Sort of:
"US issues new sanctions on Iran's state banks; Seeks to push regime to halt nuclear efforts" by Farah Stockman/Boston Globe October 26, 2007
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration yesterday announced tough new sanctions against three of Iran's largest state-owned banks, a move designed to increase pressure on the Iranian government by cutting it off from financial institutions around the world.
[Yeah, we are about peace, but only if you innocent people suffer first -- and even then...
I'm so ashamed! And how can such a country truly be a threat?]
The move - accompanied by sanctions on key branches of Iran's military, nine Iranian companies, and five Iranian officials - sends a strong signal that senior officials in Washington are losing patience with diplomatic efforts at the United Nations to convince Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program.
[We know what that means: AIPAC/Clean Break/PNAC plans]
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday:
"Unfortunately, the Iranian government continues to spurn our offer of open negotiations."
The new sanctions follow a series of increasingly bellicose statements by senior US officials warning that Iran will face serious consequences unless it curbs its nuclear program and ends its alleged support for militants in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Palestinian territories.
Bush administration officials said the sanctions are intended to make it more difficult for Iran to finance its nuclear program and support militant groups by eliminating access to the US financial system, and by extension financial institutions worldwide.
[Why would they still have it at this point, with the demonization and all?]
Although Iranian companies do almost no business in the United States, officials said they believe the sanctions will influence foreign banks and investors to voluntarily sever ties with the Iranian entities to protect their reputations. The United States could use its considerable financial power to punish foreign institutions that continue to do business with the sanctioned entities.
[Yeah, we'll just push our weight around, punish everybody, sigh.
Don't you get sick of this shit, Amurka?]
The announcement sparked fears that the White House could use the moves to justify military action against Iran.
[Now why would the web version censor these next two paragraphs, reader.
No longer an option from Dems, or is it because it is too explosive?]
Yesterday, Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, introduced a bill that would bar President Bush from ordering military strikes on Iran without Congressional approval.
Durbin, in a statement: "If the administration wishes to take any offensive action in Iran, they have to come to the Congress. To do otherwise is not only reckless, but clearly unconstitutional."
And thus, IMPEACHABLE!!!!!!
Why would the Zionist-controlled AmeriKan press want to censor that?
Back to the censored version:
Yesterday's package of sanctions included the long-expected, controversial designation of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a "proliferator" of ballistic missile technology. It also designates the elite Qods Force as a supporter of terrorism for providing weapons and funding to the Taliban and to anti-Israeli militants in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.
[All the FALSE Zionist charges!
Lebanon's are ours (with Saudi help) -- and Israel's.
Palestine and Afghanistan, too!]
The designations bar Americans from any transactions with the Iranian groups and freeze those groups' assets on US soil, a largely symbolic move.
Vali R. Nasr, professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University:
"You are sending a signal that you really don't want to deal with the leadership in this country, that you really want regime change in Iran. This administration is making it difficult for the next administration to conduct diplomacy with Iran."
[No, not really! They are all on board with the AIPAC/Clean Break/PNAC plan]
Paul Pillar, a former CIA analyst who coordinated US intelligence on the Middle East from 2000 to 2005, said the designations were likely to strengthen the hand of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The sanctions, he said, could give the Iranian people the impression that Washington is bent on confronting Iran rather than negotiating.
[Just what "we" want, right?
Certainly is a BIG CUI BONO to Israel, though?]
On Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney delivered a fiery speech warning Iran of "consequences" if it continues down its current path. And at a recent press conference, President Bush said:
"If you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing [Iran] from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."
[Now it's just the knowledge, so that's like all the countries in the rest of the world -- save, what, three islands in the Pacific (for now)?]
Administration officials said the sanctions on banks could have an immediate effect. If foreign financial institutions bow to US influence and cut ties with Bank Melli, Iran's largest bank, it could falter, wreaking havoc on Iran's economy. Bank Mellat and Bank Saderat were also sanctioned.
[But we are about PEACE and HARMONY, huh?
My government makes me sick -- literally]
Matthew Levitt, former deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the Treasury Department:
"No bank wants to engage in the reputational risk involved in dealing with publicly identified pariahs."
A similar designation against Bank Sepah, another Iranian bank, in January, crippled it.
Levitt said the sanctions announced against nine companies affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard will also have a significant impact, as the no-bid contracts between the Iranian government and the companies are believed to be the Guard's main source of revenue. At least one of the companies, Khatam-ol-Anbia Construction Group, has been awarded billions of dollars in contracts to develop Iran's oil and gas fields.
[Hey, the Iranians have NO BID CONTRACTS!!!!
Wonder if HALLIBURTON or KBR were awarded some!!!]
For more than a year, US officials have conducted what they call a "whisper campaign" against Iranian financial institutions, advising more than 40 major international banks about the high risks of doing business with Iran. Yesterday, Stuart Levey, a US Treasury Department undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, told reporters that the majority of Iran's banking system is now under US sanctions.
[Oh, that's nice!
If we are so powerful, why are they such a threat?
More web-cut:]
The Treasury Department also has the power to cut American ties with European and Asian banks if they continue to do business with Iranian entities under US sanctions. But Levy declined to say whether Bush administration oficials would take such action, which coould alienate US allies.
[Now, why would the Zionist War Daily want to take that out?
Doesn't want us to know that actions taken on behalf of Israel will piss off the rest of the world?
Back to the web-censored version]
Yesterday, some analysts questioned why so few of the State Department's arguments against the entities related to Iran's nuclear program. Only one bank was accused of having direct links to Iran's Atomic Energy Organization. Others wondered about the timing of the announcement, which comes just weeks before the UN Security Council is expected to consider another round of multinational sanctions.
[Not about any of that; it's about REGIME CHANGE!!!]
Jon Wolfstahl, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank:
"Why today? Iran has been building missiles for 20 years."
[Good question]
He said the unilateral move will make it harder to convince Russia and China - who hold veto power - to support new UN sanctions.
[Isn't that the point? Then the UN is irrelevant again? Unlike George.]
Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said yesterday that the United States is committed to obtaining a third round of UN sanctions. But he made uncharacteristically blunt statements about Russia's and China's ongoing arms sales to Iran, and noted that China has increased its trade with Iran, even as European countries have curbed trade to send a warning.
Still, analysts warned that sanctions are useful only if they convince Iran to negotiate an end of its uranium enrichment.
Levitt: "Otherwise, we are going to find ourselves in the unenviable position of deciding whether to engage in a military conflict or tolerate a nuclear Iran."
[Well, we TOLERATE a NUCLEAR ISRAEL!!!
We TOLERATE a NUCLEAR INDIA!
We TOLERATE a NUCLEAR PAKISTAN!
And THEIR PROGRAMS are ALL ILLEGAL!!!!
Iran is doing it LEGALLY!!!!!!!
"U.S. Plays Its ‘Unilateral’ Card on Iran Sanctions" by HELENE COOPER
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 — After 18 months in which the administration has touted the virtues of collective action against Iran by the United States and its allies, the sanctions are a major turn toward unilateralism.
The shift represents a tacit acknowledgment that the diplomatic strategy pressed most vigorously by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been ineffective, and it prompted fresh criticism on Thursday from Russia:
President Vladimir V. Putin asked, in a report by Agence France-Presse:
“Why make the situation worse, bring it to a dead end, threaten sanctions or even military action?”
[Hear that, America? You really want to be destroyed fighting Israel's battle!]
The administration clearly hopes to enlist allies around the world in its new, tougher stance — in part because the United States, having maintained its own stiff sanctions against Iran since the Islamic revolution in 1979, does not have much leverage left itself.
[Not that clear to me.
Looks like they are wanting war to me!]
The administration hopes its influence can turn Iran into a political and economic pariah from which more foreign institutions will shy away.
[But we about PEACE!]
Ms. Rice: "[The sanctions will] provide a powerful deterrent to every international bank and company that thinks of doing business with the Iranian government.”
China has increased trade with Iran in the past year. Russian, Indian, European and even Canadian companies continued to do business with many different sectors of the Iranian economy, particularly its all important oil and natural gas industries.
[Yup, USrael against the world!]
Ms. Rice maintained that American officials would continue to work with their European, Russian and Chinese counterparts to come up with a new set of United Nations Security Council sanctions to rein in Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
But she also said she would be willing to “meet with my Iranian counterpart anytime, anywhere,” as long as Iran first suspended its nuclear activities, a longstanding American precondition for such talks.
[Such hot fart mist! Tired of smelling it!]
Thursday’s announcement is still an ambitious attempt to squeeze the upper echelons of the Iranian government, including the Ministry of Defense.
[Yeah, squeeze the Iranians!!! In a PEACEFUL sort of way!]
In Tehran, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, shrugged off Washington’s announcement, saying America’s hostile policies ran counter to international regulations and were “doomed to fail,” the official news agency IRNA reported.
Mr. Hosseini said the United States produced nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and had supported what he called terrorist groups.
[THAT'S RIGHT! I can name some, too!
Chemical Weapons Use: Fallujah
Supporting Terrorists: P.J.A.K.
He called the Bush administration’s accusation that Iran was arming Shiite militias in Iraq “ridiculous.”
Israel, on the other hand, welcomed the announcement.
[What a surprise; that's who it was for!]
Sallai Meridor, Israel’s ambassador to the Washington, called it “a major diplomatic step in the effort to prevent Iran — a global menace and leading sponsor of terrorism — from obtaining nuclear weapons, which threatens international peace and security.”
[No, it is LYING NaZionists like YOU that threaten the peace of the world, shitter!]
Four state-owned Iranian banks, Bank Melli, Bank Mellat, Bank Saderat and Bank Kargoshaee, were also cited as supporters of terrorist groups for their activities in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East."
