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| Britain | |
| Britain caught lending $668 million to Iran | |
| 2007-11-19 | |
| THE British Government faces a diplomatic row with the US over disclosures that it has provided the Iranian regime with financial support worth about pound stg. 290 million ($668 million) while calling for sanctions. It has provided the Iranian regime with financial support worth about pound stg. 290 million ($668 million) while calling for sanctions. The money was offered by the Export Credits Guarantee Department to support British firms exporting to Iran, mainly to the country's petrochemical industry. Many of the loans were negotiated while British ministers were threatening sanctions against Iran for creating a nuclear enrichment facility. Last week, Gordon Brown called for new sanctions against Iran in addition to those already imposed by the UN Security Council. The British Prime Minister wants a ban on investment in the oil and gas industries if Iran does not agree to end the production of enriched uranium. Over the weekend, government sources signalled their embarrassment over the ECGD's activities. "There is clearly a gap between our actions and our rhetoric," a Whitehall insider said. The US administration has been privately lobbying Britain to end the financial support. Stuart Levey, the US Treasury official responsible for terrorism and financial intelligence, stepped up the pressure in private discussions with British ministers in London in July, claiming that such export credits were inconsistent with UN sanctions. The Government is also under pressure at home. The Conservative Party's foreign affairs spokesman, William Hague, said: "Our Government must make up its mind about export credit guarantees to Iran. Britain should lead the way with a clear, unequivocal commitment to banning new export credit guarantees to Iran."
The ECGD underwrites bank loans to enable overseas buyers to purchase goods, often including military hardware, from British companies. It stopped providing support for Iran in 1994 but resumed in 2000. Much of the support was for the National Iranian Oil Company and a subsidiary, the National Petrochemical Company. The decision to start pushing hard for new business came in 2003, the year of the second Iraq war. It coincided with a declaration by the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran had been secretly constructing a nuclear enrichment plant. The same year, however, the ECGD announced a pound stg. 72 million deal for a plastics plant in Iran. It then sent John Weiss, its business group director, to Iran to drum up more business. Mr Weiss said then: "The petrochemical sector in Iran is a key target for the ECGD, but we are also keen to look at sectors including oil, gas, transport, power, water and telecommunications." Such optimism contrasted with warnings throughout 2003 from then prime minister Tony Blair that Iran should halt its nuclear ventures. He also accused it of supporting terrorist groups attacking British troops in Iraq. | |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #11 Isn't there a little Iranian port, RJ, where pretty much all their oil transits through? It's named Kargh Island and while not "little", it's only a few square miles and nothing we couldn't bomb the shit out of in one pass. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-11-19 23:41 |
| #10 Isn't there a little Iranian port, RJ, where pretty much all their oil transits through? It's called Kargh Island and, while not real little, it's nothing we couldn't bomb the shit out of in one pass. View Larger Map |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-11-19 23:35 |
| #9 Isn't there a little Iranian port, RJ, where pretty much all their oil transits through? Be a shame if there were an accident there - oil & gasoline being so explosive and all.... |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2007-11-19 23:00 |
| #8 This article has one good, unnoticed idea, DON'T BUY THEIR OIL, it'll hurt us, but destroy them. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2007-11-19 22:53 |
| #7 Great idea. We need more of this international cooperation. Perhaps the UN needs to find other ways to provide financial support to Iran since we won't allow them to buy refined uranium. |
| Posted by: John Kerry 2007-11-19 13:27 |
| #6 I wondered if this story was originally reported by The Australian, so I went to Google and searched for Britain lending $668 million Iran. A Google search brought up 116 items. Then I went to Google News and searched the same terms and got nothing. Which is curious because the article is available at The Australian. So, it appears to have been originated at the Australian. How embarrassing for the Poms. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-11-19 10:44 |
| #5 Iran must be really scared of sanctions knowing that one of our main allies is subverting them from the beginning. I'm confident Germany and France are doing the same. These 3 were responsible for the "Global Test" brand of diplomacy over the past 3-4 years that got us nowhere. Well, they probably got a bunch of nice contracts out of the discussion. |
| Posted by: danking70 2007-11-19 10:11 |
| #4 Zen has it right, I'm afraid. It was "please leave us alone" money. Ransom. Extortion. Exactly what Muzzies go for. Any wonder why they think the west is a pushover? |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2007-11-19 09:39 |
| #3 Ransom for their 15 soldiers? Even if not, still altogether disgusting. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-11-19 09:37 |
| #2 They can repossess it once it's melted into a slag heap. |
| Posted by: ed 2007-11-19 08:44 |
| #1 So this is how a once great nation crumbles into third world irrelevancy ? Sell out anything and embrace dhimmitude. Pity that. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2007-11-19 07:39 |