US ‘hopes’ to avoid secondary sanctions on China over Iranian oil purchases
Mark Pfeifle, a former US national security official, says Washington hopes it will not have to impose secondary sanctions on Chinese buyers of Iranian crude, and is keeping the measure in reserve.
“I think that Trump and his Treasury Department will hold that in their back pocket as something they need to do if it becomes necessary,” he told Al Jazeera.
Pfeifle said that broad measures against Beijing would be diplomatically difficult because the two economies remain intertwined, and that the aim for now was to make China more comfortable buying oil elsewhere.
Chinese refiners have bought sanctioned Iranian crude at a discount, he said, an advantage against their global competitors. He added that Beijing had shown no interest in helping Washington, and was probably assisting Tehran quietly.
“The Chinese are playing the long game. They have no problem seeing the Americans tied up in another international excursion such as this war in Iran,” he said.
Xi Jinping is due in Washington, DC, on September 24 for talks with Trump.
An alternative to Strait of Hormuz already exists off Musandam.
ReplyDeleteOn the Omani side of the Strait, around the Musandam Peninsula, there is a natural channel roughly 484–490 meters wide and about 28.5 meters deep. That is enough for a fully loaded VLCC. Those tankers typically draw 20–22 meters.
This is not some freshly carved American canal. It looks like an old natural passage. No independent evidence has surfaced that the U.S. just dredged it into existence.
If it is formally prepared and cleared for commercial traffic, tankers would have a bypass if the main Strait is blocked or turned into a shooting gallery. IRGC's favorite leverage starts looking a lot thinner.
https://x.com/siaxares/status/2093751960826732977?s=46&t=8K6fzabO3g6uaj4KxwSSjg
ooop… u mfer DON'T understand ocean silting that can constantly happened in that Musandam channel!
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