Will the US Sanction the EU?
by John Lawrence
The rest of the world doesn't agree with President Trump's pulling out of the nuclear agreement with Iran. Iran has been complying with the agreement so why should the US pull out based on the judgment of one man? If the US is a democracy, shouldn't it take more than one to reverse a policy that was entered into on behalf of the world's greatest super power? The US has vowed to put sanctions on any entity doing business with Iran. However, the EU is standing up to the US in the persona of Trump and devising a workaround that will supply Iran with everything it needs regardless of Trump's threat of sanctions.
DW reported:
The remaining signatories of the Iran nuclear deal announced on Monday that they would establish a channel to facilitate payments for Iran's exports, including oil, as well as its imports. The decision was reached after high-level closed-door talks at the UN in New York.
"Mindful of the urgency and the need for tangible results, the participants welcomed practical proposals to maintain and develop payment channels, notably the initiative to establish a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to facilitate payments related to Iran's exports, including oil," Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the EU announced in a joint statement.
The members' stated intent is "to protect the freedom of their economic operators to pursue legitimate business with Iran."
The SPV could breathe life into the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Iran nuclear deal, and was sought by Tehran in order to counter the reimposition of sanctions triggered by the US's exit from the deal.
The European Union has struggled to devise a workable legal framework to shield its companies from the effects of US sanctions, which are set to come into effect in November, and has tried to deter firms from pulling out of Iran.
If Trump can singlehandedly and unilaterally pull out of an international deal, it effectively makes him a dictator. The fact that this deal was never ratified by Congress signifies the fact that the US Congress is totally dysfunctional. In a democracy, the people or their representatives should stand behind the deals made in their name. Just because Trump thinks the Iran deal was a bad deal does not make it so. Every other signatory to the deal thinks it was a good deal. Trump is just exercising dictatorial powers turning the US into a dictatorship with a Congress that is irrelevant. This is how democracies become dictatorships.
Will the US then sanction the EU and drive the US further apart from its erstwhile allies? Already China and Russia are developing ways to circumvent US sanctions. They are tired of having the US, which they thought was a rational and trustworthy actor, control the world's financial system. When the dollar no longer reigns supreme, the chickens will soon be coming home to roost on the US national debt. But no worries. The Federal Reserve will simply print more money to pay off the debt. That seems to be working so far.
