Even during his first term, Trump adhered to policy of bringing Iran’s oil exports to zero – Zhanna Vardanyan

US President Donald Trump reimposed the ‘maximum pressure’ campaign on Iran to drive the country’s oil exports down to zero and stop Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Alpha News spoke with Iranologist Zhanna Vardanyan about this topic.

“Iran has almost always had problems with oil exports. This goes back to even Donald Trump’s first term, when in 2018 he withdrew from the nuclear deal and renewed sanctions against Iran. It was then that Trump introduced a policy of bringing Iran’s oil exports to zero. As a result, Iran lost its main oil buyers, such as Italy, South Korea, and India, and China remained the only main buyer,” the Iranologist said.

According to Vardanyan, Iranians know how to bypass pressure from Trump.

“So, Iran has lost its buyers, and oil exports have significantly decreased. Only recently have these exports begun to gradually increase. In any case, Iranians have already learned to bypass this pressure. For example, Iran exports oil via transit roads. There may be some reduction in exports, but, by and large, significant changes are unlikely to occur, because this situation is not new; Iran has already suffered losses from the consequences of Trump’s previous policy. But as a countermeasure, Iran is coming up with roundabout routes and developing new methods for exporting its oil,” Zhanna Vardanyan concluded.