OilPrice.com By Simon Watkins
According to senior economic and political sources close to the Iranian government exclusively spoken to by OilPrice.com last week, Tehran is now messaging senior figures in the European Commission in Brussels that it wants to talk about the quick resumption of negotiations in order to reactivate the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) â more widely known as âthe nuclear dealâ. âThe Supreme Leader [Ali Khamenei] himself is behind this new initiative, which is being driven primarily by the increasingly poor state of the countryâs economy,â said one of the senior sources. âThe aim is to get a new version of the JCPOA agreed and the U.S.-enforced sanctions dropped by the end of the current [Iranian calendar] year [ending on 20 March 2022],â he added.
Although Iranâs economy has been boosted in parts by the ongoing 25-year agreement with China, Beijing has been reluctant to be too overt in its direct financial support for Tehran, given the unexpected tough line take by the new U.S. Presidential Administration of Joe Biden. A major U.S. shot across Chinaâs bow came in March from new Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, as he said that the U.S. wanted to discuss its âdeep concerns with actions by China, including Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyber-attacks on the United States, [and] economic coercion towards our allies.â These views were echoed at the June G7 summit in the U.K. with Biden himself engineering an alliance to rival that of Chinaâs âOne Belt, One Roadâ project. As exclusively highlighted by OilPrice.com, this tough line is also due to be taken by the U.S. with China on the matter of tackling the trade imbalance between the two countries…
