As the Iran Oil Sanctions Loom, President Trump's Washington Enemies Are Making a Big Mistake in not Supporting His Efforts to Create a Working Relationship with Russia

THE REAL NEWS TODAY IS THAT PRESIDENT TRUMP KEEPS ON WORKING FOR MAERICA AND THE WORLD. Even while most of the world and 30% of America are viciously attacking him. His dedication to us is nowhere more clear than in his work to try to make the world a safer place. • • • THE RUSSIAN LAWER WAS "CLOSE" TO THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT. That has to take the weekly prize for tellign is something we already knew two years ago. But, Fox News dragged out the report that Natalia Veselnitskaya worked closely with the Kremlin. • It was the Associated Press that reported Thursday said it has seen or been told about documents that indicate tha the Veselnitskaya, the Moscow lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner at Trump Tower in June 2106," worked more closely with Russian government officials than she previously let on." • The AP said that documents obtained from an investigative unit run by Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky -- the oil oligarch who was tried in a Moscow court, imprisoned, and then released several years later -- portray Natalia Veselnitskaya as a well-connected attorney who served as a ghostwriter for top Russian government lawyers and received assistance from senior Interior Ministry personnel. The London-based Khodorkovsky unit, the Dossier Center, is compiling profiles of Russians it accuses of benefiting from corruption. The data was later shared with journalists at the AP, the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger, Greek news website Inside Story and others. Veselnitskaya has been under scrutiny since it emerged last year that Trump's eldest son, Donald Jr., met with her after being told by an intermediary that she represented the Russian government and was offering Moscow's help defeating rival presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Veselnitskaya has previously denied acting as a represenative of Russian authorities when she met with members of Trump Jr., telling Congress that she operates "independently of any government bodies." • But the Dossier Center's documents suggest her ties to Russian authorities are close -- and they pull the curtain back on her campaign to overturn the sanctions imposed by the U.S. on Russian officials. We should keep in mind that Russian former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky is a vociferous opponent of Vladimir Putin -- with good reason after Putin's internal police force stripped him of his possessions, tried him, sent him to prison for 7 years, started to try him again as his first sentence was ending, but finally decided to release him as a way to gain favor with the Russian public before the 2014 Russian elections. A Dublin judge ordered authorities on December 7, 2016, to unfreeze 100 million euros ($107 million) in cash belonging to Khodorkovsky, ruling that police had provided no evidence that the funds were illegally gained as Russia contends. That is the rough and tumble of Russian politics. • Anyway, emails reportedly in the possession of the Dossier Center show that Veselnitskaya was mixed up in the Russian government's attempt to extract financial information from the former law firm of Bill Browder, the American-born British businessman who was also a longtime critic of the Kremlin. An October 31, 2017, email apparently shows Veselnitskaya's office preparing a draft version of Russian Deputy General Prosecutor Mikhail Alexandrov's affidavit to Cypriot authorities. "This is needed by tomorrow," she wrote a subordinate. Two weeks later, a finalized version of the same document was sent by a Russian diplomatic staffer to a Cypriot counterpart, the Dossier Center's files show. Browder, who has often clashed with Veselnitskaya in and out of court, said this reinforced the idea that she was enmeshed with Russian officialdom. Browder told AP that : "If her office is drafting replies for Russian-Cyprus law enforcement cooperation, in my opinion that effectively shows that she's an agent of the Russian government and not an independent lawyer as she claims." In a written statement, the Russian Embassy in Cyprus called the AP's question a "provocation" and said it had "no idea who is Nataliya Veselnitskaya and what she sends or doesn't send to the Cypriot Officials." • Veselnitskaya appears to have gotten government support, too. Russian President Putin called out Bill Browder by name during a press conference with President Trump. When Swiss officials arrived in Moscow on September 2015 to interrogate Denis Katsyv, one of her key clients, they were met not just by Veselnitskaya but by Lieutenant Colonel A. V. Ranchenkov, a senior Interior Ministry official previously known for his role investigating the Russian punk band Pussy Riot. Ranchenkov devoted a chunk of the interview to questions about the legality of Browder's actions, according to a transcript of the interrogation reviewed by AP. AP says the Russian Interior Ministry did not return messages seeking comment. • The emails also show how Veselnitskaya tried to extend her influence to the United States, where she was working to overturn the Magnitsky Act, a sanctions law that was championed by Browder after his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, died under suspicious circumstances in a Russian prison. Moscow responded to the sanctions with a ban on US adoptions of Russian orphans. That prompted lobbyists to approach groups such as Families for Russian and Ukrainian Adoption Including Neighboring Countries, or FRUA, a charity that supports families who adopt children from former Soviet bloc nations. The idea was to use the issue of adoptions to help them reverse the sanctions. The tax evasion case against Magnitsky, who died in pre-trial detention in 2009 after accusing interior ministry officials of corruption, has been slammed by legal experts and Western governments. Jan Wondra, FRUA's chairman, said she attended a meeting in Washington on June 8, 2016, with a group of people that included Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist who was working with Veselnitskaya to overturn the sanctions. The group told her there was evidence that the Magnitsky Act was propelled by bogus claims spread by Browder, Wondra said. It promised that the revelation could lead to the overturning of the Russian adoption ban. Wondra told the AP she was suspicious and feared that the lobbyists wanted FRUA's endorsement for their own purposes. Wondra told AP : "My antennae were out. I looked at this as an attempt to put public pressure on Congress to rescind all or a part of the Magnitsky Act. The conclusion I drew was that FRUA should not participate. And we didn't." Akhmetshin then joined Veselnitskaya at the Trump Tower meeting the next day, declined comment. • All of this is mostly internal Russian political maneuvering and has little to do with the Trump Tower meeting, except that Veselhitskaya tried to raise the Magnitsky Act and the ban on American adoptions of Russian children woth Donald Trump Jr., who at that point left the meeting. • IN FACT, it was AP that reported to Fox News : "In particular, the Dossier Center's investigation turned up almost no messages about the Trump Tower meeting itself. The group said it received only a few messages dealing with the media queries when the meeting became public in mid-2017. There's no mention either of the Russian hack-and-leak operation that began rattling the Democrats immediately following Veselnitskaya's visit." • This isn't even Fake news-- it is no news at all. Everything in the article is either knows or has nothing to do with the Trump campaign. • • • TRUMP IS FOCUSING ON IRAN. The Preisdent seems to be moving away from the ProgDem and Deep State hysteria over his election, and is working full speed on troubling world issues. • On his July 24 program Sean Hannity talked about Iran, saying some in the media actually now seem more sympathetic to this evil regime in Iran than to our own sitting President. It's pretty pathetic. Hannity showed President Trump talkig about the Obama Iran deal : "I withdrew the United States from the horrible, one-sided Iran nuclear deal. And Iran is not the same country anymore. That I can say. And we'll see what happens, but we're ready to make a real deal, not a deal that was done by the previous administration which was a disaster." Hannity added : "Somebody needs to remind the corrupt media Obama is gone, and the era of apology tours and appeasement is now over. No longer will the United States of America sit idly by as the Iranian regime is fighting proxy wars, chanting 'death to America,' disrupting the entire Middle East and funding terrorism throughout the world. And of course aggressively pursuing nuclear weapons and threatening all of our allies and this country." • • • REAL IRANIANS VS THE AYATOLLAH REGIME. American Thinker's Ami Imani wrote on Monday : "Iranians passionately love their pre-Islamic history. Most of them can’t even read Arabic and have no idea what’s in the Quran. Islam was imposed on an enlightened Persian people some 1400 years ago and it was always viewed as an invader. Even though most Iranians deeply cherish their own ancient non-Arab identity and have never surrendered to Arab culture, some are having a difficult time in abandoning Islam cold turkey. That is understandable. Fourteen hundred years of indoctrination can’t be washed away overnight. However, I bemoan the plight of my native land and the people who have suffered and continue to suffer under Islam. Without Islam, there wouldn’t be any Moslems to hoist the banner of hate and violence against non-Moslems anywhere on this planet....Amazingly, after 1400 years of Islamic barbarism, the followers of Muhammad, still torture, rape and execute their ‘slaves’ for the fear of losing control over their subjects. Islam, from its inception, discovered the crucial secret of getting to the young mind early by adhering to the dictum: Instruction in early childhood is akin to carving a rock....Well, these beasts of Allah are to be ridiculed and despised among men as the wretched, miserable, and entirely loathsome creatures they are. Violence, executions, mutilations, torture, and rape have long been associated with Islamic culture. Wars, rebellions, riots, and even violent crimes have been relatively commonplace across the Arabian Peninsula. This is what happened to Iran after the1979 Islamic revolution. It was as though Iran went back 1400 years, back to the era when Muhammad’s army simply destroyed anything and everything in its path that was Persian." • Imani points out the defference between democracy and Islamic theocracy : "In free democracies, governments are accountable to the people and serve at the people’s pleasure. In an Islamic theocracy, governments are accountable only to Allah and the people must serve at the pleasure of the government. And one can see the result of Islamic total or partial rule in fifty-six or so countries, which rank among the highest nations of the world on every index of misery." • Imani says : "In the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI)...the IRI uses many old Soviet techniques, ranging from harassment, intimidation, and torture, to mechanical devices designed to inflict gross physical damage. In addition, to psychological and physiological techniques, such as solitary confinement and sleep deprivation. There are tens of thousands of people that are spending their lives in the Islamic dungeons in Iran. Most of them have no voice to let the world know. The IRI’s pawns are commonly using these techniques on Iranian youth while the Islamic Republic dreams of world Shiite domination. Although that dream has started to fade away since the election of President Donald Trump....It is urgent that we confront Islamic terror now before it gathers more power. Every free man and woman, Moslem or not, must demand that their governments, at all levels, abandon the practice of political correctness and act to safeguard liberty against the truly deadly assault of Islam on the rest of the world. • Are you listening, Europe??? • • • PETROLEUM IS THE KEY. This week, oilprice.com published two articles about Iranian oil. The first was written on July 24 by Tsvetana Paraskova, a journalist who specializes in oil markets, who noted that Iran’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday that Teheran would respond with “equal countermeasures” if the United States tries to block Iranian crude oil exports. Iranian state news agency IRNA quoted foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi as saying : “If America wants to take a serious step in this direction it will definitely be met with a reaction and equal countermeasures from Iran.” Paraskova said that last Saturday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei supported Rouhani’s recent remarks that “If Iran's oil export is blocked, no other country in region will export oil either.” Khamenei said : “The remarks made by the President in his recent trip to Europe stating that, ‘if Iran’s oil export is blocked, no other country is region can export oil either,’ are important remarks that represent the approach and policies of the establishment. The duty of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to strictly pursue stances taken by the President.” Paraskova states that : "Since the US signaled a harder line against Iran’s oil exports last month, analysts have started to warn that many more Iranian barrels could be removed from the market than initially expected, and the thinning global spare capacity as Saudi Arabia and Russia raise production could boost oil prices." • BUT, in the second oilprice.com article published on Thursday, Vanand Meliksetian, a European energy consultant, wrote : "On August 6th, the first batch of sanctions against the Islamic Republic will go into effect. This includes sanctions on the acquisition of US dollar banknotes by Iran's government, sanctions on its trade in gold and other precious metals, sanctions on sales and transfer of aluminum, steel, coal, and graphite, and sanctions on Iran's automotive sector. However, the second set of sanctions of November 4th will hit the crucial energy and banking sectors." • Meliksetian says that with the announcement of the re-installation of sanctions by PresidentTrump, "Iran is in a unique position. Although the threat of sanctions is hanging over the country like the Sword of Damocles, Teheran is in a relatively comfortable position internationally to withstand pressure from Washington as the other signatories of the JCPOA remain supportive. Germany, France, and the UK have promised to soften the pain for Iran in order to keep the country in the nuclear agreement." • Yet, the Trump administration has said that it intends to hit Teheran where it hurts by bringing their oil exports to virtually zero. This, according to Meliksetian, has the potential risk of a price explosion globally due to decreasing production in other regions such as Venezuela, Nigeria, and Libya, and as as result, Meliksetian says Washington’s approach has been "somewhat softened" with waivers for some importers. • Meliksetian notes that the Iranian regime "has restricted itself to mere threats and announcements, but as domestic pressure from hardliners continues to rise, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani could soon be forced to reinvigorate the nuclear program. Iranian officials have already been ordered to start preparations to deploy machines for advanced nuclear enrichment, putting pressure on European states to provide incentives to keep the Islamic Republic in the nuclear accord. However, there are cracks in the Iranian strategy. Meliksetian says : "The first sign of the French, British and German governments falling through on their promise, came in the week of 16 July. Iran was told by the European powers that they are investigating activating accounts for the Iranian central banks with their national central banks in a bid to open a financial channel for Iran to continue its economic activities in Euro, Sterling, and other denominated accounts, thus bypassing the Dollar. This is significant and negative because it could restirct the access ot US Dollars for Eueopean companies that continue to do business in Iran. And, Washington intends to impose secondary sanctions on firms dealing with Iran, meaning that uropean companies which are active in both countries will face sanctions in the US. • Because of the Trump tariff dispute with China, Chinese oil refiners are reducing the imports of US crude oil, turning towards Iranian sources. Imports of US crude reached 400,000 bpd at the beginning of this month, but are quickly decreasing. China is by far the biggest importer of Iranian crude, which could even rise further in order to offset decreasing US crude. But, what will China do in November when the Iranian oil sanctions bite? Will it risk being shut out of US Dollar transactions worldwide?? • • • BELLICOSE WORDS FROM SOLEIMANI. The Israeli outlet Haaretz reported on Thursday that Iranian General Soleimani, head of the Iranian Revoltionary Guards Quds Force that has settled in in Iraq and Syria and attacks Israel, said on Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam television : "The Red Sea which was secure is no longer secure with the American presence...Trump should know that we are nation of martyrdom and that we await him." Soleimani was also quoted as saying : "You know that this war will destroy all that you possess. You will start this war but we will be the ones to impose its end. Therefore you have to be careful about insulting the Iranian people and the president of our Republic." • Haaretz says : "The head of Iran's Quds force is one of the most prominent and influential military figures in Iran today. He is involved in Iranian military activity in many countries, including Iraq, Afghanistan and the Caucasus states, and is considered one of the people closest to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. The Quds force was founded during the Iran-Iraq War as an elite unit. Its goal was to help the Kurds in their fight against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and, even more, to spread the principles of the Islamic revolution at a time when it wasn’t clear the army would remain loyal to the Iranian regime. Later, it began training forces outside Iran, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, and carrying out attacks against regime opponents worldwide. Soleimani has been linked with several attacks and attempted attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets worldwide, including the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, the attack on an Israeli tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria in 2012, and sending the Karine A arms ship to the Palestinians in 2002. (It was intercepted by Israel before reaching its destination.) The latest was the failed attack on Israel Defense Forces targets along the northern border back in May, which provoked an IDF response that did significant damage to the military infrastructure Soleimani has built in Syria over the last year." • • • INDIA OIL SUPPLIES ARE IN PLAY. India Today reported on Tuesday that Iran is now India's 2nd biggest oil supplier ahead of Saudi Arabia, and asked : "But for how long? Indian refiners shipped in 9.8 million tonnes of Iranian oil in 2017/18. This Monday, India's oil minister announced that Iran became the second-biggest oil supplier to Indian state refiners between April and June. The high discount offered by Teheran pulled the companies to its side, thus snitching the spot from Saudi Arabia. Iran now second-biggest oil supplier to India Not only is Iran India's second-biggest oil supplier, but India is also the second-top oil client of Iran -- the first being China. Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, told lawmakers in a written reply that India shipped-in 5.67 million tonnes or about 457,000 (bpd) of oil from Iran in the first 3 months of this fiscal year." • State refiners, accounting for about 60% of India's 5 million bpd refining capacity, had curbed imports from Iran last year in protest against Teheran's move to grant development rights for the giant Farzad B gas field to other parties. Pradhan's statement showed that the refiners -- Indian Oil Corp, Chennai Petroleum Corp, Bharat Petroleum and its unit Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd, Hindustan Petroleum and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals -- shipped-in Iranian oil in 2017-2018 that was 25% less than that of a year ago. For this fiscal year, the refiners had decided to almost double imports from Iran, which offered almost free shipping and an extended credit period on oil sales. India and other major buyers of Iranian oil are under pressure to cut imports from the country after Washington in May withdrew from a 2005 nuclear deal with Teheran and decided to reimpose sanctions on the OPEC member." • India Today says Iran's oil exports could fall by as much as two-thirds by the end of the year because of the new US sanctions, putting oil markets under huge strain amid supply outages elsewhere in the world. India had asked its oil refiners to prepare for drastic reductions or even zero Iranian oil imports. The oil sanctions will take effect in the petroleum sector following a 180-day "wind-down period" ending on November 4. Pradhan said : "Indian refineries import crude oil from diverse sources including Iran, depending on technical and commercial considerations." India's overall oil imports from Iran in June declined by about 16% from May as refiners started weaning their plants off-crude from Iran to avoid US sanctions. • • • DEAR READERS, it isn't only China and India that will have to make drastic adjustments in their oil supply markets after the November 4 US sanctions on Iranian oil kick in. The top Iran Oil importers for the first half of 2018 in were -- China, India, South Korea, Italy, Turkey, Japan, Spain, France and Greece. The slack caused by sanctions on Iranian oil will be met by Saudi Arabia, the US, and probably Russia and Iraq. The truth is that Iranian oil is useful for the world's petroleum markets, but it was off-line for many years after the first Gulf War until Obama opened the market in 2005, and the world had learned to live with it. • What the coming sanctions point out, however, is that Russia has a duel role with Iran. It is Iran's friend, but also its competitor -- not only for oil but also for hegemony in the Middle East, rooted in Syria. Syria's President Bashar al-Assad recently said he wants Russia to stay in Syria. It is a relationship that stretches back to before the Cold War era and will undoubtedly continue. Iran's being squeezed to give up terrorism and its clandestine nuclear weapons program gives Russia an opportunity to play an even bigger role in the Middle East as Iran is again isolated. And, that makes President Trump's strategy of developing a working relationship with Russia and Vladimir Putin even more important and logical. Trump's enemies in Washington are foolishly playing into Iran's hands by attacking his efforts to work with Putin. They can see the enemy in Iran. Why can they not see the potential Middle East ally in Russia??