Iran Focus

London, 28 Sep - At the United Nations this week, Iran President Hassan Rouhani refused to meet with President Trump. It appears that both Rouhani and his European backers are waiting to see if Trump will force the SWIFT financial-messaging service to disconnect Iranian banks in November. Without SWIFT, Europe’s plan to sidestep US sanctions will be more likely not to succeed.

US and European supporters of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), released a think tank report a week before Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal. The report outlined ways in which Europe could evade US sanctions by processing payments to Iran through European central banks. After Trump’s announcement of US withdrawal from the deal, the European Commission announced it would do exactly that.

Iran Focus

London, 26 Sep - Reports indicate that the Iranian currency is continuing to drop in the days following the recent incidents which Iran regime’s officials immediately blamed Saudi Arabia, the United States and the United Arab Emirates for it. A video was posted on social media in which the Iranian regime threatened the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia with missile attacks on their capital cities.

The price of gold has shot right up and the value of the Rial, the national currency of Iran, has dramatically dropped. It has been reported that the dollar has hit the 150,000 Rial mark.

Iran Focus

London, 26 Sep - Oil exports by Iran are declining ahead of the second round of US sanctions that is due to be imposed from November 4, which will likely lead to the Iranian economy contracting by 3% this year and 4% in 2019, according to the Institute of International Finance.

On Tuesday, the IIF, which represents major banks and financial institutions from around the world, said that exports of crude oil and condensates from Iran had dropped by 0.8 million barrels per day (bpd) from April to September 2018, according to their estimates.

Iran Focus

London, 25 Sep - In the coming days, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will hold a meeting in Algiers to assess the current state of the oil market and decide their next steps, with Iran being a major concern due to US sanctions that aim to drive Iran’s oil exports to zero.

The obvious solution is for OPEC to allow its members to increase their production levels to make up for the loss in Iranian oil, but Iran’s oil minister has claimed that he will block any attempt at this.