Power of oil

What explains the softening of Western capitals toward the Islamic Republic? Western leaders realise that UN sanctions, including an oil embargo, are the only effective way to punish Iran for non-compliance with the nuclear NPT. But that step would inevitably lead to increases in petroleum prices and damage Western economies.

A secondary factor is the change in the rotating membership of the 35-strong IAEA Board and India’s position on the issue: Three pro-Western countries that voted with the EU3 and the USA in September were then replaced by Belarus, Cuba and Syria, all of them anti-Western. Also, India, which had voted for the EU3 resolution in September to raise the “yes” tally to 22, was expected to abstain on any new anti-Iranian resolution, thus reducing the pro-Western total to a bare majority of 18 for a vote on referring Teheran to the UN Security Council, hardly a propitious move.

The Statesman