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CNN: "The U.S. Senate unanimously passed economic sanctions against Iran on Thursday, a move that the Obama administration cautioned against.Multiple administration officials have said that these sanctions would do more harm than good and both raise the price of oil and have little impact on Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions... The amendment would specifically disallow organizations that do business with financial institutions in Iran, including the countries central bank, from holding financial accounts in the United States. Waivers though would be provided for companies that deal with national security matters. The amendment also requires that studies be done to better understand how oil prices would be affected in the United States... Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois sponsored the amendment, which now needs House approval and the president's signature to become law. 'The Central Bank of Iran is the primary bankroller of Iran's global terror network, its nuclear program and other illicit activities,' said Kirk. 'The time has come to impose crippling sanctions on this terrorist and nuclear-financing institution.'" http://t.uani.com/vOuS79
BBC: "The European Union has agreed to impose fresh sanctions on 180 Iranian officials and firms over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme. Ministers meeting in Brussels also agreed to work on other measures that could target Iran's energy sector. The sanctions follow a UN report linking Iran to the development of a nuclear weapon. Iran denies the claims... A spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told the BBC that the new sanctions would target 39 people and 141 companies and would include the freezing of assets and travel bans. EU ministers said in a statement: 'The council agreed to broaden existing sanctions by examining, in close co-ordination with international partners, additional measures including measures aimed at severely affecting the Iranian financial system, in the transport sector, in the energy sector.' Correspondents say foreign ministers failed to agree on an oil embargo against Iran because some EU countries are dependent on Iranian oil." http://t.uani.com/sYVqXe
Reuters: "Iran's vital seaborne trade is suffering from escalating sanctions pressure as shipping companies scale down activities or pull out, with the Islamic Republic facing more hurdles in transporting its oil, trade and shipping sources say... Much of Iran's imported needs including food and consumer goods are transported by sea via container ships. Oil tankers are used to ferry the country's crude oil exports. 'Most (shipping) transactions used to be done in dollars but they can't trade in dollars which is a difficulty in itself. The chances are that banks involved in trade finance will have large scale U.S. operations which is yet another restriction,' a shipping source said. 'It's getting tougher and tougher for them now.' ... In June, the United States blacklisted major Iranian port operator Tidewater Middle East Co, which operates seven terminals in Iran including Bandar Abbas... The U.S. move led the world's top container player Maersk Line to suspend operations at several Iranian ports including Bandar Abbas... CMA CGM, the world's third-largest container shipping group, stopped exports from Iran in July and since September has been scanning all containers bound for Iran from the UAE. Danish shipping and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk, which owns Maersk Line, said it was still engaged in business with Iran including the transport of provisions, natural gas and crude oil as well as bunker fuel supply to Maersk-related vessels, in compliance with sanctions." http://t.uani.com/rKn97S
British Embassy Attack Reuters: "Iranians who stormed the British embassy in Tehran this week left a trail of destruction that witnesses said looked to have been well organized and not the result of a spontaneous eruption of anger, as portrayed by state authorities. Western diplomats who visited the embassy in central Tehran on Wednesday, a day after it was sacked, told Reuters of 'devastating' damage to buildings smashed up and burned and of the ordeal of diplomatic staff who have since left the country. The elegant 135-year-old residence in a wooded compound in downtown Tehran, used by the ambassador to host official dinners under chandeliers and with paintings of former British monarchs looking on, was said to have been 'systematically destroyed.' A second compound, a sprawling walled park in the northern Tehran neighborhood of Qolhak where most diplomats lived in modern bungalows, was raided at the same time, adding to suspicions that the actions were orchestrated." http://t.uani.com/rPRYvK
AP: "Iran on Thursday banned foreign media from covering any rallies in front of British diplomatic missions in the capital, in the latest fallout from the storming of Britain's embassy in Tehran by pro-government demonstrators. The attack on the compounds on Tuesday was preceded by an apparently state-approved rally outside the British Embassy to denounce Britain's support for the latest round of Western sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear program. 'We inform all representatives of the foreign media that their presence at rallies in the city, especially in front of the British Embassy and Gholhak garden, or residential compound, is not permitted unless authorized in advance,' Iran's foreign media office said in a statement. After mass anti-government demonstrations in 2009, Iran banned against foreign media from covering opposition protests, but this is the first time Tehran has barred foreign media from covering pro-government rallies." http://t.uani.com/s0aZfe
Guardian: "Diplomats and Iran analysts said that the storming of the British embassy in Tehran revealed the role of a growing, radical actor in Iranian foreign policy: the Quds Force. There is certainly plenty of debate about how far up the chain of command the orders for Tuesday's embassy invasion went. The force is the external operations wing of Iran's Revolutionary Guard corps (IRGC), one of the regime's most powerful institutions, with extensive economic and financial interests across the country. Some of the rioters at the embassy on Tuesday held aloft pictures of the Quds Force commander, Qassem Suleimani, around whom a personality cult is developing. There are claims that a known Quds commander was in the crowd." http://t.uani.com/tjqRth
AP: "Iranian diplomats have chartered a plane and are expected to leave Britain on Friday, expelled by the U.K. government in retaliation for attacks on the British Embassy in Tehran... The diplomats will be flying out of Heathrow Airport on a chartered IranAir plane around 4 p.m., according to an employee of IranAir in London who refused to give his name because he said he was not allowed to speak to the media. The roughly two dozen Iranian diplomats and their dependents will be welcomed back at the Tehran airport, Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency reported." http://t.uani.com/v4n5de Nuclear Program & Sanctions NewsCore: "Sudan and Iran are liable for potentially billions of dollars in damages to the victims of the 1998 suicide bombings at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, a US federal judge has ruled. Hundreds died and thousands were injured in the nearly simultaneous attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on Aug. 7, 1998. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the bombings. In an opinion issued Wednesday, US District Judge John Bates determined that both Sudan and Iran contributed 'material support' to al Qaeda that was essential to the execution of the terror group's attack. 'Prior to its meetings with Iranian officials and agents, al Qaeda did not possess the technical expertise required to carry out the embassy bombings,' Bates wrote. 'In the 1990s, al Qaeda received training in Iran and Lebanon on how to destroy large buildings with sophisticated and powerful explosives.' 'Support from Iran and (Iranian-funded) Hezbollah was critical to al Qaeda's execution of the 1998 embassy bombings.'" http://t.uani.com/uTc8wU
Reuters: "Vice President Joe Biden has urged Turkey to pass new sanctions against Iran, increasing pressure on Washington's Middle East ally to join a tightening web of sanctions aimed at forcing Tehran to stop work on its nuclear activities. Turkey, a Muslim NATO member that aspires to join the European Union, has deepened economic and financial ties with its neighbor Iran in recent years, despite Western efforts to put the squeeze on the Islamic Republic. 'We continue to support a diplomatic solution to our concerns with Iran,' Biden told Turkey's Hurriyet, in answers to questions from the leading newspaper published on Friday. 'However, we also believe that putting pressure on Iran's leadership is necessary to secure a negotiated settlement, and that is why we encourage our partners, including Turkey, to take steps to impose new sanctions on Iran, as we have continued to do,' Biden said." http://t.uani.com/tAPsSc
The Hill: "A Democratic senator Thursday angrily accused Obama administration officials of doing an about-face on a bipartisan Senate plan designed to stifle funding for Iran's nuclear weapons work. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said Obama officials initially balked at separate amendments on Iran that he and Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) planned to offer to a 2012 Pentagon policy bill... He said the duo worked with administration officials to address their concerns and then combined the measures into a "fair and balanced" plan to stifle Iranian oil revenues. The resulting Menendez-Kirk amendment would prohibit any U.S. financial entity from engaging in transactions with any foreign government, central bank or other financial firm that does business with the Central Bank of Iran... Obama officials were highly critical of the amendment during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Thursday, contending it would have the "opposite effect" of what is intended by driving other nations away from efforts to isolate Iran. The officials also said the amendment would drive up the price of oil. A visibly upset Menendez accused the officials of reneging on the agreement. 'I am extremely disappointed,' Menendez said, expressing bewilderment over why the officials in those meetings didn't simply request that both senators scrap their amendments." http://t.uani.com/tejf8t
Foreign Affairs
WSJ: "A Syrian government run by the country's main opposition group would cut Damascus's military relationship to Iran and end arms supplies to Middle East militant groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, the group's leader said, raising the prospect of a dramatic realignment of powers at the region's core... 'There will be no special relationship with Iran,' Mr. Ghalioun said in the interview. 'Breaking the exceptional relationship means breaking the strategic, military alliance,' he said, adding that 'after the fall of the Syrian regime, [Hezbollah] won't be the same.'" http://t.uani.com/uJIler
Reuters: "India's navy said on Thursday it was monitoring an Iranian cargo ship, with armed men on board, which had been moored off the country's southern coast for more than a month without explanation. Shipping data showed the ship MV Assa was owned and operated by Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), a company facing sanctions from the United States and the EU. 'The vessel is there and the navy has reported to the concerned Indian authorities that there are men on board carrying arms,' navy spokesman Commander P.V.S. Satish told Reuters. Indian newspapers reported the government had made an official complaint to Iran about the vessel, anchored close to Lakshadweep islands." http://t.uani.com/uFz69l
Opinion & Analysis
Bloomberg Editorial Board: "Who would have thought a week in which protesters rampaged through the U.K. Embassy in Tehran would end with Europe going soft on the Iranian regime? Yet that's exactly what happened. At a meeting Dec. 1 in Brussels, European Union foreign ministers signed off on measures against some 180 individuals and companies in reaction to Iran's continued support for terrorism and an International Atomic Energy Agency report finding that Iran had conducted secret activities 'specific to nuclear weapons.' This was expected and deserves a positive response (as do new penalties the ministers announced against Syria). The real news, however, was what the EU didn't do: Announce an agreement, proposed by France and backed by the U.K., Germany and the Netherlands, to proceed with a full embargo on imports of Iranian oil. Instead, Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, said that any consideration of steps against Iran's energy sector would go 'to the technical experts.' There are two main arguments against a European embargo: It would disproportionately harm the EU's weakest economies, such as Spain and Greece, and Iran would simply ferret out other markets if Europe is shut off. Both are valid points but unpersuasive. An embargo on Iranian crude would doubtless put pressure on oil prices in Europe. Greece has recently stepped up its purchases of Iranian oil because other suppliers are leery of the country's credit risk; shaky Spain and Italy use much more of it than say, France. Still, Iran accounts for only 5.7 percent of Europe's oil imports... An embargo need not be global to put pressure on the target. We have seen this already with Iran. Industry insiders suspect that it is now or will soon offer its remaining customers oil-price discounts to stay loyal -- in part because of measures the U.S., U.K. and others have taken against Iranian financial institutions that make processing purchases more difficult. Iran has also sweetened the pot for India, giving refiners there far more generous payment options than those available from countries such as Saudi Arabia. Mark Dubowitz, an Iran expert with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies told Bloomberg Businessweek that Iran might have to offer China discounts as large as 40 percent should Europe, Japan and South Korea forgo its crude." http://t.uani.com/skU5fH
Saba Farzan in WSJ: "If someone had told me 10 years ago that in November 2011 we would see a replay of the events of November 1979 in Iran, I wouldn't have believed it. But sadly, what happened at the British Embassy in Tehran this week is 1979 all over again. The Iranian regime has returned to its major business of attacking the West. Over the regime's three long decades, it has betrayed values dear to every Iranian. Hospitality, for instance: Guests enter our homes as strangers but leave as close friends, no matter how long they stay. Another core value is our respect and admiration for other cultures and religions. The pillar of the regime's strength, its resentment of the West, is therefore fundamentally un-Iranian from the perspective of Iranian civil society. The regime's supposed sources of strength reveal its true weakness. Two generations of Iranians inside Iran have grown up respecting what the West stands for and hoping that someday their own country, too, will stand for liberty and democracy. Despite the regime's medieval propaganda, and despite the fact that most Iranian youth aren't even able to travel to most Western countries, their sense of Western society and what shapes it has always been sharper than that of some regime officials who collected degrees at Oxford, Cambridge or MIT before they started careers as representatives of a barbaric system. So let me be clear about those who attacked the British embassy. They weren't students. They were terrorists. For a long time Europe's democratic nations believed that Iran's Islamist terrorism was only directed at the United States and Israel. European diplomats ignored the Islamic Republic's role in killing European soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq as they continued their dialogue with one of the most brutal regimes in the world. They ignored the millions of innocent Iranians kept as hostages by their own government. Not until the summer of 2010, when the European Union passed very strong sanctions against Iran, did it become clear that the time for dialogue had ended. Friends have asked me after Tuesday's news: Why now? My answer is that the Islamic Republic is weaker now than anyone has imagined. It is weakened inside the country. It is weakened because the end of Syrian butcher Bashar Assad is near. It is weakened by isolation in the international community." http://t.uani.com/u0vdWo |
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