Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Eye on Iran: Golden Loophole: How an Alleged Turkish Crime Ring Helped Iran








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Reuters: "In this city's Grand Bazaar, sellers along labyrinthine passageways hawk carpets, jewelry and souvenir knick-knacks to tourists. Turkish police believe that until recently, the area around the market also sat at the center of an audacious, multi-billion-dollar scheme involving bribery and suspect food shipments to Iran. To date, no one has been charged. But a recently leaked police report - which contains allegations of payments to top Turkish government officials including cash stuffed into shoeboxes - has added fuel to a growing corruption scandal that has shaken the highest levels of Turkey's political establishment. A review by Reuters of the report's 299 pages, as well as interviews with currency and precious metals dealers, offer colorful new details of how what police call a 'crime organization' allegedly helped Iran exploit a loophole in the West's sanctions regime that for a time allowed the Islamic Republic to purchase gold with oil and gas revenues. While the gold trade was then legal, the police report alleges the purported crime network bribed officials in part so it could maintain control of the lucrative business. Then, when the West last July prohibited the gold trade as a sanctions violation, the police report alleges the network concocted records of shipments of food at preposterous volumes and prices to continue giving Iran access to foreign currency... The report presents a wealthy young businessman of Iranian descent named Reza Zarrab as the ringleader... To keep the business running smoothly, the report alleges, Zarrab's network paid bribes to Zafer Caglayan, Turkey's economy minister; Muammer Guler, the interior minister; Egemen Bagis, the European Union Affairs minister; and Suleyman Aslan, Halkbank's chief executive." http://t.uani.com/1ft1spm

NYT: "The Obama administration's strategy of punishing Russia with economic sanctions over the Ukraine crisis encountered a new complication on Monday with word that the Russians are negotiating an $8 billion to $10 billion energy deal with Iran, another country ostracized by American-led sanctions, which partly depend on Moscow's cooperation to be effective. The Russia-Iran energy deal, reported by the Iranian state news media, is the second significant economic collaboration under negotiation between the two countries that could undercut the efficacy of the sanctions on Iran. Those sanctions are widely credited with successfully pressuring the Iranians in the current talks over their disputed nuclear program... Under the deal, as reported by Iran's Mehr News Agency, the Russians would export 500 megawatts of electricity to Iran and construct new thermal and hydroelectric generating plants and a transmission network. Mehr said terms of the deal were discussed on Sunday between Hamid Chitchian, Iran's energy minister, and his Russian counterpart, Alexander Novak, who was on a state visit to Iran. Mehr quoted Mr. Chitchian as emphasizing 'the need for further expansion of economic ties between Tehran and Moscow, particularly in the energy and commerce spheres.'" http://t.uani.com/1ltlVe2

Reuters: "The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Monday its chief inspector had held 'informal' talks in Tehran, ahead of a mid-May deadline for Iran to answer questions about detonators that could be used to help set off an atomic explosive device. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which for years has been investigating suspected nuclear weapon research by Iran, gave no details about the previously unannounced visit of IAEA Deputy Director General Tero Varjoranta to the Iranian capital. He went to Tehran 'at the end of last week for informal talks as part of regular contacts between the agency and Iran,' IAEA spokesman Serge Gas said in an email. Gas said IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano would 'provide an update on developments' in Iran to the U.N. agency's 35-nation board of governors in a few weeks' time, an apparent reference to a quarterly report due in May... By May 15, Iran is supposed to provide information to the IAEA about its need or application for the development of so-called Exploding Bridge Wire detonators. These fast-functioning detonators have some non-nuclear uses, but can also help set off an atomic device." http://t.uani.com/QUunI4
      
Nuclear Program & Negotiations

Reuters: "The United Nations atomic agency will visit two uranium sites in Iran next week, Iranian media reported on Tuesday, part of the body's efforts to gain greater insight into Tehran's disputed nuclear program. A senior inspector from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will visit the Saghand uranium mine in central Iran and the Ardakan milling plant, where the ore is separated from other elements, ISNA news agency reported, quoting Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman of Iran's atomic energy organization. Fars news agency said the visits would take place next week... The planned visits to Saghand and Ardakan are among seven measures the two sides agreed would be carried out by May 15, as part of a step-by-step process by Iran to provide greater access and more information to U.N. inspectors. Diplomats and experts say the measures announced so far have been relatively easy for Iran to agree to but that it may become increasingly difficult as the U.N. agency presses for answers to sensitive questions on alleged atomic bomb research." http://t.uani.com/1jcXhO1

Sanctions Relief

Trend: "Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh ordered the ministry officials to officially expel China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) from South Azadegan oilfield's development project. The oil minister had previously issued a 90 day ultimatum to the Chinese firm, Iran's IRNA News Agency reported on April 29. On Feb. 18, Iran issued an ultimatum to CNPC over its continuous delays in developing the South Azadegan oilfield. At the time, Zanganeh said, 'If this trend continues, we will expel CNPC from the project.' 'The presence of CNPC in Iran will depend on changing its behavior within the 90-day ultimatum which has been given,' Zanganeh said. On April 19, Iran's Tasnim reported that CNPC is on the verge of quitting Iran's South Azadegan oilfield development project." http://t.uani.com/1hMGuAL

Trend: "An Italian parliamentary delegation will visit Tehran on May 3 at the invitation of the head of Iran's Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Alaeddin Boroujerdi. The delegation which headed by the Chairman of Italian Senate's Foreign Affairs Committee Pier Ferdinando Casini includes 10 members of the Italian Senate's foreign policy committee, the adviser of Iran's parliament speaker on International Affairs Hossein Sheikholeslam said, Iran's Tasnim news agency reported on April 29. Sheikholeslam went on to say that studying the potentials for boosting mutual relations is the main goal of the Italian lawmakers' visit. In their 3-day visit, the Italian lawmakers are scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with the senior Iranian officials, he added. Earlier on January 3, an Italian parliamentary delegation, also led by Casini, paid a three-day visit to Iran." http://t.uani.com/1iBQ5uZ

Bloomberg: "Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL) plans to spend $1.4 billion to expand crude processing at its facility in western India to meet growing fuel demand in Asia's third-largest economy. Mangalore Refinery, a unit of India's biggest state-run explorer Oil & Natural Gas Corp., will raise capacity by 40 percent to 420,000 barrels a day by end-March 2018, Managing Director P.P. Upadhya said in an interview yesterday... 'With the new units, we can buy 10 million tons of heavier grades out of 13 million tons of our annual imports,' Upadhya said. 'We are planning about 2 million metric tons of Latin American crude in 2014-15 and 4 million tons of Iran Heavy and Norooz and Soroosh grades, as well as heavier grades of Iraqi crude.'" http://t.uani.com/1tZgNC8

Syria Conflict

Reuters: "Syrian President Bashar al-Assad declared on Monday he would seek re-election in June, defying calls from his opponents to step aside and allow a political solution to the country's devastating civil war. Assad formally submitted his nomination to Syria's constitutional court to stand in an election which his Western and Arab foes have dismissed as a parody of democracy. He is the seventh person to put himself forward for Syria's first multi-candidate presidential vote in decades, but none of his rivals are expected to mount a serious challenge to 44 years of Assad family rule. The announcement was made in parliament by speaker Mohammad al-Laham, who read out Assad's submission. 'I ... Dr Bashar Hafez al Assad ... wish to nominate myself for the post of president of the republic, hoping that parliament will endorse it,' it said." http://t.uani.com/1fMrGy6

Human Rights

AFP: "The payment of 'blood money' spared 358 Iranians from execution last year, the country's prosecutor general said on Monday. The practice, made possible under the Islamic sharia law of diya (restitution), allows a convict to be pardoned by a victim's family if they receive financial recompense. The 358 cases fell in the last Iranian calendar year, between March 2013 and March 2014, the Fars news agency quoted prosecutor general Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie as saying. According to the United Nations, more than 170 people have been executed in Iran since the beginning of 2014. However, Iranian media have in recent weeks published details of several capital cases in which blood money spared the killers from execution." http://t.uani.com/QUxbVy

Domestic Politics

Bloomberg: "Drawing on a cigarette at his flat in central Tehran, Araz Alipour counts on one hand his college friends who have chosen to build a career in Iran. 'Easily 90 percent of them have gone overseas,' the 29-year-old software developer said, reflecting on a middle-class flight that has seen many of the nation's best scientists and engineers leave. 'Of my 45 university classmates, I guess maybe five are left.' ... Seyyed Hassan Hosseini, deputy chief of Iran's National Elites Foundation, said on April 20 that over the past two years at least 40 percent of top-performing students in science and engineering left the Persian Gulf nation. The flood of emigrants has rung alarm bells at the highest level. President Hassan Rouhani prioritized stemming the tide of 'fleeing brains' during his election campaign last year. As global companies plot a post-sanctions strategy for Iran amid optimism that nuclear talks may ease its isolation, they could find their ambitions thwarted by a skills shortage." http://t.uani.com/1koEQ8G

Al-Monitor: "After media speculation about a possible return to politics, former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has rejected the idea for now. 'I do not intend to enter politics,' Ahmadinejad said among a crowd of supporters in Mashhad last week. 'I will not break my current silence,' he said, but added, 'This silence does not mean passivity.' Ahmadinejad, who has become more visible lately, answered some reporters' questions and shared his ideas on governance, saying, 'All of the world's problems are because the work is not done for God. This is why corruption has happened, and happens.' ... The former president also praised Iran's revolution for relying on 'domestic capacities' and said that Iran's 'Islamic system will provide the setting for the Hidden Imam's world revolution,' referring to Shiite Islam's twelfth and final leader. He added that the 'prime goal' of the Islamic Republic of Iran was to start a movement for the 'beginnings of the emergence of the Hidden Imam.' Ahmadinejad is currently a member of the Expediency Council. But high-profile appearances and statements by former officials have fueled rumors that he is preparing for a larger return to politics." http://t.uani.com/1ltqDZe

Foreign Affairs

Reuters: "A senior British diplomat made a brief visit to Tehran on Monday for talks with officials on the strained ties between the two countries and on Iran's nuclear program, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported. Earlier, IRNA said Tehran and London were looking to restore full diplomatic ties, all but severed after a 2011 raid on Britain's embassy in the Iranian capital. Simon Gass is the most senior British diplomat to visit since the raid, which came after Iranian allegations that Britain had masterminded mass protests that followed then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in 2009. Britain has flatly denied the accusations. 'There is the likelihood of a rise in the level of diplomatic ties between Tehran and London,' IRNA quoted foreign ministry official Majid Takht-Ravanchi as saying. Gass is also London's representative in six-power nuclear talks with Tehran, and met senior members of Iran's nuclear negotiation team, IRNA said." http://t.uani.com/1ltuUMk

Trend: "Iran deplored the US and European states for imposing sanctions on a number of new Russian government officials and business entities, calling them 'inefficient'. 'We condemn the sanctions; the US and Europe should be aware that such methods are inefficient and they shouldn't treat countries from a superiority-seeking position,' Iran's foreign ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said, the country's Fars news agency reported on April 29. Afkham described the sanctions as an inefficient tool and experience which is based on superiority-seeking outlook and an arrogant morale, and said, 'We believe that crises should be settled through talks and peaceful ways.'" http://t.uani.com/1jd1TU4

Opinion & Analysis

Saeed Kamali Dehghan in Guardian: "Tehran University's outspoken professor, Sadegh Zibakalam, was asked recently in a heated debate on national radio why he fought to overthrow the Shah and endured two-year jail sentence. Furious about Zibakalam's views on foreign policy, especially his support for normalising ties with the US, the hardline MP Hamid Rasaei sought to embarrass him by reminding the true origins of his political life - as a political prisoner under the US-backed Shah - and what he had stood for then. Rasaei said: 'This Zibakalam is different from the one from before the revolution.' Zibakalam turned the tables on him. He answered: '[Under the Shah] I went to jail so that we wouldn't have political prisoners any more. So that we would have free elections. So that we would have freedom of press. So that Evin could be shut down.' Thirty-five years since Iranians deposed the late Shah, Tehran's notorious Evin prison remains open despite post-revolutionary hopes for it to become a museum displaying the despotic powers of the Savak, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's brutal secret police. It is today home to a large group of people held on political grounds or because of their ethnic or religious background. They are Iran's prisoners of conscience, some of whom we identified here last year. Iran's judiciary often blurs reality by claiming those behind bars in Evin's political wings are held under security charges, such as vague accusations of 'acting against the national security' or 'propaganda against the Islamic republic'. 'We don't have political prisoners in Iran,' Javad Larijani, the head of the state-run human rights council, has said. Earlier this month, Evin's ward 350 was scene of extreme violence as intelligence officers subjected inmates to humiliating physical abuse, forcing them to run a gauntlet of guards armed with batons. Some of them, including the prominent laywer Abdolfattah Soltani, had their heads shaved in a move activists saw as intended to hurt their dignity. In solidarity with the prisoners, many Iranians launched a campaign posting their pictures online with their heads shaved. Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, has been mute about the unprecedented use of force in Evin, even though his office met a number of prisoners' relatives. In fact, Rouhani has maintained a policy of not publicly addressing human rights issues, some of which have put people like Zibakalam at odds with the values they fought for at the establishment of the Islamic republic - which was supposed to be a freer and fairer country than that ruled over by the Shah. After Rouhani's win in the election, there was a glimpse of hope as a group of activists, including the celebrated lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, were released from Evin. But as we come close to the end of Rouhani's first year in office, that promise of change has faded. Rouhani might have limited powers but human rights violations have continued under his presidency, as highlighted by the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, last month. Iran continues to execute convicts at staggering rates. Arbitrary detention and unfair trials are rife. Discrimination against minorities, including Bahais and homosexuals, mistreatment of political prisoners, and restrictions on freedom of expression, are common. This week authorities closed down Ebtekar, the third reformist newspaper to be shut down under Rouhani. Last week, they arrested Hossein Nouraninejad, a political activist... There are lessons Rouhani should learn from Mohammad Khatami, who is often criticised to have done and said too little, too late during his own reformist presidency. Rouhani should learn Khatami's mistakes, trying to protect perople's rights while he still has the massive support given to him during last year's election. It's time he broke his silence on human rights in Iran." http://t.uani.com/1h9R1Cw


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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