SWIFT READY TO BLOCK IRANIAN BANK TRANSACTIONS
February 18th, 2012When I studied International Relations in college, we were taught that economic sanctions could be on par with, “Rockets and bombs,” as one professor put it, and potentially much worse. Questions about economic sanctions amounting to collective punishment and other violations of International Law are ignored by the perpetrators. These types of policies resulted in a holocaust in Iraq.
The only conclusion that I can draw from the news below is that the decision has already been made to militarily engage Iran and this is an attempt to cause Iran to lash out first. In the event that Iran doesn’t strike first, a false flag incident could be fabricated easily.
If SWIFT actually pulls the plug, I’d consider the fuse to be lit. Also, if SWIFT does it before 20 March, this is probably the real reason:
Last week, the Tehran Times noted that the Iranian oil bourse will start trading oil in currencies other than the dollar from March 20. This long-planned move is part of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s vision of economic war with the west.
“The dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme is nothing more than a convenient excuse for the US to use threats to protect the ‘reserve currency’ status of the dollar,” the newspaper, which calls itself the voice of the Islamic Revolution, said.
Via: Reuters:
Belgium-based SWIFT, which provides banks with a system for moving funds around the world, bowed to international pressure on Friday and said it was ready to block Iranian banks from using its network to transfer money.
Expelling Iranian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication would shut down Tehran’s main avenue to doing business with the rest of the world – an outcome the West believes is crucial to curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
SWIFT, which has never cut off a country before, has been closely following efforts in the United States and the European Union to develop new sanctions targeting Iran that would directly affect EU-based financial institutions.
The United States and EU have already moved to sanction Iran’s central bank.
“SWIFT stands ready to act and discontinue its services to sanctioned Iranian financial institutions as soon as it has clarity on EU legislation currently being drafted,” the company said in an emailed statement.
The United States has been pushing the European Union to force SWIFT to evict the Iranian firms but it was unclear whether the EU would reach an agreement.
For one, SWIFT’s home country, Belgium, does not think the global banking firm should be the only company of its kind required to comply with sanctions.
The Obama administration said it welcomed SWIFT’s intention to stop transactions involving designated Iranian banks. “We will continue to be in contact with our EU partners to urge action on this issue,” a U.S. Treasury official said.
SWIFT, with headquarters just outside the Belgian capital Brussels, is vital to international money flows, exchanging an average 18 million payment messages per day between banks and other financial institutions in 210 countries.
Research Credit: GP
Years ago it seems, I learned that Iran wanted to not use dollars in exchange for their oil. The Iranian bourse it was called back then.
In my not so Humble Opinion, the tweedle-dums and the tweedle-dees that don’t know what to do about their failing economies are turning Iran into the enemy. What war did they ever start? Hmm.
Oh yeah. Iran has a nuclear program and is the “white man’s” enemy, just like Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction” aka Seniors Bush I and II. Yeah. Iran is our enemy. BALONEY.
I’m so gosh darned freaking tired of the financial and militarial arms of “world governence” resorting to war – either with a burst of a financial bubble, or going to war with a passive tense nation (at least in terms of starting wars) when all else fails their pea-sized (dried up) brains.
Whoever – the world has been chopping the heads off of the Iranian nuclear scientific effort; Israel claims Iran is responsible for every assassination attack in the world, etc.
I suggest Isreal should put a sock in it and call back their Mossad dogs. Get a grip on it guys. Iran is NOT MY ENEMY.
Yeah, but if you guys keep pulling your pranks, and bomb those underground bunkers in Iran and spew nuclear toxins across this Planet, I will have to take many actions that I’d rather not have to do. Yea verily, don’t want to have to grow all my food in a greenhouse (which I don’t have).
Numbnuts all. I guess it takes me back to the days of the Iranian oil embargo of the 1970s where we had to wait in line for HOURS to buy gas, EVERY OTHER DAY.
If we screw Iran over any more than we have been already, we’ll be lucky if we can buy gas here in the U.S. EVERY OTHER WEEK.