Why is the EU so obsessed with propping up this Iranian regime?
Because they would not like to have a (nuclear) war in their neighborhood, it's easy for the US to stirr up war for 50y in the middle east when the middle east is far away.
Europe Finally Has an Excuse to Challenge the Dollar
91–100 of 151 posts
Re: Europe Finally Has an Excuse to Challenge the Dollar
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The US should aggressively block any attempt to get around it. The ubiquity of US dollars in international trade allows US to torpedo the economy of any country it so desires. It is like the US has a kill switch to shut down any economy it wishes to. But the only reason the rest of the world plays along and allows the kill switch to exist is that they trust the US to use it responsibly and only in extreme circumsta…
>The ubiquity of US dollars in international trade allows US to torpedo the economy of any country it so desires. And that's exactly why this is necessary. The above is only cool if you're part of the ~5% of the world that is American.
It’s been a fair trade off of benefits/drawbacks in the past - you don’t have to hold gold, you can hold a currency that is stable and reliable, you can use it to trade around the world for modern goods and services. You put yourself at the mercy of the US, but if the US follows international rules and acts multilaterally and you’re not North Korea, the risks are small.
Re: Europe Finally Has an Excuse to Challenge the Dollar
#93"Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia to create special financial infrastructure to work with Iran"
hmmm... There's a story here about Iran-US, a story about the "western coalition," a story about the dollar's special status (maybe). There's also a story about this "special financial infrastructure/ vehicle."
WTF is that infrastructure? Why are Germany, France & Britain and keen on this? These thing can (often) have ulterior motives or outcomes. Other than trading in other currencies, what does this do?
On the diplomatic "story" this really demonstrates the new multipolar world, once you step out of the military realm and into an economic one. China, the EU & the US are similar size/strength. No stable teams...
Re: Europe Finally Has an Excuse to Challenge the Dollar
#94" Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia to create special financial infrastructure to work with Iran " hmmm... There's a story here about Iran-US, a story about the "western coalition," a story about the dollar's special status (maybe). There's also a story about this "special financial infrastructure/ vehicle." WTF is that infrastructure? Why are Germany, France & Britain and keen on this? These thing can (ofte…
Well the UK is about to leave the team, without it the EU is significantly weaker...
Re: Europe Finally Has an Excuse to Challenge the Dollar
#95> The cost of defying American sanctions can be steep: in 2015, BNP Paribas SA, the French bank, paid a penalty of almost $9 billion for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, Cuba and Sudan
I'm cruious, who imposes that fine and how do they enforce payment?
Can the US Government FORCE a French Bank to pay them a fine? Surely a French bank could just say "no thanks".
Re: Europe Finally Has an Excuse to Challenge the Dollar
#96This article makes absolutely no sense. The EU chosing Iran over the US?! That is not what is going to happen over the reopened Iran deal. What is going to happen is that the EU will fall in line and Iran will be forced to withdraw its activities in Syria, Iraq, Yemen ... due to the severity of the economic hardship caused by the sanctions.
The EU will fall in line once Iran leaves the deal as well, and not a second before - that much is clear already. They have committed themselves to their strategy.
Large internationals will stop dealing with Iran, some small businesses with no US market will continue. And the set of companies is not static. We all have to earn a living. If you don't want to import Iranian pistachios anymore, someone else will.
Which is why the sanctioneers are so obsessed with shutting down SWIFT, and angry at the proposed vehicle. Because unless it's prohibitively costly to exchange money with Iran, someone will do it.
Iran is going to sit still for a while. They will navigate the waters as best they can, which may include showing some restraint at times, but things have to get much much worse economically before you see the total withdrawal you are predicting.
Assuming their internal situation stabilizes, which is not an unreasonable assumption at this point, Iran will at some point in the future declare that they do not consider themselves bound to the deal anymore, while emphasizing again that they do not seek a nuke and never have, and without initially escalating. They will then rebuild their nuclear infrastructure in steps and initially in secret whenever, trying to limit then fallout, as they have done before.
Re: Europe Finally Has an Excuse to Challenge the Dollar
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
« pushing closer to the ennemi », yet i don’t think any european citizen will understand why we prefer to start a judiciary war against the US just so that we can help a muslim theocracy broaden its influence in the middle east. It doesn’t serm to me that the public opinion in europe is really heading toward that kind of opinion.
Public opinion in Europe ain't very positive about Trump either, every other day its another eye roll because of what that ego maniac did/said/didn't, how rude and unfair he is. This is what people see. On the other side, what specifically Iran did do to deserve this? Yes they meddle around their neighbors, just like every other country. US is the last who should be blaming others for this, Iran is at least home and…
I'll add that sanctions were imposed because Iran was getting greedy with nuclear power. Now that Iran backed off, there is no reason to continue these sanctions. Moreover everyone voted to lift said sanctions in 2015, and now some orange dude said 'no fuck u' despite his country having signed the arrangement and wants to force everyone else to unilaterally accept his own conditions.
It's good to see that Europe finally grew a spine.
Re: Europe Finally Has an Excuse to Challenge the Dollar
#98Why is the EU so obsessed with propping up this Iranian regime?
Because they want to respect the agreement they signed (that agreement the US decided to not honor and to bully every other signee into not honoring).
Re: Europe Finally Has an Excuse to Challenge the Dollar
#99" Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia to create special financial infrastructure to work with Iran " hmmm... There's a story here about Iran-US, a story about the "western coalition," a story about the dollar's special status (maybe). There's also a story about this "special financial infrastructure/ vehicle." WTF is that infrastructure? Why are Germany, France & Britain and keen on this? These thing can (ofte…
Well the UK is about to leave the team, without it the EU is significantly weaker...
Or perhaps significantly stronger. The UK was historically the naysayer of the EU, opposing more integration. Now the strongest Economies are Germany and France which are both very much in favor of a closer EU. If this leads to the EU being quicker in decision making and pooling more of their resources it could mean a big boon to the EU.
On the other hand the UK used to be kind of a watchdog of the EU so that role might have to be filled by either someone else or one can hope that the EU politicians will have enough pressure from their own countries.
Lastly even though the UK is in the process of leaving, basically all the politicians responsible for it have either back paddled or just quit. The UK might yet fall back into the fold, only this time without their special status.
Re: Europe Finally Has an Excuse to Challenge the Dollar
#100The US cannot sustainably force the EU to suspend trade with a third country. Sanctions, at least employed in this way, is a weapon which use reduces its effectiveness. Like everything the Trump administration does, reneging on the JCPoA represents an extreme trade-off in favor of short-term gain at greater expense in the long-term.