The US on Thursday announced new sanctions on Iran over its reprisal drone and missile attack on Israel.
The State Department said the sanctions target Iran’s drone program and its steel and automobile industry over allegations that the companies are tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The measures are largely symbolic since Iran is already under heavy US sanctions that essentially amount to an economic blockade. Tehran has found relief by selling more oil to Asia, and recent US sanctions have tried to target those sales.
State Department spokesman Matt Miller said the latest sanctions are actions against “several actors involved in Iran’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program, suppliers and customers of one of Iran’s largest steel producers, and Iranian automobile companies with connections to US-designated entities Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL).”
The UK also announced new sanctions on Iran that target the Iranian military. “The UK has sanctioned a further 7 individuals and 6 entities who have enabled Iran to conduct destabilising regional activity, including its direct attack on Israel,” the British government said in a press release.
Both the US and the UK strongly condemned Iran’s attack on Israel in their statements, but neither mentioned the Israeli bombing of an Iranian consulate in Damascus, which provoked the Iranian attack. Israel has been targeting Iranians in Syria for years, but the bombing of a diplomatic facility marked a huge escalation and killed seven members of the IRGC, including a senior Quds Force commander.
The US and the UK defended Israel during the Iranian attack and are now urging the Israeli government not to escalate the situation further. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will make its own decisions, and some sort of response is expected. The US has vowed to continue defending Israel, meaning it will intervene again if there is another escalation.
Why even bother. Just makes Biden look weak.
Just what this country and planet need at this time of trial with important matters to be decided. A weak Capitalist,Imperialist War mongering Senile idiot in charge of a large military and the insanity to use it for power and profit.
Please notice, I found a better word, slimy AND useless “creature” is better. You made me think, thanks.
De nada
What do you want him to do so he doesn’t look weak ?
Be a statesman for once.
He is a spineless marionette and the Puppeteers in Tel Aviv pull his strings.
Sorry L,you and I know that ain’t happening. No one with any balls including the squad is or are capable of getting us out of this mess.
Let us hope the men/women on the other side keep their composure, they are our only hope.
++++
Biden does not only look weak, HE IS WEAK, he is a spineless, slimy, little creature. Can’t you see that?
So it goes.
This is too rich for words. The US guilty of violating other nations rights and property for more then 100 years and Israel guilty of the worst crimes in world history are not sanctioned..Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.The US is like a wild dog turned loose on its neighbors.It really needs to be kept in the house before it shits on everything valueable.
A lovely gold star for you WI!
Thank you Donna. I love you too despite your sometime religious remarks. As you know sometimes when write it flows smoothly and sometimes not. Unfortunately for us caring,loving peaceful people one does not run out of things to protest and write about.This will only increase as the Capitalist empire of the US totters and falls.
It’s almost as if individuals completely loyal to Israel sat in the top positions in the big media. I wonder where that loyalty comes from.
Money, money makes the world go round.
There is enough in Tel Aviv to spread it over EU and NATO too.
Israel and the USA are the two turds in the world’s punch bowl!
Is it just me, or does it seem like we’re imposing sanctions on people everyday? It’s becoming like, blah, blah, “Humanitarian Sanctions,” blah, blah, blah.
Yes, and the sanctions weapons is losing its edge, as well. It was expected to bring Russia to its knees; instead the US sanctions stimulated economic reforms that have made Russia more stable and resilient economically. The day is coming when the US petrodollar will have no more sanctioning power than the French franc. I don’t expect the US empire to go down quietly; it remains a global superpower, economically and militarily. But I see daylight at the end of the tunnel.
It did not work in Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela either.
Disgust for the US should know no bounds. The corrupt US congress has closed its eyes to the murder of, now, 34,000 Palestinians, and the number continues to grow as fascist apartheid Israel deliberately starves people to death. What kind of psychos is the US supporting? And the mainstream media — left and right — go along with the “Israel is our ally” scam. Israel is our parasite that is dragging the US and the region into an abyss. And for what? To keep the nazi Netanyahu out of prison? To allow the war criminals in his cabinet some sense of vengeance? Or to give the Israeli public the blood they are screaming for? These are all debased and perverted reasons to aid a country that knows no decency, morality or legality.
First time I have seen your writeing. Please don’t stop.
Well said.
Let’s cut off their access to pieces of paper with 18th century Americans printed on them even MORE! That’ll learn em!
You don’t seem to understand that US sanctions still carry a lot of weight in the economic world and can inflict a lot of pain.
Trade wars hurt the US too, the nation is decaying, living standards are sinking for normal working people. Poverty and homelessness is rising, education and health care are underfunded so is the infrastructure including public transportation which is almost non existing. Not one mile of high speed train in a single state, too expensive.
Per-student education funding is at its highest point in history and half again what it was in 1990.
As for high-speed rail, you’re correct that there’s not one mile of it in a single state. In Florida, the number is 235 miles. Not sure about other states.
It is an improvement, but real high speed rails, bullet trains, make more than 200 miles per hour. They are expensive, the old rails can’t handle that. That is expensive and not the nations priority.
Would I love to see bullet-train transport in the US? Absolutely.
There are reasons, and not ALL natural reasons, why it doesn’t exist. The way the US economy emerged (and was shaped by both business and political interests) after World War 2 ended up heavily subsidizing “car culture,” with the money going into freeways instead of railways, and the dramatic fall in air transport prices since deregulation made flying more attractive than rail for those who can’t or don’t drive long distances.
For example, I just looked up the price of traveling from Jacksonville, Florida to Los Angeles California on May 1 and back on May 10.
Via Amtrack, I would leave Jacksonville on May 1 and arrive on May 5, at a cost of $495 (coach, not private room). The trip back would cost $735 and also take four days.
The same trip via airplane would cost, depending on flight, between $276 and $439 round trip, and take a few hours, rather than several days, each way.
Even a bullet train with NO stops between Jacksonville and Los Angeles would take longer than the flight with a 2-hour layover in Dallas.
“Would I love to see bullet-train transport in the US? Absolutely.”
That would provide the TSA goons even more opportunities to hassle travelers. Oh, joy!
Yeah — I’d like to see TSA eliminated.
I think I may have discovered the best way to get through TSA lines with minimum hassle. I went through at oh-dark-thirty in Orlando last week, had zero problems even though the line was long, and realized afterward that I was so groggy they must have thought I was just a senile, confused old man and not bothered with me.
Then again, maybe I AM a senile, confused old man. If so, I should consider running for president, as both major parties seem to think that’s what America wants.
I agree. The nation was shaped by the car, without cars we would have no suburban sprawl, we would have more affordable housing closer to where the jobs are, we would have public transportation and much less concrete and asphalt and less flush-floods. We would have had much better city planning. True, even bullet trains have limits, extra long distances and you have to fly or take a ship to cross the oceans. High speed trains are more comfortable than an economy seat on an airplane.
As you said, the nation developed a car culture shaped by business and political interests and nothing has changed since. We keep digging the hole deeper and deeper.
Group divisions and crime make urban living difficult in some areas.
Swiss trains are marvelous. And I suppose they’re not even the best.
Education and health care seem to have bloated costs. But why would someone want to cut into pharma profits or reduce administrative expenses? No one cares enough to improve things.
Public services should be just that, there should be no private profiting from basic public services. They are necessities, one can’t do without . Charter schools and healthcare prove your point.
The market works sometimes, under the right conditions. Medicare bloats costs. It’s not just Big Pharma in a vacuum.
I agree, but I am convinced a free market must be held to some ethical and moral standards. Unregulated allows greed to go wild, poaching the markets and consumers.
Yes. But I doubt you have the best solution for the US. Each polity is different, in theory. In reality I guess all polities are becoming similar, even North Korea and Bhutan. But I want increased competition to lower prices in the US. And UBI.
A problem is doctors will recommend newer drugs, for profit. And pharmacies won’t even carry drugs that are older, like inexpensive antibiotics. The profit motive is way out of control.
And we need free medical schooling, more residency openings, more med school students. There’s need for competition among medical doctors. Competition can lower costs. But we have greed instead.
Our problem is private corporations own our government. That is why government does not serve the people, it serves big money, because they are members of the money elite. Our congress is club of millionaires protecting their very own interests. I would like to see the share values they hold in the MIC. How many 401K accounts include MIC shares?
Plus the Intelligence agencies own the government. Burnham expected the military to be significant, but it’s the intelligence agencies! I guess they produced Bush, maybe others.
This comment is almost entirely off topic. Its pertinence is just that the gov is not exclusively owned by private interests. The intelligence agencies are important and other managerial powers are important.
How many careers rely on Russia being the bad guy, even if no corrupt money flows for the conflict? Just having a career is nice too. And I’m giving a bad example, because I haven’t worked in that field.
But who is in control of the Intel agencies, to whom do they report? The universities and Gaza demonstrations are interesting. The authorities oppose demonstrations in support of Gaza, if they don’t, the private funding will go down. The donors don’t own the private institutions but they are powerful influential people.
Why are there no open debates? Big corporations own the nations media and there is NPR and NPTV which is government controlled. Without a free Press there can be no Democracy.
I read recently that a jackass alert was recently issued because of very strange behavior observed in the vicinity of the white house and capitol buildings in DC… something about plans to erect a new suite of offices dedicated to issuance of sanctions (DOS?). They’re planning to hire 50,000 employees??? Anyone else heard about this?
Maybe the idiots in Tel Aviv can help you, they are in charge, Netanyahu must know, ask him.
LOL. True. Don’t they already have offices in the Senate office building?
I forgot, too much is going on.
A sense of humor to balance the outrage is essential to mental survival both now and in the dim future.
It keeps us going, we can catch our breath here.
A little Scotch,a little weed a good baseball season could make life bearable before the deluge.
Our spineless, demented president is a useless little worm. The mad men in the establishment only know how to extort with sanctions and military power to do their bidding and then the insane minds ask how come they don’t like us.
And a habitual prevaricator as well.
He is not in the same class as Trump for lying but he is trying hard.
I’ll believe that when Trump reports that his uncle was eaten by cannibals.
You mean Trump’s uncle wasn’t eaten by cannibals?
What are you, some kind of revisionist historian?
Worms help the soil. The only thing Biden does is order people killed to make money for the ruling class.
Thanks for the reminder. I did not want to insult the defenseless little animals, little worms are NOT useless, Biden is a dehumanized useless human animal. He and company are below the great world of animals.
However one of these days he will be resting with the worms in a grave.
No mention of what happened BEFORE Iran’s strike.
As the Medieval Polish saying goes, “The … cries out in pain as he strikes you.”
The UK is History’s refuse dump.
Well, that’s pretty bizarre… Maybe they REALLY meant to sanction the Israelis for a first strike of attacking an Iranian diplomatic location that killed some prominent Iranians….. Nahhh…… 8-l
Let’s support dictators around the world.
Give me a like if you agree.
We are with Peaceful dictators.
I support the master of our censorious thieving murderous welfare warfare state, Joseph Biden, unreservedly.
The only thing that US can do before the collapse of its fake dollar…!
If you cannot beat them sanction them…!