http://www.silverdoctors.com/us-caves-grants-china-6-month-exemption-on-iran-sanctions/
The US Thursday granted China and Singapore 6-month reprieves from financial sanctions over Iranian oil purchases.
Talk about a FUBAR situation and shooting one’s self in the foot.
and.....
http://freebeacon.com/obama-admin-gives-china-sanctions-pass/
US Caves, Grants China 6 Month Exemption on Iran Sanctions
China called the US’ bluff, and the Obama administration folded today rather than play its 3-7 off-suit.
The US Thursday granted China and Singapore 6-month reprieves from financial sanctions over Iranian oil purchases.
The Obama team has now spared all 20 of Iran’s main oil purchasersfrom unilateral trade sanctions by locking the nations out of the SWIFT payment system.
Talk about a FUBAR situation and shooting one’s self in the foot.
Not only were the threats proven to be all hot air, but the threats of financial weapons of mass destruction against Iran’s trade partners have resulted in the BRIC nations developing their own alternative for the SWIFT payment system, and several nations (including India) changing to gold as the payment for Iranian crude rather than dollars.
(Reuters) – The United States gave China a six-month reprieve from Iran financial sanctions on Thursday, avoiding a diplomatic spat with a country whose support it needs to try to quell violence in Syria and rein in Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
With Thursday’s decision to grant exceptions to China, which buys up to a fifth of Iran’s oil exports, and Singapore, which buys Iranian fuel oil, the Obama administration has now spared all 20 of Iran’s major oil buyers from its unilateral sanctions.
The sanctions themselves are designed to pressure Iran to curb its nuclear program, which the West believes aims to develop nuclear weapons but which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes such as generating electricity and medical isotopes.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said both China and Singapore earned the reprieve by cutting imports of Iranian crude and argued the reductions by all 20 countries showed that Iran was paying a high price for its nuclear program.
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http://freebeacon.com/obama-admin-gives-china-sanctions-pass/
OBAMA ADMIN. GIVES CHINA SANCTIONS PASS
Presidents Hu Jintao and Barack Obama / AP
The Obama administration may have granted China an exemption from a tough new round of Iran sanctions that went into effect today based on a fundamental misreading of the country’s motivations, congressional insiders warn.
During a conference call Thursday, senior Obama administration officials touted their success at convincing China to “significantly” reduce its oil imports from Iran. The reduction led the administration to grant China a 180-day exemption from a harsh new Iranian oil embargo meant to go into effect in the coming days.
“China has taken a 25 percent year-to-year reduction between January and May,” a senior administration official stated during the press call, which was conducted on background. “The Chinese have been an important partner. … We’ll continue to work with China.”
But the Communist party’s declining oil imports appear to be the result of a pricing dispute with Iran, rather than a matter of opposition to the Persian regime’s pursuit of nuclear arms.
China, which is the largest importer of Iranian oil, first clashed with Iran in January over the terms of its contract.
Soon after, Chinese imports of Iranian crude oil began to dip, the Wall Street Journalreported.
“Oil exports to China could take a dip this month [January 2012], as China International United Petroleum & Chemicals Co., known as Unipec, continues negotiating over the price of condensate, a light crude that can be used to make premium fuels such as kerosene and naphtha, from Iran’s South Pars field, said the person familiar with Iran’s sales,” WSJ reported.
Imports dropped by 5 percent in January compared with the previous year and dropped sharply through the following months, according to statistics compiled by congressional insiders who have worked on Iran sanctions legislation.
By February, China had reduced its imports by 43 percent and then by 54 percent in March.
As the two countries began to work out their differences, China resumed purchasing Iranian oil: In April imports had decreased by only 24 percent and were down by just 2.3 percent by last month.
One senior congressional aide familiar with Iran sanctions chastised the administration for giving China a free pass.
“Chinese leaders just bested Barack Obama’s State Department,” the source said after the conference call. “With Chinese imports on the rise, Chinese leaders get to say they’re not complying with America’s unilateral policies, keep importing Iranian oil, and can freely do business with the Central Bank of Iran. They get their cake and eat it too.”
The Obama administration maintains that it decided to grant China a pass on its oil embargo based on what it said is a “significant” reduction in crude oil imports.
Administration officials also expressed confidence that China would reduce its Iranian oil imports “for the remainder of 2012,” though current purchasing trends appear to indicate otherwise.
However, the officials admitted during the conference call that China’s main priority might not be stopping Iran’s weapons program, stating that Beijing had reduced imports for a “variety of interests, including its own commercial decisions.”
Ongoing economic sanctions have slowed Iran’s economy: Its oil exports have dropped from 2.5 million barrels to 1.5 million, as European nations begin to get serious about their own Iranian oil embargoes.
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US grants China and Singapore waiver from Iran sanctions
Times of Israel ^ | June 29, 2012 | Ari Ben Goldberg
Times of Israel ^ | June 29, 2012 | Ari Ben Goldberg
Posted on Thu Jun 28 2012 19:42:59 GMT-0400 (EDT) by SJackson
Clinton says the two countries have reduced Iranian oil purchases enough to be granted exemptions; Italy, Japan, Turkey and 15 others already exempt
ASHINGTON — While much of Washington was preoccupied with the US Supreme Court’s ruling on President Obama’s healthcare law on Thursday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton quietly made an important announcement regarding US sanctions on Iran. She said the administration is issuing waivers to China and Singapore that will exempt them from sanctions that go in effect today that would have cut their banks off from the US financial system as punishment for not making significant reductions in their purchases of Iranian oil.
“Today, I have made the determination that two additional countries, China and Singapore, have significantly reduced their volume of crude oil purchases from Iran,” said Secretary Clinton. “As a result, I will report to the Congress that sanctions pursuant to…the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2012 will not apply to their financial institutions for a potentially renewable period of 180 days.”
The move brings to 20 the number of countries deemed by the US as having reduced oil purchases from Tehran in a significant enough way to qualify for the exemption. India, Japan and Turkey have already been granted waivers and another major Iranian oil importer, South Korea, recently declared its intention to completely stop its purchases.
Referring to these countries, Clinton said, “Their cumulative actions are a clear demonstration to Iran’s government that Iran’s continued violation of its international nuclear obligations carries an enormous economic cost.”
Under legislation signed by Obama in December, the US must sanction countries that continue purchasing large quantities of Iranian oil through Iran’s Central Bank by cutting off financial institutions involved in the transactions from the US banking system.
On Sunday, a European oil embargo against Iran, along with a ban on oil tanker insurance, go into effect as the West steps up efforts to thwart Iran’s determination to continue enriching uranium in defiance of UN resolutions.
Analysts say these measures will cost Iran about $4 billion a month and deprive Tehran of 18 percent of its oil sales. They credit Saudi Arabia and other major oil producers for increasing output to keep the markets steady. In fact, prices at the pump have fallen in the US over the past few weeks.
Although US officials say the sanctions are having a devastating effect on Iran’s economy and point to them as the reason Iran was willing to return to talks with the five members of the UN Security Council and Germany, the so-called P5+1, skeptics point out that those talks ended without an agreement.
“At the end of the day, [current sanctions] have not persuaded Tehran to make even the minimum compromises that would be acceptable to the P5+1,” write Patrick Clawson and Mehdi Khalaji of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Expecting the new sanctions alone to spur Iran toward a more favorable position may therefore be unrealistic.”
“The challenge for the P5+1 is to change the perceptions of Iranian leaders — a difficult task given their remarkable ignorance about the outside world, combined with self-confidence and ideological blinders that lead them to believe Iran is the rising power and the West is on the decline. Ultimately, changing this mindset may require a profound shock of some sort, be it remarkably tough sanctions, more-complete political isolation, or military action.”
The next round of talks between Iran and West is scheduled for July 3 in Istanbul — but it is being held at the level of technical experts, rather than the weightier ministerial level. Clinton said that failure by Iran “to take concrete steps toward resolving the nuclear issue” during those meetings “will result in continuing pressure and isolation from the international community.”
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http://www.yalibnan.com/2012/06/25/eu-affirms-iran-oil-embargo-starting-july-1/
EU affirms Iran oil embargo starting July 1
EU governments on Monday formally approved an embargo on Iranian oil to start on July 1, dismissing calls by debt-ridden Greece for possible exemptions to help ease its economic crisis.
They also warned Iran that more pressure could be put in place if it continued to defy international demands for limits on its nuclear program, which they say is geared to developing weapons. The Islamic Republic says its nuclear activity is for electricity production and other peaceful ends only.
“It is important that the Iranian leaders understand the resolve of the countries of the European Union on this,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said.
“We will go on intensifying the economic pressure until the world can be satisfied that Iran’s nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.”
Greece had pushed for a delay in the implementation of the EU ban – originally drafted in January – because it relies heavily on Iranian crude oil to meet its energy needs. Tehran has offered preferential credit terms to debt-stricken Athens.
At a meeting in Luxembourg, EU foreign ministers said that the embargo would go ahead as planned, although they pledged to review its implementation in the future to ensure European governments retain sufficient access to crude.
“There is no change in terms of how we’re going forward on July 1,” EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on the sidelines of the meeting. “The sanctions that have been agreed will be implemented.”
Ashton said European governments hoped diplomacy could resolve the nuclear standoff soon, but they would keep sanctions against Iran under constant review and could crank up pressure.
“My ambition, my real ambition, is to try to resolve this as quickly as possible. We look for what further pressure were are able to do and these discussions continue pretty much consistently, to persuade Iran to come and negotiate with us.”
A new package of financial sanctions by the United States comes into effect later this week.
DIPLOMACY AND SANCTIONS
In the short term, six world powers that negotiate with Iran under Ashton’s leadership want Tehran to stop enriching uranium to a fissile level close to that needed to produce material for nuclear bombs.
But diplomatic efforts to solve the decade-long standoff faltered at a round of talks between Iran and the powers – United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – in Moscow this month, and Israel has renewed threats to attack Iran if it fails to rein in its nuclear work.
International pressure has already inflicted damage to the Iranian economy. The International Energy Agency says its crude exports have fallen by some 40 percent this year.
Europe was a major client for Iranian oil, but under the sanctions regime agreed in January EU governments have stopped signing new contracts for Iranian crude. Available data show deliveries virtually dried up in May and June.
Greece has lobbied other EU governments to allow purchases under previously signed deals after July 1, or to provide Athens with credit guarantees that would help it to buy crude elsewhere. These requests have been rejected, diplomats said.
The British government has also pushed for exemptions on the provision of insurance on Iranian crude, sold to countries outside of Europe, but has dropped such calls in the run-up to the July deadline. The vast majority of the world’s oil tanker insurance is sold by British firms.
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