Bijan Zanganeh Charged in Crescent File and Goes to Court

Bijan Namedar Zanganeh, oil minister in the governments of Hassan Rouhani and Mohammad Khatami, is now standing as an accused in the Crescent case file.

Iran newspaper, the media organ of the government, reported citing Masoud Setayeshi, spokesman of the judiciary, that in the Crescent case file, Bijan Zanganeh, former oil minister, is listed as an accused and has appeared in court to respond to the charges.

The “Crescent” contract was one of the most controversial oil deals in Iran over the past two decades, which was formed in 2001 during Mohammad Khatami’s government. According to this contract, Iran had agreed to export hundreds of millions of cubic feet of gas daily to the United Arab Emirates after constructing a pipeline in a region of the Persian Gulf.

The former Iranian oil minister, who was one of the founders and steadfast defenders of this contract, has always been the target of criticism due to the Crescent contract’s provisions and especially the price set for gas exported to the UAE.

Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American citizen, was the director of the strategic planning office of the Crescent oil company in Tehran and was detained in September 2015. Mr. Namazi has been imprisoned since that time, and during this period judicial authorities have not granted him permission to take leave.

It should be noted that in October 2021, the UAE company “Dana Gas” announced that the international arbitration court in the case of a complaint against Iran’s National Oil Company ruled in favor of “Dana Gas” and fined the Iranian side $607.5 million.

Source: Voice of America