Date: Friday, October 4, 2019
To: Friends & Supporters
From: Gary L. Bauer, Director

Squeezing Iran

Tough U.S. sanctions imposed by the Trump Administration are causing serious problems for Iran's economy.

According to various reports, nearly two dozen ships are anchored outside of Iran's major ports. They are carrying all kinds of products Iranians need and want, but the vessels are unable to offload their goods because they can't find banks willing to process payments due to U.S. sanctions.

In some cases, the delay in payment processing and unloading goods exceeds one month. Several companies report sustaining additional costs of up to $15,000 a day due to the delays.

As a result of the complexity of dealing with Iran, some major agribusiness companies like ADM and Cargill have stopped doing business in the Islamic Republic.

In related news, the Associated Press reports that new U.S. sanctions aimed at Hezbollah are severely impacting Lebanon's economy.

Sigal P. Mandelker, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, announced that the Trump Administration has "taken more actions recently against Hezbollah than in the history of our counterterrorism program," with the aim of ensuring "that Hezbollah can no longer have access to funds at the [Lebanese central] bank."

That's a big problem for Hezbollah, which desperately needs a place to put the hundreds of millions of dollars it receives each year from Iran and to process salaries for its terrorist fighters. The Associated Press adds:

"[Hezbollah] is among the most effective armed groups in the Middle East with an arsenal more powerful than that of the Lebanese army, and has sent thousands of its fighters to Syria to back President Bashar Assad's forces in that country's civil war."

As we wrote in yesterday's report, Hezbollah is a critical element to Iran's grand strategy of surrounding Israel. The Trump Administration's sanctions against Iran and its terrorist proxies are a vital element of U.S. support to our ally Israel. It is crucial for the West to deny Iran the financial resources it is using to sow chaos and terror throughout the Middle East.