The United States government is preparing more sanctions against Iran, national security adviser John Bolton told Fox Business News, commenting on what the current sanctions have already helped Washington accomplish, and what the ultimate goal is.
“The aim is to drive Iranian oil exports to zero. We’re working with other countries to get alternative supplies for countries that are buying and I think that’s critical over an extended period of time,” Bolton said, adding that this has already hurt the Iranian economy, plunging the country into a recession with the rial depreciating as much as 70 percent against the U.S. dollar.
In fact, the Iranian rial fell from US$0.000024 in early April, as per Google data, to a low of US$0.000020 in early August, only to recover to US$0.000024 as of Monday again. This doubtlessly has a lot to do with emerging shipping data that suggests Iran’s oil exports have not fallen as much as earlier reports based on estimates had it and, most recently, to the news that Washington has granted sanction waivers to eight Iranian oil importing countries.
Despite the waivers, “The aim is to drive Iranian oil exports to zero. We’re working with other countries to get alternative supplies for countries that are buying and I think that’s critical over an extended period of time.”
Yet the hawkish attitude remains intact. “We’re going to have sanctions that even go beyond this. We’re not simply going to be content with the level of sanctions that existed under Obama in 2015 — more are coming,” Bolton told Fox Business News’ Maria Bartiromo, without, however, going into any detail as to the nature of the additional sanctions.
“This is going to cut into Iran’s ability to continue their nuclear program, to finance terrorism and to engage in military activity around the Middle East and I think we’re already seeing that,” the national security adviser said.
Commentary by The Iranian
We’ve said it before and we’re saying it again. This man, national security adviser John Bolton, is absolutely obsessed with hating Iranians. What a miserable life it must be to have your heart so full of hate.
Mood: ?