Friday, March 1, 2013

Sanctions Smanctions

                                                                                                                                     100,000 rial banknote

Looks like the economic sanctions we put on Iran to "persuade" them to abandon their nuclear ambitions aren't so persuasive after all.  The full force of the sanctions is being blunted by a "loophole" that allows Iran to convert their increasingly worthless money (rials) into euros, which they can then use to more easily conduct foreign financial transactions.

Via:  The Foundry
European Union Loophole Allows Iran to Circumvent Full Force of Sanctions
 By Daniel Kochis
A technical loophole is allowing the theocratic regime in Iran to skirt the full force of economic sanctions meant to compel the country to give up its nuclear ambitions.
A recent letter from a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators to the presidents of the European Council and European Central Bank has shed light on a problem that has given Iran a backdoor way to gain access to foreign currency reserves, which it desperately needs to help stabilize a teetering economy, according to media reports.
At issue is the Iranian use of the European Central Bank’s Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross Settlement Express Transfer System—also known as Target 2. This allows Iran to convert Iranian rials into euros. With euros in hand, Iran has far more latitude to conduct foreign transactions than it otherwise could with their increasingly worthless currency.
The Senators urged the European Central Bank to immediately block Iranian access to Target 2.
The news couldn’t have come at a worse time, as Iran continues to advance its nuclear program and Chuck Hagel takes over at the Pentagon. While the U.S. and European allies hope that economic sanctions will help persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear program, Monday’s revelation casts doubt on the effectiveness of these efforts.  Read more...


11 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. That's the first thing that came into my mind, even before I did the post.

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  2. It's nice to have an administration with a backbone ... huh.

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  3. Yep, Sanctions are worthless. Every rogue nation has a friend who will act as buyer for whatever they want. Minor inconvenience. Especially when you intend to turn another entire country into a 'stinking corpse' and the president of the USA is arming your friends with weapons and money.

    I hope that wasn't too negative.

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  4. This is disgraceful. All our enemies know we have a worthless pouff in the WH, and everything is a joke.
    I hope we can survive the next 4 years.

    Have a great weekend, TCL, I'm hanging in there, and thank you for your continued prayers.

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  5. You can certainly see where the European Central Bank honchos' allegiances lie: certainly not with the United States. The Euro itself was created to compete with the U.S. dollar, and way back in the day this would be considered almost but not quite an act of war to undermine American currency.

    But, it is what it is. Much of Europe, with the exception of Poland and Germany, are not really our rock ribbed allies, not anymore, NATO notwithstanding.

    Sure, they will accept our aircraft carrier groups and military presence to thwart their enemies from eyeballing their national sovereignty, but that's where they draw the line. This pathetic plea by a tiny group of senators to the Central European Bank will fall on deaf ears, trust me on this one, Lady.

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    Replies
    1. It will be interesting to see what happens. Wonder if this story has been reported on TV yet (FNC?)? I haven't heard it yet.

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  6. There is nothing so grand as having "allies" who will sell international nuclear security to try to bolster their failed economic bloc and a president so lame he doesn't even notice and wouldn't care if he did.

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