Azernews.Az

The Iranian parliament (Majlis) plans to discuss a bill, which may vote for stopping exports of crude oil in winter to countries which have imposed sanctions against the Islamic Republic's oil sector, ISNA news agency reported.

If the bill is approved, Iran will not sell oil during winter to the mentioned countries, Head of Parliament's Energy Commission Masud Mir Kazemi said.

"In winter the demand for oil will be increasing, reaching its peak," Mir Kazemi said. "In a couple of months, if the Parliament accepts the bill, Iran will not be selling oil to these countries."

On September 2, Iran's OPEC governor and director of Iran's National Oil Company Mohammad-Ali Khatibi said that Iran's oil exports are at their normal level and are unaffected by Western embargoes.

"We don't see anything abnormal, almost everything is progressing routinely," Khatibi told ISNA.

In July, Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said that although the West has imposed sanctions on Iran's oil sector with the goal of toppling the Islamic establishment, the country's oil exports will never be halted because oil consuming countries need Iranian crude.

"There are many ways to easily sell oil, one of which is to take advantage of businessmen and the private sector," Qasemi said at the time.

At the beginning of 2012, the United States and the European Union imposed new sanctions on Iran's oil and financial sectors with the goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran.

U.S. sanctions entered into force on June 28, while EU bans on Iranian oil imports came into force on July 1.