and no EU insurance firm can insure or re-insure oil tankers carrying Iranian oil to any destination in the world.
Reuters reported that Greece lobbied fellow EU member states to modify the embargo to allow contracts it had signed earlier to continue after July 1 or to provide Greece with credit guarantees to help it buy crude elsewhere. Diplomats said Greece got no support for that appeal. The EU’s foreign ministers approved the new rules without modification Monday.
Greek officials have said the Islamic Republic offered Athens preferential credit terms—not discounted oil, but a longer period in which to pay.
Last year, 10 of the 27 EU member states imported oil from Iran. Collectively they averaged 452,000 barrels a day, more than any country apart from China. The EU imports amounted to 18 percent of all the oil Iran exported.
The EU made the decision to stop Iranian oil buys in January and refineries have been phasing out Iranian oil ever since. There will not be a sudden “thunk” of Iranian oil stopping on Sunday as few imports from Iran continued even a month ago.
On Tuesday, the day after the EU foreign ministers gave their final imprimatur to the sanctions, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi appealed to the EU to reconsider its embargo on Iranian oil. The odd timing of his comments led some to believe they were intended for the domestic audience and not for the EU states.
Salehi said, “We hope the European Union looks into the matter with more rationality and wisdom because I think nobody benefits from confrontation. The benefit lies in engagement, and I think they are on the wrong track.”
Many in Iran criticize the government for causing the problems with Europe by being confrontational. Salehi appeared to be trying to reverse that view by portraying the Islamic Republic as the voice of reason.
But Salehi rushed off to Cyprus Tuesday to meet with officials there two days before Cyprus became the chair of the European Union on July 1 for a six-month term.
It appeared that Salehi thought the president actually runs the EU for that six-month term, although the president is actually little more than a spokesman and presiding officer.