Iran-Russia recent energy deals testify inefficiency of US-led sanctions

The Iran-Russia energy deal is the second significant economic collaboration under negotiation between the two countries that could undercut the efficacy of the sanctions on Iran, the US media said. The Obama administration’s strategy of punishing Russia with economic sanctions over the Ukraine crisis encountered a new complication on Monday with word that the Russians are negotiating an $8 billion to $10 billion energy deal with Iran, another country ostracized by American-led sanctions, which partly depend on Moscow’s cooperation to be effective, the New York Times said in a report. Officials at the United States Treasury Department, which enforces economic sanctions against Iran, did not immediately respond to queries about whether the Russia-Iran energy deal would technically violate those sanctions, which prohibit dealings with a range of Iranian government entities and industries and penalize foreigners who subvert them. On Sunday, National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Chief Roknoddin Javadi announced that Tehran is engaged in serious negotiations with Moscow to launch a South-North reverse oil swap project. "At present, we are engaged in negotiations with the Russian side (on reverse crude swap)," Javadi told FNA in Tehran on Sunday. "The negotiations are continued seriously but the time for the start of the swap operation has not been finalized yet," he said. Russia is in talks with Iran to set up a reverse swap formula to convey its Southern oil to the Caspian Sea, so that the Russian tankers would be able to take it to nearby oil terminals. Iran imports oil from the Central Asian countries to be refined at Tehran and Tabriz oil refineries before delivery to potential buyers in the Persian Gulf. Iran had swap deals with Central Asian countries, but it was halted in August 2010.