Despite the fact that Iran is using their new-found wealth to build ICBMs, sponsor terrorism around the world, and attempt to establish hegemony in the region, the European Union has purhed forward two measures to help the bloc’s firms avoid possible U.S. sanctions should they continue to do business in Iran.
They will not let Washington isolate the terror nation of Iran if they can help it. They did the same thing with Castro’s Cuba.
The EU has been unhappy about President Trump leaving the unsigned nuclear agreement between Iran, Barack Obama and five European nations.
One of the major reasons is they have set up lucrative trade deals with Iran. It’s money over honor and world safety. At the end of the nuclear ‘deal’, Iran will be able to build up its nuclear program and become a world power.
THE MEASURES
One measure would reactivate the EU’s “blocking statute”, a rule forbidding EU companies and courts from complying with foreign sanctions laws. It was used in 1996 to work around the U.S. trade embargo of Cuba. That led to an agreement with Washington that shielded EU companies from secondary sanctions.
“We have the duty, the Commission and the European Union, to protect our European businesses,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Thursday, according to POLITICO.
“We must act now and we will act now,” he added. “That’s why we are launching the process to use the 1996 ‘blocking statute’ to neutralize the extraterritorial effects of U.S. sanctions on European companies.”
It will take about two months for the European Parliament to approve it.
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Another is a more immediate proposal. They will ask member states to make direct cash transfers to Iran’s central bank to avoid U.S. penalties. The EU firms could pay Iran for oil and repatriate Iranian funds in Europe, according to Reuters.
They are doing this knowing that Iran uses cash to sponsor terrorism and have been doing so for decades.
MANY FIRMS WILL WIND DOWN BUSINESS WITH IRAN
Despite these efforts, many of their firms will likely choose to wind down their operations in Iran. They won’t want to risk their more profitable business in the U.S.
Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU’s vice president in charge of financial services, said the blocking statutes might change nothing.
“Indeed the EU blocking regulation could be of limited effectiveness there, given the international nature of banking system and especially the exposure of large systemic banks to U.S. financial system and U.S. dollar transactions,” Dombrovskis told the European Parliament Thursday, according to Reuters.
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