Iran Updates
On Sunday, tomorrow, the Iranian parliament (the Majlis) will vote on cutting off oil exports to Europe, which currently amount to 450,000 to 600,000 barrels of oil per day, in response to the embargo. They are looking at cutting off oil for five years.
The EU could possibly forgo around half the volume of oil it imports from Iran simply through economic contraction. The expected increase in exports from Libya, as its oil industry recovers from the civil war, may also help fill the gap.
Iran's foreign minister warned Arab neighbors on Thursday not to put themselves in a "dangerous position" by aligning themselves too closely with the United States in the escalating dispute over Tehran's nuclear activity.
The Pentagon is rushing a “mothership” to the Middle East to be used by commando teams as unrest in the region heightens. The U.S. Navy is planning to refit the USS Ponce, an amphibious transport docking ship, which was about to be retired and decommissioned. It will now be modified into an “Afloat Forward Staging Base” and used to support mine-clearance ships, smaller patrol ships and aircraft in the Middle East.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that Tehran is ready to sit down with world powers for talks on its alleged nuclear ambitions as he downplayed the harmful effects of newly imposed sanctions. The other countries who have been involved in "talks" with Iran in the past say that when it comes to talks "Iran is willing to talk about anything but the nuclear issues".