Kittrie op-ed published in 'Wall Street Journal'

11/13/2008
Kittrie op-ed published in 'Wall Street Journal' 

 Orde Kittrie-head
Orde Felix Kittrie
     Professor Orde Felix Kittrie authored an op-ed piece on Iran in the Nov. 13 Wall Street Journal.
     The column, "How to Put the Squeeze on Iran: Cutting off its gasoline imports may be the only peaceful way to get Tehran to abandon its nuclear weapons program," discusses how President-elect Barack Obama can gain leverage over Iran.
     Kittrie also will discuss the issue on "Worldfocus," a global news broadcast on PBS featuring breaking news and enterprise reporting on the issues transforming countries, cultures and the global economy. It can be seen at 9:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, on digital Channel 8.3, which on the Cox Cable is Channel 88.  
      "Tehran has an economic Achilles' heel - its extraordinarily heavy dependence on imported gasoline," Kittrie writes. "This dependence could be used by the United States to peacefully create decisive leverage over the Islamic Republic."
     Kittrie points out that the United States has significant leverage over the few companies that Iran uses to import its refined gasoline.
     "Halting Iran's gasoline supply could contribute to reaching a tipping point - at which economic pressures and protests convince the regime its illicit nuclear program poses too great a risk to its grip over the Iranian people," Kittrie concludes. "If the federal and key state governments in the U.S. were to make it their goal to achieve a halt by companies selling gasoline to Iran, it could be a game-changer. It may be our best remaining hope for peacefully convincing Iran to desist from developing nuclear weapons."
     Read the entire column here. 
    

 

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