According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the Biden administration is considering fresh sanctions on Iran that target the Islamic Republic’s oil sales to China as a way to ramp up the pressure on Tehran.
Citing unnamed US officials and people “familiar with the matter,” the report said the US is considering options to either pressure Iran to keep negotiating on the nuclear deal or “punish” Iran if the talks fail. One of those options is sanctioning oil sales to China.
Since April, the US and Iran have been engaged in indirect negotiations to revive the nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA. The talks have dragged out due to the Biden administration’s refusal to lift all Trump-era sanctions. The next round of negotiations is expected to start in August after President-elect Ebrahim Raisi replaces the current Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani.
Oil sales to China are a vital lifeline for Iran’s struggling economy, which has been shattered by US sanctions. “There is not much left to sanction in Iran’s economy,” one US official told the Journal. “Iran’s oil sales to China is the prize.”
US sanctions wouldn’t discourage Chinese buyers, but the sanctions could target the shipping sector, making it harder to find ships to carry the Iranian oil. The Journal report said if the JCPOA talks fail, the US plan would involve the “aggressive enforcement of current sanctions banning dealings with Iran’s oil and shipping industry through new designations or legal actions.”
“Aggressive enforcement” could mean stealing cargo, like the US has done in the past with shipments of Iranian fuel to Venezuela. Earlier this year, the US seized a tanker carrying Iranian oil off the UAE and sold the cargo for $2 million.
Another option being considered to pressure Tehran is a diplomatic effort to convince countries like China not to purchase oil from Iran. The report said the US hasn’t decided on what plan it will go with.
Considering the US is the party that violated the JCPOA, Iran has already made major concessions to Washington by entering the talks and agreeing to negotiate limited sanctions relief. Implementing more sanctions now would likely discourage Iran from continuing the talks, which could be what the Biden administration is hoping for.
Dave nailed it: “Implementing more sanctions now would likely discourage Iran from continuing the talks, which could be what the Biden administration is hoping for.”
Exactly. There is no reason for US to continue negotiations. There is nothing to negotiate. Obama signed the deal with the clear objective to keep Iran in a box, with an initial show of few sanctions removed — and then simply continue to add unilateral US sanctions. Until Iran becomes a client state kept un a constant state of internal chaos, undeveloped and degraded. Most importantly, use its geography to block regional transportation and trade. And project power into the heart of Eurasia.
Having withdrawn from the agreement, US is now looking into meeting same objectives. Using same strategy to squeeze Iran into becoming a chaotic state, no competitor to Israel, and a barrier to regional transportation and trade.
Obstacle to the plan is international trade. And the threat to interfere in legal Iranian shipments to China is crazy. Because shipments can be redirected to pipelines across Asia leading to China. And because Iran is no linger the only challenger to Israel in the Middle East. SCO is supporting Turkey and Egypt in their assertive international interventions.
And these challenges are difficult for US to neutralize.
Egypt is continuously under pressure for human rights, but Egypt struck back in Gaza. .Turkey is NATO member in name only, and currently an organization is launched with Bolton in charge to promote “democracy” in Turkey. Sanctions and attacks on Turkish currency, as well as coup attempt — all part of never ending process to keep down any challenger to Israel.
As Turkey has been SCO member since 2014, while Egypt and Saudi Arabia just joined one month ago —it is clear that Middle East is becoming more and more Asian region. China calls it Western Asia.
Countering this and that, punishing one country after other — we seem to want to stop the globe from turning. But is jyst moves on. Force is not the only way to go.
Do they really want war with Iran while they are threatening Russia & China too. Some one needs to call SunTzu.
He will roll over his grave start digging to avoid that
“Another option being considered to pressure Tehran is a diplomatic effort to convince countries like China not to purchase oil from Iran.”
Sure, why not. China should be receptive. After all what country that is under full throttle belligerence from another country would not want to help that very country where the belligerence is coming from. Maybe the US could send a diplomatic team on one of the warships they regularly send through the South China sea. And I guess China should disregard the fact that the US is dead wrong in why they are asking for China’s assistance. Once more, the arrogance of the US is astounding.
Your analysis seems sound to me. China is unlikely to “volunteer” on this project, and will very probably resent the US grabbing shipments of oil it has bought and paid for.
This seems to be an unusually bad idea, for if it had any real merit, wouldn’t the US have tried it years ago?
The headline is pretty misleading … outright piracy on the high seas (“seizing cargo”) is quite different from “applying sanctions”, dontcha think?
Nah, it’s privateering which is legalised piracy.
We want the talks to fail. Israel wants the talks to fail. Israel is in a froth wanting to bomb Iran. So, they practice for the event by bombing Syria.
Might this come to oil tanker convoys from Iran to China under the protection of China’s navy?
China is a party to the Iran Deal. Sanctions on China to force abrogation of the Deal would take matters to a new level.
Of course the US is already confrontational with China, but on this one issue China has the entire rest of the world on its side. Not the right place to confront China.