IRAN HAS threatened to take action if the US navy moves an aircraft carrier into the Gulf, Tehran’s most aggressive statement yet after weeks of sabre-rattling as new US and EU financial sanctions take a toll on its economy.
The Obama administration last nigh brushed aside the warning and claimed Iran’s threats were a consequence of hard-hitting US sanctions agains the Iranian economy.
The European Union is expected to consider new measures by the end of this month, possibly including a blockade. EU member states such as crisis-hit Greece are still buyers of Iranian oil, which trades at a discount.
French foreign minister Alain Juppé said Paris wants new measures taken by January 30th, when EU foreign ministers meet.
“France . . . wants sanctions toughened and the president has made two concrete proposals on that front – the first being the freezing of Iranian central bank assets, a tough measure, and the second an embargo on Iranian oil exports,” Juppé told a French TV channel.
Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said member states would discuss the issue this week in the hope of reaching an agreement on new steps before the January 30 meeting. “The ball is still in the Iranians’ court,” he said.
Although China, India and other countries are unlikely to sign up to any oil embargo, they will be able to insist on deeper discounts, potentially reducing the income Tehran receives from oil.
The prospect of sanctions targeting the oil sector has hit Iran’s rial currency, which has fallen by 40 per cent against the dollar in the past month.
Queues formed at banks in Tehran and some currency exchange offices shut their doors as Iranians scrambled to buy dollars to protect their savings from the currency’s fall.
Army chief Ataollah Salehi said the United States had moved an aircraft carrier out of the Gulf because of Iran’s naval exercises, and Iran would take action if the ship returned. Iran will not repeat its warning ... the enemys carrier has been moved to the Sea of Oman because of our drill. I recommend and emphasise to the American carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf, army chief Salehi said.
Tehran’s threat comes at a time when sanctions are having an unprecedented impact on its economy, and the country faces political uncertainty with an election in March, its first since a 2009 vote that triggered countrywide demonstrations.
The West has imposed the sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme, which Tehran says is strictly peaceful but western countries believe aims to build an atomic bomb.
After years of sanctions that had little impact, the latest measures are the first that could have a serious effect on Iran’s oil trade, 60 per cent of its economy.
New sanctions signed into law by US president Barack Obama on New Year’s Eve would cut off any financial institutions that work with Iran’s central bank from the US financial system, blocking the main path for payments for Iranian oil.
– (Reuters)