Stop buying iranian oil or face sanctions will the u. S. Ultimatum stoked tensions in the gulf and does donald trump risk alienating friends and antagonizing god this is its story. Hello and welcome to the program on iran call on old prices are on the rise of the United States announced a new crackdown on irans oil exports aimed at reducing them to zero the iranians say will never happen there again threatening to block the strait of hormuz the worlds lifeline of all from all gulf countries including saudi arabia kuwait and iraq. Around a Million Barrels of iranian oil is shipped through the strait of hormuz every day particularly to china india south korea japan and turkey those cells are in jeopardy as the u. S. Warns it will no longer give sanction waivers to those countries the u. S. Reimpose sanctions on iranian or cells last year after donald trump pulled out of the Iran Nuclear Deal says the iranians are being state sponsors of terrorism and destabilizing the middle east roselyn jordan has the details from washington. The u. S. Says its efforts to impose a worldwide embargo on iranian oil is already working in the last eleven months the trumpet ministration says iran has lost about ten billion dollars in oil revenue all this says washington to punish the han for what it calls the governments quote aligned ways the Top Administration and our allies are determined to sustain and expand the maximum Economic Pressure Campaign against iran to end the regimes destabilizing activity threatening the United States our partners and allies and security in the middle east these demands are not just coming from the United States government and many of our allies and partners they are similar to what we hear from the iranian people themselves the u. S. Imposed Oil Sanctions on iran in may two thousand eighteen after it withdrew from what President Donald Trump called the ineffective Iran Nuclear Deal the u. S. Wanted to cut off irans ability to support hezbollah and who the fighters as well as send aid to governments in syria and venezuela last fall when oil supplies were tight the u. S. Gave several countries permission to wrap up their existing iranian Oil Purchases by no later than may second but now the u. S. Says supplies are plentiful and so the five countries still importing iranian crude china india turkey japan and south korea no longer have a reason to keep buying from terre han to conduct these transactions one almost always nice to participate in the Financial Markets and we intend to enforce the sanctions we dont lay out sanctions that we dont have any intention of encouraging countries to cooperate with analysts say its important to look at the impact sanctions could have on ties between the u. S. And other countries for example how sanctions could derail current chinese american trade talks but analysts say its just as important to consider why the white house considers saudi arabia. In the United Arab Emirates and not other Oil Producing nations key to making the iranian particle work i think that actually feeds into this narrative of this very close relationship that the President Trump has a with the saudi royal family and of course the United States is again this is the president who looks at issues from a transactional standpoint state Department Officials wont say just how soon after may third that the u. S. Will impose sanctions on countries still buying oil from iran but they are adamant they say the only way to get iran to change its behavior is by imposing an embargo and the only way to make certain that the embargo works is to impose sanctions on other countries even if those countries happen to be the u. S. As friends russell and jordan aljazeera the state department. The decision has sent india and japan scrambling to meet their will shortfall china and turkey have condemned the move and iran is a palm and has passed a resolution labeling the u. S. Military as quote terrorists lets bring in our guests from washington d. C. Udolpho franco a republican strategist and former advisor to george w. Bush and senator john mccain in teheran Mohammad Marandi head of the American Studies Graduate Program at the university after her own and from beijing dan wearing a china analyst for the Economist Intelligence units thank you for joining us all lets begin in the states with a dull frank this was a deal that was trumpeted by the Previous Administration it was one backed by the European Union why has this Administration Broken the terms of the deal it was said to be a good deal. Well. First of all you had an excellent report on the issues but let me add a little perspective as to why this is happened and it has you have to go back to our president ial election of two thousand and sixteen i think president who was elected of course as our current president made very clear at that time that the Iranian Nuclear deal was a bad deal and the American People agreed with him and that the deal had to be scrapped that was very clear the president was absolutely committed to ending that deal and then to ramp up pressure on iran so two things from our domestic perspective the president has kept his promise to scrap this deal and to pressure iran hopefully into making a better deal alternately these sanctions are are not only important but theyre really designed to be part of a broader strategy to bring iran actually back to the table to do a deal that from the Republican Point of view and i think the majority American Point of view needed to be we negotiated now secondly the sanctions themselves this is a big story but it should not be a surprising story that has been consistently the policy of the United States and has been as you reported here a timeframe that we would actually as secretary pompei o has said go to zero and that means zero in terms of allowing iranian oil out of iran in a legal fashion and through the Financial Markets and therefore the sanctions were actually imposed last november with a grace period and that grace period ends in may on may second to let number of countries transition to other sources of oil revenue of course italy has done so greece has done so as youve reported taiwan has done so and there are several other countries that have not completed that process. Or now in many ways scrambling to do so so the policy perspective is is i think understood people might disagree with that but the president s view is that the only way to bring. Iran to the table and to really curtail its terrorist activities is by imposing sanctions and having them work and they hash they have been working quite successfully im going to bring in Mohammed Omran dejan just a second from the hair on his body was you both the same question ill start with the dolphin or cindy say why should the iranians trust you they signed a deal they made a deal they had a deal that the International Community said iran has stuck to why should they believe you know why should they believe the us. Well you know thats an excellent question and i think that actually is a very fair question but nothing is etched in stone we have done the same thing with respect to Nuclear Arms Agreements and other arms agreements with the soviets when we believe that the deal has not worked or has not been in the interest and of course the administration has made a case that iran has been actually not living up to the deal that can be debated theres no question about that it is a fair question but the position of the United States and the current position of the president is just because a president a former president made a mistake on behalf of our country that we not be stuck with that deal and the simplest cocoa way to express it and that is if the deal is a bad deal and really there is a will to bring about a peaceful solution to the problem that iran will be willing to renegotiate the deal so that is in essence the american view and its consistent with the president s view which has been putting our interest our National Interests first and this would require a renegotiation of the agreement. In teheran you had a guest he said barack obama the previous u. S. President made a mistake this is a bad deal should iran come back to the negotiating table. Now the obvious that iran will never really go shake the nuclear deal with americans because the United States has no credibility the regime has torn up an agreement that. The Previous Administration signed up to and there is no reason to believe that it will abide by for future commitments so thats out of the question and i think that more importantly though is the fact that the United States being the aggressive regime that it is destroying iraq afghanistan may be starving yemen with the saudis supporting extremists in syria for seven years. This in directly directly and trying to carry out regime and regime change in men is whether there is no incentive really for anyone in iran to negotiate with the United States in fact if you look at the this force of the ministration in tehran you see that the language of president ronnie and our foreign minister dr is that he has changed significantly over the last couple of years with regard to the United States in the past the United States used to or what even western media consider them to be very moderate and now theyre probably more harsh in their language than most other politicians in the country because the United States has basically. Betrayed the International Community by leaving the agreement so but i think the United States is also here miscalculating because iran is not a small country iran is not a weak country run has allies across the region from the himalayas to the mediterranean from the red sea to central asia and iran has a very powerful presence in the Persian Gulf Region so if the americans escalates the iranians will have no option but to escalate as well but in an asymmetrical fashion. But mohammed what the u. S. Is saying is that you may have stood by the letter of the deal but not the spirit that there is much more to be negotiated is there much more to be negotiated in toronto points of you know theres nothing to negotiate because the United States is not abiding by its current to commit by its current commitments how can we negotiate anything else when what weve already negotiated for roughly a decade is to have been thrown out the window well whos to say that in future any agreement hypothetically that is reached will be abided by by the United States in the nuclear deal actually wasnt the americans didnt abide by the nuclear deal either under obama either from day one they began violating it yet the International Atomic Energy Agency has said i think fourteen times now since the deal that the iranians have stuck to the deal. And that they were abided by abided by the deal very carefully and with this is one of the i think advantages of what trump has done. Despite the hardship Economic Hardship that the u. S. Has been trying to impose upon ordinary iranians just like the United States is trying to impose hardship on the venezuelans i saw you i saw you shaking your head in his show the dolphin i just want to bring you in just reply i havent learned in tehran is saying theres nothing left to negotiate. Yeah well theres a lot to negotiate at really dont think were going to go into the details of whats really going on but the iran is actually in the process of developing its capabilities to actually have Nuclear Weapons developed and within probably sixty years they really have the capability of course all is healed that is that is the Nuclear Watchdog suggests the lights. Well theyre not developed gone now but theyre having the infrastructure and the development of the uranium and so forth to actually be able to do so but heres the key to this and Everybody Knows this unfortunately this is why this is an acceptable President Trump is that all this deal did and it did do one thing is buy time for the west which is a period of time hopefully that there would be regime change or this was the promise here or somehow moderation by iran so all weve done is buy time and we know at the end of the time period of this agreement that iran would be in a position to legally and fully develop a Nuclear Weapons but let me just step back for thats our concern but let me just step back to a couple comments that were made in my shaking my head first is you know iran is a sophisticated country when president obama was negotiating this you had a majority of the senate and senate led by senator cotton United States senator saying they were opposed to this to this deal so two things why this is important first of all and they knew this. President obama was in a hurry at the end of his tenure to negotiate a deal to get a deal for a legacy but the United States isnt president obama it is a country we do not have a treaty we had an agreement but not a treaty and the reason we did not have a treaty to do this is because it requires the congress which represents the American People and a bipartisan buy in into the agreement to turn it into a treaty and. This is why and this was no into iran that this was a a flimsy agreement to begin with and one that ultimately would not be binding and had we had a treaty with iran which would have required then Senate Approval which means bipartisan approval democratic and republicans well then that would have been a very different story and President Trump and then you could use the phrase the United States would be behind the treaty so i think thats important and lastly on this to suggest that iran is not behind hamas in terrorism in their region i had to say this is just laughable to most people outside every ron iran is a state that is dedicated to say to supporting state sponsored terrorism throughout not only the region but throughout the world so its irans meddling in syria of course in yemen and in other places the world that is troubling not only the United States but to saudi arabia to the regional allies and therefore why they support quietly these sanctions im going to bring in dan weighing in beijing in just a moment but i do want to follow up on these two with these questions with you from washington and from tehran firstly. Chile this is just about regime change this is about news unlike pump effectively said this is about pushing democracy within iran thats the real reason for this is not. Would hope so and id be candidly i would hope that we have regime change in venezuela were opposing imposing sanctions as well i would hope that we would have resume change in iran these are these are not democracies these are people these are societies which are oppressing people and are promoting terrorism and i would hope and president i mean secretary. Has also said that we should go to the source which which is cuba as well we impose sanctions on south africa and the one nine hundred eighty s. What we are i was in the Reagan Administration i didnt see much opposition to that with that was regime change driven are we going to invade iran no or venezuela i dont believe so as well but were going to apply all the economic pressure. And stand with the venezuelan iranian people are not the iranian government now having run to your response please. Well thank you for finally giving me a moment to respond to. A long mary long monologue. Obviously your guess reminds me of pompei a who just recently said when he was the head of the cia we cheated we live in the stall and thats the american Great American experience or Something Like that which you said just a couple of days ago the United States was lying from the very beginning when it came to iran the Nuclear Program even now the i. A. E. A. Has never provided any evidence that iran was manufacturing a Nuclear Weapon even back then and the iranians despite much opposition inside the country they negotiated the deal to take that excuse away from the americans to show the International Community that the americans are not honest about their dealings with iran and i think that both the fact that trump exited the deal shows that the United States is indeed dishonest and that the United States is not only a bully in our part of the world but it dictates terms to china to russia and the whole of the International Community you do you shall not trade with this country or that country because we say so it is a it is an empire the United States supports apartheid in palestine a regime that even democratic two of the key Democratic Candidates have admitted is racists and yet iran which supports the people who are constantly being bombed in gaza the iranians are supporting the terrorists the United States just like the United States in apartheid south africa they supported apartheid mandela and they and see were terrorists and those and the Apartheid Regime in south africa was a democratic regime thats how the United States works now iran is a dictatorship according to your guess but the United States is allied with saudi arabia this is allied with the United Arab Emirates with mohamed bin sound man to the United States. Is not supporting democracy the United States is opposed to democracy thats why the United States has helped saudi arabia starve the people of yemen let me let us bring in the regional perspective now on our regional reasonal perspective lets bring in dan wearing from beijing whats chinas reactions will this. Well so far the public media has been quite calm theres not a widespread widespread opposition to the u. S. Decision because overall when we think about oil trader with iran iran has been quite important to china its one of the top five Oil Suppliers to china in terms of countries but its not essential so its all export to china account for about seven percent of chinas total oil import its a very difficult to replace but not impossible but in terms of the overall of the broader economic ties i think iran actually take a very important position in chinas global strategy because to start with iran is one of the major destinations for chinese products such as consumer goods tronics machinery and especially cars so iran has been a top car importer from china if you go to a major city in iran and you see Chinese Brands like computer id cherry leaf on theyre all over the place even more so than in china and more importantly what i see is that iran has become a very important ally for chinas belgian Road Initiative which is not particularly well received at this point because there has been this China Sentiment arising globally not just from the u. S. The europe but also from the receiving countries of the p. R. I. Projects so to get china needs all the support you can get from from the rest of the world and iran is one of the most important ally they could get but does this affect the u. S. China relationship or could effect the u. S. China relationship will the the china simply choose its own political strategic needs over the u. S. Is demands. Certainly iran is one important ship but its not the most important factor in the Us China Relationship at this point as we can all see that in the past few weeks the sentiment between the two country has improved because finally it looks as if a trade deal is finally on the table although it might be limited in nature but something will come out and what i think is possibly the u. S. Will use iran as a bargaining chip and might offer china some sort of exception over the oil embargo under certain conditions and china i return cut off or to import more crude oil and say soybean or even pork from the u. S. So eventually it became some sort of deal over a third country and that can very likely to happen we already got so i go i do want to washington d. C. And have on both the same question ill begin with her on whats the next move for iran having miranda is it blocking the straits of hormuz. Well there are many alternatives first of all iran is probably sounding substantially more oil than whats being declared just like when obama imposed sanctions it was stated that iran was exporting a Million Barrels a day but in reality it later turned out to be closer to two million but more importantly is that iran has alternatives remember if you look at the map irans presence and irans allies presence across the region region is substantial but also irans presence in the persian gulf is very substantial and one of the options that iran has and is and that is being discussed now is just like during the war with Saddam Hussein to begin stop and searches in the Persian Gulf Region again and that this would be directed at saudi arabia the United Arab Emirates but kuwait atat of iraq iran they can export import but because mohamed bin solomon said hes going to take the war to run and because of the terrorist attacks that took place and the Iranian Intelligence believes that this all. They have determined that the saudis and them rockies are behind it the iranians believe that they are it would be justified to restock start the stop and searches and that would could be directed at cargo ships as well as tankers that coming go through u. A. E. Or so the port and that while there would still be exports and imports but there could be a decline because of the slowdown of one or two million or three Million Barrels a day from these two countries iran has its options in the iranians know that the United States is definitely not looking for a military conflict so if the americans want to push hard the iranians have many options to push back and i dont think that anyone is going to blame iran because obviously it is trump and his people along with his allies like mohamed bin saddam on who are increasing this confrontation certainly that ladies and gentlemen we are out of time this will be a topic we will come back to i just want to thank you all and thank you to thoughts and you can see the program again any time by visiting a website algeria dot com and to further discussion as well Facebook Page thats facebook dot com forward slash a. J. Inside story and you can also join the conversation on twitter handle is at a. J. 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