EU FOREIGN ministers moved to ban oil and oil product imports from Iran as Europe stepped up its campaign against the country’s nuclear programme.
The embargo and a range of other economic sanctions are designed to force Tehran into talks to scrap its nuclear project. A further consideration is to dissuade Israel, which believes Iran’s nuclear activities threaten its existence, from taking military action against Tehran.
Iran responded to the EU manoeuvre by stepping up its threat to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s crude oil flows.
Mohammad Ismail Kowsari, a senior figure on Iran’s committee on national security, said the strait “would definitely be closed if the sale of Iranian oil is violated in any way”. The US and Britain have each warned Iran over any disruption of supplies through the strait.
Any such move would mark a drastic escalation of tension with Iran and would be in defiance of demands on the country to enter “meaningful talks” without preconditions.
The most recent round of international talks with Iran ended in failure last year and the country has been insisting that the international community agree in advance to exclude the nuclear question from any new talks.
While the Western powers believe Iranians are secretly building a nuclear bomb, Tehran insists its activities are for exclusively peaceful means. As recently as last month, many EU countries spurned French and British demands for an oil embargo.
In taking such action yesterday, the ministers expressed concern about the recent start of operations to enrich uranium to a level of up to 20 per cent in a plant buried deep underground in Fordow, near Qom.
“I want the pressure of these sanctions to result in negotiations,” said EU foreign policy chief Cathy Ashton.
“I want to see Iran come back to the table and either pick up all the ideas that we left on the table . . . last year . . . or to come forward with its own ideas.”
The oil embargo will not come into effect until July to allow countries such as Greece and Italy, which are dependent on Iranian oil supplies, to make alternative arrangements.
“The prohibition concerns import, purchase and transport of such products as well as related finance and insurance,” the ministers said in a communiqué.
Their action was not aimed at the Iranian people but was designed to undermine the funding of the nuclear programme, they said.
“The Iranian regime itself can act responsibly and bring all sanctions to an end.”
In addition to the embargo, ministers took steps to freeze assets held in the EU by the Iranian central bank and banned trade in precious metals and diamonds with Iranian public bodies.
“Here we’re dealing with an undisputed fact that Iran is militarising its nuclear set-up. There is no argument about the threat that that poses,” said Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore.
He said the impact on the price of oil as a result of the embargo was examined but said there was no doubt the ban would have an impact on Iran as anxiety over the nuclear initiative intensifies.
“The European market is a very big market for Iran,” Mr Gilmore said. Any military action by Israel would be extremely serious, he added.
“What we have to prevent first of all is something very dramatic happening like an Israeli intervention, that would be hugely serious and would be very destabilising and it is something we want to prevent,” said Mr Gilmore.
“The purpose of the embargo is to bring Iran to the negotiating table and sanctions and embargoes are the way that adds weight and gives clout to the diplomatic effort that is under way in any event.”
Although Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu welcomed the EU intervention, he said it was unclear whether it would result in a breakthrough. “I think this is a step in the right direction,” he said at a meeting of his Likud faction in parliament.
“For now, it is impossible to know what the result of these sanctions will be. Heavy and swift pressure is needed on Iran and the sanctions must be evaluated according to their results.”