Sanctions

Most of the world’s experts on international politics agree that a nuclear Iran would cause an imbalance of power in the Middle East and cause other nations like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to develop their own nuclear weapons. Many of these same experts feel this could lead to a nuclear war in the Middle East and quickly spread if Israel were attacked. The West had imposed serious sanctions on Iran to the point where the election in June 2013 brought in a new leader who was supposed to be a moderate. Here is a quote from Obama. We put in place an unprecedented regime of sanctions that has crippled Iran’s economy…And it is precisely because of the international sanctions and the coalition that we were able to build internationally that the Iranian people responded by saying, we need a new direction in how we interact with the international community and how we deal with this sanctions regime. And that’s what brought President Rouhani to power. This new leader was a smooth operator and his talk resulted in the The JPOA, (joint plan of action) between Iran and the west allowed for the reduction in sanctions until November 24th These were major adjustments and limited the sanctions with the promise from Iran that they would cooperate more fully with the West. Now as we approach November 24 the Iranians are asking for additional concessions and some fear that Obama is so concerned about sending in ground troops that he will cave into their demands if they promise to help in the fight against ISIS. Let us hope that the fear of a nuclear Iran is overblown because Obama will try to work with Iran if they will help battle ISIS. For those who are interested, here lists the reduction in sanctions. In the JPOA the U.S. government (USG) has committed to suspend temporarily certain sanctions involving Iran’s purchase and sale of gold and other precious metals, Iran’s export of petrochemical products, Iran’s automotive industry, and certain associated services1 regarding each of the foregoing. The JPOA also includes a commitment to establish financial channels to facilitate Iran’s import of certain humanitarian goods to Iran, payment of medical expenses incurred by Iranians abroad, payments of Iran’s UN obligations, and payments of $400 million in governmental tuition assistance for Iranian students studying abroad. In addition, the JPOA includes a commitment to license certain transactions related to the safety of Iran’s civil aviation industry. Finally, in the JPOA the USG has committed to pause efforts to further reduce Iran’s crude oil exports and to enable Iran to access $4.2 billion in Restricted Funds2 in installments over the course of the six-month period beginning January 20, 2014, and ending July 20, 2014 (the JPOA Period). Unless otherwise noted, these relief measures do not include transactions with persons on the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) List of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (the SDN List)