US: Pressure on Iran must be "as strong as possible"

The policy of difficulties against Iran is considered the last wisdom. However, there are some arguments against this, especially the experiences with the capital jostling of US policy in the Middle East in recent years

The financial pressure on Iran must be as great as possible. With this argument, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his colleague at the Ministry of Finance, Steven Mnuchkin, reject the EU's demands for sanctions exemptions.

The letter, whose precise content remains closed to the public, but whose fundamental political message is contained in the Bloomberg Financial Media and then the Financial Times (FT) distributed it last week, the ministers from Germany, France, Britain and the EU, a clear no for the exemptions requested in the field "finance, energy and health"

"Until that day Iran is changing course "

The first thrust of sanctions against Iran is scheduled for early August, the second beginning of November. This is intended to exert financial pressure on an unprecedented scale over Iran until the country's leadership undertakes a "significant and sustained change of course" in its policy, the FT quotes "sources from familiar diplomatic circles ". 19659010] According to this information, Pompeo and Mnuchkin always want to leave a back door: if it concerns "the interests of the national security of the United States" or "humanitarian purposes", then one would authorize limited exemptions to sanctions.

Minister of Foreign Affairs to discuss how to proceed now. European governments are at a dead end. On the one hand, they declared and insisted that, unlike Trump's dismissal, they wanted to continue their agreement with Iran, but could not meet the demands of the Iranian rulers (Khamenei and Rohani ).

On the other hand, they are political and economic. in all likelihood, reluctant and unable to represent a position independent of the United States in the long run and reliably.

"Countermeasures" by the EU

Although the Financial Times once again mentions that the US the EU is working on some measures to counter US sanctions, but the US is not doing anything about it. The failure of the French car maker PSA and the Total oil company to pull out of Iranian business is a clear sign that the credibility or strength of a counterpart position of the EU is limited.

As "countermeasures" are called by the FT financial transactions, which are not deducted in dollars direct payment of oil to the Iranian central bank and a law of the 1990s, which was then set in motion to protect the European companies US sanctions against Iran, Libya and Cuba. Nothing really new then.

It also seems like US President Trump may be able to change something fundamental. That the conflicts between the EU and the United States were not, like the predecessors of the presidency, disavowed rather quickly, while the Europeans rejoiced at the position of the American tractor

. in the badessment phase and unclear, for example, where and how to speak Trump. In the case of Iran, the announcement of Trump is that the Iranian leaders will ask him for a new agreement, so that the settlement of difficulties will pay off.

Commentators now divide Trump into a loudspeaker who is constantly campaigning because of his kindness. of politics, and another figure whose role is a little harder to categorize because, on the one hand, it depends on its environment, which has more fundamental political knowledge and certain intentions and, of course, other, its many redundancies.

The fact is that the policy of hardening towards Iran is not the invention of Trump, the course was cultivated by the neocons of the Bush II administration, some of which are still very active and have an influence on Trump. We must not forget that Iran has been the main theme of Netanyahu for many years. There is therefore a longer tradition and a serious weight behind the political working hypothesis "hardness has priority when it comes to Iran".