The Russian bank, VTB 24, froze the accounts of Iranian embassy personnel in Russia.
“The bank said that this was an order from their top management, and they couldn’t do anything about it.”-Seyyed Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi, Iranian Ambassador to Russia
Officials with VTB 24, a division of Russian state owned VTB, tried to downplay any connection to the U.S./European sanctions against Iran, by saying the move was because of a lack of profits being made off the Iranian accounts.
“I expect to see very extensive injuries. I expect to see burn injuries, burn injuries that have gone on to heal inappropriately.”-Louis Riima, Nassau County Burn Unit
Doctors in New York are joining a mission to help Afghans who’ve been horribly wounded, no thanks to the 10 plus years of occupation by the United States (and more than 30 years of war instigated by the U.S.).
The mission is headed by a group called Mission: Restore.
“Afghanistan is a country of 29 million people with over 30 years of continuous war and devastation. Of those 29 million, there are only 2 self-trained plastic surgeons who are practicing in the capital of Kabul. Afghanistan ranks as the least developed country in the eastern hemisphere and in need of serious infrastructure and health service development.”-Mission: Restore
Keep in mind that the 30 plus years of “war and devastation” is the fault of the United States. Former U.S. National Security Advisor, and Trilateral Commission co-founder, Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski, admitted that it was U.S. foreign policy that got the Soviet Union to invade in 1979!
“It seems that NATO members, especially the United States, have developed a peculiar interpretation of security that is different from ours. The Americans have become obsessed with the idea of becoming absolutely invulnerable…..absolute invulnerability for one country would in theory require absolute vulnerability for all others. This is something that cannot be accepted.”-Vladimir Putin
On February 27, 2012, Vladimir Putin published a 6,060 page statement. In it he basically said that Russia will return to a Cold War with the United States!
Even analysts in Russia say Putin’s latest statement is worrying. It has a lot of the usual anti-U.S. language, but it’s the first time Putin has actually indicated that a return to the Cold War is necessary.
“This is deeply concerning, since it creates the impression that chances for improvement in U.S.-Russian relations will diminish….in his view America is to blame for everything that’s going wrong in the world today, even terrorism, and Russia must prepare itself to act as a counterbalance to the U.S.”-Dmitry Suslov, Council on Foreign and Defense Policies
Putin does blame the U.S. for terrorism, even implies that the U.S. is terrorism: “Russia will always call things as it sees them…”
Putin says the difference between Russia and the U.S. is that Russia wants to be part of the New World Order, but the United States wants to control the New World Order!
He also warned of war with Iran: “…Russia is worried about the growing threat of a military strike against Iran. If this happens, the consequences will be disastrous. It is impossible to imagine the true scope of this turn of events.”
Putin’s 6,060 page statement was published in RIANovosti (in English), and on his website.
“Starting from Monday, we will take new strong measures, notably a freezing of the assets of the Syrian Central Bank.”-Alan Juppe, Foreign Minister of France
Another “unbiased” announcement made as the Friends of Syria conference commenced: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is calling on all countries to steal Syrian assets and boycott oil from the country.
Right before the Friends of Syria conference began, Britain’s Foreign Secretary, William Hague, said they will recognize the U.S. created Syrian National Council as a “….legitimate representative of the Syrian people.”
This supports yesterday’s claim by Russia, that the Friends of Syria conference is biased and therefore not legitimate.
Hague went on to imply a threat of war against Russia and China, if they did not comply with the wishes of the west: “It is very important in Moscow and Beijing for there to be a re-evaluation of the position….We have in the European Union an arms embargo on Syria, so of course we will observe that arms embargo in all directions.“
Russia is building giant underwater stun guns, that create a powerful shock wave meant to knock out any would be terrorist underwater.
Russia’s Interior Ministry seems to think their ports are prime targets for anti-Russia terrorists: “The current state of security at our ports and dams leaves a lot to be desired, so the new systems will provide a layer of defense.”-unnamed Interior Ministry official
They claim the target of the giant water proof taser gun are terrorist divers, like the U.S. Navy’s SEALS (SEa Air Land teamS).
Russia is not the first country to make giant stun guns. Israel has developed a shock wave cannon, officially to help Israeli farmers scare off birds. Most likely “birds” is code for Palestinians.
Israel’s stun cannons explode gas in impulse chambers to create a shock wave that can stun. Russia’s underwater stun guns use electricity to create basically a powerful electro-magnetic pulse on the same frequency as human hearing, thus knocking out the SEALS.
“Iran is the only market in the world that can move billet prices and now trading has basically come to a halt.”-unnamed British steel trader
Not only is the U.S. oil sanctions on Iran backfiring, but so are U.S. sanctions on steel sold to Iran!
“Now you can really feel the effects of the sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Europe…It is very difficult to do any business with Iran at the moment.”-unnamed Swiss steel trader
U.S. and European sanctions might have stopped the sale of steel to Iran, but it’s also shutting down U.S. and European steel makers! Why? Iran is the biggest buyer of steel billet, and with the biggest buyer of steel out of the game steel prices are dropping like a rock!!! (unlike oil, where everyone is trying to get their hands on it, thus causing oil prices to go up)
Russia is upset because they supply much of the steel Iran uses (Iran buys 15% of the steel exported by Russia): “Russian producers are not selling to Iran as they need pre-payments and won’t accept letters of credit. If I find a way to do that I won’t tell you. Iran is the king market in steel and if we can find a way to trade with them again we certainly would not share the know-how.”-unnamed Swiss steel trader dealing in Russian steel
Unlike the oil market, where Iran has established a successful trade system that avoids the U.S. dollar and U.S. & U.K. banks, the global steel market is still dominated by U.S. & British banks. But some Russian’s are hopeful they’ll find a way ’round it: “Steel demand is pretty strong, the problem is the banking system. Russian banks do not have trading lines with Iranian banks to facilitate ruble transactions.”-Dmitry Smolin, URALSIB Capital
February 19, 2012, Iran has officially shut off oil supplies to oil companies from United Kingdom and France!
“We have our own oil customers and replacements for these companies have already been chosen, and we will sell the crude oil to new customers instead of the British and French companies.”-Alireza Nikzad-Rahbar, Iranian Oil Ministry
However, Britain and France are not major European buyers of Iranian oil (Italy is). About 3% of oil bought by France comes from Iran, and only 1% makes up Britain’s oil use.
Iran’s move to block oil shipments to Europe came after Europe joined the U.S. in imposing an oil embargo. Iranian officials have repeatedly said that it’s Western countries that will be hurt most from a loss of Iranian oil.
In some countries the price of a barrel of oil has already gone over $120.00.
The United Nations General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution calling for Syria’s president to step down. However, since it is non-binding the UN can not force the issue.
France is making a new push for a new UN Security Council resolution. This new resolution is focusing on using UN Peacekeeping forces to enforce access to humanitarian aid. Russia might support such a resolution.
12 countries voted against the UN General Assembly resolution. They are: Bolivia, Belarus, Cuba, China, Ecuador, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Russia, Syria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
15 countries abstained: Angola, Armenia, Fiji, Cameroon, Comoros, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Saint Vincent, Suriname, Tanzania, Tuvalu, Uganda and Vietnam.
February 12, 2012, the Arab League (AL) is calling for an end to “all forms of diplomatic cooperation”, and “tighter economic sanctions”. Instead they want war with Syria!
In a new AL resolution, they are demanding military action by the United Nations. The resolution also says all forms of communication with Syrian rebels should be opened up. (‘communications’ is a military term that also means supplies, like weapons and ammo)
Saudi Foreign Minister, Saud al-Faisal, backs that up saying the AL should “give all forms of support” to the rebels.
Russia doubts the sincerity of the Arab League, and says the AL observers weren’t in Syria long enough to collect viable evidence: “We would like to know why they are treating such a useful instrument in this way. I would support an increased number of observers. We are surprised that after a decision was taken on prolonging the observers’ mission for another month, some countries, particularly Persian Gulf countries, recalled their observers from the mission.”-Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister
The AL’s resolution will be presented to the UN on the same day that the Human Rights Commission is to make their report, February 13. It’s been reported that the Human Rights Commission will make charges of war crimes against the Syrian government. (think we’d see such charges brought against the U.S. government?)
The UN General Assembly could go around the UN Security Council, on the grounds of human rights violations. Russia and China vetoed the UNSC resolution against Syria.