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Iran says it could use oil as a weapon

The Iranian government and parliament yesterday discussed the next steps to be taken following the UN Security Council sanctions against Tehran, the Khabar news network reported.

In a closed-door session, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki briefed deputies on developments following UN resolution 1737, which imposed sanctions on Iran for defying suspension of its uranium enrichment programs.

No details have yet leaked out from the meeting but Khabar quoted Mottaki as saying after the session that the government would follow all relevant parliamentary decisions.

The parliament had proclaimed on Sunday that it would approve a bill obliging the government to revise, reduce or even end cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Mohammad Saeidi, the deputy of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, however, told Khabar on Monday that all nuclear programs would stay under IAEA supervision.

the oil card

Iran has repeated threats that it was ready to use its massive oil exports as a weapon to defend itself if it felt necessary in an international dispute over its atomic program, the Fars news agency said yesterday.

"If necessary, Iran will use any weapon to defend itself," Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh said.

The Security Council voted unanimously on Saturday to impose sanctions on Iran's trade in sensitive nuclear materials and technology, in an attempt to stop uranium enrichment work that could produce material to be used in bombs.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday that those who backed the UN resolution -- drawn up by Britain, France and Germany but supported unanimously by the Security Council -- would soon regret their "superficial act."

Vaziri-Hamaneh urged European countries to prevent "inappropriate" decisions if they wanted Iranian oil to flow.

Vaziri-Hamaneh has repeatedly said the world's fourth biggest crude producer would prefer not to play the oil card.

oil crisis

Meanwhile, a US researcher said in a report made public on Monday that Iran's nuclear ambitions are motivated not just by a desire for regional supremacy but by a potentially devastating crisis in its oil industry.

Iran's image is of a muscular oil producer with plentiful reserves, but in fact it could soon face its own energy crunch owing to failing infrastructure and lack of investments, Roger Stern of Johns Hopkins University said.

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the professor of geography and environmental engineering said Iran's oil problems have the potential to topple the clerical regime.

Stern said there was no reason to doubt US-led accusations that Iran's drive to develop nuclear energy has more sinister ends in mind -- to entrench the regime in power and fend off US military hegemony in the Gulf.

"But it cannot be inferred from this that all Irani[an] claims must be false," he added.

"The regime's dependence on export revenue suggests that it could need nuclear power as badly as it claims," Stern wrote.

Many of Iran's oil deficiencies are of its own making, he said, noting that generous domestic subsidies for gasoline have meant that Iran's national oil company is unable to make money at home and therefore needs to export as much as it can.
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