Top Stories
FT: "US officials are worried Iran could use new technology in coming months that would shorten the time needed to reach nuclear weapon status and reduce the scope for diplomacy. Washington is particularly concerned that Tehran might deploy a new generation of centrifuges to enrich uranium, a process that can yield nuclear fuel and weapons-grade material. Since such devices are three times faster than the centrifuges Iran relies on now, officials say they would reduce the 'dash time' needed to develop a nuclear weapon. 'If they were to deploy large numbers of these second-generation machines then it could dramatically reduce dash time,' said an administration official. The US would look at the next quarterly report of the UN nuclear watchdog to see if Iran was making progress with the new centrifuges, he said. The previous such report, in November, indicated Iran planned to deploy several hundred new centrifuges for 'research and development' at its once-secret nuclear site near Qom. David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security (Isis) in Washington said: 'The next crisis will probably be over the question of deployment of these advanced centrifuges.'" http://bit.ly/dH6Trb
WSJ: "India and Iran scrambled to end a deadlock over crude oil payments with their central banks scheduled to meet Friday after recent curbs from New Delhi threatened to disrupt supplies to Asia's third-largest economy. India is trying to work out an alternative mechanism for payments to Iranian companies after the Reserve Bank of India last week closed the Asian Clearing Union route, a move which effectively stops settlements in U.S. dollars and the euro. Officials from India's central bank, finance and oil ministries, and senior oil industry executives have been locked in hectic negotiations to resolve the impasse. '[The] deputy governor of Iran's central bank is coming to meet RBI officials tomorrow [Friday]. Oil companies would also be present there,' Oil Secretary S. Sundareshan told reporters Thursday at a hurriedly called press conference in New Delhi. 'A decision could be expected in the next few days.' ... The rush to end the stalemate highlights the fine balancing act that New Delhi has to maintain between securing its energy needs and its growing proximity with the United States. Iran is India's second-largest supplier of crude oil, after Saudi Arabia. India imports $11 billion of crude annually from Iran--about 14% of its total crude import bill, according to government data. State-run firms Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd. and Indian Oil Corp. and private-sector Essar Oil Ltd. are among the largest importers." http://on.wsj.com/e6XD2N
Reuters: "Most of Iran's biggest crude buyers in Asia are finding ways around difficulties in financing oil trade and see little disruption in 2011 flows after cuts this year, even as a dispute over payment methods threatens to stall sales to India. Iran is OPEC's second-largest exporter, and around three-quarters of its 2 million barrels per day (bpd) of exports flow to Asia. International sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme have tightened this year, but United Nations measures do not forbid the purchase of Iranian crude. Only the United States prohibits oil firms from buying Iran's oil. Still, sanctions on the financial sector have made all transactions including in oil more difficult, and the United States has put pressure on countries trading with the Islamic Republic to abandon dealings. New rules on payment in India have threatened its 400,000 bpd of Iranian imports. But China, Japan and South Korea, who together buy nearly 1 million bpd of Iranian oil, expect shipments to continue as normal next year, industry sources say. Some of them have already negotiated term supply contracts for 2011." http://bit.ly/gVm9xn
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
Reuters: "The United States on Wednesday praised the Reserve Bank of India for reducing its dealings with Iran's central bank, saying the Islamic Republic misuses its financial relationships to support its nuclear program. 'We think the Reserve Bank of India has made the right decision to carefully scrutinize and reduce its financial dealings with the Central Bank of Iran,' White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said in an email. 'This latest action adds to the growing list of companies, financial institutions and governments that are increasingly concerned about Iran's misuse of trade and financial relationships to support illicit activity, including its nuclear program.'" http://bit.ly/dTzSui
Reuters: "National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) has refused to accept payments for oil supplies to India without the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) guarantee, sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. The central bank has said deals with Iran must be settled outside the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) system, used by central banks of member nations to settle bilateral trades. The move was another obstacle to the Islamic Republic's exports as global pressure on Tehran grows over its nuclear programme. Two Indian industry sources said on Wednesday NIOC has turned down Indian oil firms' request for payment outside the ACU. 'Indian firms had asked Iran to immediately nominate a bank in Europe through which payment can be made. But NIOC refused,' said one of the sources." http://bit.ly/hGV8TT
Reuters: "India expects to reach a solution to a dispute with Iran over the mechanism for settling oil import sales in the next few days, Oil Secretary S. Sundareshan said on Thursday. He also said that upstream firms would not have to shoulder more than 33 percent of the burden of subsidies for revenue losses of oil retailers who have to sell fuel below market prices. India's central bank has said deals with Iran must be settled outside the Asian Clearing Union system and Iran has refused to sell oil under these new rules." http://reut.rs/i572HO
Human Rights
AFP: "Iran has released on bail one of three editors of the leading reformist newspaper Shargh who had been arrested earlier this month, opposition website Kaleme.com reported Thursday. Chief editor Ahmad Gholami, who was detained on December 7 along with two other editors and a financial backer of the daily, was released after posting a bail of nearly 10,000 dollars, Kaleme reported. On December 12, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said they all faced 'security related crimes.' Kaleme, which belongs to opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, said the release came after more than 150 prominent Iranian writers and journalists wrote a letter to judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani calling for such a move." http://yhoo.it/hO1hI2
Guardian: "In a literal application of the law of an eye for an eye, an Iranian man convicted of blinding another man in an acid attack has been sentenced to lose an eye and an ear. The man, identified only as Hamid, was also ordered to pay blood money after he was found guilty of the 2005 attack, according to Iran's semi-official Fars news agency. Hamid told police he had mistaken his victim - identified only as Davoud - for a former classmate who had bullied him at school." http://bit.ly/dXvpTw
Domestic Politics
AP: "Iran's populist president is putting his 33-year-old Peugeot up for auction for a charity that funds housing projects for young people. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's move is seen as a bid to appeal to the young and attract attention to housing projects he espoused during his campaigns, promising to put a roof over the head of every poor Iranian. Ahmadinejad had made a point of being seen in the gleaming white Peugeot 504 sedan when he was Tehran mayor and before becoming president in 2005. He has rarely used the car in the past years, probably because of security measures." http://wapo.st/gW3P5Q
Opinion & Analysis
Abbas Milani in FP: "Of the many inaccuracies and obfuscations of the Iranian nuclear negotiations, one of the most persistent has been the claim that, in questioning the ultimate goals of the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, the West is seeking to enforce a duplicitous double standard. According to this line of rhetoric, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last shah of Iran, was a Western ally -- or, in the language of the regime, a 'lackey' -- and thus America and Europe were willing and eager to help him get not one, but many, reactors. But since the creation of the Islamic Republic in 1979, these critics allege, Iran is being singled out and persecuted. In 2006, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Der Spiegel, 'It's interesting to note that European nations wanted to allow the shah's dictatorship the use of nuclear technology.... Yet those nations were willing to supply it with nuclear technology. Ever since the Islamic Republic has existed, however, these powers have been opposed to it.' Even some progressive intellectuals in the West have bought into this story, either supporting the regime's program or at least criticizing the U.S. stance on Ahmadinejad's current program as hypocritical given its past lenience toward the shah. The U.S. government itself, in what must be considered an inexplicable failure of public diplomacy, has never challenged this narrative -- although it has access to hundreds of pages of documents that disprove the regime's allegations. In fact, Washington was involved in a long-standing and frequently behind-the-scenes diplomatic tussle with the shah over the purpose of his nuclear program. Recently declassified documents from the Carter and Ford presidential libraries; the departments of defense, energy, and state; and the National Security Council (NSC) show that every element of today's impasse between the U.S. government and the Islamic Republic was also present in the negotiations with the shah." http://bit.ly/f3TQC2
Mike Shuster in NPR: "Political turmoil seems to be the norm in Iran: Last year it was the reformist opposition taking to the streets challenging what they saw as the fraudulent re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Now another political fissure has emerged within the conservative camp, threatening possible open conflict between Iran's president and its supreme leader. There are significant differences among conservatives in Iran over many issues, but right now the focus is on economic subsidies. The price of basics in Iran, like bread, electricity and gasoline, has been heavily subsidized for decades. But when Ahmahinejad ordered the removal of subsidies two weeks ago, the price of gasoline quadrupled and the price of bread tripled overnight. What's more, Ahmadinejad moved to seize the revenues that would have been used for subsidies for his own purposes. He has begun paying the poorest segments of Iranian society to help mitigate the pain of the price increases. Some estimate the value of the revenues saved at $100 billion, says Abbas Milani, director of Iran studies at Stanford University. 'They are taking the equivalent of $100 billion out of the economy that helped subsidize peoples' livelihood, and giving back a pittance,' he said. 'They are giving back the equivalent of $40 per person.' Conservatives in the Parliament wanted to control these funds, but Ahmadinejad quickly recognized their enormous political value, Milani said. 'Basically Ahmadinejad has created an enormous system of patronage for himself that he will use to either prolong his own stay in power or put one of his cronies in the presidency,' he said." http://n.pr/hp1WM6 |
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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