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BBC: "European Union foreign ministers have formally adopted an oil embargo against Iran over its nuclear programme. The sanctions involve an immediate ban on all new oil contracts with Iran, while existing contracts will be honoured until 1 July. Tehran denies that it is trying to develop nuclear weapons and says talks and not sanctions are the only way to resolve the dispute. The EU currently buys about 20% of Iran's oil exports. Meanwhile, the Pentagon said the US aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, as well as a British Royal Navy frigate and a French warship, have passed through the Straits of Hormuz at the entrance to the Gulf without incident in the wake of Iranian threats to block the trade route." http://t.uani.com/wrX0aH
AP: "Two Iranian lawmakers on Monday stepped up threats their country would shutter the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's crude flows, in retaliation for oil sanctions on Tehran. The warnings came as EU nations agreed in Brussels on an oil embargo against Iran as part of sanctions over the country's controversial nuclear program. The measure includes an immediate embargo on new contracts for Iranian crude and petroleum products while existing ones are allowed to run until July. Iran has repeatedly warned it would choke off the strait if sanctions affect its oil sales, and two lawmakers ratcheted up the rhetoric on Monday. Lawmaker Mohammad Ismail Kowsari, deputy head of Iran's influential committee on national security, said the strait 'would definitely be closed if the sale of Iranian oil is violated in any way.'" http://t.uani.com/AnJ91f
WSJ: "Britain's communications regulator revoked the U.K. broadcasting license of Iran's state-owned Press TV on Friday and demanded the Tehran-based English-language news channel leave the British airwaves immediately. The decision stemmed from a complaint filed by Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari against Press TV after the channel aired a 2009 false confession Mr. Bahari said he gave under duress during detention in an Iranian prison. The footage-in which Mr. Bahari confessed to helping stage Iran's 2009 protests with other foreigners, in collusion with the Western media-was aired in the U.K. as well as Iran. Ofcom, the British communications regulator, upheld Mr. Bahari's complaint in a decision last year and said Press TV beached the U.K. broadcasting code by airing the footage. As punishment, the regulator hit Press TV with a £100,000 ($155,000) fine." http://t.uani.com/ysqYjJ
UANI in the News
WSJ: "U.S. diplomats and lobbyists are stepping up pressure to reduce African commercial ties to Iran as part of a growing global push to squeeze Tehran, an effort that has already led several African companies to consider leaving the country. Among the results so far, Angola's state-owned energy company, Sonangol, is considering pulling out of an Iranian gas deal, and Sasol Ltd. of South Africa says it is discussing whether to divest itself of its 50% share in a $900 million Iranian petrochemical project... Separately, Washington lobby group United Against Nuclear Iran says it is preparing a campaign to persuade South Africa's flagship telecommunications company MTN Group Ltd. to abandon its stake in Iran's second-largest cellphone operation. The company derives 21% of its subscriber base from Iran, according to data from September. Nathan Carleton, spokesman for United Against Nuclear Iran, says the group fears investment in Iranian telecommunication aids government censorship and efforts by officials to track cellphone users. MTN declined to comment on its business in Iran." http://t.uani.com/y6LeOC
NYDN: "Jennifer Lopez is having more car trouble. The group, United Against Nuclear Iran, released a statement Friday and an online parody of the 'American Idol' judge's 'My World' Fiat commercial, urging her to cut ties with the group because of their business ties to Iran. The faux commercial features the J-Lo ad intercut with bloody imagery of the protests in Iran. A narrator, immitating J-Lo, says, 'Fiat and the brutal Iranian regime... or the people of Iran. I hope concerned citizens don't make me choose.' In an open letter to Lopez, the organization's company wrote that by endorsing the car company the pop star was 'serving as a spokesperson for a company that freely does business with a regime that is developing an illegal nuclear weapons program, financing and sponsoring terrorist groups including al-Qaeda, has killed American and NATO soldiers and is recognized as one of the world's leading human right's violators.'" http://t.uani.com/AgXaV5
Fox News: "The organization, United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI) has put JLO on blast again and this time there are graphic images involved. Last week the UANI, dedicated to prevent the development of a nuclear weapon in Iran, urged Lopez to end her deal with FIAT because they claim the Italian car company continues to do business with Iran. They gave her a Wednesday deadline to cut ties with the auto maker. On Friday, the foreign policy advocacy group, released a parody of Lopez's FIAT commercial, drastically different to the original FIAT ad. In the parody, a voice similar to JLO's says that she 'supports terrorists' and that she has sold out because 'Fiat does pay me millions.'" http://t.uani.com/yWSGCg
Video: J.Lo's "My World" Fiat Commercial Parody http://t.uani.com/ynJgub
Nuclear Program & Sanctions Reuters: "The U.S. Senate is looking to strengthen the economic chokehold on Iran with even stricter measures to cripple Tehran's oil revenues and possibly its shipping in legislation that is expected in the coming weeks... One congressional aide said senators were discussing provisions that would make President Barack Obama decide whether to blacklist Iran's oil tanker operator, the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). The idea is to give Obama a deadline to determine whether Tehran's tanker operator and oil company have any links to Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps... Congress is also considering measures that would see the U.S. government ban shipping classification societies from providing services to vessels in the United States if they also provide those services to vessels for Iran, North Korea, Sudan or Syria." http://t.uani.com/xpMpO0
WSJ: "British and European Union officials have convinced some U.S. lawmakers to ensure that any new sanctions against Iran exempt a BP PLC-led natural-gas project, as Western governments try to isolate Tehran without harming their own energy security. The $20 billion project in the Caspian Sea off Azerbaijan is seen as key to alleviating Europe's dependence on Russia as its largest supplier of natural gas. 'There is broad-based consensus in the House and Senate that our sanctions policy should impose maximum economic pain on the Iranians without allowing Russia to hold Eastern Europe hostage for energy supplies,' said a congressional aide familiar with the European lobbying effort. Officials from the British Foreign Office, the EU and BP say they asked Capitol Hill lawmakers in December to ensure that new sanctions don't block the project, known as Shah Deniz II, because Iranian state-owned oil company Naftiran Intertrade Co. holds a 10% stake." http://t.uani.com/zJzPP5
WSJ: "China's crude-oil imports from Iran last year were up 30% from 2010, to 27.76 million metric tons, China's General Administration of Customs reported Saturday. That works out to about 557,000 barrels a day. China's overall crude imports were up just 6.1%. Beijing has steadfastly defended its relationship with Iran, the No. 3 supplier of crude to its energy-hungry economy, as the U.S. and Europe try to increase pressure on Iran over its nuclear activities. China's imports from Iran could decline in the months ahead due to a dispute over commercial issues between China International United Petroleum & Chemicals Co., known as Unipec, and National Iranian Oil Co. Unipec has skipped imports of about 220,000 barrels a day from Iran in January and further delays could affect February orders as well." http://t.uani.com/y91jln
NYT: "Prime Minister Wen Jiabao wrapped up a six-day Middle East tour this week with stronger-than-usual criticism of Iran's defiance on its nuclear program, and with multibillion-dollar oil deals that would seem to signal less reliance on Tehran for China's growing energy needs... Mr. Wen's comments on Iran were unusually pointed for Chinese diplomacy. In Doha, Qatar's capital, he said China 'adamantly opposes Iran developing and possessing nuclear weapons.' He also explicitly warned Iran not to close the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf bottleneck through which roughly a fifth of the crude oil traded worldwide passes, saying that such action would be regarded as aggression against most of the world's nations. Iran had earlier threatened to shut down the strait should the United States strengthen sanctions against Tehran. Michal Meidan, a China analyst at the Eurasia Group in London, said that the message from China was clear: 'We do not support the Iranian nuclear program - but business is business.'" http://t.uani.com/wLSqPB
WSJ: "Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Wu Hailong held talks on the Iranian nuclear issue with Ali Baqeri, deputy secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported late Friday. The exchange of views in Beijing on Friday may indicate that China is stepping up pressure on Iran to return to the negotiating table as tensions escalate over its nuclear program and as the U.S. pushes countries including China to reduce imports of oil from Iran. According to Xinhua, Mr. Wu told Mr. Baqeri that the top priority is for Iran to resume talks as soon as possible with the group of six international mediators from the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. He also said Iran should also strengthen cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Xinhua reported." http://t.uani.com/wJMS7D
Bloomberg: "Iran has asked India to pay for oil partly in yen as the two nations seek an agreement on how to maintain trade amid tightening global sanctions, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. At talks in Tehran last week, India proposed to pay its second-biggest oil supplier in rupees through a bank account in the South Asian nation, said the people, declining to be identified because the information is confidential. Iranian officials sought partial payment in yen because they're concerned that they may not get sufficient value from the rupee, which isn't fully convertible, according to the people. The nations have struggled to preserve $9.5 billion in annual crude trade after the Reserve Bank of India dismantled a mechanism used to settle payments in euros and dollars in December 2010." http://t.uani.com/xMYRm6
Domestic Politics
AP: "Iran's national currency fell by 11 percent Saturday amid the government's refusal to sign off on a move to raise bank interest rates, state news agencies reported. The semiofficial Fars news agency said the the country's currency, the rial, was trading at nearly 20,000 to the U.S. dollar on Saturday on the black market, compared to 18,000 rials a day earlier. The rial was trading at around 10,500 riyals to the U.S. dollar in late December 2010." http://t.uani.com/yM1JbH
AP: "Police have closed down dozens of toy shops for selling Barbie dolls in Iran, part of a decades-long crackdown against 'manifestations of Western culture,' the semiofficial Mehr news agency reported Friday. Barbie dolls are sold wearing swimsuits and miniskirts in a society where women must wear headscarves in public, and men and women are not allowed to swim together. A ban on the sale of the Barbies, designed to look like young Western women, was imposed in the mid-1990s. In its latest report, Mehr quoted an unidentified police official as saying authorities confiscated the dolls from Tehran stores in a 'new phase' of the campaign." http://t.uani.com/yYhEgv
Foreign Affairs
WSJ: "The U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff met with Israeli leaders through the day on Friday as the allies sought to tighten coordination to block Iran's nuclear program, amid concerns about rising tensions in the Persian Gulf. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey said his meetings with his counterpart, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, and Israel's top military brass were 'very good,' without giving further details. Israelis are anxious that Iran will build a nuclear weapon before the U.S. gives up on using sanctions to press Tehran to compromise and return to talks on its nuclear program, which Iran says is peaceful in nature. U.S. officials have expressed concern that Israel will embark on a unilateral strike against Iranian nuclear sites that would spark regional hostilities and endanger U.S. forces." http://t.uani.com/AnFxIF
Reuters: "Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Saturday that it considered the likely return of American warships to the Persian Gulf part of routine activity, backing away from previous warnings to Washington not to re-enter the area. The statement may be seen as an effort to reduce tensions after Washington said it would respond if Iran made good on a threat to block the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping lane for oil exports from the gulf." http://t.uani.com/xCkGDR
Daily Star: "Politicians from the opposition March 14 coalition lashed out Friday at the head of Iran's elite Al-Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards Corp, Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, saying his remarks that south Lebanon fell under Iran's influence have confirmed Hezbollah's subservience to Iran. They demanded that Hezbollah clarify his statement. Suleimani, speaking in a conference on youth and the 'Islamic Awakening' in Tehran Wednesday, said: 'In reality, in south Lebanon and Iraq, the people are under the effect of the Islamic Republic's way of practice and thinking.'" http://t.uani.com/zDun7w
Opinion & Analysis
Sohrab Ahmari in WSJ: "Just over three years have passed since President Barack Obama extended a hand to the Islamic Republic of Iran in the hope of stopping its quest for nuclear weapons. Today his policy of engaging Tehran is judged by many to be a disaster. The headlines daily reinforce this conclusion: As Iran's nuclearization drive hurtles to the point of no return, the governing mullahs plot assassination on U.S. soil and threaten American aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf. A diplomatic resolution to the nuclear issue remains as elusive as it was when the Obama administration first assumed power. In 'A Single Roll of the Dice,' Trita Parsi tries to account for this failure. But rather than re-examine U.S. policy and its underlying assumptions, Mr. Parsi spends much of the book casting blame on a wide range of actors for Mr. Obama's inability to disarm the clerical regime through diplomatic means. Such blame-shifting is not surprising. The author has spent years, as president of the National Iranian American Council, advocating for engagement with Iran; he is now determined to explain away the policy's inherent flaws. Although Mr. Parsi is far from disinterested in the ultimate outcome of the engagement debate, 'A Single Roll of the Dice' is written with an ersatz air of objective analysis, employing a coolly neutral tone and a prose style straight out of a diplomatic press release. ('Even on the third day, when the negotiators were reaching a point of exhaustion, the atmosphere remained respectful and constructive.') There are also no less than 98 unattributed quotations, with a 'senior European official' reliably presenting views that would no doubt go down well at the National Iranian American Council. Beneath the book's slick presentation, though, political animus simmers. Mr. Parsi accuses a remarkable number of countries, organizations and individuals-including Sunni-Arab states, the European Union, the U.S. Congress and even members of the Obama administration-of having deliberately undermined the president... Mr. Obama's engagement policy failed not because of Israeli connivance or because the administration did not try hard enough. The policy failed because the Iranian regime, when confronted by its own people or by outsiders, has only one way of responding: with a truncheon." http://t.uani.com/zRWET3
David Sanger in NYT: "A Democartic president running in a bitterly disputed presidential race faces a fateful national security decision: whether to approve an airstrike to thwart an adversary bent on becoming a nuclear-weapons state... Every country involved in the dispute over Iran's possibly acquiring nuclear weapons is calculating how the American presidential election plays to its agenda. The politics of soaring oil prices loom over any threat of military conflict, even a brief skirmish in the Strait of Hormuz. And with global economic turmoil a reality and leadership changes possible or certain this year in the United States, Russia, China and France, the game gets even more complex. Start with the Iranians themselves. They have studied China's example, and the case of Pakistan, which faced severe economic sanctions - urged foremost by the United States - for its pursuit of the bomb. But in both cases, once those countries conducted a test, the world adjusted to the new reality. Less than a half century later, China is the world's second largest economy, and no one messes with it. As soon as the Sept. 11 attacks happened, the sanctions against Pakistan disappeared; suddenly the United States cared about cooperation in hunting down Al Qaeda more than it cared about Pakistan's dangerous export of bomb technology, including to Iran. 'From the perception of the Iranians, life may look better on the other side of the mushroom cloud,' said Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He may be right: while the Obama administration has vowed that it will never tolerate Iran as a nuclear weapons state, a few officials admit that they may have to settle for a 'nuclear capable' Iran that has the technology, the nuclear fuel and the expertise to become a nuclear power in a matter of weeks or months." http://t.uani.com/ygkF52
Meir Javedanfar in The Diplomat: "If war with Iran is to be avoided, then negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group have to succeed. Turkey has already offered to host any talks, and Iran has said it's ready to attend. It also seems likely that the P5+1 will also be willing to proceed. But with no date having yet been set despite tensions running so high, U.S. President Barack Obama should be willing to offer to go the extra mile and hold bilateral talks with Iran during any negotiations. Yet doing so won't be easy. Although the situation is delicate enough to make it well worth Obama's while, Republican presidential candidates have been breathing down his neck demanding that he take a tougher line. And they aren't alone - allies the U.K., France and Israel have also been pressing him, meaning Obama's room for maneuver would likely be limited even if such talks take place. Either way, negotiations are about give and take. So just what exactly would Obama be able to offer? At the least, he would probably offer to lift some of the current sanctions against Iran. At the most, he could also offer a modified version of the October 2009 Geneva deal. But this time, instead of Iran shipping out 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) in return for nuclear fuel (as was the case in Geneva), Iran could be asked to ship out 100 percent of its 20 percent enriched uranium. This could be in addition to at least 75 percent of the remaining stock of uranium enriched at levels below 20 percent. In return, all the shipped LEU would be turned into nuclear fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor, which would allow it to make medical isotopes. Such a high percentage of LEU being shipped out would ensure that the regime of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei wouldn't have sufficient LEU to make a bomb, if he were indeed inclined to try in the next year or so. But what would Obama want from Iran in return? At a bare minimum, the Obama administration would likely expect immediate answers from Iran to all outstanding International Atomic Energy Agency queries, which would probably entail immediate access to all sites of interest to the IAEA. And what about Iran? For Khamenei, it's not going to be easy to offer much. On the one hand, he's facing crushing economic and diplomatic pressure from Obama, the likes of which he hasn't seen since becoming supreme leader. Should he ignore it, the Iranian economy, the health of which is crucial to the survival of the regime, could collapse." http://t.uani.com/ApuiS1 |
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