Why It’s Vital to Save the Iran Nuclear Deal

• Why It’s Vital to Save the Iran Nuclear Deal
  by Wang Lei, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/
  For all practical purposes, Iran has been driven to a corner since the United States withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and re-imposed sanctions on the Middle East country. The first phase of sanctions targeting Iran’s non-energy trade went into effect on Aug 6. In the second phase, the Trump administration announced on Friday that it will reimpose sanctions on Iran that were lifted under the historic Iran nuke deal.
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  Because of the US’ withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and subsequent re-imposition of sanctions, the fear of confrontations between Iran and the US, and among Iran, Israel and Saudi Arabia have increased and the situation in the Middle East is worsening.
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  Due to the restrictions on Iran’s oil exports, there has been a shortage of oil supply in the international market. The situation could worsen in the short term because it is difficult for other oil-producing countries to fill supply gap caused by “absence” of one of the world’s largest oil suppliers.
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  Besides, the regional and international orders both could change, as the US sanctions would impede Iran’s risepushing the country toward traditional allies such as Russia and Syria – and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Worse, sectarianism and the zero-sum political game will rise again in the Middle East while multilateralism and security cooperation emphasized in the Iran nuclear deal would suffer.
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  Moreover, saving the Iran nuclear deal is difficult. Even though the US’ requirement of totally blocking Iran’s oil exports cannot be met, countries such as Japan, India and Turkey have reduced oil imports from Iran, and several multinational companies have stopped operations in Iran.
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  Iran still wants to save the nuclear deal, but it expects other countries that signed the deal to “compensate its losses” due to the US sanctions. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has also indicated Iran could stop exporting oil to the whole region in protest against the US sanctions.
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  Other signatories to the Iran nuclear deal can hardly compensate for Iran’s losses due to the US sanctions. True, the European Union is willing to partly compensate for Iran’s losses, but the different stances of EU countries on and the US’ withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal have made it difficult to save the historic deal.
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