Iran- Financial- Oil sanctions working well

[Goober]

Iran- Financial- Oil sanctions working well
Even if they manage to develop a Nuclear capability the sanctions should not only remain but the US House should pass as soon as possible their new sanctions on Iranian Banks.

I have the feeling that the US Military and the President will not go to war but use containment in the evnt Iran develops a nuclear capability

Interesting articles

Why attacking Iran is still a bad idea | Stephen M. Walt

Eight Ways to Deal With Iran - By Stephen J. Hadley | Foreign Policy

Israeli Options

The Entebbe Option - By Mark Perry | Foreign Policy

More sanctions coming

EU considers sanctions against Iranian banks, energy sector - Yahoo! News

Iran’s currency takes a dive as nuclear sanctions hammer economy | News | National Post

Iran’s rial plunged against the U.S. dollar in open-market trade on Monday, taking its loss in value over the past week to more than a quarter in further evidence that Western sanctions are shattering the economy.

The freefall suggests sanctions imposed over Iran’s nuclear program are undermining its ability to earn foreign exchange and that its reserves of hard currency may be running low.

The rial traded at 34,200 per dollar according to currency-tracking website Mazanex, down from about 29,720 on Sunday. It was trading at 24,600 last Monday, according to website Mesghal.

The rial’s losses have accelerated in the past week after the government launched an “exchange centre” designed to supply dollars to importers of some basic goods at a special rate slightly cheaper than the market rate.

Instead of allaying fears about the availability of dollars, the center seems to have intensified the race for hard currency by linking the special rate to the market rate, meaning that even privileged importers will face sharply higher costs.

“The government’s initiative … brought to the surface a tremendous lack of confidence in its ability to manage the currency,” said Cliff Kupchan, a Middle East expert at the Eurasia Group, a political risk research firm. “The attempt to fix it triggered a worse crisis via market psychology.”

There is very little, effectively, the central bank and authorities can do to calm the situation because even when they take extraordinary measures to calm the market … the market interprets those additional measures as a sign of abnormality,” Hakimian said.

At the end of last year, Iran had $106 billion of official foreign reserves, enough to cover an ample 13 months of imports of goods and services in normal times, according to the International Monetary Fund.

But Nader Habibi, economist at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University in the United States, estimated last month that the government now had about $50-70 billion of hard currency reserves left.

 

[Angstrom]

What i'm intrested in seeing is how far China, Russia & India go to help Iran.
Did the Chines not, just set up the Yuan as a alternative to the US petro dollar,
For global oil trade?

 

[Goober]

What i'm intrested in seeing is how far China, Russia & India go to help Iran.
Did the chines not, just set up the Yuan as a alternative to the US petro dollar,
For global oil trade?

Well Saudi increased oil production to over 10 million bbd to make up for the shortage and to punish Russia for their Iranian and Syrian positions in the UN. Vetoing UN resolutions on Syria.

 

[Angstrom]

Well Saudi increased oil production to over 10 million bbd to make up for the shortage and to punish Russia for their Iranian and Syrian positions in the UN. Vetoing UN resolutions on Syria.

Interesting....
But.
How is that punishing Russia?

 

[Goober]

Interesting....
But.
How is that punishing Russia?

Selling at a lower rate than Russia does- closer to EU markets than Russia - stealing customers.

Russia depends largely on gas - oil exports for foreign currency -

 

[Angstrom]

Selling at a lower rate than Russia does- closer to EU markets than Russia - stealing customers.

Russia depends largely on gas - oil exports for foreign currency -

Sounds like a short term thing.
Thanks for the info that stuff interests me.

 

[Goober]

Sounds like a short term thing.
Thanks for the info that stuff interests me.

They have been doing that for months- Also building from what I recollect a new refinery -etc - with China for the Chinese market.

 

[Angstrom]

They have been doing that for months- Also building from what I recollect a new refinery -etc - with China for the Chinese market.

Its almost like a big chess game. heheh

 

[Goober]

Its almost like a big chess game. heheh

Yes- Russia has been at the forefront on Syria and China walks away smelling pretty. But not for much longer- Saudi's will raise the pressure on China for Syria and Iran.

 

[Goober]

Iran blames ‘economic conspiracy’ as currency crash sparks food, fuel price spike | Israel & Middle East | World | News | National Post

Tougher times are coming- Younger demographics- middle class economically slammed - poor cannot afford basic food stuffs-
Trouble is a brewing
And the Govt- people can only blame Imanutjob for so long - That is a diversion that will soon run of of steam.

DUBAI — Iran will defeat a “conspiracy” against its foreign currency and gold markets, an adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday, as pressure mounts on authorities to deal with the rapid collapse of the rial.

Riot police fought demonstrators and arrested money changers in and around the Tehran bazaar on Wednesday during protests triggered by the fall of the Iranian currency, which has lost a third of its value against the dollar over the last ten days.

Protesters called President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a traitor because of what many say is his serious mismanagement of the economy, which has also been badly hit by U.S.-led Western sanctions imposed over Iran’s nuclear programme.

But there has so far been no public criticism of Khamenei, the Islamic Republic’s most powerful authority.

 

[darkbeaver]

Yes- Russia has been at the forefront on Syria and China walks away smelling pretty. But not for much longer- Saudi's will raise the pressure on China for Syria and Iran.

I was reading today that the HOUSE OF SAUD has about a month of asset grabbing to do before they move to southern Spain forever. China will spoil the dollar strangle hold on oil sale.

 

[Goober]

I was reading today that the HOUSE OF SAUD has about a month of asset grabbing to do before they move to southern Spain forever. China will spoil the dollar strangle hold on oil sale.

700 billion in currency reserves they could buy the place


http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/1...-embargo-scenario-hinted-at-by-u-s-lawmakers/

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers in the U.S. Congress are looking at ways to expand economic sanctions on Iran, measures that have helped push the country’s currency into free fall but have not yet pressured Tehran to abandon its nuclear program.

The proposals, still in the early stages of development, would aim to penalize foreign banks that handle any significant transactions with the Central Bank of Iran. Only oil-related transactions are now covered.

“We are seriously looking at additional policy options, including further closing the (Central Bank of Iran) to transactions and other measures designed to impact Iran foreign currency reserves,” an aide to Democratic Senator Robert Menendez said on Friday.

 

[Goober]

Appears Imanutjob is about to walk the plank. Who will they blame then.

Subsidies cuts delayed = less foreign currency

Iran parliament may halt Ahmadinejad economic policy amid growing discontent over currency crisis | Israel & Middle East | World | News | National Post

DUBAI — Iran’s parliament voted on Sunday to consider suspending plans for further reform of the country’s food and fuel subsidies, with legislators citing economic pain caused by the plunge of the rial currency.

Subsidy reform has been a centerpiece of the economic policies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, so parliament’s vote was a political blow to the president at a time when he faces growing public discontent over the rial’s slide.

Of 240 members of parliament present, 179 voted to consider whether to halt the second phase of subsidy reform, according to the Iranian Labour News Agency. It did not say when the decision would be made.

The reform aims to ease pressure on state finances by cutting tens of billions of dollars from the amount which the government pays to subsidize low consumer prices for food and fuel, while offsetting the impact on Iran’s poorest citizens by giving them monthly cash payments.

“In conditions in which the inflation rate is increasing and the currency market is in disorder, the second phase of this law must be stopped,” said Gholamreza Mesbahi-Moghaddam, head of parliament’s budget and planning committee and author of the motion, according to parliamentary news agency Icana.

 

[damngrumpy]

The use of oil and money to fuel hypocrisy. America wants to punish Iran and there
may be some merritt for that. At the same time China, America, Russia, France,
Israel, Britain and God knows who else all have the bomb and there are no embargo's
there are there.
Yes some say North Korea and Iran are dangerous to the worlds health and that is a
given. America, China, Britain, France, Russia have all been dangerous to the worlds
health in the past so what's new here? It is about power and influence in the Middle East,
its about an undeclared cold war that now exists as the major or former major powers
look for new ways to be relevant in a changing world. The problem is the major powers
are not going to declare war on each other, but a side show event like Israel attacking Iran
will start a broader conflict. This more and more like a first world war scenario remember
Arch Duke Ferdinand was murdered in Serbia and that act drew everyone else into an
uncontrollable conflict.

 

[In Between Man]

Obviously not working well enough. Not until Iran completely halts its nuclear ambitions can we claim the sanctions worked at all.

 

[Goober]

The use of oil and money to fuel hypocrisy. America wants to punish Iran and there
may be some merritt for that. At the same time China, America, Russia, France,
Israel, Britain and God knows who else all have the bomb and there are no embargo's
there are there.
Yes some say North Korea and Iran are dangerous to the worlds health and that is a
given. America, China, Britain, France, Russia have all been dangerous to the worlds
health in the past so what's new here? It is about power and influence in the Middle East,
its about an undeclared cold war that now exists as the major or former major powers
look for new ways to be relevant in a changing world. The problem is the major powers
are not going to declare war on each other, but a side show event like Israel attacking Iran
will start a broader conflict. This more and more like a first world war scenario remember
Arch Duke Ferdinand was murdered in Serbia and that act drew everyone else into an
uncontrollable conflict.

Do you prefer Iran and other countries in the ME going the way of having nuclear weapons or the capability?

 

[Goober]

Well looks like the infighting is just beginning. Then if this continues the power struggles - And

And considering the Grand All Supreme Thugmaster is held in low esteem by many respected Imams in Iran.

Iran’s government plagued by infighting as currency crisis unfolds in sanction-hit state | Israel & Middle East | World | News | National Post

DUBAI — Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iranian officials on Wednesday to stop bickering over mounting economic woes as Tehran grapples with Western-imposed sanctions, voicing concern heightened by the collapse of the rial currency.

His comments touched on divisions between Iranian government agencies and political factions exacerbated by the rial’s fall over the past several weeks, fanning an atmosphere of crisis in the world’s No. 5 oil-exporting state.

“The country’s officials should know and accept their responsibilities and not blame each other,” Khamenei said in a televised speech in the northeastern city of Bojnourd. “They should be united and sympathize with each other.”

The rial plunged some 35% in the free market to a record low against the U.S. dollar over the 10 days to October 2, reflecting a decline in Iran’s oil income wrought by tightened sanctions imposed over its disputed nuclear program.