Iran Oil Cut off Suicidal
Iran's nuclear standoff with the United States, Europe, and other nations has led to considerable speculation of $100-per-barrel oil and $4-per-gallon gasoline in the US. Such high prices might kick off a worldwide energy crisis and recession.
The West already suspects that Iran's uranium enrichment program is a cover for bombmaking. To try to put a stop to it, the United Nations Security Council could impose sanctions, or even riskier, the US or Israel might attempt to knock out Iran's nuclear facilities with an air or missile strike.
In retaliation, Iran could act against its own best economic interests and slash oil exports. Last September, the head of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards warned that "any sanction against Iran" could push the price of oil to $100 a barrel.
"It would be easy to see oil trading at $100 a barrel," says Milton Ezrati, an economist with Lord Abbett, a mutual-fund company in Jersey City, N.J. But if oil traders view the action by Iran as merely a short-lived "diplomatic stunt," he says, oil would rapidly head back toward today's $62 a barrel price.
Mr. Ezrati warns that a long-term action would cause energy prices to soar. That would set back the incipient recoveries in Europe and Japan and seriously slow the US economy as well.
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U.S. and Russia attempting to Resolve "Issues"
The United States is working with Russia at the United Nations Security Council on Iran and is hopeful that some of the "tactical" differences may be resolved through the negotiations.
There was agreement in the international community on what Iran should do but there were some "tactical issues" that need to be resolved on how best this is going to be achieved, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on the Fox News on Sunday.
"The Iranians are defying the world's will and the international community has to speak with one voice. We and the Russians and the Europeans and others have the same view that was expressed in the Board of Governor's Resolution on February 4 of the International Atomic Energy Agency -- that is that Iran needs to suspend its enrichment activities and return to negotiations," Rice said to a question as to whether US is ready to step up the pressure on Moscow over Iran.
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The Final Victory will be Iran's
"All these threats and intimidations by the West against Iran's nuclear programme will not hinder the final victory to be that of the Iranian nation," said Ahmadinejad. 'Our local experts will eventually put nuclear technology to the disposal of the Iranian people and we will even demand compensation (from the West) for the loss of the last two and a half years."
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