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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has made an unusual announcement distinct from his normal emphasis on mere ‘defiance’ of US sanctions; instead, he is now boasting of the discovery of a new oil field with over 50 billion barrels of crude in the country’s south.

“I am telling the White House that in the days when you sanctioned the sale of Iranian oil and pressured our nation, the country’s dear workers and engineers were able to discover 53 billion barrels of oil in a big field,” Rouhani said in a speech Sunday.Rouhani during his Sunday speech in the city of Yazd, via Iranian Presidency/AP

He described that the new discovery made in Iran’s southern Khuzestan province, the country’s domestic energy and oil production heartland, would hugely bolster Iran’s proven reserves of roughly 150 billion.

The Associated Press reports this as “a find that could boost the country’s proven reserves by a third as it struggles to sell energy abroad over U.S. sanctions.”

And further, Rouhani appearing as if to quash any doubt, described specifics according to an AP summary of his words:

The new oil field could become Iran’s second-largest field after one containing 65 billion barrels in Ahvaz. The field is 2,400 square kilometers (925 square miles), with the deposit some 80 meters (260 feet) deep, Rouhani said.

Despite having the world’s fourth-largest proven deposits of crude oil, Iran has struggled to evade Washington sanctions on its energy sector and to sell to other countries. The new find is in the southern Khuzestan province, the country’s oil heartland.

China, once seen as a major purchaser through which Iran could weather the US “maximum pressure” storm, has also found its sanctions busting companies target of White House sanctions of late.

The boastful announcement from Rouhani if confirmed could inspire a last ditch effort of other signatories to the 2015 JCPOA — Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China — to step up and act with firmer resolve against US punitive threats.

Trump Offered to Suspend Sanctions While Negotiating With Iran, Khamenei Rejected the Offer: More Attacks Expected

June 16, 2019

TRUMP OFFERED TO SUSPEND SANCTIONS WHILE NEGOTIATING WITH IRAN, KHAMENEI REJECTED THE OFFER: MORE ATTACKS EXPECTED

Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo conveyed a message from US President Donald Trump to the Iranian leadership, asking the release of 5 US prisoners and inviting Iran to sit around a negotiation table, adding “he [Donald Trump] would be ready to suspend all sanctions only during the negotiations”. No guarantee was offered to freeze or revoke the sanctions. Sayyed Ali Khamenei, the Leader of the revolution, rejected the message and any dialogue with the US President and told his guest that he considers Trump unworthy to “to exchange a message with”.

Informed sources close to Iranian decision makers repeated the words of President Hassan Rouhani and the Iranian advisor to Sayyed Khamenei for international affairs, Ali Akbar Velayati, namely that “if Iran can’t export oil through the Persian Gulf, no-one in the Middle East will be able do this”. The source “expects further attacks in the future, given the US decision to stop the flow of oil by all means at all costs. Thus, oil will stop being delivered to the world if Iran can’t export its two million barrels per day”.

Two tankers – Kokuka Courageous and Font Altair – were attacked in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday, putting at risk the supply of oil to the West and making oil tanker navigation in the Middle East very unsafe. “One more attack and insurance companies are expected to increase their fees. More attacks and no insurance company will agree to cover any oil tanker navigating in Gulf waters, putting Iran and other oil-exporters at the same level. Moreover, let us see what justifications Trump and Europe will offer their people when the price of oil becomes unaffordable”, said the source.

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Iran Squeezed Between Imperial Psychos and European Cowards

May 13, 2019

Iran Squeezed Between Imperial Psychos and European Cowards

Berlin, Paris and London assumed Tehran could not afford to leave the JCPOA even if it was not receiving any of the promised economic rewards. Now the EU3 are facing the hour of truth, writes Pepe Escobar.

The Trump administration unilaterally cheated on the 2015 multinational, UN-endorsed JCPOA, or Iran nuclear deal. It has imposed an illegal, worldwide financial and energy blockade on all forms of trade with Iran — from oil and gas to exports of iron, steel, aluminum and copper. For all practical purposes, and in any geopolitical scenario, this is a declaration of war.

Successive U.S. governments have ripped international law to shreds; ditching the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is only the latest instance. It doesn’t matter that Tehran has fulfilled all its commitments to the deal — according to UN inspectors. Once the leadership in Tehran concluded that the U.S. sanctions tsunami is fiercer than ever, it decided to begin partially withdrawing from the deal.

President Hassan Rouhani was adamant: Iran has not left the JCPOA — yet. Tehran’s measures are legal under the framework of articles 26 and 36 of the JCPOA — and European officials were informed in advance. But it’s clear the EU3 (Germany, France, Britain), who have always insisted on their vocal support for the JCPOA, must work seriously to alleviate the U.S.-provoked economic disaster to Iran if Tehran has any incentive to continue to abide by the agreement.

Protests in front of former U.S. embassy in Tehran after U.S. decision to withdraw from JCPOA, May 8, 2018. (Hossein Mersadi via Wikimedia Commons)

Russia and China — the pillars of Eurasia integration, to which Iran adheres — support Tehran’s position. This was discussed extensively in Moscow by Sergey Lavrov and Iran’s Javad Zarif, perhaps the world’s top two foreign ministers.

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Iran Again Threatens To Block Key Oil Transit Choke Point As U.S. Aircraft Carrier En Route

December 4, 2018

Iran Again Threatens To Block Key Oil Transit Choke Point As U.S. Aircraft Carrier En Route

Here we go again: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has once more threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, which is vital to up to one-third of all global oil shipping as it’s a key transit choke point in the Persian Gulf.

On Tuesday Iranian state broadcasts carried his words, saying “if someday, the United States decides to block Iran’s oil (exports), no oil will be exported from the Persian Gulf.” He further vowed that the United States will not be able to prevent Iran from exporting its crude — something the White House has repeatedly pledged to take down to zero exports through international allies and economic blockade through sanctions.

*A prior Iranian Navy drill off the Strait of Hormuz, RFE/RL*

The carrier deployment, though previously scheduled, was announced after the US condemned Iran’s **test firing a medium-range nuclear capable ballistic missile on Sunday**.

“The United States should know that we are selling oil and we will sell our oil and it **cannot block Iran’s oil export**,” he said on Tuesday addressing the people of Shahroud in Semnan province broadcast live on state TV.

The United States and the Israeli regime cannot stand the idea of a powerful and dignified Iran, and the Iranian nation will not bow to them, Rouhani highlighted, adding, “**the United States failed in launching a coup in our country**. They were after separating Khuzestan province, imposing sanctions against the country, and undermining Iran’s power, but they failed. It should be studied why the US is angry with Iran and Iranians.” *—MEHR News Agency*

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The Global US Squeeze On Iran Has Started: Europe is Looking For Alternatives

November 6, 2018

THE GLOBAL US SQUEEZE ON IRAN HAS STARTED: EUROPE IS LOOKING FOR ALTERNATIVES

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Today the harshest and highest level economic and energy sanctions that can be imposed on any country are being imposed unilaterally on Iran. The US establishment will try its best to bring the Islamic Republic to its knees and Tehran will do its best to cross the US minefield. Whatever the outcome, Iran will never submit to Washington’s twelve conditions.

Iran is not a fledgeling country ready to collapse at the imposition of the first tight sanctions, nor will Iran allow its oil exports to be frozen without reacting. In fact, US and UN sanctions against Iran date to the beginning of the Islamic Revolution and the fall of the Shah in 1979.

No doubt the Iranian economy will be affected. Nevertheless, Iranian unity today has reached new heights. President Trump has managed to bring reformists and radicals together under the same umbrella!

Iranian General Qassem Soleimani has said to President Hassan Rouhani: “You walk and we stand ahead of you. Don’t respond to Trump’s provocations because he is insolent and not at your level. I shall face him myself”. Rouhani believes “US policy and its new conspiracy will fail”. All responsible figures in the Iranian regime are now united under the leadership of Imam Ali Khamenei against the US policy whose aim is to curb the regime.

Under the previous worldwide sanctions regime, Iran began developing missile technology and precision weapons. Iran has never yielded in support of its allies because these alliances are an integral part of its ideology. Today, Tehran is not standing alone against the US and is waiting to see what course global sanctions will take before reacting. Officials in Tehran, convinced that Trump will win a second term, are preparing for a long siege.

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Economic Crisis Looms In Iran As Sanctions Bite

August 30, 2018

Economic Crisis Looms In Iran As Sanctions Bite

In a little over two months, painful U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil sector will take effect, but the Iranian economy is already showing signs of strain.

Iran’s currency, the rial, has fallen by more than half since the start of the year. There is now a thriving black market for U.S. dollars as the rial continues to plunge.

The turmoil has the government engaging in a bit of a circling firing squad. In July, the head of the central bank was sacked. In early August, the labor minister was ousted and just this past weekend the economy minister was removed.

The reshuffling and purging of top officials suggests that hardliners in Tehran are gaining ground against the government of President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate by comparison. “Rouhani’s failure to respond to the economic crisis with gut and grit has further isolated him,” Ali Vaez, the director of the Iran Project at the International Crisis Group, told the Wall Street Journal. “Even his erstwhile allies in the parliament are deserting what they believe is a sinking ship.”

But even though the economic indicators look poor, Rouhani’s real failure in the eyes of the hardliners has been political. That is, his government made the mistake of trusting the United States when it agreed to the 2015 nuclear deal. The Trump administration’s withdrawal from the pact earlier this year was proof in Tehran that opening up and negotiating with the U.S. on the nuclear program was a miscalculation. Rouhani has been in trouble since then, and the economic pain related to the re-implementation of U.S. sanctions is merely compounding the problem.

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End of unipolar world? New world order evolves in response to US demands on Iran

May 25, 2018

End of unipolar world? New world order evolves in response to US demands on Iran

If Mike Pompeo’s ultimatum to Iran, after US withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal, was fulfilled it would inflict economic warfare on the country and set up Tehran for failure while reasserting a US-led unipolar world order.

However, it is doomed to failure. As Iranian President Hassan Rouhani pointed out following the US Secretary of State’s declaration mirroring the views of President Donald Trump’s new national security adviser, John Bolton, the era when the US will “decide for the world” is over.

Pompeo outlined the 12 demands on Iran in a speech on May 21 before the US think-tank Heritage Foundation. Even many of the conservative participants in attendance seemed to be skeptical of how effective the demands would be to prevent the US from imposing more onerous sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Pompeo’s ultimatum demanded that Iran halt all uranium enrichment, with access to “all sites”“anywhere, anytime.” Yet, the Islamic Republic is a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty which entitles it to enrich uranium for civilian use, as does the Iranian nuclear agreement, formerly known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.

The ultimatum went well beyond anything to do with Iran’s nuclear program – demanding that the Islamic Republic halt its missile development, support for Hezbollah and Hamas and demanded that it withdraw all forces under the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from Syria, where it has been fighting along with Hezbollah against the Islamic State and al-Qaeda at the invitation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Left unsaid in Pompeo’s demands was that the US is in Syria without invitation, supporting the jihadi Salafists who also are backed by Israel and Saudi Arabia and are threatening Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran itself.

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Flash Points Grow in Numbers & Increase Threats of Attack on U.S.

December 9, 2017

Flash Points Grow in Numbers & Increase Threats of Attack on U.S.

war-peace

In a decision bound to have far-reaching effects, President Trump announced that the United States would be recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Furthermore, he also stated his intentions of placing an American embassy in the city. The Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has already weighed in on this, and said that such a move by President Trump would not be tolerated.

It is difficult to address such an issue in a non-didactic manner that blends theological implications, but there is more at stake here than this being a theological debate, or simply a conflict between Christianity, Muslims, or Judaism, or an “end of days” issue.

Politics is statecraft and stagecraft, and this decision has infuriated the Iranians and will potentially provoke them into activity: the invasion of Iran has been desired for three administrations.

Obama intended to overthrow Assad in Syria for many reasons: to ingratiate himself to the House of Saud (as the Saudi Arabians hate Assad), to control Northwestern Syria and run a natural gas pipeline through it from Qatar to Europe, and to secure a foothold with which to invade Iran. The Russians have had other plans: Gazprom was the target regarding the Qatar natural gas pipeline, and the Russians reacted by bombing ISIS (an Obama creation) and securing Syria for Assad.

The Iranians have plans of moving their fleet into the Atlantic and eventually operating (sometime next year) near Cuba, and in South America in support of Venezuela and Bolivia (led by Maduro and Morales respectively). The Iranians have been working with North Korea for years on missile technology exchange. Iran has several projects that have commenced with Russia and China as partners regarding development of their nuclear power facilities.

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Iran Signs Oil Deal With Total, Deal Done In Euros

February 9, 2016

Iran Signs Oil Deal With Total, Deal Done In Euros

Deals signed just over a week ago when Iranian President Hassan Rouhani met his French counterpart, Francois Hollande, in Paris included some 20 agreements and a $25-billion accord under which Iran will purchase 73 long-haul and 45 medium-haul Airbus passenger planes to update its ageing fleet. Carmaker Peugeot—which was forced to pull out of Iran in 2012–also agreed to return to the Iranian market in a five-year deal worth $436 million.

In the reverse flow of the new deal, Total has agreed to buy between 150,000 and 200,000 barrels of Iranian crude a day, with company officials also noting that Total would be looking at other opportunities as well in oil, gas, petrochemicals and marketing.

According to Iranian media, Total will start importing 160,000 barrels per day in line with a contract that takes effect already on 16 February.

Total never really left Iran, though. While it stopped all oil exploration and production activities there in 2010, making it one of the last to withdraw, it still maintained an office there.

Since 1990, Total has been a key investor in Iranian energy, playing a role in the development of Iran’s Sirri A&E oil and South Pars gas projects. Sanctions also halted its planned involvement in the LNG project linked to Iran’s South Pars Phase 11.

But Total’s work in Iran hasn’t been without its problems—even without sanctions.

In May 2013, Total agreed to pay $398.2 million to settle U.S. criminal and civil allegations that it paid bribes to win oil and gas contracts in Iran.

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Oil Market Knee-Jerk Reaction To Nuclear Deal Unjustified

April 4, 2015

Oil Market Knee-Jerk Reaction To Nuclear Deal Unjustified

A group of exhausted diplomats did the unthinkable. The P5+1 countries and Iran came to a massive and historic framework agreement over Iran’s nuclear program, paving the way for a final deal to be hashed out before the real deadline in June. Negotiations went past the self-imposed March 31 deadline and despite sinking optimism on April 1, all parties managed to overcome enough of their differences to hammer out the outlines of a deal. Iran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon will be hampered, and crucially for oil markets, Iran is within reach of receiving relief from western sanctions.

It is unclear how quickly Iran will be able to ratchet up its oil production, however, even if a deal is forged. Reviving some of its battered oil fields will require international investment. To be sure, Iran is an enormous prize for the oil majors, but there will likely be a lag between sanctions relief and actual investment. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has courted foreign oil companies, but even if sanctions are removed, oil companies will think twice before they jump in. That’s because the U.S. insists on a mechanism of having sanctions “snap back” into place if Iran does not live up to its side of the deal. For oil companies thinking about pouring billions of dollars into a country, the possibility that sanctions will snap back presents enormous risk. After only recently having seen what happens when international sanctions are brought down like a hammer – ExxonMobil had to pullout of a major drilling project in Russia last year because of sanctions – the industry will take its time. Consequently, despite the historic agreement – a very important development indeed – the flood of Iranian oil will likely take quite a bit of time before it begins flowing.

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Iran will weather oil price slide, Saudi Arabia will suffer – Rouhani

January 14, 2015

Iran will weather oil price slide, Saudi Arabia will suffer – Rouhani

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday that Iran can cope with the economic turmoil of falling oil prices, adding that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will be harder hit.

Rouhani said that while oil now only accounts for one-third of Tehran’s budget, some of the Gulf states are up to 95 percent reliant on it.

“If Iran suffers from the drop in oil prices, know that other oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will suffer more than Iran,” he said.

He added that “Kuwait’s budget is 95 percent reliant on oil,” and 90 percent of Saudi Arabia’s “annual exports are related to oil.”

Rouhani was addressing a crowd in the southern city of Bushehr – home to a nuclear power plant built with the help of the Russians, which became operational in 2011.

He also said that falling prices for crude oil are the result of “a plot that will be overcome with unity and resistance.”

“Those [countries] who have planned the oil price reduction against some countries should know that they will regret it,” he said, without elaborating on what countries he meant.

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Venezuela, Iran Leaders Join to ‘Neutralize Schemes Against OPEC and Stabilize Oil Price’

January 11, 2015

Venezuela, Iran Leaders Join to ‘Neutralize Schemes Against OPEC and Stabilize Oil Price’

TEHRAN, Iran—Iran and Venezuela vowed Saturday to work together to stabilize falling global oil prices as Iran’s supreme leader accused “enemies” of using crude prices as a political weapon.

With Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by his side, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged OPEC members to “neutralize schemes by some powers against OPEC and help stabilize an acceptable oil price in 2015.” Maduro also called for OPEC’s cooperation in stabilizing oil prices.

Both Iran and Venezuela rely on oil prices to boost their respective economies. Oil prices have plunged more than 55 percent since June to less than $50 a barrel, placing a severe strain on the two countries.

Maduro is touring several OPEC nations to drum up support for a production cut to boost prices. He is to visit Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, to discuss the oil market slump.

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