| Tehran, Feb 26 (Prensa Latina) Iran cut off its oil supply to Greece, a week after applying the same measure to France and Britain in response to a blockade announced by the European Union, official sources informed on Sunday. Sources from the Oil Ministry quoted by the pro-government Fars News agency indicated that a Greek tanker had returned home without the 500,000 barrels of crude it was supposed to load here. The decision was taken in line with the announcement made by Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi, who a few days ago urged European countries to define their stand regarding the veto to Tehran's crude exports agreed by their Foreign ministers on Jan. 23. On that date, the top European diplomats adopted in Brussels a motion to cancel purchases of crude from Iran as of July 1st and freeze assets of its Central Bank within the EU to put pressure on Tehran to give up its nuclear program. Qassemi urged European nations to inform of their "final decision" over their imports of Iranian crude and threatened to cut off exports immediately to Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Holland, France and Britain. France and Britain have been without Iranian crude for a week now, since they especially urged the EU to impose oil sanctions against Tehran, explained the Iranian authorities. The Iranian government recognized that Greece, rocked by a deep economic, financial crisis, was one of the countries that opposed a French effort to implement sanctions against Iran in December, but it ended up yielding to the bloc's pressure in January. According to local sources, Greece will suffer the consequence of this Iranian measure because other crude exporting countries have refused to cut deals with Greek traders, precisely because of the lack of guarantees, and former suppliers like Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have also cut off their supply. as/rma/lac/Ucl |