West practically cannot bring Iran to its knees

PanARMENIAN.Net - This applies to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. Iranian parliament intends to approve the bill on halting oil exports Europe by weekend, the embargo goes into effect. Experts warn that if Iran does stop delivery, it would be a serious blow to the economy of European countries, which will have to urgently purchase oil from alternative sources at inflated prices. “If this draft is adopted, the government will be forced to stop selling oil to Europe before they apply their sanctions,” said the Spokesman of the Energy Commission of Iran's Majlis Emad Hosseini.

One can assume that the decision of the 27-nation bloc’s (EU’s) foreign ministers on January 23 was inspired by the United States, which is haunted by the Iranian nuclear issue and by Tehran’s constant threats to Israel. Under the U.S. pressure, Japan and South Korea also intend to reduce their purchases of Iranian oil and increase import from other Gulf countries. According to Eurasia Research, as a result of the EU embargo and reduced purchasing by Japan, South Korea and several other countries, Iran will have to find new markets, even for half of its hydrocarbon exports - about 1.3 million b/d. In the frames of the new package of sanctions, which provides for imposition of a phased ban on imports of Iranian crude oil and petroleum products into the EU, it is expected that by July 1, all members of the EU that buy oil from Tehran would completely reject imports from that country. The ban applies to the import, purchase and transportation of crude oil and refined petroleum products, as well as related financing and insurance. The contracts already signed on the Iranian oil can be carried out by 1 July 2012. The main share of European imports of Iranian oil, about 68%, falls on Greece, Italy and Spain. In Greece, the share of consumption of Iranian “black gold” is 35%. According to the Financial Times, in 2011 the EU bought an average of 600 thousand barrels per day of Iranian oil.

However, Iran seems resolute. The governor of Khuzestan province, Seyyed Jafar Hejazi at a meeting of the Staff for attracting investments in the province said that the West’s statements on economic sanctions are part of the anti-Iranian propaganda campaign and the so-called ban on imports of Iranian oil cannot affect the sale of Iran's “black gold”, IRNA reports.

According to the governor, carrying out an anti-Iranian policy the Western countries are committing yet another strategic mistake, since economically-gainful international communications pass through Iran. Seyed Jafar Hejazi stressed that Western countries are well aware that if Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi Arabia will not be able to fully compensate their losses from termination of Iranian oil delivery. This country does not simply have enough productive capacity.

U.S. and EU are once again triggering a backflash and fail to understand that Iran is no Libya, no Iraq, and certainly no Egypt. In the worst scenario of further developments UN sanctions would be almost impossible to achieve: in addition to Muslim countries against will vote also Russia and China, permanent members of the UN Security Council. It is impossible to force Iran to abandon its nuclear program: the same Europe once helped Iran to obtain a nuclear reactor, by selling technology and equipment to Tehran. In the person of Iran, the U.S. has found a new “boogeyman” to replace murdered Osama bin Laden. After the inglorious operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama urgently needs an easy-to-achieve goal before the election. However, as mentioned above, he chose a wrong country, because, to his greatest regret, Obama will prove unable to bring Tehran to her knees.