In the Wall Street Journal last week, Professor Orde Kittrie argued that if several key businesses would stop supplying Iran with refined petroleum, the Islamic Republic’s economy would be crippled. Indeed, this may be the best way to stymie Iran’s nuclear efforts.
Iran is second in oil production among OPEC members, yet it imports 40% of its gasoline because it lacks the expertise to refine crude oil. That is why Kittrie and other analysts, including inFOCUS contributor Gal Luft, posit that the Iranian energy sector may be its Achilles heel.
Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey notes that crippling Iran’s economy could encourage Iranians to protest their regime’s hostile foreign policies. The idea would replicate the June 2007 demonstrations against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s attempted gasoline rations on a grander scale.
For more on energy issues, readers can visit FDD’s Energy Security Project.
