Eye on Iran: Iran Says Oil Revenues Down by Half

For continuing coverage follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group.    Top Stories Reuters: "Iran's oil revenues have been cut in half this year compared with last year, a newspaper quoted Iran's economic minister as saying, an admission of how deeply Western sanctions are cutting Tehran's chief source of funds. U.S. and European Union sanctions are designed to slash oil revenues to starve Tehran of funds that might be channeled into expensive nuclear weapons programs... 'Because of the sanctions, revenues collected from the country's oil have dropped by 50 percent,' Economic Minister Shamseddin Hosseini was quoted as saying by economic daily Donya-e-Eqtesad. 'By managing our resources and revenues, there will be no problem in paying salaries until the end of this year,' he added, referring to Iran's calendar year which ends on March 20, 2013. Hosseini had made the comments in an interview on state television on Saturday and they were published by the newspaper on Sunday... Iranian legislators had previously hinted at the country's budget woes as a result of sanctions and officials have said the government should depend less on oil revenues and more on taxation to fill its coffers. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is due to present the 2013-2014 budget to Parliament for approval. Iranian MP Mohammad Reza Bahonar said in September Iran's oil exports had dived to 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July as a result of sanctions, compared with between 2.3 and 2.4 million bpd last year." http://t.uani.com/Xw7iHQ WashPost: "The United States and five other world powers are hastily preparing for possible new talks with Iran amid signs that the country's leaders might be willing to meet as early as next week to discuss scaling back nuclear activities in return for future sanctions relief. The six powers have agreed on a new package of inducements to be offered to Iran if it agrees to freeze key parts of its nuclear program, said U.S. and European officials briefed on the matter. Iran rejected a similar deal earlier this year, but U.S. officials said they were modestly hopeful that Tehran's position had softened under the strain of international sanctions.  'Our assessment is that it is possible that they are ready to make a deal,' a senior administration official said Friday. 'Certainly, the pressure is on.' The talks would be the first high-level negotiations over Iran's nuclear program since June, offering at least the prospect of a thaw in a standoff that has grown increasingly tense in recent months." http://t.uani.com/V2iuxV Reuters: "Iran's president has canceled a trip to Turkey a day after his military chief warned the deployment of NATO missiles along its border with Syria could lead to a 'world war', Turkey's state-run Anatolian news agency said on Sunday. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been invited by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to the central city of Konya on Monday for an annual ceremony marking the death of Rumi, the 13th century Sufi mystic. The two leaders had been expected to discuss issues including the conflict in Syria as well as the impact of U.S. sanctions, imposed over Tehran's disputed nuclear program, on Turkey's imports of oil and gas from Iran... Iranian armed forces chief General Hassan Firouzabadi said on Saturday that the planned deployment of NATO Patriot missiles along Turkey's border with Syria could lead to a 'world war' that would threaten Europe as well. Turkey asked NATO for the Patriot system, designed to intercept aircraft or missiles, in November to help bolster its border security after repeated episodes of gunfire and shells from Syria spilling into Turkish territory." http://t.uani.com/Us2P8k   Nuclear Program Reuters: "Iran's foreign minister said on Monday a way must be found to end the deadlock with major powers over its nuclear program, an Iranian news agency reported, but he offered no new initiative on how to achieve this. Ali Akbar Salehi's comments came ahead of an expected resumption of diplomacy, perhaps next month, aimed at preventing the decade-old nuclear dispute from degenerating into a Middle East war that could damage an already fragile world economy... 'The two sides (Iran and world powers) have reached a conclusion that they must exit the current stalemate,' Salehi was quoted as saying by the Iranian Students' News Agency." http://t.uani.com/ZDt8hN AFP: "The UN atomic agency, after a year of false starts, finally expects to sign a long-elusive deal with Iran on January 16, but that will be the easy part, experts say. Implementing the accord will be a lengthy and fragile process that will only partially resolve a decade-long standoff over Iran's nuclear programme and help to silence Israeli 'drums of war'. Implementing the accord between the IAEA and Iran 'will take years', one Vienna diplomat said, adding: 'It's not going to be solved overnight.' The International Atomic Energy Agency's announcement on Friday after 'good' talks in Tehran that it expects a deal in January was something of a surprise after a string of previous fruitless meetings, and considerable scepticism remains. 'We have been down this road before,' analyst and former US State Department official Mark Fitzpatrick, now at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told AFP, citing previous optimistic IAEA predictions in January and May that came to nothing." http://t.uani.com/R1rEu7 Sanctions Bloomberg: "South Korea's imports of oil from Iran increased 2.9 percent in November from October, when it resumed shipments from the Persian Gulf nation. Purchases last month were 814,797 metric tons, equivalent to 5.97 million barrels, compared with 791,582 tons in October, according to data posted on the Korea Customs Service's website today. Volumes dropped from 1.2 million tons a year earlier, the data showed. There were no cargoes in August or September after South Korean refiners lost insurance coverage on ships carrying the fuel because of international sanctions on Iran." http://t.uani.com/ZAIdka Syrian Uprising AP: "Iran is backing presidential elections in Syria as part of a six-point plan outlined Sunday to halt the 21-month civil war in Tehran's main Middle East ally. The plan, described by state media and Iranian news agencies, also calls for efforts to halt the flow of weapons into Syria and to hold talks that include the government of Syrian president Bashar Assad. Iran in the past has offered initiatives to end the Syrian bloodshed, but none are likely to gain any momentum with the main rebel forces that view Tehran as discredited by its close ties to Assad. On Saturday, Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran would do all it could to keep Assad in power." http://t.uani.com/U3vUca Opinion & Analysis UANI Outreach Coordinator Bob Feferman in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "In 2010, when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to New York for the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly, the organization United Against Nuclear Iran greeted him with a massive billboard in Times Square with his picture. On it was written, 'Kills Iranian Freedom activists, supports some of the world's most violent terrorist groups, imprisons critical journalists, calls for Israel's extermination. And that was Iran without a nuclear weapon.' All of these facts are still true today, and they are the reason why working to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran should be a priority for all those who truly care about human rights and world peace. Iran has earned the U.S. State Department's notorious designation as 'the world's most active state sponsor of terrorism' by providing weapons, funding and training to terrorist organizations including Hamas, Hezbollah, special groups in Iraq and the Taliban. Through its support for terrorists, the Iranian regime is responsible for the deaths of civilians in Israel and American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran is also guilty of egregious human rights abuses. On Oct. 11, the United Nations reported: 'Human rights activists in Iran are subjected to beatings with batons, mock hangings, rape, sleep deprivation and threats that family members will be raped or killed.' Over the past year, Iran has been providing direct assistance to the Syrian regime as it has brutally suppressed the popular uprising and killed more than 40,000 civilians. Throughout its history, the Iranian regime has even allied itself with Sunni al-Qaida, such as in helping prepare the powerful truck bombs that destroyed two American embassies in Africa in 1998, transiting al-Qaida fighters to Afghanistan before Sept. 11, and funneling funds to it now. Can anyone guarantee that a nuclear-armed Iran would not collaborate with al-Qaida again? This time, instead of a destroyed embassy in Africa, we could be talking about a nuclear device placed into a shipping container and sent to a port in order to destroy an entire city. That city could be Haifa in Israel, or it could be New York or Los Angeles. Over the past four years, the nonpartisan advocacy group of which I am a part, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), has been warning of the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran, and working to prevent these nightmare scenarios. To that end, UANI has identified hundreds of major multinational companies that conduct and profit from business with Iran and enable the current regime to stay in power and continue to sponsor terrorism and pursue nuclear weapons despite international sanctions. UANI shines a light onto the dark business being done by these companies with a simple question: Given Iranian support for terrorists, incitement to genocide against Israel, abuse of human rights and pursuit of nuclear weapons, why are you still doing business there? UANI is calling on citizen-activists to go to our website, www.uani.com , and send messages to urge multinational companies to end their Iran business. As the nuclear clock ticks in Tehran, we want to pressure more and more companies to leave Iran, and force the regime to have to choose between having a nuclear weapon or a functioning economy." http://t.uani.com/WfBOKA UANI Outreach Coordinator Bob Feferman in the Peoria Journal Star: "What would the world look like if Iran gets a nuclear weapon? Given the fact that Iran is designated by the U.S. State Department as 'the world's most active state sponsor of terrorism' the answer may be as simple as the one sentence given by U.S. Congressman Brad Sherman (D-California): 'If Iran gets nuclear weapons,' he said, 'we would see terrorism on steroids.' Through its support for Hamas, Hezbollah, Iraqi insurgents and the Taliban, Iran is responsible for the deaths of Israeli civilians and American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the 1990s, Iran and its proxy Hezbollah provided assistance to al-Qaida in preparing the powerful truck bombs that destroyed two American embassies in Africa in 1998. Can anyone guarantee that a nuclear-armed Iran would not collaborate with al-Qaida again? This time, instead of a destroyed embassy in Africa, we could be talking about a nuclear device placed into a shipping container and sent to a port in order to destroy an entire city. That city could be Ashdod or Haifa in Israel. Or it could be New York, London or Chicago. Over the past four years, the non-partisan advocacy group of which I'm a part, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), has been warning of the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran and working to prevent these nightmare scenarios. To that end, UANI four years ago identified hundreds of major, multi-national companies that profit from business with Iran and enable the regime to stay in power despite international sanctions. UANI has succeeded in convincing many to leave Iran. However, some - such as Nissan, MTN and Ericsson - refuse. UANI CEO Ambassador Mark Wallace has called for a 'full economic embargo' on Iran with the exception of the sale of food and medicine. To support this effort, UANI is calling on citizen activists to log on to our website (www.uani.com) and send messages to urge companies to end their Iran business. Companies that have pulled out have openly cited UANI's campaigns and public pressure as the reason. One example is Caterpillar of Peoria. In 2010, UANI brought attention to the fact that Caterpillar equipment was being sold in Iran by a foreign subsidiary. We raised concerns about the possible misuse of Caterpillar tunneling equipment to dig the bunkers that Iran uses to develop nuclear weapons. After learning about these concerns, Caterpillar did the right thing and ended its business in Iran. As the nuclear clock ticks in Tehran, we want to pressure more companies to be as responsible as Caterpillar. We must force the regime to choose between having a nuclear weapon or having a functioning economy. It is time to act and work to prevent the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism from acquiring the ultimate weapon of terror." http://t.uani.com/VKjbsu 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.