Iran’s state-owned oil company, Naftiran Intertrade Company (Nico), may be able to get around EU sanctions by continuing to trade from an office in the canton of Vaud, according to a Swiss media report. 

"/> Iran’s state-owned oil company, Naftiran Intertrade Company (Nico), may be able to get around EU sanctions by continuing to trade from an office in the canton of Vaud, according to a Swiss media report. 

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OIL

Iran dodges oil embargo using Swiss office: report

Iran’s state-owned oil company, Naftiran Intertrade Company (Nico), may be able to get around EU sanctions by continuing to trade from an office in the canton of Vaud, according to a Swiss media report. 

Iran dodges oil embargo using Swiss office: report
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (www.sajed.ir)

The company is able to trade from its office in Pouilly because Switzerland does not fall under the EU oil embargo that was adopted in January, newspaper Tages Anzeiger reported.

The local Jersey government recently pressured Nico to give up its Channel Island office because of its relationship to the Iranian state. It is unclear whether Switzerland will follow suit.

The Federal Council has decided not to take immediate action and is waiting for EU guidance.

National Council member Liliane Maury Pasquier, from the Social Democratic Party, thinks it unnecessary for Switzerland to follow the EU ruling when it is not required to do so.

“If it came from the UN, that would be something different,” she said.

But others disagree.

“We should follow the EU embargo against Iran in order to give a clear sign that we are against the development of nuclear weapons,” Luc Recordon, member of the Green Party, told Tages Anzeiger.

Iran’s talks with the UN failed on Tuesday night, following Iran’s refusal to allow inspectors access to the Parchin military base.

“No obstacle can stop Iran’s nuclear work,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced on Tuesday on Iranian state television.

The EU slapped an embargo on Iran‘s oil exports in Januery as part of a package of new sanctions aimed at blocking funds for Tehran’s suspect nuclear drive and pressing it to return to talks.

The oil ban, along with sanctions against Iran‘s central bank and other measures, came amid mounting concerns of confrontation after the UN atomic agency reported Tehran was inching ever closer to building a nuclear bomb.

Iran expressed defiance in the face of the sanctions by declaring no more crude was being exported to France, Britain and several other EU countries, in retaliation for the EU-wide ban on its oil that will come into full effect from July 1st.

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OIL

NGOs take Norway to European Court over Arctic oil exploration

Two NGOs and six young climate activists have decided to take Norway to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to demand the cancellation of oil permits in the Arctic, Greenpeace announced on Tuesday.

NGOs take Norway to European Court over Arctic oil exploration
Northern Norway. Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash.

It’s the latest turn in a legal tussle between environmental organisations Greenpeace and Young Friends of the Earth Norway on one side and the Norwegian state on the other.

The organisations are demanding the government cancel 10 oil exploration licenses in the Barents Sea awarded in 2016, arguing it was unconstitutional.

Referring to the Paris Agreement, which seeks to limit global warming to less than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the organisations claim that the oil licenses violated article 112 of Norway’s constitution, guaranteeing everyone the right to a healthy environment.”

The six activists, alongside Greenpeace Nordic and Young Friends of the Earth Norway, hope that the European Court of Human Rights will hear their case and find that Norway’s oil expansion is in breach of human rights,” Greenpeace said in a statement.

In December, Norway’s Supreme Court rejected the claim brought by the organisations, their third successive legal defeat.

READ MORE: Norway sees oil in its future despite IEA’s warnings 

While most of the judges on the court agreed that article 112 could be invoked if the state failed to meet its climate and environmental obligations– they did not think it was applicable in this case.

The court also held that the granting of oil permits was not contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights, in part because they did not represent “a real and immediate risk” to life and physical integrity.

“The young activists and the environmental organisations argue that this judgment was flawed, as it discounted the significance of their environmental constitutional rights and did not take into account an accurate assessment of the consequences of climate change for the coming generations,” Greenpeace said.

On Friday, the Norwegian government unveiled a white paper on the country’s energy future, which still includes oil exploration despite a warning from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The IEA recently warned that all future fossil fuel projects must be scrapped if the world is to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The Norwegian case is an example of a global trend in which climate activists are increasingly turning to courts to pursue their agenda.

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