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I agree with Craig Murray that the U.S. is not intending to honour the MoU with Iran. It is incapable of negotiating in good faith. But I disagree with his (or Medhurst's) thesis that the U.S. is in favour of (or at least indifferent to) the closure of the strait of Hormuz. The U.S. is deeply vulnerable to the cascading effects of long-term closure of the strait, and it knows that.
Richard Medhurst's Petrogas-Dollar thesis isn't convincing once you start digging into the details. The best counterarguments I have seen were by Elina Xenophontos in a two-episode video chat with Bettbeat Media. The point isn't that no one in the US polity dreams of utterly dominating the world's oil and gas supplies. Many do. But for a variety of reasons, they cannot achieve that goal.
Now that "maximum violence" has failed, I think the only realistic option for the U.S. is to ensnare Iran into the dollar-dependent (neoliberal) financial architecture, and impose "structural reforms" and "austerity measures". The $300 billion investment plan is the first salvo. A section of the secular elite in Iran is very keen on integrating with the Western bloc, and they will act as the Trojan horse.
Only time will tell if the Western bloc succeeds in hollowing out Iran's power with this manoeuvre.
#Iran #US #USA #America #colonialism #imperialism #capitalism #neoliberalism #PetroDollar #PetroGasDollar