Divisions Over Handling Devastating Sanctions
Iran’s semi-official Fars
News Agency quoting an unnamed senior official reported today that the
country’s 20-percent uranium enrichment program will continue as before.
Earlier today a member of the national security committee of Majlis, the
Iranian parliament, was quoted by another semi-official news agency, ISNA, as
saying that Iran has suspended its program of enriching uranium at 20-percent
purity as a confidence building measure and a gesture of good will toward the
West. Mohammad Hassan Asafari, the national security committee member, had added that
Iran expects the West to lift all sanctions in return.
Note: The conflicting
reports by top news agencies in Iran reflect deep divisions among the country’s
senior leadership on a possible compromise with the West to end the debilitating
economic sanctions.
I may be wrong and no doubt people on the know will correct me on this, but it seems to me that an agreement has been reached in principal to ease the tension whereby IRI suspends 20% enrichment in return for a LIMITED lifting of the sanction. The recent fall in oil prices may support this theory as the market seems quite relaxed about escalation of the conflict. The market, and by this I mean speculators and investment managers, seems to have a better nose on sniffing the atmosphere of change than the political pundits. We now know that before most people were even aware of the looming economic crisis, investment managers abandoned failing mortgage-backed securities and looked for other lucrative investments. If this is true than I have no doubt that the IRI will try to sell this as victory rather than a capitulation.
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