BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov.12
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
The newly-announced US sanctions on Iranian oil industry won’t have any impact, Dr. Gal Luft, co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) told Trend.
The United States Treasury Department announced new sanctions against the Iranian oil industry Monday as part of the Trump administration’s increasing economic pressure on Iran.
Sanctions have been imposed on the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum, the National Iranian Oil Company and the National Iranian Tanker Company “for their financial support to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – Quds Force.
In response to the sanctions, Iran’s oil minister wrote on Twitter that Tehran’s oil industry will not yield to pressure from the US.
Luft said the market assumes that Biden is the next president and that his administration will re-engage with Iran with the goal of reaching a new agreement.
“This means that Iranian oil could be back in the market, sanctions free, as early as mid-2021. The new sanctions are the swan song of the Trump administration Iran policy and they aim to lock Biden into the most hawkish position possible.
But Biden has made it clear that one of his first foreign policy priorities will be to revive the agreement and to bring Tehran to the type of compliance achieved by the P5+1 Obama era JCPOA. This will surely entail repeal of many if not all of the sanctions imposed by Trump.
Also, the development of COVID-19 vaccine provides hope for increased oil demand next year, a party Iran will not want to miss,” said the expert.
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn