Iran has no plans to leave OPEC, says oil minister

Iran "has no plans" of leaving the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), according to its Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh.

"Iran has no plans to leave OPEC...and regrets that some members of OPEC have turned this organisation into a political forum for confronting two founding members of OPEC, meaning Iran and Venezuela," Zanganeh told Iranian state news agency ICANA, according to Sputnik.

This comes after the oil-rich country threatened to take retaliatory measures if its interests in the organisation were harmed. Iran's officials further alleged that the grouping was flawed due to "the unilateralism of some of its members and that it's possible that the organisation may collapse."

The Iranian minister has previously accused a few OPEC members of "exaggerating their capacities" to fill in for any shortfall in oil supply globally due to US sanctions on Iran.

In fact, the United States refused to provide any waiver extensions to countries like India for them to continue their oil imports from Iran.