Sanctionizing

Or not:

Iran sees no risks to its gasoline imports, an oil official said on Tuesday, a day after France's Total TOTA PA joined the list of Western oil companies stopping sales to Iran due to sanctions.

The head of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company told the oil ministry website SHANA that consumption was declining, helping trim Iran's reliance on gasoline imports.

"Under any conditions we are able to supply the country's gasoline needs and there is no problem in producing or importing gasoline," said Farid Ameri, sharing the optimism of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has dismissed the sanctions threat.

And until it does, sanction will never have a chance to work. If they were going to work at all . . .

Actually, the action by Total will have more of an impact than the government admits. But sanctions have a long way to go. Now if the world were to stop buying Iranian oil . . .