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Top Stories
Algemeiner:
"Both Maserati and Lamborghini will no longer do business in Iran
The Algemeiner has learned. The announcement comes following a campaign
by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) aimed at pressuring the two car
makers into halting their activities in the country. The campaign
appeared futile until an October press conference held by Ambassador Mark
D. Wallace, CEO of United Against Nuclear Iran, and New York City Public
Advocate Bill de Blasio. 'We weren't trying to just embarrass anyone. We
sent several letters to both companies asking them about their business
in Iran and they just didn't write back,' UANI spokesman Nathan Carleton,
speaking of the press conference, told The Algemeiner. The public appeal
seems to have worked. 'After the event we were immediately contacted by
Lamborghini. They told us they were out, they weren't doing any business
in Iran anymore. We're happy with that,' Carleton said. A meeting with
representatives from Maserati soon followed. During the meeting Maserati
insisted its dealings in Iran had concluded after its parent company,
Fiat, announced in May that it no longer had a presence in the Islamic
Republic... Ambassador Wallace sent this statement on the affirmations
from the car companies: 'We are satisfied with the pledges we have
received from both Lamborghini and Maserati, and we applaud both for
their responsible action. This campaign proved once again that when a
company is forced to choose between the Iranian market and the U.S.
market, it will leave Iran. We will continue to work with the Public
Advocate, to pressure more and more businesses to pull out of Iran and
continue isolating the Iranian regime.'" http://t.uani.com/UBquDa
Bloomberg:
"Deutsche Boerse AG said U.S. regulators may fine its Clearstream
settlement unit as much as $340 million over possible violations of
sanctions against Iran. Clearstream has started talks on a deal
with the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control
related to securities transfers within its settlement system in 2008, the
Frankfurt-based exchange said in a statement today. Deutsche Boerse
shares rose 0.2 percent to 47.03 euros at the close of trading in
Frankfurt. Standard Chartered Plc agreed to pay $327 million in fines
last month, including $132 million to OFAC, after regulators said it
violated U.S. sanctions with Iran. Britain's second- largest bank by
market value was accused of helping Iran launder about $250 billion in
violation of federal laws, keeping false records and handling wire
transfers for Iranian clients." http://t.uani.com/Xn2xlf
AP:
"President Barack Obama's pick for defense secretary, Chuck Hagel,
is meeting with senior Pentagon staff to try to set the record straight
about his stand on Iran, saying he backs strong international sanctions
against Tehran and believes all options, including military action,
should be on the table, defense officials said Wednesday. In private
meetings with top military and defense leaders and staff this week, Hagel
sought to counter critics who say he is soft on Iran and would be the
most antagonistic secretary toward Israel. Senior defense officials who
have met with Hagel said he told them that his views on Iran have been
misrepresented and that he has long backed international sanctions...
Critics have zeroed in on statements Hagel has made questioning the
wisdom of a military strike by either the U.S. or Israel against Iran. As
a senator, he voted against unilateral economic sanctions on Tehran,
although he supports the joint international penalties Obama also
prefers." http://t.uani.com/XmZFF6
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
Guardian:
"The much-awaited new round of diplomacy over Iran's nuclear
programme will have to be awaited a while longer. Tehran has declared
itself ready for talks this month, but the office of the EU foreign
affairs chief, Cathy Ashton, whose job it is to arrange the negotiations,
has yet to get a clear Iranian response to its suggestion of a mid-January
meeting in Istanbul. That timetable, diplomats say, is now likely to be
pushed back. Ashton's spokesman, Michael Mann, issued a statement saying
only: 'Contacts are still ongoing. No decision has been taken. We have
offered dates and venue in January and are still expecting an Iranian
reaction to it.' Western diplomats point to disagreements at the top of
the Tehran leadership over the wisdom of entering new talks as the most
likely reason for the delay and mixed messages. It is not hard, however, to
imagine reasons for Iranian ambivalence. The Obama administration has
only recently announced its new picks for secretaries of state and
defence, and they have yet to be confirmed by the Senate." http://t.uani.com/WDZRNc
AP:
"Australia has expanded sanctions against Iran amid growing concerns
over the country's suspected nuclear weapons program. Foreign Minister
Bob Carr said in a statement Thursday that the new sanctions affect the
financial, trade, energy and transport sectors. Car said: 'These sanctions
further increase pressure on Iran to comply with its nuclear
non-proliferation obligations and with U.N. Security Council resolutions
and to engage in serious negotiations on its nuclear program.' He said
the new measures are broadly aligned with those introduced by the
European Union and other countries." http://t.uani.com/SmapFH
Reuters:
"Iran has changed the pricing of its term exports of South Pars
condensate to China's top refiner, Sinopec Corp, this year, effectively
raising the premium on sales of the super light crude to its top client,
Chinese industry sources said... Officials said the change was agreed
between the National Iranian Oil Company and Sinopec last year and takes
effect from 2013. The change has led several Sinopec plants to moderately
reduce their contracted amounts for this year, though it was not
immediately known by how much. Last year, Sinopec was contracted to lift
about 70,000 barrels a day. Condensate forms a small part of Sinopec's
Iranian oil imports, but its purchases from the Middle Eastern country
last year are estimated to have been worth about $2.5 billion. The
Chinese refiner, the world's largest processor of Iranian crude oil, was
contracted to buy about 430,000 bpd of Iranian oil last year." http://t.uani.com/13kVMUp
AFP:
"Turkey has for several days been holding a cargo plane en route
from the United Arab Emirates to Iran after its crew refused to document
its load, a customs ministry official told AFP on Wednesday. 'The plane
owned by a Turkish company had to make an emergency landing at Istanbul's
Sabiha Gokcen airport due to technical reasons,' the official said on
condition of anonymity. 'The company has to document its cargo at our
customs until 1000 GMT today (Wednesday), for security purposes otherwise
we'll do what's necessary,' he added, without elaborating. The official
said that Turkish authorities would have the right to check the plane's
cargo if the company refused to reveal the items on board. 'It is most
probably carrying gold,' he speculated." http://t.uani.com/11jcvZP
Syrian Uprising
WSJ:
"Syria agreed to release more than 2,000 prisoners in exchange for
48 Iranians held by Syrian rebels, in a deal that highlighted Iran's
sustained influence over the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. The
deal, brokered with the help of Turkey and Qatar after months of
negotiation, marks the largest prisoner swap since the Syrian uprising
began nearly 21 months ago, though no Syrian government forces were
released. The 48 Iranians were taken hostage in August while traveling to
the Damascus airport for a flight to Tehran. They were in Syria as a part
of a delegation from Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and its
paramilitary Basij militia, according to people familiar with their
mission and the rebel brigade that seized them. Iran at first said the
men were civilian pilgrims, but later said many were retired Guards. 'The
fact that Assad at this moment would agree to this exchange shows how
indebted and deeply dependent he is on Iran's support,' said Nader Hashemi,
an Iran expert and director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the
University of Denver." http://t.uani.com/XRfDLE
Foreign Affairs
WashTimes:
"State Department officials this week said they will develop for
Congress an assessment of Iranian-related threats in Central and South
America, as required by a new law. 'Iran has serially defied the will of
the international community and is a state sponsor of terrorism,' State
Department spokesman Peter Velasco told The Washington Times. 'We are
fully aware that its presence in the [Western] hemisphere could have
implications for our security and that of our neighbors.' President Obama
signed the 'Countering Iran in the Western Hemisphere Act' into law on
Dec. 28... Mr. Velasco said department officials 'are in the process of
reviewing the law and its requirements' and 'will develop an
implementation plan that is consistent with the law and our foreign
policy objectives in the region.'" http://t.uani.com/UPzKJe
Human Rights
AP:
"Iranian police have arrested five members of an underground band
suspected of producing music for Farsi-speaking, dissident satellite
channels based in the U.S. The semiofficial Fars news agency quotes
senior police official Col. Sadeq Rezadoost as saying the band was
producing songs for Los Angeles-based Iranian singers and providing
videos to Farsi-speaking, dissident TV channels." http://t.uani.com/10hWQuj
Domestic
Politics
Bloomberg:
"Iran's next elected president must follow the 'ideals' of Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and avoid questioning the Islamic
republic's foundation, said a senior member of the country's
Revolutionary Guard Corps. 'In the elections we must make the right pick
and choose someone who won't question the regime,' Khamenei's
representative to the guards, Ali Saeedi, was quoted as saying in a
report today by the state-run Mehr news agency. 'The president must
follow the ideals and goals of the supreme leader and have values, and
not let position or pressure change him,' Saeedi said in a speech yesterday.
The comments seem aimed at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has
challenged Khamenei's authority ever since his 2009 re- election amid
widespread protests over voter fraud allegations." http://t.uani.com/UPxNfQ
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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.
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