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Top Stories
NOW Lebanon:
"The past 16 months have been a real nail-biter for Lebanon's
banking sector. Since the US Treasury accused the Lebanese Canadian Bank
(LCB) of laundering drug money for Hezbollah last February, local banks'
images have taken a beating in the international press, and Beirut's ties
to sanctioned regimes in Damascus and Tehran have been increasingly
questioned. Most recently, a US-based group called United Against Nuclear
Iran (UANI) publically launched a campaign (which has been going on
behind the scenes for months) to get Lebanon's economy blacklisted. It is
lobbying non-Lebanese institutions to sell and permanently stop buying
Beirut's debt, credit ratings agencies to stop putting a stamp of
approval on Lebanese state bonds, and the US government to designate the
entire country a money laundering concern, cutting it off from the US
financial system and essentially destroying the banking sector and the
economy at large. The group alleges that Lebanese banks, in cahoots with
the Central Bank, are helping prop up a 'false economy' which is no more
than a 'money laundering enterprise' designed to aid Iran - and to a
lesser extent, Syria - in avoiding sanctions. UANI's argument against
local banking concerns centers on Lebanon's debt. According to the
Ministry of Finance, at the end of 2011, Lebanon's gross public debt was
$46.36 billion - or 137 percent of GDP." http://t.uani.com/MilBw2
Daily Star:
"Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh defended Lebanon's banking
sector Monday, dismissing reports of money smuggling from Syria to
Lebanese banks. The Central Bank chief added that Syrian deposits in
Lebanese banks have recently decreased. 'What is being said about
smuggling of money from Syria to Lebanese banks is false,' Salameh told
the Beirut based Al-Mayadeen satellite television channel. He added that
ratings of Lebanon's banking sector were among the best in the Arab
region... Last week, an anti-Iranian U.S. activist group accused the
Central Bank in Beirut and the Lebanese banking system of allowing
illicit financial acts in the country's strongest services sector. 'As a
result of the actions and omissions of [Lebanon's Central Bank] and the
[Lebanese banking system], Lebanon has become a sovereign money
laundering jurisdiction that receives massive inflows of illicit deposits
... from Hezbollah's terror and criminal activities, and the illicit
symbiotic relationships among Iran, Syria and Hezbollah,' said a press
release issued by the New York-based group United against Nuclear
Iran." http://t.uani.com/NlyL9h
Reuters:
"Tough Western sanctions are forcing Iran to take drastic action and
shut off wells at its vast oilfields, reducing production to levels last
seen more than two decades ago and costing Tehran billions in lost
revenues. Iran struggled to sell its oil in the run-up to the European
Union ban on July 1, yet it managed to sustain oilfield flows at lofty
rates above 3 million barrels per day (bpd) by stashing unwanted barrels
in tanks on land and on ships in the Gulf. But oil sales have now slumped
to half the rate of last year and storage is running out. As a last
resort, Tehran is carrying out 'enforced' maintenance at its ageing
reservoirs, say Iranian and Western oil sources, dropping output below 3
million bpd. It's a step that could make Tehran look as if it is caving
in to the West and, in any case, leaves it trailing former rival Iraq in
the ranks of the world's top oil producers. And if a big volume of oil is
closed down, it will be difficult to bring it back online when it's
needed, say Western oil experts." http://t.uani.com/M0jb6V
Nuclear
Program
Reuters: "Senior
diplomats from the European Union and Iran will meet on July 24 for
technical talks on Tehran's disputed nuclear programme to try to salvage
diplomatic efforts to resolve the decade-long standoff, EU officials said
on Monday. The meeting in Istanbul will be the second in a series of
discussions to clarify technical aspects of Tehran's activity. It follows
an agreement by Iran and six world powers in June to use such talks to
decide whether diplomacy tackling broader political issues should continue
in the face of vast differences in views over the nature of Iran's
nuclear ambitions." http://t.uani.com/PGWJBX
Bloomberg:
"Iran is producing new laser-guided anti-tank missiles modeled on
Russia's Kornet, the rocket used by Hezbollah in the 2006 war with
Israel, according to defense analysts in London and Moscow. The Iranians
may have copied the design after obtaining it from non-state sources such
as Hezbollah, said Igor Korotchenko, director of the Center for Analysis
of World Arms Trade in Moscow, who's also the head of an advisory council
for the Russian Defense Ministry. Syria and the Hamas Islamic movement
are also among possible sources for providing the technology, according
to Neil Gibson, a defense analyst from IHS Jane's. Iranian Defense Minister
Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi on July 7 inaugurated production of the
Dehlaviyeh anti-armor missile system designed to hit mobile and ground
targets, the state-run Fars news agency reported. The Kornet has a range
of as far as 5.5 kilometers (3.3 miles), according to its manufacturer,
the KBP Instrument Design Bureau." http://t.uani.com/L64T0A
Bloomberg:
"Several Iranian lawmakers plan to propose a bill to impose tariffs
on ships sailing through the Strait of Hormuz, Shargh reported, citing
Alireza Khosravi, a member of the nation's parliament. Ships of certain
countries transit the waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf 'under
pretexts such as security,' Khosravi said. Nations whose oil tankers and
other vessels exit or enter the Gulf must compensate for the
environmental damage they cause there, he said, according to the
Tehran-based newspaper. Khosravi didn't identify specific countries or
provide details of the draft bill, Shargh reported today. Another
parliamentarian, Mehdi Mousavinejad, said lawmakers may ask the
legislative body to consider a proposal to restrict ship traffic in
Hormuz, according to the state-run Fars news agency." http://t.uani.com/OtU0XM
Times of Israel:
"A position paper obtained by The Times of Israel, understood to
have been used by Iran's negotiators at last week's technical-level talks
with the P5+1 powers in Istanbul, makes plain the Tehran regime's
unyielding rejection of international efforts to negotiate safeguards and
restrictions that would prevent Iran attaining a nuclear weapons
capability. Far from indicating Iranian readiness for a suspension or
scaling back of its nuclear program, indeed, the document, made available
by an informed source on condition of anonymity, includes references to
Iran's expansion plans. 'Facing constant threats, we need a back up
facility to safeguard our enrichment activities,' it states at one point,
when discussing the Fordow enrichment facility, the underground complex
built beneath a mountain near Qom where Iran carries out its 20% uranium
enrichment. A later point, related to the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR),
refers to the need 'for at least 4 other research reactors because of the
territorial extent of Iran and the short lifetime of medical isotopes.'
The next clause in the document declares an Iranian ambition 'to sell
fuel complexes to other countries.' The position paper, dated July 3,
first sets out Iran's objectives in the diplomatic process - which
include obtaining international recognition of what it claims are its
rights to enrichment activities, and securing 'total termination' of all
sanctions against it." http://t.uani.com/MVGgJH
Sanctions
WashPost:
"As Iran struggles with a plummeting exchange rate and soaring
prices, the currency bazaar in Tehran's old city center has become the
focus of a debate about how to solve the country's financial woes.
Iranian authorities never took much notice of the traders at the bazaar -
which feels like something between a stock exchange floor and an
off-track betting center - until the difference between the central
bank's official rate for dollars and the street rate began to widen,
lowering confidence in the rial and greatly increasing the amount of
currency being traded on the unofficial market... Foreign currency
speculation has become wildly popular here, as dollars are one of the few
investments besides gold and real estate that Iranians deem stable. On
Saturday, the price for one U.S. dollar at the Tehran currency bazaar was
19,600 rials. And because such large amounts of currency are traded at
the bazaar, it has become the unofficial, but widely accepted, source of
foreign currency rates in Iran. The falling value of the rial has an
immediate impact on prices across the country, as retailers set their
prices based on the replacement costs of goods, which they know will be
much higher as those goods are bought with foreign currency." http://t.uani.com/LLTVyG
AFP:
"Iran has come up with several methods to foil the European
insurance embargo on ships loaded with its crude, a sanction which may
harm its vital exports as much as the EU oil embargo itself... Japan
passed a law allowing the state to act as a substitute for European
insurance firms in reinsuring tankers which are loaded with Iranian
crude, up to $7.6 billion. But other major customers have not followed
suit, forcing Tehran to devise its own alternatives. China and India, two
major buyers, have accepted an Iranian offer to transport the crude with
its own fleet under all-Iranian insurance. South Korea, which suspended
imports on July 1, has not ruled out joining the offer. But this solution
faces several obstacles, apart from transportation price disputes which
have broken out with China, according to diplomatic sources. National
Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), with 40 tankers of 100,000 to 300,000
tons, does not have the long-distance capacity for more than 2 million
barrels (300,000 tons) a day in exports by pre-sanctions Iran, a European
expert said." http://t.uani.com/L677wQ
Reuters:
"A prominent U.S. lawmaker has asked the small South Pacific island
nation Tuvalu to stop reflagging Iranian oil tankers and warned its
government of the risks of running afoul of U.S. sanctions... Reflagging
ships masks their ownership, which could make it easier for Iran to
obtain insurance and financing for the cargoes, as well as find buyers
for the shipments without attracting attention from the United States and
European Union. The National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) changed the
names and flags of many of its oil tankers ahead of the EU ban, part of
sweeping economic measures aimed at pressuring Tehran to end its nuclear
program. As many as 22 ships owned by the National Iranian Tanker Company
have been registered in Tuvalu, said Howard Berman, the top Democrat on
the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee." http://t.uani.com/NGnvWY
WSJ:
"United India Insurance Co. has agreed to provide protection and
indemnity cover to Indian tankers carrying oil from Iran with General
Insurance Corp. offering reinsurance, two people with knowledge of the
matter said Tuesday. The offer bring some relief to Indian shipping
companies that aren't getting covers from European insurers since July 1
for carrying shipments from Iran, which is facing sanctions from the U.S.
and European Union for its decision to continue with an alleged nuclear
weapons program. 'We (shipowners) had asked for and have been offered a
P&I cover of $50 million,' a senior executive at state-run Shipping
Corp. of India Ltd. said. While United India Insurance executives weren't
available to comment, an executive from General Insurance Corp. said
there will be a $50 million P&I cover and a separate amount for hull
and machinery. 'The cover is for all Indian shipowners,' the executive
said." http://t.uani.com/Ngjo5J
FT:
"That is the question beyondbrics found itself asking after it had a
look at Turkey's latest trade figures. According to data released by the
Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), Turkey's trade with Iran in May
rose a whopping 513.2 per cent to hit $1.7bn. Of this, gold exports to
its eastern neighbour accounted for the bulk of the increase. Nearly
$1.4bn worth of gold was exported to Iran, accounting for 84 per cent of
Turkey's trade with the country. So what's going on? In a nutshell -
sanctions and oil. In recent months, western powers, notably the US and
the European Union, have tightened financial sanctions on the Islamic
regime in an attempt to force Iran to scale back or halt its efforts to
enrich uranium. In March, Iran was cut off from from Swift, the global
payments network, effectively blocking the country from performing any
international financial transactions." http://t.uani.com/NmPr3y
FT:
"What does an oil refinery do when it loses its supply of Iranian
crude? A contract for Saudi Arabian oil is probably the best replacement,
over the medium term. But in a rush, little beats a few barrels of Urals,
the Russian main export oil stream. The scramble for Urals - a low
quality, high sulphur crude produced in central Russia - shows the impact
in the physical oil market of European and US sanctions on Iran. It helps
to explain, too, the recent recovery in oil prices back to about $100 a
barrel despite weakening global economic growth. Since the sanctions
against Iran came into force on July 1, refiners that waited until the
last minute to cut all their links with Iran, including Eni of Italy and
Tupras of Turkey, have rushed into the Urals market, triggering a price
jump." http://t.uani.com/MinR6o
Fox News:
"A House committee announced Monday that it will probe the shipment
of computers and other sophisticated equipment to North Korea and Iran
via an obscure United Nations agency, after FoxNews.com first reported
that the State Department was investigating. Rep. Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., announced that the House Foreign Affairs Committee,
which she chairs, will move forward with its own investigation. 'The
revelation that a U.N. agency has been supplying the brutal regimes in
Iran and North Korea with sensitive technology is deeply disturbing, and
must be thoroughly investigated,' she said in a statement. 'Providing
these thugs with sensitive technology has the potential to enable their
dangerous agendas. This serious offense cannot go overlooked or
unpunished.'" http://t.uani.com/LERIKe
MTN:
"The department of international relations is investigating
allegations that the former ambassador to Iran, Yusuf Salojee, accepted
payments from MTN, the department confirmed in a statement. The
statement, by Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, in reply to a
parliamentary question released on Tuesday, adds a new twist to the
controversy over MTN's operations in Iran. The South African company
stands accused of paying bribes to secure a mobile phone operating
licence in Iran but has denied any wrongdoing. MTN was alleged to
have made a payment of $200000 (R1,6m) towards the purchase of a house
for Mr Salojee in South Africa." http://t.uani.com/M0oZgM
JPost:
"Israel must lead the way in the economic battle against Iran,
Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Ronnie Bar-On
(Kadima) said on Tuesday. The committee authorized for its second and
third (final) Knesset votes a bill sanctioning any corporation that does
business with or in Iran. In addition, any business indirectly helping
Tehran by dealing with foreign companies that work with or in Iran will
face limitations. Any business found to be helping Iran will not have
economic rights in Israel, including putting in bids, receiving permits
and licenses, as well as receiving economic aid from the government.
According to the bill, a staff dedicated to sanctions in the Finance
Ministry will determine who is aiding Iran." http://t.uani.com/Mf4NVd
Terrorism
Fox News:
"The prospect of Iran using its embassy in Canada to mobilize
Islamic Republic loyalists to attack the U.S. is raising alarm among
terrorism experts after an official there issued a call to arms for
expatriates to infiltrate the Canadian government and be ready to advance
the interests of their homeland. Details of the Iranian recruitment
program came to light in a chilling interview Hamid Mohammadi, the
Iranian cultural affairs counselor at the embassy in Ottawa, gave in
Farsi to an Iran-based website directed exclusively at Iranians living in
Canada. In addition to raising alarms in Canada, Mohammadi's message got
the attention of U.S. terror watchdogs, who noted that radicalized
Iranians would be just an easy border crossing from the American
heartland, since Canadian citizens do not need a visa and typically face
just a few questions from U.S. border officials." http://t.uani.com/MVDjJi
Foreign Affairs
NYT:
"Kofi Annan, the envoy of the United Nations and the Arab League on
Syria, met with senior Iranian officials on Tuesday to seek their
cooperation in trying to rescue his foundering peace plan. The trip
highlighted a growing difference in international approaches to the
Syrian crisis, with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday
saying that President Bashar al-Assad's 'days are numbered,' as Mr. Annan
reached out to Mr. Assad and his regional partner Iran to try to find a
compromise." http://t.uani.com/NmQh0h
Opinion &
Analysis
Michael Rubin in
Fox News: "On July 1, following the lead set days
earlier by the United States, the European Union slapped sanctions on purchasers
of Iranian oil. While Iran's leaders acknowledged the new sanctions have
bite, they scoff at the idea they will be effective. 'The enemy
assumption that they can weaken Iran is, of course, wrong and a result of
their merely materialistic calculations,' Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad declared on July 3. The Obama administration, however, argues
that their strategy of gradually increasing sanctions is working. 'We
believe that the economic sanctions are bringing Iran to the table,'
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared, the day after the United
States tightened its unilateral sanctions. Both are wrong. Despite
Ahmadinejad's bluster, sanctions can work against Iran. Nevertheless,
Obama's team has yet to contemplate the level of sanctions necessary to
force Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions. Twice since the
establishment of the Islamic Republic, revolutionary authorities have
staked out extreme positions only to reverse course. On November 4, 1979,
Iranian students believing that a November 1 handshake between their
prime minister and President Carter's national security advisor presaged
a betrayal of their revolution, stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Their
initial aim was to hold the embassy staff for just 48 hours. However,
after Gary Sick, a Carter national security aide, leaked that Carter had
taken military action off-the-table in favor of a diplomatic resolution,
the students augmented their demands and transformed a fleeting protest
into a prolonged crisis which would last 444 days. Iranian authorities
released the hostages on the first day of Ronald Reagan's presidency. In
the weeks and months that followed, Carter administration officials gave
interviews and penned articles and books claiming that the key to the
hostages' release was the persistence of diplomacy. Carter's team never
gave up: They tried everyone from radical former Attorney-General Ramsey
Clark and Palestine Liberation Organization terrorists to German bankers
and UN diplomats as mediators. In the end, it was the Algerian government
whose mediation succeeded. The late Peter Rodman, a former Henry
Kissinger aide, saw things differently. In an important 1981 article, he
argued that the persistence of diplomacy had little to do with the
hostages' release. Instead, Rodman suggested that what changed Ayatollah
Khomeini's calculus was Iraq's invasion of Iran. The war challenged the
Islamic Republic's very existence. The cost of continuing Iran's
isolation by holding American hostages had grown too great to bear. The
second time Iranian authorities reversed course and dropped long-standing
demands involved Khomeini's war aims. The Iraqi invasion had caught
Khomeini-and just about everyone else-by surprise. It took about two
years for the Iranian army to push back the Iraqi invaders out of Iranian
territory... It is time to face down the Iranian leadership to convey
that they cannot imagine the pain the United States and its allies are
capable of inflicting. The Iranian leadership may respond with bluster
but, if policymakers are serious both about avoiding a prolonged military
conflict with Iran and denying the Islamic Republic a nuclear weapons
capability, then the United States will have no choice but to call Iran's
bluff. When Khomeini challenged American resolve in 1988, Reagan ordered
Iran's navy destroyed. It is time to signal to Tehran the true costs of
its actions. If history is any guide, the ayatollahs will blink
first." http://t.uani.com/Mf37ep
Meghan O'Sullivan
in Boston Herald: "The latest Iran sanctions came into
full effect last week, adding to a byzantine array of unilateral and
multilateral measures that prohibit Iranian oil imports, other trade and
financial transactions, and freeze Iranian assets by countries concerned
that Tehran's nuclear program is intended for military purposes, not
civilian ones. The international community is now on watch for cracks in
Iran's defiant stance: Will increased sanctions compel Tehran to make
real concessions and allow for a diplomatic solution to the standoff?
This characterization is too simplistic, however, and the record suggests
there may be some reasons to be optimistic that current sanctions on Iran
will deliver. Sanctions generally get a bad rap, with many declaring that
they don't work. First, sanctions against Iran are today just one tool in
a larger strategy. In other cases - in South Africa, Serbia and Libya,
for example - where sanctions have worked, they were not stand-alone
instruments. In past decades, sanctions against Iran have constituted the
entirety of the U.S.-led strategy against Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Today, in contrast, the U.S. approach involves not only sanctions but
also diplomatic talks, and at least some threat of military force.
Perhaps more important, sanctions against Iran have already had a real
economic impact. Some reports assess that Iranian oil imports have
dropped by as much as 1 million barrels a day since the end of 2011. This
puts pressure on Iran's budget, nearly 70 percent of which is funded by
oil revenue. Moreover, the value of the Iranian rial has dropped
dramatically since September on account of Iran's growing isolation from
the international banking system and the need to resort to barter
arrangements. As a result, inflation is on the rise. But the real test of
sanctions is not whether they are part of a nicely crafted strategy, or
whether they create economic hardship, but whether they induce a change
in the behavior of Tehran's leaders." http://t.uani.com/M0qJa2
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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.
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