Iran’s unprecedented missile and drone strike on Israel is unlikely to prompt dramatic sanctions action on Iran’s oil exports from the Biden administration due to worries about boosting oil prices and angering top buyer China, Reuters quotes analysts as saying.

Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Representative Steve Scalise the No. 2 House Republican, said the administration had made it easier for Iran to sell its oil, generating revenues that were being used to “go fund terrorist activity.”.

The political pressure to punish Iran creates a thorny problem for the administration: how to deter such attacks in future without escalating regional tensions, raising oil prices or antagonising China, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil.

Several regional analysts said they doubted Biden would take significant action to ramp up enforcement of existing US sanctions to choke off Iran’s crude exports, the lifeblood of its economy.

“Even if these bills pass, it’s hard to see the Biden administration going into overdrive, to try to spring into action or enforce existing sanctions or new ones to try to cut or curb (Iranian oil exports) in any meaningful way,” said Scott Modell, a former CIA officer, now CEO of Rapidan Energy Group.

The possible effect on gasoline prices is one reason Biden, a Democrat, may not move strongly to curb Iran’s oil exports. Kimberly Donovan, a sanctions and anti-money laundering expert at the Atlantic Council, said: “I would not expect the administration to tighten enforcement in response to Iran’s missile and drone attacks against Israel over the weekend, mainly for concerns (that) could lead to increases in oil prices.”