Well, That's Iran Sanctions Dead

By Cernig

The Financial Times reports that China has signed a new $2 billion oil deal with Iran.

Iran signed a $2bn oil contract with Sinopec of China on Sunday, sending a signal to western companies that they might miss out on potentially lucrative contracts with one of the world’s biggest energy exporters if they continued to heed US-inspired sanctions against Tehran.

“If other countries who like to invest in oil and gas hesitate, they will lose opportunities,” said Gholam-Hossein Nozari, Iran’s oil minister.

Mr Nozari also said Iran had signed multi-billion dollar contracts with some other non-western companies to develop two major upstream oil fields a few months ago. He refused to give more details because the companies feared facing international pressure.

...France’s Total, Royal Dutch Shell and Spain’s Repsol have been negotiating to develop some parts of South Pars, the world’s biggest gas field. Iran has given them an ultimatum that it could wait only until June 2008.

I have to say that, opposed as I am to the Bush administration's cack-handed non-negotiating method with Iran, I would like to see the international community line up behind sanctions with reasoning based upon Iran's sponsorship of terrorist groups in Lebanon and Palestine (and in Iraq, if that can actually be made a justifiable NIE consensus) as well as the Iranian regime's myriad human rights abuses at home. The notion of continuing to base the rationale for sanctions on an illegal call to prevent Iran exercising it's rights under the NPT, particularly after the recent NIE and IAEA report, was always foolish however. The UNSC should consider applying sanctions - for the right reasons.