Iran will send the United States 20 million barrels of crude oil to help it overcome the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, if Washington waives trade sanctions, a senior Iranian oil official said.
In a gesture that mirrors American aid offers after a devastating 2003 earthquake in Iran, Tehran's envoy to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries announced his government would ship up to 20 million barrels of oil to the US, state radio reported late last night.
"If US sanctions are lifted, Iran is prepared to send that quantity of oil to America," the radio quoted Hossein Kazempour as saying.
US officials couldn't immediately be reached for comment, but there were no signs that the US policy toward Iran was about to change. Last week the Iranian Foreign Ministry offered to send relief supplies to the American Red Cross; Iranian newspapers reported that no response had been received.
Iran's offers reciprocates the goodwill that the United States displayed after an earthquake flattened the southeastern Iranian city of Bam in 2003, killing more than 26,000 people. The United States flew in emergency supplies, which were gratefully unloaded at an Iranian airport.
The Bam gesture did not, however, lead to an improvement in relations.
The United States and Iran have had no diplomatic relations since militants stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and held its occupants hostage in 1979. Washington then imposed a range of sanctions on Iran.
The United States accuses Iran of sponsoring terrorism and secretly trying to build nuclear bombs - charges that Iran denies.
Hurricane Katrina has severely disrupted US oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and reduced the country's refining capacity by more than 10 percent.