Iran quits nuclear talks protesting US blacklist move

[Jesus Malverde]

Source: AFP

Iran has quit nuclear talks with world powers, accusing Washington on Friday of going against the spirit of a landmark agreement reached last month by expanding its sanctions blacklist.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who represents the major powers in the talks, both played down the suspension and said talks were expected to resume soon.

But Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi said the US move went against the spirit of the deal struck in Geneva under which the powers undertook to impose no further sanctions for six months.

Tehran was now weighing the "appropriate response", he said.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-halts-nuclear-talks-us-blacklist-move-063122680.html?soc_src=mediacontentstory

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"The blacklisting of a dozen additional foreign firms and individuals for evading US sanctions was widely seen as a way to head off moves in Congress to impose additional sanctions that would be in clear breach of the Geneva agreement."

[Jesus Malverde]

1. Earlier -US hits firms for Iran violations but urges Congress against more sanctions

The US announced Thursday that it was penalising more than a dozen companies and individuals for conducting prohibited business with Iran, barely an hour before it implored Congress yet again not to enact any new sanctions on Tehran.

More than a dozen entities, from Ukraine to the Philippines, are now under economic penalties for dealing with Iran’s oil exports and illicit weapons programs. The Treasury Department’s sanctions chief, under-secretary David Cohen, said the new penalties show that economic pressure would continue on Iran even as negotiators spend the next six months attempting to finalise an accord to permanently stop Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.

“Today’s actions should be a stark reminder to businesses, banks and brokers everywhere that we will continue relentlessly to enforce our sanctions, even as we explore the possibility of a long-term, comprehensive resolution of our concerns with Iran’s nuclear program,” Cohen said.

The announcement came barely an hour before Cohen and his State Department colleague Wendy Sherman, one of the negotiators of the first-step deal reached in Geneva last month, told the Senate banking committee that any additional sanctions passed by Congress risked strangling a potentially historic diplomatic accord in its crib.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/12/us-congress-iran-sanctions-violations

[Jesus Malverde]

2. Iran sanctions blacklist: US additions prompt sharp pushback

Iran reacted angrily on Friday to a new US blacklisting of companies and individuals linked to Iran’s nuclear program, saying the measures jeopardize the nuclear agreement reached in Geneva with six world powers last month.

“The [US] move is against the spirit of the Geneva deal,” Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, told Iranian media today. “We are evaluating the situation and Iran will react accordingly to the new sanctions imposed on 19 companies and individuals.”

Both the US and Iran have appeared to interpret the Geneva agreement in different ways, each boosting its own benefits and downplaying its compromises amid skepticism from hard-line constituencies back home.

The deal – an interim breakthrough that came 100 days into the term of Iran’s centrist President Hassan Rouhani – halts advances on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for six months of modest sanctions relief.

Within hours of the Nov. 24 signing, top US officials said existing sanctions would be more “vigorously enforced” and that “Iran is not open for business.” That didn’t prevent a surge of hope in Iran, however, that the Geneva deal will yield the first step in a far broader, eventual easing of sanctions that have hurt the economy in recent years.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/2013/1213/Iran-sanctions-blacklist-US-additions-prompt-sharp-pushback

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. Bullies eventually get slapped down. But some of us are slow learners.

[Purveyor]

4. I saw this coming yesterday when the US targeted more companies and individuals dealing with

Iran.

israel is jumping with glee...

[jamzrockz]

5. Do we have a rollcall of the senators who supported the sanction?

We need to know who the obstructionist are in our govt