Press TV has interviewed Jan Oberg, founder of transnational.org in Lund, about the US House of Representatives approving measures to block sale of Boeing aircraft to Iran.

A rough transcription of the interview appears below.

 

Press TV: This measure to block Iran from acquiring commercial passenger planes goes in direct violation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action?

Oberg: Yes, but it is nothing new unfortunately. I mean we have one week to go and it is one year since the JCPOA was signed and it seems that ..., I mean that should be enough time for the US to find ways of doing what they should do according to the nuclear deal.

So there has been this barring trade in dollar terms and there is a huge pressure put on European banks to not do anything that could risk being punished by the US for having trade with Iran. I think it is shameful, I am not an expert on banking issues, but if you have a good will you would not go about it this way.

Press TV: Well I’d like to pick up on that term you just used, “good will”. Now all these moves that are coming from the US Senate particularly or Congress as a whole is not really in good faith when it comes to the JCPOA, Iran has fulfilled its side of the obligations, why isn’t the US doing that in the sense that right now we are seeing the Obama administration trying to stick to this agreement at least on face value, however what comes after November?

Oberg: That is exactly what we do not know but we know one thing. Two candidates are both very dangerous for the world particularly Hillary Clinton and she is anti-Iran in any kinds of ways although she went along with the deal as far as I remember but hesitantly and Donald Trump has said that he will tear it apart if he becomes president.

So I guess some European companies are also afraid that the future will show somebody who will tear apart this deal and then they can be punished for having had deals with Iran. We are talking about billions and billions of dollars in punishment by the US and that is a funny thing that I do not personally understand. Why do allies of the US put up with and pay the price also vis-à-vis Russia, the sanctions there? We are talking about billions of dollars again lost in the Western economy from not trading and not having full trade and growing trade across these borders because of these political issues.

So I think if you ask me it is actually going to lead to further weakening of the US Empire. I think it is very evident in a number of other respects because at some point other countries will say, ‘No, this is enough, we will not follow the US on this one, it cost too much’ and of course China and others will sit and wait and say we do not give a damn about these sanctions.




 By Press TV