Under threat of US sanctions, European oil firms Total, Shell, Statoil and Eni have pledged to stop investing in Iran in what amounts to a “significant setback” to Tehran, a US official said on Thursday.
The pledges fall in line with new energy and financial measures against Iran that US President Barack Obama signed into law in July in the wake of UN Security Council sanctions imposed in June to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“We have received commitments from four international energy firms to terminate their investments and avoid any new activity in Iran’s energy sector,” US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg told reporters.
Photo: AFP
The move dealt “a significant setback to Iran,” Steinberg said, as analysts agreed that most major Western firms have now come to the conclusion that it is no longer worth doing business in Iran.
Steinberg said that the firms — France’s Total, Anglo-Dutch Shell, Norway’s Statoil and Italy’s Eni — were now eligible to avoid sanctions for doing business in the US or with US firms.
The companies “have provided assurance to us that they have stopped,” or taken steps to stop business with Iran, he said.
“However, some international oil companies have not yet committed to any new activities in Iran’s petroleum sector. And for this reason the State Department is launching investigations into those companies,” he said.
He would not identify these firms or say how many there are.
Two senators urged US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday to ensure that the administration punish Chinese and Turkish firms reportedly providing Iran with refined petroleum products.
“Iran is using revenues from its energy sector to fund its nuclear program,” Steinberg said.
Steinberg also said the State Department decided to impose sanctions on Naftiran Intertrade Company (NICO), a Swiss-based subsidiary of Iran’s national oil company, for its involvement in Iran’s energy sector.
State Department official Douglas Engel admitted that US firms were already prohibited from most dealings with the firm, but said the move “does send a message” to companies in other countries not to work with NICO.
In related news, Tehran yesterday hit out against US “interference” after Washington ordered sanctions against senior Iranian officials for alleged human rights abuses during a crackdown on post-election protests last year.
“This decision is in line with the US interference in the internal affairs of Iran for the past 30 years,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
“It goes against international law,” he said.
Obama imposed the sanctions against eight senior Iranian officials on Wednesday over the crackdown against anti-government protesters who rejected the outcome of the presidential election last year.
The order will freeze any US assets held by the eight, who include Revolutionary Guards Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari and former Tehran prosecutor general Said Mortazevi.
On Thursday, Iran summoned Livia Leu Agosti, the ambassador of Switzerland which manages US interests in Tehran, to protest against the move, which it called “illegal.”
After the election last year, hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters defied a government ban and poured onto the streets of Tehran to protest against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Human rights groups have accused the government of suppressing the uprising through extra-judicial killings, rapes and torture.
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