IRAN has halted oil shipments to Britain and France in an apparent pre-emptive blow against European Union sanctions.
A statement posted on the Iranisan oil ministry's shana.ir website gave no other details, but it follows a flurry of contradictory signals by Iran about a backlash against the EU for imposing a boycott on Iranian oil beginning in July.
The 27-nation EU accounts for about 18 percent of Iran's oil exports.
Last week, state media said Iran was planning to cut off oil exports to six EU nations, including France, but later reports said the nations were only told that Iran has no problem finding replacement customers for the European shipments.
The EU sanctions, imposed last month, were part of Western efforts to target Iran's critical oil sector in attempts to rein in Tehran's nuclear program.
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Meanwhile, in Britain, Foreign Secretary William Hague has warned Israel against military action against Iran.
Hague says economic sanctions and negotiations had to be given "a real chance" to convince Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
"I don't think a wise thing at this moment is for Israel to launch a military attack on Iran," he said.
Tensions over Iran's nuclear program are running high. Israel, the US, Britain and others suspect that the Islamic Republic is using the program as cover for the manufacture of atomic weapons and observers fear a pre-emptive strike may be in the works.
Hague said in the interview with the BBC on Sunday that a nuclear-armed Iran would result in another cold war in the Middle East.
