Iran to stop selling oil to Greece and Spain

TEHRAN

Iran’s media reports that it will cut oil exports to Greece and Spain. The country has already imposed oil embargoes on UK, France. REUTERS photo

Iran has cut oil exports to Greece and Spain and may halt sales to Germany and Italy, Iran’s media reported yesterday, in the latest tit-for-tat fight between Tehran and Western powers. Meanwhile, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said the country has enough funds to withstand a total embargo on its oil sales for two to three years.

The official IRNA news agency yesterday quoted Oil Minister Rostam Ghasemi as saying that “for the time being, Iran is not selling oil to Greece.” The two countries have not reached an agreement for the resumption of crude exports, he said. Earlier in April, Iran said it had stopped selling oil to two Greek oil companies because they had failed to pay their bills.

Iran has also cut oil exports to Spain, and has already imposed oil embargoes on Britain and France, Press TV reported.

In January, the EU announced a total ban on purchases of Iranian crude, to be implemented in July. Member states have since scrambled to find alternative supplies, as measures against Iran’s financial sector have made it increasingly difficult for buyers to make payments.

Ahmadinejad said Iran had enough funds to withstand a total embargo on its oil sales for two to three years, Iranian media quoted Ahmadinejad as saying, days before the resumption of talks with world powers on Tehran’s nuclear program. “We must say to them that we have that much saved that even if we didn’t sell oil for two to three years, the country would manage easily,” a report yesterday from the Fars news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying during a visit to Hormuzgan province.

Compiled from AFP and Reuters stories by the Daily News staff.