Some interesting news today on the sanctions front, so it’s time for another Export Law Blog grab bag:

• The Iranians aren’t very happy about the sanctions imposed yesterday by the Treasury Department on the Export Development Bank of Iran (“EDBI”), so they issued a press release decrying the sanctions. According to the Iranians, the sanctions were imposed “as a propaganda move in order to cover up the consequences of the recent American economic crisis.” That, I guess, would explain why yesterday’s entire news cycle was dominated by the sanctions on EDBI and absolutely no coverage was given at all to to the the decline of the Dow Jones or other economic news. The Iranians also threatened to file complaints with unnamed “relevant authorities.” Let’s see how well that works out for them.
• At the same time the U.S. is tightening sanctions on Iran, the U.S. continues to lay the groundwork for a U.S. “interests section” in Tehran. This would be the first time the U.S. has had a diplomatic presence in Tehran since the 1979-81 hostage crisis. According to this report by McClatchey Newspapers, the Bush administration intends to announce these plans in mid-November. No word yet on whether Iran is on board with this idea, although Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said last month that he’d consider the idea.
• Cuba has announced that its recently-discovered oil reserves have 20 billion barrels of oil instead of the 5-10 billion previously estimated. To put this number in context, the U.S. has estimated reserves of 29 billion barrels. This has caused some skeptics to scoff that the new estimate is “off the charts” and might simply be a ploy to rekindle investor interest despite falling oil prices. Even so, there are reports of proposals on the Hill to exempt U.S. oil companies from the embargo so that they could get a piece of the action. Embargo hardliners are countering with proposals to prevent executives of foreign companies that drill in Cuba from visiting Disneyland.
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