Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal speaks of “biting” EU sanctions against Iran. The sanctions include a ban on imports of Iranian oil and oil products to member states of the European Union.

All 27 member states on Monday agreed to the oil boycott, which takes effect immediately. However, they have until 1 July to allow current contracts with Tehran to expire and sign new contracts elsewhere. Mr Rosenthal explained why he feels the sanctions are necessary:

“Iran is engaged in a nuclear programme and everything points to it being intended to produce nuclear arms as well. Iran has to stop this; it is a threat to the whole world.”

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton explained the decision further: “The sanctions are intended to make Iran take our request to resume negotiations on the nuclear programme seriously.”

Drastic measure
An oil embargo is one of the most drastic measures the EU could have taken against Iran. Tehran depends to a large extent on its oil revenue. One fifth of its oil exports go to Europe. In addition to the oil boycott, the 27 EU member states have also decided to freeze assets of the Iranian central bank within the EU. Mr Rosenthal would not say if Europe will take any additional steps: “Those options are neither on, nor off the table.”

The Netherlands' former foreign minister Ben Bot is positive about the boycott, but doubts it will have much effect:

“I feel the European Union is sending a clear, political signal to Iran. I think that is very sensible. Whether it will make much difference to Iranian oil exports is another issue. I believe there will be more than enough countries willing to take up the slack and buy more Iranian oil.”

Isolation impossible
Mr Bot feels it would be “extremely difficult” to isolate a country like Iran effectively.

“We have seen that even North Korea is still being supported by China and, as a result, can pretty much do whatever it wants. Iran has the support of quite a few countries in addition to India and China. I’m not saying that they are really happy about the [Iranian - Ed.] regime, but they would not break off contacts. So isolating a country, certainly a country as big as Iran, is impossible.”

Blockade
It also appears tha Iran will not sit and wait for the sanctions to bite. It had already threatened to block all oil transports passing through the Strait of Hormuz should Brussels impose a ban on Iranian oil. The Strait links the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and a major share of the world's oil production passes through it on tankers.

(gsh/rk/tf)