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You’ll be battling to keep your economy alive after our sanctions take effect – US to Iran as it prepares to impose the “strongest sanctions in history” on the ancient civilization that used to be called Parsia in Biblical times

You don’t need a soothsayer to tell you Trump and Pompeo mean business. But then Iran is a proud civilization of thousands of years. Will it give in to US demands or will it become another Cuba or Zimbabwe?

One thing is for sure: the price of oil is going higher. That may provide sone respite for oil rich but cash strapped countries like Venezuela. Prince Alwaleed of Saudi Arabia once said the price of oil would never reach $100 again. In a short while, he might be proven wrong.

Israel and Saudi Arabia will certainly gain strategically from a weaker Iran. Alsi these sanctions if eventually imposed, might be the epitaph on one of Obama’s foreign achievements. European countries like Germany, France and Italy have lost billions already and won’t find this amusing.

This is not a military confrontation, so Russia’s leverage is limited. China, which might have provided a counterforce to US economic power moves here are very unlikely to intervene, since they don’t have much to gain geopolitically speaking.