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August 2nd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda The hasty congressional action on Wednesday, intended to further punish all banks, insurance firms and shipping lines involved in Iran’s oil exports, comes just before the US Congress adjourns for a lengthy summer break to campaign for November’s nationwide congressional and presidential elections, while both the dominant political parties are resorting to extraordinary measures to gratify the affluent pro-Israeli lobby group for support in the peak of the election campaign season.
The so-called compromise bill would supposedly build on the oil trade sanctions signed into law by US President Barack Obama back in December, expanding penalties on foreign firms that conduct business with Iran’s national oil company and tanker fleet and intends to make it more difficult for the Islamic Republic to receive payments for the sale of its petroleum products.
The Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who is among the top recipients of campaign funds by the powerful pro-Israeli lobby group, hailed the congressional move as the toughest sanctions ever imposed on Iran and claimed that it would ultimately “deprive Iran of hard currency” and funds needed to sustain its nuclear energy program.
However, top Israeli officials have expressed anger over the failure of the US-led sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
“We have to be honest and say that all the sanctions and diplomacy so far have not set back the Iranian [nuclear energy] program by one iota,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday in a meeting with US Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.
In the wake of Netanyahu’s remarks, Obama on Tuesday tightened sanctions, targeting Iran’s oil export sector and a pair of Chinese and Iraqi banks accused of doing business with the country.
The sanctions followed criticism from Obama’s Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney that the White House had failed to act strongly enough. Romney travelled to Israel with an announced campaign mission to boast himself as more pro-Israel than Obama.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which has lobbied hard for the anti-Iran measure, praised the US Congressional move, saying that it “represents the strongest set of sanctions to isolate any country in the world during peacetime.”
“The implementation of this bill would subject virtually all of Iran’s energy, financial, and transportation sectors to US sanctions,” AIPAC said in a statement.
Meanwhile, China’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday reacted angrily to the sanctions announced by Obama against a Chinese bank, saying that they would hurt cooperation between China and the United States.
“The US has invoked domestic law to impose sanctions on a Chinese financial institution, and this is a serious violation of international rules that harms Chinese interests,” ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement.
Additionally, Japanese refiner Showa Shell Sekiyu KK announced on Tuesday that it would continue importing Iranian crude oil regardless of US and European Union oil sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Furthermore, major US daily The New York Times reported in its Tuesday edition that this week’s trip to Israel by US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, which follows similar visits by high-ranking American officials to the occupied territories, is a sign of Washington’s bid to win the Jewish vote in next November’s presidential election.
According to the report, the highest ranking among numerous US officials that have recently visited Israel were Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon and the administration’s Counterterrorism Chief John Brennan.
The daily speculated that the frequent visits to Tel Aviv by so many American political officials may have the dual intent of showing “strong support for Israel in an election year” and expressing concern about Israel’s newest threat of military action against Iran.
Iran’s top political and military officials have repeatedly dismissed Israel’s military threats against the country, warning that if Tel Aviv launches such an attack, it will be reduced to rubbles.
MFB/GHN/MA
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