Iran freezes oil to France, UK

Iran announced on Sunday that it would halt its oil exports to France and Britain in retaliation for a raft of economic sanctions imposed by the European Union against the Islamic Republic.

Oil sales to British and French companies have ceased," spokesman Ali Reza Nikzad Rahbar said in a statement on the ministry's official website. "We have taken steps to deliver our oil to other countries in the place of British and French companies."

The EU decided in January to impose an oil embargo against Iran amid rising tensions over the Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear program. The embargo is set to take effect in July. Tehran ships around 20 percent of its oil exports, or 600,000 barrels per day, to Europe.

EU switching suppliers

France and Britain, however, are unlikely to be affected by Iran's export ban, as France imported only 3 percent of its oil from the Islamic Republic, while Britain is believed to be no longer buying Iranian oil.

But the Iranian move may be a warning shot across Europe's bow. Tehran has threatened to halt its oil exports to the entire EU, where nations at the center of the continent's debt crisis are major Iranian oil customers.

The International Energy Agency has reported that Italy purchased 13 percent of its oil from Iran, while Greece bought 20 percent and Spain imported 12 percent of its oil from the Islamic Republic.

The European Commission, the EU's executive body, has said that the 27-member bloc is preparing for the cut in Iranian oil sales by switching suppliers, particularly to Saudi Arabia.

slk/acb (AP, AFP, Reuters)