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Top Stories
Reuters: "Iran's
state budget for the next fiscal year may assume exports of just 1
million barrels of oil a day, an Iranian budget planning commission
member told the semi-official Fars news agency on Monday, about half
volumes shipped in 2011. 'Apparently, the government wants to decrease
the 1392 (the next Iranian year starting on March 21) state budget's
reliance on oil exports to one million barrels a day,' parliamentarian
Gholamreza Mesbahi Moqaddam was quoted as saying by Fars. The
International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that Iranian oil exports
dipped below 1 million barrels per day (bpd) over summer as U.S. and
European Union sanctions on Tehran tightened. According to official
Iranian government data available through the Joint Oil Data Initiative
(JODI), Iran exported an average of just over 2 million bpd in
2011." http://t.uani.com/UYsHY5
WSJ: "Customs
inspectors raided the headquarters of a leading Spanish machine-tools
manufacturer that they said exported machinery to Iran via Turkey in
violation of sanctions aimed at Iran's nuclear program, customs officials
said Monday. The investigation highlighted European officials' assistance
in enforcing U.S.-led sanctions against Iran on a continent that remains
the Islamic republic's largest trading partner, analysts said. Those
sanctions have tightened export controls against dual-use technology,
which can have both civilian and military applications. Iran says its
nuclear program is aimed at energy production, but many Western nations
consider it a cover for weapons development. Spanish officials said the
company targeted in their investigation, ONA Electroerosion SA, sent to
Iran, via through a Turkish-registered intermediary, seven multi-ton machines
used in the manufacture of turbine propellers for energy generation,
among other things. The machinery, exported in three separate shipments
in 2010, cost €955,000, or about $1.2 million, the officials said." http://t.uani.com/XYEKwr
Business Standard:
"With Iran facing a currency crisis in the
aftermath of US sanctions, Indian exporters are having a tough time in
exporting to the Islamic republic. For example, Between April-September
2012, exports of engineering goods from India to Iran fell by almost 35%
to $205.33 million, against $315.79 million in the same period last year,
according to data from Engineering Export Promotion Council. Iran is
passing through an acute economic crisis with its currency plunging to
record low levels and prices of food articles escalating. Iran's
currency, rial has fallen by about 40% against the dollar since August.
As a result, Iranian banks have become extremely reluctant to issue
letter of credit (LC) for Iranian importers, a crucial link to the which
the newly established payment mechanism between India and Iran. Banks in
Iran have been seeking up to 100% margin money for issuing LCs to their
importers, which have shrunk the order book of Indian exporters,
said Indian exporters." http://t.uani.com/Tr4Zry
Nuclear
Program
NBC News:
"A new worm that appears to be targeted at Iran seeks to sabotage
corporate databases by searching for specific phrases and values and
replacing them with random ones. This latest bug, dubbed the 'Narilam'
worm, goes after Microsoft SQL databases, according to Symantec, which
first uncovered the malicious code. Despite its ability to destroy
databases, it may be cold comfort to its victims to know that Narilam does
not steal data. 'The malware does not have the functionality to steal
information from the infected system,' Shuinchi Imano, a Symantec
security researcher, said. '[It] appears to be programmed specifically to
damage the data within the targeted database.' Imano went on to say that
the 'vast majority' of affected Symantec customers were corporate users
and not individual consumers. The worm searches for words related to
financial accounts in English and Persian." http://t.uani.com/U0dJ2W
Sanctions
Trend.az:
"Iranian car manufacturing has drastically diminished within just
one year. In October 2012, ISNA reported that car production in Iran fell
by 66 percent in September 2012, compared to same month of 2011.
Considering the intense, pressuring international sanctions on Iran
because of its nuclear program, many car manufacturing companies such as
Fiat and General Motors, who had a significant market for Iran, stopped
sending car parts to the country. Consindering the fact that many car
brands have left Iran, and Islamic Republic's unstable foreign currency
rate, the number of people willing to buy cars has significantly
diminished as well. ILNA reported recently that the average car prices in
Iran have increased in September 2012 by some 35 percent since March
2012.The unstable foreign currency rate and the absense of many
international car manufacturing brands forced Iran's own car
manufacturers to increase prices, as Iran Khodro increased its prices on
cars by 10 percent, while Saipa - by 20 percent." http://t.uani.com/UZvDUh
Commerce
Bloomberg:
"Iran plans to build a pipeline to increase natural gas supplies to
its northern provinces and cut reliance on imports from Turkmenistan, the
Tehran Times reported, citing a top energy official. The 160-kilometer
(99-mile) link, which will carry gas from Semnan province to Mazandaran
province, bordering the Caspian Sea, will be completed in two years at a
cost of 3.5 trillion rials ($286 million), the report cited Javad Owji,
National Iranian Gas Co.'s managing director, as saying. Iran imports as
much as 18 million cubic meters of gas a day from Turkmenistan and the
figure rises as high as 30 million cubic meters in winter months,
according to the report." http://t.uani.com/U0Oxtd
Human Rights
AFP:
"An Iranian MP has blamed the death in detention of blogger Sattar
Beheshti on the country's cyber police, news agency Fars reported on
Monday. 'The action taken by the judiciary in Beheshti's case was lawful,
but the cyber police's infraction is indisputable,' said Mehdi Davatgari,
the parliament's special representative on the case. Opposition activists
say Beheshti, 35, was tortured to death after criticising Iran's regime
in his blogs. He was found dead in his prison cell on November 3 after
being arrested on October 30, chief prosecutor Gholam Hossein Mohseni
Ejeie said last week. The blogger's fate provoked an international
outcry, and human rights watchdog Amnesty International said he may have
died under torture. 'Unfortunately, the cyber police officers kept the
suspect without a court order in a detention facility for one night,
which is completely illegal,' Davatgari said. 'Despite the judges' order
to take him to a legal detention center, the cyber police took him to
their own detention facility,' where Beheshti died, Davatgari said,
calling for the 'resignation or dismissal of the cyber police
chief.'" http://t.uani.com/URgA1c
Syrian Uprising
AFP:
"Iran must reconsider its support for the Syrian regime if it does
not want to alienate Arab public opinion, the deputy chief of the
Iranian-backed Palestinian movement Hamas said on Monday. 'Iran's
position in the Arab world, it's no longer a good position," Mussa
Abu Marzuk, whose movement's politburo had been based in Damascus, said
during a briefing to reporters at his new headquarters in the Egyptian
capital. 'It has to address its position, so as not to lose public
opinion,' he said. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, relocated its
leadership from Damascus to Qatar and Egypt after a rift with Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad over his brutal crackdown on the revolt against
his regime that began in March last year." http://t.uani.com/QmRiJq
Regional Meddling
CNN:
"Iran is 'finding ways to resupply Hamas' with long range rockets
and other weapons even after the intense fighting between Hamas and
Israel that ended in a cease-fire last week, a senior U.S. official told
CNN. The issue is sure to be a problem as Israel and Hamas work out
further terms of the cease fire agreement. Outgoing Israel Defense Minister
Ehud Barak will be at the Pentagon on Wednesday and the topic of Iran
arming Hamas is sure to be discussed. One area of focus is the Iranian
port of Bandar Abbas, which is under intense surveillance by American and
Israeli intelligence services using spy satellites to gather the latest
on Iran's cargo ships and aircraft smuggling weapons into Gaza. U.S. and
Israeli officials said Iranian ships make their way from Bandar Abbas
into the Red Sea and dock in Sudan. Some unload arms and missile parts, which
are then smuggled over land into Sinai and then into Gaza's tunnels,
according to Israeli and American officials." http://t.uani.com/QIaRNJ
Reuters:
"Two Iranian navy ships will dock in Sudan this week to refuel,
state news agency SUNA said on Monday, the second such visit in a month
since Sudan accused Israel of bombing an arms factory. Sudan blamed
Israeli military planes for a huge explosion last month at the Yarmouk
plant in Khartoum, the country's biggest small arms and ammunition
factory. Four people were killed during the blast, according to Sudan...
Sudan's army spokesman al-Sawarmi Khalid told SUNA two Iranian navy ships
would dock on Friday at the Red Sea port of Port Sudan to refuel and take
'logistical provisions' on board." http://t.uani.com/U8R3zQ
Opinion &
Analysis
Gerald Seib in
Fox News: "It didn't take long for the specter
of Iran to rise up and hover over the preparations for President Barack
Obama's second term. It might not be obvious that this is what happened
last week, when fighting erupted in and around the Gaza Strip, but Iran
figured in every element of the crisis. Iran provided Hamas with the
long-range missiles that made its confrontation with Israel so serious,
and it egged on both Hamas' leaders and the more radical Palestinian
splinter groups that actually launched many of the rockets that
precipitated Israel's military response. Iran also was undoubtedly
pleased to see Israel tied down with a crisis on its western border,
diverting attention from its concerns about Iran's nuclear program to the
east. Iran likely was just as pleased to see attention diverted from the
brutality being committed by its ally in Syria, where hundreds of its
opposition foes were killed while the world was distracted. Moreover,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may well have agreed to an
Egyptian and American cease-fire plan mostly to preserve military
flexibility and international goodwill for his efforts to halt Iran's
nuclear program. 'Iranian soft power in the Middle East tends to peak
during times of tumult and carnage, which it can attribute to U.S. or to
Israeli actions,' says Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran analyst at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace. So, you might ask, what does all this
have to do with the arc of President Obama's second term? Simple. It
shows how hard it will be for the president to ignore the many problems
Iran creates to focus on the rest of what he'd like to get done in the
four years ahead." http://t.uani.com/TfYsMk
Abraham Foxman in
Fox News: "The elephant in the Middle East room is
Iran. Stopping the Islamic Republic of Iran from reaching a nuclear
capability is the most important issue facing the international
community. If we fail to do so, the implication on many issues, from
energy to stability in the region to terrorism and to nuclear
proliferation, will be profoundly negative and dangerous. On the other
hand, if the U.S. and others succeed in preventing Iran from going
nuclear, as President Obama has committed to, then a series of positive
developments could flow. Included are a strengthened American image in
the region, a tilt away from the Islamic extremists, and possibilities
for progress on the Israeli-Palestinian front. We see this in microcosm
when we look at what has been in happening in Gaza. It is impossible to
understand what's going on in Gaza and with Hamas without recognizing
Iran's role. It is hard to comprehend Israel's reaction to Hamas without
seeing the role of the looming threat to Iran. It is impossible to find a
solution in Gaza without taking Iran into account. And it is critical
that very soon the world must move its attention from Gaza to Iran itself
as the clock toward an Iranian nuclear weapon keeps on ticking. When
Hamas began to take control in Gaza, many took comfort that at least it
was a Sunni regime that unlike Hezbollah in Lebanon, would not draw too
close to the Shiite Iranians. It was false comfort. Iran has become the
major supplier of weapons, increasingly sophisticated, flowing to Hamas.
Iran provides full diplomatic support to Hamas. And Iran works to
strengthen the Islamist Hamas against the Palestinian Authority and
Mahmoud Abbas.The first necessity for the international community is to
openly identify and expose Iran's role in building up Hamas. The Palestinian
terrorist group has now been able to launch missiles that can reach Tel
Aviv and cause great damage simply because of Iran. Iran ships its Fajr-5
and many Grad missiles through Sudan and, in the words of the head of the
Republican Guard, Major General Mohammad Ali Ja'afari, 'we have given
them (Hamas and others in Gaza) the necessary technology for the Fajr-5
and today mass quantities of this missile are being produced.' And make
no mistake about it: Iran is determined to up the ante, to increase both
the weaponry and training for Hamas that will allow it to become the same
level of threat to Israel from the south as Hezbollah is from the north.
Any solution to the threat of Hamas to Israel must provide a way to
interdict that flow of arms from Iran." http://t.uani.com/10JwJKm
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear
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email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com
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