Obama's sanctions will face same fate as d'Amato bill of Clinton

By: Hamdollah Emadi Heidari

Tehran, July 7, IRNA -- U.S. President Barack Obama's sanctions against Iran will face same fate as d'Amato bill signed by former president Bill Clinton.

Chairman of French Total Oil Company Christophe de Margerie advised the western diplomats not to mix citizenship affairs with those of the politics.

He made the remark in a reaction to efforts made by the West to impose new oil sanctions against Iran.

The French Total is the largest oil company producing oil products across the world after the British companies and the Royal Dutch Shell of the Netherlands.

De Margerie’s remark is made after the US Congress, in an anti-Iranian move, ratified new sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran, the objective of which was not only the foreign energy and financial companies trading with Iran but also endangering the direct security of the Iranian passengers during their flights.

The new sanctions are in a way that the foreign companies providing Iran with petrol or refined oil products would be punished by Washington. The western news sources had previously announced that the plan would be put into effect after the US President Barack Obama signed it.

The US sanctions against the Iranian nation is carried out while Tehran’s trilateral Declaration on Iran’s international cooperation in the area of peaceful nuclear energy is faced with the political grudge of the US and the West. Moreover, some international analysts believe that the new sanctions have paved the way for the country’s development in those fields and that the sanctions would have the same fate as that of Damato.

** Prospect of d'Amato’s bill compared to new US sanctions against Iran

At the current international status, this question is raised that due to the world financial crisis, and the need of the oil producing companies to trade with Iran, do not the unilateral sanctions of the Obama’s administration have the same fate as of the d'Amato bill turned into law by the former US president Bill Clinton? The story of the sanctions goes back to Bill Clinton administration:

On August 4, 1996, the then US president, by signing d"Amato bill, announced that it would abandon its insurance coverage for Iran’s partner companies.

Not long had been passed when several European companies gave their negative response to the sanctions practically by continuing their trade cooperation with the Islamic Republic.

The Total Company inked a 2-billion dollar accord with Iran in 1997 and then representatives of the Shell Company sat at the negotiation table with Iran for a dlrs 800-million deal.

Eleanor Ommani, Founder of the Amercian-Iranian Friendship Committee (AIFC) and a member of several anti-war NGOs in the US in an analysis on the US unilateral sanctions against Iran while talking to IRNA said, the new US fuel sanction is in fact an amended version of d'Amato bill in 1996 when the embargos took a new shape by omitting the name of Libya and maintaining the name of Iran in that law in 2009.

She believed that inking of the bill by Obama was an indication to his weakness.
Such a move by Obama proves that he at last surrendered to the military-industrial lobbies, she said, adding that the American people are well aware that Obama has spent all the country’s assets on his war machine across the world, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama imposed sanctions on Iran to defeat the Islamic Republic while Tehran proved that it could remain independent in its nuclear program, the US analyst added.

Obama faced defeat in attracting participation of Russia and China in its vast sanctions process against Iran and therefore resorted to unilateral sanctions, Ommani noted.

Although the giant US oil and gas companies tried to prevent imposition of anti-Iran sanctions, the Zionist lobby in the US paved the way for inking the sanctions by bribing and influencing the Congress representatives, she opined.

The inhumane act of Obama to impose sanctions on Iran is in fact against a nation which is willing to put an end to scientific monopoly in the world, she added.

The Bloomberg website has recently published a new report according to which the two American companies of Boeing and Exxon have announced that the US sanctions against Iran will decrease the country’s exports by dlrs 25 billion.

** Iran’s readiness for sanctions

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s approach for turning the threats into opportunities has increasingly caused self-sufficiency in various fields. Iran’s oil minister Tuesday announced that Iran will join the world petrol exporters in the next three years.

** Contradiction between sanctions and international laws

Such a contradiction manifests the real nature of the US style human rights.

The US hostile acts against the Iranian nation are performed in full contradiction with all international laws and regulations including those of International Air Transport Association (IATA) and International Convention on Civil Aviation (ICAO).

** Following up cases of violation of law by companies

Some international law experts believe that while the US fuel sanctions against Iran have paved the way for profiteering of some companies, those companies enjoying collaboration with Washington in that regard will face legal consequences for breach of international laws and regulations.

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End News / IRNA / News Code 1217469