Fool's Gold

Iran gets 13 tons of impounded gold back from South Africa, and we get… a crumbling sanctions regime:

“The removal of Iran’s sanctions and gaining access to the country’s financial and gold resources abroad is one of the main objectives of Iran’s negotiating team in the ongoing nuclear talks,” Fars reported.

Meanwhile, Iran’s ambassador to Paris this weekend stressed that his country’s main objective in the talks is to end international sanctions, which had nearly crippled Iran’s economy at their peak.

“Fortunately, the West has come to realize that the weapon of sanctions has not been effective and has been forced to change its approach and recognize Iran’s legitimate rights,” the official was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

Iran’s GDP has grown 3 percent in the last year, prompting experts to warn that ongoing sanctions still imposed on Tehran are not working.

Sanctions were only going to work — as well as sanctions ever work, that is — so long as there was American leadership to keep the rest of the world in line. It’s obvious now that this White House has every intention of removing those sanctions, in the vain hope of a nuclear Pax Iran over the Middle East. Rather than going along with the sanctions regime, it now behooves every other player to try and sneak into Iran before some other player gets there first.

The race is on to see who can break the sanctions the mostest.