Eye on Iran: Lebanon Concerned by Hezbollah Money-Laundering

For continuing coverage follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group.    Top Stories JPost: "Banking officials and residents in Beirut are concerned about a US pressure group's report that Hezbollah and Iran are using Lebanon's banks in a large money-laundering scheme, a leading Lebanese daily reported on Thursday. New York-based United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI) made public last month the results of a three-month, confidential investigation into the influence of Iran and Hezbollah on Lebanon's banking system and sovereign bond market. The group says Lebanon's financial system - including Banque du Liban, the country's central bank - is being used to funnel massive amounts of illicit cash for Hezbollah and its state sponsor, Iran... Lebanese concerns about the report come after several groups - Austria's Erste Sparinvest, Eaton Vance Investment Managers, Nord Est Asset Management, Ameriprise and Aktia Fund Management - divested from Lebanese sovereign debt securities...In response, UANI spokesman Nathan Carleton said that Lebanese banking officials should be concerned about the campaign, noting that several bondholders had divested from Lebanese sovereign debt. 'Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salame has said absolutely nothing in response to UANI, and his silence has been deafening,' Carleton added. 'He has notably been unable to answer even basic questions about Iran's role in Lebanon's banking system, including whether he agrees with Hezbollah's leadership that its funding comes entirely from Iran.'" http://t.uani.com/OPq35F Reuters: "Asia's major crude buyers are finding ways around tough U.S. and EU sanctions to maintain imports from Iran, suggesting that, for now, the worst may be over for the OPEC producer that is losing more than $100 million a day in oil export revenues. China, India, Japan and South Korea buy most of the one million barrels per day of crude Iran is able to export despite financial, shipping and insurance sanctions aimed at curbing funds for its controversial nuclear program. After a lull in imports in the middle of the year caused by Asian refineries reducing purchases as sanctions kicked in, analysts expect shipments to rise in August and September. But on average, imports are likely to remain steady until the end of the year, unless the United States and the European Union come up with fresh sanctions to curb Iran's earnings. 'The drop in Iranian oil exports has leveled out over the past couple months at roughly 1 million barrels per day below 2011 levels,' said Trevor Houser, a partner at the New York-based Rhodium Group and a former State Department adviser... At current prices, Iran is losing some $110 million a day in export earnings compared with the start of the year." http://t.uani.com/Qlekef Bloomberg: "Iraq's crude output rose above 3 million barrels a day last month for the first time since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, according to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Iraq pumped 3.08 million barrels a day in July, 115,000 barrels more than the previous month, OPEC's Vienna-based secretariat said today in its Monthly Oil Market Report. The Persian Gulf state for a second month outpaced Iran, where output dropped by 173,000 barrels to 2.82 million. Iraq last produced more than 3 million barrels in February 2002, OPEC said after revising its April estimate... Iraq's output last exceeded Iran's in 1988, when the countries ended their eight-year war, statistics compiled by BP show." http://t.uani.com/MYs0fy     Nuclear Program   Reuters: "The United States still believes that Iran is not on the verge of having a nuclear weapon and that Tehran has not made a decision to pursue one, U.S. officials said on Thursday. Their comments came after Israeli media reports claimed U.S. President Barack Obama had received a new National Intelligence Estimate saying Iran had made significant and surprising progress toward military nuclear capability. Later, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak suggested that the new U.S. report, which he acknowledged might be something other than a National Intelligence Estimate, 'transforms the Iranian situation into an even more urgent one.' But a White House National Security Council spokesman disputed the Israeli reports, saying the U.S. intelligence assessment of Iran's nuclear activities had not changed since intelligence officials delivered testimony to Congress on the issue earlier this year." http://t.uani.com/P4O4aX Bloomberg: "An Iranian semiofficial news agency is quoting the country's acting navy commander as saying that Tehran has no immediate plans to build nuclear naval reactors. The Thursday report by ISNA says rear Adm. Gohlamreza Khadem Bigham told the country's Arabic language Al-Alam TV late Wednesday that while Iran possesses technology and capabilities to produce highly-enriched nuclear fuel for naval reactors, plans to produce either have not been on the 'agenda' of the country or its navy." http://t.uani.com/MmyojY Guardian: "A new cyber surveillance virus has been found in the Middle East that can spy on banking transactions and steal login and passwords, according Kaspersky Lab, a leading computer security firm. Dubbed Gauss, the virus may also be capable of attacking critical infrastructure and was very likely built in the same laboratories as Stuxnet, the computer worm widely believed to have been used by the US and Israel to attack Iran's nuclear programme, Kaspersky Lab said on Thursday. The Moscow-based firm said it found Gauss had infected more than 2,500 personal computers, the bulk of them in Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories. Targets included Lebanon's BlomBank, ByblosBank and Credit Libanais, as well as Citibank and eBay's PayPal online payment system." http://t.uani.com/Ne54xr Times of Israel: "Hezbollah MP Walid Sakariya told Lebanese television this week that the nuclear weapon Iran is allegedly developing is intended to annihilate Israel. In a segment recorded and translated by MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute), Sakariya, also a retired general, told his interviewer on Hezbollah's al-Manar TV Tuesday that should Iran acquire a nuclear weapon it would serve Syrian as well as Iranian interests, namely the eradication of the Jewish state. 'This nuclear weapon is intended to create a balance of terror with Israel, to finish off the Zionist enterprise, and to end all Israeli aggression against the Arab nation,' Sakariya said." http://t.uani.com/OPwEwN Sanctions Reuters: "Indian state-run refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp plans to lift up to three Suezmax crude cargoes or about 99,300 barrels per day (bpd) oil from Iran this month, its executive director B. K. Namdeo said on Thursday. India, which has secured a waiver from U.S. sanctions against Iran's disputed nuclear programme after cutting purchases, aims to lift at least 15 percent less of its oil in the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2013." http://t.uani.com/OPscy0 Bloomberg: "New York's financial-services regulator has grounds to shut Standard Chartered Plc in the state even if he accepts the firm's argument that it illegally laundered only a fraction of the $250 billion he claims. As the state's top banking regulator, Benjamin Lawsky has power to act in his discretion against any financial institution he deems untrustworthy, according to the charter of his year-old department. Penalties he could impose include fines and the revocation of the bank's license to operate in the state. Lawsky is said to be considering a settlement figure as high as $700 million, according to person familiar with the case. That would match the amount HSBC Holdings Plc set aside last month to resolve allegations of similar behavior." http://t.uani.com/Nnx0v0 Reuters: "A New York state case against Standard Chartered Plc is more about whether the British bank carried out an old-fashioned cover-up using allegedly false records and less about the role the bank played in the alleged money-laundering of funds tied to Iran, according to people familiar with the situation and court documents. The New York Department of Financial Services on Monday ordered the bank to send representatives to a meeting next Wednesday to explain why its alleged breaches of records laws should not mean the loss of its state banking license. A source close to the case said on Thursday it was possible the meeting will be postponed to allow time for discussions about the case between regulators - both state and federal - and the bank." http://t.uani.com/S7cjUn Syrian Civil War AFP: "The United States on Thursday accused Iran of playing a "nefarious" role in the Syria conflict, one that strengthens the case for President Bashar al-Assad to be forced out of office. Susan Rice, US ambassador to the United Nations said the alliance of Iran, Lebanese Hezbollah and Assad's government -- a group that boasts of being the Middle East's "an axis of resistance" -- was 'bad for the region.' Rice was speaking to NBC television shortly after Assad met a top Iranian envoy in his war-torn capital this week and as Tehran hosted a conference on the conflict designed to shore up the beleaguered Syrian regime." http://t.uani.com/MGBwbP Bloomberg: "It took just minutes for Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah chief to appear on TV to silence protests after Syrian rebels grabbed 11 Lebanese Shiites in May. Tehran's leadership also went into rapid-reaction mode when gunmen seized 48 Iranians last week, but with a very different objective: to make the abduction an international affair. The contrasting approaches highlight how Syria's civil war is impacting the political calculations of Bashar Assad's main Middle East backers - and hint at possible separate endgame strategies by Tehran and its proxy Hezbollah if the Syrian regime heads into free fall." http://t.uani.com/NQuLOz Foreign Affairs Reuters: "A U.S. guided-missile destroyer rescued 10 Iranian seamen from a burning dhow in the Gulf of Oman and was providing them with medical care while working to coordinate their return home, the U.S. Navy said on Thursday. Crew members from the USS James E. Williams rescued the mariners on Wednesday after they were forced to abandon their burning vessel. The dhow was flying an Iranian flag and all the crew members said they were Iranian, the Navy said." http://t.uani.com/QleEK2 WSJ: "Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to visit Iran at the end of this month to attend a Non-Aligned Movement summit, a government official said Friday, spurring hopes of improving trade ties between the two countries. Although India has moved to reduce purchases of crude oil from Iran in recent months following western sanctions, Iran still remains a major supplier to India. Shipments have become increasingly difficult, however, with few companies willing to provide insurance cover for transport of the crude, including Indian-owned companies." http://t.uani.com/QMpddg Opinion & Analysis Hope Hodge in Human Events: "During his speech at the VFW convention in Reno, Nev., earlier this month, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney let fly some of his harshest rhetoric toward the Iranian regime and the Obama administration's handling of its nuclear threat. Saying the years since 2008 had only brought that threat closer, he called for a suspension of all uranium enrichment activities in Iran. 'I will use any means necessary to protect ourselves and the region and to prevent the worst from happening while there's still time,' he said. 'The surest path to danger is always weakness and indecision. In the end, it's always resolve that moves events in our direction.' Last week, a new package of economic sanctions on the hostile nation received final approval from Congress, augmented by an executive order from President Barack Obama expanding their scope. While lawmakers say they're hopeful that the bipartisan bill will further hobble the Iranian economy, others worry the sanctions won't go far enough, and fear spotty enforcement may undermine America's threat posture... A spokesman for the organization United Against Nuclear Iran, Nathan Carleton, told Human Events he was glad to see the bill passed, but disappointed that more financial loopholes, such as transactions through the international banking network SWIFT, were not definitively closed. 'The bill doesn't impose an economic blockade of the regime, and now is a perfect time for that,' Carleton said. '(The sanctions are) not enough. They won't force the regime's hand, because they still leave loopholes the regime can exploit.'" http://t.uani.com/P4Nqdy Yossi Melman & Dan Raviv in The Guardian: "Binyamin Netanyahu, usually an exemplar of self-restraint, lost his temper last week. In a closed-door meeting discussing the military and intelligence chiefs who oppose an air strike against Iran, the Israeli prime minister snapped, 'I'm responsible, and if there's a commission of inquiry later it's on me,' according to well-orchestrated leaks by his aides. Netanyahu seems to feel a historic - almost messianic - calling to stop Iran's nuclear programme. Even if retaliation by Iran and its allies in Hamas and Hezbollah takes the form of a lethal rain of rockets on Israel, he is adamant that a nuclear-armed Iran would be far worse. His latest set of outgoing signals seemed to suggest that an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities may be likely before America's presidential election in November. It is unclear if that is a coincidence, because of assessments that Iranian progress in uranium enrichment and bomb design will have reached a highly dangerous point by then; or maybe it is based on Netanyahu's calculation that President Barack Obama will be more supportive of Israel prior to election day - and perhaps not at all after he wins or loses on 6 November. Some of Israel's security chiefs, who do not hide their opposition to bombing Iran, say privately that they cannot discern if their PM is bluffing. Netanyahu may be creating the impression that an attack is imminent so as to goad the US into a firm promise to obliterate Iran's nuclear plants. He is certainly sincere in his concern about Iran's radical Islamists, who time and again call for the liquidation of the Jewish state. In this sense Netanyahu walks in the footsteps of Menachem Begin, prime minister from 1977 to 1983, who had a doctrine named after him: the absolute Israeli determination that no other nation in the Middle East will have nuclear weapons. The Begin doctrine was successfully implemented twice: by Begin himself in June 1981, when Israel's air force destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor; and in September 2007, when PM Ehud Olmert sent Israeli warplanes to flatten a Syrian nuclear reactor. Olmert's decision was even bolder than Begin's: President George Bush had refused to order an American air raid, but Israel went ahead anyway. And, unlike Iraq, Syria is an immediate neighbour and had thousands of missiles that could hit every conceivable installation in Israel. Netanyahu may well be encouraged by the world's reaction. In 1981, even the pro-Israel president Ronald Reagan denounced the bombing of the Baghdad reactor; but a decade later, during Desert Storm, the US was thanking Israel for having ensured Saddam had no nuclear arms. In 2007 the initial reaction was less harsh, because the air raid on Syria was never acknowledged by the attackers in Jerusalem. But Israeli leaders justifiably feel that the international community might now be grateful to them again. There is concern in the US and Israel that Syria's chemical weapons might fall into the hands of al-Qaida or Hezbollah. Just imagine if the danger now involved what proliferation experts call 'loose nukes' ... Iran is not Iraq or Syria. The Iranians have drawn lessons from those two events. They dispersed their nuclear facilities and buried them underground, making them more difficult to reach and destroy. Success is thus less assured. Instead of a quick, surgical strike, Israel will likely find itself in a long war of attrition against Iran and Shia Muslims everywhere. In the name of national pride and defending its Islamic revolution, Iran was willing to lose millions of people in a long war against Iraq through the 80s. Above all, perhaps, Israeli leaders must consider that striking Iran could drag the US into a war against its wishes." http://t.uani.com/RwOKqF Tony Badran in NOW Lebanon: "In a steady stream of leaks and public statements in recent days, a number of US officials have offered a window into the Obama administration's current thinking on Syria. Specifically, the administration has sought to highlight its top priorities in post-Assad Syria. Regrettably, its views reveal that the incoherence that has marred Washington's approach is now leading to strategically self-defeating policy. The US interest in Syria was always straightforward: breaking the Iranian alliance system through regime change in Damascus. Instead of relentlessly pursuing this strategic objective, the administration's policy in Syria appears to be geared toward as much regime continuity as possible. As one unnamed American official put it, 'You can't have a complete dissolution of that [system].' The Obama administration is aiming for this outcome by pushing the preservation of Syrian so-called 'state institutions.' 'We have to make very sure that state institutions stay intact,' Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stressed earlier this week... Generic terms such as 'state institutions' obscure the real nature of Syria under the Assad dynasty. If the Syrian revolution has done one thing, however, it has unmasked all of the regime's pretenses, laying bare the country's sectarian realities. These realities have been manifest precisely in the Syrian military. Defections have been overwhelmingly along sectarian lines, while the regime has largely relied on predominantly Alawite divisions, whose loyalty is not in question. Accordingly, the Syrian army cannot possibly remain 'intact,' as the Obama administration desires, nor should Washington want it to. What's certain is that it is not in US interests to prevent the 'de-Alawization,' of the military and security services-the same forces that have propped up the Assad regime for four decades and have been the primary supporter of Iran's proxy, Hezbollah in Lebanon. The success of the revolution, as Lee Smith recently wrote, 'can only be defined according to whether or not such institutions are destroyed once and for all.' Similarly, the administration has been advocating an inclusive form of government post-Assad-shorthand for a power-sharing agreement. However, such scenarios, too, open the door to the preservation of an Iranian foothold in Damascus." http://t.uani.com/QVgqb5 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.