(Presstv) Iran has banned crude oil and gas exports to the European Union (EU) in retaliation for the 27-nation bloc’s embargo on the Iranian energy sector.
"Exports of crude oil, [natural] gas
liquids (NGL) and gas condensate to the European countries which have
taken hostile stances on Iran will be halted until further notice,” Oil
Ministry Spokesman Alireza Nikzad-Rahbar said Sunday.
He added that these "preemptive sanctions” against
European countries would remain in place so long as they refuse to
abandon their hostile policies against Iran and adopt logical positions
instead.
Nikzad-Rahbar said despite tougher EU and US sanctions having been
imposed nearly a year ago, Iran’s crude oil exports have not been
halted.
"[On the contrary], new contracts have been signed with different
international companies for exporting and selling crude oil and gas
condensate.”
The Iranian official stressed that Iran’s Oil Ministry had asked oil
buyers not to re-export the oil they purchase from Islamic Republic to
European countries.
At the beginning of 2012, the United States and the European Union
imposed new sanctions on Iran’s oil and financial sectors with the goal
of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting
transactions with the Central Bank of Iran.
The sanctions came into force in early summer 2012.
On October 15, 2012, the EU foreign ministers reached an agreement on another round of sanctions against Iran.
The illegal US-engineered sanctions have been imposed based on the
unfounded accusation that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in
its nuclear energy program.
Iran rejects the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory
to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic
Energy Agency, it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful
purposes.