Azerbaijan, Baku, June 11 /Trend S.Isayev
No matter how tight the sanctions on Iran are, there will always be loopholes, Senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, James M. Dorsey told Trend.
The expert was commenting on the recent news about U.S. lawmakers planning to launch a campaign to strike a deeper blow to Iran's diminishing oil export.
Reuters reported that such campaign aims to cut down Iran's exports to a minimum, while some analysts believe the ultimate goal here is a total cut-off.
"The Obama administration is likely to see who emerges as Iran's new president and what policies he will seek to adopt before further tightening sanctions," Dorsey said.
Iran will hold the 11th presidential election on June 14, 2013. The voters will select the successor of the current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is not able to participate in the elections for the third term according to the country's constitutional laws.
Dorsey noted that other nations like China will ignore sanctions that are unilateral and only adhere to those authorized by the United Nations as long as Iran's nuclear program does not cross a military threshold.
The U.S. and its Western allies suspect Iran of developing a nuclear weapon - something that Iran denies. The Islamic Republic has on numerous occasions stated that it does not seek to develop nuclear weapons, using nuclear energy for medical researches instead.
"Iran has so far taken pride in seeking to prove that it can advance despite the sanctions. Nevertheless, discontent is widespread in Iran," the expert noted.
"Tighter sanctions will on the one hand increase nationalist fervour and on the other increase economic hardship," Dorsey said. "There is little Iran can do short of continously seeking new ways to circumvent sanctions or make concessions."
The Obama administration announced new sanctions on Iran last week, targeting the country's currency and automobile industry, the latest effort to isolate Tehran from the global financial system.
The new rules, which go into effect July 1, penalize the sale of goods and services to Iran's auto industry, a key part of the country's economy.
The latest executive order is the ninth Obama has signed on Iran since the start of his presidency and the sixth in the last two years.
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