BICOM

Following the announcement this week by the European Union that its member states will cease imports of Iranian crude oil, Japan said yesterday that it would also consider cutbacks in its purchases of Iranian oil. A report by Reuters news agency also noted that China has cut its purchases of Iranian oil by half this month, and is set to extend its cuts into February. the EU, China and Japan account for about half of the totality of Iranian exports of 2.6 billion barrels of oil per day.

International sanctions, according to Reuters, are also beginning to have a real affect on daily life in Iran, where the rial currency has devalued and people are rushing to convert savings into dollars.  An additional sign that Iran is suffering under the sanctions came with an announcement this week that Tehran was interested in resuming talks on its nuclear programme. Speaking at a joint news conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Teheran had “responded in kind” to “an expression of willingness by the West to resume negotiations” that he had brought.

Despite this conciliatory steps Iran has also continued its sabre-rattling as the country’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that the Revolutionary Guard would hold naval exercises in the strategic Strait of Hormuz in February. The announcement, made on Thursday, came only two days after the Iranian navy completed another set of exercises near the strait, which is the passageway for about one-third of the world’s oil tanker traffic.

Tehran’s naval manoeuvres come alongside threats made by Iran earlier this week to close the Straits of Hormuz.  In this regard, British Defence Secretary Philip Hammons, speaking in Washington DC yesterday, delivered a statement warning Iran that any attempt to close the Strait would be ‘illegal and unsuccessful’, and noted that the joint US and UK naval presence in the Gulf was appreciated by Britain’s ‘regional partners.’