Khamenei Demands Oil Guarantees from Europe

[Marina Schwarz + 1,576]

It was going so well for Iran and now the ayatollah has gone and tried to ruined it by threatening Iran will restart its nuclear program if the EU doesn't give it guarantees it will continue buying crude. I understand the mistrust but come on, they said they will. Because threats have worked so well until now.

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

This tantrum probably won't work out too well for Khamenei.  Guaranteed buyers?  For a fungible commodity?

[Olga Tkachuk + 33]

Oil is indeed fungible - at the same time Iran has recently become a top exporter of crude to France, and supplies a third of Italy's needs. Replacing this most likely means greater reliance on Russia, which the EU is hardly thrilled about either. So if  the concern is that with the escalation of public threats by Khamenei et al. will result in the US not granting sanctions exemptions to Italy/Greece/France/Spain as before, for those countries it is not an unreasonable concern. But Iranian hardliners have a strong hand to play.