WarSclerotic

DUBAI – Iran dismissed a European Union oil embargo which took effect on Sunday and said it was fully prepared to counter the impact of sanctions with a $150 billion war chest of foreign reserves.

The EU ban on crude imports is part of a push by Western countries aimed at choking Iran’s export earnings to try to force it to curb a nuclear program they fear includes weapons development. Tehran says it has no such plan.

“All possible options have been planned in government to counter sanctions and we are fully prepared to deal with them,” Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said in comments on the ministry’s website.

Qasemi said Iranian oil was still being sold on international markets and that oil importers would be the big losers if a blockade leads to price rises.

The United States also has sanctions in place, although it has spared all 20 of Iran’s major oil buyers from measures against them for dealing in Iranian crude for now.

The European Union banned new contracts for imports of Iranian crude in January, but allowed existing ones to continue until July 1. The embargo also covers transporting Iranian crude or insuring shippers who are carrying it.

There are signs the embargo is already having an impact on Iran’s economy.

Its crude oil exports – which according to EU estimates represent some 80 percent of the government’s export revenues and half of its income – have fallen by 40 percent this year. Iran used to export a fifth of its crude to EU countries.

The Iranian rial has fallen sharply and inflation is running at 20 percent. Tens of thousands of Iranians have lost their jobs and trade between Iran and Europe has halved in a year, according to Eurostat data from March.

The governor of Iran’s central bank said it had built up $150 billion in foreign reserves to protect itself.

“We are implementing programs to counter sanctions and we will confront these malicious policies,” Mehr news agency quoted Mahmoud Bahmani as saying.

In three rounds of negotiations, Western powers have demanded Tehran halt its high-grade uranium enrichment activities, ship all high-grade uranium out of the country and close down a key enrichment facility.

Iran says its nuclear program has only peaceful aims, but Western countries and Israel fear Iran is developing nuclear weapons.

“Unprecedented oil sanctions on Iran have come into force,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement on Sunday.

“These are the toughest measures the EU has adopted against Iran to date. They signal our clear determination to intensify the peaceful diplomatic pressure on the Iranian government.”

GENEVA – International powers agreed on Saturday that a transitional government should be set up in Syria to end the bloodshed there but left open the question of what part President Bashar al-Assad might play in the process.

Peace envoy Kofi Annan said after talks in Geneva that the government should include members of Assad’s administration and the Syrian opposition to pave the way for free elections.

“It is for the people to come to a political agreement but time is running out,” Annan said in concluding remarks.

“We need rapid steps to reach agreement. The conflict must be resolved through peaceful dialogue and negotiations.”

The Geneva talks had been billed as a last-ditch effort to halt the worsening violence in Syria but hit obstacles as Russia, Assad’s most powerful ally, opposed Western and Arab insistence that he must quit the scene.

The final communique said the transitional government “could include members of the present government and the opposition and other groups and shall be formed on the basis of mutual consent”.

But in a victory for Russian diplomacy, it omitted language contained in a previous draft which explicitly said it “would exclude from government those whose continued presence and participation would undermine the credibility of the transition and jeopardize stability and reconciliation”.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he was “delighted” with the result as it meant no foreign solution was being imposed on Syria.

But US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it sent a clear message to Assad that he must step down.

“Assad will still have to go,” Clinton told a news conference after the meeting ended.

“What we have done here is to strip away the fiction that he and those with blood on their hands can stay in power.”

Annan called the meeting to salvage a peace plan that has largely been ignored by the Assad government. He stressed that the transition must be led by Syrians and meet their legitimate aspirations.

“No one should be in any doubt as to the extreme dangers posed by the conflict – to Syrians, to the region, and to the world,” he said in opening remarks.

His plan for a negotiated solution to the 16-month-old conflict is the only one on the table and its failure would doom Syria to even more violence. More than 10,000 people have been killed since the anti-Assad uprising broke out and the past few weeks have been among the bloodiest.

Highlighting the deteriorating situation on the ground, Syrian government forces pushed their way into Douma on the outskirts of Damascus on Saturday after weeks of siege and shelling. Fleeing residents spoke of corpses lying in the streets.

Britain’s ITV showed footage of clouds of black smoke over built-up areas and said warplanes had struck at targets in the suburb.

The army also attacked pro-opposition areas in Deir al-Zor, Homs, Idlib and the outskirts of Damascus, opposition activists said.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Assad and his close associates could not lead any transition. Accountability for war crimes must be part of such a process, he added in his speech to the meeting.

Hague called for the UN Security Council to start drafting a resolution next week setting out sanctions against Syria, a move that he noted put him at odds with Russia.

The foreign ministers of the council’s five permanent members – Russia, the United States, China, France and Britain – all attended along with Turkey, Kuwait, Qatar, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Notably uninvited were Iran, Syria’s closest regional ally, and Saudi Arabia, a foe of both Damascus and Tehran and leading backer of the rebel forces opposing Assad. Nor was anyone from the Syrian government or opposition represented.