Israel Matzav

Aren't you glad Obama finished up in Iraq?

When Barack Hussein Obama took office, the United States had troops in Iraq. Obama was determined to get the troops out... at all costs. Now that US troops are out of Iraq, the Obama administration is reluctantly admitting to a new problem: Iraq is helping Iran to evade US sanctions.

In response to questions from The New York Times, David S. Cohen, the Treasury Department’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, provided a written statement saying that Iran “may seek to escape the force of our financial sanctions through Iraqi financial institutions.” But he added that “we will pursue, and are actively pursuing, efforts to prevent Iran from evading U.S. or international financial sanctions, in Iraq or anywhere else.”

Some current and former American and Iraqi officials, along with banking and oil experts, say that Iraqi government officials are turning a blind eye to the large financial flows, smuggling and other trade with Iran. In some cases, they say, government officials, including some close to Mr. Maliki, are directly profiting from the activities.

“Maliki’s government is right in the middle of this,” said one former senior American intelligence official who now does business in Iraq.

In announcing that he was “cutting off” Elaf Islamic Bank, Mr. Obama said it had “facilitated transactions worth millions of dollars on behalf of Iranian banks that are subject to sanctions for their links to Iran’s illicit proliferation activities.”

But the treatment the bank has received in Baghdad since it was named by Mr. Obama suggests that the Iraqi government is not only allowing companies and individuals to circumvent the sanctions but also not enforcing penalties for noncompliance.

Read the whole thing. Those who know how the Middle East works cannot be too surprised. But the naivete of the Obama administration is simply jaw-dropping.

And in the meantime, Iran continues to find money for its nuclear weapons program, while its citizenry starves.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Iraq

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:24 AM