Top Stories
AP: "Iran said Wednesday it has
almost doubled its stockpile of uranium that the country began enriching to
higher levels earlier this year in defiance of U.N. demands to halt the
program. Nuclear chief Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran now has 30
kilograms, or about 66 pounds, of uranium enriched to 20 percent - almost twice
the amount reported in June. The 20 percent level is enough to produce fuel for
a medical research reactor but far below the more than 90 percent enriched
uranium required to build fissile material for nuclear warheads. However, U.S.
officials have expressed concern Iran may be moving closer to the ability to
reach weapons-grade level." http://wapo.st/ca2TBI
AP: "The leaders of Iran and
Venezuela hailed what they called their strong strategic relationship on
Wednesday, saying they are united in efforts to establish a 'new world order'
that will eliminate Western dominance over global affairs. Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and visiting Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez, watched
as officials from both countries signed 11 agreements promoting cooperation in
areas including oil, natural gas, textiles, trade and public housing. Among the
agreements, Venezuela's state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA said the
South American country was forming a joint shipping venture with Iran to aid in
delivering Venezuelan crude oil to Europe and Asia. It said in a statement that
the agreement for a joint venture also would help supply Iran 'due to its
limited refining capacity.'" http://bit.ly/dy46Mu
WashPost: "Iran is secretly
trying to set up banks in Muslim countries around the world, including Iraq and
Malaysia, using dummy names and opaque ownership structures to skirt sanctions
that have increasingly curtailed the Islamic republic's global banking
activities, U.S. officials say. The Treasury Department has blacklisted 16
Iranian banks for allegedly supporting Iran's nuclear program and terrorist
activities; other countries have followed suit with their own measures.
Tehran's search for new banking avenues is a sign of the growing effectiveness
of the sanctions, U.S. officials said. Still, they think that Iran has had
limited success, if any, in secretly setting up banks." http://wapo.st/bPfvpl
Nuclear
Program
Reuters: "Italy's imports of
crude oil from Iran surged 84.6 percent year-on-year to 6.12 million tonnes in
the first seven months of 2010, Italy's industry group Unione Petrolifera (UP)
said on Wednesday. Imports from Iran accounted for 15 percent of total Italy's
crude oil imports which came in at 43.53 million tonnes in the January-July
period, up 0.2 percent from a year ago period, according to UP data published
on its web site." http://reut.rs/9CEofv
LAT: "Turkey has rebuffed a U.S.
effort to persuade it to scale back its trade ties with Iran despite a persistent U.S. lobbying campaign this week
in Washington and Ankara. Ali Babacan, a Turkish deputy prime minister, told
reporters in Washington on Wednesday that Turkish companies remained 'free to
make their own decisions' about whether to comply with U.S. and European
sanctions aimed at cutting off trade with Iran... Turkey is a major trading
partner with its neighbor to the east, and its failure to comply with the
sanctions is a threat to their success. Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, said last month that his country wanted to triple its trade with Iran."
http://lat.ms/9bbMOn
AP: "Turkey said Wednesday that U.S. and EU sanctions have led
to hesitation by Turkish banks on doing business with Iran. But Turkish Deputy
Prime Minister Ali Babacan told reporters in Washington that he expects overall
Turkish trade with Iran to increase. Babacan that the Turkish government has
let Turkish banks make their own decisions in the face of sanctions aimed at
isolating Iran from the global financial sector. The sanctions target individuals
and institutions deemed to be helping Iran develop its nuclear and missile
programs. 'Turkish banks are hesitating,' he said. 'Some of them are doing
business with Iran, some are pausing to decide what to do.'" http://bit.ly/cvXsO9
Commerce
Bloomberg: "Foreigners bought
three times as many shares in Iran's publicly traded companies in the past six
months as they did a year earlier after the authorities changed the rules to
attract international investors. Foreigners invested $250 million in Iranian
stocks since March 21, the beginning of the Iranian year, after investing $140
million in all of the preceding 12 months, Hassan Ghalibaf- Asl, the Tehran
Stock Exchange's president said in an interview in Paris after attending the
annual meeting of the World Federation of Exchanges. TSE's benchmark index, the
Tepix, has surged 63 percent year-to-date, making it the third-fastest growing
primary index in the world, according to data compled by Bloomberg." http://bit.ly/dxhTPE
Human
Rights
NYT: "Two American hikers held in
Iranian custody for nearly 15 months as well as a companion released in
September who is now back in the United States will be tried Nov. 6 on spying
accusations, a lawyer for the three confirmed Wednesday. The scheduled court date comes less than two
weeks before a fresh round of talks about Iran's disputed nuclear program
between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security
Council - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - as well as
Germany. There has been some speculation that the timing of the trial date and
the nuclear talks is more than a coincidence." http://nyti.ms/cPTbyJ
AP: "An Iranian-American
businessman freed after more than two years in an Iranian prison on accusations
of passing money to a rebel group claimed Wednesday that officials in Tehran
have urged him to prove his innocence by going after the men he says duped him.
Reza Taghavi, 71, was arrested by Iranian authorities and accused of being
connected to a 2008 mosque bombing in the southern city of Shiraz, which killed
14 people. He denied any role." http://wapo.st/bNDHT5
Domestic Politics
AFP: "Iran has again put
off for a month plans to increase petrol prices by removing subsidies, which
had been set to come into effect at the end of September, a senior official
said on Wednesday. Motorists will continue to receive a monthly quota of 60
litres (13 gallons) of petrol at subsidised prices of about 10 US cents (7.1
euro cents) a litre until November 21, Mohammad Royanian, who heads Iran's Fuel
and Transport Management Organisation, was quoted as saying by Mehr news
agency. Over the same period, the government will also continue to provide
petrol at a 'semi-subsidised' price of 40 cents a litre to consumers exceeding
their quotas." http://bit.ly/bURrLK
Foreign Affairs
AFP: "Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad and Saudi King Abdullah have had telephonic discussions on regional
affairs for a second time within a fortnight, Iran's state news agency IRNA
reported Thursday. The Wednesday evening conversation comes at a time when the
two regional arch-rivals are at odds over what is perceived as rising Iranian
influence in Lebanese politics and protracted efforts to form a government in
Iraq. 'In this telephone call, the heads of the two states discussed boosting
bilateral cooperation, as well as recent developments in the region and in the
international scene,' IRNA reported." http://bit.ly/ac3M79
Reuters: "When Karim arrives in
Kuwait to pay his condolences over a brother-in-law's death, his sister leans
towards him and tells him tearfully in Farsi: 'Here it's not allowed to enter the
quarters of grieving women.' Unfamiliar with the customs of Kuwait, the
grieving Karim departs to find the diwaniyya, or Gulf Arab salon where the men
of the family are holding their own wake. This opening scene from 'Karimo' sets
out the dramatic tension over national identity that runs throughout the TV
serial. But it speaks to a reality that has complicated Gulf Arab policy over
Iran's nuclear ambitions: the region's sizeable community of Iranians or Arabs
with Iranian origins." http://yhoo.it/b50Hkj
Opinion
Tony Karon in TIME: "The fact that Iran has blessed a second term of office for
Iraq's Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki - support that could help get him
re-elected - is being treated in some corners as a grim and unexpected turn of
events. No sooner had American combat troops departed, goes the story, than
Iran moved into the vacuum to install its man in power, ordering the radical,
anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to throw his weight behind al-Maliki, whom
al-Sadr detests. 'May God get rid of America in Iraq so that its people's
problems are solved,' said Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, hosting
al-Maliki on Monday. Cue the 'Who lost Iraq?' chorus in Washington... And just as
with every elected Iraqi government since the fall of Saddam, a new al-Maliki
administration would be closer to Iran than it is to Washington. Still, that
outcome would be dictated by the established patterns of Iraqi democracy more
than by external meddling... Tehran may have greater influence than Washington
does, but it is not able to script Baghdad's political process." http://bit.ly/93QtWS
News Analysis
AP: "As American and Saudi
officials spent months quietly hammering out a wish list for a mammoth sale of
American warplanes and other weapons to the oil-rich kingdom, leaders in Iran
were busy publicly displaying their advances in missiles, naval craft and air
power. In one memorable bit of political theater, Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad stood under a cascade of glitter in August to unveil a drone bomber
- dubbed the 'ambassador of death' - that he claimed would keep foes in the
region 'paralyzed' on their bases. The response by Washington and its
cornerstone Arab ally, Saudi Arabia, moved a step ahead Wednesday. The Obama
administration notified Congress of plans to sell as many as 84 new F-15
fighter jets, helicopters and other gear with an estimated $60 billion price
tag. The proposed deal - one of the biggest single U.S. arms sales - is clearly
aimed at countering Iran's rising military might and efforts to expand its
influence." http://bit.ly/aKlkSy
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment