With the rhetoric heating up in the run up to the first of two nuclear deadlines, Iran is moving ahead with the more critical of its oil and gas sector plans now, rather than wait on foreign involvement which may never come.

When Hassan Rohani was elected as Iran’s president in 2013, he took office with a mandate to pursue a foreign policy of moderation aimed at ending a decade-long standoff with the west over Iran’s nuclear program, and with it, Western sanctions that brought the Iranian economy to a near standstill. (CONTINUED - 1888 WORDS)