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Top
Stories
Reuters:
"South Korean steelmaker POSCO, minority-owned by Warren Buffett's
Berkshire Hathaway, has cut ties with government entities and sensitive
industries in Iran such as energy and continues to trade with private
firms, a letter showed... In a letter sent to U.S. pressure group United
Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) dated Feb. 28 and seen by Reuters, POSCO, a
top global steelmaker, said it had scaled down business with Iran.
'Certain of POSCO's subsidiaries continue to engage in transactions in
Iran,' POSCO's chief legal officer Song Se-Bin wrote in the letter...
Song said POSCO entities had 'completed, terminated or assigned all of
their activities related to the sensitive sectors of the Iranian economy
- the energy, defence and nuclear sectors'... A targeted campaign by
UANI, which includes former U.S. ambassadors as well as former CIA and
British intelligence chiefs on its board, has led to several foreign
companies in sectors including shipping to exit Iran. UANI, which is
funded by private donations and backs tougher sanctions on Tehran, had
called on POSCO to cease its Iran trade. UANI chief executive Mark
Wallace said it appreciated the company had taken multiple steps to
reduce its Iran business. 'We continue to call, however, for POSCO to
fully end its business in Iran,' said Wallace, a former U.S. ambassador
to the United Nations." http://t.uani.com/15KtHHo
Reuters:
"Global oil market conditions are ripe for the West to further
pressure Iran over its nuclear program, but the window will likely close
next year as fuel demand is expected to rise in Asia, a report to be
released on Wednesday said. For most of the past decade, a tight oil
market limited the ability of Western countries to use sanctions to
dampen the nuclear ambitions of Iran, one of the world's top crude
producers, said the report by the nonpartisan Securing America's Future
Energy and Roubini Global Economics. In the last year, new U.S. and
European sanctions targeting Iran's crude sales came when the global oil
market could handle a loss of the Islamic Republic's crude exports.
Global oil demand has been slow to recover from the recession and crude
output has risen steadily from the United States and other nations
outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. 'This
opportunity will not last indefinitely,' said the report called 'Decision
Point: A Well-Supplied Global Oil Market Will Make 2013 the Year to Deal
with Iran,' to be released at the Harvard Club in New York on
Wednesday." http://t.uani.com/15MnH0K
AFP:
"Iran could not produce enough highly-enriched uranium for an atomic
bomb without being detected, US National Intelligence Director James
Clapper said Tuesday. While Iran has made strides in its nuclear program,
'we assess Iran could not divert safeguarded material and produce a
weapon-worth of WGU (weapons-grade uranium) before this activity is
discovered,' Clapper said in an annual report to Congress on global
threats... The US intelligence assessment, however, found that Iran has
moved forward with its uranium enrichment efforts. 'Of particular note,
Iran has made progress during the past year that better positions it to
produce weapons-grade uranium (WGU) using its declared facilities and
uranium stockpiles, should it choose to do so,' the report said... But
because Iranian leaders put a high priority on preserving their power and
would carefully weigh the risks of obtaining nuclear weapons, the United
States and its allies had an opportunity to exert influence over Tehran's
ultimate decision, he said." http://t.uani.com/Yn0jnj
Nuclear Program
AP: "A news agency says Iran plans to
submit a written promise to the United Nations that it will not seek
nuclear weapons. The Tuesday report by the semi-official Mehr news agency
quotes Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi as saying, 'Iran plans to
declare in the U.N. that it will never go after nuclear bombs.' Rahimi
did not say when the promise would be delivered. He charged that the
Western sanctions aim to thwart Iran's 'scientific progress.'" http://t.uani.com/14Wls8H
Today's Zaman:
"An investigation conducted by the federal prosecutor's office of
Germany has revealed that Iranian front companies based in İstanbul
transported 941 items with nuclear applications through Turkey, the Bugün
daily reported on Tuesday. According to the report, in 2012 German police
detected that materials with nuclear applications obtained in Germany and
India were transported to the Mitech company in Iran through Turkey by an
Iranian national, Hossein Tanideh. Mitech is under US and European Union-imposed
sanctions. Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office, which is also the
German branch of Interpol, informed its counterpart in Turkey about
Tanideh's dealings, and Tanideh was arrested after being referred to the
Küçükçekmece Court in İstanbul on Jan. 19, 2013." http://t.uani.com/Wn6aJN
Sanctions
Bloomberg: "OPEC's biggest oil
producers are in talks to supply extra crude to India as the nation
prepares to halt purchases from Iran because of global sanctions, four
people with knowledge of the matter said. Indian refiners, which are
waiting for an order from the oil ministry on whether to stop buying
Iranian cargoes, are discussing annual term contracts with Saudi Arabia,
Iraq and Kuwait for the year starting April 1, the people said this week,
asking not to be identified because the information is confidential.
While the volume hasn't been set, the Indian companies have been told
there is enough supply to cover the loss of Iranian crude, the people
said. The assurances reduce the risk of disruptions to oil supplies for
Asia's third-largest economy as it seeks to cut fuel subsidies and narrow
its budget deficit. They are also evidence of how global penalties
against Iran because of its nuclear program are squeezing the nation's
revenues. At current prices, Iran stands to lose about $11.5 billion in
sales annually if India stops buying its oil." http://t.uani.com/X6yaOY
Bloomberg:
"Iranian oil shipments advanced 13 percent last month even as the
U.S. implemented sanctions complicating sales from the Persian Gulf
country, according to the International Energy Agency. Countries
purchased 1.28 million barrels a day from Iran in February, compared with
an upwardly revised 1.13 million barrels daily in January, the
Paris-based adviser to 28 oil-consuming nations said in a report today.
New U.S. rules requiring importers to pay in local currencies kept in
escrow accounts did not appear to affect February shipments, the agency
said... Iranian exports are still down from a daily average of 1.5
million a day last year and 2.5 million in 2011, before sanctions
intensified, IEA estimates show. The country's output, once the
second-highest in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, also
expanded last month, rising 2.6 percent to 2.72 million barrels a day,
compared with 3 million barrels a day in 2012, according to the
IEA." http://t.uani.com/13VI2CJ
Reuters:
"Iran's state grain buyer has been in talks with export houses aimed
at buying around 121,254 tons of U.S.-origin milling wheat, traders said,
even as the United States and Europe impose toughened sanctions to stem
Tehran's nuclear program. Iranian wheat imports are traditionally handled
by the private sector and government, but the state has taken a bigger
role with purchases in the past year after disruption to trade finance
caused by toughened Western sanctions targeting the country's disputed
nuclear program. Sanctions do not stop food shipments but they make it
difficult for Iranian importers to obtain letters of credit to finance
purchases or conduct international transfers of funds through
banks." http://t.uani.com/YaAQv2
Terrorism
WashPost:
"Iran's expulsion of a senior al-Qaeda official appears to signal a
crackdown on the terrorist group that has long been granted safe haven
within its borders, U.S. officials say. Iran's ouster of Sulaiman Abu
Ghaith, a former al-Qaeda spokesman and the son-in-law of Osama bin
Laden, marked at least the third time in the past year that a prominent
al-Qaeda figure has left the country after living for years in a limbo
between houseguest and home detainee. U.S. officials and terrorism
experts say the tougher stance appears to reflect growing tensions
between Iran's Shiite clerics and the Sunni Muslim terrorist group,
particularly over the civil war in Syria, where they are backing opposing
sides. At the same time, Western intelligence agencies see steps by Iran
to preserve ties with al-Qaeda by allowing the group to use Iranian
territory as a transit route to and from Afghanistan, U.S. officials and
analysts say. 'We believe that Iran continues to allow al-Qaeda to
operate a network that moves al-Qaeda money and fighters through Iran to
support al-Qaeda activities in South Asia,' David S. Cohen, the Treasury
Department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence,
said in an interview." http://t.uani.com/Z1scBx
Human Rights
Reuters:
"The family of a former U.S. Marine detained in Iran for 19 months
is calling for his release, saying he has suffered in solitary
confinement and his cancer-stricken father needs him. Iranian-American
Amir Hekmati, 29, was arrested in August 2011, his family says, and
convicted of spying for the CIA, a charge his relatives and the United
States deny. His family says he was detained while visiting his
grandmother in Tehran. He was sentenced to death but a higher court
'nullified' the penalty in March 2012 and sent the case to another court.
He remains in jail with little access to a lawyer or family visits, his
sister Sarah Hekmati told Reuters by telephone this week. 'Now, a year
later ... there is silence on their end and we really need help
understanding where his case is going,' she said." http://t.uani.com/X6x71w
AFP:
"The United Nations' monitor for human rights in Iran sounded the
alarm Tuesday over a rise in arrests of journalists, saying this was part
of a pattern of increasing violations as presidential elections loom.
Seventeen journalists were arrested in the space of one week in January,
Ahmed Shaheed told reporters. In addition, some 50 journalists were
already behind bars, he said. 'I'm increasingly alarmed about the plight of
journalists, bloggers and others who are defenders and practitioners of
freedom of expression in Iran,' he said. 'They have been charged with
communicating with international news organisations or communicating with
human rights organisations, both of which should be protected under law
rather than being penalised.'" http://t.uani.com/Zzv0DM
NYT:
"With presidential elections approaching in June, Iran has cracked
down on journalists, rights activists and lawyers apparently in a bid to
stifle dissent, a United Nations investigator said on Tuesday. He also
said that the judicial authorities in Iran had tortured some Iranians for
contacting him... Mr. Shaheed said he had been unable to visit Iran
because it refused to cooperate with his investigations but noted that
his report was based on 169 interviews, two-thirds of them inside Iran
and corroborated what he called independent sources. 'I think I
established beyond reasonable doubt that my information is valid,' he
said in an interview. He also said he believed that Iran cared about what
is said about it in the council, the media or other public outlets, which
had sometimes led to what he called positive measures by the Iranian
authorities. 'At least a dozen lives were saved because of the
intervention of international opinion,' Mr. Shaheed said." http://t.uani.com/WHowHH
Opinion &
Analysis
Michael Eisenstadt
in WINEP: "That said, the U.S. still needs to
maintain a sizable naval presence in the gulf, it still needs to be ready
to send a second aircraft carrier back to the region in event of a
crisis, and it needs to significantly strengthen U.S. aerospace forces in
the region. This would assure its wary Gulf Cooperation Council allies
that the canceled deployment of the carrier does not signify reduced U.S.
commitment to their security. It would counter possible Iranian efforts
to take credit for the carrier's departure. And it would signal to Iran
that the canceled deployment of the second carrier does not translate to
a loss of capability. In particular, the failure to offset the departure
of the carrier with the strengthening of aerospace forces in the gulf
could turn an act of military prudence, prompted by a desire to cut
costs, into a major setback for America's standing in the region, by
reinforcing the impression that the U.S. is abandoning its allies there.
The canceled deployment should also force a rethink of how to more
effectively employ the military to support nuclear diplomacy with Iran.
Having repeatedly eschewed, for several decades now, the use of force in
response to Iranian-sponsored terrorism, the U.S. suffers from a
credibility deficit vis-a-vis Iran. Accordingly, repeated assertions by
American officials that 'all options are on the table' do not resonate
powerfully in the Iranian capital. What is needed is a long-term effort
to alter Tehran's risk calculus and its perception of U.S. credibility
and resolve. With Iran, subtlety and indirection work better than bluster
and direct threats. Successful diplomacy also requires a credible offer
to Tehran of a peaceful nuclear program that cannot serve as a path to
'the bomb.' A good start would be an end to statements by senior U.S.
officials that cast doubt on the efficacy of military action Iran's
nuclear program; more assertive responses to Tehran's use of proxies and
involvement in terrorism -- for instance, working with allies to 'out'
and expel Iranian intelligence agents operating abroad; and actions that
demonstrate the U.S. is preparing for the possibility of a confrontation
with Tehran, such as withdrawing dependents from select embassies and
military facilities in the region. Leaks to the media that highlight how
the U.S. is preparing for the possibility of a conflict in the gulf also
could be useful. Such moves will do more than the presence of a carrier
in the gulf did to convince Tehran that while Washington seeks to
peacefully resolve the nuclear crisis with Iran, it is preparing in
earnest for other outcomes -- and that the Islamic Republic should seize
the possibility of a diplomatic solution while it can." http://t.uani.com/YrDM5L
Meir Javedanfar in
The Diplomat: "Despite decades of tough sanctions,
North Korea has managed to defy the West and build a nuclear bomb. It has
even gone as far as conducting nuclear tests on numerous occasions while
threatening war. Besides being troubling in its own right, the West's
inability to stop North Korea through sanctions and diplomacy could send
the message to Iran that it too can defy the West. In fact, a number of
Western commentators and political leaders have warned in recent weeks
that North Korea's experience could embolden Iran. The North Korean
regime has undoubtedly managed to defy the international community,
however, this does not mean that Tehran could do the same. In fact, if we
look closer at the major differences between the economies and power
structures of both countries, we could reach the opposite conclusion:
that North Korea's recent experience could in fact deter Iran from making
and testing a nuclear weapon. One of the most important factors which
could bring Iran's leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to such a conclusion
is the fact that developing and testing nuclear weapons has not removed
or reduced sanctions against the North Korean regime. In fact, these
actions have brought additional sanctions. The same would almost
undoubtedly happen if Iran finally decides to build a nuclear weapon.
Although the North Korean regime may be able to withstand open-ended
sanctions and isolation, the same cannot be said about Iran, which is
much more sensitive to sanctions. Should sanctions continue and
potentially be strengthened, they could even turn into an existential
threat for the regime. As Iran's post-1979 revolution history has shown,
the Iranian regime is ultimately able to live without a bomb; it can't
live without a functioning economy. And there is nothing more important
to Iran's supreme leader than the survival of his regime. One of
the main factors that makes the Iranian regime more sensitive to
sanctions than the North Korean regime is the difference between their
power structures." http://t.uani.com/Wn6Q1B
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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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