Top Stories Reuters: "Turkey has informed a U.N. Security Council panel that it seized a cache of weapons Iran was attempting to export in breach of a U.N. arms embargo, according to a document obtained by Reuters on Thursday. Security Council diplomats said the report of the seizure from an Iranian cargo plane reflected positively on Turkey, which some U.S. and European officials say has taken a lax approach to implementing international sanctions against Iranian financial institutions. The report to the council's Iran sanctions committee, which oversees compliance with the four rounds of punitive steps the 15-nation body has imposed on Iran over its nuclear program, said a March 21 inspection turned up the weapons, which were listed as 'auto spare parts' on the plane's documents. The plane was bound for Aleppo, Syria, and was given permission to pass through Turkish airspace provided it made a 'technical stop' at Diyarbakir airport, the report said. It said a search of the Iranian 'YasAir Cargo Airlines' Ilyushin-76 revealed a number of 'prohibited military items' -- 60 Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles, 14 BKC/Bixi machine guns, nearly 8,000 rounds of BKC/AK-47 ammunition, 560 60-mm mortar shells, and 1,288 120-mm mortar shells." http://t.uani.com/gwMJ5v Reuters: "India has banned all trade in goods and technology that could help Iran's nuclear programme, a government statement said, seeking to align its policy at the U.N. Security Council where New Delhi is a non-permanent member. Traditionally friendly and a major buyer of Iranian oil, India has had to walk a tight rope on its relations with Tehran, mindful of hampering ties with the United States and its growing role as a global power. India has followed U.N. sanctions on Iran but says it is not bound by any tougher U.S. or European sanctions. The change in India's foreign trade policy comes at a time when New Delhi is struggling to find a way to pay for Iranian oil imports after a long-standing payment mechanism was scrapped by New Delhi in December under pressure from Washington. An Indian statement late on Thursday said the foreign trade policy had been amended to harmonise it with fresh U.N. Security Council sanctions related to Iran's nuclear and missile development." http://t.uani.com/gjpzWD JPost: "A top Democratic member of Congress chastised the Obama administration Thursday for deploying sanctions against Iran in a way that was merely 'symbolic' and could signal weakness to Tehran. Earlier this week, the State Department singled out the Belarusian energy company Belarusneft, only the second time a US administration has imposed sanctions on a foreign company doing business with Iran... 'We have once again imposed sanctions on a company that doesn't do any business in the US, so the sanction has no more than symbolic impact,' charged Rep. Howard Berman, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, at the opening of a hearing with outgoing Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg. 'When we do that, I'm afraid we're sending Iran a signal more of weakness than of strength, and we're having no impact on their economy,' Berman argued. 'Such impact is the very point of sanctions.'" http://t.uani.com/gYzTj5
Nuclear Program & Sanctions Reuters: "Iran has maneuvered around sanctions for decades, but the task has become more complicated since Western powers introduced new measures in the middle of last year, which specifically targeted oil and gas trade. No sanctions, however, are water-tight. The following is an update of Iran's response to them... Iran has also been selling unrefined oil. As Italy, which is heavily dependent on imported fuel, stayed loyal, its oil imports from Iran rose by 80.6 percent in 2010, an industry group said earlier this month... After Saudi Arabia, Iran is the second biggest oil supplier to India, providing it with around 400,000 barrels per day. India's central bank said in December payments to Iran could no longer be settled using a clearing system run by regional central banks. Early this week, Germany agreed to help India make payments for Iranian oil, a newspaper reported on Monday." http://t.uani.com/gMaRuQ Bloomberg: "The Iran Mercantile Exchange, a Tehran-based commodities bourse, will start trading fuel-oil contracts this month as a prelude to other energy trading. The exchange will start trading 380-centistoke fuel oil in 'cash and spot contracts' this month, Ahmad Rezaei, director for derivatives trading at the exchange, said late yesterday in a phone interview from Tehran. Each contract will be for 10 metric tons, Rezaei said. Iran, the second-largest crude producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, seeks to revive its mostly government-controlled economy and expand its influence in energy markets in the Middle East, where two exchanges in Dubai already compete for customers by offering futures contracts in oil, gold and steel... Rezaei said he expected demand to mostly come from Asia nations such as China and India." http://t.uani.com/fXIxii Human Rights AFP: "The United States said Thursday it is 'deeply troubled' by reports that Iranian authorities have reinstated 20-year jail terms against seven leaders of the Bahai religious minority. London-based human rights group Amnesty International said the authorities have reversed a decision by an Iranian appeals court to cut their sentences to 10 years. 'We're deeply troubled by reports coming out of Iran that a 20-year sentence of the seven Bahai leaders was reinstated on appeal by the prosecutor general,' Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, told reporters. 'We condemn this unprecedented step as a violation under the international covenant on civil and political rights.' In August, Iran sentenced the seven Bahai leaders to 20 years in jail on charges ranging from spying for foreigners, spreading corruption on earth, undermining Islam and cooperating with arch-foe Israel." http://t.uani.com/gbRhvL Radio Farda: "A former cellmate of an Iranian political prisoner who died this week of cancer says authorities provided medical treatment that was too little, too late, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports. Mohsen Dokmehchi was buried on March 30 after losing a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 53. Dokmehchi, who worked at the Tehran Bazaar, was among hundreds of people arrested after the June 2009 disputed presidential election that sparked widespread protests. He was serving a 10-year sentence on charges of supporting the exiled opposition group the People's Mujahedin of Iran (also known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization, or MKO)." http://t.uani.com/eLyYHv Domestic Politics AP: "An Iranian reformist website says authorities have detained several people during the funeral for the father of a top opposition leader. The Thursday report by kaleme.com says security forces arrested seven people from those attending the funeral ceremony for Mir Hossein Mousavi's father. Mir Esmail Mousavi, who died Wednesday at 103, was buried at the Tehran cemetery under tight security. It was not clear if Mousavi himself, who has been under house arrest since February when he called for rallies in solidarity with the Egyptian uprising, attended the funeral." http://t.uani.com/gT7x1x Foreign Affairs Bloomberg: "Azerbaijan's energy transit routes to Europe bypass Russia, making the former Soviet satellite a crucial partner for the West and oil companies such as the U.K.'s BP Plc. Azeri officials accuse Iran of trying to stir up Islamic protests to weaken Aliyev, 49. That in turn would make the country less safe for U.S. and European investment, said Theodore Karasik, director of research at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Analysis. 'Iran isn't seeking to overthrow Aliyev but to destabilize the situation in the country so that it scares away Western investors,' Karasik said. Azeri-language programs of Iran's Sahar 1 television channel, beamed into Azerbaijan over official protests, criticize the government's domestic and foreign policies and say that Western companies are plundering the country's oil riches. Iran's Shiite religion is shared by two-thirds of the 9-million population in Azerbaijan; almost a quarter of Iran's 75 million people are ethnic Azeri." http://t.uani.com/hwX5Ss Opinion & Analysis Mark Dubowitz and Laura Grossman in The Weekly Standard: "The Obama administration made the correct decision earlier this week to impose sanctions on Belarusneft, a subsidiary of the Belarusian petrochemical company Belneftekhim, for doing business with Iran. But it's small beer - Belarusneft is hardly a major player in Iran's energy industry. And this latest announcement of sanctions suggests to some in Congress that the administration is not really that serious about enforcing sanctions on Iran after all... The decision from earlier this week appears only incrementally useful. The U.S. Department of the Treasury had already been watchful of Belarusneft's parent company Belneftekhin, since it's controlled by Lukashenko. Under executive order, President Bush designated the company and its representative offices worldwide - including its U.S. subsidiary Belneftekhin USA - in 2007 for undermining democratic processes or institutions in Belarus. The following year, Treasury designated three enterprises belonging to Belneftekhin: Lakokraska OAO, Polotsk Steklovolokno OAO, and the Belarusian Oil Trade House. All of the companies were added to Treasury's list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons, which freezes any assets held by these companies under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits U.S. persons from transacting in any way with these companies. The decision to subject Belarusneft to restrictions is technically useful, but far from consequential... Yet Congress remains justifiably concerned. On March 29, after the Belarusneft designation announcement, Senators Mark Kirk, Joseph Lieberman and Jon Kyl sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner a letter expressing disappointment over what they see as the lack of 'full compliance with the sanctions regime put in place by Congress.' The senators wrote that they are 'deeply concerned with what appear to be sanctionable activities by other entities involving energy investments in Iran, the provision of refined petroleum products to Iran, financial relationships with Iran, as well as the regime's proliferation activities.' A number of major international companies from Turkey, China, Venezuela, and elsewhere remain active in Iran, and continue to sign new deals. In a letter to Secretary Clinton in March 2011, 10 senators identified China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (SINOPEC), China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), Zhuhai Zhen Rong of China, Tupras of Turkey, the PDVSA trading unit of Venezuela, and Unipec of China, amongst other companies, as potential violators. The administration understands that the business dealings of these companies and others are of far greater consequence than those of Belarusneft... n the end, though, the time for an incremental approach has come and gone. Only tough sanctions against meaningful targets will inspire confidence that the administration is committed to exhausting every means short of war to stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon." http://t.uani.com/hdNYBp Karim Sadjadpour, Ali Vaez & Fariborz Ghadar in The Atlantic: "While Japan's unfolding nuclear and humanitarian crisis resurrected longstanding fears in the West about the safety of nuclear power and the potential vulnerabilities of the world's over 400 operational nuclear power plants, among Iranians it seems to have inaugurated a long overdue debate. Though the Iranian government's nuclear program, dubiously marked by poor safety practices and earthquake-prone topography, creates the potential risk for a natural-cum-radioactive disaster like that at Fukushima, Japan, up until now there has been little of the way of a public debate in Iran. A combination of misguided nationalism and government misinformation has compelled many non-official Iranian elites -- including staunch regime critics -- to support the Islamic Republic's self-professed 'inalienable' nuclear pursuits. Since Japan's tragedy, however, a growing number of Iranian opinion makers are arguing in open letters, media interviews, and blogs that the government's nuclear program is in fact endangering, not enhancing, the security and economic well being of its citizenry. Will it make any difference? Iranian officials' boasting about their nuclear security should only accentuate concerns about its safety. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - who has compared Iran's nuclear program to 'a train with no breaks' and once claimed that a 16-year-old Iranian girl created atomic energy in her kitchen -- recently responded to safety concerns about the country's sole nuclear reactor in Bushehr by declaring that it meets 'All safety rules and regulations and the highest standards.' Faulting Japan's outdated technology, Ahmadinejad asserted that a similarly massive earthquake wouldn't create 'any serious problem' for Iran. In reality, the Bushehr reactor today resembles a virtual petri dish of amalgamated, antiquated, and illicit technology -- from 1970s Germany, Russia, and rogue Pakistani scientist A.Q Khan -- ominously situated at the juncture of three tectonic plates." http://t.uani.com/gXW9Ow Avi Jorisch in YnetNews: "India is poised to assist Iran in sidestepping international sanctions by using the German financial system to facilitate the transfer from India to Iran of billions of dollars annually for oil sales. The United States and the European Union should take immediate action to prevent this abuse of the financial sector. Failure to take a strong stance will allow a rogue regime to fill its coffers with the hard currency it needs to repress its people, facilitate terrorism, and build a nuclear bomb. On March 29, Germany's foreign and economic ministries ratified an arrangement that would allow India to transfer an estimated $12.65 billion dollars to the German Central Bank to pay for Iranian oil. The money would then be routed to Iran through the European-Iranian Bank (Europäisch-Iranische Handelsbank, or EIH), which has been blacklisted for proliferating weapons of mass destruction. According to the Indian press, New Delhi and Tehran have been trying to find a way to conduct business for some time, as sanctions levied by the US, Europe, and the United Nations have made it difficult for Iran to move its funds internationally. Until recently, India and Iran were using a relatively unknown clearing house based in Tehran to move billions of dollars annually. In late 2010, the US government realized that Iran was able to circumvent sanctions easily using the Asian Clearing Union (ACU), and that India was the major culprit. Since 2008, India and Iran have transacted business involving approximately $30 billion dollars using the ACU. Washington put significant pressure on the Indian government, and transactions between Tehran and New Delhi have ground to a halt... For decades, Germany has served as the Islamic Republic's largest trading partner on the European continent. Despite Berlin's public support of sanctions against Iran, the government feels it is in Germany's interest to facilitate these types of transactions, with the result that Germany has long been willing to allow its financial system to be abused to help Iran promote its terror agenda." http://t.uani.com/hszr7o |
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