UN team lands in Iran amid EU oil dispute_美文

UN team lands in Iran amid EU oil dispute

UN nuclear inspectors arrived in Iran on Sunday on a mission to clear up "all outstanding substantive issues" on suspected military aspects of Teheran's atomic work, on the day its lawmakers looked set to ban oil exports to Europe in revenge for new EU sanctions

"In particular we hope Iran will engage with us on our concerns regarding the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program," Herman Nackaerts, deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said before departing from Vienna airport.

Iran insisted on its right to peaceful nuclear technology, which the West believes is aimed atmaking weapons.

Tensions with the West rose this month when Washington and the European Union imposed the toughest sanctions yet directly aiming at the ability of OPEC's second-biggest oil exporter to sell its crude.

Less than a week after the EU's 27 member states agreed to stop importing crude from Iran from July 1, Iranian lawmakers were due to debate a bill on Sunday that would cut off oil supplies to the EU in a matter of days.

By turning the sanctions back on the EU, Teheran hopes to deny the bloc a six-month window it had planned to give members most dependent on Iranian oil to adapt.

The EU accounted for 25 percent of Iranian crude oil sales in the third quarter of last year. Iran's official news agency IRNA reported that the head of the state oil company claimed on Sunday that the price of crude will go up to $150 per barrel.