TEHRAN, April 17 (Shana) �- Iran�s Minister of Petroleum said Tehran supports the oil freeze plan, but reiterated that the country will not give up on regaining its historical right and share in the global oil markets.

TEHRAN, April 17 (Shana) �- �Freezing the oil production to the January 2016 levels was first introduced in the February meeting between the Energy ministers of Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Qatar, where it was decided that in order to stabilize and re-balance the oil market, oil production would be fixed to the levels of January 2016�, Bijan Zanganeh, said in a televized interview Saturday night.

Zanganeh praised the idea of oil producers' collaboration in bringing stability and balance to the global oil market, and said: �In this plan, for the first time in many years, OPEC and non-OPEC producers have come together to form a serious and effective cooperation."

�So far, Russia, world�s biggest oil producer, was not ready to work with OPEC countries and this is the beginning of a much-sought-after partnership." he added.

"We have told other OPEC members and some non-OPEC oil producers like Russia that they must understand Iran's return to the market because if Iran freezes its oil output at January levels, then nothing would change regarding removal of sanctions for the country," he said.

The Iranian Minister of Petroleum further said oil sanctions were the biggest sanctions on Iran and almost all OPEC members have reacted positively to Iran's return to the market.

By SHANA