Bush and Brown issue Iran Warning

[maddezmom]

Source: CNN


LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain and Europe are to agree tough new sanctions against Iran, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday following talks with U.S. President George W. Bush after which he also announced additional troops for Afghanistan.


Brown said new measures against Iran, including a freeze on overseas assets of the country's biggest bank, would be continue if the Islamic regime failed to address concerns over its nuclear ambitions.

"Action will start today in new phase of sanctions on oil and gas. We will take any necessary action so that Iran is aware of the choice it needs to make," Brown said.

Bush said he has not ruled out the use of force to end Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program, but added that he preferred to resolve the dispute diplomatically.

Britain will increase its presence in Afghanistan from 7,800 troops to 8,030 by next spring, UK Defense Secretary Des Browne later told British


Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/06/16/bush.united.kingdom/index.html?section=cnn_latest

[tridim]

1. Have at it oil speculators.

:eyes:

Hey Neocons.. SHUT THE FUCK UP.

[MountainLaurel]

2. Oh Christ

I cannot believe this. They can't be dragging us into war on yet another front, can they?

[melody]

7. No, they're not -- we have nothing with which to fight it

It's all just big talk.

[ryanmuegge]

10. Exactly, and they aren't going to lose the election for McCain by pushing oil to $300/barrel

Which any attack on Iran would certainly do, especially when the electoral map favors Republicans almost by default.

If only McCain, with the help of the corporate media, could distance himself in image from Bush (of course while still maintaining the exact same policy substance), maybe Bush could pull this off.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. How does freezing Iran's assets resolve the issues "diplomatically"?

[dipsydoodle]

4. A lot of Iran's trade is with and via Switzerland

and Switzerland is a non EU country so the two G's are unlikely to get much help there.

[liberal N proud]

5. Helping the oil companies maintain record profits.

[Tutonic]

6. He needs to stick to one story

Asked if he "got it wrong" on Iraq, Bush said: "History will judge the tactics.... Removing Saddam Hussein was not wrong. It was the right thing to do ... for 25 million Iraqis."

This man is constantly changing the reason(s) for invading Iraq. Today of course he cites Saddam Hussein. Last week he was claiming it was the terrorists and a month ago it was WMD's. Can he stick to his meds for one 24-hour period? The rest of the world must find this awfully amusing that we Americans are content to let this lying psychopath continue to wonder the streets without a straight jacket.

[Scurrilous]

8. Iran, fearing sanctions, said to have pulled $75b from EU banks

<snip>

"Iran, acting on orders from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has withdrawn around $75 billion from Europe to prevent the assets from being blocked under threatened new sanctions over Tehran's disputed nuclear ambitions, an Iranian weekly said.

"Part of Iran's assets in European banks have been converted to gold and shares and another part has been transferred to Asian banks," Mohsen Talaie, deputy foreign minister in charge of economic affairs, was quoted as saying.

Iranian officials were not immediately available to comment on the report in Shahrvand-e Emrouz, a moderate weekly, which did not specify the time period for the withdrawals which it said were ordered by Ahmadinejad.

"About $75 billion of Iran's foreign assets which were under threat of being blocked were wired back to Iran based on Ahmadinejad's order," the weekly said."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/993256.html

[dflprincess]

9. Apparently Brown doesn't want to be Prime Minister for long

I wonder what Bushco offered him to go along with them.

[The Stranger]

11. The Neocons are bloodthirsty again.

[cliss]

12. Wow this is a story to follow.

It's hard to believe they would be so stupid as to freeze Iranian assets.

Now this is not the 1st time they've tried this. About 1 year ago, Iran sensed danger and they threatened to pull out all their funds out of European banks. They were exploring moving their funds to banks in Asia, like Singapore and other places.

At that time, it was something around $80 billion (?). Can you IMAGINE your customer deciding to pull out that much money? Of course European banks panicked. They do NOT want to lose that much money. The timing couldn't be worse. OMG...Iran is a member of OPEC they're one of the biggest oil suppliers. This is truly what you call 'Russian Roulette'.

European banks are going to PAY for going along with Bush's lunacy.