Thursday, October 25, 2012

Eye on Iran: Iran Weighs Tougher Line in Stalled Nuclear Talks








For continuing coverage follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group.
  
Top Stories

AP:
"Iran is weighing a more confrontational strategy at possible renewed nuclear talks with world powers, threatening to boost levels of uranium enrichment unless the West makes clear concessions to ease sanctions. Such a gambit - outlined by senior Iranian officials in interviews this week - could push Iran's nuclear program far closer to the 'red line' set by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for possible military options. But it also suggests that economic pressures and diplomacy have pushed Iran to the point of considering an ultimatum-style end game in efforts to seek relief from the U.S. and European sanctions, which have targeted Iran's vital oil exports and its ability to use international banking networks. Mansour Haghighatpour, deputy head of Iran's influential National Security Committee in parliament, told The Associated Press that the hardline negotiating formula under consideration would put Western negotiators on notice that failure to ease sanctions could open the way for uranium enrichment above 20 percent - currently the highest level acknowledged by the Islamic Republic." http://t.uani.com/RXFutJ

Reuters: "An Iranian partner of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, a Chinese company that has denied breaking U.S. sanctions, last year tried to sell embargoed American antenna equipment to an Iranian firm, according to documents and interviews. The buyer - an Iranian mobile-phone operator - says it canceled the deal with Huawei when it learnt the items were subject to sanctions and before any equipment was delivered. Huawei, the world's second-largest telecoms equipment maker, uses products from a U.S. company, Andrew LLC, in some of the systems it sells. Documents reviewed by Reuters show that Soda Gostar Persian Vista, a Tehran-based supplier of Huawei equipment in Iran, had offered to sell to MTN Irancell 36 cellular tower antennas made by Andrew for 14,364 euros. The equipment was to be delivered in Tehran on February 3, 2012, to 'Huawei warehouse ready for installation,' according to a MTN Irancell purchase order dated November 30, 2011." http://t.uani.com/R19Laf

Reuters: "Iran's most powerful authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Thursday accused the United States and Israel of fomenting divisions among Muslims to undermine 'Islamic uprisings' across the Middle East. 'By exploiting inattention ... corrupt American, NATO and Zionist agents are trying to divert the deluge-like movement of Muslim youth and bring them into confrontation with one another in the name of Islam,' he said in an annual message to Iranians who have gone to Saudi Arabia for the haj pilgrimage. 'They are trying to turn the jihad against colonialism and Zionism into blind terrorism in the streets ... so that Muslims shed each other's blood.' Officials in Shi'ite Muslim Iran often describe the 'Arab Spring' uprisings as an 'Islamic Awakening'. Some of those uprisings have brought Islamists to power, while others, notably in Syria and Bahrain, have pitted Sunnis against Shi'ites or Alawites, members of an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam." http://t.uani.com/R1eloI

Video: UANI's Work Mentioned On Tonight Show With Jay Leno http://t.uani.com/R1hPrB
MTN Banner 
Nuclear Program & Sanctions  

Reuters: "ZTE Corp, the world's fourth-biggest maker of mobile phones and fifth-ranked telecommunications equipment manufacturer, reported a $310 million quarterly net loss, its first since listing in Hong Kong in 2004, on shredded margins, project delays and accounting changes in China... An investigation by Reuters earlier this year found that ZTE had sold to Iran's largest telecoms firm a powerful surveillance system capable of monitoring landline, mobile and internet communications. Reuters also reported that ZTE had sold or agreed to sell Iran embargoed U.S. computer equipment. The company said later it was curtailing its business in Iran and had stopped looking for new customers there." http://t.uani.com/XlMTaW

BusinessTech: "David Maynier, shadow minister of defence and military veterans, has called on the minister of international relations and cooperation, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, to urgently explain why Ambassador Yusuf Saloojee is back at his post in Oman. In July, South Africa suspended Saloojee, its former ambassador to Tehran, pending an investigation into his ties to MTN. Saloojee, who was ambassador to Oman at the time of the suspension, was named in an ongoing Turkcell suit against MTN for allegedly taking a $200,000 bribe from the SA mobile operator to help it win an operating license in Iran. The MTN Group allegedly made a payment to property attorneys, Gildenhuys Lessing Malatji Inc. on 26 April 2007 towards the purchase of a home for the ambassador in South Africa. 'Ambassador Saloojee was suspended, pending the outcome of an investigation being conducted by Nyameko Goso, a chief director in the internal audit division of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation,' Maynier said in a written statement." http://t.uani.com/TCHwF8 

Terrorism

Daily Star:
"Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea launched a vehement attack on the country's security authorities, accusing them of following Syrian-Iranian schemes being implemented by Hezbollah. 'Lebanese security services and security officials are going along with Syrian-Iranian plots that are being implemented by Hezbollah,' Geagea said in remarks published Thursday by the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan. Geagea said Lebanon's top intelligence chief Brig. Gen.Wissam al-Hasan, who was assassinated by a car bombing in Beirut last week, had dealt a blow to the ambitions of those who sought to drag Lebanon into the conflict in neighboring Syria. 'The pro-Assad regime, alongside Iran, is clearly and directly involved in the plot to liquidate Brig. Gen. Hasan, [a scheme] being carried out by Hezbollah,' Geagea said." http://t.uani.com/XYe8rG

AFP: "Sudan's links to Iran came under scrutiny on Thursday after Khartoum accused Israel of a deadly missile strike on a military factory in the heart of the Sudanese capital. The cabinet met in urgent session late Wednesday after the government said evidence pointed to Israeli involvement in the alleged attack at around midnight Tuesday on the Yarmouk military manufacturing facility in southern Khartoum. Sudan accused the Jewish state of a similar raid 18 months ago... Israel refused all comment on the Khartoum allegations, but Amos Gilad, a top Israeli defence official, called Sudan 'a dangerous terrorist state.' ... 'The regime is supported by Iran and it serves as a route for the transfer, via Egyptian territory, of Iranian weapons to Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists,' he told his country's army radio on Thursday." http://t.uani.com/PS9Emd 

Domestic Politics

Reuters:
"Iran's judicial authorities have again denied a request by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit Evin prison where his top media advisor is serving time, Iranian media reported on Wednesday, in another sign the president's power is on the wane. Ahmadinejad's request was seen as linked to the detention of his press advisor Ali Akbar Javanfekr who was jailed for six months in September for publishing an article deemed offensive to public decency. The judiciary turned down his first request to visit on Sunday, saying it was not in Iran's best interests for him to spend time on such a visit at a time when the country is facing an economic crisis. Ahmadinejad replied accusing the judiciary of unconstitutional conduct." http://t.uani.com/RI1ycr

Opinion & Analysis

Steve Hanke in the Financial Post:
"Since early September, there has been an accelerated slide in the value of the Iranian rial (IRR). This slide has been punctuated by dramatic collapses in the demand for the rial. With each collapse, there has been something akin to a 'bank run' on rials - with a sharp rise in the black-market (read: free-market) IRR/USD exchange rate. Ironically, Iranians are clamouring for U.S. dollars. In a land where the signal-to-noise ratio is very low, the black-market rate represents an important piece of objective information. It says a great deal about the state of the Iranian economy and the populace's expectations. On Sept. 8, 2012, the black-market IRR/USD exchange rate was 23,040. In the course of just under a month, after two big sell-offs, the rate settled at 35,000. That is a 34.2% depreciation in the rial. At this 35,000 IRR/USD rate I first calculated the monthly inflation rate implied by the rial's depreciation - it was 69.6%. Since the hurdle rate to qualify for hyperinflation is 50% per month, Iran registered what appears to be the start of the world's 58th hyperinflation episode. With that, the Iranian authorities swung into action and introduced a new multiple-exchange-rate regime. There is an official exchange rate of 12,260 IRR/USD, which is available for Iranians who are importing essential goods, such as grain, sugar, and medicine. In addition, there is a 'non-reference' rate, which is available at licensed dealers and can be used by importers of non-essential goods, such as livestock, metals and minerals. This rate is purportedly 2% lower than the black-market rate, though it currently (as of Oct. 10) sits at 25,480 IRR/USD - representing a significant discount relative to the black-market rate. And then, there is the black-market rate that is available to anyone willing and able to avoid the ever-watchful eyes of the police. Among other things, the multiple-exchange-rate regime generates noise in the Iranian economy. Indeed, more than one price for the same thing creates prices that lie, and lying prices make it difficult for Iranians to determine the true cost of what they are producing and ultimately selling, making the multiple-exchange-rate regime just one more monkey wrench thrown in the wheels of the economy. So, how does one stop a hyperinflation? In my experience, as someone who has been involved in stopping 10 of the 57 known hyperinflations, there are two sure-fire ways: instituting a currency board or adopting a foreign currency (dollarization)." http://t.uani.com/RXJDO6

Tobin Harshaw in Bloomberg: "Facing yet more brutal sanctions and a tanking economy, the Islamic regime in Iran yesterday attempted a little pre-Halloween scare job on markets by threatening to shut off all its oil exports. 'If you continue to add to the sanctions, we will stop our oil exports to the world,' Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said at a news conference in Dubai. 'The lack of Iranian oil in the market would drastically add to the price.' Oil markets decided Iran's attempted trick was more of a treat: The price of the benchmark grade fell $1.98 a barrel or 2.3 percent to $86.67, the lowest closing price since July 12. Obviously, markets are fickle -- yesterday's drop was probably caused by disappointing earnings reports -- and if Iran really made good on the threat it would cause some price shock. But Iran's leverage is vastly reduced: Thanks to the U.S.-led sanctions, exports have fallen to about 900,000 barrels a day, down from 2.2 million a day at the end of 2011. The truth is that if the mullahs really turned off the tap it would be manageable for the world and life-threatening for Iran itself. Oil is the backbone of the economy and makes up about 80 percent the nation's exports. While the ostensible reason for Western sanctions is forcing an end to the Iranian nuclear effort, a nifty side effect would be the collapse of the regime itself under domestic pressure. After all, it took only the self-immolation of a struggling Tunisian fruit-seller to utterly transform the Arab world. Reeling from riots over the nation's weakening currency earlier this month, the regime seems to be trying two somewhat opposing tracks: tough talk on oil and uranium enrichment, and looking to negotiate one-on-one with the U.S. Either way, the right response for the West is to keep increasing the pressure. The Barack Obama administration deserves kudos on the issue, and Mitt Romney was correct to give credit where credit was due in Monday's foreign policy debate. It looks like no matter who wins the U.S. presidential race, Iran's leaders will come out a loser." http://t.uani.com/THS282

Tony Badran in NOW Lebanon: "Who killed Brigadier General Wissam al-Hassan? Following the assassination last Friday, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt blamed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. However, Jumblatt refrained from addressing 'whether Hezbollah or any others [were] behind the assassination, because we would be doing what Assad wants us to do.' Jumblatt's concern is understandable. His priority is to avoid internal Sunni-Shiite sectarian tension and to keep the security situation in Lebanon under control. However, Hassan's assassination reaches far beyond Lebanon. There's a compelling case to be made that the elimination of the influential security chief is part of Iran's contingency planning, from Iraq to Lebanon, to consolidate Tehran's gains, especially in the event they lose their Syrian ally. Like Jumblatt, both the Lebanese president and prime minister linked the murder to Hassan's recent arrest of former minister, and close friend of Assad's, Michel Samaha. The former minister was caught red handed and charged with plotting terrorist bombings on orders from Assad. As a result, Hassan received countless, explicit, death threats from Syria's allies in Lebanon. Therefore, in light of his role in the Samaha case, it was easy to see Assad's obvious motive. However, Jumblatt's comment shows he understands that an operation of this scale strongly suggests Hezbollah involvement. For one, the nature of the operation required an apparatus with intelligence and logistical capabilities of the kind Hezbollah alone possesses. Indeed, none other than Michel Samaha has attested to this fact. In the transcripts of the surveillance tapes that led to his arrest, the informant recruited by Hassan reaffirms to Samaha that 'in Lebanon other than the Party [of God], there's nothing. The rest are a joke.' Samaha replies in agreement, adding: 'the party and the structure directly around it-the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) and the Baath.' Needless to say, the SSNP and the Baath are small-time local thugs. It is Hezbollah that controls the airport and fields its own intelligence network. However, when we speak of Hezbollah, we're really speaking of Iran. To be sure, Iran shares Assad's objectives. Still, even as Tehran has marshaled all the instruments of its national power to ensure Assad's survival, it also has had to plan for his potential loss. To achieve both goals, Iran has been on a region-wide drive to consolidate its assets. Effectively, this means fortifying its position in Iraq and Lebanon." http://t.uani.com/Rii7xR

Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons.  UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.

No comments:

Post a Comment