Eye on Iran: How African Telecom MTN Allegedly Bribed Its Way into Iran

For continuing coverage follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group.    Top Stories Reuters: "For a South African telecommunications company, it represented a unique chance to seize what its chief executive called 'one of the most significant 'virgin' mobile opportunities in the world.' But the location, he added in a memo marked 'Strictly Confidential,' was 'no normal country.' The country was Iran. The company, MTN Group, was widely seen as a post-apartheid success story. Now, seven years after MTN and its local partners won a lucrative license to launch a new Iranian mobile-phone carrier, the deal is swirling in controversy and raising embarrassing questions for South Africa at a time when the Western world is trying to contain Iran's nuclear ambitions. Turkcell, an Istanbul-based rival, in March filed a federal lawsuit in Washington alleging MTN bribed its way into Iran and stole the license from under it. It is seeking at least $4.2 billion in damages. An elite South African police unit called the Hawks is investigating. MTN has denied the allegations and called Turkcell's demands 'extortionate.' MTN has appointed a prominent judge in London to conduct an internal probe of the allegations surrounding what has become one of its most valuable holdings. In 2011, MTN generated $1.3 billion, or 9 percent of its annual revenue, from its Iran venture, the company reported." http://t.uani.com/L9XTDC AP: "OPEC oil ministers agreed Thursday to keep their production target steady, in a compromise meant to defuse rivalries between Iran and Saudi Arabia and to send a soothing message to economically troubled consuming nations. Oil prices have fallen more than 20 percent over the past two months, and a statement from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries citied 'downside risks facing the global economy' and ample stocks of crude as being responsible for the trend... Iran came to Vienna seeking lowered output to raise prices, while the Saudis were looking to increase production to make crude more affordable. On paper the decision to keep output targets steady was meant to find a compromise between the two positions. But OPEC members normally ignore the official quota -- the organization's daily output is now estimated at nearly 32 million barrels." http://t.uani.com/MNOyhx Reuters: "Venezuela is building unmanned drone aircraft as part of military cooperation with Iran and other allies, President Hugo Chavez said, in a move likely to heighten U.S. anxiety over his socialist government's role in the region. Referring to a Spanish media report that U.S. prosecutors are investigating drone production in Venezuela, Chavez said late on Wednesday: 'Of course we're doing it, and we have the right to. We are a free and independent country.' In a televised speech to military officers at Venezuela's Defense Ministry, Chavez said the aircraft only has a camera and was exclusively for defensive purposes. 'We don't have any plans to harm anyone,' he said." http://t.uani.com/La1rpf Nuclear Program     CSM: "Heading into Iran nuclear talks next week, Tehran's top demand is that Western powers acknowledge its right to uranium enrichment, reports the Tehran Times... A drumbeat of comments from Iranian officials in recent weeks - all insisting on Iran's 'inalienable right' to enrich uranium - seem to be trying to build a case for blaming Western powers if the talks in Moscow fail by making their opening position clear. Earlier this week Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said that Iran is 'very serious and prepared' for the negotiations. 'Grounds for the success of this meeting depend on the manner of cooperation and positive and constructive approach of the [P5+1],' he said, according to Fars News Agency. 'The more seriously they will be ready to enter the talks and recognize our inalienable rights, the more the grounds will be for the success of the talks.'" http://t.uani.com/MExEkD Sanctions AP: "Iran's oil minister on Thursday shrugged off the tightening international squeeze on his country's oil exports, declaring that Tehran was not feeling the pinch and warning that an energy-hungry world could not do without Iranian oil and natural gas. Rostam Ghazemi spoke to reporters as he and other OPEC ministers headed into a meeting marked by a spillover of strategic and political rivalries between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran, with the two countries at odds over how much oil the organization should produce... 'Our exports remain as before,' he declared, adding that the oil embargo will 'not have any negative impact on Iran.' Asserting that Iran has the most combined oil and gas reserves in the world, he suggested his country held the long-term upper hand, despite the embargoes and that the globe could not meet its energy needs without input from Tehran. 'Do you think the world can ignore this energy?' he said. Asked whether the Islamic Republic will be forced to sell its crude at deep discounts because of the sanctions he said, 'Never.'" http://t.uani.com/MbLHh9 Reuters: "Japan's lower house passed a bill on Friday to provide government guarantees on insurance for Iranian crude cargoes, a key step towards it becoming the first of Iran's big Asian oil buyers to get round new European Union sanctions. The bill will now be sent to the upper house, where opposition parties have the majority but have signaled their support. It will become law by around June 27 if passed before the current parliamentary session ends next Thursday, said a government official who requested anonymity. The Japanese government, which has succeeded in getting a waiver from U.S. financial sanctions, wants to provide coverage of up to $7.6 billion for each tanker carrying Iranian crude bound for Japan in the event of accidents." http://t.uani.com/NDkY39 Reuters: "South Korean refiner Hyundai Oilbank, a heavy user of Iranian crude, postponed its planned $2 billion initial public offering on Friday due to the euro zone crisis, and ahead of a pending suspension of Iran crude imports on western sanctions... Hyundai Oilbank is South Korea's biggest Iran oil buyer, sourcing around 20 percent of its total imports from Iran, higher than the country's 2011 average of 10 percent... The postponement comes as South Korean refiners plan to stop Iranian crude imports when an EU insurance embargo takes effect from July 1, according to sources." http://t.uani.com/LpRjac WSJ: "India's finance ministry has formally issued orders exempting local refiners from paying tax on rupee purchases of Iranian crude oil, an executive at Hindustan Petroleum Corp. and a senior oil ministry official said Friday. The move greatly reduces costs for refiners and enables them to circumvent U.S. sanctions, while simultaneously boosting Indian exports of wheat, rice and other commodities, as the two nations have already agreed on allowing import and export payments in rupees. Under existing rules, international rupee transactions by Indian companies are considered local deals and subject to high tax levels of up to 40%... State-run HPCL imported 67,000 barrels a day from Iran in the year ended March 31." http://t.uani.com/MNI8Pq Reuters: "South Africa is looking to source oil from Angola, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia to replace supplies from Iran, which is facing sanctions over its nuclear programme, a top energy official said on Friday. Africa's biggest economy used to import a quarter of its crude from Iran, but has come under Western pressure to cut the shipments as part of sanctions designed to halt Tehran's suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons. 'We intend looking at other countries, specifically in Africa, mainly Angola and Nigeria,' Nelisiwe Magubane, director general at the energy department told journalists. 'We also, of course, are going to continue to import from Saudi Arabia.' South Africa's crude oil imports from Iran fell 43 percent to 286,072 tonnes in April from the previous month, while supplies from Saudi Arabia nearly doubled to 671,419 tonnes. The remaining 258,184 tonnes came from Nigeria." http://t.uani.com/MvmCBL NJ Today: "An Assembly committee released a bi-partisan bill that would impose financial sanctions on Iran in an effort to stymie its nuclear capacity. The legislation (A-2146) would prohibit all state and local entities from doing business with individuals or companies that engage in certain investment activities in the energy, financial or construction sectors of Iran. The bill follows the direction of the July 2010 Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act signed into law by President Obama which expressly authorizes states and local governments to prevent investment in companies operating in Iran. Specifically, the bill would prohibit state and local contracting units, boards of education, and county colleges from contracting with individuals or entities engaged in certain investment activities in the energy, financial or construction sectors of Iran." http://t.uani.com/La20PZ Human Rights Guardian: "Five Iranian journalists who have fled their country after being persecuted for their work remain unprotected and at risk in Turkey, activists have warned.  Ehsanollah Mehrabi, Behrooz Samad Beigi, Hadi Nili, Hamid Ma'afi and Mehdi Tajik Ghashghaei were all journalists working for Iranian media organisations including reformist or opposition publications but had to leave Iran after being subjected to state persecution in the unrest in the aftermath of Iran's disputed presidential election in 2009." http://t.uani.com/K7EJKe Foreign Affairs NYT: "The foreign ministers of Britain and Iran conferred on the sidelines of a security conference in Afghanistan on Thursday, the highest-level contact between the two nations since relations were nearly severed after protesters in Tehran overran and pillaged the British Embassy and a diplomatic residence in November... Britain's Foreign Office said that Mr. Hague spoke to Mr. Salehi about the embassy assault and that both men expressed hope that their countries 'could move soon to confirm the appointment of formal protecting powers in each other's capitals' - a reference to the appointment of third countries to look after Iranian interests in Britain and vice versa." http://t.uani.com/KMKtss Opinion & Analysis UANI Advisory Board Member Graham Allison in IHT: "Fifty years ago, the Cuban missile crisis brought the world to the brink of nuclear disaster. During the standoff, President John F. Kennedy thought the chance of escalation to war was 'between 1 in 3 and even,' and what we have learned in later decades has done nothing to lengthen those odds. Such a conflict might have led to the deaths of 100 million Americans and over 100 million Russians... Today, it can help U.S. policy makers understand what to do - and what not to do - about a range of foreign policy dilemmas, particularly the standoff with Iran over its nuclear program. The current confrontation between the United States and Iran is like a Cuban missile crisis in slow motion. Events are moving, seemingly inexorably, toward a showdown in which the U.S. president will be forced to choose between ordering a military attack and acquiescing to a nuclear-armed Iran. Those were, in essence, the two options Kennedy's advisers gave him on the final Saturday: attack or accept Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. But Kennedy rejected both. Instead of choosing between them, he crafted an imaginative alternative with three components: a public deal in which the United States pledged not to invade Cuba if the Soviet Union withdrew its missiles; a private ultimatum threatening to attack Cuba within 24 hours unless Khrushchev accepted that offer; and a secret sweetener that promised the withdrawal of U.S. missiles from Turkey within six months after the crisis was resolved. Looking at the choice between acquiescence and air strikes today, both are unacceptable. An Iranian bomb could trigger a cascade of proliferation, making more likely a devastating conflict in one of the world's most economically and strategically critical regions. A preventive air strike could delay Iran's nuclear progress at identified sites but could not erase the knowledge and skills ingrained in many Iranian heads. The truth is that any outcome that stops short of Iran having a nuclear bomb will still leave it with the ability to acquire one down the road. The best hope for a Kennedyesque third option today is a combination of agreed-on constraints on Iran's nuclear activities that would lengthen the fuse on the development of a bomb; transparency measures that would maximize the likelihood of discovering any cheating; unambiguous (perhaps secretly communicated) threats of a regime-changing attack should the agreement be violated; and a pledge not to attack otherwise. Such a combination would keep Iran as far away from a bomb as possible for as long as possible... It has been said that history does not repeat itself, but it does sometimes rhyme. Five decades later, the Cuban missile crisis stands not just as a pivotal moment in the history of the Cold War but also as a guide for how to make sound decisions about foreign policy." http://t.uani.com/NDlXQX William Broad in NYT: "THE rising hostilities against Iran and its atomic complex - assassinations and cyberattacks, trade bans and oil embargoes, frozen assets and banking prohibitions, among other acts open and covert - have clearly done much to bring Tehran back to negotiations, which are to resume Monday. But the drama has also tended to overshadow a central fact: the Iranians have managed to steadily increase their enrichment of uranium and are now raising their production of a concentrated form close to bomb grade... Abruptly, Iran upped the ante in early 2010 by announcing that it would start re-enriching some of the processed uranium to raise its purity from about 5 percent to 20 percent. Iran said it wanted the concentrated material to make fuel for a research reactor in Tehran. The White House scoffed. 'We do not believe they have the capability,' Robert Gibbs, the press secretary, told reporters. Iran not only succeeded, but also announced in 2011 that it would triple the amount of uranium enriched to 20 percent and slowly move the operation to a second enrichment plant known as Fordo. The once-secret bunker, deep inside a mountain near the holy city of Qum, is considered largely invulnerable to bombing. Ray Takeyh, an Iran specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations, said a crisis never erupted because the Iranians made their moves so gradually. The international community, he noted, 'gets acclimated.' Today, the immediate goal of negotiators (from China, France, Germany, Russia, Britain and the United States) is to get Iran to halt its 20 percent production - a far cry from the original demand for zero enrichment. Iranians boast that their intransigence has given their atomic manufacturing a sense of inexorability and legitimacy. As if tensions weren't high enough, nuclear experts say that Tehran might choose to raise the stakes yet again by re-enriching some of its growing supply of 20 percent uranium to even higher levels of purity. On June 4, the Institute for Science and International Security, a group in Washington that closely follows the Iranian program, warned in a new report that Iran's cryptic actions at its Fordo plant suggested possible plans to make uranium that is highly enriched - that is, purified above 20 percent. If so, the West might cringe. But Iran's justification could be the same as that of Belgium, France and the Netherlands. The countries, all signers of the nonproliferation treaty and subject to regular atomic inspections, use highly enriched uranium to make the radioactive isotope molybdenum-99, which is widely used in medicine for diagnostic scans and cancer treatments. A peaceable ending is still possible, said Daniel H. Joyner, author of 'Interpreting the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.' He suggested that Iran could keep its atomic complex but export the enriched uranium to foreigners who would ensure that added processing would result exclusively in peaceful uses." http://t.uani.com/LZyGsK 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.