Eye on Iran: Obama Imposes Freeze on Iran Property in U.S.

For continuing coverage follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group. Top Stories NYT: "The White House moved to enforce tightened sanctions against Iran on Monday because of the country's suspect nuclear program, freezing all property of the Central Bank of Iran, other Iranian financial institutions and the Iranian government in the United States. The new restrictions also raised new warnings to financial institutions in other nations that they could face big penalties in the United States if they did business with Iran's central bank. The actions were announced in an executive order signed by President Obama that started the enforcement process for a tough measure he signed into law at the end of 2011. If fully carried out, that measure could isolate Iran's central bank and effectively choke off the sale of Iranian oil by obstructing the means of payment. Most of the revenue for oil sales by Iran, one of the world's biggest oil exporters, is processed by its central bank... Advocates of stiff sanctions on Iran welcomed the administration's announcement on Monday. 'Sanctions against Iran's central bank, if properly implemented and enforced, will severely isolate the Iranian regime from world markets and limit the capital it has to pursue nuclear weapons and fund terrorism,' said Mark D. Wallace, president of United Against Nuclear Iran, a group in New York." http://t.uani.com/wHePyY Reuters: "Iran is believed to be expanding uranium enrichment activity deep inside a mountain, diplomatic sources said Monday, a move likely to add to tension with Western powers that suspect Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons capability. The move to increase sensitive nuclear work at the Fordow underground site near the Shi'ite Muslim holy city of Qom, even if expected, underlines the Islamic state's defiance in the face of intensifying Western pressure to curb such activity. Iran last month confirmed it had begun refining uranium to a fissile concentration of 20 percent at Fordow, shifting its highest-grade enrichment from an above-ground location to better protect it against any strikes by Israel or the United States." http://t.uani.com/zobYOB CNN: "Iranian lawmakers appeared ready to impose a ban on oil exports to Europe in retaliation for sanctions put in place by the European Union and the United States in January, state media reported Tuesday. 'Parliament is ready to stop oil exports to Europe,' Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani said, according to the Fars News Agency. Another member of parliament agreed, citing the demands of students who demonstrated on Monday. 'Parliament should take a revolutionary action and ban oil sales to Europe,' said Mohammad Javad Karimi Ghodousi. A military official said the sanctions don't really matter. 'Western sanctions are doomed (to failure) from the very outset and useless, as they are not economical in nature and their essence is official and bureaucratic,' Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, commander of Iran's Basij force, said." http://t.uani.com/xvtL41 Nuclear Program & Sanctions AP: "Iran on Tuesday dismissed the new U.S. sanctions, saying they are part of a 'psychological war' meant to sow discontent among Iranians and insisting the measures would not halt the country's nuclear program. Rejecting the latest sanctions, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Iran's central bank has no financial transactions with the United States and would not be affected. 'Many of these (U.S.) activities are in the sphere of psychological war and propaganda, and they cannot affect our work,' he told reporters in Tehran on Tuesday 'When they impose sanctions on our central bank even though we have no transactions with them, it shows ... they think they are able to put pressure on our people. create concerns and social discontent,' he added." http://t.uani.com/wRED1L Bloomberg: "Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi has ordered five European companies, including Royal Dutch Shell Plc, to be put on a blacklist for failing to meet their commitments in the nation's refinery projects, Mehr reported. Shell and UOP LLC, a unit of U.S.-based Honeywell International Inc., were among the companies named in the report published today by the state-run news agency. Qasemi 'ordered the National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution Co. to halt foreign purchases of license in the country's refinery projects at a time of increasing sanctions and lack of commitment of foreign companies,' according to the news agency. 'These companies will have no role in the future in Iran's oil and gas industries,' Mehr said, citing the refiner." http://t.uani.com/z995ON WSJ: "India and Iran have worked out a new arrangement for New Delhi's crude oil purchases from Tehran, as sanctions by the U.S. and European Union threaten to disrupt the current payment process via Turkey. Under the new system, Indian companies will pay for 45% of their crude oil imports from Iran in rupees while the two countries would evolve other methods for the remaining portion, Sayed Mehdi Nabizadeh, the Islamic Republic's ambassador to India, said Tuesday. 'Both the sides are satisfied,' he told reporters at the Iranian embassy. Settling part of its crude bill in rupees would be convenient for India and could also give it negotiating power on other terms of purchase like pricing. The arrangement would also allow Iran to continue trade despite sanctions from the West. Since the rupee isn't fully convertible and Indian exports are just a fourth of its imports from Iran, the Middle-Eastern nation would buy more products like machines and agricultural commodities from India. The South Asian nation would also invest in projects in Iran, such as oil and gas exploration and development, iron-ore extraction and laying railway tracks and roads." http://t.uani.com/yg7W96 Reuters: "Iranian buyers have defaulted on payments for about 200,000 tonnes of rice from their top supplier India, exporters and rice millers said on Tuesday, a sign of the mounting pressure on Tehran from a new wave of Western sanctions. The default prompted the head of the All India Rice Exporters' Association to call on members to stop rice exports to Iran based on credit, which would be a fresh blow to a country where imports of staple foods are already being hampered by sanctions. 'It is a serious issue and we do not rule out further payment defaults by Iran,' said Vijay Setia, the association's president. Indian sources said the Iranian buyers had defaulted on payments worth about $144 million for rice shipments under long-term supply deals. Iran shipped the cargoes from Indian ports in October and November. Most Indian rice exporters allow 90 days credit." http://t.uani.com/weIPUx Human Rights BBC: "Reports from Iran say several people have been detained for alleged links to the BBC's Persian service, which is banned in the country. Mehr news agency said they were involved in newsgathering, recruiting and training for Iranian journalists and had arranged trips abroad for them. A BBC statement said no BBC Persian staff members were working inside Iran. It said the reports 'should be of deep concern to all those who believe in a free and independent media'. Last week, the BBC accused the Iranian authorities of a campaign of bullying and harassment against those working for its Persian service." http://t.uani.com/xajfW9 Domestic Politics NYT: "One measure of the profound anxiety now coursing through Iranian society can be seen on Manouchehri Street, a winding lane at the heart of this city where furtive crowds of men gather every day like drug dealers to buy and sell American dollars. The government has raised the official exchange rate and sent police into the streets to stop the black marketeers, but with confidence in Iran's own currency, the rial, collapsing by the day, the trade goes on... The fuel for this manic trade is not an actual economic collapse - the new European oil embargo has yet to take effect, and there is plenty of food on the shelves - but a rising sense of panic about Iran's encirclement, the possibility of war and the prospect of more economic pain to come. The White House announced a further tightening on Monday aimed at freezing Iranian assets and constricting the activities of Iran's Central Bank. Already, the last round of sanctions on Iran's Central Bank has begun inflicting unprecedented damage on Iran's private sector, traders and analysts say, making it so hard to transfer money abroad that even affluent businessmen are sometimes forced to board planes carrying suitcases full of American dollars." http://t.uani.com/AmVCmg AP: "Iran's parliament on Tuesday decided to summon President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for questioning over a long list of accusations, including that he mismanaged the nation's economy. The summons was the first of its kind for an Iranian president since 1979. It follows a petition by a group of lawmakers for a review of policy decisions by Ahmadinejad, who has come under increasing attacks in recent months from the same hard-liners who brought him to power. It is also part of a power struggle on the Iranian political scene ahead of March 2 parliamentary elections and the 2013 presidential vote. Mohammad Reza Bahnoar, the parliament deputy speaker, said lawmakers have demanded that Ahmadinejad answer a slew of questions on the economy, including purportedly bypassing a special budget for the Tehran subway and public transportation." http://t.uani.com/wvTm6k Opinion & Analysis Richard Cohen in WashPost: "There are three red lines when it comes to Iran's nuclear program. The first is the moment when Iran tunnels so deeply underground that Israeli bombs will be incapable of doing real damage. The second is when the tunneling goes even deeper, and the United States' 'bunker buster' bombs will be insufficient. And the third - well, that has already passed. It is the conviction that the current Iranian regime will never let Israel live in peace. That third red line is of utmost importance. It explains why Israel is more likely than not to strike Iran, even if it triggers a conflagration that involves U.S. as well as Israeli targets - and shoots the price of oil through the ceiling. That last may cause even steadfast supporters of Israel to wonder if a little Jewish state is worth $15-a-gallon gas. For Israel, that's a small price to pay. The fact is that the Iranian regime is doubly unstable. It faces considerable domestic opposition, but it also can be astonishingly violent. In addition to the attempt on the life of the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Iran had its own former prime minister stabbed to death in a Paris hotel room, allegedly was behind the bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center (85 dead) and is blamed for the bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in which 19 U.S. airmen were killed. This is a dangerous regime. The Obama administration operates as if these incidents are departures from the norm. The Israelis see them as the norm - and more to come. President Obama wants the Iranian regime to turn its nuclear sword into a plowshare. The Israelis would welcome such a development, but they would not trust it. The regime they know will, sooner or later, revert to its nuclear weapons program. It's in its DNA. In his State of the Union address, Obama was pretty clear about U.S. intentions: 'Let there be no doubt: America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal.' The next sentence had a different, more forgiving, tone: 'But a peaceful resolution of this issue is still possible, and far better, and if Iran changes course and meets its obligations, it can rejoin the community of nations.' This - the vaunted carrot - is startlingly naive. Where is the evidence to suggest that the men who now run Iran will slap their foreheads, say zowie (in Farsi) and conclude that they were wrong to pursue a nuclear weapons program?" http://t.uani.com/yhzk86 Bret Stephens in WSJ: "Can Israel attack Iran? If it can, will it? If it will, when? If when, how? And what happens after that? On Sunday with Matt Lauer, President Obama said 'I don't think that Israel has made a decision on what they need to do.' That didn't square with the view of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who's been reported as saying he expects an Israeli attack this spring. Nor does it square with public warnings from Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak that the Iranians would soon enter a 'zone of immunity' from foreign military attack if nothing is done to stop them. Yes, these war drums have been beaten before. But this time it's different. Diplomacy has run its course: Even U.N. diplomats now say Iran uses negotiations as a tactic to buy time. The sanctions are too late: Israel can't afford to wait a year or two to see if Europe's embargo on Iranian oil or the administration's squeeze on Iran's financial institutions will alter Tehran's nuclear calculations. Covert action-computer bugs, assassinations, explosions-may have slowed Iran's progress, but plainly not by enough. And Israel can only hint so many times that it's planning to attack before the world tires of the bluster-and-retreat routine. Two additional points. Washington and Jerusalem are at last operating from a common timetable-Iran is within a year of getting to the point when it will be able to assemble a bomb essentially at will. And speaking of timetables, Jerusalem knows that Mr. Obama will be hard-pressed to oppose an Israeli strike-the way Dwight Eisenhower did during the Suez crisis-before election day. A re-elected President Obama is a different story. That means that from here until November the U.S. traffic light has gone from red to yellow. And Israelis aren't exactly famous for stopping at yellow lights. But can they do it? There's a mountain of nonsense exaggerating Israel's military capabilities: Israel does not, for instance, operate giant drones capable of refueling jet fighters in midair." http://t.uani.com/zZgvoN Andrew Torchia in Reuters: "Tightening international sanctions against Iran look set to shrink its economy, push up inflation and further erode its currency, but they may fail to deliver a knock-out blow that forces Tehran to compromise on its nuclear ambitions. Few areas of Iran's economy now remain untouched by the sanctions. Because of payments difficulties, Iranian ships have in recent days stopped loading imports of Ukrainian grain. The United Arab Emirates has told its banks to stop financing Iran's trade with Dubai. Iranians are finding it more difficult to obtain hard currency to travel abroad. But the history of sanctions against other countries, and the strengths of Iran's diverse and relatively self-reliant economy, suggest that as long as Tehran can find buyers for a large proportion of its oil, it will be able to limp along. The pain will be felt throughout the country and could increase discontent with the government, but if President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can cope with that political threat, there may be no overriding economic reason for him to back down. 'Iran can still scrape by,' said Gary Hufbauer, a fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in the United States and a former U.S. Treasury official who has written extensively about the history of sanctions. He ranks the measures against Iran - taken to stop what the West sees as Tehran's nuclear ambitions - as among the toughest international sanctions of the past 50 years, but not as harsh as those once imposed on Iraq, North Korea and Cuba - countries which defied economic pressure... Hufbauer said Iran might have to sell its oil at a discount of 10 to 15 percent to find buyers under sanctions. Assuming a 15 percent discount applied to all shipments and a 10 percent cut in overall shipments, Iran's energy export earnings would shrink by around $24 billion -- a heavy blow, but not a crippling one for a $480 billion economy... Hufbauer estimated that at most, the sanctions against Iran would cut its GDP by 10 percent. That is about the same impact as North Korea suffered, and below 20 percent for Iraq, he said." http://t.uani.com/x98yCW 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.