NORTH Korea’s Foreign Minister in Tehran on Wednesday criticised the US’ decision to re-impose sanctions on Iran as a ‘wrong move’, that runs contrary to international law. In a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Ri Yong-ho said Washington’s withdrawal in May from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and the ensuing re-imposition of the bans that were lifted are ‘wrongful and in contravention of international regulations’. Expanding relations with Iran and confronting unilateralism is North Korea’s strategic policy, he said.
The North Korean diplomat further briefed Rouhani on the negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington in Singapore in June. However if North Korea is serious about its relations with Iran, and the US’ illegal actions it must break off its talks with Washington, and not allow it to divide and rule over the states that the US opposes.
Put simply, Iran has all of the oil that North Korea may ever require, while North Korea possesses the nuclear weaponry and the means of delivery that Iran needs to prevent a US invasion following the imposition of extreme sanctions.
Meanwhile, Trump has warned the EU against doing business with Tehran, saying of his sanctions, ‘These are the most biting sanctions ever imposed, and in November they ratchet up to yet another level.’ Further, ‘Anyone doing business with Iran will not be doing business with the United States …’
This was a message for the EU, already involved in a trade war with the USA. The EU has put into force a law banning companies from complying with US sanctions or court rulings and enabling EU businesses to claim compensation by suing the US administration in the national courts of the EU member states! However, the EU is a ‘Paper Tiger’.
EU firms, however, do not need to apply for EU authorisation to leave Iran if their decision is based on business grounds! ‘It is a commercial decision for companies whether they continue to work in Iran,’ British Middle East minister Alistair Burt has confirmed.
The second phase of US sanctions against Tehran will come into effect in November, targeting Iran’s oil industry and foreign financial institutions involved with the Central Bank of Iran. Daimler AG, the maker of Mercedes-Benz trucks and luxury cars, has been among the first of the major EU companies to respond to the Trump onslaught. It issued a statement saying that, ‘We have ceased our already restricted activities in Iran in accordance with the applicable sanctions.’
The German economy minister Peter Altmaier says the government would help companies assess the situation and developments and asked the US to grant exemptions and deadline extensions. ‘In my visits to Europe and China and Russia and in the talks I’ve had, they’ve all promised that they will not pay attention to the sanctions,’ Rouhani said. ‘But the problem is their companies, which are under pressure from the US and are affected by the US sanctions.’ Quite!
The US line remains, ‘Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States.’ Daimler has joined French car manufacturers PSA and Renault, energy group Total, jet maker Airbus and South Africa’s wireless networks group MTN in suspending trade with Iran.
Total states it will quit Iran if the US does not grant it a waiver and Moller-Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping firm, CEO Soren Skou said: ‘With the sanctions the Americans are to impose, you can’t do business in Iran if you also have business in the US, and we have that on a large scale.’ The EU is a ‘Paper Tiger’. It is the working class of the USA, the UK and the EU who must defend and support Iran and North Korea.
Mass demonstrations will not stop the US imperialist drive to war. Only general strike actions leading the way to socialist revolutions will stop this war. That was the lesson of the Iraq war when million-strong demonstrations could not stop the war!
To stop the US ruling class plan to carry out regime change in Iran, will require general strikes leading to socialist revolutions! There is no other way to stop imperialist wars than to mobilise the working class to overthrow the worldwide capitalist system that brought imperialism into being!
