"Expedite the RI/RV" - Sun. AM KTFA Thoughts/News 11/4/18

by **Ssmith** Mon Nov 05, 2018 7:59 am

KTFA

TPNoble53 » November 4th, 2018

Don961...WOW.. this is huge...Iran is toast...a cooked goose...lol. D is a genius when it comes to trade. This will put more pressure than the leadership of Iran can deal with. I see major civil unrest among the Iranians/Persians against the Mullahs. This will surely help expedite the RI/RV and slow down the flow of $$$ to terrorists globally.

Don961 » November 4th, 2018

Beijing is abandoning Tehran with signs of a breakthrough with Washington

- One Day Ago

LONDON (Reuters) - Global reports linked China's suspension of banking with Iran to signs of a breakthrough in its trade war with the United States. Beijing appeared to have given up Tehran to save its big interests with Washington.

The head of the Iranian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Asadullah Askar Oladi, confirmed that Chinese banks suspended all transactions with Iranian companies yesterday due to US sanctions, the official Tasnim news agency reported.

He said that all Chinese banks no longer work with Iranian businessmen, and stressed that Iran's exports to China have reached a halt completely because of the suspension of Chinese banks relations with Iranian companies.

He stressed that the talks conducted by the Central Bank of Iran to continue cooperation with Chinese banks did not reach any result.

This coincided with US President Donald Trump's confirmation after a telephone conversation with the Chinese president that trade negotiations between the two countries were making progress, days after he confirmed the possibility of reaching a trade agreement.

Chinese President Xi Jinping also expressed his optimism that China and the United States, the two largest economies in the world, will be able to promote healthy and stable relations and expand bilateral cooperation in trade.

Analysts say China has found itself among the option of saving its big interests with the United States and the interests of small and risky with Iran, and that the signs of a breakthrough trade confrontation with Washington has been decided.

In Beijing, Chinese state-run Kunlun Bank, the main official channel of financial payments between China and Iran, told its clients that it had suspended dealings with Iran earlier this month, four days before US sanctions were imposed, informed sources said.

Reuters quoted the sources as confirming that the suspension was not limited to dollar transactions, but also extended to transactions in Chinese yuan and all financing and commercial payments.

The sources said that the bank implemented its decision suddenly and without an official announcement.

The move comes after China's two biggest state oil companies, Sinopec and National Oil Corp. (CNPC), announced the suspension of Iranian oil purchases a month.

Present. China is the largest importer of Iranian oil and all oil payments and most other commercial transactions pass through Kunlun Bank.

China's imports of Iranian oil began to decline since last September, when it fell by more than a third, and then shrunk further in the last month. Observers are likely to dwindle and may stop this month after the announcement of the largest government companies to stop the loading of Iranian oil.

Chinese state-owned enterprises have extensive ties to the US market, some like Sinopec listed on Wall Street in New York, and have preferred to protect those interests.

Analysts viewed China as Iran's last and biggest window to ease the severity of US sanctions by buying oil or other business dealings. China's sudden decision will reverse all previous estimates of the consequences of the sanctions on Iran. At the same time, Iranian officials began to prepare Iranian public opinion about the severity of sanctions.

President Hassan Rowhani acknowledged this week that Iranians may face difficult times when new US sanctions take effect on Sunday.

Kunlun Bank is the main channel of China's financial transactions with Iran and has stopped trading yesterday

Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami warned of popular protests in the country "if the regime insists on its mistakes." "Criticism will turn into demonstrations, and it is not clear what will happen to the fate of the country afterwards," he said. Japan, South Korea and most Indian refiners have stopped buying Iranian oil after they have given up on US exemptions. Turkey finds itself in a difficult position as it insists on continuing to buy as Ankara's relations with Washington are strained.

Iran has only a shy window the European Union is trying to open through a mechanism to buy Iranian oil and continue some trade. But experts say it is a very technically difficult task and its participants are exposed to Washington's vengeance.

It is unlikely that any European company with interests with the US would venture into dealing with Iran, and all major European companies have already announced their suspension.

It seems almost certain that the European mechanism will find little revenue from oil exports through official channels on the one hand and will not find large companies to export products to Iran on the other.We can imagine the size of companies that have no interests with the United States, which represents a quarter of the global economy.

The Arabs link

ChrisC » November 4th, 2018

Over the years, I have become someone that easily moves to what would be "conspiratorial" conclusions with what I have seen. I am going to throw out a good movie plot (JUST A POSSIBLE OPINION) Frank and you tell me if it is too crazy.

Iraq is so unbelievably corrupt that NOBODY can get them to RI no matter how badly they are embarrassed or threatened so Trump comes up with the elaborate strategy of appearing to attack their largest trading partner and restrict them from using the dollar just so they can put leverage on the Iraqis that they can't refuse.

Having done that and forcing their hand, Iran gets rewarded with their own high RV rate.

TPNoble » November 4th, 2018

Another revenue stream stopped from going into Iran. CHECK

Samson » November 4th, 2018

Iraq suspends its oil exports from Kirkuk towards Iran in implementation of US sanctions

4th November, 2018

Iraq halted its exports from northern oil fields in Kirkuk to Iran three weeks ago, in line with US sanctions on Iran, the Bloomberg news agency reported on Sunday.

The crude exports to Iran were carried by trucks, and the maximum load before stopping between 20 - 30 thousand barrels per day, where the production of Kirkuk rights currently about 230 thousand barrels per day.

Kirkuk could increase production by adding 100,000 barrels per day when exports resume at the Turkish port of Ceyhan via a Kurdish pipeline. LINK

Iran is Incapable of Responding to Sanctions

Sunday، 04 November 2018 01:11 PM

Salman Al-dossary

The new round of strict US economic sanctions will go into effect against Tehran on Monday.

They are not the first to ever be slapped against Iran. In fact, it has a long history of all sorts of sanctions.

Between 2011 and 2012, the US and European Union upped their pressure against Iran by imposing new sanctions against its oil exports. At the time, Tehran responded in its habitual manner: Threats of naval maneuvers, ballistic missile tests and warnings that it will shut the Hormuz Strait.

Then Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi had declared that if the sanctions are imposed “then, not a single drop of oil will pass through Hormuz.” However, the sanctions went into effect, and millions of barrels of oil were traded and not a single response was recorded.

In August 2017, US President Donald Trump signed into law the "Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act”. It included measures against Iran’s ballistic missiles program and Revolutionary Guards and its militias. In wake of the development, senior Guards commanders warned that any new sanctions would be countered with a severe blow to US interests in the region.

The same scenario was repeated in May when Trump announced his withdrawal from the nuclear deal. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said at the time that Washington was seeking to completely halt Tehran’s oil exports. Addressing the Americans, he warned that they will face consequences of their actions.

Iran’s deputy Shura council chief Ali Mathari also warned that his country will shut the Hormuz Strait in retaliation. Its interior minister went even further, by saying: “If we close our eyes for 24 hours, then a million refugees will head to Europe through our western borders” via Turkey. In addition, he said that some 5,000 tons of drugs could be smuggled to the West. A slew of Iranian threats and warnings ensued.

Despite this rhetoric, Iran not once, stayed true to its threats. It did not dare shut Hormuz. The end result was the same: The sanctions were imposed and Tehran was left powerless.

Worst of all is that the current American administration is determined to clip Iran’s wings. It boasts a president who is not at all tolerant of overlooking Iran’s malicious behavior. He wants it to cease its support for terrorism and stop its nuclear and ballistic missiles program.

Donald Trump is not Barack Obama or Bill Clinton. He is unlike any other American president that Iran has faced before.

Moreover, regional countries have a clear strategy to confront the looming danger from the east. Furthermore, the Iranian people will have a difficult time tolerating more damaging austerity measures. The new sanctions will likely create an internal shock in Iran and within the regime, which seems paralyzed, and only animated by its cartoonish statements.

Similar to previous sanctions, Iran is unlikely to take escalatory measures to confront the new harsh penalties, because its regime does not have the sufficient means to translate its heated and repeated threats into words.

The regime will, as usual, resort to its sectarian militias in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. We will see some of its sleeper cells in the region wake up, but it will not be bold enough to make a direct provocation, because the strength of the regime lies in its indirect confrontation.

At any rate, the new sanctions will compound Iran’s isolation and reveal day after day that the regime is incapable of responding to them. link

Pompeo: US sanctions will target Iran’s regime, not people

4th November, 2018

United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that upcoming economic sanctions against Tehran is focused on targeting the Iranian regime, not its people.

“On November 5, we will place tough sanctions on #Iran’s ruling regime. Our aim is to compel Iran to abandon its destructive activities. The sanctions will target the regime—not the people, who have suffered the pain of their government’s mismanagement, theft, and brutality,” he tweeted.

Washington will on Monday reintroduce far-reaching sanctions on Iran’s vital oil sales and banking sectors to try to force the Islamic Republic into negotiations to scrap its nuclear energy and ballistic missile programs and end its support for proxies in conflicts across the Middle East.

Pompeo’s statement on Saturday echoed that of UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, who said on Saturday that Iran’s “aggressive policies” were “largely responsible” for the reimposition of US sanctions on Tehran. LINK