PARIS (AP) — A senior energy official says Iran won’t consider a production freeze until it reaches its pre-sanctions level of output of 4.2 million barrels a day.

Mehdi Hosseini, who heads the oil contracts revision committee at Iran’s Petroleum Ministry, said a freeze at anything less than that would be a continuation of the sanctions imposed on his country as a result of its disputed nuclear program.

The statement is in line with Iran’s previous statements on the issue and comes after the country stayed away from a global producers’ meeting last weekend on whether to freeze production.

Hosseini said: “Our pre-sanction production was something around 4.2 (million barrels per day) ... therefore any other figure less than that it means another sanction against ourselves. It is something we cannot accept.”

First Published: April 21, 2016, 10:39 a.m.