Albanians Row Over Oil Imports from Iran

Former Prime Minister Sali Berisha on Thursday called for a parliamentary inquiry into claims that the centre-left government of Premier Edi Rama has imported oil from Teheran, breaking the UN-imposed embargo.

“The government has breached the embargo by allowing imports of oil from Iran, a grave national and international act,” Berisha said during Thursday's parliamentary session.

“We call for a parliamentary inquiry because we cannot allow the national interest to be traded in this way by cooperating with our enemies,” he added.

Berisha referred to a report from the Paris-based Internal Energy Agency, IEA, which said that importers of Iranian oil included Albania and Syria as well as regular buyers such as China, India, South Korea, Japan and Turkey.

The IEA is an autonomous intergovernmental organization established in the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD.

Prime Minister Rama responded by claiming that breaches of the embargo occurred while the previous centre-right government held power. Rama said the IEA report referred to data from 2013.

“The facts that you are trying to use against us today make you responsible,” he said. “According to the information we have, which is coordinated with international partners, there have been no imports of crude oil from Iran since last September, but [they took place] in the previous five years,” he added.

Berisha was Prime Minister from 2005 until September 2013.

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