TEHRAN, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- Iran's Parliament has delayed an "emergency" vote on immediately cutting off oil supplies to the European Union as a team of nuclear inspectors arrived.
The Iranian Majlis prepared a draft of a "double emergency" bill cutting off oil exports to the European Union Saturday, retaliating against EU sanctions aimed at Tehran's nuclear program.
As an emergency measure, the draft bill was readied to be fast-tracked through the Majlis. But Iranian energy commission spokesman Emad Hosseini told the semi-official Mehr News Agency Sunday the bill had been pushed back as a high-level delegation of the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Iran.
The legislation is just an "idea by lawmakers" that still had to be studied by the energy commission he said, adding, "No bill has been designed nor has it come to Parliament."
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Instead, Hosseini said, a vote on the measure has been delayed until Friday, after the IAEA has wrapped up its visit.
The move in the Majlis came in response to the EU's Jan. 23 decision to boycott Iranian oil beginning July 1. That decision was taken in concert with the United States as a way to increase pressure on Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Iran has claimed repeatedly the program is meant for civilian purposes only but Western leaders say evidence points to Tehran laying the groundwork to build an atomic weapon.
EU officials waited until July to enforce the sanctions to give European consumers of Iranian oil time to line up replacements and to avoid sudden spikes in the price of oil. But Iranian lawmakers responded quickly over the weekend, proposing a unilateral boycott of European countries.
The draft law has four parts, including one which states "the Islamic Republic of Iran will cut all oil exports to the European states until they end their oil sanctions against the country," Nasser Soudani, vice chairman of the parliament's energy commission, told the semi-official Fars News Agency.
Another article demands that the government stop imports of all goods from countries taking part in the oil sanctions against Iran, he said.
Moayed Hosseini Sadr, another member of the Parliament's energy commission, told Fars the quick action will hurt Europe in the pocketbook.
"If Iran's oil exports to Europe, which is about 18 percent (of Iran's total oil exports) come to a halt, the Europeans will surely be taken by surprise and will understand the power of Iran and will realize that the Islamic establishment will not succumb to the Europeans' policies," he said.
Iran's oil ministry said last week it isn't worried about the effects of the European oil embargo because only 18 percent of its exports go to Europe, claiming the action will only harm the continent's efforts to revive its lagging economy.
But the action was delayed as visit of the IAEA delegation, led by Deputy Director Herman Nackaerts, was greeted with conciliatory words from Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.
Salehi, speaking to Mehr while on a trip to Ethiopia, said Tehran is "very optimistic about the mission and result of the work of this delegation."
He added, "The nuclear issue has taken the right course and our interaction with the agency has been good, and the cooperation has been close and extensive. We have always tried to adopt transparency as one of our principles of cooperation with the agency, and during their visit, the agency's delegation will have some questions that will be answered appropriately."
