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Top Stories
NYT:
"Inside a nondescript Midtown Manhattan office, a couple of computer
analysts spend their days peering intently at large screens of satellite
mapping surveillance data, watching dozens of little blips moving like
snails. Each one, they said, represents a ship controlled by Iran or its
trading partners. They said they were looking for suspicious behavior.
The analysts work for United Against Nuclear Iran, a privately financed
advocacy group founded by former American diplomats that has become an
annoying thorn to Iran, which regards it as a vigilante extension of a
hostile American foreign policy. The group's latest effort is its
maritime monitoring system, which it says provides a new level of
scrutiny of compliance with the sanctions imposed on Iran by the West
because of Iran's disputed nuclear energy program. Although the economic
and trade sanctions, including a European oil embargo, have deeply hurt
Iran, the country has been somewhat successful in finding ways to evade
them, the group says. A litany of clever tactics for cloaking commerce on
the high seas has included reflagging, renaming or clandestinely
acquiring ships, engaging in secretive ship-to-ship transfers to mask the
origins of oil or other contraband, temporarily disabling onboard
satellite transponders to hide their true locations or simply
transmitting false destinations. 'Iran thrives on deception and
disguise,' said Mark D. Wallace, the chief executive of United Against
Nuclear Iran, who would like to see a maritime blockade of the country...
United Against Nuclear Iran's monitoring system, called Minerva (an
acronym for Marine Intelligence Network and Rogue Vessel Analysis) is one
of many tools used by the group in an increasingly aggressive campaign to
harass and frustrate Iran. The group, formed in 2008 by Mr. Wallace and
other prominent American diplomats including Ambassador Richard C.
Holbrooke, who died in 2010, has claimed success for persuading dozens of
multinational corporations to stop doing business with Iran. It was also
among the first to pressure a global banking communications consortium
known as Swift to expel sanctioned Iranian financial institutions last
year... 'The establishment of this group was among a series of actions,
which indeed cast a shadow over the policy of engagement announced at
that time,' Alireza Miryousefi, a spokesman for Iran's United Nations
mission, said in response to a request for comment about the group's
activities." http://t.uani.com/11RLZCR
AP:
"American officials are hailing the election of an Iranian president
who vows to seek relief from international sanctions as the first
tangible evidence that the U.S. strategy is influencing Tehran's nuclear
policy. The draconian sanctions have wreaked havoc on the Iranian economy
and weighed heavily in the June 14 vote for Hasan Rowhani, a candidate
who openly criticized how his country's leadership has handled the
nuclear file. His election has opened a debate in the U.S. on whether
it's time to ease sanctions and see whether Tehran shifts away from what the
U.S. believes is the pursuit of a nuclear weapon. It also has set off
intense discussions among government agencies on how to proceed with
Iran, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity
because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the issue... The
U.S. officials said there will be no lifting or easing of sanctions at
this time unless Iran offers something concrete in return. Washington is
well-aware that hard-line Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and
Iran's ruling clerics - not the president - call all the shots in
policymaking and make every major decision on the nuclear program and
dealings with the West." http://t.uani.com/1azw9ni
Bloomberg:
"Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. agreed to pay $250
million to the state of New York to settle claims it transferred billions
of dollars for countries facing U.S. sanctions including Iran, Sudan and
Myanmar. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd., the main lending unit of
Japan's biggest bank by market value, moved an estimated $100 billion
through the state for government and privately owned entities on the
Specially Designated Nationals list issued by the U.S. Treasury
Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) between 2002 and
2007, the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) and New
York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement yesterday. The transfers
involved about 28,000 clearing transactions and the bank routinely
stripped information from wire transfer messages that could identify
countries and people subject to international sanctions, the department
said. The agreement follows HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA)'s record settlement
with the U.S. last year, stemming from sanctions aimed at pressuring Iran
to halt its nuclear program. 'We have and will continue to take a hard
line in rooting out misconduct at banks that threaten our national
security,' Benjamin Lawsky, the superintendent of the department, said in
the statement." http://t.uani.com/10Drcb6
Sanctions
Reuters:
"China's average daily crude imports from Iran jumped nearly 50
percent in May from the previous month, back around levels before
sanctions were slapped on the Middle Eastern country over its disputed
nuclear programme two years ago. The jump in China's imports of Iranian
crude to 555,557 barrels per day (bpd) came just before the United States
renewed the country's waiver on U.S. sanctions aimed at cutting off
Iran's oil revenues and bringing it to the negotiating table. But
industry sources with knowledge of China's crude imports said the surge
from Iran may be due to the timings of cargo arrivals and how they were
counted by the General Administration of Customs (GAC). The sources said
China's two main importers - Sinopec Corp and Zhuhai Zhenrong - do not
usually vary their term crude imports widely month-to-month. China, the
world's second biggest oil consumer, bought 2.36 million tonnes of
Iranian crude in May, equivalent to about 555,557 bpd, data from the GAC
showed on Friday. That was up 49.5 percent from the 371,500 bpd of
Iranian crude that China imported in April, the data showed. The May
level rose 6.4 percent from 521,936 bpd a year earlier." http://t.uani.com/107ixeQ
Bloomberg:
"China's fuel oil imports surged to the highest level in five years last
month as the country boosted purchases from Iran, customs data show.
Imports of the residual fuel, used by power plants and so-called teapot
oil refineries, rose 19 percent to 2.83 million tons from a month
earlier, according to data e-mailed by the General Administration of
Customs in Beijing today. That's the most since May 2008. Shipments from
Iran climbed to 526,203 tons in May, the highest since February 2004 when
Bloomberg started tracking the data. Iran ranked as China's
second-largest fuel oil supplier in May after Russia, which shipped
632,078 tons, the data show." http://t.uani.com/1c3zjgY
Reuters:
"Geneva-based agricultural trader Afegra - an exporter of cereals to
Iran until last year - is parting company with its managing director and
its trading team, sources familiar with the matter said... The sources
said Afegra had lost a vital source of income after encountering
difficulties with obtaining payment from Iran for agricultural
deliveries, which were at least partly a result of Western financial
sanctions aimed at Iran's nuclear programme." http://t.uani.com/16lDeED
Reuters:
"The Iranian currency, the rial, rose further on Thursday on hopes
the country's deep economic crisis could ease under its next president, a
relative moderate elected last week. The rial has strengthened by nearly
10 percent against the dollar since Hassan Rohani was declared winner of
the June 14 vote, according to Iranian currency dealers and websites. The
rial was trading at around 33,300 per dollar compared with about 36,300
at the close of business a week ago. Rohani's victory brings an end to
eight years under hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a period that
resulted in intensifying financial pressure on Iran thanks to several
rounds of economic sanctions imposed over its nuclear programme." http://t.uani.com/16TdfFC
Opinion &
Analysis
Michael Soukup in
Tages-Anzeiger (Zurich, Switzerland): "For years,
critics have warned Switzerland of the reputational risks involved in
commodity trading. Commodity traders reportedly operate with complex
corporate structures in order to optimize taxes, to pay bribes or
circumvent embargoes. For years, the Swiss government has been taking
this threat lightly. The last time at the end of March, when the Federal
Assembly released its long-awaited report on the regulation of commodity
trading: instead of arguing for stricter transparency rules, the Assembly
was mainly concerned with the protection of the competitiveness of the
approximately 500 commodity trading companies. After the successful
attack of the Americans on the Swiss banking center, they are now
targeting the commodity trading center. A particular sense of
exasperation reigns in the US, as Switzerland is not complying with the
European oil embargo against Iran. Last October it became known that the
Geneva based company Vitol had bought two million barrels of oil from
Iran via an Arabic subsidiary. 'It is time to characterise Switzerland's
behaviour as hypocritical and opportunistic. Switzerland should finally
start acting like a responsible member of the international community and
should impose the same measures against Iran as its European neighbours
and international partners', wrote Mark Wallace, CEO of United Against
Nuclear Iran (UANI) and former US Ambassador to the UN in a letter to the
TA... In contrast to the EU and U.S., who for the last two years have
been trying by means of sanctions to prevent Iran from building a nuclear
weapon, Switzerland pays only lip service to the embargo. In the case of
Vitol, Swiss authorities did not see an infringement because 'the Swiss
sanctions regime against Iran is not applicable to subsidiaries of Swiss
companies abroad,' the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco)
responded to an enquiry at the time. But a secret UN report that became
public in May constituted the final straw. The Zug based commodity giant
Glencore and the Lucerne based metal dealer Trafigura allegedly provided
aluminium for the Iranian nuclear program via barter deals. Glencore and
Trafigura confirmed their business dealings with the Iranian company
Iralco. But the last transaction are said to date from October 2012, two
months before the EU sanctions were imposed. However, Mark Wallace
remains unimpressed. 'At the end of the day, because of Switzerland, the
Iranian regime maintains access to an important trade and finance centre
to finance its nuclear and terrorist activity. This is
unacceptable.'" http://t.uani.com/12RihTK
Jay Bernstein in
The Baltimore Sun: "Given this reality, it would be
a mistake for the United States and the West to respond to the election
results by easing sanctions against Iran. To the contrary, it is more
critical than ever that such sanctions be promoted, enforced and
strengthened. Here in Maryland, much has already been done to address the
Iranian threat. In recent years, Maryland has enacted legislation
divesting the state pension fund from companies doing business in Iran,
and barring companies that invest in Iran's energy sector from receiving
state contracts. These laws are intended to end the economic and
financial support that the Iranian regime receives from these companies
and thereby compel Iran to abandon its illegal nuclear weapons program,
support for terrorism and gross human rights violations. In addition to
these measures, Maryland should confirm that shipping companies that
operate in the Port of Baltimore do not conduct business in Iran, and
deny entry to companies like Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) that
operate in both the Port of Baltimore and Bandar Abbas, the site of
Iran's largest container terminal. Such operations not only violate
Maryland's public policy but are contrary to the National Defense
Authorization Act signed by President Barack Obama in January, which
authorizes sanctions against anyone who knowingly supports activity
benefiting port operators in Iran. Shippers that operate in Iran
contribute to the regime's economic viability at a time when the
international community is working to isolate Iran in response to its
support for terrorism, human rights abuses and pursuit of an illegal
nuclear weapon. Last year, Gov. Martin O'Malley declared that the United
States and its allies 'need to stand together against regimes like Iran
and others who seek to destabilize the region and take us in a backward
direction.' If Governor O'Malley's call to action is to have any meaning,
shippers like OOCL must be required to choose between the business of
Maryland and the business of Iran. Hopefully, companies confronted with
this choice will choose Maryland's business over Iran's, and in so doing
contribute toward the effort to moderate the regime's policies and force
it to behave in accordance with international norms." http://t.uani.com/19YelUh
Sohrab Ahmari in
WSJ: "'The Diplomatic Sheikh' is what Western
diplomats dubbed Hassan Rohani during his tenure from 2003 to 2005 as
Iran's chief nuclear negotiator. The nickname was quickly picked up by
the American press upon Mr. Rohani's election Saturday as Iran's next
president. It complemented Mr. Rohani's newly minted reputation as a
'moderate' and a 'reformer.' But the Iranian dissidents whose
assassination he oversaw would find the label inapt-that is if they were
still around to object. As the U.S.-based Iran Human Rights Documentation
Center reported in a 2008 briefing titled 'No Safe Haven: Iran's Global
Assassination Campaign,' Mr. Rohani throughout the mid-1990s served as a
member of the Islamic Republic's sinister Special Affairs Committee. The
body 'was established after Ayatollah Khomeini's death to make decisions
on important matters of state,' according the report. 'One of the issues
handled by the Committee was the suppression and elimination of political
opposition to the Islamic Republic. As the secretary of the Supreme
National Security Council, Vice-President Hassan Rohani told the Iranian
newspaper Ettela'at in 1994 '[Iran] will not hesitate to destroy the
activities of counterrevolutionary groups abroad.'' Just how did Mr.
Rohani and his colleagues go about doing this? 'Once the Committee's recommendation
was approved by the Supreme Leader, an individual committee member would
be charged with implementing the decision with the assistance of the
Ministry of Intelligence's Special Operations Council,' according to the
IHRDC. 'The council's operational commanders receive a written order
signed by the Supreme Leader authorizing an assassination.'... Perhaps a
better nickname for Mr. Rohani-one of the key overseers of Iran's
global-assassination campaign in the 1990s-might be the Sheikh of Terror."
http://t.uani.com/125gDvM
The Economist:
"In 2009 Iran was on the verge of electing a reformer as president.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, subverted the vote and
crushed the ensuing protests. Last week the same desire for change handed
a landslide victory to Hassan Rohani-and Mr Khamenei hailed it as a
triumph. When a country has seen as much repression as Iran, outsiders
hoping for a better future for the place instinctively want to celebrate
along with all those ordinary Iranians who took to the streets. The
smiling Mr Rohani's public pronouncements encourage optimism, for he
sounds like a different sort of president from the comedy-villain,
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who precedes him. Yet even if his election bodes
well for Iranians, it does not necessarily hold equal promise for the
rest of the world. Iran's regional assertiveness and its nuclear capacity
mean that it is a more dangerous place than it ever was before... While
Iran's politics have probably changed less than Mr Rohani's election suggests,
the balance of power between Iran and the rest of the world has been
shifting in Iran's favour for two reasons. First, thanks to heavy
investment in nuclear capacity by the mullahs, and despite attempts by
the West and Israel to delay or sabotage the nuclear programme, Iran will
soon be able to produce a bomb's worth of weapons-grade uranium in a
matter of weeks (see briefing). Iran has installed more than 9,000 new
centrifuges in less than two years, more than doubling its enrichment
capability. It is a short step from the 20% enriched uranium that the
country's facilities are already producing at an increasing rate to
conversion into the fissile material needed for an implosion device.
Although Western intelligence agencies think Iran is still at least a
year away from being able to construct such a weapon, some experts
believe that it could do so within a few months if it chose to-and that
the time it would take is shrinking. This makes a nonsense of Western
policy on Iran. Round after round of negotiations to try to persuade Iran
not to get a bomb have been backed up by the implicit threat that armed
force would be used if talks failed. But now it looks as though Iran will
soon be in a position to build a weapon swiftly and surreptitiously.
Should the West decide to use force, Iran could amass a small arsenal by
the time support for a military strike was rallied. Against that
background, a friendlier president becomes a trap as well as an
opportunity. He may offer the chance of building better relations through
engagement and the gradual lifting of sanctions. But Iran could take
advantage of this inevitably slow process to build a weapon. The other
development that threatens the West's interests is happening around Iran.
Despite its economic troubles, the Iranian state is a powerful beast
compared with its neighbours, and is keen to assert itself abroad. The
Iraqi government is now its ally. It has sway over chunks of Lebanon
through Hizbullah, the Shia party-cum-militia it finances. And it has
sent Hizbullah into Syria, where its fighters have joined Iranian
advisers, money and special forces to help turn the tide of the war in
Bashar Assad's favour. Ostensibly the reason why Barack Obama agreed last
week to arm the rebels in Syria (see article) was Mr Assad's use of
chemical weapons; but many believe that the greater reason was his
reluctance to see Mr Assad hold on to power as a client of Iran's." http://t.uani.com/17rO68G
Collin Anderson in
Iran Media Program: "In the paper 'Dimming the
Internet: Detecting Throttling as a Mechanism of Censorship in Iran,'
released today on the open publication repository arXiv, Iran Media
Program affiliated researcher Collin Anderson used a three-year dataset
of network measurements as a monitoring service for political throttling,
then applied the methodology to shed light on the recent history of
censorship in Iran, and finds that Iran's Internet has experienced
prolonged and significant disruptions timed annually near the anniversary
of the Islamic Revolution and 25 Bahman, the first anniversary of the
contested elections, and protests over the depreciation of the value of
the Iranian Rial. This suspected interference often directly matched more
overt forms of censorship, including the jamming of international satellite
jamming. Through the Measurement Lab (M-Lab) platform, anti-censorship
researchers gain a diverse and non-partisan perspective on a network that
is often opaque and difficult to access from outside. The results
described not only shed light on instances of censorship, but also the
manner in which public networks are subjected to a greater degree of
disruption than those of business, universities and governments." http://t.uani.com/17rQnR7
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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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