PoliticsIran: Sanctions & Oil: With a new nuke test, Iran scoffs at Western oil sanctions

Christian Science Monitor began publishing a 3-page selection of its top stories, and you can receive it free for a month, to try it out and to decide if you want to obtain a paid subscription. I'm dutifully trying it out. The top story of the first issue issue received, a kind of sampler, I guess, is not current news "Iran tests powerful missile: launch determins claims of peaceful intention" (Dec17,2k9) by CSM reporter Scott Peterson. So, I'm not all that impressed, yet there's sometihing uncanny about the article, it's déjà-vu quality. Here it is after more than a year.

ISTANBUL, TURKEY – 
Iran test-fired the latest version

of its longest-range missile on Wednesday,

sending a message of defiance as pressure

mounts on Tehran over its nuclear program.

The test came a day after the US House of

Representatives overwhelmingly approved

tougher sanctions legislation against Iran.

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          Iran state TV showed the green-painted 
          Sajjil-2 missile launching from a desert pad.
          Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi said 
          the two-stage missile served as a 
          “strong deterrent” against attack. But a very 
          different message was received in 
          Washington: 


          “At a time when the international community 
           has offered Iran opportunities to begin to 
           build trust and confidence, Iran’s missile tests 
           only undermine claims of peaceful intentions,” 
           said a White House spolesman. 

Analysts and politicians took the Iranian   

launch of the solid-fuel 

           Sajjil-2 missile with a 1,200-mile range – 

which can reach all of the Middle East and 

parts of Europe – as the latest twist in the 

strategic standoff between Iran and the West, 

especially over its nuclear ambitions.

In a countermeasure the US House voted

overwhelmingly on Tuesday to give President

Obama the power to block companies from

providing Iran with critical refined petroleum 

products, and from improving Iran’s

ability to produce its own. The measure has 

yet to pass the Senate. Iranian officials said 

any new sanctionswould have little impact. 

“They cannot succeed,” a senior official of the 

state National Iranian Oil Company told 

Reuters. “We have a long list of suppliers of 

gasoline.”

Though Iran is the world’s fifth-largest oil

exporter, it has invested little to expand its

small refining capacity and imports 40 percent

of its gasoline.

The article doesn't mention Iran's current presidency
of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries 
(OPEC), a  position it hasn't held in the last 36 
years. 


On another matter, Iran wayz in as a leading polluter.
HuffPuff  aka Huttington Post (Nov23,2k10) "Iran air
 pollution severity warrants holiday in Tehran."


-- Politicarp