Bush Effort To Sanction Iran Banks Runs Into Resistance

[Purveyor]

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration’s new policy of sanctioning Iranian banks is facing a critical challenge as financial institutions in Russia, China, and much of the Middle East have declined to cut ties with the banks, analysts and diplomats say.

Even Afghanistan and Iraq — two countries that depend heavily on the United States — have so far declined to take action against Bank Melli, Iran’s largest public financial institution, which was among the first foreign banks to open branches in Baghdad and Kabul.

‘‘Nothing is happening,’’ said Sinan Shabibi, the governor of the Central Bank of Iraq, in a recent telephone interview.

The world reaction to the US sanctions on Bank Melli, which operates as Iran’s central bank overseas, will determine whether President Bush’s new tool against Iran is a failure or a success, analysts say.

---EOE---

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2007/12/16/bush_effort_to_sanction_iran_banks_runs_into_resistance/

[HCE SuiGeneris]

1. While bankrupting our country he has made the U. S. impotent

in foreign affairs. Heckuva job fuckwad.

[MrScorpio]

2. I get the feeling that the air is leaking out Bush's Let's-Attack-Iran balloon

And what did the Prez say? "Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again"

[libodem]

3. When you bark at the moon

and cry wolf at every venture, someone isn't going to take you seriously anymore. Psycho Cowboy is losing his bluster.