Fareed Zakaria's GPS: International Sanctions Showing Results In Iran, Ahmadinejad Sweats

[Turborama]

Run time: 03:46 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jImoCk_zVPA   Posted on YouTube: August 08, 2010 By YouTube Member: firedoglake Views on YouTube: 255   Posted on DU: August 09, 2010 By DU Member: Turborama Views on DU: 498

 
GPS website: http://us.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/fareed.zakaria.gps/


ZAKARIA: And now for our "What in the World" segment. So what got my attention this week was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's invitation to President Obama to join him face to face in a debate on the issues that divide the two nations so severely. Now, the invitation itself was just a stunt. He's written letters like this before and the White House of course dismissed it. But I think something interesting is going on in Iran. I think that the sanctions are beginning to make the Iranian regime sweat.

President Obama implied as much this week, and I think he's right. Two months ago, the U.N. Security Council imposed what the president called were the toughest sanctions ever faced by Iran. This set of sanctions included new controls on Iranian banks so that the international banking system couldn't be used as a way to fund Iran's nuclear programs. Also part of the deal were new inspections of Iranian cargo on the world's oceans, asset freezes on 40 Iranian entities, restrictions on the Revolutionary Guard's companies and activities, and a lot more.

Now, President Ahmadinejad responded to these latest U.N. sanctions with one of his classic quotes. He said that the sanctions were, quote, "like a used handkerchief that should be dumped in a garbage can," and dismissed them as nothing but, quote, "annoying flies." I wonder where he makes this stuff up.

But then, the U.S. turned the screws tighter with its own unilateral measures against Iran, aimed at the nuclear program and Iranian support of international terror. And, the European Union has followed suit as well, with its own round of sanctions targeting Iran's financial system and the backbone of its economy, oil and gas. Australia, Canada and Japan put forward their own sanctions as well.

And now, some unlikely allies are joining in. The United Arab Emirates, once a major hub for Iranian business, is cracking down, stopping the once voluminous illegal trade with its neighbor across the straits of Hormuz and cracking down on businesses with links to sanctioned Iranian entities.

On Iran's southeastern border, Pakistani media have reported that all major Pakistani banks are refusing to do business with their neighbors in Iran for fear of being penalized. And Russia, once a key ally of Iran, supported the sanctions at the U.N. level and appears to now be enforcing them, refusing to sell Iran key military components.

If you read some of the tea leaves, all this screw tightening does seem to be having an effect. The White House says that Iran is having serious problems enriching uranium now, Iranian ships are reportedly lying idle in ports because the sanctions make financing and insurance so difficult, and exports become expensive. A strike by merchants started in the bazaars of Tehran has spread to other cities.

And, on the political side, not only did President Ahmadinejad so kindly offered to debate President Obama, but he also said Iran is now ready for, quote, "effective cooperation" to settle its nuclear dispute. Then, this week, he said Iran was ready for a nuclear swap and to sit down in September with IAEA officials and representatives of the U.S. and other nations, of course, only on its own terms.

Now, we've been down this road many times before. We've heard Ahmadinejad say things like this before. Will this make Iran end its nuclear evasions? Who knows? Perhaps not. But someone in Iran is probably tallying up all the costs of these sanctions and the costs of maintaining its current course, and that'll have an effect one of these days.