Israel, US praise EU embargo of Iranian oil

[Pleepleus]

Some good news from Brussels.

Israel welcomed the EU’s decision Monday to significantly step up sanctions against Iran, with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu calling the moves a “step in the right direction.”

Speaking at a Likud faction meeting, Netanyahu said that while it was too early to tell what the effect of the sanctions would be, “strong, quick pressure” on the Islamic Republic was needed.

At a meeting in Brussels, the EU’s foreign ministers decided to impose a phased ban on Iranian oil imports, and – among other economic measures – to freeze the assets of the Iranian central bank...

http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/N...aspx?id=254868

[Pleepleus]

from Sever Plocker:

It certainly looks as though the Israeli campaign launched during the previous fall, where rumors of an imminent Israeli strike on Iran were disseminated, secured its objectives. Western statesmen clung to this campaign and utilized it in order to impose on Iran the devastating sanctions that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded two years ago already.

On July 1st, European Union states intend to shut their doors to Iranian oil. The Islamic Republic will then have to contend with a decline of at least $20 billion in its annual income. Iran will survive – beaten, battered and suffocating, like a patient who lost yet another vital oxygen pipe. With emphasis on “another.” ...

Until 2008, the sanctions achieved little; they were no more than a nuisance. However, since then, and especially ever since Security Council Resolution 1929 from June of 2010, the picture has been changing rapidly. The sanctions are biting into the flesh of Iran’s economy and weakening it every day; their cumulative effect is crushing. ...

The strict sanction regime makes it much harder to undertaken further investments in the nuclear program, both because of a foreign currency shortage and a shortage in means and technologies. Everything costs 100-fold of its price in the official market and the origin of the goods is always dubious.

Meanwhile, the Russian nuclear reactor has already been proven as a failure: It produces energy at crazy costs and its safety is doubtful.

Hence, will the sanction chokehold being tightened around the neck of Iran’s economy prompt its leaders to renounce the military nuclear project? The likely answer is “not yet.”

An insane government like the one in Iran often conducts itself like a gambler near the roulette table: The more it loses, the more risks it assumes. Yet the moment arrives where even the most serious gambler loses his pants and is thrown out of the casino. Iran is closer to this point than assumed. It is possible that the Iranian people’s patience will wear thin even before that, and they will rebel in the face of the vision of turning their country into North Korea.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...180034,00.html

[Pleepleus]

The Iranians want the embargo to go into effect immediately instead of being phased in. Good.

TEHRAN - European companies owed oil by Iran could lose out if Tehran imposes a ban on crude exports to the European Union next week, the head of Iran's state oil company said on Saturday.

Iran's parliament is due to debate a bill on Sunday that would cut off oil supplies to the EU in a matter of days, in revenge for a decision last Monday by the 27 EU member states to stop importing crude from Iran as of July 1.

http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/N...aspx?id=255527

[dayag]

Thank you, Eni!

LONDON - Italy's Eni, which has been receiving payments in oil from Iran for debts, is reworking the deal and is unlikely to import crude in July after European Union sanctions on Tehran take effect, market sources said on Thursday.

The unexpected decision by the Italian oil major, which is exempted from the embargo on imports, will lead to a complete halt in Iranian crude supply to Europe in July.

source: http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/N...aspx?id=272232

[dayag]

update on oil embargo:

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. Iran 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 programme is for peaceful purposes."...

source: http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-e...tions-1.443869

[dayag]

Iran is sounding like Nasser before the Six Day War.

Iran's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee has drafted a bill calling for Iran to try to stop oil tankers from shipping crude through the Strait of Hormuz to countries that support sanctions against it, a committee member said on Monday.

The Iranian parliament is vocal and sees itself as independent but does not hold much power. Bills are unlikely to get far unless sanctioned by the leadership...

Agha-Mohammadi said that 100 of Tehran's 290 members of parliament had signed the bill as of Sunday.

However no details were given on how Iran would verify the destination of every ship passing out of the Gulf under the watchful eye of the US Navy...

If the bill is approved by parliament it would then have to be approved by the 12-member Council of Guardians, made up of Muslim clerics and lawyers selected by the supreme leader, which can veto any bill...

source: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...250393,00.html