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EU flogs a dead horse, Iran looks north, China promotes yuan

Commentary Materials 2 April 2018 15:22 (UTC +04:00)
The UK, Germany and France keep flogging a dead horse in the hope to save JCPOA (the nuclear agreement) between Iran and major world powers.
EU flogs a dead horse, Iran looks north, China promotes yuan

Baku, Azerbaijan, April 2

By Azer Ahmadbayli – Trend:

The UK, Germany and France keep flogging a dead horse in the hope to save JCPOA (the nuclear agreement) between Iran and the major world powers.

In an attempt to preserve the deal, which US President Donald Trump threatens to terminate on May 12, they have recently had meetings with some other EU states in Brussels, discussing imposition of sanctions on about 15 top Iranians – preferably members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

The European powers hope that new sanctions initiative will help soften Trump’s “red-line” position and see the deal survive another day, Reuters says.

That is, the necessity to impose new sanctions springs solely from Trump’s tough stance, not from real intention to punish the guilty. If I were in Iran’s place I would laugh at this ridiculousness.

The situation has turned more absurd when Italy, with support from Spain and Austria, objected to the new sanctions.

Rome says they will not be enough to persuade U.S. President Donald Trump to preserve the nuclear deal and could endanger burgeoning business ties with Iran, according to Reuters.

Italy and the other EU states deem it quite justified that the proposed sanctions will not stop Washington from abandoning the nuclear agreement. President Trump expects a lot more than simple travel bans and freezed assets of 15 Iranians, even linked to Iran’s ballistic missile program.

In this regard, a smart line of Tuco from “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” comes to mind: “When you have to shoot... shoot, don't talk.”

In the meantime, despite the EU is still trying to support the nuclear agreement, you hardly find a sign of wishful thinking among Iran’s leadership. It is most likely that they have long been planning their activity in compliance with the background that the agreement is “terminally ill patient.”

Different from the vulnerable Middle East, to the North of Iran there is a vast area covering the territory of the former Soviet Union, where political environment is relatively stable mostly because of Russia’s geopolitical influence, and where markets are not fully occupied by other players.

Tehran continues to reinforce its relations with northern neighbors. Recent voyages of President Rouhani to Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, as well as the coming visit to Turkey testify to this.

Reinforcing ties with Russia, Turkey, South Caucasus and Central Asia states aims to help protect the country’s economy from damaging affect of the new Western sanctions, if imposed.

Good news for Tehran came last week from China, which has made an important step towards promoting its national currency. On March 26, oil futures trading began on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange, where foreign traders could pay for oil in yuan instead of the US dollar.

China is the world’s biggest oil buyer, while the oil constitutes the core of Iran’s economy. The use of the new financial instrument introduced by China can be a favorable solution for Iran and some other US-sanctioned states to remain independent from the US dollar pressure.

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