Monday, April 29, 2013

Eye on Iran: Three Accounting Firms Pull Out of Iran









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Top Stories

FT: "Grant Thornton and two other accounting firms are pulling out of Iran, creating further difficulties for foreign companies still operating in the country. RSM, a UK-based firm, and Crowe Horwath of the US have joined Grant Thornton, one of the second-tier international accountancy firms, in leaving Iran after coming under US political pressure. The firms are the latest in a long list of international businesses which have left Iran in recent years amid strict economic sanctions that have been imposed on Tehran in an effort to influence its nuclear programme. For the campaigners who are trying to squeeze the Iranian economy, internationally-respected auditors are an important target because they provide the sort of independent scrutiny that some multinationals require in order to maintain operations in foreign countries. The 'big four' accounting firms pulled out of Iran in 2010. 'It sends an important message when accountancy firms decide that it is too risky to do business in Iran,' said Mark Wallace, the head of United Against Nuclear Iran, a lobby group. 'Without respected auditors, it makes it much harder for other international companies to continue doing business there.'" http://t.uani.com/11LyJln

Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal: "Advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) said it has succeeded in getting global accounting firm network RSM International to cut ties with an Iranian firm. Washington, D.C.-based UANI said RSM agreed to end its relationship with Dayarayan Auditing & Financial Services Firm in Tehran as of April 30. Chicago-based McGladrey, formerly headquartered in Minneapolis, is RSM's only member firm in the United States. UANI CEO Mark Wallace, a former ambassador to the United Nations, asked RSM and McGladrey to sever the network's relationship with Dayarayan in March. He applauded RSM's decision Friday. 'If Iran is too risky for the world's leading accounting firms, then all businesses have a duty to disclose any and all Iran work to shareholders, investors, and regulators - and make plans to leave. Anything less is irresponsible and a failure to disclose material information under relevant law,' Wallace said in a news release." http://t.uani.com/12zYWU9

WSJ: "Global sanctions cut Iran's crude oil exports by 39% in 2012, to 1.5 million barrels a day, the lowest level since 1986, during the Iran-Iraq war, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Friday. Tighter restrictions on Iranian oil sales, led by the U.S. and the European Union, cut Iran's net oil export revenue by 27.4% in 2012 from a year earlier, to $69 billion, the EIA said. Based on earlier estimates from EIA that revenue figure would be the lowest for Iran since 2009, when oil prices were some 56% below the 2012 level. EIA's assessment on Iran oil revenue and income cover crude oil and condensate, which is produced in association with natural gas and can be substituted for crude oil in some cases." http://t.uani.com/ZKwC2S
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Nuclear Program

Reuters: "Israel risks a loss of credibility over both its 'red line' for Iran's nuclear program and its threat of military action, and its room for unilateral maneuver is shrinking. After years of veiled warnings that Israel might strike the Islamic Republic, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid out an ultimatum at the United Nations last September. Iran, he said, must not amass enough uranium at 20 percent fissile purity to fuel one bomb if enriched further. To ram the point home, he drew a red line across a cartoon bomb, guaranteeing him front page headlines around the world. However, a respected Israeli ex-spymaster says Iran has skillfully circumvented the challenge. Other influential voices say the time has passed when Israel can hit out at Iran alone, leaving it dependent on U.S. decision-makers." http://t.uani.com/185DppU

NYT: "As President Obama wrestles with how to respond to new assessments that Syria appears to have used chemical weapons, leaders in Israel say they will be watching for clues about how he might handle the Iranian nuclear issue in the future. In Syria's case, Mr. Obama has said that the use of chemical weapons would 'change my calculus,' but he has not said how. Even while Israel appeared to be egging on Mr. Obama toward taking action, with officials here saying Tuesday that it appeared sarin gas had been used by the Syrian government, those officials also conceded that none of the military options were good... But to the Israelis, how Mr. Obama navigates the next few weeks will be viewed as a gauge for what he might do later regarding the potentially bigger confrontation in the region. 'There is a question here: when a red line is set, can we stick by it?' Zeev Elkin, Israel's deputy foreign minister, said Friday in a radio interview. 'If the Iranians will see that the red lines laid by the international community are flexible, then will they continue to progress?'" http://t.uani.com/127RIUP

AP: "Federal prosecutors say they have charged three German-Iranian dual nationals and a German man with breaking export laws for allegedly supplying Iran with parts needed to build a nuclear reactor in violation of the country's trade embargo. Prosecutors said in a statement Monday suspect Hamid Kh., 80, set up contact for Gholamali Ka., 70, and his son Kianzad Ka., 25, with German businessman Rudolf M., 78, whose Thuringia firm produced valves needed for a nuclear reactor's construction. Their last names were not released in accordance with German privacy laws. The group is accused of supplying Iran with 92 German-made valves, and another 856 Indian-made valves, in 2010 and 2011." http://t.uani.com/ZYCsba

Reuters: "An Iranian scientist held for more than a year in California on charges of violating U.S. sanctions arrived in Iran on Saturday, Iranian media reported, after being freed in what the Omani foreign ministry said was a humanitarian gesture. Mojtaba Atarodi, 55, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Iran's Sharif University of Technology, had been detained on suspicion of buying high-tech U.S. laboratory equipment, previous Iranian media reports said." http://t.uani.com/14GLkul

Sanctions

Reuters: "Iran is having to pay a premium for basic foodstuffs such as cooking oil, highlighting the increasing strain on Tehran from Western sanctions aimed at its disputed nuclear programme, even though the sanctions don't cover food. Wilmar International, the world's largest listed planter, and Mewah International, a $570 million edible oils processor - both listed in Singapore - are driving sales to Iran on long-term contracts, with Middle Eastern trading sources reporting premiums of up to $30 a tonne to the cash benchmark. Food shipments are not targeted under the sanctions, but the financial squeeze has cut off firms operating in Iran from much of the global banking system  and pushed inflation above 30 percent." http://t.uani.com/17sP68O

Syrian Uprising

Reuters: "Senior aides to Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi made a rare visit to Tehran for talks with Iran on an Islamic initiative to seek a peaceful solution to Syria's civil war, the two sides said on Sunday. Tehran is Syria's closest ally and has provided money, weapons, intelligence and training for President Bashar al-Assad's forces, while Egypt has given political support to the opposition Syrian National Coalition fighting to oust him. Mursi's foreign affairs adviser Essam Haddad and his chief-of-staff Rifaa El-Tahtawy met Iranian officials in a follow-up to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's groundbreaking visit to Cairo in February for an Islamic summit." http://t.uani.com/11wqRmf

Human Rights

AP: "The family of an ex-Marine detained in Iran wants Secretary of State John Kerry to step in and demand his release. The mother, sister and brother-in-law of Amir Hekmati were in Washington this week, meeting State Department officials and members of Congress. Despite improvements in Hekmati's detention conditions, they say he is 'emaciated' after more than a year in solitary confinement and a month on hunger strike. 'Until the highest-level government officials in the U.S. make statements and request his release, I think it won't have enough relevance,' sister Sarah Hekmati said. Efforts in Iran to free the 29-year-old Iranian-American are at a standstill after more than 600 days of incarceration, the family said. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said Friday that freeing Hekmati is a top priority." http://t.uani.com/18dV1wS

Domestic Politics

WashPost: "As Iran prepares to elect a new president, the anti-establishment energy that drove violent protests four years ago has disappeared, quashed by the heavy-handed crackdown in 2009 that followed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's contested reelection. The unlikely leaders of that opposition movement, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, have been under house arrest since 2011, and most of the student leaders and activists who helped organize the rallies are either in prison or living abroad, removed from the daily realities of a country whose focus on an economic crisis bears little resemblance to the struggles of four years ago. While activists abroad persist in their calls for change within Iran, there are no visible signs inside the country of those who led the protests. There are also growing doubts about whether reformers in the mold of former president Mohammad Khatami might reemerge to take part in the coming election." http://t.uani.com/ZWVkYj

BBC: "Eight years ago, when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad first took office, the Iranian government announced plans to develop a national internet network.  The project attracted little attention at the time but now, with less than two months to go until the next presidential election, some analysts say it is so well advanced that the authorities could soon be in a position to cut off the entire country from the world wide web. When Iran's former Information Technology Minister Mohammad Soleimani complained last week about the difficulties he was having accessing the internet, he was expressing the frustrations of many. 'This morning I was struggling to open my Gmail account,' he told the Iranian news agency ILNA. 'In the end I had to give up. Why doesn't anyone want to take responsibility for this?' For months now, Iranian social media sites have been full of postings about slow download speeds and intermittent access." http://t.uani.com/15U2vZE

Foreign Affairs

AP: "Iran's influential former president says his country is not at war with archenemy Israel, the media reported Monday, in the latest departure by a high-profile politician from the strident anti-Israel line traditionally taken by many senior Iranian leaders. The remarks by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani follows calls from figures across the political spectrum to repair the damage to Iran's international reputation they said had been caused by outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who called Israel a doomed state and questioned the extent of the Holocaust. Several of them, including Rafsanjani, are considered possible contenders in June elections to replace Ahmadinejad as president. 'We are not at war with Israel,' said the ex-president, quoted by several Iranian newspapers including the pro-reform Shargh daily. He said Iran would not initiate war against Israel, but 'if Arab nations wage a war, then we would help.'" http://t.uani.com/ZYCBf0

Daily Telegraph: "Israel believes that Iran's Revolutionary Guard was responsible for the unmanned drone launched from Lebanon that was shot down in Israeli airspace on Thursday... Initial media reports presumed the drone had been launched by Hizbollah. In October last year, the Lebanese militant group has claimed as a great victory their successful piloting of an unmanned drone in the skies above the Israeli Negev for more than half an hour before it was downed, several miles from Israel's Soreq nuclear facility. In fact, the Israeli military had stated only that an unmanned aircraft had been launched 'from Lebanon.'" http://t.uani.com/153N7KK

Opinion & Analysis

Robin Mills in The National: "'You can see the current economic situation of the people, I hope someone would take the responsibility for that,' said the Iranian football star Ali Daei. For any major oil exporter, being cut off from some of the world's largest markets, subject to steadily constricting curbs on its remaining customers, prevented from shipping or insuring cargoes, denied payments, forbidden imports of technology and fuels, would seem to mean certain relegation from the top division. A report by the Energy Information Administration on Iran, just released in the United States, details some of the impacts of sanctions. Multi-layered sanctions have been imposed by the US, European Union and United Nations over Iran's nuclear programme. The toughest measures came from late 2011 onwards. Iranian oil exports dropped in 2012 by 39 per cent, to their lowest level since 1986, when the Iran-Iraq War was still raging. Still Opec's third-largest exporter at the start of 2012, by the year's end it was only seventh. In the middle of 2012, its production fell below long-time rival Iraq's for the first time in a quarter of a century. Barring state collapse in Iraq, the Iranians will probably never overtake the Iraqis again. Iran's inflation rate, officially 30 per cent, may have surpassed 80 per cent in reality. The rial has collapsed from 10,700 to the dollar to around 35,000 on the black market. Only four basic food items are still subsidised; cooking oil is now off the list, and lower-income Iranians can barely afford meat. This gloomy litany seems to validate the observations of sanctions supporters that, as the White House claimed, sanctions are working or, as the Israeli finance minister declared in September, that Iran's economy 'is on the verge of collapse'. But such assessments underestimate Iran's ability to adapt, and its leadership's willingness for its people to suffer. Even at reduced export levels, Iran is benefiting from near-record oil prices. As recently as the 1999 oil price slump, it was receiving just $250 per person in oil export revenues; in 2012,that grew to $875. And 2011's inflation-adjusted oil revenues of around $95 billion were the second-highest the country has ever received, after 1974. The sanctions have laid bare the Iranian administration's remarkable incompetence and waste. This historic oil boom was squandered on handouts, corruption and a surge of imports encouraged by a wildly overvalued exchange rate." http://t.uani.com/14GRLOi

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.

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