Op-ed:
Iran and sanctions...like oil and water

By: Diane Sori

When it comes to Iran I don’t know why people refuse to understand that sanctions just do NOT work.  Even with all the sanctions that have been put in place already, Iran is still well on its way to having nuclear weapons capability.  And the thought of a nuclear armed Iran, especially an Iran headed by the madman Ahmadinejad, is NOT something I, or any person with even one working brain cell, wants to see become a reality.

 

We know where Barack HUSSEIN Obama stands on Iran, he bloviates he’s against them but his actions prove otherwise, and now we have the European Union jumping on the bandwagon of imposing more useless sanctions.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton says that the unilateral sanctions announced by the US as well as those imposed by the UN Security Council, have done significant damage to Iran’s economy, and now with the EU adding even tougher sanction they believe Iran will be persuaded to make concessions and that negotiations could resume "very soon."

Hate to break the news to them but Iran is laughing in their faces and in ours.  The only one they’re NOT laughing at is Israel.

And while the EU keeps bloviating over and over that they’re concerned with Iran's refusal to level with them about its nuclear program, they, instead of drawing a ‘red line’ as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested when speaking before the UN last month, instead are choosing to impose yet another new range of useless sanctions against Iran’s banking, shipping and industrial sectors.  They hope this will hit the country's treasury and increase pressure on Ahmadinejad to stop their nuclear development program.

Guess what...it won’t.

And while Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the Iranian Resistance, welcomed the EU’s decision to expand sanctions as "an essential step to preclude this regime from acquiring nuclear weapons" she stressed that this does NOT go far enough.  Rajavi wanted the EU to sever all economic and commercial ties with Iran but the EU will only go so far in what they’ll do...just as Obama will only go so far.

They will only go so far...and guess what...as Iran is laughing it has used the added time to take measures that allow them to circumvent the sanctions by using front countries or companies and by using barter trade.  

And now Iran is playing the blackmail game with the West as they continue their insistence that it has every right to enrich uranium saying they want nuclear capability for ‘peaceful purposes’ only, and that all economic sanctions must be lifted before it will even consider stopping any activities that will enable it to reach that goal. 

Yeah right...like any thinking person believes or trusts anything they say.

Iran says it needs 20% enriched uranium to conduct medical research, but nuclear technology experts have said such enriched uranium could be converted to weapons-grade material within six months, and with a mad man like Ahmadinejad and his Islamic regime at the helm you know they are lying through their teeth.

But EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, told reporters before announcing the additional sanctions that there was still "room for negotiations" between Iran and the UK, US, France, China, Russia and Germany.

NOT really as far as Benjamin Netanyahu is concerned.

Netanyahu knows that harsher warnings must be sent to Tehran, as in drawing that ‘red line’ that Iran dare NOT cross despite Obama’s refusal to issue an ultimatum or to stand with Israel beyond mere lip service.  In fact, yesterday in a speech in Israel Netanyahu let it be known that Israel had new unspecified ‘capabilities’ to act against Iran's nuclear threat, an issue he said he had placed at the heart of the global debate.  Referring to past threats to attack Iran to stop it from building a nuclear bomb, Netanyahu said Israel now had "the capabilities to act against Iran and its satellites, capabilities we didn't have in the past.”­­­­

And you can take it to the bank that if Israel says it has ‘something’ you know it as fact that they do.

Perhaps an EMP device (electric magnetic device)...it could very well be.

So now with the EU adding even more useless sanctions, thus buying Iran the extra time needed to actually develop a weapon, the possibilities of a true Middle-East War is still in the countdown mode.  But at least we know that Netanyahu will NOT allow it to be a go before our election, as he knows he’ll have Romney’s support when the time to attack is right.

Positive thinking about Romney on my part and I’m sure on the part of many of you as well.