See also:
– US ‘tells Russia to warn Iran of last chance’ (Telegraph, Mar 14, 2012):
US-led military strikes against Iran are inevitable this year if Tehran does not give ground at multilateral talks next month over its nuclear programme, according to diplomatic sources in Moscow.
Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, has asked Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov to warn Iran the negotiations represent a “last chance” to avoid military action, the Kommersant newspaper reported.
“Hillary Clinton asked her Russian colleague to pass that thought on to the Iranian authorities, with whom Washington does not maintain its own relations,” a high-ranking foreign ministry source told the paper.
The source said there was a high likelihood of an attack “before the end of the year”, adding: “The Israelis are, in essence, blackmailing [US president Barack] Obama. They are putting him in a difficult position: either he supports war or he himself will lose support.”
There was no immediate response to the report from the US State Department.
Iran says it only wants to produce nuclear power but the International Atomic Energy Agency suspects it is attempting to develop nuclear weapons. In the United States, Obama has come under pressure to take military action to destroy Iran’s suspicious facilities. He condemned “loose talk of war” this week but has stressed that all options are open. A Reuters/Ipsos poll on Tuesday indicated that 56 per cent of Americans would endorse strikes against Iran if there were evidence of it having a nuclear weapons capacity. Israel has also indicated it could launch a unilateral attack.
Mrs Clinton and Mr Lavrov are said to have discussed Iran when the two met in New York on the sidelines of a UN Security Council session on the Middle East on Monday.
Russia has longstanding ties with Iran and helped it build the Bushehr nuclear power plant. Moscow itself would be very unlikely to endorse military strikes against the regime, and Sergei Ryabkov, a deputy foreign minister, told Kommersant that such threats were “unprofessional”. “There is never a last chance,” he said.
However, the Kremlin’s leverage means it could impress the seriousness of Washington’s intentions on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran.
Nuclear talks – involving Britain, France, Russia, China, Germany, the United States and Iran – are expected to be held in Istanbul, Turkey, next month.
Mr Lavrov did not mention Iran during an appearance before the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, on Wednesday, choosing to focus on the Syria crisis, where he called for an immediate ceasefire between government forces and rebels.
The foreign minister also defended Russian arms supplies to President Bashar Assad’s regime, saying they were meant to protect Syria from external threats. “We aren’t providing Syria with any weapons that could be used against protesters, against peaceful citizens, helping fuel the conflict,” Mr Lavrov said.
Russia, China and India all have made it clear they do not want the US to attack Iran. China has said it will do whatever is necessary to defend Iran.
These 3 major emerging economies are not going to sit back and allow another US invasion of yet another country that has done nothing to merit it.
These nations have already stopped using the US dollar in international transactions and with each other. Japan joined with them after the last sanctions put on Iran.
Are our leaders asleep? In 2010, the South American Trade alliance was formed with 12 nations, all trading using their own currencies, leaving the US dollar out of the tranactions. In July of that year, an electronic currency was established, the Sucre, allowing each member country to trade with another using their own currency. Cuba is a member, some countries in the Caribbean and South America. Many other nations in that area are waiting to join with them. The Sucre does not print money, simply provides an electronic clearinghouse.
Six months later, Russia and China established a similar system trading with each other using their own currencies, avoiding the US dollar completely. Now, India and Japan have joined with them. They all benefit from trade with Iran, and they are not going to stop trading with them on a whim of the USA.
This is where the real war is being fought, and we are losing.
Iraq and Libya tried to overtly get the world standard currency changed to the gold standard…..we all see the results. So, other nations have just quietly started working around the US dollar. The whole world has united against the US because of the global economic collapse caused by the crooks on Wall Street. Once they saw nothing would be done to remedy or repair the damage, people started pulling their money out of America.
In 2009, when the banks nearly collapsed, Russia went to China and floated the idea both nations could dump US treasuries and finish off the USA for good. China, at that time was deeply invested in US treasuries and declined the offer. Both nations have been divesting themselves of US investments since.
We are now the nation of day before yesterday. One person called me anti-American for saying it, but it is true.
Thanks for a great article one cannot find elsewhere.
Best,