Straw puts US case in Iran, Blair in Moscow

There are places even the Americans dare not go - or recognise the futility of doing so. Iran is certainly one of them.

Anxious to find support from Islamic nations for the cause of attacking Saddam Hussain, President Bush is finding international support dwindling - and not just from Muslim nations. Indeed, it is increasingly seen as if the US is in a minority of one: if one takes the cynics' view that the British Government has surrendered its powers of independent thought and now simply poodles along behind any demands the USA may make.

Few recognise the irony of the visit of UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to Iran, on behalf of the USA. According to GlobalKYC.Com, USA banks remain forbidden to have direct dealings with Iranian banks. The USA has imposed unilateral sanctions against Iran since the Iranian revolution nearly 30 years ago. Sanctions busting is a breeze - US banks are able to deal with banks in third countries without enquiring if that bank is itself acting as a channel for Iranian business.

Even so, the idea of Iran supporting the USA without a very good reason is ridiculous. It did so in relation to Al Quaeda, but there is much less of an imperative in relation to actions against Iraq. In any event, in much of the Muslim world, the US action is seen as driven by Israeli fears.

As for Blair's visit to Putin's country cottage outside Moscow today, that is again a means of seeking to convince a sceptical Putin that the USA does not stand alone.

But Putin recognises only too well a series of "co-incidences"

1) Blair's right hand man Gordon Brown sits in a senior position at the IMF

2) The IMF maintained a game of brinksmanship in late 1999 which threatened civil unrest and budgetary collapse in Russia.

3) The IMF was very displeased that it became embroiled in the Bank of New York affair

4) Brown's man is in charge of the OECD's "harmful tax competition" initiative which is closely linked to the Financial Action Task Force's "Non-Cooperative Countries and Territories" blacklist

5) Russia has been added to the NCCT list and remained on it where other countries have escaped sanction altogether or been removed having done, as Russia sees it, less to meet the FATF's demands

6) The FATF meets this week to decide Russia's continued presence or removal from that list. Remaining on the list has a financial penalty for a country. Out of all the weeks he could have gone, Blair chooses exactly the time that the FATF will decide on Russia's ability to access the international banking network.

Putin and his treasury staff are desperate to get Russia off the FATF blacklist. They have lobbied at the IMF and lobbied constantly using news reports widely carried in the western media.

If they give Blair support against Iraq and are (coincidentally?) removed from the blacklist, the value of that list (and Russia's removal from it) will be open to question. And the FATF's credibility would be further open to question.