Full U.S. Sanctions
The Trump Administration has decided to fully enforce our unilateral sanctions against buying Iranian oil.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States would no longer grant oil waivers to China and India, Iran’s two largest customers. The decision would also end waivers for Japan, South Korea and Turkey, all American allies or partners.The waivers had allowed the five nations to avoid major sanctions against Iranian oil exports that were imposed by the United States last November. Those exceptions will expire on May 2, clearing the way for American economic penalties against all companies or financial institutions that continue to take part in transactions linked to buying Iranian oil.
“We will no longer grant exemptions,” Mr. Pompeo said in Washington. “We’re going to zero. We’re going to zero across the board.”
Of these nations, Japan will obviously comply with our sanctions.
South Korea has been surprisingly resistant on this issue, but I expect them to fold under pressure.
China, the largest importer of Iranian oil, is a different story.
Jason Bordoff, director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University and a former energy adviser to President Barack Obama, said that he doubted China would stop importing Iranian oil — and that will produce awkward choices for the administration.“Iran sanctions are going to be a big challenge for the U.S.-Chinese relationship,” he said. “Chinese imports from Iran have been going up this year, not down. Within the next couple of months, if they are not at zero, the law requires that the U.S. sanction financial institutions in China that facilitate those transactions, and right now that includes the People’s Bank of China.”
I would be surprised if China complies, and that makes things difficult for Washington. Sanctioning the PBOC would interrupt all trade between the U.S. and China.
That seems unlikely. Even Israel and Saudi Arabia combined don't have that much influence.
Turkey also appears to be ready to defy us.
Turkey slammed the U.S. decision to end waivers on Iranian oil sanctions, saying it would not serve regional peace and stability, its foreign minister tweeted on Monday.“We do not accept unilateral sanctions and impositions on how we build our relationship with our neighbors,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Twitter
That makes thing awkward with our NATO ally.
Iraq says it has no choice but to defy our sanctions.
“Iraq has no alternative for importing Iranian gas, if this stops then we will be deprived of 4,000 megawatts of electricity,” spokesman for the Iraqi ministry of electricity Musab Al Mudaris told reporters on the sidelines of an energy forum in Baghdad on Monday.
...
The electricity ministry said it is planning to increase gas imports to from 28 million cubic meters to 35 million in June.
And finally there is India, the second-largest importer of Iranian oil.
The Indian government is studying the implications of the U.S. decision to withdraw waivers it had granted for oil import from Iran, an External Affairs Ministry official said.
“We will make a statement at an appropriate time,” the official said.
...Under the sanctions, India was allowed to import about 300,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), which works out to a little more than nine million barrels per month.
India had reportedly been in talks with the U.S. to extend the waiver for the import of 3,00,000 bpd from Iran, but those talks seem to have failed.
India has actually increased oil imports from Iran by 5% this year, over last year. Which means that India is not prepared to simply stop buying Iranian oil.
Europe has been largely silent about this move so far.
However, they have been screaming about sanctions on Cuba.
Comments
The last time the US decided to get involved...
In Asian Oil it didn't end well. True Story, I was there.
Course before that, Japan we were sanctioning on the Oil, and they aren't likely to bomb Pearl Harbor AGAIN.
Just wondering which of our Targets du Jour is going to fall for it. The nations of the world seem to wising up to it, though, so watch out for "unprovoked attacks".
Seriously, XCOM 2 did us all a favor by showing exactly what the propaganda of a dominating invader would sound like. And shockingly, it sounds very familiar to anybody who's ever tuned into the MSM.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTJgdU77SLc]
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Is there any country that we aren't sanctioning?
Sheesh. You would think that countries that are being told not to buy others products would tell us to take a flying leap. If it's not to protect our 'special' interests it's to punish ones we don't like. Iran sure could use the money to help itself recover from their massive floods.
Pompous Pompeo laughed when he was asked if the sanctions would hurt the Iranian people. He knows damn well that it does. The Never Again' motto isn't worth the paper it's written on. Yemen. Iran. Venezuela. Libya...People are suffering and the only thing this country can do is make it worse.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Good question
I have an even better question: Is there a nation on Earth that America doesn't think it has the veto power over it's political leadership?
Yes, there is one.
The nation of Israel. They have veto power over the US.
Better wotch whatchoo say, pal—or the SPLC will getcha ;-) n/t
"17 users have voted, including you."
thanks, did I just vote myself on to some list now? good times never again
Thanks for this essay gjohnsit. This happened on Good Friday:
Google 'disables' Press TV’s YouTube account without prior warning
I posted when this happened last July, recent headlines say terrorists are there now too:
Sri Lanka planning to settle Iran oil dues with tea
The info fire hose is too bigly for me to "get" what a buddhist terrorist might want from blowing up christian churches. wtf idk pu cia
namaste
given that austerity is indistinguishable from
economic sanctions, i'd have to say we're even sanctioning ourselves.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Precisely
The American people have been placed under sanctions for quite some time because our captured government is using our money to do their donor's bidding. The $7 trillion used on our wars of aggression these last two decades sure could have made our lives better.
Edg is correct about Israel having veto power. People say that European countries are our vassals, but isn't that what we are to Israel? Or it's our 51st state.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Well, it's Trump, not America.
I don't recall any vote on sanctions. Of course, Pelosi will do nothing to stop Trump, just like she did nothing to stop Bush/Cheney.
The worst thing this Congress did was to elect this geriatric washed-up has-been Speaker.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Presidents other than Trump have sanctioned Iran
And I'm not hearing any democrats speaking out against what Trump is doing regarding Iran or Venezuela. Many have signed on to removing Madura from office even though he was legally elected and Guaido didn't even run for president.
I definitely agree with you on Pelosi, but she has been the gatekeeper of keeping the democrats from moving left. Plus she brings in the money.... the good news is that she is close to 80 so her time is limited. Schumer and Hoyer are just as bad as she is.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Hoyer has a primary opponent
and I already donated to her campaign. Schumer we are stuck with until 2022.
Forty or forty five years ago,
When they were holding American hostages. That's been over many years ago. And you can't count Reagan and the Bush's efforts on for Big Oil. They would sanction their grandmother for a "campaign contribution". That leaves Clinton and Obama, also two with tarnished halos, however I'm not aware of them sanctioning Iran and am too uninterested to look it up. Please share any information regarding Clinton/Obama Iran sanctions.
EDIT:
Besides correcting miscellaneous typos, I want to add that I seem to recall a rapprochement under Clinton with the USA paying for the confiscated ships and aircraft confiscated by Jimmy Carter. My memory may be faulty.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Endless War
gives Trump the hard-on he just can't get with Melania. He would just love to use "all the most tremendous nuclear weapons."
Gas went up $0.20/gallon today
How far will it go up? Another $2.00? Though you know the market will be flooded by next fall...
" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "
Russiagate crowd will spin this as deliberately helping Putin
TYT was claiming that there was essentially a three way conspiracy for China to put tariffs on soy beans as retaliation for Trump's tariffs. When this happened, China directed some of the need for imported soy beans to Russia. Ah ha!! See, collusion.
Isn't that the point? A twofer: feed Exxon, feed Bibi
Both ways, it comes out of our pockets. And, yet Americans still put up with it because so many have given up even trying to understand why. We're a defeated, colonized country.
Oil prices going up
helps our frackers as well, many of whom are currently having financial issues, to put it mildly. A two-fer for the dumbed down crowd - bad Iran and good fracked American gas. USA, USA, USA!!!
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
@lizzyh7 The Sinclair
The Sinclair Brodcasting propaganda show "Full Measure" did its big segment on the Texas "oil boom". It's gonna last 100 years! And its gonna let us flex our diplomatic muscles!
" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "
Imperial overreach
Never ends well.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
EU sorta complaining about sanctions but too late
Of course, did not save link to this discussion. But recently a Atlantic Council discussion on Russian sanctions with a EU rep., The EU rep complained that the EU was being hurt by US sanctions on stuff that had nothing to do with them. That the US sanctions were the result of purely US domestic politics for payback with solely related US/Russian claims, and why should the EU suffer for them. The EU rep. said that the US was on the verge of completely destroying aluminium production in the EU with a loss of something like 78,000 jobs. (The main McCarthyite on TOP of course claimed the easing of alum sanctions in this case was a Putin/Trump plot. By the way, the Mueller report has sent TOP into a massive orgasm spasm of every type of conspiracy theory. Man, what co-dependency.)
It's the sanctuary on Russia that has caused aluminum prices
to skyrocket. And this is why congress voted to lift them on Oleg Disaparek who people say was BFFs with Manafort. I just read today something about his connections to people in the Obama administration.
How sad...
Mueller's reputation was raised from being a horrible person during the Bush administration because he lied about Iraq having WMDs. Then he became reborn after he was tasked to go after Trump. "He's a man of honor and integrity'' to he's in Vlad's pocket after he didn't find evidence of Trump's Collusion. This happened with McCain's reputation when he voted against the GOP's plan to dismantle the ACA. Even George Bush's reputation was repaired when he said something mean about Trump. I'd call them fickle, but they haven't wavered on Obama being the best president since FDR.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
Heh
Yeah, and TOP calls us whackjobs.