BICOM

The official Iranian News Agency (IRNA) yesterday quoted Iranian Vice-President Mohammed Reza Rahimi as saying that Teheran would stop the shipping of oil through the Straits of Hormuz if future sanctions against Iran targeted the Iranian oil sector. The statement came in the wake of increased tensions between Iran and the international community following the issuing of a report on November 8 by the International Atomic energy Agency (IAEA) suggesting that Iran has been developing an atomic bomb. Iran is already subject to four rounds of sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council due to breaches of international commitments on its nuclear programme. EU foreign ministers voted to tighten sanctions against Iran following the IAEA report, and laid out plans for a possible targeting of the Iranian oil sector.

US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that the United States would support the free flow of oil. About one third of all seaborne oil is shipped through the Straits of Hormuz, including most of the crude oil exported from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq. Iran has threatened in the past that it would respond to any attempt to stop its oil exports by preventing other gulf states from exporting their oil. However, blocking the Straits of Hormuz would harm Iran as well as other oil exporting countries, due to its overwhelming economic dependence on its oil exports.