Washington, August 03: In what appears to be an effort to compel Tehran to join the negotiating table, the Obama administration threatens to choke off Iranian gas imports.
The New York Times reported Monday that President Barack Obama has considered imposing tough sanctions on oil companies dealing with Iran, should the country ignore the September deadline for talks on its nuclear issue.
Iran is the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter but, according to US estimates, the country relies on gasoline imports to meet 40 percent of its domestic demand.
The newly-introduced legislation would target foreign fuel suppliers to Iran, and would freeze the financing or shipping insurance of any company that sells or delivers gasoline to Iran.
By cutting off Iran’s import of gasoline and other oil products, Obama believes the country would be forced to negotiate on its low-level nuclear activities, US officials said on conditions of anonymity.
According to the US officials, the issue of the gas sanctions has been privately discussed with the Congress and government officials in Europe and Israel.
The White House has so far refused to comment in this regard, but the officials said that the issue was discussed between National Security Adviser, James L. Jones and Israeli officials in Tel Aviv last week.
However, the officials acknowledge that enforcing sanctions on Iran’s gas imports would be no easy task, as it would most certainly require the participation of Russia and China — who have refused to hard-hitting trade embargoes on Tehran.
Suzanne Maloney, a senior Iran expert at the Brookings Institution, warned that the oil cutoff could make matters even worst.
“The Iranians are not terribly good at capitulation,” Maloney said. “This is a regime that tends to believe the best defense is a good offense.”
Washington accuses Tehran of nuclear weapons development — a charge rejected by both Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog, which has so far made “21 unannounced inspections” of the country’s nuclear facilities.
Iranian government officials have shrugged off US threats of gas embargoes, asserting that the country would meet its domestic demands from alternative routes — even if Washington goes ahead and imposes sanctions on all the oil firms in business with Tehran
“We can manage … we have alternatives and we can do something about consumption and also production,” Ali Asghar Arshi, executive director for international affairs at National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) told Reuters in April.
—-Agencies