The move comes as Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi had earlier hinted at the possibility of Iran’s halting oil exports to certain European countries.
Iranian Oil Ministry Spokesman Alireza Nikzad-Rahbar said Sunday that Iran has no problem in exporting and selling crude oil to its customers.
“We have our own oil customers and replacements for these [British and French] companies have already been chosen and we will sell the crude oil to new customers instead of the British and French companies,” Nikzad-Rahbar pointed out.
European Union foreign ministers agreed to ban oil imports from Iran on January 23 and to freeze the assets of the Iranian Central Bank across the EU in a bid to pressure Iran over its nuclear program.
The sanctions will become fully effective on July 1, 2012, to give EU member states enough time to adjust to the new conditions and find alternative crude oil supplies.
Despite the widely publicized claims by the US, Israel and some of their European allies that Iran’s nuclear program may include a military aspect, Tehran insists its nuclear work is civilian in nature.
Iran argues that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
The IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence indicating that Tehran’s civilian nuclear program has been diverted towards nuclear weapons production.
All the politicians do is to give you lip service. They are all stooges of international finance!
Trying to fix this system is like trying to pour new wine into an old wine skin!
The elite politicians, bankers and industrialist have admininstered a series of economic shocks that have crippled the economy. The final death is the increasing cost of crude oil. The economy is based on petroleum. When oil goes up so does the cost of living because every thing we buy at the retail level must be transported and that takes fuel. They are going to break the middle class with food and gasoline. I compare this corrupt system to trying to remodel and old house. Some times when you start tearing out the walls, you find a can of worms. If the damage is to great you could end up puting more money into it than what you could get out of it. It would be better to demolish it and remove it from the premises and build a new house, because trying to fix the old house would be like trying to make a silk purse out of a Sals ear.