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Top Stories
Bloomberg:
"A Chinese supertanker able to haul 2 million barrels of crude sent
a signal from Iran's largest export terminal in what may be the first
visit of its kind since a European ban on insuring shipments in July. The
Yuan Yang Hu, belonging to state-owned China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co.,
the country's biggest shipping company, was at Kharg Island on March 21,
according to vessel-tracking data from IHS Fairplay, a Redhill,
England-based research company. The ship has since left the Persian Gulf,
according to a signal today. The European Union banned its member states
from buying, financing and insuring Iranian oil shipments from July 1
last year, as the bloc joined the U.S. in pressuring the Persian Gulf
state to stop its nuclear program. The move affected 95 percent of the
world's tanker fleet because the vessels were insured by companies
following EU law. Iran says the program is for civilian purposes, while
the west suspects a military intent. 'As far as I can see, this is the
first confirmed visit to an Iranian port by a Chinese-owned crude oil
carrier since the ban,' Richard Hurley, senior maritime data specialist
at IHS Fairplay, said by e-mail today... Skuld, the ship's Oslo-based
insurer, covers the tanker for protection and indemnity risks, it said in
an e-mailed statement yesterday. That insurance is automatically
invalidated by hauling Iranian oil, it said." http://t.uani.com/14x1l5o
Quartz:
"Economic sanctions on Iran have been getting tougher in recent
years, and the United States tightened the screws a little more last
summer with the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act. One
unusual aspect of that law is that it started requiring companies traded
on US stock exchanges to disclose more about the business they're doing
with Iran, and the Securities and Exchange Commission created the
clunkily named IRANNOTICE filing to help them do it. Companies were
already beginning to disclose more about their ties to Iran, Syria, Cuba
and other countries non grata (at least in US eyes) under pressure from
the SEC. Now they must be systematic about it-and disclose gross revenue
and net profits wherever possible. Quartz's partial tally: more than $540
million in gross revenue and $15.5 million in profits for US-listed
companies from their business with Iran in 2012-and that's just from 30
or so large companies that have made the disclosures since
mid-February... Companies based outside the US accounted for 99% of the
revenue and three-quarters of the profit. (They made the disclosures
because they list shares or American Depository Receipts on US markets.)
In fact, a big chunk of the total came from one company: $414 million in
revenue for Statoil ASA, the Norwegian oil and gas company, from
Statoil's contracts with the National Iranian Oil Co. Statoil also said
it has terminated its agreements with Iran, abandoned it licenses there,
and 'will not make any investments in Iran under present circumstances.'
That's a common refrain in the disclosures we saw: Many, though not all,
of the disclosed transactions reflected companies wrapping up old
business en route to cutting most or all ties with the Islamic republic.
Typically, the transactions hadn't been prohibited before the new rules
kicked in." http://t.uani.com/XJk4mQ
Economist:
"'It's all about the documents," says Sajad, a manager of an
Iranian shipping firm. 'Iran is in the printing business now.' He is
referring to the lengths to which Iranian companies go to circumvent
sanctions. In this case, the documents are faked to make Iranian oil look
as if it came from Iraq. Iraq exports a lot of oil through Iran by lorry.
Iranians who handle Iraqi documents can easily copy and reuse them. The
past 15 months have been grim for Iranian businesses which trade with the
outside world. America has tightened sanctions against Iran's financial
system; the European Union has put an embargo on its oil; and
international traders are wary of dealing with the country. But Iranian
businesses are used to fighting for survival... Amir, a manager in a
mining business, says he regularly meets British and German suppliers in
Turkey, to obtain the most advanced equipment to tap Iran's mineral
wealth. 'Foreign firms are terrified of doing something illegal, but in
the end they are businessmen,' he says. 'The Europeans send our cargoes to
Dubai, documented as the final destination. From there we are in charge.'
Amir uses Gulf middlemen to change the documents, for a fee of 3-5%,
before the goods are shipped to Bandar Abbas, Iran's largest port." http://t.uani.com/11PA7CH
Sanctions
Bloomberg:
"Japan's crude imports from Iran rose 16 percent in February from a
year earlier to the highest level since March 2012, boosting its intake
despite sanctions against the Middle Eastern nation. Oil purchases
last month climbed to 1.43 million kiloliters, or about 321,000 barrels a
day, up from 1.23 million kiloliters in February 2012, according to data
today from the Ministry of Finance. Imports were up 67 percent from
857,700 kiloliters in January, according to the data. Shipments from Iran
in March 2012 were 1.75 million. Japan's total crude purchases dropped
2.7 percent in February to 18.7 million kiloliters, the finance ministry
said March 21." http://t.uani.com/YVNdux
Bloomberg:
"McKesson Corp., the biggest drug distributor in the U.S., was
awarded $40.5 million from Iran for the nation's seizure of a dairy
business after a U.S. appeals court ordered reassessment of the original
amount. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington ruled today that
San Fransisco-based McKesson is entitled to $7.6 million in damages,
$21.7 million in simple interest, $10 million in attorney fees and $1.2
million in other expenses... Leon ruled in 2010 that Iran violated its
own laws and international laws when it took control of Pak Dairy Co. and
withheld dividends from McKesson. The parties have been fighting since at
least 1982 over the dairy, which, according to court records, was created
in 1960 by McKesson and a group of Iranian investors. The case has been
the subject of several appeals over jurisdiction." http://t.uani.com/10Uj7Mw
Economic Times:
"The Cabinet is likely to consider on Tuesday winding up of a
38-year old Indo-Iranian shipping company as tightening western sanctions
has run the venture's oil tankers and dry bulk vessels aground. Irano
Hind Shipping Company, which was formed in 1975 by Iran's former Shah
Reza Pahlavi and the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as a bond of
friendship, will be shut as it had failed to get business, official
sources said. India's largest shipping firm, Shipping Corporation of
IndiaBSE 0.25 % (SCI) owns a 49 per cent stake in the venture, while
Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) holds the remaining 51
per cent. The Union Cabinet is scheduled to consider winding up of the
joint venture at its meeting on April 2, they said... The decision to
wind up Irano Hind Shipping Co was taken in July last year, they said
adding charters don't want to take vessels which are under
sanctions." http://t.uani.com/YhvwK5
CNBC:
"The president of Rotana, one of the biggest hotel chains in the
Middle East, believes there are significant investment opportunities in
Iran, despite growing international sanctions. 'Iran has got a huge
untapped potential. Iran is a safe country, it's a beautiful country',
Selim El Zyr, president of Rotana, told CNBC's 'Access: Middle East'.
Rotana had so far signed on three Iranian properties, he said." http://t.uani.com/102GMsN
Terrorism
CNN:
"When Limbert and his fellow hostages were finally freed on January
20, 1981, they learned the U.S. government gave up something big in
return: As part of the Algiers Accords agreed to a day earlier, the
hostages were barred from suing Iran in U.S. court to seek compensation
for their ordeal. Decades of court challenges have gone nowhere and
appeals to administrations in both parties have failed. The Obama
administration has said it stands by the promise in the Algiers Accords
not to sue Iran. Now, Sen.Johnny Isakson, R-Georgia, is pushing
legislation to get the former hostages financial reward in a different
way. He wants to put a surcharge on fines against companies that violate
sanctions against Iran and use that money to create a compensation fund.
Isakson says the popularity of 'Argo' is helping. 'A lot of people have
seen it. They understand the abject horror that these people went
through. I think most everybody will identify with the crisis and the
suffering these people went through, and hopefully it will give us the
impetus and the momentum to see to it that all these many years they're
actually compensated for their treatment,' Isakson said." http://t.uani.com/10gCSdI
Human Rights
Guardian:
"Five members of Iran's Ahwazi Arab minority sentenced to death
following trials described by activists as grossly unfair are on hunger
strike in protest at their conviction and ill-treatment in jail. The men,
Mohammad Ali Amouri, 34, teachers Hashem Sha'bani Amouri, 32, and Hadi
Rashidi, 38, and two brothers Sayed Jaber Alboshoka, 27, and Sayed
Mokhtar Alboshoka, 25, have refused to take food since the beginning of
this month because of the supreme court's decision to uphold their death
sentences, Amnesty International said. 'Their hunger strike is also in
protest against their torture and other ill-treatment in Karoun prison
and the prison authorities' refusal to grant them medical treatment for
various ailments, including some which may have resulted from earlier
torture or other ill-treatment,' Amnesty said in an urgent appeal issued
on Tuesday. 'They have not been examined by a doctor despite their
repeated requests.' They have all been found guilty of being linked to a
terrorist organisation and involvement in shootings that authorities say
occurred in and around the town of Ramshir (also known as Khalafabad) in
Khuzestan province." http://t.uani.com/11PxXmw
Opinion & Analysis
Edward Jay Epstein
in WSJ: "The West has tried to stop Iran from
manufacturing nuclear weapons by diplomacy, sanctions and cybersabotage,
and with the threat of military action if Tehran crosses red lines in
moving toward the final stages of making a bomb. If Iran becomes
discouraged in its efforts, an easier and more immediately dangerous
option is available: buying nuclear weapons from North Korea. When it
comes to manufacturing weapons of mass destruction, the Iranian regime is
in a bind. To further enrich its current stockpile of lowly-enriched
uranium hexafluoride gas to weapons-grade material, Tehran would need to
reconfigure its centrifuges. Since those centrifuges are closely
monitored by inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran
would have to expel the inspectors, explicitly breaking out of the
Non-Proliferation Treaty. Then it would take four to six months-according
to the head of Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Studies, Amos
Yadlin-to produce enough enriched uranium for a bomb. During this
interval, Tehran would effectively invite an attack by the U.S. and
Israel, which have repeatedly stated that they will not allow Iran to
produce fissile fuel for weapons. Since the U.S. has munitions capable of
destroying all of Iran's centrifuges above ground at Natanz and sealing
off the entrances to its underground facilities at Fordo-plus the Stealth
bombers to deliver these knockout punches-Iran would likely lose the
means to manufacture nuclear weapons before it could make a single one.
But what if Iran buys one or two nuclear warheads from North Korea? The
government in Pyongyang has already conducted three nuclear tests and
claims that it has nuclear warheads that fit on its No Dong medium-range
ballistic missiles. If that claim is true, then mounting the warheads on
Iran's Shahab missiles, which are copies of the North Korean ones, would
present little problem. After all, Iran has collaborated with North Korea
on missile design for more than a decade. These off-the-shelf weapons
would leave virtually no window of opportunity for a pre-emptive attack
by the West and its allies. The warheads could arrive in Iran on a plane
in the middle of the night and be immediately fitted onto Iranian
missiles. Iran would not have to actually use these missiles to have a
deterrent. It could renounce the Non-Proliferation Treaty and flaunt its
nukes, as North Korea has done for seven years without suffering a
military attack by the U.S. Indeed, such a fait accompli would give Iran
the same potential for nuclear retaliation as North Korea." http://t.uani.com/YKi3ac
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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