DUBAI: Iran’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that new US sanctions targeting revenue from the country’s exports of industrial metals were “against international norms”, and warned Washington would be responsible for Iran’s losses.

Iran exported over 57 million tonnes of mineral products worth more than $9.2 billion during the fiscal year to March, according to information on the website of Iran’s state-owned mines and metal holding company IMIDRO.

But analysts say the latest sanctions are unlikely to affect global markets.

“Years and years of sanctions and lack of investment means that Iran has not been able to fulfil its potential of being a major metals producer,” Saxo Bank commodities analyst Ole Hansen said. “There was barely any reaction in prices to the news.”

Iran’s mining industry was already “70 per cent under sanctions in practice” due to shipping and payment restrictions, the deputy head of Iran’s Mine House, Mohammad Reza Bahraman was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA on Thursday.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2019