U.S. exempts Japan, ten European nations from Iran sanctions

[Poll_Blind]

From Haaretz:
[div class="excerpt" style="border-left: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0.3077em 0.3077em 0em 0em; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]U.S. exempts Japan, ten European nations from Iran sanctions[div class="excerpt" style="border-left: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0em 0em 0.3077em 0.3077em; background-color: #f4f4f4; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]The United States will spare Japan and 10 European Union nations from U.S. financial sanctions because they have significantly reduced purchases of Iranian crude oil, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.

The decision is a victory for the 11 countries, whose banks need not fear being possibly cut off from the U.S. financial system under new U.S. sanctions designed to pressure Iran over its nuclear program.

The EU nations, which had already decided to cease importing Iranian crude, include Belgium, Britain, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain, a senior U.S. State Department official told reporters.

The list did not, however, include China and India, Iran's top two crude oil importers, nor U.S. allies South Korea and Turkey, which are among the top 10 consumers of Iranian oil.

PB

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. We're going to put financial sanctions on China? That's a good one.

[Poll_Blind]

2. Heh heh, oh I'm sure the President will exempt China and others, too.

IIRC, that law is so draconian the only countries we'd ever apply it to were countries we hated already- and give exemptions to everyone else.

PB

[Monk06]

3. If the US wants to sanction Iran fine but they have no authority under international law to sanction

countries who don't want to go along. No country in the world gets to tell the US who they can trade with. The US just signed a free trade treaty with Colombia, which is nothing but a narco state with large coal reserves owned by Durham Coal of Atlanta who have been accused of financing the assassination of Colombia labor leaders. The US government has no moral or legal authority to dictate it's foreign poicy and trade policies to other nations.

[Poll_Blind]

4. First, I agree. Second, and not directly related, but think about how Russia views our behavior.

I think the way we pull out all the stops over Iran, when it's really unnecessary, is a sign to Russia and many other countries just how complete our desire for control is.

It reminds me of an article I posted recently from Feb 28th of this year:

When Russia looks, from the outside, at the US and Europe...what do they see?

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2012/0228/Putin-US-seeking-absolute-invulnerability
[div class="excerpt" style="border-left: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0.3077em 0.3077em 0em 0em; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]Putin: US seeking 'absolute invulnerability'[div class="excerpt" style="border-left: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-radius: 0em 0em 0.3077em 0.3077em; background-color: #f4f4f4; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]A more world-weary and mistrustful Vladimir Putin appears set to return to Russia's presidency in polls slated for next Sunday. Mr. Putin's hardening suspicions toward the West in general, and the US in particular, are on full display in the latest of the lengthy policy manifestos that have comprised the main substance of his campaign over the past two months.

In this one, a 6,060 word missive published in the state-owned weekly Moskovskiye Novosti yesterday, he lays out a foreign policy vision that suggests a fresh chill in US-Russia relations may follow his return to the Kremlin. Already Moscow is moving to block Western initiatives in the Middle East, drawing a tougher line on US plans to install an anti-missile shield in Europe, and seeking to strengthen ties with the East, especially China.

His main foreign policy concern is that Russia is being encircled by NATO expansion into former Soviet territory and its strategic nuclear deterrent is threatened by US missile defense plans.

"It seems that NATO countries, and especially the United States, have developed a peculiar understanding of security which is fundamentally different from our view," Putin writes. The Americans are obsessed with the idea of securing absolute invulnerability for themselves, which, incidentally, is a utopia, for both technological and geopolitical reasons. But that is exactly where the root of the problem lies…. Absolute invulnerability for one nation would mean absolute vulnerability for everybody else."

PB

[Monk06]

5. Well the PNAC manifesto was quite explicit on that score. With the 'defeat' of the Soviet Union,

which in fact was collapse caused by the forces of internal corruption, was viewed as the opportunity for world domination by US neo cons. The PNAC manifesto states. (I paraphrase), that no country should be allowed to challenge US economic and military supremacy. Going further the manifesto states, no country should be allowed to attempt to gain economic and military parity with the US.

Hence the missile shield in Europe, the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, and the exaggerated claims about Iran's nuclear capabilities.

The US humiliated the Russians by backing the corrupt drunkard Boris Yeltzin. Now they can thank themselves that Russia is in the hands of another oligarch and quasi dictator.