Iraq: Cost of Embassy and Consulate Operations

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

 

Question Taken at the December 12, 2011 Daily Press Briefing

 

Question: What will be the annual operating costs for running our Embassy and consulates in Iraq?

 

Answer: The Department requested $3.8 billion for operations in Iraq during FY 2012. This figure includes mission operations, such as security, logistics, and life support, as well as construction, educational and cultural exchanges, contributions to international organizations, and other general management expenses.

Measures to Increase Pressure on Iran

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Secretary of State

 

Secretary of Treasury Tim Geithner

November 21, 2011

 

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, good afternoon, everyone. I am delighted to welcome Secretary Geithner here to the Treaty Room of the State Department, and I also welcome his team and thank my team for the work that they have been doing with respect to Iran.

 

Recent days have brought new evidence that Iran’s leaders continue to defy their international obligations and violate international norms, including the recent plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador here in the United States and as verified by the new report from the International Atomic Energy Agency that further documents Iran’s conduct of activities directly related to the development of nuclear weapons. Now, this report from the IAEA is not the United States or our European partners making accusations; this is the result of an independent review and it reflects the judgment of the international community.

 

There have to be consequences for such behavior. So on Friday, Iran was condemned in votes at the UN in New York and at the IAEA in Vienna. And earlier today, the UN General Assembly again strongly reprimanded Iran for continuing human rights abuses, persecution of minorities, and forcible restrictions on political freedom. The message is clear: If Iran’s intransigence continues, it will face increasing pressure and isolation.

 

Today the United States is taking a series of steps to sharpen this choice.

 

First, President Obama signed an Executive Order that, for the first time, specifically targets Iran’s petrochemical industry, a significant source of export revenues and a cover for imports for sanctioned activities. This will allow us to sanction the provision of goods, services, and technology to the petrochemical sector. To accompany this new measure, we will launch a worldwide diplomatic campaign to encourage other countries to shift any purchases of Iranian petrochemical products to other suppliers.

 

Second, in the same Executive Order, we are expanding sanctions on Iran’s oil and gas business. U.S. law already sanctions large-scale investments in up-stream exploration and development of oil and gas, and now it will also be sanctionable to provide goods, services, and technology for those activities as well. This will make it more difficult for Iran to work around the sanctions and will further impede efforts to maintain and modernize its oil and gas sector.

 

Third, under an existing Executive Order, we are designating a number of individuals and entities

 

for their roles in assisting Iran’s prohibited nuclear programs, including its enrichment and heavy water programs. Their assets subject to U.S. jurisdiction will be frozen and American individuals and entities will be prohibited from engaging in any transactions with them.

 

And finally, as Secretary Geithner will discuss in more detail, the Treasury Department is formally identifying Iran as a jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern. This is the strongest official warning we can give that any transaction with Iran poses serious risks of deception or diversion.

 

These steps were accompanied today by complementary measures by the UK and Canada, and we expect additional sanctions by other international partners in the days ahead.

 

Together, these measures represent a significant ratcheting up of pressure on Iran, its sources of income, and its illegal activities. They build on an extensive existing sanctions regime put into place by the UN Security Council and a large number of countries, including our own, acting nationally and multilaterally to implement the Council’s measures. And these sanctions are already having a dramatic effect. They have almost completely isolated Iran from the international financial sector and have made it very risky and costly a place to do business.

 

Most of the world’s major energy companies have left, undermining Iran’s efforts to boost its declining oil production, its main source of revenues. Iran has found it much more difficult to operate its national airline and shipping companies, and to procure equipment and technology for its prohibited weapons programs. And those individuals and organizations responsible for terrorism and human rights abuses, including the Revolutionary Guard Corps and its Qods Force, have been specifically targeted.

 

The impact will only grow unless Iran’s leaders decide to change course and meet their international obligations. And let me be clear: Today’s actions do not exhaust our opportunities to sanction Iran. We continue actively to consider a range of increasingly aggressive measures. We have worked closely with Congress and have put to effective use the legislative tools they have provided. We are committed to continuing our collaboration to develop additional sanctions that will have the effect we all want: putting strong pressure on Iran.

 

Now, the Administration’s dual-track strategy is not only about pressure. It is also about engaging Iran, engagement that would be aimed at resolving the international community’s serious and growing concerns about Iran’s nuclear program. And the United States is committed to engagement, but only – and I say only – if Iran is prepared to engage seriously and concretely without preconditions. So far, we have seen little indication that Iran is serious about negotiations on its nuclear program. And until we do, and until Iran’s leaders live up to their international obligations, they will face increasing consequences.

 

Now I would like to invite Secretary Geithner to explain in more depth how some of these sanctions will be working.

 

Tim.

 

SECRETARY GEITHNER: Thank you, Secretary Clinton, and my compliments also to your colleagues and to ours – to mine, led by David Cohen and Danny Glaser, for doing such a great job today on these very significant financial actions.

 

Since the President came into office, this Administration has executed a very aggressive strategy to stop Iran’s illicit activities. A key part of this strategy has been to impose overwhelming financial pressure on Iran, and because of this strategy, Iran has been subjected to new and damaging levels of financial and commercial isolation.

 

First, we have dramatically reduced Iran’s access to the international financial system. Iranian banks are losing the ability to do business around the world, which in turn has reduced the ability of the government to finance activities opposed by the international community.

 

Second, Iran’s national shipping line, which has transported material in support of Iran’s missile program, is now shut off from many of the world’s major ports and routinely finds its ships seized or turned away.

 

And third, Iran’s primary source of revenue, its oil sector, is in decline because it cannot attract the foreign investment that it desperately needs to maintain levels of production.

 

Together, the intensification of sanctions by this Administration, alongside our partners around the world, has inflicted substantial damage to the Iranian economy. To continue these efforts, the Treasury Department today is designating additional entities for their support of Iran’s nuclear and proliferation-related activities.

 

Today, we are taking the very significant step of acting under Section 311 of the Patriot Act. For the first time, we are identifying the entire Iranian banking sector, including the Central Bank of Iran, as a threat to governments or financial institutions that do business with Iranian banks. If you are a financial institutions anywhere in the world and you engage in any transaction involving Iran’s central bank or any other Iranian bank operating inside or outside Iran, then you are at risk of supporting Iran’s illicit activities: its support – its pursuit of nuclear weapons, its support for terrorism, and its efforts to deceive responsible financial institutions and to evade sanctions. Any and every financial transaction with Iran poses grave risk of supporting those activities, so financial institutions around the world should think hard about the risks of doing business with Iran.

 

We are taking this action, as the Secretary said, alongside our partners in the United Kingdom and Canada, who announced earlier today that they were implementing similar measures to insulate their banks from Iran. And as a result of this coordinated effort, Iran is now cut off from three of the world’s largest financial sectors. We encourage other leaders around the world to take forceful steps like these actions to prevent Iran from simply shifting financial activity to banks within their nations.

 

As we put these new measures in place and as we continue to work to expand their reach around the world, we will continue to explore other measures. No option is off the table, including the possibility of imposing additional sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran. The policies Iran is pursuing are unacceptable, and until Iran’s leadership agrees to abandon this dangerous course, we will continue to use tough and innovative means to impose severe economic and financial consequences on Iran’s leadership.

 

Thank you.

 

SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you all very much.

U.S.-Japanese Relations before WWII

By Percy L. Greaves Jr.

 

Relations with Japan had been strained for some time. The Roosevelt administration was fully aware of Japan's dependence on imports. Yet, as we have seen, it had terminated America's long-standing commercial treaty with her. After January 1940 Japan had to ask permission on a case-by-case basis whenever she wanted to import from the United States. In July 1940 the administration had further prohibited exports to Japan by requiring her to get a license to purchase aircraft engines and strategic materials. (When sale of aviation gas, defined by the United States as 86 octane or higher, was embargoed on July 1, 1940, she had contrived a way to use 76 octane in her planes.) The administration was tightening an economic noose around Japan's neck bit by bit, forcing her to look elsewhere for the supplies and materials she had been accustomed to buying from the United States.

 

The Japanese had considerable commercial interests in Southeast Asia, especially in French Indochina (now comprising the states of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia). After France fell in June 1940, Japan had negotiated with the Vichy government of unoccupied France for permission to occupy French Indochina, to take over bases there, and to maintain order. The rather helpless Vichy government had agreed. As trade with the United States became more difficult, Japan's interests in Indochina gained in importance and she turned more and more in that direction for the foods and raw materials she needed. Trade pacts concluded later with Indochina assured Japan of uninterrupted supplies of rice, rubber, and other needed raw materials.

 

US Ambassador Grew in Japan kept Roosevelt fully advised of her precarious economic situation and urgent need for imports. Chief of Naval Operations (NCO) Stark had warned the president of the danger of imposing an oil embargo on Japan. Stark had "made it known to the State Department in no uncertain terms that in my opinion if Japan's oil were shut off, she would go to war." He did not mean… (Read more)

 

Source: Mises.org

Meeting With Pathways Women Entrepreneurs

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Secretary of State

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

October 5, 2011

Well, I am very impressed with what you each are doing now, because you are making such a difference in the economies of your communities and your countries. And I am going to continue to work with you in order to support you because it is absolutely true that where women are involved in economies, everybody does better. That’s just common sense. (Applause.)

So let’s get to work again – (laughter) – and we will stay in close touch with you. And next year, we’ll even be doing better, all right? Thank you all. (Applause.)

Korea, Colombia and Panama Free Trade Agreements

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Secretary of State

The Free Trade Agreements that President Obama submitted to Congress today demonstrate our commitment to strengthen our economic leadership around the world. They are critical to building open, free, transparent, and fair economic platforms in the Asia Pacific and South America. Our foreign policy must deliver results for the American people. These agreements will make it easier for American companies to sell their products in South Korea, Colombia, and Panama, and that will create jobs here at home.

The stakes are not just economic. These are three important partners in strategically vital regions. Countries everywhere are watching. Passing these deals proves that America can deliver for our friends and allies. It strengthens our leadership around the world.

It’s time to put these trade deals to work on behalf of the American people. I urge Congress to approve these agreements as soon as possible. Our economic competitors are building trade relationships around the world and we cannot afford to be left behind.

War on Drugs: Successes and Accomplishments of the Merida Initiative

Office of the Spokesperson (State Department)

Washington, DC

Question Taken at the September 14, 2011 Daily Press Briefing

September 16, 2011

QUESTION: What is the State Department reaction to members of Congress who say the Merida Initiative is a failure?

ANSWER: We believe the Initiative is already having a positive impact. Through its bold efforts, with U.S. support, the Mexican government has successfully dismantled drug smuggling routes, seized major amounts of illicit drugs, and jailed drug kingpins. Building institutional capacity for the rule of law is crucial to long-term success. The Merida Initiative is a long-term initiative to support Mexican efforts in this regard.

A variety of U.S. federal agencies—including the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Department of Justice—are working with the Mexican government to implement Merida projects. We have seen an increase in bilateral law enforcement cooperation since the Merida Initiative began.

As President Obama has clearly stated: “We share with Mexico responsibility for meeting this challenge and we are committed to continuing our unprecedented cooperation in confronting these criminal organizations.”

QUESTION: What are the accomplishments of the initiative to date?

ANSWER: As of September 1, more than $504 million in equipment, training, and capacity-building has been delivered. With additional deliveries in 2011, we will bring this total to almost $900 million.

Moreover, our partnership with Mexico under the Merida Initiative has helped to strengthen and enhance our cooperation with Mexico in terms of our overall bilateral agenda. Since the partnership was formalized in 2008, more than $1.6 billion has been appropriated for the Merida Initiative (FY08-11). We have put into place an effective bilateral implementation structure that is now accelerating the implementation of our activities.

Since the inception of the Merida Initiative, working together, the United States and Mexico have:

•Trained more than 6,800 federal police officers, 4,300 prosecutors and justice sector personnel, and 2,000 corrections and penitentiary staff;

•Strengthened ties to investigate cross-border financial flows and combat money laundering;

•Transferred 14 helicopters to Mexican security forces and police to increase their mobility in their operations;

•Trained more than 23,000 justice sector personnel on their new roles in the oral, adversarial system, including litigation, negotiation, witness preparation, case development, and management.

•Increased information sharing on transnational drug trafficking organizations, which has undergirded successful efforts to remove more than 29 drug cartel bosses;

•Expanded the deployment of non-intrusive inspection devices, including canine teams, at our common border;

•Expanded collaboration to trace weapons found in Mexico by serial number to determine whether they come from the U.S. “e-Trace”;

•Continued the high level of extraditions and fugitive apprehensions.

•Purchased and trained more than 114 canines for the Federal Police (SSP), Attorney General’s Office (PGR), and Customs Service (SAT) -- all of which are developing canine academies with Merida funding and technical assistance.

•Increased by 70 percent the number of cases now referred to as pre-trial case resolution alternatives in the states where the judicial reforms are being implemented. This has resulted in increased proportions of indictments of more serious crimes.

•Provided technical assistance to victims’ services and alternative justice centers in Chihuahua and Morelos, and trained over 3,500 government officials and members of civil society to attend to victims of trafficking, domestic violence, and sexual assault.

QUESTION: Is a counterinsurgency strategy, as suggested by members of Congress, right to combat the drug cartels in Mexico?

ANSWER: We fully support Mexico’s efforts to combat organized crime, reduce violence, and enforce the rule of law. We share responsibility for these challenges and Mexico's efforts and interests in this regard can and do coincide with our own. We are committed to working with Mexico on both sides of the border in order to counter transnational criminal organizations.

Mexican authorities assert control throughout Mexico, in all Mexican states. Although organized crime tries to act with impunity, the Mexican government is using its resources to ensure that state authority will prevail and criminals will be punished, and we are supporting them.

U.S. support to Mexico through the Merida Initiative is designed to support the efforts of Mexican authorities, especially the civilian law enforcement agencies.

African Women Entreprene​urs Travel to United States for Internatio​nal Exchange

Working to strengthen economic partnerships between the United States and Africa, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announced today that 43 African women business leaders will travel to the United States September 19 through October 7 as part of the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with a group of African Women’s Entrepreneurs in June during the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum in Zambia.

These women entrepreneurs will meet and network with U.S. policy makers, companies and industry associations, civil society groups, non-profit organizations advocating for women’s economic opportunities, multi-lateral development organizations, and business alliances. They will travel to Albany, NY; Chicago, IL; Denver, CO; Jacksonville, FL; Kansas City, MO; Louisville, KY; Miami, FL; New York, NY; Orlando, FL; Pensacola, FL; Portland, OR; Sacramento, CA; Santa Fe, NM; San Diego, CA; Seattle, WA; Tulsa, OK, and Washington, DC.

The U.S. portion of this initiative kicks-off in Chicago on September 19 and will feature a keynote address by Desiree Rogers, Chief Executive Officer of Johnson Publishing Company. While in Chicago, the group will tour and meet with business owners from six local businesses to share best practices, hosted by Entrepreneurs Organization (EO). In New York, the group will participate in an event sponsored by the RAND African First Ladies Initiative and the Corporate Council of Africa featuring Cherie Blair, the former First Lady of the United Kingdom. After breaking off into smaller groups for travel to mid-sized cities, these women will come together in Washington, DC for meetings with senior U.S. officials, businesses, and civil society.

Already, the African Women Entrepreneurship Program has empowered small business owners and provided them the tools to export under the terms of AGOA. Others are working to increase their export capacities and establish business relationships with U.S. partners. Following the success of the inaugural class of African women entrepreneurs in 2010, ExxonMobil committed to funding two more follow-on trainings in Africa in partnership with Vital Voices.

This initiative, which first began in 2010, works to empower African women entrepreneurs to become part of their national and global business networks by:

Increasing opportunities for women to use the AGOA program;

Expanding opportunities for exports and U.S. investment in sub-Saharan Africa;

Recognizing and expanding the roles women play as advocates for changes in laws, regulations, customs, and incentives that support women in businesses in their countries; and

Instituting a follow-up program so that participants, in their role as community leaders, can pass on what they learn.

The women participating in this current program hail from Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Ethiopia, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

For more information, contact Talley Sergent, U.S. Department of State, at SergentRT@state.gov.

New Sanctions Against Belarus

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

Today, the United States imposed additional, new economic sanctions against four major Belarusian state-owned enterprises: the Belshina tire factory; Grodno Azot, which manufactures fertilizer; Grodno Khimvolokno, a fiber manufacturer; and Naftan, a major oil refinery. These four entities have been determined to be owned or controlled by the Belneftekhim conglomerate, an entity already designated under Executive Order 13405. The intent to levy additional sanctions was announced by President Obama on May 27 to respond to the continued incarceration of political prisoners and crackdown on political activists, journalists and civil society representatives. The new sanctions augment the travel restrictions, asset freezes and sanctions announced on January 31. These measures target those responsible for the repression in Belarus following the December 19 presidential elections.

The United States, in concert with our European partners, will continue to monitor developments in Belarus and to take measures to hold accountable those responsible for the repression of fundamental freedoms and the rule of law. These U.S. actions are not directed at the people of Belarus. An integral component of U.S. policy has been to increase support for the people of Belarus as they seek to build a modern, democratic and prosperous society. We reiterate our call on the Government of Belarus to release immediately and unconditionally all political prisoners.

Joint Statement of Secretary Geithner and Secretary Clinton On Iran Sanctions

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Departments of Treasury and State today released the following statement from Secretary Tim Geithner and Secretary Hillary Clinton on additional U.S. sanctions against Iran:

“Today, the United States imposed sanctions on Tidewater Middle East Company, an operator of Iranian ports owned by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that has links to Iranian proliferation activities. We also imposed sanctions against Iran Air, which was designated for providing material support and services to the IRGC and Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL), and also has facilitated proliferation-related activities.  Today’s sanctions also exposed an Iranian individual and entity for their ties to a company that provided support and weapons to Hizballah on behalf of the IRGC.

“The IRGC’s illicit activities and its increasing displacement of the legitimate Iranian private sector in major strategic industries, including in the commercial and energy sectors, are deeply troubling.  The IRGC also serves as the domestic “enforcer” for the Iranian regime, continues to play an important proliferation role by orchestrating the import and export of prohibited items to and from Iran, is involved in support of terrorism throughout the region, and is responsible for serious human rights abuses against peaceful Iranian protestors and other opposition participants.

“Preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons is a top U.S. government priority and we remain deeply concerned about Iran’s nuclear intentions.  The United States is committed to a dual-track policy of applying pressure in pursuit of constructive engagement, and a negotiated solution. 

“On June 9, 2011, the P5+1 countries (China, France, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States) re-affirmed their concerns about Iran’s nuclear program and their commitment to a diplomatic solution in their statement to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors.  Many other governments have also expressed serious concerns about the behavior and policies of the Iranian leadership and have urged Iran to change course and seek a path of negotiation.  Yet, in the face of this unified international message, Iran has continued to violate its international obligations and disregard our attempts to start meaningful negotiations over its nuclear program. 

“For this reason, the United States is convinced that the international community must continue to increase and broaden the scope of pressures on Iran.  We welcome steps such as the European Union’s designation of more than 100 entities and individuals last month and the improved implementation of sanctions against Iran that we are seeing around the world.

“This month, the United States amplified our sanctions against Iran’s leadership through a comprehensive initiative aimed at Iran’s dangerous behavior--its continued proliferation activities, its human rights abuses, and its destabilizing activities in the region. 

“On June 9, we sanctioned the Iranian security forces for human rights abuses.  Earlier this week, we continued our efforts against the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), which the UN Security Council 1737 Sanctions Committee noted has been involved in several violations of UN Security Council resolutions on Iran. 

“The steps we have taken this week seek to limit Iran’s ability to use the global financial system to pursue illicit activities.  We have made important progress in isolating Iran, but we cannot waver.  Our efforts must be unrelenting to sharpen the choice for Iran’s leaders to abandon their dangerous course.

“The United States and our partners remain fully committed to a diplomatic solution with Iran.  However, until Iran is prepared to engage seriously with us on such a solution, we will continue to increase pressure against Iranian entities of concern.”