Eye on Iran: Iran Sanctions May Cut Supply of Currency

For continuing coverage follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group.    Top Stories NYT: "Western economic sanctions imposed on Iran over its disputed nuclear program have severely depressed the value of its national currency, the rial, causing higher inflation and forcing Iranians to carry ever-fatter wads of bank notes to buy everyday items. But the sanctions have also presented a new complication to Iran's banking authorities: they may not be able to print enough money. At least three European companies that have been providing currency production services to Iran say they have stopped doing business there. One of the companies, Koenig & Bauer AG of Würzburg, Germany, also says it has not responded to an Iranian request for bids to make presses to print new rials. Koenig & Bauer's disclosure was contained in a mailed response to a query by United Against Nuclear Iran, a New York-based sanctions advocacy group, which seized upon the 40 percent drop in the rial's value this month to begin a campaign aimed at the currency itself... 'By manipulating and increasing the printing volume of the rial, the regime can bolster its floundering currency and mask the disastrous impact of its political decisions, economic mismanagement and isolation,' Mark D. Wallace, the chief executive of United Against Nuclear Iran, said in announcing the campaign." http://t.uani.com/RC0HJk LAT: "Western governments believe that Iran's economy is imploding so quickly that it could essentially collapse next spring under the combined pressure of international sanctions, an oil embargo and internal mismanagement by officials in Tehran, said a European diplomat here. Western government experts estimate that Iran will run out of foreign exchange reserves in six months to a year, making it impossible for the Islamic Republic to sell products abroad and buy the imports it needs to continue its manufacturing sector and run public services, the European diplomat said... Western governments have focused on calculating when Iran's foreign exchange reserves will run low because they want to force the government to yield on nuclear development before it can enrich enough uranium and acquire sufficient knowledge to build a working warhead. Israel's government believes that date could come late next spring; the Obama administration believes it may be several years off." http://t.uani.com/RST1Dv Reuters: "A plunge in Iran's currency could slice 5 percent or more off MTN Group's full-year earnings, the latest setback for the South African mobile operator over its money-spinning business in the Middle Eastern country. MTN, Africa's largest wireless operator, made a big - and so far profitable - bet on Iran in 2005, taking a 49 percent stake in Irancell which now contributes about 9 percent to its earnings. However, the tumbling rial, along with an ongoing $4.2 billion lawsuit over MTN's Iran licence, highlight the political risks of doing business with a country increasingly under pressure from Western sanctions over its nuclear programme... 'As I understand it, the authorities are trying to stabilise the rial at around 25,000 to the dollar. Let us assume it went to the 25,000 point as a first step. That would cut MTN's Iranian earnings stream roughly in half,' said Richard Barker, a Credit Suisse analyst in Johannesburg. 'That is going to knock roughly 5 percent off their earnings.' MTN finance director Nazir Patel said in August the rial's slide could have a big impact on second-half earnings, expected in March." http://t.uani.com/RC45UB Nuclear Program AFP: "Iran will not give in to 'bullying' at the negotiating table with world powers over its disputed nuclear programme despite new economic sanctions, its supreme leader said on Tuesday. The West 'keeps saying pressure against Iran is aimed at forcing the Islamic republic to return to the negotiating table' about the nuclear programme, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in remarks carried on state television. 'But when did we leave the table that now we need to return?' he asked during his visit to the northeastern province of North Khorasan. 'Their real objective is (forcing) the Iranian nation to surrender to their bullying at the negotiating table... (but) you are too weak to bring Iran to its knees,' said Khamenei." http://t.uani.com/R9wL8P Reuters: "U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Yukiya Amano said on Wednesday he hoped a new high-level meeting with Iran about Tehran's disputed atomic program could be held 'quite soon'. Amano, during a visit to London, also told Reuters the U.N. agency continued to see activity at Iran's Parchin military site, an apparent reference to suspected efforts by Iran to clean the site of any illicit operations. Asked whether Iran was continuing to dismantle the facility, which U.N. inspectors want to visit and now only monitor via satellite imagery, Amano said: 'Yes ... We continue to see activities.'" http://t.uani.com/TtUmQq Reuters: "The security company that has discovered some of the most sophisticated spying software unearthed to date says it found a related program, dubbed 'miniFlame,' which can carry out more precise attacks on targets in the Middle East. While the original Flame virus swept in data from perhaps 5,000 computers, largely in Iran and Sudan, the new miniFlame struck only about 50 'high-value' machines, according to Kaspersky Lab research published on Monday. Iran had previously blamed Flame for causing data loss on computers in the country's main oil export terminal and Oil Ministry. 'Flame acts as a long sword for broad swipes while miniFlame acts as a scalpel for a focused surgical dissection,' Roel Schouwenberg, a senior researcher at Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, told Reuters." http://t.uani.com/R4nC2Z Sanctions CSM: "A host of US and European sanctions targeting Iran's oil exports and its banking system over its disputed nuclear program have put a chokehold on the economy. The value of the national currency, the rial, plummeted 40 percent in early October, and inflation stands officially at nearly 24 percent. Experts say the real figure could be double that or more. 'I heard a proverb from my grandfather that the high pressure of rising prices is going to break our backbone, says Heydar, a retired civil servant. 'Honestly speaking, I never felt it and never could sense it, but these days I easily witness that the backbone of many people like me in the middle class is breaking. I can hear the horrifying sound of people squeezed by the economy.' The US-led sanctions are just one target of blame for the hardship. More and more, lawmakers and ordinary Iranians blame the high inflation and unemployment as much on the government's mishandling of the oil revenue windfall of recent years as on sanctions. Even supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei admitted this Oct. 10, acknowledging that while the sanctions may cause problems, 'mismanagement may even increase these problems.'" http://t.uani.com/QQPmWl The Register: "Under-fire Chinese telecoms kit maker ZTE has warned it will report a loss of up to 1.75bn yuan (£174m) for the first nine months of the year, blaming a slowing global economy and the Iranian market, where US investigators are probing its activities. The Shenzhen-based firm's preliminary financials for the first three quarters of 2012 reveal a potential drop in revenue of over 260 per cent from the same period last year... In a separate filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, ZTE added that its 'operating results were adversely affected by the Iranian market'. Those operations remain contentious in other ways, as Washington is still investigating whether ZTE broke embargoes by selling US products on a 900-page 'packing list' to Iran and then deliberately tried to cover its tracks when exposed by media reports." http://t.uani.com/PBTe1o Foreign Affairs AP: "A senior Iranian military official claimed Tuesday that Iranian-made surveillance drones have made dozens of apparently undetected flights into Israeli airspace from Lebanon in recent years to probe air defenses and collect reconnaissance data. An Israeli official rejected the account. The Iranian official declined to give further details on the purported missions or the capabilities of the drones, including whether they were similar to the unmanned aircraft launched last week by Lebanon's Hezbollah and downed by Israeli warplanes. It also was impossible to independently verify the claims from the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media." http://t.uani.com/RAQ4ab Times of Israel: "The drone that penetrated deep into Israeli airspace nearly two weeks ago was manufactured in Germany by Siemens and Bockstiegel, and purchased by a fictitious Iranian company that was a front for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Lebanese newspaper Al-Jumhuriya reported on Wednesday. According to the report, Siemens manufactured the drone's camera and remote control parts while Bockstiegel, which produces ships, provided light metal parts. Last week, Hezbollah's chief Hassan Nasrallah confirmed responsibility for launching the aircraft, which he claimed was made in Iran. The Lebanese newspaper's report also stated that Hezbollah possessed a large arsenal of similar UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) whose main purpose was to spy, not attack." http://t.uani.com/U3Fhdy Reuters: "Bahrain's Gulf Air says it has been unable to resume flights to Iran because the Iranian civil aviation authority has been slow to approve flight schedules, the official Bahrain News Agency said on Tuesday. The Bahraini national carrier is hopeful of resuming services to Iran by the beginning of next year, the agency said. 'Work is ongoing with the concerned authorities to resume flights as soon as possible,' the news agency quoted Gulf Air as saying. The airline could not be reached for comment. Relations between Bahrain and Iran have been strained by Bahraini accusations that Iran is behind the anti-government unrest, something Iran denies." http://t.uani.com/WyUfYo 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.