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Reva Bhalla discusses the impact of US-led sanctions against Iran, the strategic value of the Strait of Hormuz, and the negotiations between the two states that really matter.
The latest phase of US-led sanctions against Iran has dominated the media of late. For months, the United States has pressured countries to curtail their imports of Iranian crude oil and is now threatening to penalize banks that participate in oil deals with Iran. In keeping with the US sanctions campaign, on July 1 the European Union implemented an oil embargo against Iran. The bloc has already begun banning European countries from reinsuring tankers carrying Iranian oil. On the surface, the sanctions appear tantamount to the United States and its allies serving an economic death sentence to the Iranian regime. Indeed, sanctions lobbyists and journalists have painted a dire picture of hyperinflation and plummeting oil revenues. They argue that sanctions are depriving Tehran of resources that otherwise would be allocated to Iran's nuclear weapons program. This narrative also tells of the Iranian regime's fear of economically frustrated youths daring to revive the Green Movement to pressure the regime at its weakest point.
read more at: http://asianaffairs.in/august2012/us-iran-relations.html
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