Iran Emerges as Biggest Loser

The Islamic Republic of Iran was confirmed as the biggest loser after a syndicate of international lenders signed $2.6 billion in loans for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, removing the last major obstacle to complete the project.

"This is a big victory for Turkey and a bigger defeat for Iranian diplomacy, which, because of its irrational opposition to the United States, lost all opportunities for the pipeline passing through Iran, a route that all experts and financiers were unanimous in declaring the cheapest and the fastest to achieve," said Fereydoon Khavand, an international economist based in Paris.

"With the Wednesday agreement bringing the necessary funds to the project, the economic viability of which some oil experts had contested, the Islamic Republic has lost all hopes even for future pipelines, as the consortium envisages a second network for transporting the Caspian region's natural gas to the European markets," Khavand pointed out.