Tehran Times cited Mr Rostam Qasemi oil minister of Iran as saying that international sanctions have not been effective on investments in Iran’s oil and gas industry and that Iranian oil can not be excluded from international markets.

Mr Rostam Qasemi said that it is self defeating for countries to impose oil sanctions against the Islamic Republic. A law to be debated in Iran's parliament could halt exports of oil to the European Union as early as next week.

The parliament is pushing for the export ban to deny the EU 6 month phase in of the embargo on Iranian oil that the bloc agreed last week as part of a raft of tough new Western sanctions aimed at forcing Iran to curb its nuclear program.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, the EU accounted for 18% of Iranian crude oil sales in the H1 of 2011 making it Iran's second biggest customer after China.

The EU slapped new sanctions on Iran in a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers on January 23rd 2012. The 27 member bloc agreed to ban oil imports as well as petroleum products from the major OPEC member state and freeze the assets of the Iranian Central Bank in the EU.

(Sourced from Tehran Times‎)