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Iran: EU oil sanctions hurt European interests

Xinhua, June 27, 2012

• Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Tuesday that the European Union's decision to impose oil embargo on Iran will hurt the interests of EU members.

  EU's "unilateral" and "illogical" behavior of imposing oil sanctions on Iran will damage the positive atmosphere of cooperation between the two sides, said Mehmanparast.

  Such political decisions will also hurt the Europeans' interests, the spokesman said in his weekly press briefing on Tuesday.

  The EU on Monday formally approved an embargo on Iranian oil to be enforced on July 1.

  The EU Foreign Affairs Council made the decision following a review of the EU's restrictive measures against Iran in Luxembourg. It means that the latest package of EU sanctions against the country will apply as decided earlier, and two exemptions will end, as scheduled, on July 1.

  This latest package of sanctions against Iran was adopted in January. It banned imports of Iranian crude oil and petroleum products, but exempted "already concluded contracts," which can still be executed until July 1.

  The sanctions to be adopted by the European Union will negatively affect the upcoming expert-level meetings between Iran and the the P5+1 (United States, Britain, China, France, Russia plus Germany) in Turkey's Istanbul, said the spokesman.

  The latest round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 ended without an agreement in the Russian capital late Tuesday. But all parties agreed to hold an expert level meeting again in Turkey's Istanbul in July.

  Moreover, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi on Tuesday asked EU to be more rational in dealing with Iran as the country has deep experience to thwart a variety of hostile attitudes, including a number of sanctions, against Tehran, the official IRNA news agency reported.

  "We got used to sanctions as they are not new to us but we hope the European Union will review its unilateral sanctions with more rationality," he told reporters in Cyprus.

  Confrontation will be to no one's benefit and there is no reason to take the wrong path, he said, referring to the EU's oil embargo on Iran to be enforced from July 1.

  Mutual understanding is the best option and countries can live in peace while having their own differences, he was quoted as saying by IRNA.

  Since Cyprus will undertake the rotating presidency of European Union from July 1, it is expected that the country will encourage European Union to have close and comprehensive cooperation with Iran through constructive talks, said Salehi.

  Iran is ready to remove misunderstandings with the EU, he said, adding Iran is a very important country in the region which plays key roles in regional developments.

  Iran is a good trade partner for Europe and many European countries are satisfied with such relations, IRNA quoted him as saying.

  On Tuesday, an Iranian lawmaker said that the uranium enrichment is a domestic achievement, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported.

  Hadi Shoushtari, the member of National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Iran's Majlis (parliament) told ISNA that the sanctions have no impact on the Iranians wills, especially on the subject of uranium enrichment.

  The Western countries suspect that Iran is developing nuclear bombs under the cover of its nuclear program, while Iran insists on the program's peaceful nature.

  The South Korean finance ministry said Tuesday that South Korea will be forced to stop oil imports from Iran starting next month as the EU will ban insurance on Iranian oil shipments.

  The EU Foreign Affairs Council decided on Monday to ban any type of insurance for Iranian oil shipments from July 1 as planned. The ban will lead South Korea to stop Iranian oil imports as local shipping firms cannot carry crude without insurance from Europe.

  European insurers are now covering all the protection and indemnity (P&I) insurance on Iranian oil shipments to South Korea, the ministry said, adding that dependence on European insurers to cover cargo and ships is ranging from 70 to 90 percent.

  The P&I insurance refers to a mutual insurance offered by the P& I club. The club is formed among ship owners or ship operators to provide its members with insurance for broader risks such as damage to cargo and sailors that marine insurers are typically loath to cover.

  The South Korean finance ministry said the government will work to help minimize the impact from the halt of the Iranian oil imports, adding that it has been making efforts to shun supply shortage by continuously negotiating with other oil exporting nations such as Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait and Iraq.

  South Korea imported 87.18 million barrels of oil from Iran in 2011, up 20.1 percent from a year earlier. Last year's oil imports from Iran accounted for 9.4 percent of the total.

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