Friday January 30, 2010

I've Been Thinking:

The US Senate has passed an important bill concerning Iran's gasoline imports. The Senate bill echoes a House bill.

The new Senate law gives President Obama the ability to increase sanctions against Iran. Following the House bill the Senate bill also stipulates that any agency or country that aids Iran by providing them with gasoline will also be subject to serious sanctions and will lose any privileges from the United States.

Iran has the third largest reserves of oil in the world. They are also the fifth largest producer of oil. But the Iranians do not refine oil very well and over 40% of their gasoline is imported.
Stopping the import of gas to Iran or squeezing the suppliers could result in serious and impressive pressure being brought on Iran.

The question remains as to whether squeezing Iran on oil will have any impact on Iranian foreign policy in general and most specifically, on Iranian nuclear policy.

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