Via an official statement, the company downplayed the move as being politically motivated, and said it is completely against all norms in international legal systems.
"The sanctions are re-imposed while no new accusations have been put forward by the EU against NITC," read the statement.
Earlier this week, a deputy petroleum minister said that the European Union’s decision to reimpose sanctions on National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) is politically motivated.
“When a move is political, court and good defense will have no meaning,” Mohammad Souri, deputy petroleum minister for strategic affairs, said.
“The European Union’s decision is completely politically motivated and it has nothing to do with Iran’s defenses,” he said.
Souri, a former CEO of NITC, said the lifting of sanctions and their re-imposition have had no impact on the company’s activities.
He said that lack of P&I Club insurance coverage and banking restrictions are the main challenges to NITC’s activities.
“Neither of these problems has been resolved in the past year even though sanctions were lifted. Therefore, with their re-imposition, nothing special will happen,” he said.
Souri dismissed the EU’s allegations that the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) holds stakes in NITC.
He said that the NITC is owned by the Oil Industry Pension Fund, Social Security Fund and State Pension Fund.
“This issue has already been proven in court and now this company is being sanctioned for the same reasons. It indicates political motives,” said Souri.
The European Union on Thursday re-imposed sanctions against the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC).
An EU working group decided to add the NITC to the sanctions list again even though an EU high court had ruled last year against blacklisting the company.
The EU’s second-highest court ruled in July 2014 that there were no grounds to blacklist the NITC after it contested the designation.
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