Iran cuts oil shipments to Britain, France

Move may be a ‘pre-emptive blow’ against EU for boycott against Iran

TEHRAN (AP) — Iran has halted oil shipments to Britain and France, the Oil Ministry said Sunday, in an apparent pre-emptive blow against the European Union after the bloc imposed sanctions on Iran’s crucial fuel exports.

A statement posted on the ministry’s shana.ir website gave no other details, but it follows a flurry of contradictory signals by Iran about backlash against the EU for imposing a boycott on Iranian oil beginning in July. The 27-nation EU accounts for about 18 percent of Iran’s oil exports.

Ministry spokesman Ali Reza Nikzad-Rahbar said the suspension posed no problems for Iran.

“We have our own customers and replaced British and French companies with other firms,” he was quoted as saying by the IRNA state news agency.

Last week, state media said Iran was planning to cut off oil exports to six EU nations, including France, but later reports said the nations were only told that Iran has no problem finding replacement customers for the European shipments.

The EU sanctions, imposed last month, were part of Western efforts to target Iran’s critical oil sector in attempts to rein in Tehran’s nuclear program.