Oil experts believe that the U.S. will not be able to zero Iran’s oil exports. The U.S. and probably the U.A.E. will not be able to keep their oil productions in high level for long time. Iran’s crude oil which is needed by refineries of several countries cannot be replaced with Saudi Arabia’s light oil.

IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

Foreign Policy, another American news publication, in an analytical report underlined that new Trump Administration’s sanctions on Iran will harm the U.S. in the long term. It wrote,” It is expected Iran to endure tough sanctions rather than to surrender to the U.S. pressures for talks.”

Foreign Policy continues to say,“Trump Administration is after isolating Iran through increasing the pressure on its economy and it wants to increase the pressures to a level so that it can stir up a move for a regime change. The White House wants to ask for some undertakings forcefully in order that Iran could leave developing its defensive programs, its support of the groups which are called by the U.S. as terrorist groups as well as its regional policies, and to restrict its nuclear program but it does not seem that Trump Administration’s policy for maximizing pressure could bear such fruits.

Foreign Policy stipulates that the only result of the new White House strategy will be the decline in Iran’s oil exports for only short time. This void victory will cost the U.S. dearly. First, Iran’s big oil customers slash their imports but later Iran’s oil exports will gradually increase and the country will continue its normal sale.

Another American political publication Lobelog in a report looked at Iran’s oil sanctions and claimed, “Full sanctions imposed by Trump on Iran now depends on the decisions of China, India and Turkey; China does not like the U.S. unilateral sanctions because it itself may also be targeted; India does not want to help the price of the oil to rise and to act like plaything of the U.S.; and finally Turkey does not seem it wants to sacrifice its good 40-year friendship with Iran for the sake of the U.S.

Past experiences remind us of confrontations between Iran and the U.S. in the Persian Gulf where in the last years of the Iraqi imposed war, the Persian Gulf had become insecure for Iran, and Iraqi regime easily targeted Iranian vessels, tankers and oil platforms. Kuwait had let Iraqi forces use some part of its land and Saudi Arabia had let its air space be used by Saddam’s forces against Iran.

At that time high-ranking IRGC’s officials had briefed the late Imam Khomeini (R) about the U.S. warships and other ships and vessels under their support passing easily in the Persian Gulf. The late imam in response had told them, “If I were you, I would have hit them.” This remark was enough for IRGC commander Nader Mahdavi and his substitute Bijan Gord and their colleagues to prepare themselves for a retaliatory operation to prove the Americans and their servants that the Persian Gulf was not so safe for them that they thought. In July 1987, the first batch of Kuwaiti oil tankers with the U.S. flags and under the full escort of U.S. naval convoy started their journey. During this journey, the U.S. Administration had resorted to psycho propagation to show the world that the vessels were safely passing the Persian Gulf. Among the oil tankers, there was a tanker called al-Rekkah being reflagged under the U.S. flag and renamed “Bridgeton” which was escorted by a full U.S. military column. This oil tanker hit the naval mines 13 miles off the west of Farsi Island where Martyr Mahdavi and his colleagues had placed the mines and they made a hole almost 16 square meters on the body of the ship.

After this success, Ahmad Khomeini, the son of the late Imam Khomeini, told Brigadier Mahdavi that he had made Imam Khomeini happy. This issue that Persian Gulf is our home and enemies are unable to dictate their strategies in the houses of others shows the Americans that the failed sanctions would be unable to pave the ground for talks under pressure, and according to our President Hassan Rouhani the only way for the U.S. to get rid of this quagmire is to return to the JCPOA.

BY: Hamid Reza Naghashian