Eye on Iran: Asian Buyers Take 25 Percent More Iran Oil in First Half

Join UANI           Top Stories Reuters: "Iran's biggest clients took in a quarter more oil in the first six months of 2014 than in the same period of last year, with China and India holding to the higher volumes they started after the agreement that relaxed Western sanctions on Tehran. Iran's exports to its top four oil buyers - China, India, Japan and South Korea - may keep rising even though a deadline for a final deal on its disputed nuclear programme had to be extended. The lead U.S. nuclear negotiator on Tuesday said participants aim to reach a resolution on the decade-old dispute by the end of the four-month extension. Iran last week received the final instalment of the $4.2 billion (£2.4 billion) in oil payments released as part of the earlier agreement, although another $2.8 billion was released as part of the extension. 'From this point forward, we expect more upside than down with respect to Iranian crude exports to Asia with the caveat that talks don't collapse completely,' said James Davis, a consultant at Facts Global Energy. 'We see an extra 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude production from Iran by end-2015 as very possible,' he said.  The four Asian buyers imported 1.2 million bpd in the first half of 2014, versus 961,236 bpd in the same period a year ago, according to official customs data and tanker arrival schedules. China, Iran's biggest customer, raised its imports by almost 50 percent in the first half, while India increased its purchases by a third." http://t.uani.com/1rLstFX AFP: "The chief of Iran's elite Quds Force has ridiculed calls for Hamas to be disarmed and urged the Palestinian Islamist movement in Gaza to 'turn the land and skies into hell' for Israel. Major General Qassem Suleimani's message to militant factions resisting Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip was published late Wednesday by Iran's official IRNA news agency. Suleimani 'underlined that confronting the Zionist enemy is a necessity and the Palestinian resistance movement will turn the land and skies into hell for the Zionists.' 'Disarmament of resistance is a daydream that will only come true in the graveyard' for Israel, said the rarely-quoted senior figure... 'Martyrdom for Palestine is a dream of every noble Muslim and freedom-seeker.'" http://t.uani.com/1nWl60e Free Beacon: "Iranian President Hassan Rouhani lashed out at Israel in vitriolic terms on Wednesday, referring to Israel as a 'festering Zionist tumor.' Rouhani, who has been championed by Western media as a moderate reformer who could change Iran's extremist ways, appears to be adopting a violent tone similar to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has advocated for the complete destruction of Israel in recent days. 'Today, this festering Zionist tumor has opened once again and has turned the land of olives into destruction and blood and littered the land with the body parts of Palestinian children,' Rouhani was quoted as saying in a statement that was translated by the Brookings Institution. Rouhani's comments have received little attention in the Western media, which rushed to congratulate the Iranian leader last year for sending a greeting to Jews during the Rosh Hashanah holiday. Rouhani went on to compare Israel to the jihadists affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), which Iran is fighting against in Iraq. ISIL is 'a second festering tumor that murders people in the name of Islam,' Rouhani said, adding that, 'analysts say that both of these tumors derived from the same origin.'" http://t.uani.com/1rLwVEV     Sanctions Relief Tasnim (Iran): "Austrian President Heinz Fischer will pay an official visit to Iran after the end of the extended nuclear talks between Tehran and six world powers, the Austrian news agency APA reported on Thursday. 'Vienna and Tehran are consulting on the timing of Fischer's trip. But it is expected to take place after the conclusion of nuclear talks on November 24th,' said Austrian Presidential Spokeswoman Astrid Salmhofer. A high-ranking economic delegation will accompany Fischer during his visit to explore investment opportunities in Iran." http://t.uani.com/1nMUAWl Iraq Crisis Reuters: "A Hezbollah commander has died during a mission in Iraq, sources familiar with the incident said on Wednesday, indicating the Lebanese group that is already fighting in Syria's civil war may be involved in a second conflict in the region. Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shi'ite Islamist group, has not previously announced any role in the conflict in Iraq, which escalated last month when radical Sunni militants seized large areas of territory from the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad. Four sources in Lebanon named the Hezbollah commander as Ibrahim al-Haj, a technical specialist involved in training. They said he was 'martyred' in a battle near Mosul, a city in northern Iraq seized from government control last month by an al Qaeda offshoot known as the Islamic State. His funeral was held on Wednesday in the village of Qilya in the Bekaa Valley. A Hezbollah official contacted by Reuters declined to comment." http://t.uani.com/1nMSju2 Human Rights Guardian: "Iran's crackdown on journalists and political activists is being spearheaded by a small group of judges under the influence of the country's intelligence and security apparatus, according to human rights organisations. Four judges with Iran's revolutionary court and two appeal judges have led numerous court sessions that activists say did not conform to fair trial principles according to Iran's constitution, and are in breach of international treaties to which Tehran is a signatory. The six judges are accused of losing their judicial impartiality and overseeing miscarriages of justice in trials in which scores of journalists, lawyers, political activists and members of Iran's ethnic and religious minorities have been condemned to lengthy prison terms, lashes and even execution. Those accused are judges Abolghassem Salavati and Mohammad Moghiseh, former justices Yahya Pirabbasi and Hassan Zareh Dehnavi (known as judge Haddad), and appeal judges Hassan Babaee and Ahmad Zargar. According to several former prisoners who spoke to the Guardian, and testimonies received by human rights groups, common violations by the judges include holding trials behind closed doors, lasting only a few minutes and without essential legal procedures, intimidating defendants, breaching judicial independence by acting as prosecutors themselves and depriving prisoners of access to lawyers." http://t.uani.com/XjA3yz Reuters: "An Iranian-American man detained along with three journalists in Iran last week has been released, a source close to one of those being held said on Wednesday. The United States has called for their release and a senior U.S. official said Washington was using 'all appropriate channels' to make its concerns known to Iran. 'They were treated with respect, given food and water,' said the source, adding that the man, who is the husband of one of the three detained journalists, was not tortured. Their names are being withheld at the request of the couple's relatives. Still in detention along with the freed man's wife, who is an Iranian-American photographer, are Jason Rezaian, 38, an Iranian-American and Tehran correspondent for the Washington Post, and his wife Yeganeh Salehi, a correspondent for the United Arab Emirates-based newspaper The National. The four were arrested in Tehran last Tuesday." http://t.uani.com/1pt9pN0 Al-Monitor: "Iran's Labor Ministry has sent a letter to Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf expressing its misgivings about the proposed segregating of the sexes at municipal offices. Deputy Labor Minister Mohammad Taghi Hosseini wrote to the mayor and Tehran's city council July 4, 'As you know, the Islamic Republic of Iran is a member of the International Labour Organization, and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, as the national reference for membership in this organization, is required to observe obligations and commitments ... to international labor conventions, such as non-discrimination in the work place.' The letter stated that such a practice could provoke an 'international reaction,' even going so far as to say that 'it could be considered a human rights violation' by some international organizations." http://t.uani.com/1zz4y10 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.