It's about time!
Two Indian firms face US sanctions
WASHINGTON: Two Indian private-owned Indian chemical companies along with six Chinese government-run firms and an Austrian firm will soon be sanctioned by the Bush administration for allegedly selling missile goods and chemical arms materials to Iran, according to a media report.
The penalties apparently have been under consideration for the last several weeks and have been approved by the deputy secretary of state Robert Zoellick and will be formally published in the federal register over the next several days, The Washington Times reported on Tuesday citing unnamed administration officials.
The two Indian firms identified are Sabero Organic Chemicals and the Sandhya Organic Chemicals.
According to the media report the sanctions announcement will also state that the Bush administration is lifting restrictions on one of the two Indian nuclear scientists who are linked to Iran’s nuclear programme.
The sanctions on Chaudhary Surendar will be lifted. The government of India has long denied that Surendar was linked to any Iranian nuclear proliferation activities.
Washington had slapped sanctions on Surendar in September 2004 under the Iran Non-Proliferation Act for his role in providing Teheran with weapons of mass destruction and missile goods.
The sanctions against the other Indian scientist, Y S R Prasad will continue to stay in the books until the measures expire next September.
The new penalties that are to be levied formally against the Indian, Chinese and Austrian firms will last until December 2007.
Pissing in the wind.
If we wanted to get serious, we would sanction alot more than some "companies" in China.
What's with the equipments bit? Are we going back to the silliness of a few years ago when we were saying peoples and monies?
this is useless!
They will be able to keep on buying whatever they want as long as they have $ and Oil and Chinese want them both