Tasnim – Head of Iran’s Plan and Budget Organization Mohammad Baqer Nobakht highlighted the country’s measures to export a million barrels of crude per day in the next Iranian calendar year (March 2020 – March 2021) and said the country has taken new paths to overcome the sanctions.

Speaking to reporters in Tehran on Monday, Nobakht noted that the national budget bill for next year along with its 19 volumes of annexes was presented to the parliament on Sunday.

“The budget (bill) has been prepared for the third year of major economic sanctions (against the Islamic Republic),” he stated.

“New paths have been put on the agenda to get through the sanctions era,” the official said.

Noting that over the past eight months, Iran’s oil was exported at an average price of $62.5 per barrel, he said the exports of 1 million barrels of oil per day at a price of $50 has been planned in the next year, which would generate $18.25 billion of oil income.

The remarks come against the backdrop of increased tensions between Iran and the US with Washington imposing new sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

The US has ratcheted up pressure on Iran since last year after withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Since then, the administration of US President Donald Trump has been trying to reduce Iran’s oil exports to “zero,” and has sent an aircraft carrier strike group, a bomber squad, an amphibious assault ship, and a Patriot missile battery to the Middle East to try to stack up pressure on Tehran.

Iranian officials, however, have dismissed such moves as psychological warfare, saying the country has its own ways of circumventing the American bans.