U.S. announces sanctions against Iran

[chinthee]

Things are "hotting up" as our British friends say.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration announced sweeping new sanctions against Iran Thursday — the harshest since the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in 1979 — charging anew that Tehran supports terrorism in the Middle East, exports missiles and is engaging in a nuclear build up.

U.S. announces sanctions against Iran - Yahoo! News

[barbaro]

^ Quite ironic, isn't it?

The U.S. overthrows a democratically elected leader over the split of oil profits (Mossadegh), installs a puppet (the Shah), and sells arms to both sides of the middle east conflict for over 4 decades. What's a bit funny is that the U.S. and Iran are currently supporting the same sides in Iraq - the Shiites.



And in actuality, both sides are supporting Hezbollah.

[sabang]

yawwnnnn.

[Spin]

Things are "hotting up

Yes they are, oil price up, gold price up. Dollar on its arse and to go lower when the fed are forced to cut another .5% on 31st.

[raycarey]

sweeping new sanctions against Iran

spare me.

the US has had no relations with iran since 1979....how much iranian money do you think is in the US?


all they're doing is making new deals with russia and the chinese.

and don't forget that the US announced that there wouldn't be any secondary sanctions...so iran is free to keep all their money in any other country's banks and the US won't seek sanctions against that country.

it's toothless at best.

[Hootad Binky]

What's a bit funny is that the U.S. and Iran are currently supporting the same sides in Iraq - the Shiites.

Not all the Shiites, not al Sadr, for instance. The US has been trying to back the beleaguered Sunnis as a way of countering Al Queda, and paying off anyone else not to fight. For the time being.

[barbaro]

What's a bit funny is that the U.S. and Iran are currently supporting the same sides in Iraq - the Shiites.

Not all the Shiites, not al Sadr, for instance. The US has been trying to back the beleaguered Sunnis as a way of countering Al Queda, and paying off anyone else not to fight. For the time being.

True, HB.

Muqtada Al-sadr and his Mahdi Militia are against the Americans. He pulled out of the coalition a few months ago, did he need to be in it in the first place? He's got power.

I stand to be corrected on that. But it still seems the U.S. is backing Al-maliki's Dawa party with SICI, which is Shiite.

The Sunnis will not get the oil revenue, the good positions/jobs, and many will not get to live, if the current government ever can secure things. Which I'm doubtful of them getting complete security.

[Hootad Binky]

The whole saga with Iran really highlights the incompetence of the GWB Administration in terms of missed opportunities for peace or detente.

Right after 911, there was much sympathy for the US in Iran, a moment of silence in the Iranian Parliament and even street protests. Further, Iran gave tacit approval of and did not hinder the US invasion of neighboring Afghanistan.

Not only that, but the Iranian Opposition drafted a proposed reconciliation with Iran that would include it ceasing support of Hezbollah and even recognizing Israel. But it ultimately fell on deaf ears.

[sabang]

One of China's biggest energy companies has signed a $2bn deal to develop a huge oil field in Iran, defying US calls for a trade boycott with Tehran.

Under the deal, China's biggest refiner, Sinopec, will eventually help pump out 185,000 barrels of oil a day from the Yadavar field in southwest Iran...

"We're deeply disappointed and disturbed at the reports [of the deal], and we'll be making this clear to the Chinese authorities," Jessica Simon, a US state department spokeswoman, told reporters in Washington on Monday.

"Major new deals with Iran, particularly ones like these involving investment in oil and gas, really undermine international efforts to pressure the Iranians to comply with obligations already in place under the UN Security Council resolutions," she said.

She did not say whether Washington would review the deal to see if it violates the US-imposed Iran Sanctions Act, which seeks to punish foreign companies that invest more than $20m annually in Iran's energy sector....

Iran is already China's third largest supplier of crude oil...


Beijing, meanwhile, has rejected US demands for new UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, saying that the standoff over Iran's alleged development of atomic weapons requires a diplomatic solution.

Al Jazeera English - Business - China Signs $2Bn Iran Oil Deal

Looking at things geopolitically, the US military occupation of Iraq and propping up of it's government means it will be the prime developer of a vast undeveloped oil field in western Iraq (they'll presumably give the Brit's a slice too). China meanwhile is exploiting the western impasse with respect to Iran to develop future energy resources there.