US will try to neutralize roundabout ways to sell Iranian oil – Aram Shahnazaryan  

 
US President Donald Trump has signed an order on maximum pressure on Iran. In particular, Trump intends to drive Iran’s oil exports down to zero. 

Alpha News had a conversation on this topic with Aram Shahnazaryan, editor-in-chief of the Alik daily newspaper. He noted that Donald Trump made this decision back in his first term, which then severely affected both oil exports and the Iranian economy.

“However, Iran already knows how it should act, in other words, Iran has adapted to the sanctions. It led its economy in the direction of minimal dependence on oil exports because, as we know, the cornerstone of Iran’s economy is precisely oil exports. The same thing will happen with this order. The pressure will increase, and Trump will try to reduce Iran’s oil exports to zero. Given the fact that the United States knows approximately how Iran circumvents sanctions, it will try to neutralize these channels as well. Naturally, Iran will try to find other ways.

During Trump’s previous term, Iran lost its main buyers and is now limited mainly to selling oil to China. A very difficult game awaits us soon. We will witness the same scenario, but with slightly different content,” Shahnazaryan said.

He stressed that such threats are Trump’s unique style, and he does the same, for example, with regard to Canada and Mexico.

“Threatening Iran is Trump’s unique style. He does this to Canada and Mexico and tries to do the same to China, even to Russia, even though he has very good personal relations with Putin. And how much he will succeed is still a question. We need to keep a few things in mind. Firstly, Iran has repeatedly stated that its nuclear program is exclusively peaceful, and secondly, in all these years, no solid evidence has been provided that Iran is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. But then the question arises: is it possible to destroy Iran’s nuclear program?

Speaking of this issue, it should be noted that some things may cause this program to slow down, and it may be temporarily stopped. But it is fully localized and based on the capabilities and experience of Iranian scientists, and even if it is suspended at some point, they will restore it. And if we talk about attacks on Iran’s nuclear centers, I should note that they are located in different places and are very well protected, and it will not be easy to strike them,” Shahnazaryan concluded.