The Latest from Iran (18 April): Trust Us, All is Well

Minister of Oil Rustam Qassemi0515 GMT: We begin this morning with an All-Is-Well Alert:

Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi says despite international pressures and foreign sanctions against Iran, none of the country’s oil industry projects have been stopped so far....

“Despite the intensification of sanctions, new records have been registered for building new gas refineries in the South Pars region....Despite international sanctions, the Oil Ministry welcomes foreign companies’ investment and participation in [developing Iran's] oil and gas industries,” he added. 

Qasemi further noted that due to the high quality of Iran's crude oil, the country is currently facing no restrictions for selling and exporting crude oil to global markets.

And Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani says all is on course for an Iranian triumph in the nuclear talks: “[The West has] realized that they will face effective interaction by the Islamic Republic of Iran if they substitute the bullying language with prudence and the dual attitudes with a legal system....We take notice of the change in the West’s attitude.” 

For the record, we offer the not-all-is-well assessment of an Iranian correspondent for EA, 

 

We need to once again focus on the sanctions situation....SWIFT [the provider of global financial transactions] did not suspend the Iranian banks due to specific sanctions levied by the European Union or the US. It did so because it was nudged into doing it after polite requests by the US and, more importantly, the sweeping reputation risks associated with having to do with Iran.

This is the killer blow these days: the informal, reputation-based decisions to sever business links with Iran at all levels that has in some cases reached all the way to the oil procurement sectors of many governments and more. For example, MTN, the South African partner of Irancell, is under investigation for the ways in which it edged out Turkcell to win the contract and could very well pull out of Iran after the South African government's decision to call it quits on tight economic links with Iran. 

Will [the next nuclear talks on 23 May in] Baghdad solve the above? Unlikely. Iran needs to embark on initiatives possibly well out of its reach in order to regain the semblance of ordinary trade links, say pre-2009....In the immediate futre, Tehran needs to come out with winning quick-thinking, and cease the delusion that somehow Western economic crises will cause a change of heart and suspension of the July 1 deadline [for the European Union's cut-off of Iranian oil imports].

 

from EA WorldView: EA Iran

Posted via email from lissping