Many people are worried that if the US reimposes sanctions on Iran following the mid-October deadline for recertification of the Regime’s compliance with the nuclear deal, then the US will lose the support of its allies from across the world.
Well, as Richard Goldberg, former senior national security adviser to US Senator Mark Kirk (Ill.) pointed out, who would side with Iran over the US?
He wrote, in an op-ed on Foreign Policy: “Cry as they might along the way, no European or Asian corporation is going to choose a terrorist regime over access to the U.S. dollar.”
He insists that this is not the first time that such a claim has been made; indeed in 2011, several senators (including Kirk and Robert Menendez (NJ) as part of a bipartisan compromise) filed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act to impose sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran.
These senators were told that US allies wouldn’t go along with the deal, “the sanctions regime would fall apart, there would be global outrage and resistance, and gas prices will skyrocket”. The senators didn’t back down and the sanctions passed 100-0.
While many US allies lobbied against the bill, they fully complied once it was in place and there is no reason to believe this would be different this time.
Goldberg wrote: “This wasn’t the first time that economic consultants, U.S. businesses, and both European and Asian allies opposed a unilateral congressional sanctions measure — and it wasn’t the last either. But every time, history proved them wrong.”
Indeed, the passages of SWIFT, the Iran Threat Reduction Act, and of the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act, all blacklisted portions of the Iranian economy and cut off funding for their terrorism, and US allies complied in full.
Goldberg wrote: “Today, we are seeing the same old opponents of tough sanctions on Iran come out of the woodwork to warn President Donald Trump against threatening to reimpose a global financial embargo on Iran.”
And there is more than enough reason to:
• refusal to allow inspections at military sites
• continued testing of advanced ballistic missiles
• expansion of its terrorist proxy armies into Syria and Lebanon
• the holding of American hostages
Goldberg wrote: “Their arguments ring as hollow today as they did in the past. European and Asian businesses will oppose the reimposition of sanctions on Iran right up until the point they are reimposed. And then their lawyers will force them to comply — choosing continued access to the $19 trillion American financial system over Iran’s $400 billion.”
He notes that almost no one still believes that Iran is complying with the deal or even that it is in the best interests of the US; they are merely scared of not having a way out.
Goldberg wrote: “History shows how wrong they are. Trump should decertify Iran’s compliance with the nuclear agreement and hold a sanctions Sword of Damocles over the Iranian economy: change your behaviour or risk total economic collapse before you could ever reach the point of a nuclear weapon.”
Source » ncr-iran