Eye on Iran: Iran's Currency Falls to Record Low Against Dollar in Sign of Effect of Western Sanctions

For continuing coverage follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group.    Top Stories AP: "Iran's currency hit a record low against the U.S. dollar in street trading, the semiofficial Mehr news agency reported Sunday. Mehr says the rial dropped nearly 7 percent in a single day, to 24,300 rials to the dollar. Street traders say the rial rose slightly later on Sunday to around 23,900 rials to the dollar. The collapse of the currency is a sign of the effect of Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear program. The West suspects Iran is aiming to build nuclear weapons, a charge Iran denies. On July 1, the European Union banned import of Iranian oil, and the U.S. tightened sanctions against Iran's banks." http://t.uani.com/NVI7Qq Reuters: "Iran's central bank has for weeks failed to provide U.S. dollars to traders to import essential goods, driving down the value of the country's currency against the dollar, a senior Iranian lawmaker said on Monday. The Iranian rial slid to a record low on Monday, reaching 25,650 rials per dollar, about half its value a year ago, according to currency tracking website Mesghal. That represents a slump of about 17 percent since Thursday and comes as Iran faces increasing economic and political pressure over its disputed nuclear programme. The rial trades at two rates in Iran: a 'reference' rate of 12,260 to the dollar maintained by the central bank and available only for the import of essential items, and the far weaker rate determined by a street market made up of small money changers, in which most Iranians can obtain hard currency." http://t.uani.com/PW8NMq AFP: "Canada has closed its Tehran embassy and ordered Iranian diplomats expelled, in a damning severance of ties in which it accused the Islamic Republic of being the biggest threat to world peace. Canada did not cite a specific incident that caused the breakdown, but issued a strongly worded attack on Tehran's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's pariah regime and Iran's 'incitement to genocide' against Israel. In announcing the action Friday, Ottawa cited concerns for the safety of its staff at the diplomatic mission in Tehran and also attacked the failure of Iran's rulers to account for the nation's disputed nuclear program. 'Canada views the government of Iran as the most significant threat to global peace and security in the world today,' Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said in a statement. 'Diplomatic relations between Canada and Iran have been suspended. All Canadian diplomatic staff have left Iran, and Iranian diplomats in Ottawa have been instructed to leave within five days,' he added. The foreign minister pointed out that both Iran and Syria had been included in Canada's list of state-supporters of terrorism, which potentially opens to damaging legal action." http://t.uani.com/Qe3LLF   Nuclear Program Reuters: "Israel and the United States are in discussion on setting a 'red line' for Iran's nuclear program, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. 'We're discussing it right now with the United States,' Netanyahu said in an interview with Canada's CBC television aired late on Sunday. In the interview, two days after Canada suspended diplomatic relations with Tehran over its nuclear project, Netanyahu again signaled that a clear boundary - which he has yet to define publicly - could obviate the need for military action. Netanyahu's recent calls for world powers to set a 'clear red line' that would show they were determined to stop Tehran's nuclear drive has suggested a growing impatience with the United States, Israel's main ally." http://t.uani.com/TIEbSo Bloomberg: "The U.S. is 'not setting deadlines' for Iran and still considers negotiations as 'by far the best approach' to prevent the Islamic Republic from developing nuclear weapons, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. While Clinton said in an interview yesterday that economic sanctions are building pressure on Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week the sanctions aren't slowing Iran's nuclear advances 'because it doesn't see a clear red line from the international community.' Asked if the Obama administration will lay out sharper 'red lines' for Iran or state explicitly the consequences of failing to negotiate a deal with world powers by a certain date, Clinton said, 'We're not setting deadlines.'" http://t.uani.com/U4tTta Reuters: "The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief pressed Iran on Monday to grant his inspectors immediate access to the Parchin military site, where they believe Tehran may have conducted explosives tests relevant to the development of nuclear weapons. Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, also said the IAEA and Iran had made no concrete progress in talks that began in January aimed at allaying concern about suspected atom bomb research in the Islamic state. Western powers may seize on his statement to a closed-door session of the IAEA's 35-nation governing board to strengthen their case for further increasing international pressure on Tehran, one of the world's largest oil producers." http://t.uani.com/QeJgys AP: "U.S. Senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham on Friday urged Washington to help arm Syria's rebels with weapons and create a safe zone inside the country for a transition government. They also called for a far tougher position against Iran over its suspected - and seemingly inexorable - drive toward acquiring nuclear weapons capability... 'We have applied very tough economic sanctions on Iran and they have clearly affected the economy of Iran - but they have not affected the nuclear program one iota,' marveled Lieberman. 'By its recalcitrance Iran is presenting the rest of the world with only two choices: Do we accept a nuclear Iran and try to contain it - or do we take military action? That's a fateful decision that's got to be made in the months ahead.'" http://t.uani.com/QzAJoD AFP: "German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said on Sunday that a nuclear-armed Iran was 'not an option' as he called on Tehran to hold 'substantial negotiations' over its controversial atomic programme. 'We share the Israeli concerns about Iran's nuclear programme,' Westerwelle said at the beginning of a meeting with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak in Jerusalem. 'A nuclear-armed Iran would not only pose a threat to Israel but to the stability of the entire region. A nuclear-armed Iran is not an option,' he said." http://t.uani.com/O6Eilm Reuters: "European Union heavyweights Britain, France and Germany called on their EU partners on Friday to impose new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. As Israel continued to threaten military action against Iran, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Tehran's failure to meet international demands to scale back its nuclear work meant the EU should discuss new sanctions within weeks. 'Sanctions are necessary and soon. I can't see there is really a constructive will on the Iranian side for substantial talks,' Westerwelle told Reuters on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Cyprus. 'If they will not come back to the table, then probably the next round is necessary. This is not something for next year, we are talking about next weeks,' he said." http://t.uani.com/P3bwVa Sanctions WSJ: "International sanctions helped drive down Iran's oil exports nearly 45% in July, a new report showed, while Canada said on Friday it had closed its embassy in Tehran and would expel all Iranian diplomats in Canada... In a sign of some success in Western efforts so far, India cut oil imports from Iran by 42% in July compared with June, while Chinese imports were down 28% over the same period, according to Rhodium Group, which gathers information from customs data and other sources. Japan didn't import any Iranian oil during the month, it said. Iran delivered an average of 940,000 barrels a day in July, down from 1.7 million barrels in June, Rhodium said. That is a slightly bigger drop than the International Energy Agency found in earlier estimates, which didn't include country-by-country tallies. Iran's oil profits dropped to an estimated $2.9 billion in July, Rhodium said, down from $9.8 billion in the same month last year. The numbers don't reflect revenue Iran is collecting from oil it is allegedly smuggling out of the country." http://t.uani.com/TIPQAJ LAT: "To continue selling crude oil to India, Iran is accepting payment in rice, medicine, engineering supplies and steel. To sell to China, its No. 1 customer, Iran is delivering the oil on its own tankers backed by state insurance, not on the commercial tankers used in the past. Japan remains so eager to buy from Tehran that the government in Tokyo is furnishing the multibillion-dollar marine insurance its ships need to carry Iranian crude. Despite what the Obama administration calls some of the toughest economic sanctions ever imposed, including a European Union oil embargo and a U.S. ban on financial institutions doing business with Iran's central bank, Tehran is finding legal ways to sell or barter oil to its most important markets in Asia. The new deals are expensive, time-consuming and risky. But experts say they are easing some of the burden on Tehran's battered economy and buying time for Iran's leaders as Washington and its allies scramble to curb the country's nuclear program... Much of the oil exported to India and China is shipped on Iranian tankers insured by the government in Tehran. If an oil spill or other disaster occurs, experts say it's unclear whether Tehran could pay damages because of the restrictions on its banks." http://t.uani.com/RBAJEs AP: "Sierra Leone has removed the registration of 10 ships suspected to be Iranian. Alhaji Wuroh Jalloh, executive director of the Sierra Leone Maritime Administration told The Associated Press Saturday that ships 'hiding' under the Sierra Leonean flag 'have recently been removed from the register.' Jalloh said 'in compliance with UN sanctions,' Sierra Leone wants to ensure that no ships flying the Sierra Leone flag that have a connection to Iran or Syria. He said the action is 'in relation to the vessel that was seized in Lebanon recently carrying arms for Syria, and allegedly flying the Sierra Leone flag.'" http://t.uani.com/UDlkYz WSJ: "Sasol Ltd., the world's largest producer of motor fuels from coal, on Monday said it is planning an expansion drive in North America as it continues to look for a buyer for its Iranian plant. 'Most volume increases in the next eight years will be from North America,' said Chief Executive David Constable. 'We're exiting Iran because of sanctions...We see it getting tougher there to do business.' Sasol, which spends about two thirds of capital in its home country of South Africa, said it has a series of plans to sharpen its focus on the U.S. and Canada in the next few years. In light of this, Mr. Constable told The Wall Street Journal that Sasol has no plans to resume crude oil imports from Iran and is progressing with the sale of its 50% stake in a $900 million Iranian petrochemical project." http://t.uani.com/PaS8nL WSJ: "Iran has exported a crude-oil cargo through the private sector for the first time, Iranian media said Sunday, as it seeks new ways to circumvent mounting sanctions. The Iranian private sector has delivered an oil consignment to a foreign company using non-Iranian oil tankers, Hassan Khosrojerdi, head of Iran's Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters' Association, told the Mehr news agency. Until recently, the state-owned National Iranian Oil Co. was the exclusive marketer of the country's oil on international markets-the source of the majority of its export revenue. But an agreement has been made with an Iranian consortium comprising private firms to export 20% of its oil exports to international markets, including the European Union, Mr. Khosrojerdi said." http://t.uani.com/RMWKEF AFP: "US sanctions on Syria and Iran are harming Russian business interests, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday. 'Unilateral US sanctions against Syria and Iran are increasingly becoming extra-territorial in nature and are touching upon the interests of Russian business,' Lavrov said after meeting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He said Russian banks were particularly being affected. Washington has imposed asset freezes against more than 100 members of the Syrian regime and barred US firms from doing business with them, and slapped sanctions against the Syrian state oil firm Sytrol last month." http://t.uani.com/RMXZ6J Al-Monitor: "The astonishing rise in gold trade between Turkey and Iran of late has been interpreted by some as Turkey paying with gold for the oil it buys from Iran. Others surmised that Iran was preparing for war by stocking up on gold. But according to the narrative of those who control Istanbul's lucrative gold market, where the volume of trade exceeds tens of millions of dollars a day, the reality is different. According to one of them who rules the market, it is all about arbitrage, that is, the profit made from differences in parities. Same source says the word in the market is that the leading name in this trade is an Iranian of Azeri origin, Reza Zarrab, married to a top Turkish singer, Ebru Gundes. Royal Maritime and Industrial Machinery Industry Corporation set up in Istanbul added 'gold' to its name and announced in the Commercial Register Journal of Oct. 27, 2011.  The new name of the company was thereafter Royal Maritime Industrial Machinery and Precious Ores Industry Corporation. Reza Zarrab already had a jewelry company in Istanbul." http://t.uani.com/QzDSVa Syrian Uprising Reuters: "New U.N.-Arab League envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi will visit Iran, a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, after a fact-finding trip to Syria itself, an official in the Iranian Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying on Sunday. Brahimi, a veteran Algerian diplomat, succeeded Kofi Annan as envoy this month and has said he would talk to Iran as he tries to push forward with his difficult quest to end the 17-month-old conflict in Syria. In Geneva, Brahimi's spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told Reuters that the U.N. envoy planned to visit Syria soon but there were no plans for travel to Iran." http://t.uani.com/O6E3GX AFP: "Iran said it was joining officials from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey for a four-way 'contact group' meeting in Cairo looking at ways to calm the conflict in Syria. An Iranian deputy foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, had left Tehran for the Egyptian capital to take part in the meeting, foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told Iran's Al-Alam Arabic-language broadcaster. Egyptian officials in Cairo were not immediately available to confirm the meeting. If confirmed, it would be the first such meeting of a 'contact group' on Syria proposed by Egypt's new president, Mohamed Morsi, at an August summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Saudi Arabia that suspended Syria's membership." http://t.uani.com/Qz6yBj  Human Rights Fox News: "Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who was originally sentenced to death in his native country for his Christian faith, was acquitted of apostasy charges and released from custody. Nadarkhani, 32, was imprisoned for three years and waiting execution for refusing to renounce his Christian faith. His charges were lowered to evangelizing to Muslims, which carried a three-year sentence. He was released with time served, according to the American Center for Law and Justice, a Washington-based watchdog group that had been campaigning for the pastor's release." http://t.uani.com/QzBxK5 Amnesty: "The Iranian authorities must halt all executions scheduled in the coming days, Amnesty International said,  amid reports that up to 23 individuals may be at imminent risk in what the organization fears may herald a rise in executions in the country. Twenty-two death row prisoners, among them at least five Afghan nationals, have been removed from their prison cells in recent days and are due to be executed on 8 September. Most or all are believed to have been convicted of drugs offences. Another prisoner, Gholamreza Khosravi Savajani, 50, who was sentenced to death in 2010 for 'enmity against God' (moharebeh) in connection to claims he supports the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) - a  sentence which was later confirmed by the Supreme Court on 21 April 2012 - is believed to be scheduled for execution on 10 September." http://t.uani.com/PVc2DK Toronto Star: "While Iran's foes applaud Ottawa's sudden move to close its Tehran embassy and expel Iranian diplomats, three men from Canada who are jailed in notoriously brutal Evin Prison have little to cheer about. Saeed Malekpour and Hamid Ghassemi-Shall are on death row awaiting execution, on charges human rights advocates call politically motivated. Hossein Derakhshan, known as Iran's 'blogfather' for introducing blogging to the Islamic Republic, is serving 19 ½ years." http://t.uani.com/QCrd3R Opinion & Analysis WashPost Editorial Board: "The pointless kerfuffle in Charlotte over whether the Democratic Party platform would contain a reference to Jerusalem obscured the fact that the Obama administration and the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu continue to have a real and dangerous difference of opinion. The issue is not the location of Israel's capital - President Obama's position is identical to those of previous Democratic and Republican presidents - but the question of what to do about Iran's nuclear program. That there are differences between Mr. Obama and Mr. Netanyahu over the urgency of considering military action against Iran has been evident for some time. The White House has been saying that, despite Tehran's progress in enriching uranium and refusal to bargain seriously with an international coalition, there remains 'time and space for diplomacy,' a position we're inclined to agree with. Israel, suggesting that Iran is approaching a 'zone of immunity' in which its program would be nearly invulnerable to attack, has been signaling that it could act unilaterally in the coming months... Many Israeli analysts believe Mr. Netanyahu will probably hold off on military action for now because of strong domestic opposition as well as pressure from Washington. But the disagreement is still damaging. It conveys to Iran that there is no need to worry about a war; certainly, the country's leaders have been behaving as if they feel no pressure to compromise. It also creates the bizarre spectacle of senior U.S. military and diplomatic officials focusing their time and attention on trying to prevent an Israeli attack rather than an Iranian bomb. In the past week Mr. Netanyahu has hinted at how the U.S.-Israeli difference could be overcome: through a clear public statement by Mr. Obama of a willingness to take military action if Iran crosses certain 'red lines' in its nuclear program. Israel has been seeking such a declaration for some time, but Mr. Obama has limited himself to saying that his policy is to prevent Iran from obtaining a weapon and that 'all options are on the table.' Certainly there would be dangers to a more explicit presidential statement, including that the United States would start down a slippery slope toward war. But if Mr. Obama really is determined to take military action if Iran takes decisive steps toward producing a bomb, such as enriching uranium to bomb-grade levels or expelling inspectors, he would be wise to say so publicly. Doing so would improve relations with Mr. Netanyahu and deter unilateral Israeli action - and it might well convince Iran that the time has come to compromise." http://t.uani.com/PgsKQP David Albright & Andrea Stricker in The Iran Primer: "The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit ended on August 31 in Tehran with the adoption of a communiqué that is troubling and even hypocritical in its support for Iran's nuclear program.   The final NAM document-in addition to the 'Tehran Declaration,' a separate paper written by Iran-also criticized unilateral sanctions against Iran, including penalties by the United States and European Union. The core issue is that the NAM statement misinterprets the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Contrary to widespread perception, the international treaty signed by 190 nations does not guarantee a signatory country access to the nuclear fuel cycle if that state is under investigation for not complying. The 120 NAM states appear unwilling to join the world's six major powers in pressing Iran to abide by successive U.N. resolutions.  They basically do not want to acknowledge Iran's intransigence-even though many members are U.S. or European allies and claim to oppose Tehran's nuclear policies. The final statement could embolden Iran's efforts and, in turn, undermine nonproliferation and international security-which the NAM states claim to uphold. The NAM communiqué supports Iran's 'nuclear energy rights,' specifically the right to develop all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle, including enrichment. This position misconstrues the NPT. Under Article IV, Iran cannot claim the right to nuclear energy production-or a right to enrich at all-while under investigation for possible non-peaceful uses of these capabilities. Iran's right to nuclear energy is qualified-as long as there are no major lapses in its Article II obligations. The NPT specifically requires a pledge 'not to manufacture or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices' and 'not to seek or receive any assistance in the manufacture of nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.' These commitments are now being challenged by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog. U.N. resolutions also require Iran to suspend uranium enrichment until it has cleared up questions about its activities with the IAEA.  Most of the NAM members are signatories to the NPT. They are also U.N. members, and therefore aware of U.N. resolutions on Iran and of their legal obligations to enforce and fully comply with them. So the NAM communiqué failed to acknowledge the need for Iran to fully comply with the international treaty on nuclear weapons." http://t.uani.com/S1HKPi 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.