US President Barack Obama has just signed into law a major defence bill which includes tough new sanctions against Iran, as well as allowing the US military to detain indefinitely ‘terror suspects’ accused of planning attacks on the US.
Obama stated that he had concerns about parts of the legislation dealing with the handling of foreign terror suspects, and was reduced to stressing that he would not ‘authorise the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens’.
The new law, as well as attacking basic rights, bars foreign companies from the US financial system if they do business with Iran’s central bank, as do a very large number of foreign companies which do business with Iran’s oil industry.
The sanctions will have a big impact on the Iranian economy, but will also drive up global oil prices and global inflation harming working people all over the world.
Up to date, the UN has already ratified four rounds of sanctions against Iran between 2006 and 2010, in response to its refusal to halt the development of Iranian nuclear technology.
These sanctions include a ban on the export of heavy weaponry and nuclear-related technology to Iran, a ban on Iranian arms exports, and a freezing of the assets of key individuals and companies.
Resolution 1929, passed in 2010, authorises cargo inspections on the high seas to detect and stop Iran’s alleged acquisition of ‘illicit materials’.
The EU has imposed its own restrictions on trade in equipment which could be used for uranium enrichment and has put in place an asset freeze on a list of individuals and organisations. On December 1st, the EU added 39 people and 141 companies to the list, although it has not yet named them.
In November the US, UK and Canada announced more bilateral sanctions to be placed on Iran, in reaction to an IAEA report which could only suggest, after the lying Iraq model, that Iran’s nuclear programme may have a military purpose. The US expanded sanctions to target companies that aid Iran’s oil and petrochemical industries, while the UK ordered all British financial institutions to stop doing business with their Iranian counterparts, including the Iranian central bank.
As part of its anti-Iran drive the US announced last Thursday that it is to sell $30bn of F-15 jets to Saudi Arabia, and upgrade 70 existing Saudi F-15s.
The agreement is part of a $60bn arms deal covering 10-15 years, approved by the US Congress last year. As well as the F-15s, the package includes Apache attack helicopters, Black Hawk helicopters, and a range of missiles, bombs and delivery systems.
The announcement comes in the same week that Tehran has warned that it will close the Strait of Hormuz, bringing the oil flow to a halt, if it is hit by more debilitating and destabilising sanctions.
The US responded that it will not tolerate this, implying that there will be a military response.
Iran has meanwhile reported that it has successfully test-fired a medium-range surface-to-air missile during military exercises in the Gulf. Iran’s ten days of naval exercises are taking place to the east of the strategic Strait of Hormuz through which 20% of the world’s oil passes, including about 40% of China’s oil needs.
Currently, the US is seeking to organise regime change in Syria, a key ally of Iran in the Middle East. Such a change would give the signal for a new civil war to be launched in the Lebanon to allow Israel to intervene to try to crush Hezbollah. The Israeli military has already boasted that it is planning a new invasion of Gaza.
Iran cannot stand idly by and watch the US tightening the noose around its neck, and the necks of its allies.
The workers of the US and the UK must take a very clear stance on the imperialist war drive. This is that it is an extension of the home policy of the US and UK ruling classes to make the working class, the middle class, the poor and the youth pay the bill for the world capitalist crisis.
Workers must declare that the enemy is at home and that the US and UK workers are in the same trench as the Iranian people, and that their victory will be our victory and vice versa.