Obama 'Admin' Gives Airbus Green Light to Sell 106 Planes to Iran.

Obama 'Admin' Gives Airbus Green Light to Sell 106 Planes to Iran. (IFP).

The US Office of Foreign Assets Control, an arm of the Treasury Department, granted the license to Airbus Group SE on Tuesday to deliver more than $20 billion in jets to Iran Air in the coming years, Reuters reported.

Airbus is based in France but it must have the US authorization to export planes to Iran because at least 10 percent of the aircraft’s parts are made in the United States.

The Treasury’s approval comes in the last months of the US President Barack Obama’s administration after anti-Iran sanctions were lifted as part of a landmark nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries last year.

In January, Iran signed a major contract with European aviation giant, Airbus, worth about $27 billion to buy 118 planes within few months. The contract was signed during the visit to France by Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani.

However, critics of plane sales to Iran have sought to block the transaction. The US House of Representatives passed a bill on November 17 that would bar the sale of commercial aircraft to Iran, which would also affect the US aerospace heavyweight, Boeing. The bill must now clear the Senate.

The White House announced that President Obama would veto the bill, saying it would undermine the international nuclear agreement.

The White House said US allies would view the legislation as a violation of the JCPOA. Hmmm........Merry Christmas.

The Hussein Obama 'admin' sent Iran $400m as prisoners were freed.

The Hussein Obama 'admin' sent Iran $400m as prisoners were freed. (TOI).

Cash said to have been airlifted in unmarked cargo plane; administration says payment unconnected to release of prisoners.

The US government is said to have airlifted $400 million worth of cash to Iran in a secret operation that coincided with the release in January of four Iranian-American prisoners held by the Islamic Republic, including the Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian.

An Obama administration spokesman denied any link between the payment and the release of the prisoners.

According to the Wall Street Journal late Tuesday, the funds were procured from banks in Switzerland and the Netherlands and were flown in euros, Swiss francs and other currencies in an unmarked cargo plane into Iran. Since a transaction with Iran in US dollars is illegal under US law, Secretary of State John Kerry and other officials sough the help of the Dutch and the Swiss and then transferred the equivalent of the sum to their central banks.

But the Iranians have boasted of their pressure on the Americans to hand over the cash for the prisoners.

“Taking this much money back was in return for the release of the American spies,” General Mohammad Reza Naghdi, commander of the Guard’s Basij militia, said on state media at the time. According to the Iranian news agency Tasnim, the money arrived in Iran on the same day the prisoners departed n January 17.

Congress members are now seeking to make public details of the cash deal with Iran and the $1.7 billion settlement by passing a bill that would prevent the Obama administration from making any further payments to Iran.

“President Obama’s…payment to Iran in January, which we now know will fund Iran’s military expansion, is an appalling example of executive branch governance,” said Republican Senator James Lankford from Oklahoma, who co-wrote the bill.

“Subsidizing Iran’s military is perhaps the worst use of taxpayer dollars ever by an American president,” he said. Hmmmm........ If it's an official settlement.....why sending money in unmarked planes? Read the full story here.

Related: Flashback 2016. Obama Admin Paid Iran $1.7 Billion From Taxpayer Funds

Under the terms of the settlement, Iran will be paid a $400 million balance, plus an additional $1.3 billion in interest from the taxpayer fund, according to a State Department official.

A senior Iranian military commander said Wednesday that the cash settlement was reached as a perk to motivate Iranian authorities to free the imprisoned Americans, who were released over the weekend.

Iran created perfect storm for attacks on Turkey.

'Two peas in a pod'

Iran created perfect storm for attacks on Turkey.(TZ).By Abdullah Bozkurt.

Lurking in the shadow of the massive corruption and money-laundering web that has apparently entangled senior Turkish government officials including Cabinet ministers, Iran's pervasive influence has created a perfect storm in Turkey, its main regional rival.

With billions of dollars poured into Turkey by Iran through proxies of Revolutionary Guards in an effort to circumvent sanctions, the mullah regime has triggered a domestic political crisis in Turkey while pitting NATO's important member into trouble with allies and partners over shady deals Turkish authorities have brokered with Iranian counterparts.

No government in Turkey has signed so many agreements with Iran in such a short period of time than the Erdoğan government, paving the way for clandestine Iranian activities in Turkey to gain speed and strength. 

During his last visit to Iran in late January, Erdoğan reportedly called Iran his second home where he signed a series of bilateral agreements including ones on a preferential trade deal and a high-level cooperation council.Read the full scope of the 'Turkey - Iran love story' here.

Hmmmm......The FATF is wrong ! Turkey avoids money-laundering and terror financing blacklist by last minute law.

Turkey avoids money-laundering and terror financing blacklist by last minute law.

Turkey avoids money-laundering and terror financing blacklist by last minute law.(Taz).

The Financial Action Task Force said late Friday that Turkish legislation signed 10 days ago into law spared Ankara from its blacklist.

Turkey’s national assembly passed a bill on preventing the financing of terrorism earlier this month, and it was signed into law on Feb. 15.

The FATF said Friday the law addressed many of the shortcomings it identified in Ankara’s criminal code for terrorism financing, as well as creating a legal basis for freezing terrorist assets.

“The FATF welcomes this significant step made by Turkey, which improves the country’s compliance with the international standards,” the body said in a statement.

Had Turkey not passed the law by Friday, the FATF said back in October when it last met, Ankara would be suspended by the body, which recommends ways to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

Despite Turkey’s new law, the FATF said “there still remains a number of ongoing shortcomings” in its counter-terrorist financing regime, which Ankara “must address” to “reach a satisfactory level of compliance with the FATF standards.”

FATF said in a public statement on Friday that Turkey needs to address "strategic deficiencies" in its legal framework to be removed from the 'dark grey' list.Hmmmm.....Passsing a law to avoid blacklisting, doesn't mean they're planning to enforce it.......especially in TurkeyMore here.