State Dept official details expanded Sanctions against Iran S2E1

Ray Hanania on Politics, Media & Life

State Dept official details expanded Sanctions against Iran S2E1

Season 2, Episode 1

President Trump’s Senior Policy Advisor and Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook offered details Friday on the expanded sanctions on Iran announced by the White House that target eight senior Iranian leaders as well as Iran’s metals industry which he said is funding Iran’s foreign policies.

The sanctions were announced earlier by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin but Hook provided more details explaining the expanded sanctions will include Iran’s construction, manufacturing, textiles and mining industries. He said they will also target 22 Iranian organizations and three shipping vessels operating in the iron, steel, aluminum and copper sectors of Iran.

Hook named one of the eight newly sanctioned Iranian leaders as Iranian Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and the commander of the “besieged” Qassem Suleimani.

I this podcast I talk about the details Hook offered about Iran's use of terrorism and also the terrorism crimes of Iran's General Qassem Suleimani who was killed by a US Drone attack ordered by President Trump on Jan. 3, 2020. I also discuss th hypocrisies involved in th eU.S. position historically, our support of Iran when it was run by the terrorist leader the Shah of Iran Reza Pahlavi, and then how we changed after the Shah was over thrown, similarly our support of Saddam Hussein in the 1980s when we provided him with weaponry and chemical weapons to fight Iran after the Shah took over, and then when the war ended because the Soviets engaged with Iran, how we turned on Iraq and Saddam Hussein describing him, but not our actions, as a terrorist and lying to the American public that he was engaged in seeking Weapons of Mass Destruction WMD, sending thousands of American soldiers into an illegal and unjustified war of atrocities and war crimes that we today defend out of a false sense of patriotism.

Also, I talk about the hypocrisy of how the U.S. is silent on Israel's massive nuclear weapons arsenal, the heroism of Mordechai Vanunu in exposing Israel's nuclear weapons of mass destruction, while we speak out forcefully about stopping Iran from building a nuclear arsenal as if the two countries are different ... Israel is involved in war crimes against Christian and Muslim Arabs and the U.S. does nothing about it, but we use that hypocrisy as a foundation for our policies against Iran. It makes us look like, well, hypocrites, which we are.

This podcast is 15 minutes, 31 seconds long.

For more information on my writings visit www.Hanania.com and for past podcasts visit www.RayHananiaonPolitics.com. You can also listen to my Middle East focused podcast at www.TheArabStreet.org. And you can read my weekly columns on the Middle East in the Arab News at ArabNews.com.