In December, the US Senate voted 100-0, passing an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill with the explicit purpose of collapsing the Central Bank of Iran
http://kirk.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=353
Text:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?r112:1:./temp/~r112iUWxhb:e224443:
SA 1414 if that link doesn’t work and you want to search for it.
The Senate had passed the entire bill after reconciling it with the House version on December 15th – President Obama signed it today and made it law, including the Iran sanctions – apparently some negotiations were going on to achieve an “understanding” of how President Obama could sign the bill but still wiggle out of enforcing the sanctions.
Once the bill is “Presented” to the President (it was on December 21st), he has 10 days (not counting Sundays) to sign a bill or veto it – if he does neither, it automatically would have become law. His time was up.
Central Banks don’t operate in a vacuum. The sanctions indicate that central banks of other countries that refuse to follow our sanctions will also face US sanctions, which could put us in direct conflict with Russia and China and others.
This is a replay of what the US and England did in 1953, forcing the world to stop buying oil from Iran. But this isn’t 1953.