UANI Calls on International Community to Reject Iranian Regime's Threats to End Oil Exports, Increase Economic Pressure

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 24, 2012
Contact: Nathan Carleton, press@uani.com
Phone: (212) 554-3296

UANI Calls on International Community to Reject Iranian Regime's Threats to End Oil Exports, Increase Economic Pressure

New York, NY - United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) CEO, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace, issued the following statement today in response to the Iranian regime's threats to stop all of its oil exports if sanctions increase:

The oil markets are no longer subject to the manipulative threats of the Iranian regime. Global oil supply has more than adequately made up for the volatility and decline of Iranian oil sales as Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Libya, and others have met demand. Moreover, speculative traders in the oil markets have long ago factored in the volatility and decrease in Iranian oil sales. Iran's oil exports have already been cut in half in the past year, falling by one-and-a-half million barrels per day, yet oil prices have not gone up as a result. If Iran were to follow through on its threat to stop exporting its oil, the biggest victim would be the regime itself.

The global oil market is fully capable of withstanding a drop or complete loss of Iranian oil. Iran is supplying only 860,000 barrels of the more than 80 million barrels consumed globally every day, and oil prices fell to a three month low yesterday in spite of the regime's threats. The negligible impact of the regime's statements this week on global oil markets, combined with the ongoing collapse of its currency, proves that the regime is losing its tenuous grip on the Iranian economy and the international community was correct in working to curtail Iran's oil exports.

It is now time to make sanctions even stronger, and truly force the regime's hand. We call for a full economic blockade on Iran, in order to isolate it from the rest of the world and force it to choose between having a nuclear weapon or having a functioning economy.

In July, Ambassador Wallace wrote the RealClearWorld.com Op-Ed, "Don't Fear the Iranian Oil Reaper," in which he argued that the world's oil markets could comfortably withstand a loss of Iranian crude.

"The data conclusively shows that the world should not fear the continued reduction - or even the complete removal - of Iranian crude from the global oil market," Wallace wrote. "Global markets have survived shocks of greater magnitude over the past 10 years, including the loss of production from Iraq during the Second Gulf War, Venezuela during the general strike of 2002-03 and Libya during its recent armed conflict."

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