Iran likely to halt crude exports to EU states

Iran has played a tit-for-tat game over crude shipments since the European Union decided in January to stop all Iranian oil imports as of July, part of a range of new sanctions aimed at forcing Tehran to give up its peaceful nuclear activities. "Tehran has cut oil supply to Spain after stopping crude export to Greece as part of its counter-sanctions," press tv said, citing unidentified sources, adding that a similar move was being considered for Germany and Italy. A spokesman for Spain's biggest refiner Repsol confirmed the report about the cut of Iranian crude supplies to his firm. After months of debates, the EU member states obeyed the US policies and reached an agreement in their meeting on January 23 to sanction oil imports from Iran and freeze the assets of Iran's Central Bank within the EU. The Iranian oil ministry in a statement late January downplayed the effects of the US and EU's unilateral oil sanctions against Tehran, and said such embargoes will merely harm the European economies and oil consuming countries. European sanctions against Iran's oil exports will affect the world economy and hurt European and non-European countries, the statement said. Later, Tehran summoned the ambassadors of Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Portugal and the Netherlands to protest at the EU's unilateral sanctions against Tehran over its peaceful nuclear program, and warned them that it would soon stop oil exports to these countries if they do not reverse their decision. After the EU's decision to embargo Iranian oil supplies, Tehran stopped exports to France, Britain and, of course very recently, Greece. Following Tehran's oil sanctions against the three and its warning to other EU members, oil prices started soaring in the world markets.