Wednesday, November 23, 2011

EU to Expand Sanctions Against Iran

The European Union joined the US, Britain and Canada in expanding sanctions against Iran. The EU agreed in principle to sanction some 200 Iranian companies, organizations and individuals for the role in development of the country’s nuclear program. The decision needs to be formally approved by EU foreign ministers during their meeting on 1 December. European companies will be banned from doing business with the listed firms and organizations, while individuals will be subject to asset freezes and visa bans.

The EU action comes a day after the US named Iran as an area of “primary money laundering concern,” a step designed to dissuade non-US banks from dealing with the country. Britain and Canada have also banned all its financial institutions from doing business with Iran.

The expanded sanctions do not target Iran’s oil exports, the country’s driving force of economic activities and growth and its main source of hard currency. The banking sanctions, however, are expected to raise the cost of financial transactions for the country substantially and disrupt the normal flow of commerce, at a time when Iran is facing serious economic and political issues internally.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is it as "serious" as 1930s America? No.

Is it as "serious" as early 1930s Germany? No.

Is it as "serious" as the post-Soviet States? Not even close.

The Islamic Republic of Iran continues to chug along. True, economic warfare applied to it by the West stunts it, economically. But anyone that hasn't been to the country since leaving in 1979 is always awestruck by the outward signs of growth and maturity of the country.

Persicus Maximus said...

I published an article from Guardian on my Blog regarding Irans economy.

I like to invite you to read it.

http://persicus-maximus.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Irrelevant, where there is no business transactions. No sanctions are effective.

Nader Uskowi said...

The relevance of sanctions against the entire banking sector is not so much on direct transactions, or lack of, but on foreign banks reluctant to do transactions with banks designated as part of an area of “primary money laundry concern.” That’s the problem and that’s the issue.

Anonymous said...

We are doing a lot of business with Iran, it comes and goes. These sanctions are to stop certain groups from doing business.

Countries such as Iraq, liberated Egypt and other North African free nations should be aware of relying too much on the west.

They suddenly invent a reason and destroy your business, leave a small path for very limited transactions for themselves.

Join Iran and learn how its done.

Dariush

Steve said...

It will be self defeating to extend sanctions to the banking sector of Iran, as such a move sooner or later will cause a splitting of the international monetary system into "West" and "East".
Adhesion between eastern and western part of the international monetary system is anyway already very weak, as it is relying completely on the (waning) US dollar as its reserve currency.

Anonymous said...

Dariush

"Join Iran and learn how it's done".

Thanks but no thanks for your dead end offer.