The Washington Post, Paris, 13 Jan 2012 – European governments have decided in principle to impose an oil embargo on Iran, but plan to delay its implementation for six months or more so that vulnerable countries can arrange for alternate supplies, according to European diplomats.
The agreement, reached at a meeting of European Union ambassadors Thursday in Brussels, still has to be confirmed in European capitals and ratified by foreign ministers at a meeting scheduled for Jan. 23. It is designed to dilute the painful effects of a European oil embargo while at the same time seeking to maintain the gestures political impact.
In Europe, Greece, Italy and Spain would use the time they would be exempted from the embargo to find other oil sources or win financial compensation for their losses, a European diplomat explained on condition of anonymity.
Halting oil imports from Iran would be particularly painful for the heavily indebted Greek government, which gets much of its Iranian oil on easy credit terms. Italy also would be hard put to do without Iranian oil, since much of its import quota comes in the form of repayment of debts contracted earlier by the Iranian government.
The accord reached in Brussels represents a compromise between those concerns and the desire by other nations, particularly France and Germany, that want to strike out hard at Iran. Officials in Brussels told reporters that, if the embargo is formally approved and declared on Jan. 23, there will be periodic reviews to see if Italy, Spain and Greece have arranged for alternate sources of oil and can join in.
European officials have said the embargo is a necessary step to persuade Iran to open up for IAEA inspections and reassure the world about its nuclear program. This is particularly urgent since Iran recently announced the beginning of operations at a second, underground nuclear refinement plant that, according to Western experts, increases the likelihood that the Islamic government will be able soon to produce nuclear weapons.
Israel has warned that it views the prospect of Iran possessing nuclear weapons as an unacceptable threat, leading to predictions it might try to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities to slow down the program. Any such attack would draw strong retaliation, the Iranian government has warned.
Tensions between Iran and the West have increased in recent days, with the mysterious assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist on Wednesday, and the death sentence imposed in Tehran on an American-Iranian citizen accused of being a spy.