EU-Iranian Tensions Rise
On Sunday, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Ghasemi said Iran will soon halt oil exports to “certain countries” in response to the European Union’s announcement last week that it will impose sanctions on Iran effective July 1.
Tehran also affirmed that it is considering closing the Strait of Hormuz as part of its struggle against the West. Ali Aghazadeh, a member of Iran’s parliamentary commission for national security, explained on Monday:
The Islamic Republic has never been the initiator of sanctions or threats, but Europe and the West have been endangering our country through sanctions, propaganda and even military threats. Now that the threats have escalated, Iran has all options on the table including stopping oil exports to Europe and even closing the Strait of Hormuz …. Europe must understand that Iran will respond to the embargo. Iran will not leave military and economic threats from the West unanswered.
The planned EU sanctions prohibit European states from signing any new contracts to buy oil from Iran, but permit existing deals to continue until July so that countries have time to secure alternative providers. But if Iran preempts this timescale, as Ghasemi said it plans to do, Tehran will strike a serious blow to countries like Italy, Greece and Spain, which rely heavily on Iran’s supply and are already in dire economic straits.
Ghasemi did not identify the specific countries Iran’s cutoff will target, but analysts expect several of Europe’s more fragile economies to be among them. Spiegel Online explained the degree to which European nations currently depend on Iranian oil, saying, “Some 500,000 barrels arrive in Europe every day from Iran, with southern European countries consuming most of it. Greece is the most exposed, receiving a third of all its oil imports from Iran, but Italy too depends on Iran for 13 percent of its oil needs. If this source were to dry up abruptly, the economic conditions in the two struggling countries could become even worse.”
The International Monetary Fund warned that the ramifications of the EU’s planned embargo will also extend beyond Europe and the Middle East, and could drive up the global price of oil by 20 to 30 percent.
To understand more about the implications of the developing tensions in EU-Iranian relations, read columnist Brad Macdonald’s latest article, “Europe, Iran and Bible Prophecy Come Alive in the Strait of Hormuz!”