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Top Stories
Reuters:
"India is set to halt all crude imports from Iran because insurance
companies in the country have said refineries processing the oil will no
longer be covered due to Western sanctions, the head of refiner MRPL said
on Friday. India is Iran's second-largest buyer, taking around a quarter
of its oil exports worth around $1 billion a month. 'If cover is not
available then all Indian refiners will have to halt imports from Iran or
else they will have to take a huge risk,' P.P. Upadhya, managing director
of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd, told Reuters in a telephone
interview. MRPL is India's biggest buyer of Iran crude. 'Insurance
companies said if I buy Iranian crude my refinery's insurance cover will
be canceled ... If we don't get insurance for the refinery then we will
stop buying Iranian crude.' It was not immediately clear why this has
become an issue now, several months after Europe and the U.S. introduced
tough sanctions aimed at Iran's oil trade to force Tehran to the
negotiating table over its nuclear program. But in a letter in January
seen by Reuters, the General Insurance Corp of India, the national
reinsurer, told the General Insurance Council, an industry group, that it
had 'dawned' on insurers that cover and losses on processing the crude
would not be payable by reinsurers due to existing sanctions." http://t.uani.com/13JB9E3
Algemeiner:
"After the revelation that its cranes were being used for executions
in Iran, Austrian company Palfinger has communicated to United Against a
Nuclear Iran (UANI) that it is no longer doing business in the country.
In fact, the company hadn't been doing business in Iran for some time. In
a letter sent by Palfinger's CEO, Herbert Ortner, to UANI in
response to its February appeal that the company withdraw from
Iran, Ortner made it clear that Palfinger had made attempts to cut
ties with Iran since 2011. 'As a result of the UANI campaign, among other
reasons, we have terminated our contract with the Iranian dealer as well
as any contact with Iran two years ago,' he wrote. However, Ortner didn't
rule out the possibility that Palfinger products could still turn up in
Iran. 'Palfinger products are mostly being sold through a network of
independent dealers worldwide,' he wrote. 'Therefore we cannot exclude
that via dealers or via secondary markets in which Palfinger is not
active our products are made available to Iran. Furthermore, there are
also numerous older Palfinger products in Iran, something we cannot
change.' Ortner also expressed his dismay at learning of the atrocities
Iran was committing with his company's products: 'I would hereby like to
express that we strictly condemn all behavior by the Iranian regime,
which violates human rights - particularly these executions.' UANI has
made a concerted effort to have crane manufacturers operating in Iran be
held responsible for how the Islamic Republic uses their machines." http://t.uani.com/YQVpfj
NBC News:
"U.S. officials say Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, captured last month in
Turkey and now in New York, has spent most of the last decade in Iran, in
some sort of confinement. Back in late 2001, as U.S. troops and Afghan
tribal forces were dismantling the Taliban control of Afghanistan, Osama
bin Laden made a decision. He sent his operators, people like Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi bin al-Shibh and Abu Zubaydah to the cities of
Pakistan where they were to hide out and plan further attacks against the
US. All of the key players were captured or killed, with the exception
of Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida's No. 2 who remains at large, having
survived at least three Predator attacks. At the same time, bin Laden
sent his top managers, al-Qaida's Management Council, to Iran, arming
them with money to bribe their way across the border, according to
multiple US and Iranian officials. Bin Laden apparently hoped that the
Iranians would see the group not as Sunni terrorists but as 'an enemy of
my enemy,' as one senior U.S. official put it. Among those who made their
way into Iran were Saif al-Adel, al-Qaida's military director; bin
Laden's son Saad; and Abu Ghaith, the group's communications director ...
and also bin Laden's son-in-law. At one point not long after its arrival,
this group, numbering in the hundreds with family members and bodyguards,
was captured by Iranian authorities. Although senior U.S. officials have
told NBC News they did not know the conditions of their confinement - 'it
was the blackest of black boxes,' one former senior U.S. official told
NBC News -- Iranian officials said the group was 'in jail.'" http://t.uani.com/WaaNGK
 Nuclear Program
CNN: "President Barack Obama said on
Thursday that he will not engage in any 'chest beating' over Iran's
nuclear program, but plans to issue a 'clear and direct' challenge to
Tehran during his upcoming Middle East trip, according to sources
familiar with his comments. Obama said at a White House meeting with
Jewish American leaders that he will still work toward a diplomatic
resolution with Iran over its nuclear program, but repeated that no
options are off the table, including military ones, one of the sources said.
The comments do not represent a change in the Obama administration's
thinking, but come as the president prepares to travel in two weeks to
the region where he is expected to be pressed over Iran by the Israeli
government." http://t.uani.com/16dVroT
Sanctions
Reuters:
"Iran's oil export revenues are helping Indian rice exporters to
claw back some of the lucrative business lost to cross-border truckers in
Pakistan as a result of Western sanctions. Indian rice exports direct to
Iran have bounced back, thanks to shippers being paid up front in rupees
from a huge pool of oil money owed to Iran by Indian refiners. 'Now
business is being done directly because Iran is allowed to open letters
of credit in Indian rupees because the government has to pay money to
Iran for the oil,' said Suresh Manchanda, marketing director of a
Delhi-based company which exports rice, wheat and sugar globally." http://t.uani.com/14C5XCG
The Age:
"American investigators foiled a sophisticated plot to funnel three
jumbo jets originally owned by Qantas to Iran, in defiance of strict
trade sanctions. Qantas sold the passenger jets to a company in the
Middle East, which hatched the plan to send the planes to Iran. The
planes were shifted between related companies in the United Arab Emirates
and the West African country of Gambia over 16 months. One of the
passenger jets - previously called the ''City of Tamworth'' - ended up in
Iran in March last year, before US authorities intervened to prevent the
other two 747s from joining it there. An aircraft leasing company in
California, CSDS Aircraft Sales and Leasing, blew the whistle on the deal
and lodged a formal complaint against Qantas with the US State
Department." http://t.uani.com/13JCpqO
AP:
"A Maryland man has been indicted on charges of exporting American
manufactured industrial products to Iran. A federal grand jury returned
an indictment against 32-year-old Ali Saboonchi of Parkville, Md., on
Monday. The indictment was unsealed Thursday when Saboonchi was arrested.
The five-count indictment alleges that Saboonchi and an Iranian citizen
conspired to send American goods and services to Iran. Prosecutors say
Saboonchi created and operated Ace Electric Co. to get goods to be sent
to Iran. Prosecutors say the goods included stainless steel filter
elements, flow meters, liquid pumps and valves and numerous other
industrial parts." http://t.uani.com/Wa9QOJ
Terrorism
Reuters:
"A Hezbollah member appeared in a Cypriot court on Thursday for the
last time before it rules on whether he plotted to attack Israeli
interests for the Iran-backed Lebanese group. If the court finds the
Lebanese-Swedish man Hossam Taleb Yaccoub guilty when it delivers a
verdict on March 21, it will strengthen calls for the European Union to
follow the U.S. lead and declare Hezbollah a terrorist organisation.
Yaccoub was arrested in the Cypriot port city of Limassol last year, two
weeks before a suicide bomber killed five Israeli tourists in Bulgaria in
July, an attack Sofia blamed on Hezbollah, a charge the group denied. The
prosecution says Yaccoub tracked the movements of Israeli tourists on the
island, a popular holiday destination in the eastern Mediterranean,
noting arrival times of flights from Israel and registration numbers of
buses ferrying visitors to hotels." http://t.uani.com/X2Iw88
Human Rights
AP:
"A nearly 2,600-year-old clay cylinder described as the world's
first human rights declaration is being shown for the first time in the
United States. The Cyrus Cylinder from ancient Babylon will be displayed
beginning Saturday at the Smithsonian's Sackler Gallery. It will be in
Washington through April 28, on loan from the British Museum. A yearlong
U.S. tour will follow, with exhibitions planned in Houston, New York, San
Francisco and Los Angeles. The cylinder carries an account, written in
cuneiform, of how Persian King Cyrus conquered Babylon in 539 B.C. and
would allow freedom of worship and abolish forced labor. The account also
confirms a story from the Bible's Old Testament, describing how Cyrus released
people held captive to go back to their homes, including the Jews' return
to Jerusalem to build the Temple." http://t.uani.com/Wa9Hec
ABC:
"Later today thousands of former FBI agents across the country are
expected to observe a moment of silence in honor of their missing
colleague, ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson, who six years ago Saturday was
kidnapped in Iran. Levinson, who spent more than two decades in the
Bureau before retiring in 1998, was traveling as a private businessman
when he was taken captive by unknown assailants on Iran's Kish island
March 9, 2007. Since then, his family has mounted a worldwide
campaign demanding that Iran set him free, pushing U.S. officials in a
meeting in the Oval Office last March to negotiate for him. Today the
family is scheduled to meet with the FBI and State Department about the
case, but as one family member told ABC News, 'There is no news,
unfortunately.' After his sudden disappearance, the first public sign of
life from Levinson, who has diabetes, came in a hostage video posted on
the internet a little over a year ago." http://t.uani.com/Z5q9eN
CBC:
"The Supreme Court of Canada will decide whether the son of the
murdered Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi can sue the Iranian
government. The high court has agreed to hear an appeal from Kazemi's son
Stephan Hashemi, who argues he has the right to sue the Iranian
government for allegedly killing his mother and failing to return her
body after she was imprisoned. As per its custom, the court gave no
reasons for granting his request for leave to appeal. But the case will
once undoubtedly ratchet up the rhetoric surrounding shattered diplomatic
relations between Canada and Iran. In 2003, Kazemi, a Canadian citizen
who was born in Iran, was taking pictures of protesters in Tehran, which
prompted authorities to arrest her. Kazemi was detained, tortured and
raped in Tehran's notorious Evin prison. Kazemi later died in the
hospital to which her jailers transferred her." http://t.uani.com/XvjqwJ
Reuters:
"European Union governments will impose sanctions next week on nine
Iranian officials and other people they blame for human rights violations
in the Islamic Republic, EU diplomats said on Thursday. The United
Nations reported last week that Iran has stepped up executions of
prisoners including juveniles as well as arrests of dissidents who are
often tortured in jail, sometimes to death... They extend existing EU
measures imposed in the past over human rights violations, which
currently target 78 people, including officials such as the head of
Iran's judiciary Sadeq Larijani and the head of the state broadcasting
network, Ezzatollah Zarghami. Foreign ministers of EU governments will
give their final approval to the new list on Monday and names will be
made public on Tuesday." http://t.uani.com/Zlz7Dh
Opinion &
Analysis
UANI CEO Amb. Mark
Wallace in Investor's Business Daily: "With 2013 now
in full swing, it is important to look back and note just how far the
international movement to economically isolate Iran has come. Last year
was a consequential one for sanctions against Iran, and it taught us
valuable lessons for 2013. With the lessons of 2012 in mind, we should
recognize that sanctions once considered ineffective or too drastic have
in fact worked well, and that now is the time to take the next logical
step - a full-scale financial blockade against Iran. Doing so is the best
way to persuade Iran to choose a different path, and prevent a potential
military confrontation. Just one year ago, the Iranian regime had nearly
full and complete access to world markets, and was able to efficiently
transfer funds from its Central Bank to any other bank in the world. The
group I am a part of, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), worked to
change that reality by campaigning for the Belgium-based SWIFT network,
which is the clearinghouse for global banking transactions, to cut Iran's
Central Bank off from its system. SWIFT's eventual action, combined with
congressional sanctions against the Central Bank, once dismissed as a
radical 'nuclear option' and general economic mismanagement by the regime
greatly contributed to a historic Iranian recession and the collapse of
Iran's currency, the rial. Since the end of 2011, the rial has lost 80%
of its value and inflation is now estimated at 60%. Two years ago, many
were saying that it would be foolish to target Iran's oil exports, for
fear of sending energy prices skyrocketing and further weakening the
global economy. Very few would have predicted that the EU, traditionally
lukewarm to isolating Iran, would eventually implement a comprehensive
oil embargo on Iran, and deny insurance coverage for Iranian oil
shipments. Such doubts, however, have proved unfounded. Last year alone,
crude exports from Iran and corresponding revenues were more than halved,
from 2.5 million barrels per day to some 1 million today, with little
effect on the global oil market. The cutback represents an annualized
loss of some $60 billion, a huge chunk of the Iranian government's budget
for the 2012/2013 fiscal year. This is serious economic pressure, and
some of us are legitimately hopeful that it can force change.
Diplomatically, it is clear that 2012 encouraged Iran to return to the
negotiating table. Of course that may just be a ploy and a delaying
tactic, but there is growing evidence that Iranian influentials across
the political spectrum are prodding the regime to reach a negotiated
settlement before their nation's entire livelihood crumbles. Now, with
robust international sanctions gradually altering the regime's calculus,
it is time to go all in. A full economic blockade of Iran is now
necessary to press the regime to give up its nuclear program. As the
nuclear clock ticks, the international community must exert all of its
leverage, and force the regime to make a choice between having a nuclear
weapon, or having a functioning economy." http://t.uani.com/XZXQPq
Jonathan Tobin in
Commentary: "But there is a lesson here that goes
beyond our justified concerns about the Korean peninsula. North Korea can
defy the world with impunity because it flouted every diplomatic
agreement it signed about its nuclear program and wound up with a bomb
that forever changed the strategic equation between it and the U.S. The
progress of Pyongyang's Iranian ally toward the same goal and the
willingness of the West to engage in exactly the same sort of diplomatic
minuet puts the world's current dilemma in Korea in a sobering light.
Like the Iranians are doing now, North Korea also engaged in a diplomatic
process prior to their going nuclear. Several times they agreed to only
use their nuclear plant for peaceful purposes and in exchange for those
promises were rewarded by the West. But they reneged on every promise and
were eventually able to announce the achievement of their nuclear goal, leaving
the U.S. with no plausible method for rectifying the situation. All
Washington can do about it now is to help pass U.N. resolutions that
don't impress the North Koreans. Meanwhile, South Koreans and others in
the region are left to wonder whether Kim will ever make good on his
threats. The diplomatic situation with Iran is just as bleak as the one
that was previously conducted with the North Koreans. The Iranians know
they have time on their side, and though their economy is much larger and
more dependant on foreign trade, they, too, have discovered that it can
survive even a program of tough sanctions imposed from abroad. And if the
Obama administration ever does make good on its promise to stop the
ayatollahs from gaining nuclear capability, the Iranians also know theirs
is a bigger country that would provide a difficult military challenge to
any nation that sought to take out their nuclear facilities. The North
Koreans did have one advantage that the Iranians do not possess. The 1953
cease-fire that ended the Korean War and the heavily armed standoff along
the borders between the two Koreas may have made any resort to force to
stop the North from going nuclear difficult if not impossible. But there
is no such predicament to stop the U.S. from a strike on Iran as a last
resort to prevent it from going nuclear. What President Obama needs to be
thinking about today as he ponders the implication of Kim's threats is
just how much more dangerous the world would be if North Korea's ally
Iran also had the bomb. It may be that the help North Korea is selling
the Iranians may render timetables about Tehran's progress moot. But
whether or not that is true, the West must understand that its current
dilemma is a product of the feckless nuclear diplomacy it conducted with
Pyongyang under the Clinton and Bush administrations. More time wasted
with dead end diplomacy that only serves Iran's purposes only gets the
world that much closer to the day when there will be two nuclear rogue
regimes rather than just one. The longer a decision about using force
against Iran is put off, the more likely it will be that North Korea
won't be the only nation making nuclear threats against the U.S. in the
not so distant future." http://t.uani.com/10q9xTR
Ray Takeyh in IHT:
"In the aftermath of the summit meeting in Kazakhstan between Iran
and the great powers, there is an unusual sense of optimism in the
relevant capitals. While in the past Iran's media and politicians
greeted such meetings with denunciation and pledges of defiance, this
time the regime's official class sounds moderate in tone and tempered in
its claims. Even jaded American officials accustomed to Iranian obstinacy
appear somewhat sanguine. After nearly a decade of diplomacy, there is a
faint and perhaps fleeting light at the end of one of the world's most
durable tunnels. The challenge for the next round of talks, in April, is
to cement the progress that has been made and finally transact a
resilient arms control agreement. The essential aspect of Western
strategy is that nuclear concessions by Iran will be met by relaxation of
economic penalties. In diplomatic parlance this is known as 'more for
more' - the more of its nuclear portfolio Iran concedes, the more
financial benefits it will reap. Indeed, the sanctions regime
orchestrated by the Obama administration has succeeded beyond the
imagination of its skeptics and has managed to largely segregate Iran
from the global economy. But a conclusive resolution of the prevailing
impasse is unlikely to be achieved through an exchange of nuclear
concessions for sanctions relief. For the great powers to continue to
make progress on this issue, they need to consider not just Iran's
economic distress but also its security predicament. An important facet
of America's strategy of pressure that seldom gets much notice is the
massive naval deployments in the Gulf and sale of considerable arms to
the Arab sheikdoms. The conventional balance of power in the Gulf is
decisively tilted to Iran's disfavor. For a nation with historical pretensions
of playing an important role in its immediate neighborhood, such a
disadvantageous position only enhances the lure of nuclear arms. An
important constituency in the Islamic Republic has long suggested that
the only way the regime can negate the existing imbalance of power is
through acquisition of the ultimate weapon." http://t.uani.com/Z5sDdb
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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
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