Page 2 - Aruba Today
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A2 Violent times encourage a step
to the far right in some nations
UP FRONTFriday 1 April 2016
RAF CASERT
Officials: Associated Press
BRUSSELS (AP) — The Brussels attacks have given a
US may ease ban on dollars to help Iran boost to the far right in Belgium and beyond, and their
anti-Islam language is finding a special resonance af-
BRADLEY KLAPPER Iran after last July’s seven- lars. ter another bloodbath by Islamic State extremists.
MATTHEW LEE nation nuclear agreement. American sanctions block Just as the Paris attacks that killed 130 people in No-
Associated Press “These reports are deeply Iran from exchanging the vember reinvigorated the right-wing National Front in
WASHINGTON (AP) — The concerning, to say the money on its own. And regional elections, last week’s bombings in the Belgian
Obama administration is least,” House Speaker Paul Asian and European banks capital have given radical-right leader Filip Dewin-
considering easing finan- Ryan said Thursday in a are wary because U.S. ter’s Flemish Interest party fresh impetus to re-ignite his
cial restrictions that pro- statement. “As Iran contin- regulators have levied bil- group’s flagging fortunes.
hibit U.S. dollars from being ues to undermine the spirit lions of dollars in fines in re- Even in the Netherlands, where one arrest was made
used in transactions with of its nuclear agreement cent years and threatened linked to a possible future attack this week, fire-brand
Iran, U.S. officials said. An- with illicit ballistic missile transgressors with a cutoff politician Geert Wilders is using the latest bombings to
gry lawmakers countered tests, the Obama admin- from the far more lucra- boost his popularity.
It’s the result of a potent mix of fear, foreign enemy
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew speaks with journalists in Hong Kong. The Obama administra- and a failing security system that has been unable to
tion may soon tell governments and banks worldwide they can start using the dollar in some in- stop one attack after another. “These events are fuel
stances to facilitate business with Iran, officials told The Associated Press. In a speech Wednesday, to the fire of every radical right-wing party in Europe,”
March 30, Lew lauded Iran for accepting the nuclear deal to achieve its goal of ending Western said Professor Dave Sinardet of Brussels University.
sanctions. Extremist groups have also used the attacks to boost
their venomous brand.
(AP Photo/Kin Cheung) Last Sunday, hundreds of black-clad football hooligans
broke up a solemn wake at Brussels’ Bourse Square for
that Tehran would be get- istration is going out of its tive American market. Us- the 32 victims of the March 22 attacks on the airport
ting more than it deserves way to help Tehran reopen ing dollars to make even and subway system, and police had to bring in water
from last year’s nuclear ac- for business. The president a rupees-to-euros conver- cannon before order could be restored.
cord. should abandon this idea.” sion, following that exam- On Saturday, police are bracing for a possible gath-
While no final decision has The nuclear pact provided ple, would still involve the ering of right-wing extremists in Brussels’ Molenbeek
been made, officials told Iran with billions of dollars in money entering the U.S. district. Even though any demonstration has been
The Associated Press the sanctions relief for curtail- financial system, if only mo- banned by police, fear remains that it would further in-
Treasury Department has ing programs that could mentarily. cite violence in a neighborhood dominated by Muslim
prepared a general license lead to nuclear weapons. The new guidance would immigrant families.
permitting offshore finan- But the Iranians say they allow dollars to be used “What happened at the Bourse doesn’t inspire confi-
cial institutions to access haven’t benefited to the in currency exchanges as dence. The population here, it’s going around that the
dollars for foreign currency extent envisioned under long as no Iranian banks protesters still want to come,” said Molenbeek council-
trades in support of legiti- the deal because of oth- are involved, according to woman Sarah Turine.
mate business with Iran, a er U.S. measures linked to the officials, who weren’t It’s in this atmosphere of trepidation that the far right
practice that is currently il- human rights, terrorism and authorized to speak pub- has traditionally flourished.
legal. missile development con- licly on the matter and “If only you had listened to us,” hectored Wilders in the
Several restrictions would cerns. demanded anonymity. No Dutch parliament on Tuesday, arguing he had been
apply, but the change Because of its status as the Iranian rials can enter into calling for the preventive detention of foreign fighters
could prove significant for world’s dominant currency, the transaction, and the for three years.
Iran’s sanctions-battered the dollar often is used in payment wouldn’t be able One of the airport attackers, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, was
economy. It also would be money conversions. For ex- to start or end with Ameri- caught near the Syrian border last summer and anoth-
highly contentious in the ample: If the Iranians want can dollars. The ban would er, Najim Laachraoui, had been in Syria before the two
United States, where Re- to sell oil to India and be still apply if the final pay- blew themselves up. “Hundreds, maybe thousands of ji-
publican and some Demo- paid in euros instead of ru- ment is intended for an Ira- hadis are ready to strike,” said Wilders, using the kind of
cratic lawmakers say the pees, so they could more nian individual or business language that has made his PVV party the most popu-
administration promised easily purchase European on a U.S. sanctions blacklist. lar in the Netherlands, according to the latest polls.
to maintain a strict ban goods, the process com- Top administration officials It has always been easier to make big claims for the
on dollars along with other monly starts with the rupees have only hinted at provid- far right, since they have rarely held power since World
non-nuclear penalties on being converted into dol- ing Iran additional help. War II.
“You have an important part of the public that ... can
reconcile itself with a radical right-wing position on se-
curity and Islam and migration. That will hover around
a quarter of the population,” Sinardet said of the situ-
ation in Belgium. “And attacks like these bring it to the
fore and put it high on the agenda.”
It is the same situation in France. So when President
Francois Hollande, a socialist, decided to abandon
proposed legislation Wednesday that would have re-
voked citizenship for convicted terrorists and strength-
ened the state of emergency, the National Front of
Marine Le Pen was the first to pounce.
She called the decision “a historic failure.”
In Belgium, Dewinter now wants to restore the death
penalty, even though a ban on capital punishment
has been a cornerstone of human rights legislation in
the European Union.
