Alaeddin Boroujerdi said Monday that Iran's decision to halt oil exports to British and French companies was a countermeasure adopted against the EU ban on members importing Iranian crude oil.
“This countermeasure is an [accepted] international law,” the lawmaker, who heads the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, added.
“The West imposed oil sanctions on Iran and we preemptively enforced [our own] sanctions to let the West know that it must make rational decisions,” Boroujerdi stated.
He said that the Islamic Republic of Iran's reaction to any irrational decision will be proportional to the degree of that decision’s irrationality.
Foreign ministers of the European Union met in Brussels on January 23 to impose unilateral sanctions banning member states from importing Iran's oil. The decision followed the imposition of similar sanctions on the Iranian oil sector by Washington on New Year’s Eve.
Following the decision, EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, told reporters that the measure aimed to force Iran get back to negotiations over its peaceful nuclear program with P5+1 - which includes the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany.
The US and EU accuse Iran of having military objectives in its peaceful nuclear program and, in addition to unilateral sanctions, have convinced the UN Security Council to pass four rounds of international sanctions against the country.
Reacting to the EU oil ban, the Islamic Republic announced on February 15 that it would halt oil exports to six European countries, including the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, France, Greece and Portugal.
On February 19, the Iranian Oil Ministry cut oil exports to British and French firms in line with the decision to end crude exports to six European states.
“We have our own oil customers and replacements for these [British and French] companies have already been chosen and we will sell the crude oil to new customers instead of the British and French companies,” said Iranian Oil Ministry Spokesman Alireza Nikzad-Rahbar.
Iran refutes Western claims against its peaceful nuclear program arguing that as a signatory to Non-Proliferation Treaty and member of International Atomic Energy Agency it is entitled to the peaceful use of the nuclear energy.
press tv/281
A senior Iranian lawmaker says Iran's recent measure to cut oil exports to two European countries is in line with a well-known international law.
News ID 181512
