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Top Stories
Reuters:
"Iran is storing millions of barrels of oil on tankers in its
territorial waters as Tehran struggles with tougher Western sanctions on
its vital seaborne export trade, ship industry sources say. Iran's oil
revenues have fallen by about 50 percent since tough EU and U.S. measures
were imposed last year, hurting business and cutting living standards for
ordinary Iranians. 'There is no doubt there are more Iranian tankers
being used for floating storage at the moment on their side of the Gulf
and the feeling is this is expected to rise,' said a European ship
industry source with knowledge of tanker movements. 'The embargo is
hurting and there has been talk of attempts by Iran to unload oil cargoes
at distressed prices.' ... Data from maritime intelligence publisher IHS
Fairplay estimated 10 of Iran's supertankers, each able to carry up to 2
million barrels of crude, were storing oil, together with one smaller
tanker able to carry up to 1 million barrels. The data showed a further
two supertankers were also probably deployed on floating storage, based
on the length of time they were stationary, meaning as much as 25 million
barrels in total." http://t.uani.com/11GGgRg
Bloomberg:
"Iran's government said it will continue providing U.S. dollars at a
preferential rate to exporters of essential goods, contradicting earlier
comments by ministry officials and parliament members who said the
program had been revised. 'Foreign currencies at a preferential rate are
still being allocated for essential goods,' Vice-President Mohammad Reza
Rahimi said today during a visit to Isfahan, according to the state-run
Mehr news agency. 'All goods that benefited from the preferential rate
will still continue to do so.' Deputy Industry Minister Hassan Radmard
told the state-run Iranian Students News Agency two days ago that the
government would stop providing dollars at the cheap rate of 12,260 rials
apiece to importers of some staple goods, including meat, chicken,
cooking oil and sugar. Rahimi said that comment was 'baseless and announced
without approval from the government.' The greenback trades at about
36,200 rials on the streets of Tehran, the rate used by most ordinary
Iranians." http://t.uani.com/12Kgo9s
Bloomberg:
"Iran pressed Hezbollah fighters to join the civil war in Syria to
bolster President Bashar al- Assad's armed struggle, according to Sobhi
al-Tofaili, a disaffected former leader of the militant group. The
allegation, made on Lebanon's Future Television, echoes similar comments
by George Sabra, interim leader of the Syrian National Coalition, at a
press conference in Turkey on April 22. The former Hezbollah secretary
said that at least 138 militiamen had died in Syria and scores had been
wounded." http://t.uani.com/13x6GGq
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
Bloomberg:
"Switzerland's government denied the nation agreed to import natural
gas from Iran. Iran's state-owned Press TV website said on April 19th
that the country finalized an export deal, citing Javad Owji, deputy oil
minister and head of the National Iranian Gas Co. The reports are
'nonsense,' Conradin Rasi, a spokesman for the Swiss Federal Office of
Energy, said today by telephone. Swiss gas trader EGL AG had negotiated
to buy Iranian gas until talks were put on hold in 2010 as the United
Nations and European Union stepped up sanctions on Iran over its nuclear
program, Rasi said. EGL has since changed its name to Axpo Trading and
has no plans to procure gas from Iran, said Daniela Biedermann, a
spokeswoman for parent company Axpo Holding AG." http://t.uani.com/ZmTYu4
AP:
"Iranian users of Samsung mobile applications are saying they have
been notified that their access to the company's online store will be
denied from May 22. In a Tehran shopping mall, owners of mobile phones
and tablets say they had received the message via email late Wednesday.
Retailers say they had no power over the decision. 'We have heard about
it, but we are only responsible for hardware here, not software and
apps,' said shopkeeper Bijan Ashtiani. In the message Samsung said it
cannot provide access to the store in Iran because of 'legal
barriers.'" http://t.uani.com/10faM1A
Terrorism
Reuters:
"When al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri spoke in an audio message
broadcast to supporters earlier this month, he had harsh words for Iran.
Its true face, he said, had been unmasked by its support for Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad against fighters loyal to al Qaeda. Yet it is
symptomatic of the peculiar relationship between Tehran and al Qaeda that
in the same month Canadian police would accuse 'al Qaeda elements in
Iran' of backing a plot to derail a passenger train. Shi'ite Muslim Iran
and strict Sunni militant group al Qaeda are natural enemies on either
side of the Muslim world's great sectarian divide. Yet intelligence
veterans say that Iran, in pursuing its own ends, has in the past taken
advantage of al Qaeda fighters' need to shelter or pass through its
territory. It is a murky relationship that has been fluid and, say some
in the intelligence community, has deteriorated in recent years." http://t.uani.com/10CqQ4V
Domestic
Politics
Al-Monitor:
"Potential presidential candidate and mayor of Tehran Mohammad
Bagher Ghalibaf sat down with Tasnim News Agency to present his positions
on foreign policy and economics. Ghalibaf, who is part of the 2+1
Coalition along with foreign-policy adviser Ali Akbar Velayati and Gholam
Ali Hadded Adel, shared his ideas on the Western sanctions against Iran,
the nuclear program and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial
remarks on the Holocaust. Ghalibaf said the 'nuclear issue is our most
important foreign-policy topic.' He added that 'the nuclear case is a
national and macro case that all the administrations will pursue within
the framework of the system.' The decisions on the nuclear program are
made through Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's office. Ghalibaf,
however, added that 'one must discern between strategy and tactics on the
nuclear issue.' While the 'strategy for the system is clear,' he
differentiated his positions on the issue of 'tactics.' ... On
Ahmadinejad's statements regarding the Holocaust, Ghalibaf asked, 'for
instance, where did the case of the Holocaust take us?' He continued, 'We
were never against Judaism; it's a religion. What we opposed was Zionism.
We've been the major supporters of Palestine for 30 years, but with the
intelligence of Ayatollahs Khomeini and Khamenei, no one could accuse us
of being anti-Semitic. But suddenly without consideration for the results
and implications, the issue of the Holocaust was raised. How did his
benefit the revolution or the Palestinians?'" http://t.uani.com/10Crn6U
The Verge:
"For years, the leadership in Iran has been threatening to build its
own private, state-controlled internet, but in recent months, we've
started to see what that looks like in practice. Since March, the regime
has led crackdowns on any technology that might threaten its control of
the online space, pulling the plug on outgoing VPN connections,
throttling encrypted traffic nationwide and blocking the Tor bridges that
would help Iranians escape onto the global web. It's a broadside attack
on the open internet, and a test of every tool in the cypherpunk
arsenal." http://t.uani.com/14S9KBK
Opinion &
Analysis
Alireza Nader in
U.S. News & World Report: "The Islamic Republic
of Iran is a crucial player in the current Syrian conflict. Iran is the
Syrian regime's biggest supporter, even more so than Russia. Tehran's
ties with Damascus have historically been based on shared strategic
interests, including thwarting U.S. and Israeli power in the Middle East.
Both countries have also relied on each other to balance unfriendly Arab
states. The Syrian-Iranian alliance has largely lacked an ideological or
religious dimension. The secular Syrian regime is dominated by members of
the Alawite sect, which is distantly related to the Shi'a religion
practiced by the majority of Iranians. Yet the Islamic Republic, the
world's only theocracy, has displayed little religious affinity for the
Assad regime. Rather, Tehran views Syria as a strategic gateway to the
Arab world, a bulwark against American and Israeli power, and, perhaps
most importantly, a crucial link to Lebanese Hezbollah. Syria is also a
buffer against internal instability in Iran. Iran's position on Syria is
straightforward: It will do its best to keep Bashar Assad in power. But
Tehran is smart enough to realize the Syrian regime could be overthrown
sooner or later. Hence, Iran has stepped up its support of Alawite and
other minority militias, not only to preserve some influence in Syria but
also (and more importantly) to maintain a physical connection to
Hezbollah if Assad is overthrown. The Alawites are often referred to as
an offshoot of Shi'a Islam, but religion's importance as a bond between
Iran and Syria should not be overstated. Some Shi'a clerics, such as the
spiritual founder of Hezbollah, Musa al-Sadr, may have recognized
Alawites as 'true' Shi'a, but the Alawites' more esoteric religious
traditions, including the lack of an organized clergy and syncretic
beliefs, clearly distinguish them from the Shi'ism prevalent in Iran and
Iraq. The close ties between Iran and Syria are based on geopolitics
rather than religion. Iran has long viewed Syria as a counterweight to
the United States, Israel, and its Arab rivals. Iran's war with Iraq
cemented the Iranian-Syrian partnership. The Islamic Republic was
regionally isolated due to its efforts to 'export' the Iranian Revolution
to the Arab world, and major Arab powers, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt,
backed Saddam Hussein during the war. Syria, ruled by Bashar's father,
Hafez al-Assad, was the only Middle Eastern state that actively backed
Iran during the war. Hafez al-Assad viewed the Baathist regime in Iraq as
a major threat to Syrian interests; the Iran-Iraq conflict sapped Iraq's
energy and prevented it from focusing on Syria. The Islamic Republic soon
thereafter emerged as an influential power in Lebanon, in Syria's
backyard." http://t.uani.com/15JwkvT
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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