Obama: "I'm ready to negotiate with you, Iran." Iran: "Fuck you."

[tw]

Originally Posted by classicman

Really? How is this any different than all the other times all the other presidents did this type of thing.

This one sanction is painful. Nobody wanted to stop 10% of the world's oil. Especially since so much of it is needed in places such as Japan.

All oil transactions go through Iran's Central Bank. So all previous sanctions averted that bank. Placing a world wide embargo on Iran's central bank, essentially, stops oil trade. Something that was not done previously due to objections by so many close American allies who need that oil.

Not reported is an apparent wide world agreement to do something. What most nations previously did not want to do. For example, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Australia, many Persian Gulf states, obviously Britain and France, and maybe even Switzerland would be in on the planning. For these sanctions to work, then countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAW and Oman had to be planning for what would result months ago. News reports give almost no indication of what must be major negotiations, cooperation, and agreements made covertly.

We don’t know if all that was planned. We only know that Iran is truly concerned about this one painful sanction. Many have discussed it previously. But nobody previously had enough willpower to act.