Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk 8/6/12: Iran/Syria Sanctions Bring Us Closer To War...

Of course the sanctions have brought us closer to war. What sane person would think differently?
 
Iran's Currency in Free Fall; Ahmadinejad Blames US...
:badgrin:
Iranian currency slides under latest U.S. sanctions
Oct 2, 2012 - He cites 'psychological pressures,' but his critics aren't buying it
Iran’s ailing currency took a steep slide Monday, losing 12 percent against foreign currencies after President Obama on Saturday signed a bill that places the Islamic republic’s central bank under unilateral sanctions. The currency, which economists say was held artificially high for years against the dollar and the euro, has lost about 35 percent of its value since September. Its exchange rate hovered at 16,800 rials to the dollar, marking a record low. The currency was trading at about 10,500 rials to the U.S. dollar in late December 2010. The slide Monday came as Iran tested a domestically produced cruise missile during continuing naval drills near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, sending a message to the West that the country would not tolerate increased sanctions against its profitable oil industry.

But in Tehran, people said they were bleeding money. Currency traders stopped writing exchange rates on the whiteboards propped against their shop windows as residents were trying to buy foreign currency. “I am selling my motorcycle in order to invest it in dollars,” said Mehrdad Allahyari, a computer engineer. “My dream is once to buy a BMW car, but now our leaders are even destroying that.” Although some say that the government, which says it holds a lot of oil dollars, is gaining from the crisis, the slide of the rial is a huge blow to Iran’s leaders, who have been claiming that the sanctions aren’t hurting the country. The currency drop feeds increasing worries that the government is running out of funds.

The Central Bank of Iran had said Sunday that the United States had become the laughingstock of the world after Obama signed the latest round of sanctions aimed at the institution, Iran’s key axis for oil transactions. But Monday afternoon, the bank held an emergency meeting over the sliding rial, the semiofficial Mehr News Agency reported. The rial had already suffered a blow Dec. 20, amid confusion after Iranian statements that, preempting new sanctions, it had suspended all trade with the United Arab Emirates, a major re-exporting partner. Although the decision was revoked, the rial lost 10 percent of its value based on the report. A year earlier, there was a similar reaction when the UAE implemented sanctions. “It is clear that there is lack of cohesion within the government on how to fix this,” said a prominent Iranian economist, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. “The market has lost all confidence in a solution.”

Housing prices have risen 20 percent in the past few weeks, Mehr reported. Private companies and importers say they are in deep trouble. “Prices are changing by the hour, the banks are refusing to pay letters of credit at the official dollar rate. It’s a zoo out there,” one steel trader said. Those with large amounts of rials are scrambling to buy products that will hold their value, sometimes pre-ordering commodities and paying in advance. Other currencies, such as Britain’s pound and the UAE’s dirham, also have greatly appreciated against the rial. Meanwhile, state television’s English-language satellite channel, Press TV, also reported Monday on the launch of another missile, called “Nour,” which it said was an anti-radar missile.

Source
 
Will Iran play the Hormuz Strait card?...
:eusa_eh:
Fears grow Iran will block Hormuz Strait
Oct. 18,`12 (UPI) -- Iran has denied a report it plans to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz with a giant oil spill.
But as Iran's oil exports steadily fall because of U.S.-led sanctions, there is concern that Tehran, its economy crippled, may seek to block the gateway to the Persian Gulf one way or another. "Fears are rising that Iran's leadership, facing increasing domestic unrest over spiraling inflation, has less and less to lose through brinkmanship in the channel now that its own oil income is being squeezed to a trickle," Javier Blas, commodities editor of the Financial Times, observes. "Iran's plummeting oil exports mean that a cornered Tehran could see a confrontation in the strait as less an act of self-immolation and more a calculated gamble." The oil spill threat was reported by the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel Monday, citing unidentified "Western intelligence experts" it said are privy to "top secret information." It said the Iranian operation, codenamed "Murky Water," was intended "to both temporarily block the vital shipping channel and to force a suspension of Western sanctions."

The plan was devised by Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the most powerful military force in Iran, and was now in the hands of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the newsmagazine reported. Closing the narrow, 112-mile waterway, through which one-third of the world's seaborne supplies of oil passes, for more than a few days would trigger global economic disruption and push oil prices through the roof. It would not halt oil supplies from the gulf completely. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the key Arab producers in the region, have in recent month developed pipelines that bypass the strait. These would be able to carry some 40 percent of the 17 million barrels of crude shipped through the strait aboard supertankers every day. That works out at around 6.5 million barrels per day.

Iran, like Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, has no alternative routes and its oil exports would be completely halted if it shuts down Hormuz. The major impact of a closure would be in Asia, now the main market for gulf oil. Japan imports 82 percent of its crude from the gulf, India 63 percent and China 42 percent. In 2011, the United States got only 16 percent of its oil imports from the gulf, down from 24.5 percent in 1990. Qatar's exports of liquefied natural gas, totaling 2 trillion cubic feet a year, would be halted completely. Vital imports, such as food, for all the gulf states, including Iran, would be critically impeded. Iran's oil exports comprise some 90 percent of its earnings. The economic sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic over the last couple of years by the United Nations, the United States and the European Union are aimed are throttling Iran's oil exports, its economic jugular.

Iranian oil production has been slashed from around 3 million bpd in early 2011 to under 1 million bpd in September, the lowest in decades, precipitating the collapse of its currency, the rial. "If exports were to drop much further, the incentives on Iran to shut down the strait would grow, as it would not need to worry so much about its oil flown," the FT's Blas observed. In the last week, the United States and the EU have tightened the sanctions, closing loopholes in existing sanctions and upgrading penalties for those who aid Iran's petroleum, petrochemical, insurance, shipping and financial sectors. The large military force the United States has built up in the gulf region to confront Iran, primarily naval and air assets, has been conducting exercises that focus on keeping the Strait of Hormuz open. The main dangers so far had been identified as sea mines, of which Iran has a large stock, anti-ship missiles, and blocking the U-shaped waterway with sunken ships. It's not clear if anyone thought of a massive oil spill. However, a major exercise, in which a score of other nations participated, to locate and neutralize 29 simulated mines failed to find less than half of them, Western naval sources say. Since Iran is believed to 2,000 advanced Russian and Chinese mines, the prospect of U.S.-led forces being able to contend with the real thing doesn't look good.

Read more: Iran eyes Strait of Hormuz as sanctions bite - UPI.com
 
Granny says dey oughta be slappin' some sanctions on Russia an' China too...

Iran firms that shipped arms to Syria hit with U.N. sanctions
20 Dec.`12 - A U.N. Security Council committee on Thursday imposed sanctions on two Iranian firms that violated a U.N. arms embargo on Tehran by shipping weapons to the Syrian government.
The move was welcomed by the United States. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said in a statement that the two firms blacklisted by the Iran sanctions committee were "significantly involved in Iranian arms smuggling, including smuggling to Syria." "These companies - Yas Air and SAD Import Export Company - were responsible for shipping ammunition, assault rifles, machine guns, mortar shells and other arms from Iran to Syria," she said. "The committee's decision underscores the growing international concern over Iran's use of the transportation and shipping sectors as a means to export arms and conduct other illicit activities in violation of U.N. sanctions," Rice said.

A U.N. panel of experts that monitors compliance with the Iran sanctions regime had recommended earlier this year that the sanctions committee add cargo airline Yas Air, SAD Import Export Company, and one other firm to the U.N. blacklist. The Security Council has imposed four rounds of sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt its nuclear enrichment program, which the United States, European Union and their allies suspect is at the heart of a weapons program. Iran rejects the allegation and refuses to halt what it says is a peaceful energy program.

Among the punitive measures Iran was hit with was a ban on arms exports. The Security Council has not banned arms sales to Syria, which means countries like Russia can theoretically continue supplying the government there with weapons as it struggles to suppress a 21-month-long uprising by rebels seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

http://news.yahoo.com/iran-firms-shipped-arms-syria-hit-u-n-225434791.html
 
Yeah, they've been itching to get us involved with more Wars. And we are now involved. We're funding & arming the 'Rebels' in Syria. It's very sad that American Citizens have absolutely no say in such interventions. Freedom & Liberty are rapidly slipping away in this Country. Can this course be reversed? I don't know. I just don't know.
 
Last edited:
Granny wonderin' how come Ron Paul ain't askin', "Where'd the money go?...
:confused:
The Syrian crisis: Where's U.S. aid going?
Thu January 24, 2013 - The U.S. ambassador to Syria says the U.S. has provided $210 million in humanitarian aid; The assistance has to be discrete, he said, to protect workers from being targeted; Washington has also provided $35 million worth of assistance to Syria's political opposition; Ambassador: We can help, but it's up to Syrians to find their way forward
It has been more than a year since the United States government withdrew its ambassador to Syria and closed its embassy in Damascus. On Thursday, that ambassador returned to the region along with a U.S. delegation, touring a Syrian refugee camp in Turkey to bring more attention to the growing humanitarian crisis. As the civil war has intensified in Syria, hundreds of thousands of people have sought refuge in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and other neighboring countries. Ambassador Robert Ford gave an exclusive interview to CNN's Ivan Watson and described what the U.S. is doing to help the refugees and the Syrian opposition.

Ivan Watson: The U.S. has given $210 million in aid (to Syria), but I think that there is a perception problem because no one can actually point at what that help is. So people conclude there is no help.

Robert Ford: The assistance is going in. It's things like tents, it's things like blankets, it's things like medical equipment, but it doesn't come in big boxes with an American flag on it because we don't want the people who are delivering it to be targeted by the Syrian regime. The regime is going after and killing people who are delivering supplies. You see them bombing even bakeries and bread lines. So we're doing that, in part, to be discrete. The needs are gigantic. So even though a great deal of American materials and other countries' materials are arriving, the needs are still greater. And that's why we're going to Kuwait to talk to the United Nations and to talk to other countries about how we can talk together to provide additional assistance.

MORE
 
Granny wonderin' how come Ron Paul ain't askin', "Where'd the money go?...
:confused:
The Syrian crisis: Where's U.S. aid going?
Thu January 24, 2013 - The U.S. ambassador to Syria says the U.S. has provided $210 million in humanitarian aid; The assistance has to be discrete, he said, to protect workers from being targeted; Washington has also provided $35 million worth of assistance to Syria's political opposition; Ambassador: We can help, but it's up to Syrians to find their way forward
It has been more than a year since the United States government withdrew its ambassador to Syria and closed its embassy in Damascus. On Thursday, that ambassador returned to the region along with a U.S. delegation, touring a Syrian refugee camp in Turkey to bring more attention to the growing humanitarian crisis. As the civil war has intensified in Syria, hundreds of thousands of people have sought refuge in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and other neighboring countries. Ambassador Robert Ford gave an exclusive interview to CNN's Ivan Watson and described what the U.S. is doing to help the refugees and the Syrian opposition.

Ivan Watson: The U.S. has given $210 million in aid (to Syria), but I think that there is a perception problem because no one can actually point at what that help is. So people conclude there is no help.

Robert Ford: The assistance is going in. It's things like tents, it's things like blankets, it's things like medical equipment, but it doesn't come in big boxes with an American flag on it because we don't want the people who are delivering it to be targeted by the Syrian regime. The regime is going after and killing people who are delivering supplies. You see them bombing even bakeries and bread lines. So we're doing that, in part, to be discrete. The needs are gigantic. So even though a great deal of American materials and other countries' materials are arriving, the needs are still greater. And that's why we're going to Kuwait to talk to the United Nations and to talk to other countries about how we can talk together to provide additional assistance.

MORE

He asked that question for many many years. But now he's retired. So it's up to others to ask these questions now. His son is asking, but not too many others are. And that is very sad. But it is what it is i guess.
 
Granny says bomb `em both...
:cool:
Attack on Syria considered attack on Iran: official
Sun, Jan 27, 2013 - ASSERTIVE: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad received a boost yesterday from Iran, who said that it regards Syria as playing a key role in ‘promoting resistance’
Iran would consider any attack on Syria an attack on itself, a senior government official was quoted as saying yesterday, in one of Tehran’s most assertive defenses of its ally yet. Iran is a key supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is fighting an almost two-year-long revolt. Tehran has already repeatedly warned the West against intervening in the conflict against al-Assad. “Syria has a very basic and key role in the region for promoting firm policies of resistance ... For this reason an attack on Syria would be considered an attack on Iran and Iran’s allies,” said Ali Akbar Velayati, an aide to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to the Mehr news agency.

Tehran sees Damascus as part of an axis of opposition to Israeli and Western influence in the Middle East. Meanwhile, Syrian rebels freed more than 100 inmates as they battled against regime troops in a major prison outside the northwestern city of Idlib yesterday, a watchdog said. At least 10 rebels were killed on Friday in clashes inside the prison, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. “The rebels have been able to free more than 100 prisoners since fighting broke out on Friday, but they have not gained control of the prison,” the Britain-based Observatory’s director Rami Abdel Rahman said by telephone.

Videos posted online by activists showed rebels inside the penitentiary, which is located at the western entrance of the provincial capital. The city remains under regime control, but Idlib Province is mostly opposition-held. Dozens of prisoners were shown escaping to an outdoor area of the prison, protected by rebels, as gunfire and explosions were heard in the background. One man collapsed, bleeding profusely, and others were seen struggling to carry him along with them.

Attack on Syria considered attack on Iran: official - Taipei Times
 
Easing Syrian sanctions so civilians can get necessities...
:cool:
U.S. looks to help Syrian civilians, eases sanctions
June 12th, 2013 > As the Obama administration debates further help for besieged Syrian opposition fighters, it is moving to aid Syrian civilians in opposition-controlled areas in rebuilding shattered towns and villages.
U.S. officials announced Wednesday they are easing economic sanctions on Syria, allowing the importation of equipment and technology into liberated areas of Syria. The steps are being coordinated through the Departments of State, Commerce, and Treasury. Secretary of State John Kerry signed a limited waiver of the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003 that authorizes the export , subject to case-by-case review, of certain U.S. items. They include commodities, software, and technology related to water supply and sanitation; agricultural production and food processing; power generation; oil and gas production; construction and engineering; transportation; and educational infrastructure.

Companies can apply to the Department of Commerce for licenses to provide those materials. Current sanctions allow the export of food and medicine without a license and medical devices are covered under an existing waiver. The Treasury Department also will allow Americans to apply for specific licenses that would enable them to participate in certain economic activities in Syria such as oil-related transactions that benefit the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, or its supporters, and transactions involving Syria's agricultural and telecommunications sectors

Treasury also is amending its regulations to authorize the export of services and transfer of funds in support of not-for-profit activities to preserve Syria's cultural heritage sites. A senior administration official, who briefed reporters on the waivers, said the action is aimed at addressing specific concerns that have come in as well as "because we expect there to be more and more need and more and more demand for these kinds of goods and services going forward." The official said the waiver does not affect existing regulations related to providing arms to the Syrian opposition.

Kerry, speaking with reporters at the State Department Wednesday after meeting with British Foreign Secretary William Hague, said he had "no new announcements" on any potential decision by President Barack Obama to arm the Syrian opposition. "I think that there's a unanimity about the importance of trying to find way to peace, not a way to war," he said. " "The Assad regime is making that very difficult. We will be, as everybody knows and has written about, we're meeting to talk about the various balances in this issue right now. I have nothing to announce about that at this point," Kerry said. "But clearly the choice of weapons that (Syrian President Bashar al-Assad) is engaged in across the board challenge anybody's values and standards of human behavior and we're going have to make judgments for ourselves about how we can help the opposition to be able to deal with that," he said.

U.S. looks to help Syrian civilians, eases sanctions ? CNN Security Clearance - CNN.com Blogs
 
Easing Syrian sanctions so civilians can get necessities...
:cool:
U.S. looks to help Syrian civilians, eases sanctions
June 12th, 2013 > As the Obama administration debates further help for besieged Syrian opposition fighters, it is moving to aid Syrian civilians in opposition-controlled areas in rebuilding shattered towns and villages.
U.S. officials announced Wednesday they are easing economic sanctions on Syria, allowing the importation of equipment and technology into liberated areas of Syria. The steps are being coordinated through the Departments of State, Commerce, and Treasury. Secretary of State John Kerry signed a limited waiver of the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003 that authorizes the export , subject to case-by-case review, of certain U.S. items. They include commodities, software, and technology related to water supply and sanitation; agricultural production and food processing; power generation; oil and gas production; construction and engineering; transportation; and educational infrastructure.

Companies can apply to the Department of Commerce for licenses to provide those materials. Current sanctions allow the export of food and medicine without a license and medical devices are covered under an existing waiver. The Treasury Department also will allow Americans to apply for specific licenses that would enable them to participate in certain economic activities in Syria such as oil-related transactions that benefit the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, or its supporters, and transactions involving Syria's agricultural and telecommunications sectors

Treasury also is amending its regulations to authorize the export of services and transfer of funds in support of not-for-profit activities to preserve Syria's cultural heritage sites. A senior administration official, who briefed reporters on the waivers, said the action is aimed at addressing specific concerns that have come in as well as "because we expect there to be more and more need and more and more demand for these kinds of goods and services going forward." The official said the waiver does not affect existing regulations related to providing arms to the Syrian opposition.

Kerry, speaking with reporters at the State Department Wednesday after meeting with British Foreign Secretary William Hague, said he had "no new announcements" on any potential decision by President Barack Obama to arm the Syrian opposition. "I think that there's a unanimity about the importance of trying to find way to peace, not a way to war," he said. " "The Assad regime is making that very difficult. We will be, as everybody knows and has written about, we're meeting to talk about the various balances in this issue right now. I have nothing to announce about that at this point," Kerry said. "But clearly the choice of weapons that (Syrian President Bashar al-Assad) is engaged in across the board challenge anybody's values and standards of human behavior and we're going have to make judgments for ourselves about how we can help the opposition to be able to deal with that," he said.

U.S. looks to help Syrian civilians, eases sanctions ? CNN Security Clearance - CNN.com Blogs

And War is still likely.

Im not sure the sanctions are what's pushing us closer to war.
 

New Topics

Forum List

Back
Top