Eye on Iran: Crane Manufacturer, UNIC, Ends Business With Iran

For continuing coverage follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group. Top Stories Neon Tommy: "Japanese crane manufacturer Furukawa UNIC has announced it has ended business with the Iranian regime following reports that its cranes have been used to stage public executions. The decision comes on the heels of two other companies, Tadano and Terex, which ended relations with Iran following awareness campaigns by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) warning construction companies of Iran's grisly misuse of cranes. Officials from UNIC wrote to United Against Nuclear Iran, stating that they will no longer sell products to Iran or profit from such sales. The company added that they 'will not accept orders for any of our products if such products are known to be destined for Iran.' 'UANI commends UNIC for refusing to do business in Iran and taking a stand against Iran's ghastly public execution binge,' said the president of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), Mark Wallace, in a public statement. 'UANI calls on all crane companies to end their business in Iran and their indirect investment in Iran's barbaric execution campaign.'" http://t.uani.com/oSi6sa AP: "Iraq will supply the world with its last barrel of oil, according to local lore, and that barrel will come from Basra... But provincial leaders complain Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government is more interested in doing business with Iran than in promoting their interests. The two countries last month signed agreements to work together on issues related to culture, science, technology and transportation, moves that Maliki said signaled 'a new stage of cooperation.' As the Iraqi and Iranian economies grow closer, however, officials in Basra say they believe Iraqi leaders are allowing Iran to take the lead on extracting oil in border-area reservoirs that are accessible to both countries. 'The Iraqis were sleeping' while Iran started taking Iraq's oil along the border, according to Fareed Ayoubi, a member of the Basra Provincial Council and head of its oil and energy committee. 'It's a lost cause.'" http://t.uani.com/oUZUiZ Dow Jones: "Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Tuesday called for the completion of the nationalization of the country's oil industry. In remarks carried by the IRNA state agency, Ahmadinejad said the Islamic Republic's mission 'is to complete the last chains of the ring of oil industry's nationalization.' Ahmadinejad has frequently called for the full nationalization of the oil industry--much of it already passed into state hands 60 years ago. However, the views are also generally followed by official requests for foreign investment. Despite the need for foreign technologies and capital, the presidential remarks may be less rhetorical this time around. They follow the appointment as oil minister of Rostam Ghasemi, the commander of a revolutionary guard-owned engineering group. Ghasemi has already said the latter would replace foreign companies that have pulled out due to sanctions." http://t.uani.com/mVeKVH Nuclear Program & Sanctions AP: "Federal authorities in New Jersey have charged a citizen of the Netherlands with conspiring to ship aircraft parts and other items from the United States to Iran in violation of U.S. law. Fifty-year-old Ulrich Davis was arrested Saturday at Newark Liberty International Airport. The U.S. attorney's office says Davis used his position with a freight forwarding company to arrange shipment of the prohibited items, disguising the nature of the shipments by falsifying documents. It says the shipments included parts for Boeing 747 and C-130 aircraft." http://t.uani.com/q9WOLQ Domestic Politics AFP: "Gas- and oil-rich Iran has discovered another gas field with reserves of 495 billion cubic metres valued at $133 billion, the oil ministry's SHANA news service quoted an oil official as saying on Monday. 'The new gas field has in spot reserves of about 495 billion cubic metres (17.5 trillion cubic feet) valued at $133 billion and is located east of Assalouyeh,' National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) managing director Ahmad Qalebani said. Assalouyeh, in the southern province of Bushehr, is the base for developing Iran's offshore South Pars field which Tehran shares with Qatar. It holds an estimated 14 trillion cubic metres of gas (500 trillion cubic feet) or eight percent of world gas." http://t.uani.com/q5Qk1E Opinion & Analysis Joseph Logan in Reuters: "Saudi Arabia, self-appointed guardian of Sunni Islam, is deeply wary of popular uprisings that have convulsed the Arab world, but it has lost patience with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's violent attempts to crush a mainly Sunni protest movement. Saudi-Syrian relations were rarely warm, with Riyadh riled by Syria's alliance with its Shi'ite regional rival Iran, and they chilled further after the 2005 assassination of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri, a friend of the Saudi royal family. But until this week Saudi King Abdullah had kept silent on the violence in Syria, which human rights groups say has cost more than 1,600 civilian lives in five months of turmoil. Now the Saudis have taken a stand, perhaps deciding that Syria's diplomatic isolation and the bloodshed unleashed by its minority Alawite rulers on their majority Sunni opponents have made Damascus a ripe target of diplomatic opportunity. 'They realize the regime in Syria is facing a serious, nationwide, deep rebellion and is therefore vulnerable,' said Beirut-based Middle East analyst Rami Khouri. The kingdom, which brooks no dissent at home and helped Bahrain crush Shi'ite-led protests in March, recalled its ambassador from Damascus on Monday and denounced the violence in Syria, which Assad blames on armed gangs with foreign backing. The Saudi decision was announced in a statement in the name of King Abdullah, who warned Syria it faced ruin over the crackdown, among the bloodiest in Arab uprisings that have already brought down the rulers of Tunisia and Egypt. Analysts suggested that Saudi Arabia sees in Assad's woes a chance to strike a blow at Iran, even at the cost of undermining an established ruler, with a chance of chaos -- or even representative government -- in a nation at the heart of the Arab world. 'The benefits of hitting the Iranian connection outweigh the negatives of a new democracy in Syria,' should one emerge in a post-Assad Syria, Khouri said." http://t.uani.com/oKQsXK 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.