Iran to debate bill on EU oil ban today
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By Staff Writers
Times of India
Saturday, Jan 28, 2012
TEHRAN: Iran's parliament is to discuss a bill on Sunday that seeks to halt its oil exports to the EU. The bill calls for a ban of oil exports to the EU as early as next week, Hossein Ebrahimi, deputy head of Majlis (parliament) national security and foreign policy committee, said.
The development comes after the Eropean Union on Monday announced to embargo Iran's oil. The embargo will come into force July 1.
Ebrahimi has called the sanctions a "psychological war" , Xinhua quoted the Press TV as saying Friday. Tehran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane for oil trade, in retaliation.
Major EU importers of Iran's oil, such as Greece, Italy and Spain, have until July 1 to find alternative suppliers. Tehran government grappling with its own economic crisis under Western trade and banking embargoes, will host a visit on Sunday by UN nuclear inspectors for talks that the ruling clergy may hope can relieve diplomatic pressure as they struggle to bolster public support.
Since the UN watchdog lent independent weight in November to the suspicions of Western powers that Iran is using a nuclear energy programme to give itself the ability to build atomic bombs, US and EU sanctions and Iranian threats of reprisal against Gulf shipping lanes have disrupted world oil markets and pushed up prices.
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