West Asia At War: Repression, Resistance and Great Power Games

by Talmiz Ahmad

It is interesting to note that these ‘challenges’ have now become deeply ingrained in the US’s litany of complaints relating to Iran, and remain resonant twenty-five years later; they are also at the heart of the US’s ‘obsession’ with Iran that continues to this day. This has stymied any attempts made periodically by officials on both sides to rebuild ties on a fresh, non-confrontational basis. Thus, when Iran attempted to reach out to the US corporate sector by offering contracts to Boeing and the oil company, Conoco, the latter valued at $1 billion, the companies were pressurized by the Israel lobby to reject the offers – an initiative in which the Clinton administration acquiesced enthusiastically. The US embargo on contracts with Iran was announced at a meeting of the World Jewish Congress.45 But merely blocking contracts wasn’t enough; the US corporate sector complained that European companies would benefit from the absence of American competitors. Hence, the Iran–Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA), passed in August 1996, imposed secondary sanctions on countries that invested over $20 million in Iran’s oil and gas sector by denying them access to US markets and funding.