Current Sanctions on Iran , US / EU / UN - Gas centrifuges whizz away at Natanz regardlesss

As a follow up to the previous post here are most of the current sanctions in force against Iran ...New EU sanctions agreed on June 23rd 2008 include ..

Visa Bans :

Revolutionary Guards head Mohammad Ali Jafari,
Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar
Atomic Energy chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh.
"Senior experts" inside Iran's nuclear and ballistic programmes.

Bank Melli , Iran's largest, has EU based assets frozen

The U.N. Security Council has over the last 3 years imposed increasing levels of sanctions on Iran,;

December 2006

1. Sensitive nuclear materials
2. Froze the assets of Iranian individuals and companies associated with the nuclear programme. 3. Allowed Iran 60 days to suspend uranium enrichment, for either reactor fuel or weapons. Iran did not stop.

March 2007

1. New arms and financial sanctions.
2. The asset freeze was extended to 28 additional groups, companies and individuals engaged in or supporting sensitive nuclear activities or development of ballistic missiles.
3. State-run Bank Sepah and commanders and firms controlled by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, including commanders of one of its units, the Qods Force, were included on the list.(See US sanctions below)

The resolution invoked Chapter 7, Article 41 of the U.N. Charter, which makes most of its provisions mandatory but excludes military action. Iran again failed to meet a 60-day deadline to halt enrichment.

March 3, 2008

1. Imposed because of the refusal to suspend "sensitive nuclear activities". Teheran dismissed the council's decision as illegal and illegitimate.
2. More travel and financial curbs on Iranian individuals and companies and made some restrictions mandatory.
3. Expansion of previous partial ban on trade in items with both civilian and military uses ( so called dual technology) to cover sales of all such technology to Iran.
4. 13 individuals and 12 companies to the list of people and firms suspected of aiding Iran's nuclear and missile programmes

So far Teheran has ignored all council and IAEA resolutions demanding it freeze its uranium enrichment programme.

United States sanctions already inforce

Many of these date from 1979 when radical Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took U.S. diplomats hostage.

1. Almost all trade between the US and Iran is prohibited.

2. Bill Clinton got tough and issued Executive Orders on Tuesday March 4th 1995 ( under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which permits such orders for national security reasons) stopping U.S. companies investing in Iranian oil and gas and trading with Iran after Du Pont subsidiary Conoco ried to sign a deal. Plenty of other oilcos and nations happily stepped in. (French based Elf Aquitaine SA and Total SA, and Royal Dutch/Shell ). The exact wording was ...""entering into contracts for the financing or the overall supervision and management of the development of petroleum resources in Iran."

Halliburton first started doing business in Iran as early as 1995, and in possible violation of U.S. sanctions via a Cayman Islands registered subsidiary - Halliburton Products and Services. CEO of Halliburton at the time became Vice President Cheney.

Cyrus Nasseri, (pic) is the the vice chairman of the board of directors of Iran-based Oriental Oil Kish (OOK) and is also a key member of Iran's nuclear development team. OOK worked with Halliburton's Cayman Island company - Halliburton Products and Services (said in a WSJ article to operate from behind an unmarked door on the ninth floor of a new north Tehran tower block and nominally based in Dubai) developing parts of the huge South Pars gas-drilling project - became public knowledge in January 2005. OOK also have a joint venture with Japan Drilling Company (JDC) in offshore waters with Sagadril 1 & 2.

It was late in 2005 that Cyrus Nasseri was arrested and interrogated by Iranian authorities for allegedly providing Halliburton with Iran's nuclear secrets. Iranian government officials charged Nasseri with accepting as much as $1 million in bribes from Halliburton for this information. This may also have involved illicit deals and hidden profits shared by the Iranian "oil mafia".

3. U.S. Congress passed the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA) in 1995 (Libya has now been dropped) requiring the U.S. government to impose sanctions on foreign firms investing more than $20 million a year in Iran's energy sector. It was extended for five years in September 2006. No foreign firms have been penalised.

4. In October 2007the US (a) placed sanctions on Bank Melli, Bank Mellat and Bank Saderat , (b) said the Revolutionary Guards were proliferators of weapons of mass destruction. Sanctions were aso imposed on firms controlled by the Guards and on the Qods Force, saying the unit backed terrorists.

5. In January 2008, the United States imposed sanctions on Brigadier-General Ahmed Foruzandeh from the Qods force for fomenting violence in Iraq.

UK Sanction currently in force.

These are stated in a notice from the Bank of England Financial Sanctions Iran April 22nd 2007 - from October 2007 the task of imposing sanctions became a Treasury function at the delightfully named Asset Freezing Unit.
Currently it appears that the UK adopts the EU sanctions and handily provides a fascinating glimpse in Annexe A of the sort of people in Iran so blighted ..

Annexe A
ALAI, Amir, Moayyed : Involved in managing the assembly and engineering of centrifuges
ASHIANI, Mohammed, Fedai : Involved in the production of ammonium uranyl carbonate
and the management of the Natanz enrichment complex
BAKHTIAR, Haleh : Involved in the production of magnesium at a concentration of 99.9%
BEHZAD, Morteza : Involved in making centrifuge components

No doubt some of them are in this picture which Lord Patel managed to snap when he was at Natanz giving a few helpful tips about nuclear centrifuges.