In September 2010, the Japanese cabinet approved the imposition of additional sanctions against Iran, further to those it had imposed a month earlier, and urged caution on investments and trade in the energy sector with the country.
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Prior to the sanctions, in 2011, Japan’s crude imports from Iran had averaged 313,480 b/d. Despite the country’s abundant reserves, Iran’s crude oil production has declined, and natural gas production growth has been slower than expected over the past few years because of the worldwide embargoes and have prompted a number of cancellations. “We need a political solution”, he said.
“But there is no need to panic, our friends”, he said.
From their side, Iranian officials are touting the investment possibilities.
Iranian daily Ghanoon has dubbed Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as the Star of Davos (World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland). Or if his government boss, President Hassan Rouhani, had final say on foreign policy issues.
The imposition of new USA sanctions came a day after the US and countries around the world lifted a separate set of sanctions on Iran that had been created to stop the country’s nuclear efforts. This group will no longer be able to access United States banking systems.
There are further risks for financial companies.
The Iran nuclear program’s heavy water reactor at Arak.
The commentary pointed out that “U.S. President Barack Obama is counting on the [assumption] that, in the course of this period, a change will occur in Iran’s behavior …”
The new arrangements replace the Security Council committee that monitored United Nations sanctions until they were lifted last Saturday.
We can all be grateful for the safe return of five American prisoners (please don’t call them “hostages”) from Iranian jails. It ranked 119th out of 189 economies in the World Bank’s ease-of-doing-business index, which measures obstacles posed by bureaucracy, slow public services and taxation.
Not bad, for a deal that the Iranians never signed, or ratified, and which our own State Department questions the enforceability of. Disruption from conflict and politics is always a possibility.
However, even the survival of the existing nuclear agreement can not be taken for granted.
American firms have to be much more cautious still.
“It shows that the United States has an addiction which has been very hard for it to overcome”, he continued, adding that it is an “addiction to pressure, addiction to coercion, addiction to sanctions”.
There is little doubt that some companies, from aviation to oil, are interested, if rules allow.
“I think that some of it will end up in the hands of the IRGC or other entities, some of which are labeled terrorists”, he said in the interview in Davos, referring to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., the senators also said they plan to introduce legislation to impose tougher sanctions against Iran for conducting ballistic missile tests in violation of a United Nations resolution.
Other candidates like Ohio Governor John Kasich and front-runner Donald Trump are more cautious, preferring to wait and see what the situation is with Iran once the next president is sworn in on January 20, 2017. “For now, we continue to assess the situation”, said Boeing spokesman Marc Sklar.
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If only all of this were so, because the glow of welcoming home fellow USA citizens obscures the imbalance between the costs and benefits of Obama’s trading with the mullahs.
