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Top Stories
FT:
"Grant Thornton and two other accounting firms are pulling out of
Iran, creating further difficulties for foreign companies still operating
in the country. RSM, a UK-based firm, and Crowe Horwath of the US have
joined Grant Thornton, one of the second-tier international accountancy
firms, in leaving Iran after coming under US political pressure. The
firms are the latest in a long list of international businesses which
have left Iran in recent years amid strict economic sanctions that have
been imposed on Tehran in an effort to influence its nuclear programme.
For the campaigners who are trying to squeeze the Iranian economy,
internationally-respected auditors are an important target because they
provide the sort of independent scrutiny that some multinationals require
in order to maintain operations in foreign countries. The 'big four'
accounting firms pulled out of Iran in 2010. 'It sends an important
message when accountancy firms decide that it is too risky to do business
in Iran,' said Mark Wallace, the head of United Against Nuclear Iran, a
lobby group. 'Without respected auditors, it makes it much harder for
other international companies to continue doing business there.'" http://t.uani.com/11LyJln
Minneapolis / St.
Paul Business Journal: "Advocacy group United
Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) said it has succeeded in getting global
accounting firm network RSM International to cut ties with an Iranian
firm. Washington, D.C.-based UANI said RSM agreed to end its relationship
with Dayarayan Auditing & Financial Services Firm in Tehran as of
April 30. Chicago-based McGladrey, formerly headquartered in Minneapolis,
is RSM's only member firm in the United States. UANI CEO Mark Wallace, a
former ambassador to the United Nations, asked RSM and McGladrey to sever
the network's relationship with Dayarayan in March. He applauded RSM's
decision Friday. 'If Iran is too risky for the world's leading accounting
firms, then all businesses have a duty to disclose any and all Iran work
to shareholders, investors, and regulators - and make plans to leave.
Anything less is irresponsible and a failure to disclose material
information under relevant law,' Wallace said in a news release." http://t.uani.com/12zYWU9
WSJ:
"Global sanctions cut Iran's crude oil exports by 39% in 2012, to
1.5 million barrels a day, the lowest level since 1986, during the
Iran-Iraq war, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Friday.
Tighter restrictions on Iranian oil sales, led by the U.S. and the
European Union, cut Iran's net oil export revenue by 27.4% in 2012 from a
year earlier, to $69 billion, the EIA said. Based on earlier estimates
from EIA that revenue figure would be the lowest for Iran since 2009,
when oil prices were some 56% below the 2012 level. EIA's assessment on
Iran oil revenue and income cover crude oil and condensate, which is
produced in association with natural gas and can be substituted for crude
oil in some cases." http://t.uani.com/ZKwC2S
Nuclear Program
Reuters:
"Israel risks a loss of credibility over both its 'red line' for
Iran's nuclear program and its threat of military action, and its room
for unilateral maneuver is shrinking. After years of veiled warnings that
Israel might strike the Islamic Republic, Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu laid out an ultimatum at the United Nations last September.
Iran, he said, must not amass enough uranium at 20 percent fissile purity
to fuel one bomb if enriched further. To ram the point home, he drew a
red line across a cartoon bomb, guaranteeing him front page headlines
around the world. However, a respected Israeli ex-spymaster says Iran has
skillfully circumvented the challenge. Other influential voices say the
time has passed when Israel can hit out at Iran alone, leaving it
dependent on U.S. decision-makers." http://t.uani.com/185DppU
NYT:
"As President Obama wrestles with how to respond to new assessments
that Syria appears to have used chemical weapons, leaders in Israel say
they will be watching for clues about how he might handle the Iranian
nuclear issue in the future. In Syria's case, Mr. Obama has said that the
use of chemical weapons would 'change my calculus,' but he has not said
how. Even while Israel appeared to be egging on Mr. Obama toward taking
action, with officials here saying Tuesday that it appeared sarin gas had
been used by the Syrian government, those officials also conceded that
none of the military options were good... But to the Israelis, how Mr.
Obama navigates the next few weeks will be viewed as a gauge for what he
might do later regarding the potentially bigger confrontation in the
region. 'There is a question here: when a red line is set, can we stick
by it?' Zeev Elkin, Israel's deputy foreign minister, said Friday in a
radio interview. 'If the Iranians will see that the red lines laid by the
international community are flexible, then will they continue to
progress?'" http://t.uani.com/127RIUP
AP:
"Federal prosecutors say they have charged three German-Iranian dual
nationals and a German man with breaking export laws for allegedly
supplying Iran with parts needed to build a nuclear reactor in violation
of the country's trade embargo. Prosecutors said in a statement Monday
suspect Hamid Kh., 80, set up contact for Gholamali Ka., 70, and his son
Kianzad Ka., 25, with German businessman Rudolf M., 78, whose Thuringia
firm produced valves needed for a nuclear reactor's construction. Their
last names were not released in accordance with German privacy laws. The
group is accused of supplying Iran with 92 German-made valves, and
another 856 Indian-made valves, in 2010 and 2011." http://t.uani.com/ZYCsba
Reuters:
"An Iranian scientist held for more than a year in California on
charges of violating U.S. sanctions arrived in Iran on Saturday, Iranian
media reported, after being freed in what the Omani foreign ministry said
was a humanitarian gesture. Mojtaba Atarodi, 55, an assistant professor
of electrical engineering at Iran's Sharif University of Technology, had
been detained on suspicion of buying high-tech U.S. laboratory equipment,
previous Iranian media reports said." http://t.uani.com/14GLkul
Sanctions
Reuters:
"Iran is having to pay a premium for basic foodstuffs such as
cooking oil, highlighting the increasing strain on Tehran from Western
sanctions aimed at its disputed nuclear programme, even though the
sanctions don't cover food. Wilmar International, the world's largest
listed planter, and Mewah International, a $570 million edible oils
processor - both listed in Singapore - are driving sales to Iran on
long-term contracts, with Middle Eastern trading sources reporting
premiums of up to $30 a tonne to the cash benchmark. Food shipments are
not targeted under the sanctions, but the financial squeeze has cut off
firms operating in Iran from much of the global banking system and
pushed inflation above 30 percent." http://t.uani.com/17sP68O
Syrian Uprising
Reuters:
"Senior aides to Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi made a rare visit
to Tehran for talks with Iran on an Islamic initiative to seek a peaceful
solution to Syria's civil war, the two sides said on Sunday. Tehran is
Syria's closest ally and has provided money, weapons, intelligence and
training for President Bashar al-Assad's forces, while Egypt has given
political support to the opposition Syrian National Coalition fighting to
oust him. Mursi's foreign affairs adviser Essam Haddad and his
chief-of-staff Rifaa El-Tahtawy met Iranian officials in a follow-up to
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's groundbreaking visit to Cairo in
February for an Islamic summit." http://t.uani.com/11wqRmf
Human Rights
AP:
"The family of an ex-Marine detained in Iran wants Secretary of
State John Kerry to step in and demand his release. The mother, sister
and brother-in-law of Amir Hekmati were in Washington this week, meeting
State Department officials and members of Congress. Despite improvements
in Hekmati's detention conditions, they say he is 'emaciated' after more
than a year in solitary confinement and a month on hunger strike. 'Until
the highest-level government officials in the U.S. make statements and
request his release, I think it won't have enough relevance,' sister
Sarah Hekmati said. Efforts in Iran to free the 29-year-old
Iranian-American are at a standstill after more than 600 days of incarceration,
the family said. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said Friday
that freeing Hekmati is a top priority." http://t.uani.com/18dV1wS
Domestic
Politics
WashPost:
"As Iran prepares to elect a new president, the anti-establishment
energy that drove violent protests four years ago has disappeared,
quashed by the heavy-handed crackdown in 2009 that followed Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's contested reelection. The unlikely leaders of that
opposition movement, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, have been
under house arrest since 2011, and most of the student leaders and
activists who helped organize the rallies are either in prison or living
abroad, removed from the daily realities of a country whose focus on an
economic crisis bears little resemblance to the struggles of four years
ago. While activists abroad persist in their calls for change within
Iran, there are no visible signs inside the country of those who led the
protests. There are also growing doubts about whether reformers in the
mold of former president Mohammad Khatami might reemerge to take part in
the coming election." http://t.uani.com/ZWVkYj
BBC:
"Eight years ago, when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad first took
office, the Iranian government announced plans to develop a national
internet network. The project attracted little attention at the
time but now, with less than two months to go until the next presidential
election, some analysts say it is so well advanced that the authorities
could soon be in a position to cut off the entire country from the world
wide web. When Iran's former Information Technology Minister Mohammad
Soleimani complained last week about the difficulties he was having
accessing the internet, he was expressing the frustrations of many. 'This
morning I was struggling to open my Gmail account,' he told the Iranian
news agency ILNA. 'In the end I had to give up. Why doesn't anyone want
to take responsibility for this?' For months now, Iranian social media
sites have been full of postings about slow download speeds and
intermittent access." http://t.uani.com/15U2vZE
Foreign Affairs
AP:
"Iran's influential former president says his country is not at war
with archenemy Israel, the media reported Monday, in the latest departure
by a high-profile politician from the strident anti-Israel line
traditionally taken by many senior Iranian leaders. The remarks by Akbar
Hashemi Rafsanjani follows calls from figures across the political
spectrum to repair the damage to Iran's international reputation they
said had been caused by outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who
called Israel a doomed state and questioned the extent of the Holocaust.
Several of them, including Rafsanjani, are considered possible contenders
in June elections to replace Ahmadinejad as president. 'We are not at war
with Israel,' said the ex-president, quoted by several Iranian newspapers
including the pro-reform Shargh daily. He said Iran would not initiate
war against Israel, but 'if Arab nations wage a war, then we would
help.'" http://t.uani.com/ZYCBf0
Daily Telegraph:
"Israel believes that Iran's Revolutionary Guard was responsible for
the unmanned drone launched from Lebanon that was shot down in Israeli
airspace on Thursday... Initial media reports presumed the drone had been
launched by Hizbollah. In October last year, the Lebanese militant group
has claimed as a great victory their successful piloting of an unmanned
drone in the skies above the Israeli Negev for more than half an hour
before it was downed, several miles from Israel's Soreq nuclear facility.
In fact, the Israeli military had stated only that an unmanned aircraft
had been launched 'from Lebanon.'" http://t.uani.com/153N7KK
Opinion &
Analysis
Robin Mills in The
National: "'You can see the current economic
situation of the people, I hope someone would take the responsibility for
that,' said the Iranian football star Ali Daei. For any major oil
exporter, being cut off from some of the world's largest markets, subject
to steadily constricting curbs on its remaining customers, prevented from
shipping or insuring cargoes, denied payments, forbidden imports of
technology and fuels, would seem to mean certain relegation from the top
division. A report by the Energy Information Administration on Iran, just
released in the United States, details some of the impacts of sanctions.
Multi-layered sanctions have been imposed by the US, European Union and
United Nations over Iran's nuclear programme. The toughest measures came
from late 2011 onwards. Iranian oil exports dropped in 2012 by 39 per
cent, to their lowest level since 1986, when the Iran-Iraq War was still
raging. Still Opec's third-largest exporter at the start of 2012, by the
year's end it was only seventh. In the middle of 2012, its production
fell below long-time rival Iraq's for the first time in a quarter of a
century. Barring state collapse in Iraq, the Iranians will probably never
overtake the Iraqis again. Iran's inflation rate, officially 30 per cent,
may have surpassed 80 per cent in reality. The rial has collapsed from
10,700 to the dollar to around 35,000 on the black market. Only four
basic food items are still subsidised; cooking oil is now off the list,
and lower-income Iranians can barely afford meat. This gloomy litany
seems to validate the observations of sanctions supporters that, as the
White House claimed, sanctions are working or, as the Israeli finance
minister declared in September, that Iran's economy 'is on the verge of
collapse'. But such assessments underestimate Iran's ability to adapt,
and its leadership's willingness for its people to suffer. Even at
reduced export levels, Iran is benefiting from near-record oil prices. As
recently as the 1999 oil price slump, it was receiving just $250 per
person in oil export revenues; in 2012,that grew to $875. And 2011's
inflation-adjusted oil revenues of around $95 billion were the
second-highest the country has ever received, after 1974. The sanctions
have laid bare the Iranian administration's remarkable incompetence and
waste. This historic oil boom was squandered on handouts, corruption and
a surge of imports encouraged by a wildly overvalued exchange rate."
http://t.uani.com/14GRLOi
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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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