The squeezing of Iran continues.
President Obama ordered a freeze on all Iranian government and financial institutions’ assets that are under U.S. jurisdiction, the White House said today.
The president cited “deceptive practices” of the Iranian central bank in hiding transactions of sanctioned parties and its failure to prevent money laundering, concluding that Iran activities pose an “unacceptable risk” to the international financial system.
Iran posing an “unacceptable risk” to the international financial system? Try Jamie Dimon, Lloyd Blankfein, Angela Merkel, Timothy Geithner and Ben Bernanke.
The order blocks all property and interests in property belonging to the Iranian government, its central bank, and all Iranian financial institutions, even those that haven’t been designated for sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department.
Why any government in the world continues to trust the US to safeguard their assets is beyond me, an anonymous internet commentator.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to freeze gold, or even oil for that matter.
ReplyDelete"...this was mostly a symbolic gesture, however, since Iran--having seen U.S. administrations freeze the assets of other countries often during the past few years--had already reduced their U.S. holdings to $37.12, a pack of gum, and some subway tokens..."
ReplyDelete"Deceptive practices" and "hiding transactions"?
ReplyDeleteTehran has nothing on the Fed ...
Pot, meet kettle.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure Iran saw this problem coming. Years ago.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thetrumpet.com/?q=5238.3526.0.0
"Iran has withdrawn around $75 billion of its foreign assets from European banks. This withdrawal was ordered by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in order to protect those assets from European threats to impose new sanctions over Tehran’s controversial nuclear ambitions."
Granted that was Europe, but I can't imagine they would trust the US anymore. IIRC, there are some 20 billion in frozen assets from the Shah's time.
'The president cited “deceptive practices” of the Iranian central bank...'
ReplyDeleteI have to laugh at the idea of any puppet of the Federal Reserve accusing someone else of "deceptive practices." Talk about chutzpah!
I am also doubting that Iran has much held over here. The doublethink involved in listening to Obama knock other countries for lack of transparency and financial terrorism is mind-boggling.
ReplyDelete