One of the major influential factors in international relations is energy resources. Also, contradictions emerged between the exporter and importer states in recent days. All these have caused the wave of turbulence and the sharp changes in prices in the world economy
Washington-based senior energy security analyst Omid Shokri Kalehsar shared his views with Eurasia Diary.
O. Shokri made a statement on the US sanctions against Iran and the European-Iranian relations: "The main purpose of the United States is to reduce the export of oil, which is the basis of the Iranian economy. However, it is difficult to make it real in the current situation. Because even if the US tightens sanctions, it will not be able to prevent Iran from exporting energy yet. Because today, the main importer of Iran's energy are oil companies more than states."
Iran has made considerable discounts on oil companies in this regard. That is why today, Iranian oil is imported by energy companies of different countries and exported to other states by them. It is impossible for the US to earn success in embargo policy in a short time.
In terms of the influence on the world oil market, the United States, Russia, Iraq and Saudi Arabia produce more than one million tons of oil per month. This factor hinders the sharp increase in energy costs and even reduces it.
"If Iran continues this political course, it will face more serious sanctions. This will also have a negative impact on the country's economy as well as on the material-technological situation," Shokri noted on Iran's foreign policy.
O. Shokri also focused on European-Iranian trade relations: "European states have proposed to buy energy resources from Iran, not in exchange of money, but various material, technical, and humanitarian goods after the US sanctions came into force. But, of course, this did not satisfy the Iranian government. Today, European states are making consistent decisions to halt trade relations with Iran in a consistent manner. I think this tendency will continue because the European states will never change their common interests and partnership with the United States to commercial co-operation with Iran. Of course, this situation will aggravate the situation of Iran"
"During the Clinton, Bush, and Obama era, the main purpose of the United States was the export of energy resources in Caspian and other post-soviet countries without Russian influence. Today, US policy is also focusing on this. That's why we can say that Trump is directly opposed to the North Stream project. But Europe today needs Russian gas. Russia knows this and is trying to make Europe more energy-dependent by preparing new projects like the North Stream to use this stabilization," expert states geopolitical importance of North Stream.
"This situation will drag Eu into a difficult situation. On the one hand, Europe faces US pressure, on the other hand, Russian gas. Azerbaijan's gas is unable to fully meet Europe's energy needs. That's why Germany supports the North Stream project."
The expert thinks that the United States must find an alternative to Russian gas to solve this issue within its interests. "Trump found this alternative. It is the liquefied natural gas from Qatar which is more expensive than Russian gas. The US may force Qatar to export more gas. But I think that Qatar's liquefied natural gas will not be able to hamper a project like the North Stream, and the North Stream will be completed successfully," Omid Shokri said.
Written by Nijat Ismayilov