BY NAOMI CRAINE
Two weeks after announcing a trade ban against Iran, Washington is still struggling to make headway in getting its imperialist rivals, Moscow, Beijing, and other governments to go along. The embargo, assertedly aimed at halting "international terrorism" and an alleged nuclear threat from Tehran, bars the purchase of all Iranian goods by U.S. companies, their overseas branches, and in many cases their international subsidiaries.

New York Times columnist A.M. Rosenthal, in a piece titled "When Is an Ally?" bemoaned the fact that "Germany, Japan, Italy, France and other U.S. allies that have been selling high-technology tools, pesticides or other products so useful in modern war told Mr. Clinton to take his embargo and run along. Communist China and North Korea have not been that courteous."

Despite pleading and threats from the White House and U.S. Congress, Moscow has declined to give up a contract to sell two nuclear reactors in Iran. And even the Polish government announced it will proceed with the planned sale of more than 100 tanks to Tehran.

To "persuade" these governments to bow to Washington's desires, Rosenthal urged that the sanctions against Iran be extended to ban imports from any company that does business with Tehran. His complaints and similar bluster from U.S. politicians have had little impact on other governments' decisions to date, though.

Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani attempted to appeal directly to people in the United States to oppose the Clinton action. In a 75-minute interview with ABC anchor Peter Jennings May 15, the Iranian official said the U.S. government owes his country "a thousand apologies" for its "bullying." He noted that Washington owes Tehran billions of dollars from before the U.S.-backed Shah was overthrown in the 1979 Iranian revolution. "We are not asking the United States to have relations with us," Rafsanjani said. "What we are asking the United States is to stop its hostility against us."

The Iranian president denied the allegation that Iran is a terrorist state bent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction, and challenged Washington to prove it. Attempting to answer him, U.S. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns declared that it is "objectively true to anyone who is a student of the Middle East" that Tehran "has been a major supporter of terrorism."

This is a standard charge by White House officials, but as one article in the Washington Post put it, the lack of facts presented "has limited their ability to convince the public that Iran is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."

Meanwhile, Tehran has stepped up its oil production in a show of defiance against the U.S. embargo. Officials of the state-owned National Iranian Oil Co. told reporters they intend to maintain production despite the sanctions, and are not feeling any impact so far. They said, however, that they "don't know yet if there are some spare parts that can only be bought from the U.S.," the world's leading source of oilfield equipment.

The Iranian government is also moving ahead on negotiations with the French oil company, Total, to develop the off-shore oilfields that U.S. rival Conoco had planned to invest in. Washington nixed the Conoco deal shortly before announcing the trade ban against Iran.  
 
 
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