Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 20
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
In accordance with the US Treasury Department’s calculations, the sanctions on Tehran that exclude 8 countries should result in a significant decline in oil purchases from Iran, economy expert Mehrdad Emadi said in an interview with Trend.
He said that the US Treasury Department has prepared a timetable, carried out assessments and announced its expectations regarding reduction in the import of oil from Iran within 3 months and the decline in the import of gas at the next stage.
“In my opinion, very clear goals have been set in this context,” he said.
“We see that even those countries, which are excluded from sanctions, want 5-9 percent discount for Iranian oil and, besides, they use their national currencies in settlements,” he added.
He noted that, considering the problems in Iran’s economy, the absence of international currency from the countries excluded from the sanctions, and the problem of choosing economic partners, it seems that Iran has agreed to provide these discounts in some cases.
“However, the US Treasury Department, considering that oil refineries of the countries buying Iranian oil need to change their filters for alternative oil, agreed for some exceptions for a short period of time,” he said.
This issue can be explained in another form, he added.
“The US Treasury Department aims to buy Iranian oil in exchange for food products,” he said. “If we pay attention to Iraq (in Saddam Hussein’s time), Iraqi oil wasn’t exchanged for food. First of all, the Iraqi oil was exchanged for essential products. Then, the list of these products began to shrink. In the meantime, the UK declared that it is possible to import the necessary products and medications to Iraq in exchange for oil. Based on this, the US Treasury Department announced the second sanctions package against Iran.”