U.S. President Barack Obama declared Friday that the world market can get along without Iranian oil, and he approved new sanctions to mount more pressure on the Ahmadinejad regime to halt unsupervised nuclear development. The next day, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Tehran that “it is running out of time” before military action may be taken against Iran.
“I will closely monitor this situation to assure that the market can continue to accommodate a reduction in purchases of petroleum and petroleum products from Iran,” President Obama said. He announced that the United States will fine foreign banks who continue to handle energy transactions for Iran and conduct business in the country.
He has exempted several European Union countries from sanctions because they have reduced their imports of Iranian oil, and other countries have until June 28 to comply with the demands or face sanctions.
China, a major buyer of Iranian oil, has rejected President Obama’s sanctions policy, but Turkey has agreed to reduce imports by 20 percent.
The Chinese side always opposes "one country unilaterally imposing sanctions against another according to domestic law. Furthermore it does not accept the unilateral imposition of those sanctions on a third country,” the Chinese foreign ministry stated Saturday.
Clinton joined the harsh tune of the American government and warned that the chances of a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear knot "will not remain open forever."
She joined with officials from the oil-rich countries of Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in what apparently was a discussion to assure that they would increase oil production to make up for the loss of Iranian oil.
"We're going in with one intention: to resolve the international community's concerns about Iran's nuclear program," she said after the meeting in Saudi Arabia. "Our policy is one of prevention, not containment. We are determined to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon."