US policy on Iran
The US administration is in a new wave of diplomatic effort to isolate Iran internationally to impose “crippling” sanction. The reason - not conforming to US demand and proceed with uranium enrichment. Hilary Clinton was in the Middle East to rally support from US allies. She visited Qatar in US Islam Summit designed to improve relationship between US and the Muslim countries. But the matter of sanction on Iran overshadowed the agenda of the conference. She then went to Saudi Arabia to obtain reiterated support from America's one of the important allies of the region. Saudi Arabia seems to be not in favour of sanction. Her counterpart in Saudi Arabia said “ Efforts supported by the US to rid the Middle East of nuclear weapons must apply to Israel,” Russia appears to be in a dilemma and in recent times has changed its position vis a vis Iran's uranium enrichment. It has significant economic ties with Iran. Only, future will say how far Russia will be onboard with the USA. So far the USA has failed to take China on their side. China is the biggest trading partner of Iran and the volume of trade between the two countries is US$ 36.5 billion (China-Iran Chamber of Commerce). Iran is one of the main source of oil for the energy hungry manufacturing giant. If the US is looking for help in sanctioning Iran, it probably shouldn't look to China. Although China is the world's fourth-largest oil producing nation, the country has invested heavily in other oil producing nations, especially in Iran, in order to help feed its growing demand for crude. If China were to fall in line and sanction Iran, it would mean a loss of 10 to 12% of its oil imports, the aborting of some $80 billion in development projects and the sacrifice of hundreds of billions of dollars worth of oil, which the Chinese have locked in futures contracts. Iran's MIT educated Nuclear Chief Dr Ali Akbar Salehi in a recent interview with Al Jazeera told, as a member IAEA and NPT, Iran has the legal right to enrich uranium to higher grade like any other IAEA and NPT member countries. He cautioned Barack Obama not to take wrong steps against Iran. Now it remains to be seen how many countries the US can take onboard to impose sanctions on Iran.
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