Iran plans to issue sukuk securities worth up to $217 million to fund oil and natural gas projects, state-run energy news service SHANA reported.
Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri signed off on a decision, authorised under the annual state budget, which allows the oil, energy and industry ministries to issue the sukuk, which are Islamic sharia-compliant bonds, worth up to 35 trillion rials ($217 million at the free market exchange rate) for gas and oil projects, it said.
Since the end of the last century, sanctions have been imposed on Iran by the United States, the UN and the European Union, but most of the restrictions were lifted almost five years ago in exchange for commitments to end the nuclear program.
The nuclear deal was signed in July 2015, it entered into force in January 2016. In May 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from a nuclear agreement with Iran. Anti-Iranian sanctions were reinstated by Washington in November 2018. They include a ban on the purchase of oil.
Since November 2018, the United States gave eight countries and territories – China, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey – six months to continue importing Iranian oil, but on May 2, 2019, these exceptions ended.
Source Reuters