“There’s real utility in bringing these bringing these two leaders together”, Bolton said of the upcoming in Singapore meeting between Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un.
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Germany and France have significant trade links with Iran and remain committed to the nuclear agreement, as does Britain, and the three countries’ foreign ministers plan to meet on Tuesday to discuss it.
All have received instructions from the White House that sanctions have to be reimposed. They now say they intend to negotiate with Iran to salvage what’s left of the deal.
“Looking into the next 18 months, we expect global oil supply and demand balances to tighten”, Francisco Blanch, head of commodities research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in NY, said in a report.
“It’s really annoying that the Iranian government is never blamed for the really bad decisions they have taken lately concerning business, and only the sanctions are blamed”, she said. In this period, the European troika is attempting to implement the “JCPOA without US” formula, based on “Iran’s greater commitment” compared with “less commitment” of the West.
The global oil market is finely balanced, with top exporter Saudi Arabia and No.1 producer Russian Federation having led efforts to curb oil supply to prop up prices. So much for reducing the trade deficit. “India has always maintained that the Iranian nuclear issue should be resolved peacefully through dialogue and diplomacy by respecting Iran’s right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy as also the worldwide community’s strong interest in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme”.
The extraordinary thing is that there is no Plan B. If Donald Trump’s re-imposition of American sanctions on Iran does not cause President Hassan Rouhani’s Government to buckle at once (which is nearly unimaginable), there is nothing else he can do short of going to war with the country.
In the tourism sector, airlines like British Airways and Lufthansa have only recently resumed flights to Tehran, and hotel groups like France’s Accor, Melia from Spain and Rotana from the UAE are likely to see their new ventures in jeopardy.
Amidst all the noise, we must keep our eyes on what’s important and focus on a broader strategy which addresses Iran’s illicit nuclear and non-nuclear activities hand-in-hand with our European, Israeli and Arab allies.
President Trump has also created a situation where Iran will build better relations with Russia, China and Europe to carry forward the deal.
Following the lifting of sanctions in 2015, more than $US100 billion ($132 billion) flowed into Iranian coffers. The statute permitted European companies to ignore the USA sanctions and said that any decisions by foreign courts based on the such sanctions would not be upheld in Europe.
Israeli airstrikes struck Iranian military installations inside Syria on Thursday – its biggest coordinated assault on Syria since the 1973 Mideast war – in retaliation for an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the occupied Golan Heights. However, there were signs that other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will raise output to counter the Iran disruption.
China also has readier access to “workarounds” in response to a new US-imposed sanctions regime.
“Whoever hits us will get hit seven times over”. If they do, then it seems relatively easy to create special goal vehicles, or to direct trade with Iran through third countries. Finally we have a leader.
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The sanctions would include a ban over Iran’s oil exports as well as restrictions on investments in the country’s energy sector.
