Source: TheTower.org
With many analysts and politicians crediting the international sanctions regime for bringing Iran to the negotiating table \u2013 and with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani focusing on sanctions in a speech that many panned as angry and combative \u2013 analyst attention is turning to the degree to which trade and financial restrictions could be unwound in the context of a deal between Iran and the West.<\/p>\n
One complicating factor is that Iran\u2019s global terror infrastructure and its domestic human rights violations have seen it subject to the sanctions that have nothing to do with its nuclear program. There are reasons to doubt that Rouhani is willing and able to alter Iran\u2019s behavior in either of these two areas.<\/p>\n
The Wall Street Journal has described how Rouhani \u201cchaired Iran\u2019s National Security Council between 1989 and 2005, meaning he was at the top table when Iran masterminded\u201d several spectacular global terror attacks.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month a federal judge found that the Alavi Foundation was in violation of U.S. sanctions on Iran. The case stretched back to 2008, when the Treasury Department designated the Assa Corporation for serving as a front for Iranian controlled Melli Bank and its involvement of money laundering for Iran. At the time, counter-terror specialist Matthew Levitt described the move as \u201ca shot across the bow\u201d of the Alavi Foundation, which co-owned a 36-story Fifth Avenue building with the Assa Corporation.<\/p>\n
The judge\u2019s ruling from earlier this month did indeed setup the building to be seized by the Justice Department. If Justice does, it would be the largest terrorism-related forfeiture ever.<\/p>\n
As far as domestic policies are concerned, Rouhani has repeatedly called for the imprisonment \u2013 and the execution \u2013 of anti-regime dissidents. Rouhani\u2019s Minister of Justice, Mostafa Pourmohammadi was Deputy Minister of Intelligence from 1987-1999 ,and in 1988 acted as the Ministry of Intelligence\u2019s representative on a 3-person panel that oversaw the torture and execution of literally thousands of Iranian prisoners.<\/p>\n
The summer had already seen Treasury issue sanctions against Asghar Mir-Hejazi, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei\u2019s deputy chief of staff, for alleged human rights abuses. Treasury described him as \u201cone of the primary officials in the oppression following the June 2009 post-election unrest.\u201d Dozens of other Iranian government officials were also sanctioned at the time, for abuses including \u201cthe use of communications technology to silence and intimidate the Iranian people.\u201d<\/p>\n
To be sure, Iran is also subject to sanctions by U.S. lawmakers related to its nuclear program. The House of Representatives this summer passed the Iran Nuclear Prevention Act \u2013 ratcheting up sanctions on Iran\u2019s oil, mining and construction industries \u2013 by a vote of 400-20.<\/p>\n
On the Senate side, August saw 76 Senators signing a letter to Obama urging him to exert greater pressure specifically on Iran\u2019s clandestine nuclear activities. The letter \u2013 initiated by Foreign Relations Committee chairman Sen. Robert Menendez and signed by among others Middle East subcommittee chair Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) \u2013 outlined a minimum set of elements that would be necessary to reassure U.S. lawmakers. It emphasized the need for a convincing threat that the U.S. could and would use force to prevent Tehran from rushing across the nuclear finish line.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile the Senate is working on parallel legislation to the House\u2019s Iran Nuclear Prevention Act. A bipartisan group of Senators have already introduced legislation aiming to close loopholes in efforts to prevent Iran from accessing billions of dollars worth of foreign currency reserves. It would specifically target reserves held mostly in euros that Iran uses to get around oil sanctions. The proposed legislation was explicitly designed to curb Iran\u2019s nuclear program, and analysts noted as much at the time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Source: TheTower.orgWith many analysts and politicians crediting the international sanctions regime for bringing Iran to the negotiating table – and with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani focusing on sanctions in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[175],"class_list":{"0":"post-14728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-iran-a-world","7":"tag-updated"},"yoast_head":"\n