Will SWIFT ban on Iran strangle Spain?
Published: 16 March, 2012, 14:33
A woman fills her car by 'Out of service' signs attached to petrol pumps in the Barcelona area as petrol stations run out of fuel (AFP Photo / Lluis Gene)
(28.0Mb) embed videoTAGS: Oil, EU, Crisis, Iran, Cary Johnston, Sara Firth, Global economy
With the upcoming EU electronic banking transactions ban on Iran, the Islamic Republic might face a crude economic pinch. However, in an attempt to pressure Tehran, technocrats in Brussels might actually be leading Spain to the scaffold.
SWIFT, the world's biggest electronic banking system, is preparing to cut off Iranian financial firms, including the country's Central Bank, blacklisted by the EU. The move is part of the European plan to impose an embargo on Iranian oil this summer over Tehran’s nuclear program.
The EU and US are hoping to force Iran to the negotiating table by targeting its oil revenues.
But the measure is expected to backfire on average Europeans, particularly in Spain, which imports over 1.5 million barrels of oil from Iran daily.
“Even assuming that the case against Iran is strong, the sanctions right now, exercised by countries like Spain, Greece or Italy, will damage those countries more than it will damage Iran,” journalist Miguel-Anxo Murado told RT.
While countries like France and Britain can easily ban Iranian oil because they are not dependent on it, the EU’s most economically battered states – Spain, Greece and Italy – will feel the effect of the sanctions most.
“Of course we can’t refuse. The pressure from the US, Britain and France is huge,” Murado acknowledged.
Spain is Europe’s second largest importer of Iranian oil after Italy. When the EU-imposed sanctions on Tehran come into force this July, a good share of Spaniards may find driving a car an unattainable luxury.
One way or another, Spain has until July to find alternative sources of crude supplies. The country has already promised to switch oil imports as it continues to buy Iranian oil, albeit in lower quantities.
In addition, Spain's biggest refiner Repsol has repeatedly declined to comment on the details of its oil purchases.
Vladimir Kremlev for RT
In late January, Repsol also announced it had started the long-awaited exploration of offshore oilfields near Cuba. However, any positive benefits felt from that venture will not materialize for several years.
Petrol prices in Spain used to be among the lowest in Europe. Now prices are rising as the looming oil embargo is expected to push them even higher.
In a healthy economic situation, a rise in oil prices might be problematic. But coming at a time when Spain is on the brink of a second recession, it’s proving a nightmare for the population.
One year ago, Spain already had to reduce the speed limit from 120 km/h to 110 km/h in an effort to save up to €2.3 billion a year in oil costs.
Today, with unemployment soaring at 22.8 percent, Spain has found itself in really dire straits.
RT’s Sara Firth spoke with people at a gas station in Valencia and most of them, if not all, seem to be petrified by the prospect of further spikes in gas prices.
“It's terrible that we should pay for decisions taken in Brussels, it's not known whom they are taken for but certainly not for ordinary people,” one of them told RT.
Spanish citizens said if the already high prices go even higher, people won’t be able to afford gasoline.
Attempts to calm fears about a rise in prices have been made, with Saudi Arabia saying it has enough oil to make up for the loss of Iran’s supplies when the embargo comes into force.
But countries like Spain will still be paying the price of lost trade with Tehran and the cost of replacing oil contracts with the Islamic Republic, which have in fact increased since the EU-backed Libyan war.
Moreover, the prospect of military standoff with Iran is causing huge concern among oil traders and economists.
Energy Expert Adolfo Jumenez Regulio told RT that “while there is no war – price escalations due to sanctions can be corrected. The problems will come if there is a war with Iran – then you could see a real crisis.”
16.03, 12:28
18 comments
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It is TerroristIsrael and their evil Zionists leading Apartheid Israel who via the US State Department pushed, extorted and demanded (pleaded) with the SWIFT directors to remove the nation of Iran from it's customer list.
Europe would not be supporting any attack on Iran if it weren't for stealing the nearby Libyan Oil fields FIRST (under the guise of a humanitarian mission), nor would the EU lend any support to further sanctions on Iran if the US Treasury hadn't dumped hundreds of Billions (likely closer to a Trillion and ALL without a single vote by US elected officials) in US Taxpayer funds into slowing the bankruptcy and fall of the EU. The evil Zionists have been circling Greece like Vultures to feast on Greek's dying bones.
The SWIFT sanctions could very much backfire and rebound resulting in Iran setting up a creative alternative super-secure transaction payment base linked with India, Brazil, China, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela and Syria among others. Many more nations would gladly sign-up after Russia,India,China and Iran indicate and show them that US/NSA/Mossad have penetrated the security on existing world banking transactions whose hub is in NYC. Given what the West did to steal Libya's Wealth Funds, I imagine a great many nations around the world would gladly sign-up to a super-secure alternative transaction banking system that was not in any fashion connected to the evil Zionist MoneyChangers nor their IMF.
We are now in the year 2012, it is the year when the world is going to see changes of an extreme nature, politically and financially. These changes are already occurring and events are moving very rapidly geopolitically. It is also the year when the EU and the Eurozone will be going their seperate ways. Already we have seen 25 of the 27 member states decide to forge ahead together and the 17 Eurozone members will eventually become 26. The 27th, UK will have no other option but to join the other 26.
Eurozone is becoming Euroland. Euroland is an integration process and all the seperate identity politics of the past will merge. This means a united group of countries in Europe. Within this structure the seeds of new Europen political parties have already been sown. This year these parties are now coming out and speaking out and the concensus of discussion of the combined peoples of the Eurozone are already beginning. The combined population of Euroland is about 600 million people.
600 million people cannot and will not accept to be ruled by a group of unelected commissioners and locally elected second rate polititions from internal parties of various countries in the EU, whose only demamnds are their own selfish ideals for their own populations and not for the majority of EU citizens, when the EU becomes Euroland.
Neither will it take orders from Washington, as it is now on certain world and economic problems, as it becomes a force on its own. Euroland will become an integral partner with Russia, economically and militarily. NATO will dissappear.
This is a gradual process and will not occur overnight. The citizens of Euroland are beginning the first demands for true democracy of the people in Euroland. Where officials of the Commission and Parliament must be elected by the concensus of 600 million people and no longer by a small cliche of people as occurs now, and will be held legally accountable for their actions, whereas now they are not.
The SWIFT sanctions against Iran will not work, and we will see a change concerning this soon.
Not the SWIFT ban on Iran but the drought is will strangle Spain and Portugal if it goes on this way.