

In response, Zanganeh assured that "Iran's oil industry will not be stopped" and that "these sanctions are a passive reaction to the failure of Washington's policy to reduce Iran's oil exports to zero."

These statements were made by the minister via Twitter, in which he also stated that he has no assets outside Iran that could be sanctioned. 

The United States has already applied harsh penalties against the Iranian energy sector in November 2018 with the aim of reducing its crude oil exports to zero. 

Iran has continued to sell oil and other derivatives by various methods that circumvent the sanctions, but exports have dropped considerably from 2.5 million barrels per day in 2018 to current figures generally below one million. 

Donald Trump's US administration has imposed countless sanctions on practically all economic sectors in Iran since it unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear agreement signed in 2015 between Teheran and six major powers.