It was reported on CNNMoney.com that the Royal Dutch Shell company ceased selling gasoline to the country of Iran sometime in late 2009. The reasons for the halt on sales is unknown, but we can speculate that it has something to do with the possibility of US sanctions on gasoline imports to Iran.
The US senate recently passed a bill allowing Obama to increase sanctions on Iran in response to the country’s developing nuclear program. Iran claims that the reason for its nuclear program is purely for energy, but the threat of Iran developing nuclear weapons is in the back of all our minds for several reasons.
First, the rather undeveloped country of Iran is sitting on one of the largest oil reserves in the world. You can’t honestly tell me that a country that severely limits the amount of technology available to its citizens and has more oil than it can use has a need for nuclear power to survive.
Second, the “elected” president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has repeatedly stated that he wants to blow Israel off of the face of the map. As if that weren’t enough, Iran has purchased technology from North Korea that gives them the ability to accurately hit targets in Europe with missiles, including nuclear missiles if they obtain them. This alone is enough to prove that the first thing Iran will do if/when it obtains nuclear power is to develop nuclear warheads to attack countries it sees as enemies. Although the country of Iran is a republic with an elected president, there is not a lot of confidence in the election because elections are usually landslide victories upwards of 100%, and the votes are counted at unusually (almost impossibly) high speeds. It is more likely than not that the presidential elections are extremely rigged, so the person who wins is simply a puppet president controlled by the Ayatollahs (who truly run the country). It is commonly believed that Iran is one of the largest supporters of terrorism in the world because the country is actually run by extremists with destructive political agendas. Also, the fact that the other powerful party in Iran is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the group believed to be responsible for the development and supplying of Iraq with IEDs (Improvised Explosive Device) to fight against the American military, doesn’t exactly give Iran credibility in developing nuclear power for non-lethal purposes.
Lastly, Iran is actually comprised of Shiite Muslims (Persians) who speak Farsi, not Arabic. Historically, there was a large division of power in the Muslim world between the Shiite and Sunni Muslims, and a large power struggle resulted. The Shiites believed that they should be the preeminent power in the Muslim world, and many of those sentiments exist today.
All signs point to danger for the entire world if Iran is able to obtain nuclear technologies. I believe that Shell is making the right decision to stop supplying Iran with gasoline, and the rest of the world should follow suit.
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The problem for Iran is that while they may have large reserves of petroleum, they do not have the infrastructure or capacity to refine the oil for use. They export most of their oil for refinement and re-import it once it has been refined for use.
ReplyDeleteAlso, while Iran may have ulterior motives for their nuclear program, there is nothing wrong with developing nuclear energy, as defined by the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, which states that every country has the right to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes. Iran is a de facto dictatorship and has some serious social and political problems, but just because they have a large quantity of oil does not mean they aren't entitled to nuclear development.
And while Ahmedinejad is a radical visionary with disdain for the west and hatred of Israel, the truth is that Israel is the country that has nuclear weapons and presents a threat to Iran. Additionally, Iran is sandwiched in between Iraq and Afghanistan, so perhaps they have a right to be concerned about their national security after the invasion of their two neighboring countries.
I'm not condoning Iran's development of nuclear weapons, I can see how they justify it. And I can see how cutting off all of their gasoline supplies might even serve as an incentive to develop even more nuclear facilities. Just something to think about.
To respond to your first point, it may be that Iran does not need nuclear energy to "survive," per se. But it could be that because they have so much oil, they want to use as little of it as possible and hold onto as much as possible in order to sell the most and make as much money as they can. As oil becomes increasingly rare and oil prices rise, having saved and maintained a massive deposit of oil can prove very fruitful further down the line. While it may be that Iran does not need nuclear energy to survive, it is very likely to be extremely profitable for them if they do have it.
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