April 19, 2016 Sec State Kerry: Proud Of Undermining The Nuclear Deal With Iran When in January the deal about Iran's nuclear program (JCPOA) went into its implementation phase we asked When And How Will The U.S. Infringe On The Iran Deal? I predicted: [T]he U.S. is never short of some subterfuge to to break agreements. Some reason will be found that then will be used to infringe on the nuclear agreement and to implement new measures to hinder Iran's development. That seems to have been correct and the answers to the "When" and "How" of U.S. infringement are now in. On January 16, the implementation day, Secretary of State Kerry said: To get to this point, ladies and gentlemen, Iran has undertaken significant steps that many – and I do mean many – people doubted would ever come to pass. And that should be recognized, even though the full measure of this achievement can only be realized by assuring continued full compliance in the coming years. In return for the steps that Iran has taken, the United States and the EU will immediately lift nuclear-related sanctions, expanding the horizon of opportunity for the Iranian people. And I have even tonight, before coming over here, signed a number of documents over those sanctions that the State Department has jurisdiction over in order to effect that lifting. But four month later Iran can still not access its money that was frozen under sanctions. It can not buy anything significant with it. The U.S. is blackmailing the banks not to release one penny of Iran's money. It did not drain the sanction morass added to it. Indeed the very next day after Kerry's announcement the U.S. raised new sanctions against Iran The White House immediately announced a new set of sanctions against 11 Iranian companies, institutions and individual people because Iran had tested a ballistic missile the previous autumn. Last month came more of the same. This time the Iranians conducted several missile tests over a period of two days. And on March 25 the administration announced another round of sanctions, these once again imposed by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. The U.S. claims that Iran, by testing ballistic missiles, somehow infringes on UN Security Council Resolution 2231. But that resolution only "calls upon Iran", i.e. politely asks, to not test missiles designed to be nuclear capable. There is also a deep logical flaw in the U.S. argumentation: Iran has certifiably dismantled all aspects of its nuclear program that would have made it capable of weaponizing enriched uranium. Nonetheless, say the Americans, we will impose sanctions on Iran for developing missile technology that would make it capable of firing one of the nuclear weapons we have just made certain it cannot build. Besides those new sanction over ballistic missiles the U.S. is doing everything to block any real relief from the old sanctions. As soon as the sanctions over the nuclear program were formally lifted, the U.S. send its bureaucrats out to warn off any bank from doing business with Iran: US Treasury officials, since ‘implementation’ day, have been doing the rounds, warning European banks that the US sanctions on Iran remain in place, and that European banks should not think, even for a second, of tapping the dollar or euro bond markets in order to finance trade with Iran, or to become involved with financing infrastructure projects in Iran. Banks well understand the message: touch Iranian commerce and you will be whacked with a billion dollar fine – against which there is no appeal, no clear legal framework – and no argument countenanced. The banks (understandably) are shying off. Not a single bank or financial lending institution tuned up when President Rouhani visited Paris, to hold meetings with the local business élite. There are some $50-100 billion in Iran owned accounts in banks all over the world. These were frozen under UN sanction against Iran. People opposed to the Iran deal claimed that Iran, should the money be unblocked, would use it for "terrorism" or other nefarious stuff. That is nonsense. "Terrorism" does not cost any significant amount of money. The Twin Towers were blown up for less than a million. Indeed the Obama administration publicly defended the release of the Iranian money. But as soon as the deal was done it started to sabotaged it. The same man that defended the unfreezing of Iran's money against opponents of the deal and who promised the lifting of sanctions, Secretary of State Kerry, is now boasting that this did indeed not happen in any practical way: “Do you remember the debate over how much money Iran was going to get?” Kerry asked the crowd. “Sometimes you heard some of the presidential candidates putting a mistaken figure out of $155 billion. We never thought it would be that. Others thought it would be about a $100 billion because there was supposedly $100 billion that was owed and so forth. We calculated it to be about $55 billion when you really take a hard look at the economy and what is happening. Guess what, folks. You know how much they have received to date as I stand here tonight?” “About three billion,” he told the J Street supporters who lobbied to cement the deal when it went through the Congress, shortly after its contours were agreed upon between the P5+1 world powers in July. Shorter Kerry: "Look, we screwed Iran mightily and we are very proud of it!" The U.S. government expected that the nuclear deal would unfreeze $55 billion of Iranian money. It then sabotaged the deal and is now proud to announce that only $3 billion were actually unfrozen. The New York Times editors want to make you believe that its is Iran's fault that the money is not really unfrozen: The agreement promised an end to sanctions imposed by the United Nations and the European Union in return for a freeze on Iran’s nuclear program. Iran has fulfilled its part; so have the major powers, and businesses are flocking to Iran in search of deals. Technically, Iran is free to export crude oil and access about $50 billion in foreign exchange reserves in foreign banks.

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Before the nuclear deal, Iran was largely isolated from the international banking system. It has not kept up with strict new rules to prevent money-laundering and terrorist financing. Experts say Iranian banks are badly run, politicized and lack transparency — warning signs for risk-averse foreign banks. But this has nothing to do with Iranian banks which are likely much less prone to rob their customers than the big U.S. banks are. Too-big-to-fail U.S. banks, not Iranian banks, crashed the world economy. This has nothing to do with Iranian banks but has all to do with the U.S. blocking any significant money transfer out of and into Iranian accounts. Indeed later on the NYT admits that U.S. restrictions are making any big deals with Iran impossible: There are no restrictions on foreign banks that want to do deals with Iran in euros or other non-dollar currencies. Foreign banks can also do trades in dollars if they can cover the transaction with the dollars they have on hand. In practice, that means smaller deals, because for larger ones, like oil contracts, they would have to access the American financial system, which is off limits. The U.S. officially lifted the sanctions, the $55 billion or so are now officially unfrozen, but only $3 billion of them could be moved because the U.S. blocks any significant money transfer and other commercial deals with Iran. The U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said today that North Korea should learn from the Iran deal and do a similar one. We can be sure that North Korea watches and learns from the Iran deal. There will be no such deal with North Korea as the U.S. is obviously not ever a trustworthy party. Others are watching too. The people of Iran will (again) learn that the more liberal "reformers", like the current President Rouhani, are losers who fall for U.S. trickery each and every time. They will go back to vote for those conservatives who warned of the nuclear deal. Welcome back President Ahmadinejad. Is that what the U.S. really wants? To keep Iran hostile as an ever available "enemy"? The Europeans want to get into business with Iran, so do the Russians and the Chinese. The U.S. is trying to block them all. But this will only create more inducement to shun the U.S. dollar as reserve currency and to move all businesses to financial frameworks that are not under U.S. whim and control That will take some time. But I am sure that this childish flim-flam the Obama administration and the Secretary of State are now so proud of, will come back to bite and will in future impede the role of the U.S. in the world's financial system. Posted by b on April 19, 2016 at 17:52 UTC | Permalink Comments