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NYT: "Major Western powers took significant steps on Monday to cut Iran off from the international financial system, announcing coordinated sanctions aimed at its central bank and commercial banks. The measures, a response to a recent United Nations report warning about Iran's nuclear activities, tighten the vise on Iran but still fall short of a blanket cutoff. The United States also imposed sanctions on companies involved in Iran's nuclear industry, as well as on its petrochemical and oil industries, adding to existing measures that seek to weaken the Iranian government by depriving it of its ability to refine gasoline or invest in its petroleum industry. The United States, Britain and Canada each announced measures aimed at shutting off Iran's access to foreign banks and credit. The European Union is expected to approve similar measures on Thursday, in what amounts to a concerted response to the finding this month by the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran may be continuing to work on a nuclear weapon and delivery system. The Treasury Department named the Central Bank of Iran and the entire Iranian banking system as a 'primary money laundering concern' - an unusual and symbolically important step, but one that is short of formal sanctions, which would probably be resisted by China and other Asian countries that import oil from Iran." http://t.uani.com/rrVc6g
Reuters: "France called for new sanctions on an 'unprecedented scale' against Iran on Monday in response to Tehran's nuclear programme, urging world powers to halt purchases of Iranian oil and freeze its central bank assets. French President Nicolas Sarkozy sent letters to the leaders of the United States, Britain, Germany, the European Union, Canada and Japan proposing the new actions after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) voiced new concerns about Iran's nuclear programme last week. 'As Iran steps up its nuclear programme, refuses negotiation and condemns its people to isolation, France advocates new sanctions on an unprecedented scale to convince Iran that it must negotiate,' said a statement from Sarkozy's office. 'France therefore proposes to the European Union and its member states, the United States, Japan and Canada and other willing countries to take the decision to immediately freeze the assets of the Iranian central bank (and) stop purchases of Iranian oil,' it added." http://t.uani.com/tjwKAV
WSJ: "Weeks before the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, the commander of American forces here urged the Iraqi government to keep fighting extremists, especially the Iran-backed militias he said threaten to form a state within a state. The commander, Gen. Lloyd Austin, compared the threat to Hezbollah, the Shiite military and political group in Lebanon that has strong ties to Iran and Syria and that the U.S. deems a terrorist group. As if to underline the threat Gen. Austin described to reporters Monday, new anti-American billboards are appearing in central Baghdad, less than two miles from the Green Zone, home to the Iraqi government and the U.S. Embassy compound. 'No, no America; No, no falsehood,' reads the caption on one billboard depicting Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr trampling the U.S. flag." http://t.uani.com/uj25iz
Nuclear Program & Sanctions BBC: "The UK has imposed new sanctions against Iran which will cut off all financial ties with Iranian banks. It follows the International Atomic Energy Agency's report on Iran and concerns about its nuclear programme. From 15:00 GMT on Monday, UK credit and financial institutions were required to cease all transactions with banks including the Central Bank of Iran. Chancellor George Osborne said there was evidence that Iran's banks were funding its nuclear weapons programme. This is the first time the UK has used powers created under the 2008 Counter-Terrorism Act to cut off a country's banking sector in this way." http://t.uani.com/ut3h2w
AFP: "Canada announced new sanctions against Iran on Monday that target 'virtually all transactions' including with its central bank to pressure Tehran amid renewed suspicion over its nuclear program. 'Canada is working with like-minded countries and is today expanding sanctions against Iran,' said government House Leader Peter Van Loan, adding the measures will 'block virtually all transactions with Iran, including those with the central bank.' Canadians sending small amounts of money to family in Iran are exempt from the measures. Canada also imposed an embargo on Iran's petrochemical, oil and gas industry, and added 'the known leadership of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard' to a list of individuals targeted by sanctions. In a statement, the foreign ministry said its third round of sanctions aimed at Tehran since July are in response to a report by the UN nuclear watchdog strongly suggesting Iran was researching atomic weapons." http://t.uani.com/sKhaRv
CNN: "Russia called new sanctions against Iran 'unacceptable,' saying the new punishments would hurt efforts to talk with Tehran. The Russian Foreign Ministry posted a statement Tuesday, a day after the United States announced tougher sanctions against Iran -- joining Britain and Canada in a coordinated effort to tighten the screws around the country's suspected nuclear weapons program. 'Russia sees such extraterritorial measures as unacceptable and against international law,' the statement says. 'Such a practice seriously obstructs advancement toward a constructive dialogue with Tehran. Stronger sanction pressure, which some of our partners see almost as a goal in itself, will not encourage Iran to sit down at the negotiating table.'" http://t.uani.com/vfwEVb
Human Rights
AFP: "Record numbers of countries voted in favor of UN General Assembly resolutions condemning human rights abuses in Iran, North Korea and Myanmar. The Iran vote came only three days after the General Assembly condemned an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington -- which the United States accuses Iran of masterminding... The 193-member assembly passed a resolution condemning 'torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment' by Iranian authorities with 86 votes in favor, six more than last year, 32 against, down 12 from 2010, and 59 abstentions. The resolution, proposed by Canada, condemned 'flogging and amputations' carried out in Iran and deplored a 'dramatic increase' in the use of the death penalty, particularly against minors. Many human rights groups say events have deteriorated in Iran over the past year. Mohammad Javad Larijani, an advisor to Iran's supreme leader, called the resolution 'substantially unfounded and intentionally malicious' in a speech to the General Assembly's human rights committee." http://t.uani.com/tFrcil
Domestic Politics
LAT: "The drama surrounding Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's top media advisor, who was reportedly sentenced to jail for an article deemed offensive to Islamic values, took a tumultuous turn Monday. The media advisor, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, held a defiant news conference, then police descended on the Tehran offices of the daily newspaper Iran, which Javanfekr edits. Anti-riot police fired tear gas into the newspaper's offices and reportedly arrested more than 30 staff members. Smoke could be seen rising from one floor in the eastern wing of the building. Outside, police hauled groups of men and women into minibuses. Reports also said authorities seized computers. The episode appears to be the latest escalation in the mounting split between Ahmadinejad and rival conservatives. The president's biggest rivals are hard-line conservatives and clerics. Political tensions are mounting ahead of March legislative elections. Conservatives accuse the president's chief of staff of leading a 'deviant current' aimed at marginalizing Iran's powerful clergy." http://t.uani.com/tJyLlX
Foreign Affairs
Reuters: "In an apparently serious setback for U.S. intelligence against a key adversary, Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi'ite militia, has succeeded in identifying and arresting informants within its ranks who were working for the CIA, current and former U.S. officials said. Separately, counterintelligence officers in Iran also succeeded in uncovering the identities of at least a handful of alleged CIA informants, the officials said. Some former U.S. officials said that the CIA informants, believed to be local recruits rather than U.S. citizens, were uncovered, at least in part, due to sloppy procedures - known in the espionage world as 'tradecraft' - used by the agency." http://t.uani.com/vfkvMt
AFP: "Iran dares Israel to attack, because the retaliation would send the Jewish state to 'the dustbin of history,' a senior Revolutionary Guards commander said, according to the Fars news agency Monday. 'Our greatest wish is that they commit such a mistake,' the chief of the Guards' aerospatial division, Amir-Ali Hadjizadeh, was quoted as saying. 'For some time there has been a hidden energy we hope to expend to consign the enemies of Islam forever to the dustbin of history,' he said. 'Our ballistic (missile) capacity never ceases to grow,' he added." http://t.uani.com/uRb5JE
Opinion & Analysis
Yochi Dreazen in The Atlantic: "The Obama administration on Monday unveiled a sweeping new set of sanctions against Iran, but the White House held off on directly targeting Iran's central bank, a hard-hitting move that would damage Iran's economy but risk sending global oil prices skyrocketing and sparking potentially violent Iranian retaliation... Britain and Canada announced similar measures, with England's finance minister announcing on Monday that all British financial institutions were now barred from doing business with Iranian banks. The move marked the first time in history that the British government cut off an entire country's banking sector from its own financial system. The U.S. followed suit - with one key difference -- a few hours later. Geithner, speaking to reporters at the State Department on Monday evening, said the U.S. would designate Iran's entire financial sector - including its central bank -- as a 'primary money laundering concern' under the Patriot Act. The move stops well short of sanctioning the bank, but it could set the stage for doing so in the future. 'No option is off the table, including the possibility of imposing additional sanctions on the central bank of Iran,' Geithner said. Despite the tough talk, it's not clear when - or if - the administration will actually take punitive measures against Iran's central bank. Sanctioning the bank could spark chaos in the world oil market and push prices higher, threatening the fragile economic recoveries underway in the U.S. and many European countries. But it is widely considered to be the most powerful weapon in the U.S. economic arsenal. Proponents, including an array of leading lawmakers from both parties, believe that targeting Iran's Bank Markazi would prevent the country from processing payments for the roughly $90 billion worth of oil and natural gas that it sells each year. Petroleum is one of the country's most lucrative industries, so such measures would make it far more difficult for Tehran to fund its government, military, or security services. 'There is no question that it will have a real impact on Iran's ability to finance its illicit activities or even fund the normal operations of its government,' said Matthew Levitt, a counterterrorism expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. 'If you did business with the Iranian central bank, you'd lose your ability to do any business whatsoever with American banks. It would have a tremendous impact on oil sales.' ... The administration has said all options are on the table when it comes to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and has at times signaled a willingness to act against the central bank. In October, David Cohen, the Treasury Department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, told the Senate Banking Committee that his department was 'actively' looking at whether to sanction the bank. More than a month later, however, there are few signs that the administration plans to target the bank anytime soon. The inaction stems from fears about the economic and security implications of sanctioning the bank. Iran has some of the world's largest proven reserves of oil and natural gas, and Washington and its allies fear that measures effectively cutting Iran off from the global oil market would send prices spiking higher, further straining weak Western economies. Other U.S. officials and Middle East experts also fear that Tehran would view the measures as an act of war and retaliate by directly or indirectly striking Israel or other U.S. allies throughout the Middle East." http://t.uani.com/sCrkWR |
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