I am taking the evening off. I hope Thanksgiving has been a safe holiday for most Americans. I hope it has also been a restful one with families to laugh and unite around the holidays where travel was possible.
I could not believe the decorations for Christmas already. I suppose starting the shopping season now sparks holiday cheer everywhere.
There are other countries that celebrate Thanksgiving in a similar fashion to the USA, namely Canada and Liberia. I think South Korea has a similar holiday, but, I could be wrong about that. Some celebrate a harvest as in East Germany called the Erntedankfest. China, Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam have harvest festivities. So, the occasion while unique to any culture is not completely unthought of outside the USA.
The USA Thanksgiving Holiday is not identified officially as a particular religious holiday. Each American can participate in Thanksgiving in unity. Some do care to attend religious services, but, there is every reason for any American to view the official federal holiday of Thanksgiving as one of unity for the greatness that is the USA.
I would like to address the crisis in Iran. The country's authority isn't communicating well enough with the people. I am sure the price of gasoline is transient. This violence comes at a time when a consortium of countries has formed a shareholder group to purchase Iranian oil while engaging in trade exchanges with Iranian products.
The group is called the "Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (Instex). The members of the shareholder group are Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands. The initially trading hasn't begun yet, but, it should relieve the horrible inflation that is occurring in Iran. This effort was begun after the USA under Trump withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal.
The group is very transparent about the purpose of Instex, in that it circumvents the sanctions by Trump of Iran. The trades avoids using the US Dollar. The ONLY purpose of the group is to return function to the Iran Nuclear Deal as Iran continues to loosen it's nuclear constraints (click here) agreed to in the Nuclear Deal. The countries of the group want Iran to return to the Agreement and soon.
30 November 2019
Paris, London and Berlin on Saturday (click here) welcomed six new European countries to the Instex barter mechanism, which is designed to circumvent US sanctions against trade with Iran by avoiding use of the dollar.
“As founding shareholders of the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (Instex), France, Germany and the United Kingdom warmly welcome the decision taken by the governments of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, to join Instex as shareholders,” the three said in a joint statement.
The Paris-based Instex functions as a clearing house that allows Iran to continue to sell oil and import other products or services in exchange.
The system has not yet enabled any transactions.
Washington in 2018 unilaterally withdrew from the international agreement governing Iran’s nuclear programme and reinstated heavy sanctions against Tehran....
I wish they wouldn't report it as Washington withdrew from the Iran program. The USA legislature did not withdraw from the program, Trump unilaterally withdrew from the program.
December 1, 2019
Israel on Sunday scolded (click here) six new European members of the INSTEX barter mechanism meant to circumvent US sanctions on Iran, saying they encouraged the Iranian regime’s repression of its citizens and “should be ashamed of themselves.”
“While the Iranian regime is killing its own people, European countries rush to support that very murderous regime,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charged in a video released Sunday.
In a separate statement, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said “Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden could not have picked worse timing. The hundreds of innocent Iranians murdered during the latest round of protests are rolling in their graves.”...
I could not disagree more. Iranian lives are not a bargaining chip in a bigger game. The process that lead to the Iran Nuclear Agreement was arduous, but, it worked and Iran for at least 10 years would suspend their nuclear program and all reports even to the date Trump withdrew indicated strong compliance with the agreement. Why? Because the Iranian economy was beginning to move again and the entire country wanted a better quality of life.
There is a lot going on with Iran to bring about such egregious inflation. This is about the cruelest foreign policy ever conceived to destroy a sovereign country. People are protesting and now the Iranian authority has clamped down in a way that mirrors some of China's methods in Hong Kong with unarmed people shot to death.
First, the world negotiated a deal to end nuclear escalation with Iran for the stability of the Middle East. Today, that stability is coming into a near calamity throughout the region. The people of Iran were feeling relief from many years of sanctions and sent their most inspiring leader in President Rouhani. Now, the hardliners are taking over again and the people are suffering.
Is there no end to the plans Trump makes dealing with life and death to human beings?
December 1, 2019
By Radio Farda
The latest figures (click here) published by China’s customs show trade with Iran in October dropped to its lowest level in a decade.
During the month of October, total trade with Iran was $1.38 billion, which is 38 percent less than in October 2018.
From January to October exports to Iran decreased by 39 percent compared with the same period last year, reaching a low of $7.8 billion, while imports from Iran dropped 36 percent to $11.7 billion.
China is Iran’s biggest oil buyer and prior to U.S. sanctions it was importing more than 650,000 barrels of crude per day. China’s customs figures show that in recent months this volume has declined to an average of 140,000 barrels.
After the United States withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement in May 2018, President Donald Trump imposed partial sanctions on Iran’s oil a year ago. In May (2019), the sanctions expanded to a total ban on buying Iranian oil and almost all countries have complied. China and Syria are the only official destinations for a limited quantity of Iranian crude....
