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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Britain, E.U. Announce Iran Sanctions |
| 2008-06-16 |
| British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday announced new sanctions against Iran and a small increase in troops for Afghanistan, handing President Bush a symbolic boost on the last day of his weeklong farewell trip to Europe. Brown, appearing with Bush at a 10 Downing Street news conference, said Britain and the European Union would act later Monday to freeze the assets of Iran's largest bank, Bank Melli, in response to Tehran's refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment program. Bush has made Iran's uranium enrichment program a focus of his European swing, and has been encouraging European nations to further pressure the Islamic Republic to curtail its nuclear activities and allow more extensive international inspections. Iran says the program is peaceful, but there is concern that the enriched uranium could also be diverted to nuclear weapons. The British prime minister also said the number of British troops in Afghanistan would be raised to a record level. British officials said after the press conference that the total number of troops would be about 200, added to about 7,800 already in Afghanistan. Brown also strongly rejected reports that he was planning a timetable for rapid withdrawal of the roughly 4,000 British troops that remain in Iraq. The British contingent is stationed on the outskirts of Basra and focused primarily on training Iraqi security forces. British troops withdrew from the center of Basra last year. "In Iraq, there is a job to be done," Brown said. "There's going to be no artificial timetable. And the reason is we're making progress." The United Kingdom is the last stop for Bush on a weeklong trip through Europe, which will include a visit later Monday to Northern Ireland. Along with discussion of Iran and other issues, U.S. officials, including first lady Laura Bush, in recent days helped raise $20 billion in pledges to help rebuild Afghanistan. Monday's announcements from Brown came as good news for Bush, who is entering his final months in office and, like Brown, is struggling with low approval ratings and political opposition at home. It follows a joint statement last week by the United States and the European Union vowing to pursue aggressive financial sanctions against Iran unless the regime in Tehran opens its nuclear program to inspections and agrees to halt uranium enrichment. Iranian leaders effectively rejected a package of incentives offered by the EU's top diplomat over the weekend aimed at securing Tehran's cooperation. European action against Bank Melli comes on top of restrictions imposed in Oct. 2007 when the U.S. Treasury Department froze bank assets and halted transactions as part of a broader package of sanctions against state-owned Iranian financial institutions. Bank Melli allegedly sent $100 million to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups from 2002 to 2006, according to Treasury officials. Treasury has also cut off another major Iranian bank, Bank Saderat, from the U.S. financial system. "This has been a good trip," President Bush said at the press conference. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 You called it, DK70. According to Reuters, Iran just withdrew $75 billion from Europe. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-06-16 15:15 |
| #1 Let's make sure we wait long enough so Iran can pull all of its assets out of the EU. |
| Posted by: DK70 the Scantily Clad7177 2008-06-16 11:09 |