DHAKA: Iran threatened to halt all imports of goods from South Korea in response to Seoul’s announcement a day earlier that it would stop accepting Iranian oil.
Earlier, South Korea said that it would suspend all Iranian oil imports from the start of July in response to a European Union insurance ban on tankers carrying crude from Iran.
The Iranian ambassador to South Korea, Ahmad Masumifar, responded by saying in an interview with the South Korean news agency Yonhap on Wednesday that Tehran ‘may decide to fully stop importing Korean goods’, Tehran Times publishes the news Thursday.
The Iranian envoy said some Asian countries are taking measures to continue oil imports from the Middle Eastern nation.
Last week, Japan’s parliament approved a bill providing $7.6 billion of state guarantees for shipments of oil from Iran to cover insurance to be axed by the European insurers.
Iran is South Korea’s third-largest market in the Middle East, worth $6.1 billion in 2011, up from $4.6 billion in 2010.
Iran’s other big oil customers in the region are Japan, China and India -- none of which have announced plans to stop receiving shipments.
BDST: 1616 HRS, JUN 28, 2012
Edited by Robab Rosan, Cultural Affairs Editor
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