Given that Iran, with its currently limited capacity to refine petroleum, is a net oil importer, for the past several years, the notion of banning the Iranian imports of refined petroleum products has been raised every time the IAEA submitted a report on Iran's nuclear program and every time more information came out describing its spectacular progress in missile development and uranium enrichment.
This at a time when oil and natural gas drilling is being stifled, and long-delayed nucleardevelopment is more uncertain than ever in the aftermath of the Japanese Fukushima plant break-downs.