Iran oil ban counterproductive: Russia

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has reiterated that the European Union’s decision to impose an embargo on Iran’s oil sector will be “counterproductive.”

“Russia has consistently advocated a view that the sanctions do not work, and in some cases they are counterproductive,” said the Russian minister upon his arrival in Auckland, New Zealand, on Monday.

“In this case we see that the law according to which there is a reaction to every action works. Nothing good will come of it,” he added.

During their latest meeting in Brussels on January 23, EU foreign ministers reached an agreement to ban oil imports from Iran, freeze the assets of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) within the bloc and ban the sales of diamonds, gold and other precious metals to Iran.

The EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, claimed that the new sanctions are meant to bring Iran back to the negotiating table with P5+1 — Russia, China, France, Britain and the US plus Germany.

Lavrov also pointed to Iran’s possible decision to stop the export of its oil to EU member states in reaction to the bloc’s sanctions and said that the EU’s embargo on the Iranian oil has prompted Tehran to mull over such plan.