Iran's hurting its international image by threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz

A few weeks back I wrote about Saudi Arabia's decision to walk out a planned meeting between world oil producers because of the non-attendance of sanction relieved Iran who refused to be party to a plan that would see oil production frozen in an effort to abate a supply glut. I stated that Riyadh's bully boy tactics might aid them in the short term but could fracture the alliance of the current membership of OPEC.

In saying this it would also be fair to assess the steadiness with which Iran has integrated itself back into the international community, more particular its relations with the West who lifted sanctions after issues were raised over the activity pertaining to Tehran's nuclear weapon producing capabilities.

Although Tehran's cooperation with the International Energy Agency provided the gate key that opened up its economy to the prospects of benefiting from global trade, indications are that tensions still remain high with crucial players that hold significant political scope to return the Middle Eastern country back into isolation.

Iran's refusal to work with other fellow members of OPEC might not be receiving as much attention as it is for Saudi Arabia, we should not forget that nothing stops the escalation of bad press if a new trend were to emerge that pointed to Tehran becoming a tyrant in terms of geopolitical relations with other countries.

The risk of this happening is increasing as remarks made by General Hossein Salami, a deputy commander in the Revolutionary Guard over the possibility of closing the Strait of Hormuz if the US or any of its allies threatened Iran raised the temperature amongst both nations with the US being instrumental in finding resolve to settle the dispute between the two countries.

Iran threatens to close Strait of Hormuz to U.S. https://t.co/z2BlBgIj9O #SpecialReport pic.twitter.com/cIq3MwcXXo

— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 4, 2016

The first signs of vulnerability over successful reintegration happened when Iranians torched a Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran over the execution of a prominent Shiite priest. While many believe this caused grave consequences between Saudi Arabia and Iran, it further harmed the cooperative nature with which OPEC dependency relies upon to produce the ideal outcome, with Saudi being the defacto leader of the collusive oil body, it needed Tehran's cooperation going forward.

The second political strike against it as mentioned in the paragraphs above suggests that the borderline of pessimism over whether Iran can amend broken ties with the rest of world is drawing closer as skepticism begins to seep through with these latest comments spelling distrust with Tehran's word.  

Being granted sanction relief not only provided the country with potential economic prosperity but also a second chance to improve its standing with the international community who haven't found much in recent years, but it seems as if they're skating on thin ice when you couple this with the recent refusal to accepting a production freeze with other oil producers, it would seem as if Iran is involved in a serious case of cutting its nose off to spite its face.

The agnostic nations that cried down the Obama administration's diplomatic gestures with Iran might be smirking in the evidence for a short while but not for too long as Tehran's certainly won't be taking a backseat to any nation that it finds dispute with especially those it hasn't found a steady path with over the years. Although the critics might have been proven right this time what is certain is that a long standing positive outcome that many had hope would've come from the negotiations might have fallen by the wayside at a very early stage, a disappointing sign of impending pressure on world peace.