This is CBSI on the world. I'm John Bachelor with my colleague and friend Gordon Chang at Gordon

G Chang. The headline in Reuters

Iran's oil trade with China stalls

as Tehran demands higher prices.

Gordon, this is a puzzle.

We welcome Rebecca Grad.

Rebecca is here to help us with this puzzling story.

We were under the impression that China was the big bad wolf and that Iran, poor little

Iran was doing the best it could to move oil out because of the severe sanctions Iran's

under for its bad acting in the region.

And yet this headline suggests otherwise.

We welcome Rebecca Grant, president of

virus independent research, and a visiting fellow of the

Lexington Institute. Gordon, you have a question for Rebecca.

Rebecca, China's been buying elevated volumes of Iranian oil and all of a sudden this happens.

What's occurred?

What's happened is that Iran is a

Iran is a little bit tired of giving China discounts.

Gordon, as you say, the Iranian oil sales to Iran

hit record highs back in October.

And remember, China really is the only one that buys Iranian oil. They do it through a lot of sneaky methods from

trans shipping of cargoes at sea to marking it as going to other locations.

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