Skip to main content

Obama urges no new Iran sanctions http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25012651

Obama urges no new Iran sanctions
November 20, 2013 4:45 AM

US President Barack Obama explains his vision for a deal with Iran
US President Barack Obama has urged US senators to hold off from proposing more sanctions against Iran to allow time for world powers to complete a deal on Iran's nuclear programme.
A White House spokesman warned that if a deal with Tehran was not agreed, Iran would continue enriching uranium.
Envoys from the P5+1 group of nations will begin a new round of negotiations with Iran in Geneva on Wednesday.
Iran's foreign minister said he believed issues could be resolved.
In a message on the video-sharing site YouTube, Javid Zarif said: "We expect and demand respect for our dignity. For us Iranians, nuclear energy is not about joining a club or threatening others. Nuclear energy is about a leap, a jump toward deciding our own destiny rather than allowing others to decide for us."
President Obama held two hours of talks with senators at the White House on Tuesday, along with Secretary of State John Kerry and National Security Adviser Susan Rice.
In recent days some US legislators have expressed concern that the White House is moving too fast and should take a harder line with Tehran.
"We have the opportunity to halt the progress of the Iranian programme and roll it back in key respects, while testing whether a comprehensive resolution can be achieved," the White House said in a statement.
It said that if there was not an initial agreement, Iran would grow its stockpiles of enriched uranium, install new centrifuges and develop a plutonium reactor in the city of Arak.
Press secretary Jay Carney said Mr Obama had told the senators new sanctions would be most effective as a consequence if Iran refused to accept the deal now on the table or agreed and then failed to comply.
The president also rejected reports that Iran would receive at least $40bn (£25bn) in sanctions relief.
Since 2006 the UN Security Council has imposed a series of sanctions on entities and people involved in Iran's nuclear programme.
Separate US and EU sanctions have targeted Iran's energy and banking sectors, crippling its oil-based economy.
Speaking later at an event sponsored by The Wall Street Journal, Mr Obama said he didn't know if an agreement would come this week or next, but he said the bulk of the sanctions regime would remain.
"We are not doing anything around the most powerful sanctions. The oil sanctions, the banking sanctions, the financial services sanctions, those are the ones that have really taken a big chunk out of the Iranian economy," he said.
Weapon fears
"All of those sanctions and the architecture for them don't go anywhere."
Three days of high-level talks earlier this month failed to achieve a breakthrough.

Iranian students staged a protest in Qom in defence of the nuclear programme
Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful means, but the US and its allies suspect Tehran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon.
In another sign of warmer relations between Iran and the West, the UK's David Cameron on Tuesday became the first British prime minister in more than a decade to hold a telephone call with an Iranian president.
A Downing Street spokesman said Mr Cameron and President Hassan Rouhani discussed Iran's nuclear programme and the situation in Syria.
The two men "agreed to continue efforts to improve the relationship" between the UK and Iran, the spokesman added.

BBC © 2013

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

مقارنة بين الأخذ بنظام المجلسين والأخذ بنظام المجلس الواحد

حجج ومبررات الأخذ بنظام المجلسين . تعرض الباحث في المطلب السابق لحجج ومبررات أنصار الأخذ بنظام المجلس الواحد، وفي المقابل فإنه يوجد اتجاه في الفقه مؤيد للأخذ بنظام المجلسين وقد صاغ العديد من الحجج والمبررات تأييدًا لرأيه، وهي تتمثل في رفع مستوى كفاءة المجالس النيابية، ومنع التسرع في التشريع، ومنع استبداد السلطة التشريعية، فنظام المجلسين يخفف من حدة النزاع بين البرلمان، والسلطة التنفيذية،  ولا غنى عنه للأخذ به في النظام الفيدرالي، وتمثيل الطبقات الممتازة في أحد المجلسين (الأرستقراطية)، تأثير نظام المجلسين على شكل الحكومات ومدة استمرارها، وانتشار نظام المجلسين في برلمانات العالم. وسوف يتعرض الباحث لبيان تلك الحجج على التفصيل فيما يلي: أولاً: رفع مستوى كفاءة المجالس النيابية: وذلك باختلاف المجلسين في التشكيل بحيث إنه قد يكون من ذوي الكفايات أو المصالح الكبيرة من يأبى الدخول في معركة الانتخابات أو من يدخل فيها ولكنه لا ينجح. فأمثال هؤلاء يمكن الاستفادة من كفايتهم وذلك بإدخالهم أحد المجلسين (المجلس الأعلى) عن طريق التعيين. ( [40] ) وفي ذلك إثراء للسلطة التشريعية ورفع مستوى كف...

Tax aviation

Swiss bank boss 'regrets' tax ploy February 26, 2014 8:07 PM The boss of Swiss bank Credit Suisse has said he "deeply regrets" that some of its bankers violated US tax laws. But Chief Executive Brady Dougan said in a statement to a US Senate committee that there was only "scattered evidence" of improper conduct. A US Senate report alleged the bank had helped US clients hide billions of dollars from the US taxman. Mr Dougan admitted some private bankers had helped Americans hide income and assets to illegally avoid US tax. Deep regret He said: "We deeply regret that - despite the industry-leading compliance measures we have put in place - before 2009, some Credit Suisse private bankers appear to have violated US law." "The evidence showed that some Swiss-based private bankers went to great lengths to disguise their bad conduct from Credit Suisse executive management." The report said that in 2006, Credit Suisse held 22,000 account...

referendum in Crimea this weekend

Russia 'refuses to talk to Ukraine' March 12, 2014 9:42 AM Steve Rosenberg reports from Lugansk in eastern Ukraine: ''After the Crimea, there is concern that this region could be the next flashpoint'' Russia's leaders are refusing all negotiations with their Ukrainian counterparts, Ukraine's acting President Oleksandr Turchynov has said. He told AFP news agency that Ukraine would not intervene militarily in Crimea, even though a secession referendum there was a "sham". Meanwhile interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk is travelling to the US to meet President Barack Obama. On Thursday he is due to address the UN Security Council in New York. 'A provocation' "We cannot launch a military operation in Crimea, as we would expose the eastern border [close to Russia] and Ukraine would not be protected," Mr Turchynov told AFP. President Turchynov said that the referendum in Crimea this weekend would be falsified by Russia ...