US blockade strangling Iran’s oil exports as offshore stockpiles dwindle — Wall Street Journal

The US naval blockade on Iran has completely halted new Iranian oil exports from the Persian Gulf, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The report says Iran is currently surviving on floating stockpiles that left before the blockade was reinstated in July, but that this inventory is expected to run out by mid-October, with revenues fully drying up by mid-December.

The loss of foreign currency is squeezing Iran’s economy hard, with a plummeting rial and soaring inflation, the paper says.

“Much will depend on the degree of economic pain that the Iranian regime is willing to bear to achieve its military and geopolitical objectives,” economist Hamad Hussain tells the Journal.

Ellie Geranmayeh, an expert on Iran at the European Council on Foreign Relations, adds: “The US campaign will have a significant effect on the average Iranian household. But in terms of Iran capitulating at the negotiating table? I have a lot of doubts. The evidence we have suggests the Iranian regime is likely to resist.”