Friday April 20, 2012

I've Been Thinking:

The game continues.

As I reminder: Several days ago I wrote that Iran was outsmarting the EU by making the first move and cutting off oil sales and forcing them to scramble to find new suppliers before Germany, Italy, Greece and Spain were going to cut themselves off from Iranian oil.

In essence, Iran was cutting the European Union off before the EU total boycott went into effect and cut them off.

Then yesterday the Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Ghassemi denied reports claiming that Iran stopped supplying oil to Germany, Italy, Greece and Spain. He said that Iran sells to all of Europe except France and England.

All this is a smoke screen. Iran needs Europe to know that their oil flow starts and stops as easily as the turning of a spigot.

Iran's game is to clearly say that they have actually made money since the embargo. They claim to have earned $14 billion more than in this period last year. How could that be the case with the embargo in full swing?

There are two reasons: Reason one is that the price of oil has increased, so even if they are selling less oil, they can still be making more money. Reason two is that China and India are picking up every barrel of slack. Every barrel that Iran produces has a buyer. And China and India do not care about the international embargo.

Just yesterday China announced that they disagree with the United States policy of punishing people who do business with Iran.

Here you have it, the game of international diplomacy.

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