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    The Envoy

    U.S. slaps more sanctions on Iran

    An undated aerial photo of the Brussels-based SWIFT global financial network. (AP)By Olivier Knox and Laura Rozen

    Even as Iran has signaled its readiness to return to international nuclear talks in a letter this week, the United States announced new sanctions on Iran Thursday.

    The Treasury Department announced Thursday it is sanctioning Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security [MOIS], accusing it of sponsoring human rights abuses in both Iran and Syria, as well as being a sponsor of terrorism.

    "Today we have designated the MOIS for abusing the basic human rights of Iranian citizens and exporting its vicious practices to support the Syrian regime's abhorrent crackdown on its own population," Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen said in a Treasury Department press release Thursday. "The action came as key Washington lawmakers pressed for additional measures to further cut the Islamic republic off from the global financial network.

    Sen. Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey), a member of the Senate Banking committee, said Thursday he will meet in Washington next week with the general counsel of the Brussels-based SWIFT network to discuss cutting off Iranian banks from the financial clearinghouse.

    The Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) handles most international financial transactions between banks. Severing ties with Iranian banks could make it difficult for the government to sell oil, which is a huge source of its funding.

    "I am looking forward to meeting with the general counsel of SWIFT next week," Menendez said in a call with journalists Thursday. "And I would like it to take action to expel EU-designated Iranian banks from SWIFT and in the longer term, [to cut off transactions] with the Central Bank of Iran."

    The goal of the SWIFT action "would be, at the end of the day, to create further challenges for Iranian transactions," Menendez said.

    Mark Dubowitz, an Iran sanctions expert at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, weighed in on the result: "If it happens, the removal of these Iranian banks from the SWIFT system is a political and economic body blow to the Iranian regime," he said. "It is the financial equivalent of being expelled from the United Nations."

    --Olivier Knox is White House reporter for Yahoo News. Laura Rozen is foreign policy reporter for Yahoo News.

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    Want more of our best national security stories? Visit The Envoy or connect with us on Facebook and on Twitter.

     

     
    • John  •  Piscataway, New Jersey  •  2 mths ago
      Republicans wants war because they can hide behind the curtain and fool the public showing security reasons. How they went to IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN and in return what we are
      getting . IRAQ war created this MULLAH safe heavens and we are loosing life/money .
      • Mario 2 mths ago
        US people is certainly loosing, but not the minority who manipulate finance and media, who are winning!
    • Dave  •  Strongsville, Ohio  •  2 mths ago
      Iran's weapons will likely not impact US soil, but the willingness of Iran to use them on its close-proximity neighbors is a concern. At the same time, I'm sick of paying taxes that support policing other countries. We have enough problems at home.
    • Supercat50  •  2 mths ago
      The Zionist spawn of satan are stamping their feet because they want to have it their own way. Just remember what goes around comes around.
    • Express  •  Boston, Massachusetts  •  3 mths ago
      We can not afford to go to war. These policies make the gas companies rich and the working class poorer. The propaganda machine is already turning out disinformation. Ties to Syria, weapons of mass destruction once again, and terrorism. Is it just me or do others see the reverse of who is committing terrorism?. We need a voting revolution in the USA . We need to throw every last politician out of office and start to rebuild a moral country.
      • Give Me Liberty or I' ... 3 mths ago
        You make it sound easy to throw every last one out. Look at what we got in 2008. There isn't enough people with enough brains to figure it out.
      • PS 3 mths ago
        Looks like soon, Iran won't be able to afford war either :)
    • Chris  •  3 mths ago
      "There are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword.. The other is by debt." - John Adams
      • david 3 mths ago
        There were some towering intellects among the founding fathers.
        they're out of fashion these days...it is a HUGE mistake.
      • gonzo 3 mths ago
        In this case the sword will also have to be used
      • Pat Walsh 3 mths ago
        thumbs down,you are an arse.
    • Hi  •  3 mths ago
      Instead of going through the banks and using currency Iran is returning to good old bartering with goods or payments using gold
      • EP3Bob 3 mths ago
        Please share your source. Thanks.
      • Hi 3 mths ago
        Its all over the internet
        Search for- Iran Gold and Oil
      • Ben 3 mths ago
        I didn't realize this was the APA style of academic presentations, did the Rockefellers mandate a source sharing law I missed. his source is his knowledge of the present moment retard!!!
    • A Yahoo! User  •  Houston, Texas  •  3 mths ago
      Has anyone studied the machinations of the US government, the Federal Reserve, and the Treasury Department leading up to Pearl Harbor? The events that you won't find detailed in your high school history books?
      • stuff 3 mths ago
        Eerie isn't it?
      • Turtle 3 mths ago
        The Ides of March is 3 weeks from today.
      • A Yahoo! User 3 mths ago
        The parallels are extremely ... frightening. Trying to figure out the prime beneficiary of this is mind-boggling.
    • o  •  3 mths ago
      I accuse the treasury department of terrorism against the middle class! Therefore let's sieze all assests of the DC politicians
    • John T  •  Orlando, Florida  •  3 mths ago
      Wow now they're on Double Secret Probation.....What next?
    • CaptainComment  •  3 mths ago
      I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. - Albert Einstein
    • Rod  •  3 mths ago
      People don't start wars, governments do!!
    • M  •  3 mths ago
      Does America always need an enemy?
    • The Day  •  3 mths ago
      Very soon they'll be nothing left to be sanctioned against Iran..perhaps the next Washington sanction against Iran will be Oxygen sanction??.. this is becoming desperation on Washington and making the terms sanction useless and non-effective
    • wombat  •  3 mths ago
      The Amercian senate and congress were leected to serve the American people.
      They were not put in office to govern ther world.
      For once lets see these cretins in Washington deliver their promise to those who voted them in to office
    • Roger  •  3 mths ago
      The Unted States Executive, Legislative and Judicial Departments of Terrorism appear to be trying their best to start a nuclear war that consumes the world. Except, in their arrogance, they think they are so intelligent that they can control everything and stop it just before it reaches that point. Oh, foolish ones! This has absolutely nothing to do with Iran obtaining nuclear weapons, and everything to do with gaining complete control of the Mediterranean Sea and all the oil in the Mideast. The murdering psychopaths in charge of the U.S. won't be happy until they have completely cut off the oil from China and surrounded Russia with military bases. Those two countries stand in the way of the U.S. achieving what Hitler was not able to: world hegemony. And so, the Empire continues on to self destruction, taking all the innocent with it.
    • RJ  •  3 mths ago
      10% of the oil used in the USA comes from that area. Why has our gas prices soared out of control in the past 10 days? This is so much #$%$ Our governement needs a house cleaning.
    • fdgdzfghd  •  3 mths ago
      Hey look David Cohen cut off Iran's banks and then Laura Rozen reported on it. Come on folks. You can't make this stuff up...
    • Facts  •  Pleasanton, California  •  3 mths ago
      Thirty Years of Misleading the Public on Iranian Nuclear Capabilities
      The Christian Science Monitor has a brilliant timeline up covering warnings of Iranian nuclear weapons capability for over thirty years. According to western intelligence, they’ve pretty much always been on the verge of having the bomb. Below is a summary.

      1984: West German intelligence sources say Iran’s production of a bomb “is entering its final stages.”

      1992: Israeli parliamentarian Benjamin Netanyahu tells his colleagues that Iran is 3 to 5 years from being able to produce a nuclear weapon. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres tells French TV that Iran was set to have nuclear warheads by 1999.

      1995: New York Times reports US and Israeli concerns that ”Iran is much closer to producing nuclear weapons than previously thought” – about five years away.

      1998: New York Times reports that long-range missile development indicates that “Iran is bent on acquiring nuclear weapons.” Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reports to Congress that Iran could build an intercontinental ballistic missile – one that could hit the US – within five years. The CIA gave a timeframe of 12 years.

      2002: CIA warns that the danger from nuclear-tipped missiles from Iran is higher than during the Cold War. Dubious claims from the MeK (now widely believed to be passed on by Israeli intelligence) say that Iran has undisclosed uranium enrichment facilities in breach of IAEA safeguards.

      2004: Secretary of State Colin Powell claims Iran is working on technology to fit a nuclear warhead onto a missile. “We are talking about information that says they not only have [the] missiles but information that suggests they are working hard about how to put the two together,” he said.

      2005: U.S. presents 1,000 pages documentation allegedly retrieved from a computer laptop in Iran, which detail high-explosives testing and a nuclear-capable missile warhead.

      2006: New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh quotes US sources saying that a preemptive strike on Iran is all but inevitable.

      2007: Bush and Cheney imply an impending attack on Iran if it doesn’t give up it’s nuclear program. A month later, the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran is released, which controversially judges with “high confidence” that Iran had given up its nuclear weapons effort in fall 2003.

      Then for the next few years we have the hawkish officialdom lay off on claiming Iran is on the verge of nuclear weapons capability. But the threats of attack do not stop. Now, in November 2011, the IAEA reports that Iran has coordinated weapons-related research and development for years (continuously since 2003) and may still be doing so now (although only circumstantial evidence is offered).
    • PrettyToy712  •  Arvada, Colorado  •  3 mths ago
      I love how the United States acts like they won't tolerate people being oppressed in other countries, yet they continue to destroy our civil liberties/wipe their #$%$ with the constitution. Quit acting like you're trying to bring peace and freedom to other countries when you're destroying those things here on our own soil! Friggin' hypocrites, I swear.
    • Katmandoo  •  3 mths ago
      Yeah, this will do it....oil is so hard to sell in today's world, now no one will buy Iranian oil.....right?
      If we get the real truth, I bet Exxon/Mobil will still buy Iranian oil....and get Tax Credits for doing it!
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