Agence France-Presse: Iran Shrugs at Looming EU Oil Bant y

Iran on Thursday played down the impact of new Western sanctions targeting its vital oil sector, after European diplomats said they have reached preliminary agreement on an EU oil ban from the Islamic republic. The National Iranian Oil Company said demand was so high for Iranian oil that it would have no trouble selling it elsewhere. "We hope that Iran's oil is not sanctioned officially, but if so, we have taken the needed agreements," the company's director of international affairs, Mohsen Qamsari was quoted as saying in a report on Iran's oil ministry website. The 27-nation European Union has struck "an agreement in principle" to ban Iranian oil imports, an EU diplomat in Brussels told AFP. Negotiations were ongoing to determine when the ban should start, though France said it hoped to see it announced at an EU foreign ministers' meeting on end of January. The West's sanctions squeeze on Iran stems from fears the country is trying to develop an atomic bomb under cover of a nuclear program it insists is exclusively for peaceful, civilian use. Iran exports around 18 percent of its oil to the European Union, making the bloc the second-biggest destination after China. Oil revenues make up 80 percent of Iran's foreign currency earnings.