So Sanctions on Iran are working?

[TheCommentator]

Apparently sanctions on Iran are working but people say in spring we will witness the cycle start anew.

The challenge for Western leaders is to continue to stay Israel’s hand and ensure sanctions enveloping Iran are tightened even further. Do you agree?

 

[Katzndogz]

The sanctions on Iran are not working, nor have they ever worked. If anything, sanctions have only forced Iran to accelerate their nuclear efforts.

 

[Oddball]

Sanctions never work.

See: Cuba.

 

[Intense]

Sanctions never work.

See: Cuba.

There are no Nukes in Cuba, Silly.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdgcqfds6G0&feature=fvwrel]Russia Installs mobile strategic nuclear missiles in Cuba! 08/11/2012 - YouTube[/ame]

 

[waltky]

Iran Inflation Soars, Rial Loses Half Value...

Iran inflation soars to 24.9 percent
November 7, 2012, Rial loses about 50 percent of its foreign exchange value during October

Iran’s Central Bank says the country’s annual inflation rate hit 24.9 percent in October compared to 24.0 the previous month. The figure, reported by the official IRNA news agency Wednesday, was one of the highest inflation rates since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to office seven years ago.

They add to a bleak economic picture which conservatives are pinning on Ahmadinejad, who they supported in his disputed 2009 re-election.

Iran’s national currency, the rial, lost about 50 percent of its foreign exchange value in less than a week in October, hitting an all-time low of 35,500 versus the dollar. It currently stands at about 32,000, and was close to 10,000 in early 2011. The decline has been blamed on a combination of government mismanagement and sanctions imposed over Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran inflation soars to 24.9 percent | The Times of Israel

See also:

Israel defense minister says Iran has slowed down uranium enrichment push by some 8 months
2012/11/09 – Israel's defense minister said Iran has slowed the timetable for enriching enough uranium to build nuclear weapons, implying that Israel would have more time to decide whether to strike Iran's enrichment facilities.

Ehud Barak's assertion that Iran has "essentially delayed their arrival at the red line by eight months," is in line with the timeframe laid out by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September, when he spoke at the U.N. General Assembly. There, Netanyahu said the world has until next summer at the latest to stop Iran before it can build a nuclear bomb. The West suspects Iran may be aiming toward production of nuclear weapons and has imposed a series of sanctions on the regime.

U.S. lawmakers are currently working on a set of new sanctions that could prevent Iran from doing business with most of the world until it agrees to internationally demanded constraints on its nuclear program. Iran denies it is trying to build a bomb, insisting its program is for peaceful purposes. However, it has restricted access of U.N. inspectors to the country's nuclear sites.

Officials from the U.N. nuclear watchdog — the International Atomic Energy Agency — said Friday they would meet with Iranian officials in Tehran next month in an attempt to restart stalled nuclear talks. It would be the first such meeting since early summer, when talks halted over Iran's reluctance to allow IAEA into sites the agency suspects could have been used in secret work on nuclear weapons.

Israel sees Iran's nuclear program as an existential threat, citing Iranian denials of the Holocaust, its calls for Israel's destruction, its development of missiles capable of striking the Jewish state and its support for anti-Israel militant groups. Barak's comments, made during an interview late Thursday on Israel's Channel 2 TV, appeared to be based on an August report by the IAEA. The report said that Iran has converted much of its higher-level enriched uranium into a powder for a medical research reactor that is difficult to reprocess for weapons production.

Read more: Israel defense minister says Iran has slowed down uranium enrichment push by some 8 months | Fox News

 

[theHawk]

Sanctions worked awesome for North Korea, didn't they?

 

[GoneBezerk]

The dictators in charge don't care at the end of the day when they still have their wealth, whores, etc and everyone else stands in line for stuff....see the USSR.

Costing the average Iranian $3-$5 per gallon more for gas doesn't bother the chimp mouthpiece of Iran, because his ultimate goal is to bring back the 12th Imam with nuclear war.

 

[waltky]

Granny says slap some more sanctions on `em, dat oughta do the trick...

'No power can stop Iran from seeking nuclear weapons'
Sunday, February 17, 2013, Washington: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said his country was not seeking nuclear weapons, but added that if it ever decided to build them, no ‘global power’ could stop it.

Khamenei, whose 2005 edict banning nuclear weapons is regarded as binding in Iran, told a group of visitors to his home in Tehran that his country favoured the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons. He said that they believe that nuclear weapons must be eliminated, adding that ‘they don’t want to build atomic weapons. But if we didn’t believe so and intended to possess nuclear weapons, no power could stop us’, the New York Times reports.

According to the report, American officials have said that they believe Khamenei exercises full control over Iran’s nuclear program. But on Thursday, he rejected direct talks with the United States while it was ‘pointing a gun at Iran’, and on Saturday he elaborated on the issue. He called on the United States to show ‘logic’ while talking to Iran, without further elaborating, the report said.

According to the report, he and other Iranian leaders have often emphasised that before any talks can take place, Western sanctions must be lifted and the West must respect what they say is Iran’s right to a nuclear program monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Khamenei said that this was the only way to interact with the Islamic republic of Iran, and in that case the US administration would receive a proper response from Iran. He pointed to American-devised sanctions, to which a new set of measures was added this month, as the prime example of why negotiations between Iran and the United States would fail, the report said.

According to the report, Iranian oil sales have been reduced by half as a result of the international pressure on Iran, and restrictions on financial transactions and transportation have created many difficulties for Iran’s leaders. Consumer prices have increased, and the national currency has fallen sharply. Still, shops are fully stocked, restaurants are serving customers, and the construction of buildings and roads continues. He said that they naïvely think that the nation has been exhausted by the sanctions and will therefore yearn for negotiations with the US, it added.

`No power can stop Iran from seeking nuclear weapons`

 

[skye]

Obama doesn't want to believe that the sanctions are being broken by various means every step of the way!

In any case Iran has the support of Russia and China and other nations while the sanction business is going on at full speed. Iran and North Korea are close allies and help each other and NK has already developed and effective nuclear weapon.... it could also be said that therefore by transfer Iran already has nuclear weaponry available!

All talks and sanctions are a waste of time. Obama has made the US a toothless tiger and the world will pay the price sooner or later!

 

[waltky]

Iran gettin' sassy before nuclear talks...

Iran announces uranium finds, days before nuclear talks
22 Feb.`13 - Days before resuming talks over its disputed atomic program, Iran said on Saturday it had found significant new deposits of raw uranium and identified sites for 16 more nuclear power stations.

State news agency IRNA quoted a report by the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) which said the reserves were discovered in northern and southern coastal areas and had trebled the amount outlined in previous estimates. There was no independent confirmation. With few uranium mines of its own, Western experts had previously thought that Iran might be close to exhausting its supply of raw uranium.

"We have discovered new sources of uranium in the country and we will put them to use in the near future," Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, head of the AEOI, was quoted as saying at Iran's annual nuclear industry conference. The timing of the announcement suggested Iran, by talking up its reserves and nuclear ambitions, may hope to strengthen its negotiating hand at talks in Kazakhstan on Tuesday with the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.

Diplomats say the six powers, known as the P5+1, are set to offer Iran some relief from international sanctions if it agrees to curb its production of higher-grade enriched uranium. The West says Iran's enrichment of uranium to a fissile purity of 20 percent demonstrates its intent to develop a nuclear weapons capability, an allegation the Islamic republic denies.

FROM MINE TO CENTRIFUGE

See also:

Iran says it has captured a foreign 'enemy drone'
Feb 23,`13 -- Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saturday that it had captured a foreign unmanned aircraft during a military exercise in southern Iran.

Gen. Hamid Sarkheili, a spokesman for the military exercise, said the Guard's electronic warfare unit spotted signals indicating that foreign drones were trying to enter Iranian airspace. Sarkheili said Guard experts took control of one drone's navigation system and brought it down near the city of Sirjan where the military drills began on Saturday. "While probing signals in the area, we spotted foreign and enemy drones which attempted to enter the area of the war game," the official IRNA news agency quoted the general as saying. "We were able to get one enemy drone to land."

Sarkheili did not say whether the drone was American. In Washington, a CIA spokeswoman declined to comment on the report. Iran has claimed to have captured several U.S. drones, including an advanced RQ-170 Sentinel CIA spy drone in December 2011 and at least three ScanEagle aircraft.

State TV said the Guard's military exercise, code-named Great Prophet-8, involved ground forces of the Guard, Iran's most powerful military force. State TV showed tanks and artillery attacking hypothetical enemy positions. He said various systems, including unmanned planes that operate like suicide bombers, were tested. "Reconnaissance as well as suicide drones, which are capable of attacking the hypothetical enemies, were deployed and their operational capabilities were studied," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted him as saying.

Source

 

[blackhawk]

Apparently sanctions on Iran are working but people say in spring we will witness the cycle start anew.

The challenge for Western leaders is to continue to stay Israel’s hand and ensure sanctions enveloping Iran are tightened even further. Do you agree?

What are you basing this claim on? The current leadership is as entrenched as ever it stole the Presidential election a few years back crushed a uprising over that and it's nuke program is moving right along.

 

[Trajan]

Apparently sanctions on Iran are working but people say in spring we will witness the cycle start anew.

The challenge for Western leaders is to continue to stay Israel’s hand and ensure sanctions enveloping Iran are tightened even further. Do you agree?

uhm, not so fast- 20 of irans major trading partners have loopholes created for them ( yes via the obama admin.) to trade with iran you can drive tankers thru them, china trading gold for oil, India curtailed their exports to iran by 11% only... etc.....what you see and hear about now is 30 years of inefficient, oligarchic gov. managing their markets plus, yes sanctions but its not sanctions alone, not even close.

 

[Connery]

Sanctions alone will not achieve the desired goal, however, they are having the desired effect on Iran. If the sanctions did not mean anything they would not be an issue to Iran.

"American officials say they believe that Ayatollah Khamenei exercises full control over Iran’s nuclear program. On Thursday, he rejected direct talks with the United States while it was “pointing a gun at Iran”; on Saturday he elaborated on the issue. He called on the United States to show “logic” while talking to Iran, without further elaborating. He and other Iranian leaders have often emphasized that before any talks can take place, Western sanctions must be lifted"
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/wo...arms.html?_r=0

 

[WethePeopleUS]

I think it is important to elaborate on what the desired effect of sanctions are supposed to be. They are not intended to cripple governments or bring governments to their knees, begging for mercy. They are designed to make life miserable for the citizens of the country to which the sanctions were applied. After the life of the citizens have become more than bearable, they will revolt against the government. The difference between the original purpose of sanctions, and the sanctions that were just imposed by the U.S. against Iran is that they target both the government, as well as the citizens. True there have been sanctions before against Iran, but these are different. Like someone else pointed out there were many loopholes in the sanctions, to where it did not really have the desired effect. However, these new round of sanctions closed a lot of those loopholes, making these particular round of sanction extremely tough for Iran.

My mother's hairdresser is from Iran, and just recently returned from a trip over there. He came back March 15, so this is very recent. He got to talking with my mom, and told her that the new round of sanctions imposed by the U.S., are really hurting everyone in the country, especially the government. He said that nobody in the country will admit it to outsiders, but that everyone in the country is going through really tough times. So the question if the sanctions are really working, I would say yes. Maybe they do not have the effect we wish, which is Iran halting their nuclear ambitions, but it is causing strain on the citizens and the government. The question is, will the citizens rise up against their leaders and demand they stop the nuclear ambitions and deal with the West. I personally donnot forsee that happening.

 

[WethePeopleUS]

And to whoever thinks sanctions against North Korea haven't worked you are sadly mistaken. That is the most isolated country in the world. Take a look at their people. They are in horrible condition (health, literacy, happiness), and that is what sanctions are intended to do. They make life miserable for the citizens so that they force a change in their government. North Korea can't even do a successful rocket launch, and they spend billions of dollars to fail. North Korea has "relations" with China and Russia, but they have no formal diplomatic relations with any country.

 

[waltky]

Wethepeople wrote: And to whoever thinks sanctions against North Korea haven't worked you are sadly mistaken. That is the most isolated country in the world. Take a look at their people. They are in horrible condition...

More than quarter of N Korean youths malnourished: UN
Sun, Mar 17, 2013 - More than a fourth of all North Korean children are stunted from chronic malnutrition, and two-thirds of the country’s 24 million people do not know where their next meal is coming from, the UN said on Friday.

The report illustrates a major domestic challenge for North Korea’s young leader, Kim Jong-un. A team from the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), reporting from North Korea, found that 2.8 million North Koreans “are in need of regular food assistance amidst worrying levels of chronic malnutrition and food insecurity.” It said 4 percent of North Korean children are acutely malnourished. The report did not directly mention North Korea’s recent threats against South Korea, its threat of a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the US or Pyongyang’s claim to have abolished the Korean War armistice as of Monday.

However, the report said humanitarian aid should be neutral and impartial “and must not be contingent on political developments.” The OCHA team also found that much of North Korea’s support structure is crumbling under the third generation of Kim family rule. “Supplies of medicine and equipment are inadequate; water and heating systems need repair and the infrastructure of schools and colleges is deteriorating rapidly,” the report said. With little arable land, harsh weather and chronic shortages of fuel and equipment, North Korea has struggled for decades to feed its 24 million people. Its new leader, who took over in December 2011, has made improving the economy a priority and has pledged to improve North Koreans’ standards of living.

In autumn last year, a UN team visited all nine agricultural provinces of the communist state during the main cereal harvest and estimated that North Korea would need to import 507,000 tonnes of cereals to meet its basic food needs this year. That UN team’s report recommended that North Korean farmers be allowed to sell or barter their surplus food at market, rather than turn their excess over to the state. Such incentives should encourage farmers to boost production, according to the joint report last year from the World Food Program and UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

However, the survey also made clear that the problems that have long kept North Koreans undernourished remain: insufficient and inefficient tractors and chronic shortages of fuel, spare parts and tires necessary to run them. Agriculture is North Korea’s lifeblood, contributing a quarter of the nation’s economy and engaging a third of the population. However, many northern farms rely on ox and manual labor because there are not enough tractors and equipment to go around. Foreign food aid and imports make up for the shortfalls. North Korea also suffered a severe famine in the mid and late 1990s.

More than quarter of N Korean youths malnourished: UN - Taipei Times

 

[WethePeopleUS]

Wethepeople wrote: And to whoever thinks sanctions against North Korea haven't worked you are sadly mistaken. That is the most isolated country in the world. Take a look at their people. They are in horrible condition...

More than quarter of N Korean youths malnourished: UN
Sun, Mar 17, 2013 - More than a fourth of all North Korean children are stunted from chronic malnutrition, and two-thirds of the country’s 24 million people do not know where their next meal is coming from, the UN said on Friday.

The report illustrates a major domestic challenge for North Korea’s young leader, Kim Jong-un. A team from the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), reporting from North Korea, found that 2.8 million North Koreans “are in need of regular food assistance amidst worrying levels of chronic malnutrition and food insecurity.” It said 4 percent of North Korean children are acutely malnourished. The report did not directly mention North Korea’s recent threats against South Korea, its threat of a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the US or Pyongyang’s claim to have abolished the Korean War armistice as of Monday.

However, the report said humanitarian aid should be neutral and impartial “and must not be contingent on political developments.” The OCHA team also found that much of North Korea’s support structure is crumbling under the third generation of Kim family rule. “Supplies of medicine and equipment are inadequate; water and heating systems need repair and the infrastructure of schools and colleges is deteriorating rapidly,” the report said. With little arable land, harsh weather and chronic shortages of fuel and equipment, North Korea has struggled for decades to feed its 24 million people. Its new leader, who took over in December 2011, has made improving the economy a priority and has pledged to improve North Koreans’ standards of living.

In autumn last year, a UN team visited all nine agricultural provinces of the communist state during the main cereal harvest and estimated that North Korea would need to import 507,000 tonnes of cereals to meet its basic food needs this year. That UN team’s report recommended that North Korean farmers be allowed to sell or barter their surplus food at market, rather than turn their excess over to the state. Such incentives should encourage farmers to boost production, according to the joint report last year from the World Food Program and UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

However, the survey also made clear that the problems that have long kept North Koreans undernourished remain: insufficient and inefficient tractors and chronic shortages of fuel, spare parts and tires necessary to run them. Agriculture is North Korea’s lifeblood, contributing a quarter of the nation’s economy and engaging a third of the population. However, many northern farms rely on ox and manual labor because there are not enough tractors and equipment to go around. Foreign food aid and imports make up for the shortfalls. North Korea also suffered a severe famine in the mid and late 1990s.

More than quarter of N Korean youths malnourished: UN - Taipei Times

Thank you for posting that. You just helped me prove my point. The sanctions against that country are working, if you know what sanctions are really intended to do.