(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - EU foreign ministers reached an agreement in Brussels on January 23 to impose sanctions on oil imports from Iran over the country's nuclear program as of July 1.
The sanctions involve an immediate ban on all new oil contracts with the Islamic Republic and a freeze on the assets of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) within the EU.
The United States, Israel and their allies have been accusing Iran of pursuing a military nuclear program, and have used the allegation to impose four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions and more unilateral measures against the Islamic Republic.
We have conducted an interview with Ralph Schoenman, political commentator, to share his opinion on this issue.
Following is a transcript of the interview:
Q: First of all, what do you make of the warm welcome that the Israeli leaders gave to EU foreign policy chief after the European Union's unilateral sanctions against Iran?
Schoenman: Well of course it is part of the orchestration of the assault upon Iran that Netanyahu and the Zionist state has waged in close conjunction both with the United States and with the European capitalism powers. When Netanyahu praises the European Union decision to place sanctions on Iranian oil exports, it is something that long has been arranged and which is simply making propaganda to acknowledge.
It has to be made clear here that the European Union has also targeted Iran's Central Bank, freezing its assets in Europe, and these measures complement legislation signed in the law by President Barack Obama on December 31st, first providing penalties against any company including foreign corporations that has any business dealings with Iran's Central Bank.
Obama makes it clear that his measures are designed to block all Iranian oil trades internationally and to cripple the country's economy. This is a very aggressive imperialism agenda that has long been in the preparation and in the announcement and that is conjoined to open crimes against Iran and its population.
The murder of Iranian nuclear scientist, Mustafa Ahmadi Roshan on the January 11th is further testimony to the criminality of European and US foreign policy. That assassination has all the earmarks of an operation carried out by the Mossad in league with the United States and it is virtually acknowledged in the US and in the media of United States. A front page New York Times article on January 12 in title “advisories of Iran” said to be stepping up covert actions.
Reports have commonly accepted in the US intelligence community that Israel is responsible for the murder and that the United States is an alliance with Israel engaged in covert actions against Iran and its nuclear program. Patrick Clawson with director of Iran's security initiative with the Washington institute for Near East Policy stated publicly, sabotage and assassination is the way to go.
So let's be clear. The hypocrisy, the media establishment in Europe and in United States knows no limits. A few months ago the American Press was demanding retaliation over entirely unsubstantiated claim by Obama and the intelligence services that Iran was involved in probable plan to hire a Mexican drug cartel to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington.
Q: Mr. Schoenman, briefly if you can, do you think such unilateral sanctions would stop Iran from following up on its nuclear program?
Schoenman: First of all it should not. Iran has every right to pursue a nuclear program for peaceful energy and quite frankly Iran is a sovereign nation. It is surrounded by countries that have nuclear weapons, notably the state of Israel that menace Iran and menace many people in the region. If Iran decides to have nuclear weapon in such an environment it has every right to do so. But it is clear and it has been even acknowledged by sectors of Israeli military and by US military that there is no evidence that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon.
This is used as a pretext to undermine the Iranian economy and to create a crisis in the country and to prepare for the prospect of a military attack.
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