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Top Stories
FT:
"Iran's output of cars - the country's biggest non-oil industry -
has fallen by about 50 per cent, as the tightening international
sanctions over the country's nuclear programme aggravate economic woes.
Production dropped to 677,000 cars in the first nine months of the
Persian year that started in March, from 1.2m during the same period last
year. Although Iran experienced dramatic reductions in vehicle production
during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, the latest fall in volume is
unprecedented, analysts say. 'Industries such as the automotives which
are dependent on imports and hard currencies [used to buy imports] are
the most vulnerable to sanctions,' Ezzatollah Yousefian-Molla, a member
of parliament, recently told the semi-official ISNA news agency... Domestic
media have reported that more than 110 auto part makers shut down and
thousands of workers lost their jobs over the past year. Moreover, Iran's
two largest state-run carmakers , Iran Khodro and Saipa, are reportedly
now suffering from overstaffing - or 'hidden unemployment', as the
domestic media call it - due to the decline in output." http://t.uani.com/Vjy3Uw
Reuters:
"Iran may be holding back from working with a U.N. investigation
into its nuclear program to use it as a bargaining chip in pursuit of
significant sanctions relief or other concessions in broader negotiations
with world powers. That could explain why United Nations nuclear
inspectors once again returned empty-handed after talks last week in
Tehran, where they tried to overcome obstacles to a long-stalled inquiry
into suspected atomic bomb research by Iran. Iran has suggested at
various times in the past that it would expect a 'kind of reward' for
cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a Western
official said, making clear he saw no rationale for this. If this is
Tehran's thinking, a year-long effort by the IAEA to unblock its
investigation looks unlikely to succeed as long as separate diplomacy
between the six major powers and Tehran remains deadlocked." http://t.uani.com/WpimqP
AP:
"Iran's president on Tuesday claimed his country can create 10 times
more wealth from inventions than from oil, rendering Western economic
sanctions powerless. The West's oil embargo over Iran's suspect nuclear
program won't stop the Islamic Republic's scientific and technological
progress, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said. Addressing a group of Iranians in the
western city of Hamedan, Ahmadinejad mocked the embargo, saying that
Iranian universities would churn out money-making innovations. He did not
mention any specific technologies. 'Don't buy our oil? To hell with you,'
Ahmadinejad said in remarks aimed at the West. 'It's better if you don't
buy... 10 times more money will head to people's pockets through the
inventions of our scientists.'" http://t.uani.com/VZUNYi
Nuclear Program
AP:
"Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi is proposing Cairo as a venue for
the next round of talks with world powers over the Islamic Republic's
nuclear program. Salehi is quoted by the official IRNA news agency as
saying that Egypt has welcomed the offer and is now consulting with the
United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany to finalize it.
Salehi made the comments Wednesday after a Cabinet meeting in
Tehran." http://t.uani.com/WKCXpn
Sanctions
Reuters:
"Japanese police have arrested two men and a woman in connection
with alleged illegal money transfers to an Iranian shipping firm
suspected of involvement in the Islamic Republic's nuclear program,
Japanese media said on Wednesday. The three employees of Tokyo-based
shipping agent Ben Line Agencies Japan deny the charges, the reports
said. Kyodo News Agency said the arrests were the country's first related
to Iranian sanctions, quoting investigative sources. An official at Ben
Line Agencies Japan said the company had no comment on the reports. The
three employees are alleged to have transferred a total of 14 million yen
($158,000) to a Singapore-based firm associated with Iran's state-run
Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) in November 2011 and
February 2012, without the necessary Japanese government approval, the
Kyodo report added." http://t.uani.com/11R4pIb
NYT:
"Iran's currency, weakened by Western sanctions and economic
mismanagement, has fallen further in value over the past few days in an
apparent reaction to a leadership problem at the Central Bank that has
stirred new concerns about political tensions, money traders and outside
economists said Tuesday. The career of the Central Bank's governor,
Mahmoud Bahmani, appeared to be in jeopardy, and with it the short-lived
stability for the currency, the rial, after a drop in value last year of
roughly 50 percent... While Iran does not publicize exchange rates in
unofficial trading, Reuters quoted currency traders in Dubai, United Arab
Emirates, as saying it cost as much as 36,250 rials to buy a dollar on
Tuesday, compared with 33,000 on Sunday. 'Without reliable official
information, any change in Tehran's political winds spooks the public,
and they sell rials,' said Steve H. Hanke, an economics professor and
currency expert at Johns Hopkins University." http://t.uani.com/10IgC1k
Human Rights
AFP:
"A court in Tehran on Tuesday asked a lay Christian leader whether
an Iranian-American pastor on trial assisted in his conversion, a group
supporting the detained US citizen said. Saeed Abedini, a naturalized US
citizen who converted to Christianity, went on trial on Monday at a
Tehran court on charges of plotting against state security, according to
his lawyer. The American Center for Law and Justice, a US-based
conservative legal advocacy group that is supporting Abedini, said that
Abedini was not allowed in the trial Tuesday and that the court heard
testimony from a lay church leader. 'This individual was specifically
questioned about converting to Christianity and whether Saeed encouraged
the conversion to Christianity, which he did,' Jordan Sekulow, the
center's executive director, wrote on the group's blog." http://t.uani.com/Yn9s24
Guardian:
"As the June presidential election in Iran draws near, authorities
have
stepped up political surveillance by ordering coffee shop owners to
install cameras on their premises and turn over the recordings on demand.
Cameras have proliferated in Tehran coffee shops since last summer. 'Most
people thought they were part of the security systems installed by owners
to protect against theft,' one Tehrani said. However the cameras are now
required to be on during work hours and police have demanded access to
the tapes, according to several business owners. The practice became
public when Café Prague, one of the most popular coffee houses in Tehran,
closed down last week after its owners refused authorities' orders to
install a video system. Café Prague, a stone's throw from Tehran
University in the heart of the capital, has been a sanctuary for
students, activists and young intellectuals since its opening in
2009." http://t.uani.com/10Rwpfq
Domestic
Politics
Bloomberg:
"Iran's Central Bank Governor Mahmoud Bahmani rejected claims of
illegal movements of money by a Tehran court, which ruled that he should be
dismissed, state- media reported. The withdrawals were legal and had the
government's backing, Bahmani said. 'The matter of withdrawing from bank
accounts by the Central Bank was fully in line with the government's
approval and all documents are available,' he was quoted as saying
yesterday by the state-run Mehr news agency. Members of parliament have
criticized the Central Bank for failing to stabilize the national
currency, which has plunged about 60 percent against the dollar in the
past six months. Inflation has quickened and the economy is under strain
amid tighter U.S. and European Union sanctions aimed at curbing Iran's
nuclear program." http://t.uani.com/UUaga3
Opinion &
Analysis
Brendan Daly in
The Commentator: "A common phrase Iranians use when
discussing their country is 'before the Revolution,' followed by some
comparison, depending on their political bent, on conditions in the
country before and after 1979. Iranians are a varied people. Ask an
Iranian their opinion of the former Shah, and the response you get will
range from holy condemnation to virtual deification - and everywhere
in-between. But one thing all Tehranis currently agree on is this:
everything is awful. Indeed, a phrase that is becoming equally common is
'before Ahmadinejad.' And unfortunately for the beleaguered president -
who came to office in a surprise election victory in 2005 - in this case,
the comparison between past and present is never positive. 'People used
to complain when [former President] Khatami was in charge. About how
expensive everything was, about how little freedom we had as young
people. We had no idea how lucky we were,' says Reza, 29. Iranians
themselves are the first to admit their penchant for complaining. But
today, their complaints are more than justified. The recent
currency crisis, brought about by the tightening of the US and EU-led
sanctions programme, has meant that people's savings are now worth less
than half of what they were this time last year. In October, oil exports
fell to their lowest level since 1988. Consequently, the government's
Budget Commission announced that the Government received only half of its
projected revenue in the first six months of the Iranian calendar (March
to September, 2012). According to official government statistics,
inflation is currently running at 27 percent. But nobody takes this
number seriously - the real rate is much higher. Even governmental and
clerical figures have referred to a rate of 40 percent. Economist and
former advisor to President Ahmadinejad, Hossein Raghfar said on October
10th that the real rate is over 100 percent. Certainly the cost of many
imported products, such as coffee, has doubled over the past few months.
As has the prices of beef and chicken, since before the latest round of
stringent sanctions started to take effect. This time last year, it was
still very rare to hear the word 'tahrim' (sanctions) on the streets of
Iranian cities. Now you hear it every day. Not to mention the latest
anecdotes of the dollar-rial exchange rates... The first post-Revolution
chancellor of Iran's oldest and most venerable academic institution, the
University of Tehran, recently wrote an open letter to the Supreme
Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. On May 22nd, Dr Mohammed Maleki wrote his
letter directly to Khamenei, an old acquaintance since before the 1979
Revolution. After receiving no response, he took the step of publishing
the letter in early December. In it, he urged the clerical leader to 'to
accept that Iran is at the verge of collapse' and recognize among other
things, the catastrophic effects of the sanctions, and the
dissatisfaction of the population. Within a matter of days the
78-year-old Maleki was summoned to Evin Prison to serve six years in
prison, for sentences that had previously been suspended, for similar
acts of defiance throughout his long career. But he was of course
right." http://t.uani.com/WfBV7a
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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