Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Sanzioni USA all'Italia

Approfittando dello spunto fornito dal delirante romanato "Fuga di
capitali dall'Iran", vediamo che piano ha in serbo per noi il
"sottosegretario al tesoro e per il terrorismo e intelligence finanziaria"
Stuart Levey.
Le due nuove stanzette del pentagono (vedi il post "il mostro") dedicate
alla destabilizzazione iraniana cominciano a produrre?
U.S. Urges Financial Sanctions On Iran
White House Tries to Enlist Europe, Japan
By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 29, 2006; A01
The Bush administration is pressing Europe and Japan to impose
wide-ranging sanctions designed to stifle the Iranian leadership
financially if diplomatic efforts fail to resolve an impasse over the
country's nuclear program, according to internal government memos and
interviews with three U.S. officials involved.
Developed by a Treasury Department task force that reports directly to
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the economic measures go far beyond
the diplomatic pressure exerted by the Bush administration to date, both
in scope of action and in objective.
The plan is designed to curtail the financial freedom of every Iranian
official, individual and entity the Bush administration considers
connected not only to nuclear enrichment efforts but to terrorism,
government corruption, suppression of religious or democratic freedom, and
violence in Iraq, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories. It
would restrict the Tehran government's access to foreign currency and
global markets, shut its overseas accounts and freeze assets held in
Europe and Asia.
The United States, which has imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran for
nearly three decades, would shoulder few of the costs of its ambitious new
proposal. But internal U.S. assessments suggest that the sanctions could
not hurt Tehran without causing significant economic pain for Washington's
friends. That calculation has made the plan a difficult sell, especially
in capitals such as Rome and Tokyo, which import significant quantities of
Iranian oil.
"I have been very open with people about the costs that could fall on
them," said Stuart Levey, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and
financial intelligence, in a recent interview.
U.S. intelligence agencies have spent months trolling through the personal
accounts of Iranian leaders in foreign banks, analyzing Iranian financial
systems and transactions and assessing how the government does its
banking. They have calculated the amount of foreign investment at stake
and even which charities have connections to the Tehran government.
Decades of stand-alone U.S. sanctions on Iran, North Korea and Cuba have
failed to bring down those countries' leaders or modify their behavior.
But U.S. officials believe that if other Western allies join in a
sanctions pact, it could magnify pressure on Iran in much the same way
that some Bush administration officials believe U.N. sanctions helped
persuade Libya to give up its nuclear weapons program in 2003.
With Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan on board, collective
sanctions would "isolate the Iranian regime" and see it "shunned by the
international financial community," according to one internal Bush
administration memo.
Under the plan, the major allies involved would freeze Iranian government
accounts and financial assets in their countries, much as the United
States did after Iranian students took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in
1979. Iranian officials who appear on lists being drawn up by U.S.
officials would be prevented from opening accounts, trading on foreign
markets or obtaining credit.
U.S. officials said in interviews that it is their hope the allies will
carry out the punitive measures if Iran refuses a package of incentives
the Europeans are preparing to offer in coming weeks.
So far, potential partners have not jumped at the plan, raised again last
week in London by senior diplomats from Washington and European capitals.
European officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity attributed
their reluctance to a reliance on Iranian oil, domestic legal constraints
and the fear of being dragged toward another conflict in the Middle East.
In an effort to minimize financial risks, the plan does not include oil or
trade embargoes. But, according to a Treasury Department assessment, it
could jolt world oil prices nonetheless if Iran responds by limiting
exports. The internal assessment also predicts additional economic
repercussions for Western allies, such as trade loss, and adverse effects
for the Iranian people as their government is squeezed out of global
markets and foreign banks stop taking their business.
The potential side effects have led European officials to turn the
pressure back on Washington to hold direct talks with Iran.
"The sanctions could make Iran miserable, and Iran can respond by making
everyone miserable back," said one senior Western official, who consulted
on the issue recently with Rice. "In the end, the whole world is miserable
and Iran gets to keep its nuclear program."
Although sanctions would not be directed "at the country or people of
Iran," the measures "can be expected to bear second-order consequences for
the people of Iran," according to a footnote on a Treasury Department task
force memo sent to Rice last month.
The task force, made up of financial investigators, analysts and
intelligence officers, is part of a growing government effort -- at the
White House, the State Department, the CIA and the Pentagon -- focused on
Iran. While some parts of the administration are studying prospects for
negotiations with Iran -- an ally turned enemy nearly 30 years ago --
others are preparing for increased isolation and the possibility of a
military strike against nuclear installations.
For four years, President Bush has sought to isolate Iran and roll back
its nuclear energy program, which could provide the Islamic republic with
a pathway to a nuclear bomb. Over that time, Iran's capabilities and
nuclear expertise have only advanced, while soaring crude prices have
brought the oil-rich nation additional hard currency.
The situation has emboldened the Iranians and left the White House
searching for leverage. Bush administration officials believe that one
approach may be to prevent Tehran from spending money on the open market.
European governments have spent months considering travel bans and arms
embargoes on Iran, both of which would be largely symbolic. U.S. officials
now hope the Europeans will impose sharper sanctions on Iran, at some cost
to themselves, as diplomacy fails to yield results.
In interviews, U.S. officials described the plan as a new approach to
international sanctions and said they believe it could succeed if
implemented correctly.
"I would argue that targeted sanctions are designed to have minimal
effects on people," Levey said, "and more designed to have effect . . . on
the government and the people in the government. We are trying to design
things that are not intended to inflict harm on the people."
Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns and Levey first briefed their
Western counterparts on aspects of the proposal at a meeting last month in
Moscow.
But the impact on U.S. allies could be steep as well. A Treasury
Department memo recently predicted that Britain, which does not import
Iranian oil, faces a low level of financial risk if it agrees to implement
the sanctions plan. Germany, which imports 1 percent of its oil from Iran,
and France, which gets 6 percent, are deemed at medium financial risk,
whereas Italy and Japan would be taking the largest risks. The assessment
is considered internally "an initial -- first blush -- estimate based on
each country's overall volume of exports to Iran, dependence on Iranian
oil and degree of investment in Iran oil projects," according to the
Treasury memo.
Japan exports nearly $1.3 billion worth of goods to Iran, has nearly $2
billion worth of oil projects there and gets about 12 percent of its oil
from the country, which is approximately equivalent to what the United
States buys from Saudi Arabia. Italy buys 9 percent of its oil from Iran,
and has $3.2 billion in oil investments in the country and $2.7 billion
worth of exports to Iran.
Originally, U.S. policymakers discussed plans for sanctions through the
U.N. Security Council, but that has proved more difficult than convincing
a handful of allies.
The new plan would operate outside the council's authority and would "not
depend on recalcitrant countries," identified in one government document
as China and Russia, which have resisted the idea of U.N. sanctions. But
if they did not participate, Beijing and Moscow would also be spared any
financial burden and be free to pick up lost European business with Iran.
In the hopes of encouraging other governments to act, the Treasury
Department has pursued a secondary path, approaching private-sector banks
in Europe and Japan, one by one, in the hopes that they will reject
Iranian business on their own.
A similar strategy was successfully employed with a bank in Macau, off
mainland China, that was doing business with North Korea.
So far, four financial institutions have signed on to the U.S. effort.
"These institutions are looking at which way this is headed and are asking
themselves if they want to get in front of this wave," Levey said.
-- 
questo articolo e` stato inviato via web dal servizio gratuito 
http://www.newsland.it/news
 segnala gli abusi ad 
ab...@newsland.it

 alla destabilizzazione iraniana cominciano a produrre?
Speriamo. E' la via nettamente migliore.
Tb