Iran steps up calls for US investment in oil, gas sectors
TEHRAN, March 15 (AFP) - Tehran again challenged Washington on Monday
to allow US firms to do business in Iran's oil and gas sectors and end
sanctions against the Islamic republic.
"It's time that the United States revised its policy and attitude
and opened the way for US companies to take part in oil and gas development
projects in Iran," Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said.
US policy is "hurting American companies," he said, quoted
by the official IRNA news agency.
Kharazi announced last week that US firms face "no obstacle"
to doing business in Iran's oil industry, an indirect challenge to the
unilateral total embargo Washington imposed on Tehran in 1995.
Washington's policy has been coming under increasing attack from US
oil executives.
The policy "has created more problems than it solved," Michael
Stinson, senior vice president of oil giant Conoco, told the Senate International
Relations Committee earlier this month.
"I find it almost tragic that the French are building relations
in Iran in ways we cannot," he said.
French oil firm Elf Aquitaine and Italy's ENI signed a 540 million
dollar deal in early March to develop Iran's Doroud oil field in a direct
challenge to the so-called D'Amato law.
The 1996 legislation calls for sanctions on foreign firms investing
more than 20 million dollars in the energy sectors of Iran and Libya, countries
Washington accuses of supporting terrorism.
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