Iran's resistance stiffens as US pressure grows

Minor incidents in and around the Gulf have failed to trigger a major conflict, but diplomats are struggling to ease tensions

An "evil maturity" of US sanctions has tightened around Iran, according to oil minister Bijan Zanganeh, making conditions worse than during the Iran-Iraq War. The government has limited options on the economic front, but the means to strike back diplomatically and militarily. Prior to the re-imposition of sanctions in November 2018, oil exports were running at about 2.7mn bl/d. April was the last month before the expiry of all US waivers, and Iran exported almost 1.2mn bl of crude and condensate, though some of this was delivered to storage. China took almost half of the total, India another quarter, and Japan, South Korea and Turkey the rest. In May, this was slashed to barely 0.5mn bl/d, v