Discuss US/Iran billion dollar deal

[cbabe]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/11/us-iran-sanctions-waiver-americans-detained-iran

US agrees to release $6bn in Iran funds as part of deal to free detained Americans

Sanctions waiver will allow transfer of $6bn in frozen Iranian assets from South Korea to Qatar, in effort to win release of quintet

Julian Borger in Washington
Mon 11 Sep 2023 19.39 EDT

The waiver allowing international banks to transfer the Iranian funds was signed by the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on Friday, and Congress was informed on Monday.

Under the deal, the money, frozen revenues from past Iranian oil sales, will be sent to Qatar’s central bank, from where it can be disbursed for the purchase of humanitarian goods for Iran.

As part of the preparation for the deal, four of the US nationals held by Iran were transferred from jail to house arrest last month. The fifth detainee was already under house arrest.

…more…

(Comments I’ve heard:
Humanitarian funds will free up other Iranian funds for possible bad acts.

Ransom puts target on Americans for further kidnapping/hostage taking.

No promises for change in any Iranian policies.

Iranian women still being targeted and worse.

I’m thinking there must be more in this deal that makes it good for us…? Thoughts?)

[duckworth969]

1. westerners shouldn't go to Iran

One way to not get kidnapped in an enemy country is to not live, pass through or work in an enemy country.

I lived and worked in China in 2010 and 2011.

I was definitely watched over and kept tabs on by local police.

That’s known and generally accepted by any Westerner, particularly Americans.

You had to watch your step because it didn’t take much to get tossed in the clink or have the people you work for leaned on by local politicians.

There is absolutely no way I would go back now. Much more risky and dangerous than ten years ago.

My feeling is, if our government doesn’t restrict access to an enemy country, then it bears some responsibility for what happens to any of its citizens that enter Iran.

At one point in our history, I think Americans were not permitted to go to Cuba. There might still be restrictions now.

In any event, if you don’t want to be kidnapped or detained in an enemy country, don’t go.

[DFW]

3. It was permitted to travel to Cuba already in the early 1980s.

I was invited by the Cuban government to visit in 1982. I asked if there would be any trouble for me. They laughed, and said “not on our end.” So I went. They did shadow me everywhere, but I expected that. At one point, in the hotel’s hard currency shop, I ended up translating between a Soviet air crew, who spoke no Spanish, and the Cuban cashier who spoke no Russian. When the Russians left, and got to pay for my five post cards, I was asked to present my passport. When the cashier saw my US passport, after just having gone back and forth between Russian and Spanish, you could practically see her eyes forming the letters C I A. I had to repress a laugh.

Typical US government mentality: on the trip back, the plane to Montréal, a Soviet-made Ilyushin-62, practically fell apart, and had to return to Havana. We finally got in to Montréal at something like 2 AM. US customs and border control at the Montréal airport was giving all the college age kids who were on my Cuban plane the third degree about what they were doing in Cuba. Dumb kids, they all had berets with red stars and Che Guevara t-shirts. What did they expect? I wore a suit and tie, and was asked how long I had been in Canada. I truthfully answered, “just overnight,” and was waved through without further comment.

[cbabe]

4. Americans can be kidnapped anywhere, not just in Iran. Chinese

secret police, for example, are policing people worldwide.

Six billion for four people is a huge motivator.

Meanwhile, what about the theocracy terrorizing Iranian women. Where are our demands for human rights, for example?

[DFW]

2. An expat Iranian friend here in Germany laughs at the BINO

He says that for decades, Iran has been doing business (almost) as usual with every country supposedly embargoing it except Israel. Invoices and shipments are made under names that don’t violate anyone’s taboo list, but as long as they’re sure the name and destination of their exports and/or money isn’t Israel, it has been business as usual for over two decades, now. I’m sure there is a reason Halliburton maintains Dick Cheney’s house on Kish, now under the company name instead of Cheney’s. Kish is something like a 45 minute flight from Dubai, where Halliburton has maintained its world HQ after moving from Texas at the end of the Cheney-Bush administration.