Photo Gallery Boycotts and Embargos
Four decades after the 1973 oil shock, Iran and the West are once again embracing oil as a weapon. Tehran is threatening to block the Strait of Hormuz, while the industrialized countries are considering a boycott of Iranian oil. Here, an Iraqi oil terminal in the Persian Gulf.
A satellite image of the Persian Gulf. About a third of all the crude oil shipped worldwide passes through the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. With its threat to block the Strait of Hormuz, Iran is responding to the United States' decision to impose sanctions on financial institutions that deal with Iran's central bank.
Ahmadinejad waves as he walks next to Venezuela's Vice-President Elias Jaua (R) during a visit to Caracas on January 8. The oil weapon used by consumer countries -- the imposition of sanctions to bring 'rogue states' to reason -- has weaknesses. The West has tried this six times in the last 20 years alone. The examples of Iraq, Nigeria, Sudan and Libya demonstrate how difficult it is to enforce oil sanctions, and how easy it is to circumvent them.
An Iranian short-range Nasr missile is launched on the last day of Iranian navy war games near the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran on January 2. For a full 10 days, from Christmas Eve until after the beginning of the new year, the Iranian navy held nautical maneuvers in an area traversed by the most important route in the international oil business.
An Iranian navy vessel fires a Mehrab missile during the "Velayat-90" wargames in the Strait of Hormuz on January 1. Iranian Vice President Mohamed Reza Rahimi warned that if the West imposed further sanctions against Iranian oil exports, Tehran would not allow "a drop of oil" to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
A member of the Iranian military taking part in the wargames. Countries like South Korea and Japan, both of which buy about 10 percent of their crude oil from Iran, would find it difficult to replace their imports at short notice. Turkey, which obtains 30 percent of its oil from Iran, doesn't want to alienate its neighbor. India, which covers about 12 percent of its oil requirements with Iranian imports, maintains very close relations with Tehran. And China has criticized Washington's sanction plans as presumptuous.
An image taken from a broadcast on December 29, 2011 on the Iranian state English news television channel Press TV allegedly shows a US aircraft carrier which Iran claims went "inside the maneuver zone" where Iranian ships were conducting wargames in the Gulf. The oil weapon has proven to be an ineffective instrument in the past, for both producers and consumers.
