Iran Nuclear Deal: USA remains out under Biden; Russia and Iran collaborating on nuclear items
Secure Da Bag
Veteran
When BRIC becomes an actual thing, the Western world is gonna get one hell of a jolt.
DrBanneker
Space is the Place
This is the test run to give SWIFT the finger when the US acts out too much. What a dumb move to endanger this kind of leverage/privilege over Iran.
Mike Pence is mad
Merkel defends Iran deal, multilateralism but Pence resists
By DAVID RISING and GEIR MOULSON
German Chancellor Angele Merkel, center, arrives for a meeting during the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019. (Tobias Hase/dpa via AP)
MUNICH (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel robustly defended European nations’ decision to stand by the Iran nuclear deal in a spirited backing Saturday of her multilateral approach to global affairs, but U.S. Vice President Mike Pence promptly accused Europe of once again undermining the United States.
Merkel’s comments at the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of top global defense and foreign policy officials, followed days of tensions between Washington and Europe over Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement last year, leaving the others involved — Germany, Britain, France, China, Russia and the European Union — scrambling to try and keep it alive. The deal offers Iran sanctions relief for limiting its nuclear program, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has said so far that Tehran is sticking to the agreement.
But the U.S. argues that the deal just puts off when Iran might be able to build a nuclear bomb. Pence pushed at the conference for Europeans to end their involvement in the nuclear deal, calling Iran “the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world.”
“The time has come for our European partners to stop undermining U.S. sanctions against this murderous revolutionary regime,” Pence said. “The time has come for our European partners to stand with us and with the Iranian people, our allies and friends in the region. The time has come for our European partners to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.”
The comments came after Merkel said she shared concerns about many Iranian efforts to grow its power in the region. While she said the split with the U.S. over the nuclear agreement “depresses me very much,” she defended it as an important channel to Tehran.
“I see the ballistic missile program, I see Iran in Yemen and above all I see Iran in Syria,” she said. “The only question that stands between us on this issue is, do we help our common cause, our common aim of containing the damaging or difficult development of Iran, by withdrawing from the one remaining agreement? Or do we help it more by keeping the small anchor we have in order maybe to exert pressure in other areas?”
Merkel also questioned whether it’s good for the U.S. to withdraw troops quickly from Syria “or is that not also strengthening the possibilities for Iran and Russia to exert influence there?”
Turning to nuclear disarmament, Merkel said the U.S. announcement earlier this month that it was pulling out of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty was “inevitable” because of Russian violations.
Moscow followed suit by also withdrawing from the treaty, strongly denying any breaches. The U.S. administration also has worried that the pact was an obstacle to efforts to counter intermediate-range missiles deployed by China, which is not covered by the treaty.
Merkel noted the treaty was conceived “essentially for Europe,” where such missiles were stationed during the Cold War. She said “the answer cannot lie in blind rearmament.”
“Disarmament is something that concerns us all, and we would of course be glad if such negotiations were conducted not just between the United States ... and Russia, but also with China,” she said.
Merkel also defended Germany’s progress in fulfilling NATO guidelines for countries to move toward spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense by 2024, which have been criticized as too slow. And overall, she rejected the idea of go-it-alone foreign policy.
She said it is better to “put yourself in the other’s shoes ... and see whether we can get win-win solutions together.”
Pence stuck to the U.S. line that the 2 percent NATO guideline is a strict commitment rather than a target, saying while more alliance members have met the criteria, “the truth is, many of our NATO allies still need to do more.”
He also reiterated American opposition to the joint German-Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, which Washington is concerned will make Europe overly reliant on Russian gas.
“The United States commends all our European partners who’ve taken a strong stand against Nord Stream 2,” he said. “And we commend others to do that same.”
Merkel defended the pipeline under the Baltic Sea, dismissing the American concerns as unfounded and assuring Ukraine that it won’t get cut off from Russian fuel.
Speaking as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko looked on, she told him his country would continue to be a transit country for Russian gas even after the pipeline is complete.
Merkel noted that Europe also has enough terminals to receive more liquefied gas from the U.S., among other options.
“There’s nothing that speaks against getting gas from the United States, but to exclude Russia is the wrong strategic signal.”
Merkel’s speech was warmly received, while Pence’s met with polite applause. The two met one-on-one after the speeches and Pence told reporters they had “frank” discussions on all of the issues they’d touched on in public.
Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who was in office when the Iran nuclear deal was negotiated, went out of his way to thank Merkel and defended the Iran deal as a “significant agreement.”
“The America I see does not want to turn its back on the world,” Biden said.
Merkel defends Iran deal, multilateralism but Pence resists
By DAVID RISING and GEIR MOULSON
German Chancellor Angele Merkel, center, arrives for a meeting during the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019. (Tobias Hase/dpa via AP)
MUNICH (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel robustly defended European nations’ decision to stand by the Iran nuclear deal in a spirited backing Saturday of her multilateral approach to global affairs, but U.S. Vice President Mike Pence promptly accused Europe of once again undermining the United States.
Merkel’s comments at the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of top global defense and foreign policy officials, followed days of tensions between Washington and Europe over Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement last year, leaving the others involved — Germany, Britain, France, China, Russia and the European Union — scrambling to try and keep it alive. The deal offers Iran sanctions relief for limiting its nuclear program, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has said so far that Tehran is sticking to the agreement.
But the U.S. argues that the deal just puts off when Iran might be able to build a nuclear bomb. Pence pushed at the conference for Europeans to end their involvement in the nuclear deal, calling Iran “the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world.”
“The time has come for our European partners to stop undermining U.S. sanctions against this murderous revolutionary regime,” Pence said. “The time has come for our European partners to stand with us and with the Iranian people, our allies and friends in the region. The time has come for our European partners to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.”
The comments came after Merkel said she shared concerns about many Iranian efforts to grow its power in the region. While she said the split with the U.S. over the nuclear agreement “depresses me very much,” she defended it as an important channel to Tehran.
“I see the ballistic missile program, I see Iran in Yemen and above all I see Iran in Syria,” she said. “The only question that stands between us on this issue is, do we help our common cause, our common aim of containing the damaging or difficult development of Iran, by withdrawing from the one remaining agreement? Or do we help it more by keeping the small anchor we have in order maybe to exert pressure in other areas?”
Merkel also questioned whether it’s good for the U.S. to withdraw troops quickly from Syria “or is that not also strengthening the possibilities for Iran and Russia to exert influence there?”
Turning to nuclear disarmament, Merkel said the U.S. announcement earlier this month that it was pulling out of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty was “inevitable” because of Russian violations.
Moscow followed suit by also withdrawing from the treaty, strongly denying any breaches. The U.S. administration also has worried that the pact was an obstacle to efforts to counter intermediate-range missiles deployed by China, which is not covered by the treaty.
Merkel noted the treaty was conceived “essentially for Europe,” where such missiles were stationed during the Cold War. She said “the answer cannot lie in blind rearmament.”
“Disarmament is something that concerns us all, and we would of course be glad if such negotiations were conducted not just between the United States ... and Russia, but also with China,” she said.
Merkel also defended Germany’s progress in fulfilling NATO guidelines for countries to move toward spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense by 2024, which have been criticized as too slow. And overall, she rejected the idea of go-it-alone foreign policy.
She said it is better to “put yourself in the other’s shoes ... and see whether we can get win-win solutions together.”
Pence stuck to the U.S. line that the 2 percent NATO guideline is a strict commitment rather than a target, saying while more alliance members have met the criteria, “the truth is, many of our NATO allies still need to do more.”
He also reiterated American opposition to the joint German-Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, which Washington is concerned will make Europe overly reliant on Russian gas.
“The United States commends all our European partners who’ve taken a strong stand against Nord Stream 2,” he said. “And we commend others to do that same.”
Merkel defended the pipeline under the Baltic Sea, dismissing the American concerns as unfounded and assuring Ukraine that it won’t get cut off from Russian fuel.
Speaking as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko looked on, she told him his country would continue to be a transit country for Russian gas even after the pipeline is complete.
Merkel noted that Europe also has enough terminals to receive more liquefied gas from the U.S., among other options.
“There’s nothing that speaks against getting gas from the United States, but to exclude Russia is the wrong strategic signal.”
Merkel’s speech was warmly received, while Pence’s met with polite applause. The two met one-on-one after the speeches and Pence told reporters they had “frank” discussions on all of the issues they’d touched on in public.
Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who was in office when the Iran nuclear deal was negotiated, went out of his way to thank Merkel and defended the Iran deal as a “significant agreement.”
“The America I see does not want to turn its back on the world,” Biden said.
ZoeGod
I’m from Brooklyn a place where stars are born.
Iran tries to run out the clock as Trump bears down
Basically the Iranians don’t think Trump will get re-elected and just waiting him out. Smart strategy.
Basically the Iranians don’t think Trump will get re-elected and just waiting him out. Smart strategy.
https://www.firstpost.com/business/...er-sanctions-waiver-deal-with-us-6261071.html
Business Reuters Mar 14, 2019 19:14:13 IST
New Delhi: India’s oil imports from Iran in February plunged by over 60 percent from a year ago to about 260,000 barrels per day (bpd) as New Delhi cuts imports under a sanctions waiver deal with Washington, data compiled by Reuters showed.
The United States introduced sanctions aimed at crippling Iran’s oil revenue-dependent economy in November but gave a six-month waiver to eight nations, including India, which allowed them to import some Iranian oil.
India has been allowed by Washington to continue to buy about 300,000 bpd oil till early May.
India’s February imports from Iran were about 4 percent lower than January’s purchases, the data showed.
Representational image. Reuters.
Iran was the eighth biggest oil supplier to India in February compared with seventh in January, and slipped from third position it held a year ago, the data showed.
Last month Tehran’s share in India’s overall oil imports declined to about 5 percent from about 14 percent a year earlier, the data showed.
In the first 11 months of this fiscal year that began in April, India’s oil imports from Iran rose by 5.6 percent to 486,400 bpd as refiners boosted purchases ahead of the US sanctions drawn by discounts offered by Tehran, the data showed.
Iran was hoping to sell more than 500,000 bpd of oil to India in 2018/19, its oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said last year, and had offered almost free shipping and an extended credit period to boost sales to the country.
Indian refiners Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp, Mangalore Refinery and Petroleum Corp and Indian Oil Corp together lifted 1.25 million tonnes or 9 million barrels of Iranian oil in February.
Delivery of some cargoes is delayed to March as Tehran has a limited number of ships.
In the previous fiscal year that ended on 31 March, 2018 Indian refiners cut purchases from Iran due to a dispute over the award of development rights of a giant gas field.
Government sources say Reuters’ calculations showing India’s oil imports from Iran in this fiscal year would be higher than the 452,000 bpd, or 22.6 million tonnes, it imported in the previous year, were correct.
India’s total oil imports in February were about 5 million barrels, a growth of about 4.6 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.
U.S. Risks Roiling Oil Markets in Trying to Tighten Sanctions
The Salman Oil Field in Iran. Iran exported roughly 1.3 million barrels of oil a day in February and March, nearly double its exports in December.
Credit Ali Mohammedi/Bloomberg
By Edward Wong and Clifford Krauss
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has reached a critical juncture in its efforts to tighten United States oil sanctions against Iran and Venezuela.
By pressuring China and India to end or sharply reduce oil purchases from Iran and Venezuela, American officials are seeking to cut off a key economic lifeline for what the administration considers to be two rogue nations that threaten the stability of the Middle East and Latin America.
But they must do that without roiling global markets, further straining relations with China and India or raising gasoline prices in the United States.
The dilemma has led to a fierce debate within the Trump administration, which is set to decide by May 2 whether to extend waivers allowing China, India and three other nations to buy Iranian oil. A halt of oil shipments would constrict global oil supplies and increase costs at a time when much of the world economy is slowing.
Helima Croft, the global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets and a former C.I.A. energy analyst.
With 2020 elections looming, President Trump is keen to tamp down gasoline prices, especially as summer approaches, when energy use surges and Americans take to the road. Since mid-February, retail gas prices have risen and the global benchmark price for oil has surpassed $70 a barrel, about what it was before Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from a nuclear agreement with Iran last May.
“Oil prices getting too high. OPEC, please relax and take it easy,” Mr. Trump tweeted in late February, urging the global oil cartel to ramp up production. “World cannot take a price hike — fragile!”
Both Iran and Venezuela are members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
The Trump administration has been trying to force major political change on Iran, withdrawing from a 2015 nuclear deal and imposing sanctions as punishment for actions in the Middle East that Washington considers unacceptable. It also is pressuring Venezuela with sanctions as American officials seek the ouster of President Nicolás Maduro from power.
But leaders in Iran and Venezuela have proved durable, even as their main source of revenue — oil exports — was slashed.
Now American officials are looking to inflict greater economic pain. The internal debate over how to do so was detailed by a dozen current and former officials and oil industry executives and analysts.
China and India have enormous energy needs. Both were granted six-month waivers last November to buy Iranian oil, but neither has met American demands to greatly reduce their purchases.
ending them, according to people briefed on the discussions. Both are Iran hawks.
“On the aim of going to zero exports, there are many potential downsides,” said Wendy R. Sherman, a former top State Department official who helped negotiate the nuclear deal with Iran. “You don’t want to tank the world economy. You don’t want to send the price of oil sky-high.”
Saudi Arabia, a chief Trump administration ally, has criticized the waivers. Last fall, anticipating the American sanctions against Iran, the kingdom increased its own oil production — and instead was surprised and frustrated by the waivers that drove down prices.
In an April 4 letter, 23 Republican senators urged Mr. Trump to immediately end all oil exports from Iran — a process the administration has called getting “to zero.”
In a congressional hearing last week, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, told Mr. Pompeo that revenues from Iran’s daily oil exports were “generating billions of dollars that is funding the ayatollah, and I believe, endangering our security.”
Mr. Pompeo said, “I think we’ve been clear about our objective of getting Iran to zero just as quickly as we possibly can, and we will continue to do that.”
Earlier waivers were given to China, India and other purchasers of Iranian oil in 2012 when the Obama administration imposed harsh sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program. At the time, the State Department agreed to the waivers as long as the countries showed they were steadily reducing their Iranian imports, said John Hughes, the department’s former deputy director of sanctions policy and now a vice president at Albright Stonebridge Group.
Those sanctions ended as part of the 2015 deal, brokered by world powers and Tehran, to limit Iran’s nuclear program. Mr. Trump withdrew from that agreement last May, sending Iranian crude exports plummeting by more than 25 percent, or around 600,000 barrels a day, between June and September.
it was clear American sanctions were having a big effect. Taiwan, Greece and Italy never used the waivers and ended their Iranian imports.
But now, Iranian exports are recovering.
In February and March, Iran exported about 1.3 million barrels a day. That was a notable rise from December, even if it was still half of what was exported in April 2018, the month before Mr. Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal.
China alone is importing more than 500,000 barrels of Iranian crude a day, near its average import level before the November sanctions.
India is Iran’s second-biggest oil customer. It has stuck to a commitment to Washington to import no more than 300,000 barrels a day, but has not steadily decreased the purchases.
India is also dependent on oil exports from Venezuela. But Venezuela’s largest customer was the United States, and the Trump administration in January imposed sanctions to end those sales and starve Mr. Maduro’s government of revenue. The United States and 53 other nations recognize Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president and want to force Mr. Maduro from power.
helped Mr. Maduro dig in.
A drop in oil supply from Venezuela and Iran, along with an escalating civil conflict in Libya, another oil producer, has resulted in an increase in global oil benchmark prices — by nearly $20 a barrel, or 40 percent, since the year’s start.
That in turn has caused gasoline prices to rise in the United States, by an average of a penny a day over the last month alone. Analysts said oil prices could rise $10 a barrel or more if the Iran waivers are not granted.
“It will be D-Day for oil prices in 2019,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, an oil expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Saudi Arabia could increase production to bring down prices. But it has no plans to do so, after being burned last fall by the Trump administration’s waivers.
Sadad Ibrahim al-Husseini, a former executive vice president of Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company, said Mr. Trump lost credibility when he granted the waivers.
“I don’t think Mr. Trump understands oil fundamentals, and I doubt OPEC will go along with his thinking,” he said. “That would lead to self-destruction.”
The Salman Oil Field in Iran. Iran exported roughly 1.3 million barrels of oil a day in February and March, nearly double its exports in December.
Credit Ali Mohammedi/Bloomberg
By Edward Wong and Clifford Krauss
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has reached a critical juncture in its efforts to tighten United States oil sanctions against Iran and Venezuela.
By pressuring China and India to end or sharply reduce oil purchases from Iran and Venezuela, American officials are seeking to cut off a key economic lifeline for what the administration considers to be two rogue nations that threaten the stability of the Middle East and Latin America.
But they must do that without roiling global markets, further straining relations with China and India or raising gasoline prices in the United States.
The dilemma has led to a fierce debate within the Trump administration, which is set to decide by May 2 whether to extend waivers allowing China, India and three other nations to buy Iranian oil. A halt of oil shipments would constrict global oil supplies and increase costs at a time when much of the world economy is slowing.
Helima Croft, the global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets and a former C.I.A. energy analyst.
With 2020 elections looming, President Trump is keen to tamp down gasoline prices, especially as summer approaches, when energy use surges and Americans take to the road. Since mid-February, retail gas prices have risen and the global benchmark price for oil has surpassed $70 a barrel, about what it was before Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from a nuclear agreement with Iran last May.
“Oil prices getting too high. OPEC, please relax and take it easy,” Mr. Trump tweeted in late February, urging the global oil cartel to ramp up production. “World cannot take a price hike — fragile!”
Both Iran and Venezuela are members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
The Trump administration has been trying to force major political change on Iran, withdrawing from a 2015 nuclear deal and imposing sanctions as punishment for actions in the Middle East that Washington considers unacceptable. It also is pressuring Venezuela with sanctions as American officials seek the ouster of President Nicolás Maduro from power.
But leaders in Iran and Venezuela have proved durable, even as their main source of revenue — oil exports — was slashed.
Now American officials are looking to inflict greater economic pain. The internal debate over how to do so was detailed by a dozen current and former officials and oil industry executives and analysts.
China and India have enormous energy needs. Both were granted six-month waivers last November to buy Iranian oil, but neither has met American demands to greatly reduce their purchases.
ending them, according to people briefed on the discussions. Both are Iran hawks.
“On the aim of going to zero exports, there are many potential downsides,” said Wendy R. Sherman, a former top State Department official who helped negotiate the nuclear deal with Iran. “You don’t want to tank the world economy. You don’t want to send the price of oil sky-high.”
Saudi Arabia, a chief Trump administration ally, has criticized the waivers. Last fall, anticipating the American sanctions against Iran, the kingdom increased its own oil production — and instead was surprised and frustrated by the waivers that drove down prices.
In an April 4 letter, 23 Republican senators urged Mr. Trump to immediately end all oil exports from Iran — a process the administration has called getting “to zero.”
In a congressional hearing last week, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, told Mr. Pompeo that revenues from Iran’s daily oil exports were “generating billions of dollars that is funding the ayatollah, and I believe, endangering our security.”
Mr. Pompeo said, “I think we’ve been clear about our objective of getting Iran to zero just as quickly as we possibly can, and we will continue to do that.”
Earlier waivers were given to China, India and other purchasers of Iranian oil in 2012 when the Obama administration imposed harsh sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program. At the time, the State Department agreed to the waivers as long as the countries showed they were steadily reducing their Iranian imports, said John Hughes, the department’s former deputy director of sanctions policy and now a vice president at Albright Stonebridge Group.
Those sanctions ended as part of the 2015 deal, brokered by world powers and Tehran, to limit Iran’s nuclear program. Mr. Trump withdrew from that agreement last May, sending Iranian crude exports plummeting by more than 25 percent, or around 600,000 barrels a day, between June and September.
it was clear American sanctions were having a big effect. Taiwan, Greece and Italy never used the waivers and ended their Iranian imports.
But now, Iranian exports are recovering.
In February and March, Iran exported about 1.3 million barrels a day. That was a notable rise from December, even if it was still half of what was exported in April 2018, the month before Mr. Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal.
China alone is importing more than 500,000 barrels of Iranian crude a day, near its average import level before the November sanctions.
India is Iran’s second-biggest oil customer. It has stuck to a commitment to Washington to import no more than 300,000 barrels a day, but has not steadily decreased the purchases.
India is also dependent on oil exports from Venezuela. But Venezuela’s largest customer was the United States, and the Trump administration in January imposed sanctions to end those sales and starve Mr. Maduro’s government of revenue. The United States and 53 other nations recognize Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president and want to force Mr. Maduro from power.
helped Mr. Maduro dig in.
A drop in oil supply from Venezuela and Iran, along with an escalating civil conflict in Libya, another oil producer, has resulted in an increase in global oil benchmark prices — by nearly $20 a barrel, or 40 percent, since the year’s start.
That in turn has caused gasoline prices to rise in the United States, by an average of a penny a day over the last month alone. Analysts said oil prices could rise $10 a barrel or more if the Iran waivers are not granted.
“It will be D-Day for oil prices in 2019,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, an oil expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Saudi Arabia could increase production to bring down prices. But it has no plans to do so, after being burned last fall by the Trump administration’s waivers.
Sadad Ibrahim al-Husseini, a former executive vice president of Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company, said Mr. Trump lost credibility when he granted the waivers.
“I don’t think Mr. Trump understands oil fundamentals, and I doubt OPEC will go along with his thinking,” he said. “That would lead to self-destruction.”
the cac mamba
Veteran
i cant wait until israel leads us into war with iran. i love that they're the only democracy in the region; that's so important to me
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
the cac mamba
Veteran
this has nothing to do with trump. israel has been angling for war with iran for a while, you zionist scumbag. and since they own washington DC, they'll eventually get itthis problem can be laid at the feet of the cuck Trump that you worship
Trump has been enabling Israel more than any other president in recent history, dipsh*t. :bpgucci: