Iran urged to take preemptive action on EU embargo

time to find alternative sources for Iranian oil.
“The best way for us is to stop oil exports before the six-month deadline (announced by the EU) comes to an end and the oil embargo plan comes into effect so that crude prices go up and Europeans’ US-driven plans for sanctioning our country’s oil fall flat,” Falahian stressed.
Meantime, he said that Iran can use the Strait of Hormoz as a means to confront growing pressures. The European Union is to meet next week to discuss new measures against Iran’s oil exports and its financial sector. A December meeting of the EU foreign ministers in Brussels failed to reach an agreement on such oil embargos against Iran.
Despite long hues and cries about new sanctions against Iran, the EU and the US could only enlist some more Iranian officials in their sanctions list last month. Several members of the European bloc voiced opposition to any sanction on Iranian oil, pushing France, the most hawkish EU member, back.
Crisis-hit Greece has said “No” to an EU oil ban on Iran, causing relief among other member states. Britain and France, the most hawkish EU countries, failed to convince other member states to impose oil embargos on Iran in the December meeting.
Iran has also warned that if the US-led West sanctions Iran’s oil exports, Tehran would close the Strait of Hormuz. An estimated 40 percent of the world’s oil supply passes through the waterway. Iran, the second-biggest Opec player after kingpin Saudi Arabia, produces about 2.3 million barrels of oil per day 450 000 barrels of which is exported to the European Union, according to the US Department of Energy.
Manouchehr Takin, an analyst at the Center for Global Energy Studies ( CGES) research group, said a removal of Iranian oil exports would hurt Europe more than Tehran.
“The Europeans are importing nearly half-a- million barrels per day . . . Refineries in Greece, Italy and Spain are the main customers. They would suffer very much immediately financial loss (in event of sanctions) because they cannot easily replace that Iranian crude with other crude,” he said. – AFP.