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Speaking about the nuclear program in Iran, Obama said he and Hu agreed that the government in Tehran must provide assurances to the international community that its nuclear program is peaceful and transparent.
“On this point, our two nations and the rest of our P5-plus-1 partners are unified,” Obama said, referring to the five permanent U.N. Security Council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany.
The International Atomic Energy Agency this week demanded Iran provide more information about the purpose of a previously secret nuclear site and indicated Tehran could be hiding other facilities, according to reports.
“Iran has an opportunity to present and demonstrate its peaceful intentions,” Obama said. “But if it fails to take this opportunity, there will be consequences.”
The Obama administration is pressing Congress to provide an exemption from Iran sanctions to companies based in “cooperating countries,” a move that likely would exempt Chinese and Russian concerns from penalties meant to discourage investment in Iran.
The Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act is in a House-Senate conference committee and is expected to reach President Obama’s desk by Memorial Day.
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According to three congressional staffers familiar with the White House proposal, once a country is on that list, the administration wouldn’t even have to identify companies from that country as selling gasoline or aiding Iran’s refinement industry.
Even if, as current law allows, the administration can waive the penalties on named companies for various reasons, the “cooperating countries” language would deprive the sanctions of their “name-and-shame” power, the staffers said.
The prospect that China and Chinese firms would be exempt from penalty follows reports that Beijing is cooperating with Iran’s missile program. On April 23, Jane’s Defense Weekly reported that China broke ground on a plant in Iran this month that will build the Nasr-1 anti-ship missile.
Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, where he directs the group’s Iran energy project, said the “‘cooperating-country’ status would send a signal to the energy sector that the Obama administration is not serious about penalizing those companies that continue to do business with the Iranian energy sector, the lifeblood of the men who rule Iran.”
If I were running Iran, considering most of the neighbors are enemies and one of them already has unsanctioned nukes, I would want to develop my own ASAP. Then let them know a MAD situation existed between them and us. MAD is crazy but stable.
Almost looks like a setup. The perfect way to insure that those certain countries are guaranteed to reap the benefits of continued (now monopolized) business with the "sanctioned" country, while all other bidders are shut out, because they have to abide by the sanctions. Or face sanctions themselves by violating terms dictated by the UN.......
As for sanctions, Washington needs a reality check. To believe that the BRICs or countries in Asia and Europe will not buy Iranian oil and gas; won't sell gasoline to Iran; and that Iranian banks won't develop ways to interface with the global economy (they have partners, for instance, in the United Arab Emirates and in Venezuela) is to live in Wonderland.
I think Obama is discovering that China owns us and not the other way around.
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