TEHRAN - Iran’s OPEC Governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili on Friday slammed the U.S.’s request for Saudi Arabia to pump more oil so that it could cover a drop in Iranian exports, saying that OPEC would not comply with such requests.

“It’s crazy and astonishing to see instruction coming from Washington to Saudi to act and replace a shortfall of Iran’s export due to their illegal sanctions on Iran and Venezuela,” Kazempour Ardebili told Reuters.

He predicted OPEC would not heed the U.S. request and said oil prices would jump in response to Washington’s sanctions on Iran and Venezuela, as they did during a previous round of U.S. sanctions against Iran.

“No one in OPEC will act against two of its founder members,” he said. “The U.S. tried it last time against Iran, but oil prices got to $140 a barrel”.

U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of that nuclear deal last month and announced the “highest level” of sanctions against Iran, the biggest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries after Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

The U.S. government has unofficially asked Saudi Arabia and some other OPEC producers to raise output a day before Washington slapped new sanctions on Tehran.

Iran has called on OPEC to discuss “illegal” sanctions at the next meeting on June 22, which is due to debate production policies.

EF/MA