This fruitless US confrontation with Iran will backfire

[The Northerner]

The US has come up with a curious strategy for sanctions on Iran that seems designed simultaneously to reward America's strategic rivals China and Russia, to punish its allies and to drive up global oil prices.

Washington expanded sanctions on companies supplying goods or services to the Iranian oil and gas industry. Britain and Canada blocked their financial institutions from doing business with Iran, including its central bank. South Korea announced it was thinking of banning Iranian petrochemical imports, but not crude oil.

On Thursday, the French foreign ministry announced plans for a unilateral ban on oil imports from Iran, before revising its position to support an EU-wide embargo. William Hague, the UK foreign secretary, is said to be "ideologically behind" the French plan.

These latest moves may have been inspired by the apparent success of oil sanctions on Syria, imposed over the brutal crackdown on protesters. Syria has now stopped paying its major foreign operators Shell and Total, and production has fallen.

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