European oil firms join Iran sanctions

The United States announced Thursday that four of Europe’s five biggest oil companies would end their energy investments in Iran, a significant advance in the Obama administration’s efforts to pressure the Iranian government to enter negotiations over its alleged nuclear weapons program.

U.S. officials said they were also working to pressure China and other countries to bar their companies from filling the vacuum created by the departing Europeans.

Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said Royal Dutch Shell, based in Britain and the Netherlands; France’s Total; Eni of Italy; and the Norway-based Statoil had committed to no further investments in Iran.

“These companies have provided assurances they will stop or are taking significant verifiable steps to stop their activity in Iran,” Steinberg said.

Steinberg’s announcement marked the first public actions since the United States tightened sanctions against Iran on July 1, when President Barack Obama signed the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act into law. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful.

While Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has said the effect of the sanctions so far has been “pathetic,” Steinberg said they had begun to bite.

“We have pretty good indications,” he said, “that whether it’s in the financial sector, whether it’s in shipping and transportation, that these measures are increasingly having a significant impact.”