Soon There Will Be No More Iranian Pistachios in the U.S.

Thursday evening, Jan. 29, the United States Senate adopted a bill permitting the American president to sanction Iranian oil imports in order to obligate Tehran to conform to international requirements regarding its nuclear program. The text was approved by “unanimous consent,” a majority of senators not having shown opposition during an oral vote.

The new sanctions aim to disrupt the oil supply of the Islamic Republic, which, despite being one of the top petroleum producers in the world, imports 40 percent of its oil due to insufficient refinement capacities. The bill must still be combined with that of the House of Representatives, which already adopted its own version in December, before sending it to President Obama for publication.

Prohibition on the Import of Rugs, Caviar and Pistachios

Among the measures put forth, the Senate’s proposal forbids the importation of Iranian rugs, pistachios and caviar. The potential for existing sanctions on foreign companies who have investments of greater than 20 million dollars in the Iranian energy sector grew to a handful of financial institutions, to their subsidiaries and to insurance companies. The text implicitly aims at the primary foreign providers of refined oil, including the Swiss “Vitol” and “Glencore,” the Dutch-Swiss “Trafigura,” the French “Total,” “British Petroleum,” as well as the Indian “Reliance.”

At the same time, the Senate insists on the human rights question. The text contains a resolution asking the American president to put pressure on the Iranian government to respect the individual liberties of its citizens. The text from the House plans to forbid an oil society to benefit from contracts with the American energy department as part of the strategic reserve supply if it sells oil products of more than one million dollars to Iran.

The strategic reserves of American oil aim to protect the United States from emergency situations linked to potential disruptions in the supply. Iran has for months refused an offer from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to have its uranium enriched abroad. The international community suspects Tehran of developing its military strength under guise of a civil nuclear program.