'Japan not to stop importing Iran oil'

Tue Dec 20, 2011 2:47AM GMT

Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba (L) and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington on December 19, 2011

Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba says his country will not stop importing oil from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Gemba made the remarks on Monday during a visit to Washington after talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, noting that stopping crude imports from Iran could endanger the entire global economy.

"Specifically in relation to the (US) national defense authorization act, which targets the central bank of Iran, I conveyed my view that there is a danger of causing damage to the entire global economy if the imports of Iranian crude oil stop," he said.

According to a report published in a Japanese newspaper on Sunday, Japan, which gets 10 percent of its oil imports from Iran, would be hardest hit in case sanctions were slapped against the Iranian oil industry over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.

Earlier in the last week, both houses of the US Congress passed a bill that included provisions that would impose sanctions on the foreign financial institutions that did business with the Central Bank of Iran.

The United States, Britain, and Canada imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran's energy and financial sectors on November 21 in the wake of the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the country's nuclear activities.

The report accused Iran of seeking military objectives in its nuclear program.

Iran has dismissed report as "unbalanced, unprofessional and prepared with political motivation and under political pressure by mostly the United States.”

The US, the Israeli regime, and some of their allies have repeatedly and rhetorically accused Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program.

Iran argues that, as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the IAEA, it has the right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

The IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities, but has never reported any specific evidence indicating that Tehran's civilian nuclear program has been diverted to nuclear weapons production.

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