Top
Stories
AP: "Sanctions-hit
Iran has banned the import of foreign-made cars, laptops, and other
`luxury' goods in the hope of saving billions of dollars in hard
currency, a state-owned newspaper reported Thursday. The reported import
ban comes as Iran confronts oil and banking sanctions imposed by the West
over Tehran's nuclear program that have hit Iran's own currency hard and
depleted its foreign reserves. IRAN daily listed 75 products, from
watches, home appliances and cell phones to coffee and toilet paper, that
it said could no longer be purchased from abroad. But it says the ban
does not apply to components used to produce the products. Iranian firms
assemble many products including watches, laptops and cell phones. The
report quotes Hamid Reza Safdel, who is head of the Iranian state agency
for promoting commerce, as saying import permission for the goods were no
longer issued starting on Wednesday." http://t.uani.com/Uy3xjg
Reuters:
"The re-election of U.S. President Barack Obama could create an
opportunity for new negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program as
sanctions pile economic pressure on its theocratic leaders. With no more
elections to fight, Obama, who has so far resisted calls in the United
States and Israel for military action against Iran, appears free to
pursue a diplomatic settlement while wielding the threat of yet heavier
commercial penalties if Tehran does not bend. 'Obama has prepared the
ground very carefully and has the option of trying to cut some kind of a
deal on the nuclear issue, and that's worth a lot to him,' said Gary
Sick, an Iran expert and former U.S. national security official. Last
month the White House said the option of bilateral talks with Iran, with
whom Washington has not had diplomatic relations for three decades, was
under consideration." http://t.uani.com/UasH6Y
WashPost:
"A sober analysis assessing the possible threat of a military
confrontation over Iran's nuclear program and highlighting the benefits
of negotiations to avert a deeper crisis has been published by a surprising
source: Iran's Ministry of Intelligence. The report first appeared on the
ministry's Web site Tuesday and has been republished by various Iranian
media outlets, adding to growing speculation that new negotiations with
the international bloc known as the P5+1, or even direct talks with the
United States, may be on the horizon. The Intelligence Ministry is viewed
as a hawkish power center within Iran's system but not a channel for
expressing the Islamic republic's foreign policy views. The findings in
the report suggest that the ministry has a pragmatic understanding of the
challenges the country faces, the cost it is paying for continuing
uranium enrichment at current levels, the threat of Israeli aggression
and, perhaps most important, a way out of the stalemate." http://t.uani.com/T6o13E
Nuclear
Program
Reuters: "Iran's
first nuclear power plant will become fully operational by early 2013,
its energy minister was quoted as saying, more than two months after
Russia said it was up and running normally following decades of delay...
The reason for the apparent discrepancy on the status of Bushehr was not
made clear in the comments by Energy Minister Najid Namjou, in a report
carried by the English-language Iran Daily on Thursday, or whether it
meant any new delay for the Russian-built complex. Russian builder NIAEP
- part of state nuclear corporation Rosatom - last month said that
Bushehr would be formally 'handed over for use' to Iran in March 2013,
whereas earlier officials had said that would happen by the end of this
year." http://t.uani.com/RHmWkk
Sanctions
Reuters: "Engineering
conglomerate Siemens AG aims to save 6 billion euros ($7.7 billion) over
the next two years as it fights to stay competitive in a weak global
economy... Siemens' energy business in particular has fallen behind
peers, with the annual margin dropping to 7.8 percent from 17.2 percent
due to delays in the connection of German offshore wind farms to power
grids and trade sanctions on Iran that hit its oil and gas business in
the fourth quarter... Overall, fourth-quarter net profit from continuing
operations fell by 2 percent to 1.48 billion euros, weighed down by a 327
million euro hit at the oil and gas business in Iran due to new trade
sanctions imposed on the country." http://t.uani.com/PGkDhA
Human Rights
Guardian:
"The family of an Iranian blogger taken into custody accused of
opposition activism on Facebook fears that he has died under torture.
Police picked up Sattar Beheshti, 35, from his home in the city of
Robat-Karim in the southwest of Tehran last week. His relatives said on
Wednesday they had received phone calls from the prison authorities
asking them to collect Beheshti's dead body from the notorious Kahrizak
detention center on Thursday. Beheshti's alleged death cannot be
independently confirmed but Baztab, a news website close to Mohsen
Rezaei, a senior politician, reported that the blogger has lost his life
during interrogations." http://t.uani.com/RGyPXV
Domestic
Politics
Kabir News:
"Reza Taghipour, Iranian Minister of Communication and Information
Technology, urged Irancell company to sell 21 percent stake according to
its previous agreements with Iranian government. MTN Irancell believes
this request doesn't comply with mutual agreements because Iranian
government had negotiated with Turkcell on this subject and MTN Group has
never accepted this request. 'It's clear. MTN Irancell should sell 21
percent stake in Tehran's stock market. We have talked with the officials
of Irancell and currently we are waiting for their decision.' Reza
Taghipour said. Also Mohammad Ali Forghani, Deputy of the Ministry of
Communication and Information Technology, confirmed this report and added
that Iran's Communications Regulatory has negotiated with Irancell and
the company has accepted to sell a part of its stake in stock market.
Irancell is the biggest mobile phone network operator of Iran. The
company has two shareholders including Iran Electronic Development
Company (IEDC) (51%), and MTN International (Mauritius) Limited
(49%)." http://t.uani.com/PZpHzd
Foreign Affairs
AP:
"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday called the U.S.
election a 'battleground for capitalists' while speaking at a democracy
forum a day after President Barack Obama was re-elected. He said
democracy has become a system where the minority rules over the majority.
'Just take a look at the situation in Europe and the U.S.,' Ahmadinejad
said during the meeting's opening day on Indonesia's resort island of
Bali. An 'election, which is one of the manifestations of the people's
will, has become a battleground for the capitalists and an excuse for
hasty spending.'" http://t.uani.com/WFmGH5
AFP:
"Armenia and Iran on Thursday began construction on a joint
hydro-electric power plant along their shared border as the Christian and
Muslim neighbors sought to boost economic ties. Armenia's President Serzh
Sarkisian and Iran's Energy Minister Majid Namjoo symbolically laid the
first stone for the plant located on the Arax River near the southern
Armenian town of Meghri. 'Hydro-diplomacy, which we use in our policy,
plays a huge role today,' Namjoo told journalists at the opening
ceremony. The $323-million (253-million-euro), 130-megawatt plant is due
to be completed in five years, and will supply energy to Iran for the
first 15 years before being handed over to Armenia." http://t.uani.com/UbggYz
|
|
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.
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment