Brussels, 10/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 10 January, the European Union announced that a meeting of European foreign ministers, which is to endorse a new raft of sanctions against Iran because of the latter's nuclear programme, will be brought forward one week.
The EU has stated that, further to a proposal by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton, the next Foreign Affairs Council will be held on 23 January as the European summit is to be held on 30 January.
The meeting of foreign ministers from the 27 EU member states was initially scheduled for 30 January, but a decision was taken to hold a summit meeting of European leaders on the very same day, in order to discuss the eurozone crisis, inter alia.
At their last summit in December, European leaders had entrusted their foreign ministers with the task of adopting a new series of sanctions by their next meeting, mainly aimed at the Iranian energy sector. Europeans, who agree on the principle of an oil embargo against Iran to compel the country to give up what they suspect is a nuclear arms programme under cover of a civilian project, are still discussing the details of embargo implementation, and above all the best moment for imposing it, according to diplomatic sources.
Tehran sells some 450,000 barrels daily (18% of its exports) to the European Union, essentially to Italy (180,000 b/d), Spain (160,000 b/d) and Greece (100,000 b/d) - three countries whose economic situation is extremely poor due to the sovereign debt crisis. (LC/transl.jl)