Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Faces Gas Rationing

Iranian women walk past an anti-aircraft machine gun inside the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, south of Tehran. The Group of Eight foreign ministers will urge Iran this week to accept a proposal for talks on its nuclear drive unless Tehran responds first, a Japanese official has said.

World Tribune: Oil-rich Iran faces gasoline rationing

Iran plans to ration gasoline.

Officials said Iran, hampered by a shortfall in funding, would halt the import of 200,000 barrels per day of gasoline on Sept. 23, 2006. They said no decision has been made on when to begin gasoline rationing.

Despite its status as the fourth largest oil producer in the world, Iran lacks refining capacity to meet the nation’s fuel needs.

The announcement to end gasoline imports â€” most of it from Western Europe â€” stemmed from a decision by parliament to reduce the budget for gasoline imports to $2.5 billion from $4 billion, Middle East Newsline reported.

A key parliamentarian has already dismissed the prospect of rationing in the near term.

“Next week will be time to decide when we start rationing,” Iranian Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh said on June 23.

“Because there is no budget for importing gasoline in the second half of the year, naturally imports will be stopped and gasoline will be supplied by rationing.”

Interesting. A shortage of gasoline will make it hard for the Iranian Army to resist a land invasion by the United States and Allies – should Iran refuse to cease uranium enrichment.

And what would economic sanctions do to Iran? Hardship – even more than what is anticipated.

Does it make sense to the world that the Mullahs and Ahmadinejad would continue to press against the Big 6 Proposal?

NOPE

But, Iran covets nuclear weapons.

Stay tunedâ€¦â€¦