text: US Pressures South Korea to Cut Iran Oil Imports - News From Antiwar.com
  US Pressures South Korea to Cut Iran Oil Imports
  Seoul is hesitant to inflict economic strain by cutting Iranian oil, which accounts for 10 percent of its oil imports
  by John Glaser Posted on January 17, 2012 Categories NewsTags Iran, South Korea
  The U.S. is strongly pressuring its ally South Korea to reduce its crude oil imports from Iran, as Washington tries to unite the world in harsh economic sanctions against Iran for a nuclear weapons program that doesn't exist.
  South Korea already has restricted financial dealings with more than 200 groups and individuals with suspected links to Iran's nuclear program, but they rely on Iran for up to 10 percent of their oil supplies and have not yet said whether they will comply with the embargo on oil imports.
  The European Union also imports a lot of oil from Iran, but is considering an embargo after intense U.S. pressure. Many EU governments are facing severe economic crises and are hesitant to impose additional self-inflicted economic pain on their own countries by abiding by U.S. demands to ban Iranian oil.
  And now South Korea, too, is being asked to strain their own economy by reducing or eliminating Iranian imports. This, despite there being no evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program. Notwithstanding hawkish rhetoric and media coverage, the opinion of the U.S. intelligence community, the Obama administration, and the latest IAEA report is that Iran's enrichment is so far civilian in nature.
  "We're urging all of our partners to help us, to work with us in putting pressure on the government of Iran, to get it to negotiate seriously," Robert Einhorn, the State Department's special adviser for nonproliferation and arms control, told reporters in Seoul after a meeting with senior South Korean Foreign Ministry officials.
  The harsh sanctions on Iran's oil and banking industries are widely expected to have crippling effects on the economy and thus the well-being of ordinary Iranians who rely on the country's natural resource market to spur economic growth. Many have pointed to similar sanctions regimes heaped on Saddam Hussein's Iraq during the 1990s, which left the country destitute and led to hundreds of thousands of deaths.
  6 thoughts on "US Pressures South Korea to Cut Iran Oil Imports"
  I'm changing: "The U.S. is strongly pressuring its ally South Korea…"
  To: "The U.S. is strongly pressuring its puppet South Korea…"
  What the hell?!!! So it's now the American Imperiums perogative to tell other nations just how they're supposed to provide resources to their industries and by extension their people? Sweet Jeezus! What lunatics we have.
  Yes, so what ever happened to the "open free markets" we´ve been listening to from the American government all of these years? Every day, anything and everything American officals say, sounds like a joke, a bad joke.
  hey S Korea here is the 45 – blast away at your foot.
  You see S.K.! If you want or let US troops stay in your country, you become a toady to Washington. N.K. may be poor and hungry, but at least it can't be bullied and browbeaten by uncle Sam into who it can or cannot do business with.
  The USA gonna crack open that ol' strategic reserve – and sell it off at cut rate prices? Still buying from the arch-evildoer Chavez? Think he's going to keep selling?
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