U.S. presses China, Japan, South Korea to trim Iran oil imports

[ellisonz]

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner faces a challenge as he asks those nations to help Washington use sanctions to pressure Tehran over its nuclear program.
By John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times
January 10, 2012
Reporting from Seoul—

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner faces a stiff challenge this week as he tries to convince China, Japan and South Korea to reduce their dependency on Iranian oil and natural gas.

The Obama administration is pressing those countries to help squeeze Iran financially, hoping to compel the Middle Eastern nation to abandon what Washington and allies say is a plan to develop nuclear weapons. China has so far rebuffed the overtures, arguing there should be no link between trade with Iran and its nuclear program. Iran insists its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only.

"Sanctioning is not the correct approach to easing tensions," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.

The U.S. request poses a dilemma for Japan and South Korea, both close allies of Washington but both heavily dependent on imported energy.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-korea-iran-20120110,0,6837664.story

[exboyfil]

1. Let them buy there oil from whoever

just bring our military back to the northern part of the Western Hemisphere.

[madrchsod]

2. well that that`s not going to happen

why did obama even think that anyone would listen to him ? he`s asking leaders of other countries to piss off their citizens for the usa`s hard-on over iran?

sometimes i wonder that planet obama thinks he is on.

[pampango]

3. If, country A buys less oil from Iran and more from, let's say, Canada, Iran will simply

sell its oil to country B. If country B joins the boycott, it will sell to country C, D, etc.

The supply of oil in the world is what it is. Unless you are asking countries to cut back on oil imports altogether (which means sacrifice that no one is talking about), the supply of oil (from Iran or anywhere else) will find buyers because the overall demand for oil has not changed.

[bemildred]

4. Because, let's face it, we don't buy that much Iranian oil.

So the sanctions won't do much unless some of the countries that do buy a lot of Iranian oil go along. Which they won't, because they would have a revolution on their hands if they did.