The Iranian oil embargo blowback

[Zarvan]

TEHRAN – Iranian lawmakers have finalized a draft bill requiring the government to immediately halt crude oil sales to Europe in response to the bloc's decision to ban the purchase of Iranian oil, a member of parliament said Saturday.

Nasser Soudani said the legislature's energy committee completed its work on the bill Saturday and that parliament will debate and vote on it during an open session on Sunday.

"As long as the EU doesn't lift the oil embargo, we won't give them a drop of oil," state TV quoted Soudani as saying. Soudani is deputy chairman of the energy committee.

The European Union imposed an oil embargo against Iran and froze the assets of its central bank on Monday. It was the latest attempt to try to pressure Tehran over a nuclear program the United States and its allies argue is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Iran says its program is for purely peaceful purposes.

The EU sanctions came just weeks after the U.S. approved, but has yet to enact, new sanctions targeting Iran's Central Bank and, by extension, its ability to sell its oil.

Many Iranian lawmakers and officials have called for an immediate ban on oil exports to the European bloc before the EU's ban fully goes into effect in July, arguing that the 27 EU nations account for only about 18 percent of Iran's overall oil sales and would be hurt more by the decision than Iran. China, a key buyer of Iranian crude, has criticized the embargo.

Ahmad Qalebani, director of the National Iranian Oil Company, said the EU must either sign long-term oil contracts with Iran now or lose Iranian oil.
"Some European companies still want to receive Iranian oil," Qalebani was quoted as saying by the semiofficial ISNA news agency. "We want those companies to enter transparent talks with us for a long-term contracts or stop purchasing oil from Iran now."

Qalebani said the decision to immediately cut oil exports to Europe has to be approved by the country's top leadership.

If parliament passes the bill to halt oil sales to Europe, the legislation must still be approved by the Guardian Council to become law.

Read more: Iran Moves Toward Banning Oil Sales To EU | Fox News

 

[nirreich]

Continue this way, it will only makes matter worst for the barbaric regime in Tehran.

What next? Iran will declare war on the EU?

 

[fd24]

If the sorry parade of European poodles - or what analyst Chris Floyd delightfully dubbed Europuppies - had any understanding of Persian culture, they would have known that blowback for their declaration of economic war in the form of an Iranian oil embargo would be nothing short of heavy metal.

Better yet; death metal. The Majlis (Iranian parliament) will discuss this Sunday, in an open section, whether to cancel right away all oil exports to any European country that approved the embargo - according to Emad Hosseini, the rapporteur of the Majlis Energy Committee. And that comes with the requisite apocalyptic warning, relayed via the Fars news agency, courtesy of member of Parliament Nasser Soudani: "Europe will burn in the fire of Iran's oil wells."

Soudani expresses the views of the whole Tehran establishment
when he says that "the structure of their [Europe's] refineries is compatible with Iran's oil", and so Europeans have no alternative as replacement; the embargo "will cause an increase in oil prices, and the Europeans will be compelled to buy oil at higher prices"; that is, Europe "will be compelled to buy Iran's oil indirectly and through intermediaries".

According to the EU sanctions package, all existing contracts will be respected only until July 1 - and no new contracts are allowed. Now imagine if this pre-emptive Iranian legislation is voted within the next few days. Crisis-hit Club Med countries such as Spain and especially Italy and Greece will be dealt a deathblow, having no time to find a possible alternative to Iran's light, high-quality crude.

Saudi Arabia - whatever the oily spin in Western corporate media - does not have the spare capacity; and on top of it, the absolute priority for the House of Saud is high oil prices, so it can bribe - apart from repressing - its own population into forgetting about noxious Arab Spring ideas.

So yes, already broken European economies would be forced to keep buying Iranian oil, but now from the winners of choice - middlemen vultures.

Not surprisingly, the losers lost in these Cold War tactics anachronistically applied to a global open market are the Europeans themselves. Greece - already facing the abyss - has been buying heavily discounted oil from Iran. The strong possibility remains of the oil embargo precipitating a Greek government bond default - and even a catastrophic cascade effect in the eurozone (Ireland, Portugal, Italy, Spain - and beyond).

The world needs a digital Herodotus to decode how these European poodles who claim to represent "civilization" were able, in a single stroke, to inflict simultaneous pain on Greece - the cradle of Western civilization itself - and Persia - one of the most sophisticated civilizations in history. In an astonishing historical replay of tragedy as farce, it's as if Greeks and Persians were bonded together at the Thermopylae facing the onslaught of North Atlantic Treaty Organization armies.

Hit the Eurasian groove
Now compare it with the action all across Eurasia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, "Unilateral sanctions don't help matters". The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, exercising immense tact, nevertheless was unmistakable; "To blindly pressure and impose sanctions on Iran are not constructive approaches."

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said, "We have very good relations with Iran, and we are putting much effort into renewing Iran's talks with the 5+1 [Iran Six - the United Nations Security Council permanent members plus Germany] mediators' group. Turkey will continue looking for a peaceful solution to the issue.”

BRICS member India - alongside Russia and China - also dismissed sanctions. India will keep buying Iranian oil and paying in rupees or gold. South Korea and Japan will inevitably extract exemptions from the Barack Obama administration.

All across Eurasia trade is fast moving away from the US dollar. The Asian Dollar Exclusion Zone, crucially, also means that Asia is slowly disengaging itself from Western banks.

The movement may be led by China - but it's irreversibly transnational. Once again, follow the money. BRICS members China and Brazil started bypassing the US dollar on trade in 2007. BRICS members Russia and China did the same in 2010. Japan and China - the top two Asian giants - did the same only last month.

Only last week, Saudi Arabia and China rolled out a project for a giant oil refinery in the Red Sea. And India more or less secretly is deciding to pay for Iranian oil in gold - even bypassing the current middleman, a Turkish bank.

Asia wants a new international system - and it's working for it. Inevitable long-term consequences; the US dollar - and, crucially, the petrodollar - slowly drifting into irrelevance. "Too Big to Fail" may turn out to be not a categorical imperative, but an epitaph.

Asia Times Online :: The Iranian oil embargo blowback

 

[SOHEIL]

idiot europe

 

[SOHEIL]

Continue this way, it will only makes matter worst for the barbaric regime in Tehran.

What next? Iran will declare war on the EU?

continue baby ... it doesn't matter ...

 

[fd24]

idiot europe

sorry sir - this is an insult to idiots....

 

[nirreich]

continue baby ... it doesn't matter ...

What is the next Iranian threat? Stop working? Stop eating? Shooting its citizens in the leg?

What other creative ways do they have to hurt themselves? Such stupidity is prominent even in Iranian standards.

 

[secularbuster]

Continue this way, it will only makes matter worst for the barbaric regime in Tehran.

What next? Iran will declare war on the EU?

What is next from EU, america or israel? That question is more appropriate, after all, they are the ones who are waging a war on Iran.

 

[fd24]

Continue this way, it will only makes matter worst for the barbaric regime in Tehran.

What next? Iran will declare war on the EU?

Your national out pour of anti Iranian propaganda is obvious. You have no interest in the title and consequence - you are simply blinded by the western media in portraying Iran as a hostile nation.Ever considered being on topic? Would be great for all.
The consequences for Europe not having access to Iranian oil would be a disaster to an already struggling economy.

 

[yahya07]

What a wonderfully written article, kudos to Pepe Escobar.

 

[nirreich]

Your national out pour of anti Iranian propaganda is obvious. You have no interest in the title and consequence - you are simply blinded by the western media in portraying Iran as a hostile nation.Ever considered being on topic? Would be great for all.
The consequences for Europe not having access to Iranian oil would be a disaster to an already struggling economy.

I do not have anything against the Iranian people, and I would not want them to suffer. However, I do not share your laissez faire approach regarding this notorious regime which imposed itself on the Iranian people and aspires to destabilise the entire international community. The EU finally did the right thing in order to stop this barbaric regime from acquiring nuclear weapons that would enable it to terrorise the entire international community.

 

[Safriz]

its irans oil..if they dont want to sell it..its their choice.

 

[fd24]

What a wonderfully written article, kudos to Pepe Escobar.

and an eye opener for all of us.....

 

[secularbuster]

I do not have anything against the Iranian people,

But the Iranian people do not see it that way. Perhaps that is the reason why they support their nuclear drive so adamantly!

 

[fd24]

I do not have anything against the Iranian people, and I would not want them to suffer. However, I do not share your laissez faire approach regarding this notorious regime which imposed itself on the Iranian people and aspires to destabilise the entire international community. The EU finally did the right thing in order to stop this barbaric regime from acquiring nuclear weapons that would enable it to terrorise the entire international community.

you are a one trick pony. Go round and round the houses and repeat your statement about Iran and nukes. Boring and blind. You are sane enough to have nukes - yet no other Islamic nation around can have nukes because it destabilizes the area? Go and take a long hike - either bring something new to the table or do us all a favor and shush.