Tag: sanctions

US looks to crack down on Iran’s booming oil industry

Washington is considering measures to further crack down on Iranian oil exports, Politico reported on 13 August. 

“Sanctions evasion is very costly – paying middlemen, laundering money, and so on. We assess that the Iranian regime receives only a fraction of the revenue from its oil sales as a result,” an unnamed State Department spokesman told the outlet. 

However, new efforts to put pressure on Iranian oil revenues are being reviewed. “As Iran continues to escalate tensions in the region, we will work with partners to further pressure Iran and reduce their oil exports.”

Iranian oil exports hit a six-year high earlier this year, reaching an average of 1.56 million barrels of oil per day throughout the first quarter. 

Despite harsh western sanctions, Iran’s crude oil exports have surged by 30 percent in the last quarter, and its fossil fuel shipments reached a five-year high, according to data from the Kpler analytics firm. 

Reuters reported earlier in August that shipments of Iranian oil have been reaching new customers, including Oman and Bangladesh. 

The US has imposed harsh sanctions on Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, particularly on trade and energy. These sanctions are linked to a spike in illegal smuggling in the Persian Gulf. 

In recent years, Washington has illegally plundered several shipments of Iranian oil, framing the seizures as sanctions-enforcement operations. 

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Punitive Trade Sanctions by Kamala’s Team Have Created an Alternate World Economy and Stolen American Jobs

One benefit of being the World Reserve Currency and the largest economy is the ability to emplace sanctions or control measures on uncooperative nations.  This has worked for many years, but China and Russia can work out complex scenarios to avoid American sanctions faster than the U.S. Government and its Allies can emplace new measures.

In May 2024, President Putin conducted a visit to China to meet President Xi.  Out of this visit came a Chinese/Russia language statement that was filled with six references to a “New Era” in the word.  The real meaning of the term “New Era” from the statement is a world environment without the dominance of the American led, world economic system.  In June, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Russia’s VTB Bank, the Russian bank with a major Shanghai, China branch to help restrict the flow of war material to Russia.

But in May since Putin’s visit to China and pre-dating the U.S. Treasury move, specially authorized new banks were already being set up in Chinese border regions which allowed Russian firms to open non-resident accounts (NRA) with Chinese banks, a financial ju-jitsu that largely nullified the new American Sanctions when they were emplaced in June.  A brilliant tactical maneuver by China and Russia that anticipated the American targeting of VTB Bank.  More evidence that plodding and laborious US control measures were being neutralized before they were even in place.

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Will Average Western Citizens Pay the Price for G7’s Theft of Russian Funds?

Analysts worry Thursday’s announcement could spell dire consequences for the economic stability of the United States and its allies, as G7 leaders reached a deal this week to seize the interest from Russian assets to fund the ongoing proxy war in Ukraine.

News of the development emerged Thursday, although the group of Western economies has yet to formally approve the action. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni confirmed the reports, drawing a distinction between the expropriation of earned interest and the outright seizure of Russian savings held in European banks. “We are certainly not talking about confiscating these assets,” Meloni claimed at the G7 meeting in Fasano.

But the move is nonetheless highly controversial in the precedent it sets, claims analyst Dr. George Szamuely, and may be seen as a prelude to the wholesale theft of the funds. The analyst at the London-based Global Policy Institute joined Sputnik’s The Final Countdown program on Thursday to discuss how the development will harm financially strained Western citizens.

“It doesn’t in any way conform to international law,” said Szamuely of the G7’s plan, “and let’s keep in mind this has never been done before.”

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Inside the anti-Syria lobby’s Capitol Hill push for more starvation sanctions

A week from the 13th anniversary of the US-backed Syrian dirty war, the American Coalition for Syria held its annual day of advocacy in Washington DC. I went undercover into meetings with Senate policy advisors and witnessed the lobby’s cynical campaign to starve Syria into submission.

On the morning of March 7, as the US Capitol teemed with lobbyists securing earmarks ahead of appropriations week and activists decrying the Gaza genocide, one special interest group on the Hill stood out. In the corridors of the Rayburn building, a group of roughly 50 people prepared for a busy day of advocating for sanctions to be levied against their homeland.

They were the Anti-Syria lobby — and had I infiltrated their influence campaign.

Throughout the day, I watched as this group pushed US officials to accept their policy of starvation sanctions while cynically ignoring famished Palestinians in Gaza.

Among the lobbyists was Raed Saleh, the head of the Syrian White Helmets, who were  to propagandize for regime change from behind humanitarian cover.

I attended a total of seven meetings with policy teams representing Senators Sherrod Brown, Maggie Hassan, Ben Cardin, Mark Kelly, Chris Van Hollen, John Fetterman, and Rick Scott. Throughout these sessions, I witnessed the anti-Syria Lobby attempt to bully and manipulate US officials into accepting their policy of starvation while cynically throwing starving Palestinians in Gaza under the bus.

At one moment, Raed Saleh, head of the Syrian White Helmets, which was founded by British intelligence, and funded by NATO states, painted Israeli air strikes against Syria in a positive light.

During a separate meeting, Wa’el Alzayat of the pro-Zionist Muslim outreach Emgage even demanded Senator Chris Van Hollen’s office support the approval of aid for Al Qaeda-linked militias in Syria. 

“Stop freaking out about the stuff going to terrorists,” he insisted, adding that “the Brits are doing it, the Turks are doing it, [and] the Qataris are doing it.”

Purporting to be a voice for all Syrians, the anti-Syria lobby is spearheaded by the American Coalition for Syria (ACS), an umbrella organization representing opposition groups such as the Syrian American Council (SAC), the Syrian Forum, and a handful of others located in the US and Turkey. 

Emgage, meanwhile, has been credited with getting the diaspora vote out for then-candidate Joe Biden in November 2020. The group has since fallen under criticism for acting as a de facto extension of the Biden White House and Democratic Party within the Muslim community. Emgage board member Farooq Mitha formally went to work for the Biden Pentagon in March 2021. On March 7, Alzayat aimed to weaponize Emgage’s influence against Democratic Senators who seemed uncomfortable with an escalating sanctions policy.

“I need a good story for my voters,” he explained to Senator Van Hollen’s team. 

Throughout their sanctions campaign on the Hill, Alzayat and his cohorts operated like a miniature version of their Israel lobby allies, supplying roughly 50 volunteers with folders outlining talking points and the biographies of congressional representatives. The bios included a comprehensive list of the Senator or Representative’s recorded stance on Syria, such as their votes on the extension of the AUMF, the US military withdrawal from Syria, and previous sanctions packages targeting the country. 

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US unveils new sanctions in push to cut off funding for Hamas

The U.S. expanded its sanction effort against people and companies tied to funding Hamas, as the country continues its support for Israel’s war against the militant group.

The new sanctions, announced Friday, target individuals and companies in Iran, Sudan and Turkey. Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.

“Today’s action underscores the United States’ commitment to dismantling Hamas’s funding networks by deploying our counterterrorism sanctions authorities and working with our global partners to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement. 

“We will not hesitate to take action to further degrade Hamas’s ability to commit horrific terrorist attacks by relentlessly targeting its financial activities and streams of funding,” he added.

Among the individuals targeted includes Khaled Qaddoumi, described as Hamas’ liaison to the Iranian government, as well as a number of Iranian military members who trained Hamas militants.

Also sanctioned was the Al-Ansar Charity Association, which the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said funds the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Hamas-affiliated militant group.

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Biden administration to waive sanctions so Russian energy firm can build Iranian nuclear plant

As we’ve said before, the Biden administration has some mixed feelings about getting into a direct confrontation with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. At first, the administration sanctioned everything but energy and continued buying oil from Russia, with the explanation that the United States imports only 10 percent of its oil from Russia. Then there’s climate envoy John Kerry, who’s counting on Russia to be a partner in things like the Paris Accords. And speaking of Kerry, there’s also his precious Iran nuclear deal to consider.

Adam Kredo of the Washington Free Beacon is reporting Wednesday that the Biden administration’s new Iran deal will remove sanctions so that a Russian energy firm can build Iran a nuclear power plant.

Kredo writes:

Russia’s top state-controlled energy company is set to cash in on a $10 billion contract to build out one of Iran’s most contested nuclear sites as part of concessions granted in the soon-to-be-announced nuclear agreement that will guarantee sanctions on both countries are lifted.

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