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WSJ: "South Africa's flagship telecommunications company MTN Group Ltd. said Friday that it won't pull out of Iran after it became the target of an influential U.S. lobby group campaign seeking the exit of foreign businesses in the country. MTN has a 49% stake in Iran's second-largest mobile phone operator and 21% of its subscriber base is from the country, according to its most recent figures. The lobby group's campaign comes as the U.S. and Europe are enacting new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. In a letter sent to MTN's Chief Executive Sifiso Dabengwa this week seen by Dow Jones Newswires, Mark Wallace, the president of lobby group United Against Nuclear Iran and a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said MTN is enabling the Iranian government to track and locate cellphone users which it says is a violation of human rights. The group wants the company to either scale back in Iran or exit the country." http://t.uani.com/yu4CIe
WSJ: "Iran's president attacked Western powers for sanctions against Iran but offered no clear indication on whether his country would return to negotiations on its nuclear program, in his first public remarks since the European Union agreed to ban Iranian oil imports. In a public rally on Thursday in the southeastern city of Kerman, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied that Iran has been an obstacle to reviving negotiations, but stopped short of offering to restart talks, saying, 'Why would we run away from negotiations? Why should the person who is in the right and has logic avoid talks?' Iran's parliament echoed the defiant tone by saying it would consider an immediate halt of oil exports to Europe to pre-empt the oil embargo, which the EU set to begin on July 1 to give its members time to find alternative supply sources." http://t.uani.com/yq73Lz
NYT: "Israeli intelligence estimates, backed by academic studies, have cast doubt on the widespread assumption that a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities would set off a catastrophic set of events like a regional conflagration, widespread acts of terrorism and sky-high oil prices. The estimates, which have been largely adopted by the country's most senior officials, conclude that the threat of Iranian retaliation is partly bluff. They are playing an important role in Israel's calculation of whether ultimately to strike Iran, or to try to persuade the United States to do so, even as Tehran faces tough new economic sanctions from the West. 'A war is no picnic,' Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Israel Radio in November. But if Israel feels itself forced into action, the retaliation would be bearable, he said. 'There will not be 100,000 dead or 10,000 dead or 1,000 dead. The state of Israel will not be destroyed.'" http://t.uani.com/xTDxTR
Nuclear Program & Sanctions FT: "One of the first sessions to be booked out at the World Economic Forum was 'What if Iran Develops a Nuclear Weapon?' The risk of conflict over Iran's nuclear programme is debated every year at Davos, but the assembled experts and politicians now seem to be taking the prospect of war considerably more seriously. They will listen to the words of Ehud Barak, Israel's deputy prime minister and defence minister, particularly carefully when he addresses the conference today. There are several reasons for this state of alarm. First, Iran is thought to be making significant progress with a nuclear weapons programme. In particular, Iran watchers are concerned that, over the coming months, vital nuclear technology will be moved into hardened underground silos - making important parts of the Iranian programme much less vulnerable to bombing raids." http://t.uani.com/w3cton
Reuters: "Oman may sell oil to Sri Lanka in the event of a crisis, which the island nation is racing to avert with U.S. sanctions on Iranian crude threatening its primary refining supply, Sri Lankan officials told Reuters on Friday. Omani Oil Minister Mohammad bin Hamad al-Rumhy on Friday was holding a second and final day of talks with Sri Lankan Petroleum Industries Minister Susil Premajayantha, who is hunting for a new oil supply amid limited options... Nearly all its crude supply comes from Iran and its 50,000-barrel-per-day Sapugaskanda refinery was built to process only Iranian light sweet crude or the similar Arabian Light." http://t.uani.com/AAdZzp
AP: "The United States has arrested and charged an Iranian semiconductor scientist with violating U.S. export laws by buying high-tech U.S. lab equipment, a development likely to further worsen Iranian-U.S. tensions. Prison records show the U.S. is holding Seyed Mojtaba Atarodi, 54, a microchip expert and assistant professor at Tehran's prestigious Sharif University of Technology, in a federal facility in Dublin, Calif., outside San Francisco. The Iranian interest section in the Pakistani embassy in Washington said it was aware of the arrest." http://t.uani.com/zTJfzG
Bloomberg: "More than 70 percent of investors said an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would create only a short-term disruption in oil markets, according to a quarterly Bloomberg Global Poll. Only about a third of the 1,209 global investors, traders and analysts surveyed Jan. 23-24 said an attack could trigger an oil shock leading to a global recession. While regional conflicts could affect oil markets over a longer period of time, investors may have 'lurking confidence that other oil-producing nations would step up to increase production,' said J. Ann Selzer, president of Selzer & Co., the Des Moines, Iowa-based company that conducted the survey for Bloomberg." http://t.uani.com/yGDmYc
Human Rights
AFP: "The United States Thursday accused Iran of trying to quash all freedom of expression ahead of March elections, as it cracks down on reporters and bloggers. US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland cited the reported arrests of four journalists and death sentences imposed on two bloggers, who she said face imminent execution over charges of spreading corruption. 'We are deeply concerned by the alarming increase in the Iranian regime's efforts to extinguish all forms of free expression and limit its citizens' access to information in the lead-up to March parliamentary elections,' she said. Security forces in the last two weeks have reportedly arrested journalists Shahram Manouchehri, Sahamedin Bourghani, Parastoo Dokouhaki, and Marzieh Rasouli, she said." http://t.uani.com/w5crlT
Domestic Politics
AFP: "The central bank of sanctions-hit Iran is to enforce a single exchange rate after a dramatic slide in the value of the Iranian rial on the open market, state television reported on Thursday. 'From Saturday, there will be a single fixed rate for the dollar which will be 12,260 rials,' central bank governor Mahmoud Bahmani announced on television. 'This rate is valid for all transactions and authorised imports... as well as for students abroad or those travelling,' he said. Iran previously had two official exchange rates: one of 11,300 rials to the dollar at the bank for state operations and official imports, and a variable rate for businesses and individuals to purchase from foreign exchange offices." http://t.uani.com/z9yQXM
Opinion & Analysis
Amb. Mark Wallace in The Daily Caller: "Earlier this month, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) sent a letter to Jennifer Lopez, the well-known actress, singer and judge for 'American Idol,' asking her to renounce her ties to the Italian automaker Fiat. Most Americans have seen Ms. Lopez's Fiat commercials, which she filmed as part of a multimillion-dollar deal that also includes product placement during her performances. The reasoning behind our campaign is simple: Ms. Lopez is the most prominent spokesperson for Fiat, and Fiat - through its business in Iran - is undermining U.S. national security and human rights. Fiat maintains an active business presence in Iran, and through its subsidiary Iveco has sold vehicles to the Iranian regime which have been used to transport ballistic missiles and stage gruesome public executions. It is important to place Fiat's activities in Iran in a broader geopolitical context. For one, U.S. automakers are prohibited from selling automobiles in Iran, due to laws passed in an overwhelmingly bipartisan fashion and signed by presidents both Democratic and Republican. The goal of those laws, and the Obama administration's policy towards Iran, is to exert economic pressure on Iran's government until it stops pursuing policies that threaten global peace and security as well as the rights of its citizens. When it comes to Iran, no company can ever be sure how its products might be used, or what the taxes it is paying the Iranian Treasury might help fund. UANI has tried to make Ms. Lopez aware of this fact. Unfortunately, multinational corporations like Fiat that continue to do business in Iran are throwing the regime a much-needed lifeline that is helping it remain in power and fund its activities. As such, the U.S and its allies have been encouraging corporations to end their business activities in Iran, particularly when the activities directly support the Iranian regime, as is the case of Fiat." http://t.uani.com/yw7kAy
Bob Feferman in South Bend Tribune: "The November 2011 report on Iran's nuclear program by the International Atomic Energy Agency confirms that Iran continues to work on the development of nuclear weapons in violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions. Whereas the United States government has imposed tough sanctions on Iran, there is much more that we can do, both at the state level and as individuals, to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. Due to the fact that China and Russia oppose stronger sanctions in the U.N. Security Council, many analysts believe that absent a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities (which everyone wants to avoid), Iran will eventually develop nuclear weapons. This fatalistic approach could be fatal for all of us... Since we can no longer wait for tougher sanctions on Iran by the United Nations, what more can we do to support the sanctions of the U.S. government? Leading the American grassroots efforts on Iran is the organization United Against Nuclear Iran. Recently, UANI has sponsored a bold new model for action at the state level called Iran Contract Legislation that we can support here in Indiana. The adoption of Iran Contract Legislation would require any company signing a contract with the state to certify that it is not engaged in Iran's energy sector. This strategy is based on the fact that most of the revenues of the Iranian regime come from the production and sale of oil and natural gas. Yet, absent the help of foreign companies, Iran is incapable of exploiting its own natural resources. So far, the state legislatures of California, Florida and New York have passed Iran Contract Legislation. The foreign companies impacted by this legislation will have to make a choice: they can do business in either Iran or the United States -- not both. Now Indiana will have the opportunity to enact similar legislation. Thanks to the leadership of state Sens. Tom Wyss of Fort Wayne, John Broden of South Bend and Michael Young of Milltown, an Iran Contract Legislation bill, S.B. 231, has been introduced to the Indiana General Assembly... By supporting Iran Contract Legislation in our state legislature, and avoiding investment in companies engaged in Iran's energy sector, the residents of Indiana can use nonmilitary means to help prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and make the world a much safer place." http://t.uani.com/xcg2tM |
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