The United States designated the head of Iran’s central bank as a terrorist on Tuesday and barred anyone around the world from doing business with him -
How does that work?
Typically, when the U.S. punished individuals with sanctions, it prohibits Americans or U.S. companies from doing business with them. Secondary sanctions also apply to non-Americans and non-U.S. companies. That means that anyone, in any country, who does business with Seif or Tarzali could themselves be punished with sanctions, cutting them off from the U.S. financial system.
Cuts them off from the US financial system? OK - but I’m still having trouble imagining the whole world going along with that plan.
That’s not fair. There are so many other people more deserving of that title. Jamie Dimon, John Stumpf, Steve Mnuchin, Lloyd Blankfein and a few others come immediately to mind.
The Germans will be the key. Merkel has already said that the US is an unreliable partner and that Europe has to move forward accordingly. If the Germans tell Trump to fuck off, the rest of the EU will likely follow suit. It’s not just Iran anymore. The Trump regime has now made this issue a quarrel with the EU, itself. I think that this is a grave miscalculation.
I don’t know sounds like it is going just like Putin wanted.