Brussels, 24/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - France plans, “at national level”, to stop buying oil from Iran, the French Foreign Ministry said on Thursday 24 November, going on to explain that this will be in cooperation with other European countries.
Speaking during a press briefing, the Ministry's spokesman, Bernard Valero, said: “Suspension of purchases of Iranian oil products is one of the measures proposed by France to its partners. We shall be applying it at national level.”
During the afternoon, Quai d'Orsay said that cessation of oil purchases will be carried out in liaison with France's European partners. On Monday - as London, Washington and Ottawa were announcing concrete measures against Iran that is accused of seeking to avail itself of atomic weapons - President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested that Germany, Canada, the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom should “freeze, from now on, the assets of the central bank of Iran and suspend purchases of Iranian oil products”. He said he had also put this to the European Union. Within the EU, Iranian oil goes to France (2%) with 49,000 barrels daily, Italy (7%) and Spain (6%). (LC/transl.jl)