Putin-Rouhani Deal to Ensure Iran Evades US Sanctions
Agreement sealed in Tehran last month provides for Iran to export crude oil to Russia, where it will be refined and sold worldwide, Foreign Ministry document reportedly specifies
By TOI staff and Agencies
October 15, 2018 "Information Clearing House" - Russia and Iran have agreed on a mechanism to spare Iran the impact of what are intended by the US to be crippling sanctions on its oil industry from next month, an Israeli Foreign Ministry document reportedly warns.
The mechanism provides for Iran to export crude oil to Russia across the Caspian Sea. The oil will then be refined at Russian refineries, and from there it will be exported worldwide, the “secret” Israeli document states, according to a report on Hadashot TV news on Sunday.
In return, Moscow will provide Iran with unspecified trade and service benefits.
The goal of the mechanism, the reported Israeli document makes clear, is to enable Iran to bypass the US sanctions on its oil industry that are set to come into force on November 4.
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The US
administration, which has withdrawn from the
2015 P5+1 world powers nuclear deal with
Iran, is hoping that escalated sanctions
will cripple the Iranian economy and force
Tehran to come back to the negotiating
table, where US President Donald Trump would
aim to reach a new deal that would more
stringently deny Iran any means of attaining
nuclear weapons.
The Russian-Iranian deal was reportedly
reached last month in Tehran, where Russian
President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President
Hassan Rouhani, and Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan held summit talks.
The Israeli document also reportedly warns
that European states, which remain
supportive of the 2015 deal, are ready to
tacitly agree to let Iran continue to sell
oil to various states in Asia.
The general aim of the Russian-Iranian
mechanism, and of the European tacit
agreement to other Iranian oil exports, is
“to avert the collapse of the Iranian
economy” when the US sanctions take effect,
and thus “to prevent Iran from withdrawing”
from the 2015 nuclear deal, according to the
TV report. Maintaining the accord, the
report said, is deemed by Moscow and the EU
to be in their interest.
The Israeli document reportedly warns that
the Putin-Rouhani agreement is “a very
significant” one — a means “to breach the US
sanctions wall” that will start with oil,
but could also have further implications,
the TV report said.
The report did not say whether the
conclusions in the document have been shared
by Israel with the US — whose leaderships
are allied in their bitter opposition to the
2015 deal, and utterly mistrust Iran’s
insistence that it is not seeking nuclear
weapons.
Furthermore, the TV report noted, the
mechanism underlines the alliance of
interests between Moscow and Tehran, and is
therefore of relevance, as Israel seeks to
prevent Iran deepening its military presence
in Syria. That Israeli effort has seen
relentless Israeli airstrikes on Iranian and
Iran-linked targets in Syria; last month,
Syrian anti-aircraft missiles accidentally
downed a Russian military spy plane in the
course of an Israeli airstrike, plunging
Israeli-Russian ties into crisis.
Rouhani has insisted several times in recent
weeks that Iran will continue exporting
crude oil despite the US efforts to stop it
through sanctions. “We will continue by all
means to both produce and export” oil,
Rouhani said in remarks broadcast on state
TV on September 5, for instance, two days
before the summit with Putin and Erdogan.
“Oil is in the frontline of confrontation
and resistance.”
Three weeks ago, Rouhani ridiculed the Trump
administration’s sanctions efforts, calling
the threat to prevent Iranian oil exports an
“empty promise” that would not work. “The
United States is not capable of bringing our
oil exports to zero,” he declared.
The US wants to reduce Iran’s oil exports
effectively to zero with the renewed
sanctions from November 4, after pulling out
of the nuclear deal between Iran and world
powers in May.
Russia, however, has vowed to try to salvage
the 2015 deal, and to protect its economic
relations with Tehran.
It has been unclear, however, how much other
countries will cut back on Iranian oil
imports — despite the threat of their
trading with Iran impacting their trading
relationships with the US. Britain, France,
Germany, Russia, and China, which also
signed the nuclear deal, opposed the Trump
administration’s decision to withdraw from
it. European countries are trying to salvage
the landmark accord.
Iran said late last month that it expected
the European Union to establish a legal
framework by November 4 to bypass the
American sanctions and to allow the
continuation of trade between Tehran and EU
member states.
The European Union, for its part, said its
members would set up a payment system to
allow oil companies and businesses to
continue trading with Iran.
This article was originally published by "Times Of Israel" -
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==See Also==
Iran, Russia reach deal to circumvent US oil sanctions: Israeli report
Hassan Rouhani: US seeking regime change in Iran
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