By Trend
It seems that the White House is very serious in its intention to strangle Iran’s economy, and President Trump’s words that the new sanctions imposed on Tehran are the toughest sanctions that have ever been imposed, is not an empty rhetoric.
For the fear of losing huge US market, many major European companies have already halted their activities in the Islamic Republic. The EU’s trade with Iran will, at best, continue at the level of small and medium-sized businesses, which for Iran means the actual loss of the European market.
Apart from the goal of zeroing Iranian oil exports, Washington has also taken on Iran’s immediate neighbors, including Turkey and Iraq, which are among Tehran’s top trade partners, in an effort to block their trade ties with Tehran as much as possible.
A week ago, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had to demonstrate the art of compromise, after the representative of the US state Department Heather Nauert warned him against violating the sanctions regime against Iran and that otherwise Iraq itself risks falling under sanctions.
Considering what’s currently going on, this could have grave consequences for Iraq.
Despite the small volume of trade between Armenia and Iran, it also received a message from Washington.
One of these days, the US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills notified Armenian businessmen intending to do business with Iran that they should check with the US Embassy before concluding any deals with Iranian companies in order not to fall under the effect of secondary sanctions, Armenian media reported.
Furthermore, the Armenian Foreign Ministry stated that the specific dates of the official visit of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to Tehran had not been determined yet.
This is anything but good news for Armenia, the local media outlets have claimed.
Meanwhile, not so long ago both officials and local media were vying with one another to say that he would go to Iran in the shortest possible time, and that the program of the visit would include economic issues.
Turkey has also been subjected to strong pressure from the US. Washington insists that Turkey should join the broad sanctions against Iran.
Ankara has rejected the American demands: “Iran is both our neighbor and our strategic partner and severing ties with Tehran on America’s whim goes against Turkey’s understanding of sovereignty,” Turkish President Erdogan said in late July.
Turkey’s refusal to join the anti-Iranian sanctions caused a wave of rage in Washington, followed by attempts to apply punitive measures against Ankara.
Finally, few days ago Iranian Financial Tribune, referring to Al Bawaba, reported that the latest US sanctions against Iran are forcing many Iranian businesses in the United Arab Emirates, which has recently become a major trade hub of Iranian goods, to move to other countries, and that trade between the UAE and Iran is slowing down.
The experience of the previous US sanctions has shown that neighboring countries, especially Turkey and the UAE, played an important if not a savior role in the most critical times for the Iranian economy (2011-2014).
It is not a secret that Turkey and the UAE acted as re-exporting intermediary countries to Iran during the pre-JCPOA sanctions.
Iran successfully used different ways to bypass the previous sanctions regime by using its numerous subsidiaries in Turkey and Emirates for payment and delivery of goods, arranging cash movement to and from Iran through money-exchange houses in Istanbul and Dubai, and even carrying large amounts of cash in suitcases.
Statistical data from Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization show that the country’s import and export with Turkey was almost continually growing within years of the toughest sanctions. As for trade with the UAE at that period, the picture is not so obvious.
After it has become clear that the nuclear agreement would be signed, the trade indicators with Turkey and the UAE went down as Iran was getting the opportunity to trade directly with the countries that had previously complied with the sanctions regime.
Today, Washington is trying to learn from the recent past, limiting Iran’s trade relations with neighboring countries by any means possible. If it succeeds, Tehran will fall on harsh times.