Iran halts oil supplies to Germany

Iran has halted its oil exports to Germany, Iranian Press TV channel reported on Wednesday. The EU voted in late January to ban oil imports from Iran. The move came after the Islamic Republic announced that it had launched a nuclear enrichment program at a well-protected underground facility near the holy Shia city of Qom. The program envisages enriching uranium to the 20-percent level, which can easily be turned into fissile warhead material. The embargo is set to come into force in summer but Iran has said it may cut crude oil shipments to Europe early and warned that the EU embargo on oil imports from Iran may push world oil prices to $150 per barrel. Iran has already halted oil exports to Greece, France and the UK, cut oil supplies to Spain and threatened to stop exporting oil to more European countries - Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands - if they continued to take actions directed against Tehran.