Europe begs Tehran to avoid cutting oil exports

A prominent Iranian lawmaker announced that the European countries have demanded the parliament to stop passing a double-urgency bill on cutting the country's oil exports to the EU members. "So far the ambassadors of several European countries such as France, Greece, Germany and Italy have desperately rushed to the parliament to call for restraint against passing a bill on stopping [the Iranian] oil exports to Europe," Vice-Chairman of the parliament's Energy Commission Nasser Soudani said on Saturday. Soudani further highlighted that the double-urgency bill is still on the table and that the Iranian lawmakers have expressed readiness to approve it. After months of debates, the EU member states eventually reached an agreement in their meeting on January 23 to sanction oil imports from Iran and freeze the assets of Iran's Central Bank within the EU. Following the decision, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton claimed that the sanctions are aimed at pressuring Iran to return to talks over its nuclear program. Despite Ashton's claims, Iran has always underlined its preparedness to resume talks with the West but has meantime stressed that it will never accept any precondition for such talks. After the EU oil ban against Iran, members of the Iranian parliament finalized a draft bill on cutting the country's oil exports to the European states in retaliation for the EU move. "The bill has 4 articles, including one which states that the Islamic Republic of Iran will cut all oil exports to the European states until they end their oil sanctions against the country," Vice-Chairman of the parliament's Energy Commission Nasser Soudani told FNA last Saturday. Elaborating on the other parts of the draft bill, he said another article requires the government to stop imports of goods from those countries which are a party to these sanctions against Iran. In relevant remarks on Saturday, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi also underlined Tehran's determination to retaliate against the western states' oil ban against the country, and said Iran will certainly cut its oil exports to certain European countries. "Export of oil to certain European countries will certainly be cut," Qassemi said in a press conference on Saturday. "We will decide on stopping oil exports to other European countries later," he added.