South Korea, a key US ally, warned Washington yesterday that it would be difficult to replace Iranian crude supplies and expressed concern that sanctions pressure could lead to higher oil prices.
The US wants Asia to cut crude imports from the OPEC member in a bid to pressure Tehran to rein in its nuclear ambitions, which Washington suspects are geared to making nuclear weapons. It has already secured agreement from EU states to ban Iranian crude imports.
Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi reiterated yesterday that Japan would cut Iranian oil imports, although Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda raised doubts about the country’s policy last week by dismissing Azumi’s view as “personal opinion.”
South Korea, which depends on the US for its security, is the world’s fifth-largest oil importer. About 10 percent of its crude oil came from Iran in the first 11 months of last year.
“It would be tough to switch the source of crude quickly,” South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Cho Byung-jae told reporters.
Asian government officials are worried that a scramble by the region, which includes Iran’s biggest crude buyers China, India and Japan, to secure alternative supplies would drive up oil prices.
South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Jae-shin underscored that point with US officials, a pool report said.
“Many in South Korea are quite worried that further strengthening sanctions in Iran at this time will destabilize international markets of crude oil and bring about adverse effects on the economy,” the report quoted him as telling the officials.
A team led by the US Department of State’s special adviser for nonproliferation and arms control, Robert Einhorn, and the Department of Treasury’s assistant secretary for terrorist financing, Daniel Glaser, started a three-day visit to Seoul on Monday. They will head to Japan afterward.
“We’re urging all of our partners to help us to work with us in putting pressure on the government of Iran to get it to negotiate seriously. Particularly, we’re urging them to reduce their purchases of crude oil from Iran,” Einhorn told a meeting with government -officials, the pool report said.
Tehran has been under a growing array of UN and unilateral sanctions for years, but a US bill that US President Barack Obama signed into law on New Year’s Eve went far further than previous measures, aiming to stop countries paying for Iranian oil.
Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful means and it has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important shipping lane for crude, if sanctions are imposed on its oil exports.
South Korea has about US$5 billion in money owed to Iran’s central bank for crude oil imports trapped in its banking system because of the difficulty of sending money to Iran without falling foul of US sanctions.
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