What’s Not to Like About Trump’s Iran Oil Sanctions?

U.S. President Donald Trump must be overjoyed at the impact his sanctions on Iran are having more than a month before they even go into effect. They are crippling exports from the Islamic Republic, at minimal cost to the U.S. Unfortunately, they have yet to succeed in changing the regime’s policies, and are pushing prices back up to levels not seen in more than four years.

Iran’s exports have fallen by 870,000 barrels a day since April, the month before the U.S. pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal. September’s sales look likely to be less than two million barrels a day for a second month running, based on preliminary tanker tracking data. The decline is much steeper than analysts had expected — and exports are likely to fall even further in the five weeks before the curbs take effect.