Brussels (Platts)--25Jun2012/812 am EDT/1212 GMT

The EU's sanctions against Iran -- including a ban on oil imports and a ban on the provision of insurance for tankers shipping Iranian oil -- will come into force as planned on July 1, the EU's foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said Monday.

In a statement ahead of talks between EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, Ashton said there would be no review of the already agreed sanctions.

"There is no change in terms of how we're going forward on July 1," she said. "The sanctions that have been agreed will be implemented."

French foreign minister Laurent Fabius, on arrival in Luxembourg, echoed Ashton's comments.

"These sanctions [against Iran] must be firmly applied from July 1. We have a firm attitude to Iran, which must change its attitude because we do not accept it developing nuclear weapons. We need dialogue, of course, which is continuing, but at the same time we need firmly applied sanctions."

The ministers are expected to discuss Iran during a lunchtime meeting, but an EU diplomatic source told Platts on Friday that any change to the sanctions was highly unlikely.

"Postponing the shipping insurance ban is getting less likely by the minute," the source said.

"We haven't done any preparations for that and no member state has to my knowledge asked for this question to be examined," the source said.

Japan and South Korea have both lobbied Brussels to delay imposing the ban on shipping insurance as both countries have said they could struggle to find insurance cover for tankers.

Most protection and indemnity insurance clubs are subject to EU law, and as such would have to stop providing cover.

Japan has already passed a law giving tankers increased insurance coverage, but South Korea is unlikely to follow suit.

--Siobhan Hall, siobhan_hall@platts.com
--Stuart Elliott, stuart_elliott@platts.com
--Edited by James Leech, james_leech@platts.com

Creative Commons License

To subscribe or visit go to:  http://www.platts.com