Obama’s REAL DAMAGE to security begins: Europeans scrambling to resume trade with Iran

Gertz’s - GEOSTRAT-DIRECT:
What nukes? Europeans scrambling to resume trade with Iran
By Jack Caravelli*
The July 14 signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action between major nations and Iran on its nuclear program is months from being implemented, but European nations already are moving forward with plans to resume trade with Iran as the process of lifting sanctions unfolds.
Those sanctions had reduced Iranian oil and gas exports by at least 50 percent and crippled badly needed investment in the aviation and automotive industries.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif with Belgium’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Didier Reynders.  Reuters
On Aug. 12 the Swiss Federal Council released a statement from Bern that the nuclear agreement “opens up new political and economic prospects with Iran, including bilateral relations. Given the important turning point in the 12 year nuclear dispute, the Federal Council decided on 12 August to lift the sanctions against Iran.”
The Swiss statement added that it seeks “to promote a broad political and economic exchange with Iran.”
During a meeting in June at the Italian Foreign Ministry in Rome, senior ministry officials described their government’s decision to move as quickly as possible to resume trade ties with Iran.
According to The Economist, French automakers Renault and Peugeot for years had a strong market presence in Iran. They are seeking to return to that highly profitable market position by working with local automakers.
Peugeot, for example, has agreed to restart production with Iran Khodro, its former partner, says the magazine.
Low labor costs in Iran over time also could induce European automakers to build production plants there as well as Peugeot has done in Morocco and Renault in Algeria.
Looking to move beyond the European Union’s (EU) policy of financial confrontation with Iran, the French government is actively promoting in Teheran the business goals of two of its most prominent companies.
European attitudes toward resuming trade with Iran were confirmed last month in Washington when Tedo Japaridze, former Foreign Minister of Georgia, said that in the three trips he has made to Iran this year he has seen “scores” of Europeans around Teheran preparing for the end of international sanctions on Iran.
The Europeans and Iran see mutual benefit in resumed trade and an overall improvement in relations.
Most European nations are not as concerned about the details of the nuclear deal as the United States or Israel, focusing on the economic opportunities of resuming trade.
The practical effects are apparent. In addition to the tens of billions of dollars that are scheduled to be released to Iran in coming months, Iran can begin to address critical needs in parts of its economy.
The most obvious and important for Iran’s hard currency earnings is modernizing the infrastructure in the oil and gas industry. Italy, for example, is highly energy dependent and sees resumed trade with Iran, which has significant energy reserves, as a way to address those needs.
Italy will increase its purchases of Iranian oil, as will other European nations along with past customers such as India and Japan, a financial windfall that if applied efficiently will improve the energy infrastructure.
Many commentators have pointed out that once sanctions imposed by the U.S., EU and UN are lifted, Iran will reclaim tens of billions of dollars in assets that had been frozen.
At present Iran is estimated to be spending annually about 6-16 billion dollars in support of terrorist operations in the region, including funding support to Hizbullah and Hamas according to a former U.S. Department of the Treasury senior official.
Iran can be expected to use some of the forthcoming funds to increase its support to terrorist operations around the Middle East.
At the same time, and no less important to Iran, the lifting of sanctions is likely to be a financial boon to what for years has been a stagnant and even crippled economy described by President Barack Obama as headed “to the Stone Age.”
Iran will be able to sell oil on the international market, participate in the international financial system and resume international trade with the Europeans and other trading partners. Such are the significant rewards for the nuclear negotiations.