Threats to impose massive sanctions against Iran’s central bank to “punish” them for the Iranian government’s putative role in the dubious DC assassination plot have fallen through, with officials expressing concern about the possible damage such sanctions would do to international oil markets.
The sanctions would have barred any company doing business with Iran from accept to the US financial system, and other nations were expected to fiercely resist the move. Given the flimsy case in the plot these sanctions were coming from, it is also possible officials feared that some nations with interest in trading with Iran’s oil industry might have simply chosen them over the US.