Fred Fleitz:Another Obama Bomb Concession: Iran May Get Access to U.S. Financial Markets
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It seems that almost every month since the nuclear agreement with Iran, the “Obama Bomb” deal, was announced last summer there have been new revelations about how the agreement is weaker that Obama administration claimed and side deals that the administration failed to disclose to Congress and the American people.
For example, although President Obama and Secretary Kerry claimed in July 2015 that under the deal Iran would honor UN Security Council resolutions barring Iranian ballistic missiles tests for right years, it turned out that the text of the agreement said nothing about missile tests – this language was included in an annex to a Security Council resolution that endorsed the deal. This means sanctions against Iran lifted by the nuclear deal can’t be reimposed due to Iranian missile tests conducted over the last month and last fall.
There also was a secret side deal allowing Iran to inspect itself for evidence of nuclear weapons-related work.
Last month, we learned the IAEA has dumbed-down its reports on Iran’s nuclear program because it claims the nuclear agreement removed certain mandates that were the basis for some of its previous inspections. However, new IAEA Iran reports have few details on issues the agency is authorized to investigate which may indicate another side deal with Iran which has long opposed detailed IAEA reporting on its nuclear program.
The latest development is a possible new concession the Obama administration reportedly plans to make to Iran to give it access to U.S. financial markets. According to the Associated Press “the Obama administration is leaving the door open to new sanctions relief for Iran, including possibly long-forbidden access to the U.S. financial market,” specifically granting “Iranian businesses the ability to conduct transactions in dollars within the United States or through offshore banks.” Iran also would be permitted to “dollarize” payments.
Obama officials reportedly are considering opening U.S. financial markets to Iran because Tehran has been complaining that it did not receive enough sanctions relief from the nuclear deal. Apparently $150 billion in sanctions relief and a reported $1.7 billion dollar payment by the United States was not enough.
If true, this move would violate assurances provided to Congress by Treasury Secretary Jack Lew last July that the nuclear deal would not allow Iran access to U.S. financial institutions or enter into financial arrangements with U.S. banks.
United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI) explained in a recent press release why this is such a dangerous move:
“Lifting this restriction would violate Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, which designates the entire Iranian financial sector as a jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern. It also ignores recent notices of the international anti-money laundering and terror-finance watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which warn of Iran’s “failure to address the risk of terrorist financing and the serious threat this poses to the integrity of the international financial system.”
This move would also undercut the Administration’s actions last week to charge Iranians for engaging in cyber attacks against the U.S. financial sector and critical infrastructure, as well as sanctioning individuals and entities supporting Iran’s ballistic missile program and on-going terrorism campaign.”
Mark Dubowitz and Jonathan Schanzer noted in a March 28, 2016 Wall Street Journal editorialthat granting Iran access to U.S. financial markets goes against claims by Obama administration officials last summer that they would not make this concession in order to give the U.S. leverage over Iran after the nuclear deal was done. Dubowitz and Schanzer ask, “Why throw away that leverage for no new concessions?”
The reason is that the Obama administration will do anything to protect the Obama Bomb nuclear deal with Iran because it regards this as a legacy agreement for Mr Obama. Iran knows this and is certain to press for more U.S. concessions through the end of the Obama presidency.
It is crucial that Congress on a bipartisan basis begin to investigate and speak out against this new concession that will worsen the fraudulent nuclear deal with Iran. The world’s leading state sponsor of terror should not have access to the U.S. financial system.
Fred Fleitz writes for the Center for Security Policy.
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