Extension of Iran Sanctions Act by US violates spirit of JCPOA

EghtesadOnline: Former advisor to the Bank of England, Iqbal Asaria, said on Sunday that extension of Iran Sanctions Act by the US Senate account for violation of the spirit of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

News ID: ۷۷۱۹۶۸

05 December 2016

Asked by IRNA to comment on the extension of Iran Sanctions Act by the US senate, Asaria said, 'This is an Act of bad faith and was wrong. Other five parties to the deal must now react to US belligerence. The JCPOA is approved by the UN security council. It actually reverses the resolution under Article 7 of the UN security council resolution. Therefore reversing it in any way will need security council approval. With China, Russia, France and Britain, is not going to be easy.'

'The US can impose unilateral sanctions but the Europeans are unlikely to enforce them now because we will say we have signed a deal and have no interest to change our position. US may try to sanction Iran unilaterally but I don’t think they will succeed and have much support. In this case if US pursues its hostile policies, Europe, China, Russia will go its own way.'

The expert said recent developments in the Middle East shows that the US plan to isolate Iran is not going anywhere. 'And that, the theatre is not open to them. They are bound to make noises by nature but it will not lead to anything serious.'

He said that the United States will not be able to have the UN security council resolution anymore. 'So it will be secondary sanctions specifically by the United States.

The secondary sanction regime before was based on the fact that they want to put pressure on Iran to do a deal.'

'Now they say we have done the deal so further sanctions is meaningless.

Next time the US goes to sign any deal with anybody they say there is no guarantee so we cannot sign agreement with you. Its not about Iran, US has lost the value of its signature.'

Then IRNA turned to the expert and said, 'You were advisor to BoE, one of the challenges that Iran faces is banking. What can be done to resolve this?'

He answered that the source of the problem is the presence of big British banks in New York and all dollar transactions have to go through there so the US has a strangle hold on that, so as I expect there are some opening in the Euro market and slowly this will widen.'

He noted, 'The US is trying to put similar sanctions on Russia, so all are aware that we need to have an alternative. So already we have seen bilateral discussion going on with India, probably with Russia and China and soon Turkey and the Europeans will be left with what to do and how to deal in Euros, so the dollar will be out.'

To a question on Brexit and the impact it could have on trade relations with Iran, Asaria said Brexit bring uncertainty but also opportunity.

'So the British banks may decide that this is a bigger market and cannot be ignored. It can help them to overcome some of loss from Brexit. So we can see the signals we are getting is that: Yes we are open to business and will find ways. If big banks do not work they might try to do something through export credits. These are not big ticket items. The big ticket items will go ahead like, Boeing and Airbus. I am quite optimistic in the sense that there is a lot more stability in Iran than other places around. The more people visit the better it is. Already we are seeing large number of tourists going there and when they come back they understand the situation. Once the ball start to roll, they will take the risk.'