Thursday, August 30, 2012

Eye on Iran: Documents Detail How MTN Funneled U.S. Technology to Iran








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Reuters:
"A South African telecom giant plotted to procure embargoed U.S. technology products for an Iranian subsidiary through outside vendors to circumvent American sanctions on the Islamic Republic, according to internal documents seen by Reuters. The fresh revelations about MTN Group, buttressed by interviews with people familiar with the procurement, come as the South African multinational faces fights on several fronts over its lucrative but controversial Iranian venture, a fast-growing telecom. MTN is in talks with the U.S. Treasury in an effort to win permission to repatriate millions of dollars of profit now bottled up in Iran by American sanctions on the Iranian financial system." http://t.uani.com/Rq2Lmz

WSJ: "The Iranian scientist considered Tehran's atomic-weapons guru until he was apparently sidelined several years ago is back at work, according to United Nations investigators and U.S. and Israeli officials, sparking fresh concerns about the status of Iran's nuclear program. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, widely compared with Robert Oppenheimer, the American physicist who oversaw the crash 1940s effort to build an atomic bomb, helped push Iran into its nuclear age over the past two decades. A senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, he oversaw Iran's research into the construction and detonation of a nuclear warhead, Western officials say. Mr. Fakhrizadeh complained in 2006 that his funding and nuclear-weapons work had been frozen by Iran's government, according to intercepted email and phone calls, U.S. officials said. The intercepts contributed to a 2007 U.S. intelligence report that concluded Iran had halted its attempts to build a nuclear bomb in 2003. Today, however, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, believes Mr. Fakhrizadeh has opened a research facility in Tehran's northern suburbs involved in studies relevant to developing nuclear weapons." http://t.uani.com/OAPcnB

Reuters: "A U.N. watchdog report is expected to show that Iran has expanded its potential capacity to refine uranium in an underground site by at least 30 percent since May, diplomats say, adding to Western worries over Tehran's nuclear aims. The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is due this week to issue its latest quarterly report on Iran's disputed nuclear program, which the West and Israel suspect is aimed at developing bombs... The Vienna-based diplomats, giving details on what they believe the IAEA report will show, said Iran had completed installation of two more cascades - interlinked networks of 174 centrifuges each - since the previous IAEA report in May. They said Iran may also have added centrifuges in another part of the fortified Fordow facility, buried deep inside a mountain to better protect it against any enemy strikes, but they gave no details." http://t.uani.com/Pu5VWR
Lebanon Banking Campaign 
NAM Summit

Reuters: "Without naming Iran, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon denounced his hosts in Tehran on Thursday for threatening to destroy Israel and for denying the Holocaust. 'I strongly reject threats by any member state to destroy another or outrageous attempts to deny historical facts such as the Holocaust,' Ban said in his speech to a Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in the Iranian capital. 'Claiming that Israel does not have the right to exist or describing it in racist terms is not only wrong but undermines the very principle we all have pledged to uphold,' he added." http://t.uani.com/NYPHJA

Reuters: "U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon met Iran's president and supreme leader in Tehran on Wednesday to urge them to take concrete steps to prove the country's nuclear program is peaceful and to use their influence to help end Syria's 17-month conflict. Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky said that in Ban's separate meetings with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he further said their verbal attacks on Israel were offensive, inflammatory and unacceptable. Ban arrived in Tehran on Wednesday for a three-day visit to attend a meeting of some 120 non-aligned nations. He defied calls from the United States and Israel to boycott the event. 'He said Iran needed to take concrete steps to address the concerns of the International Atomic Energy Agency and prove to the world its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes,' Nesirky, speaking from Tehran, told reporters in New York." http://t.uani.com/Pu7C6A

Reuters: "Iran has no interest in nuclear weapons but will keep pursuing peaceful nuclear energy, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told heads of state from developing countries in Tehran. Iran, hosting a summit of the 120-nation Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), is hoping the high-profile event will prove that Western efforts to isolate it and punish it economically for its disputed nuclear programme have failed. 'Our motto is nuclear energy for all and nuclear weapons for none,' Khamenei told the assembled heads of state. But discord over Syria swiftly marred the summit when Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi urged member states to support Syrians striving to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, whose staunchest regional ally is Iran." http://t.uani.com/RujHfE

AP: "In a clear rebuke to Syria's key ally Iran, Egypt's new president said Thursday that Bashar Assad's 'oppressive' regime has lost its legitimacy and told an international conference in Tehran that the world must stand behind the Syrian rebels. The rallying call by Mohammed Morsi - making the first visit to Iran by an Egyptian leader since the 1979 Islamic Revolution - showed the huge divide between Iran's stalwart support of Assad and the growing network of regional powers pushing for his downfall. It also drove home the difficulties for Iran as host of a gathering of the 120-nation Nonaligned Movement, a Cold War-era group that Tehran seeks to transform into a powerful bloc to challenge Western influence." http://t.uani.com/OAVBz0
 
AFP: "A showpiece summit hosted by Iran stumbled as soon as it opened on Thursday when the head of the UN pressed Tehran on its nuclear stand, and Egypt's new leader publicly sided with Syria's opposition. The double challenge, before the leaders and delegates of the 120-member Non-Aligned Movement, upset Iran's plans to portray the two-day summit as a diplomatic triumph over Western efforts to isolate it. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei opened the event with a speech blasting the United States as a hegemonic meddler and Israel as a regime of 'Zionist wolves.' He also stated that his country 'is never seeking nuclear weapons' and accused the UN Security Council, under US influence, of exerting an 'overt dictatorship' over the world." http://t.uani.com/OunO8F

Sanctions

NYT: "Prosecutors say they have unearthed evidence in recent international money-transfer investigations that Chinese banks may have flouted United States sanctions against Iran. Now, as they investigate global banks suspected of funneling billions of dollars through their American branches to Iran and other sanctioned nations, the prosecutors are looking for transactions that could offer more information on the banks' dealings with Iran. Information on how Chinese banks may have routed money on behalf of Iranian banks and corporations is more valuable than any monetary settlement the authorities could win from the global banks, law enforcement officials with knowledge of the cases said, because the United States could use the information to strengthen its efforts to choke off economic dealings with Iran." http://t.uani.com/Q46J7n

Reuters: "OPEC crude oil output rose in August as Iranian shipments climbed slightly from its lowest in more than two decades and because of higher exports from Angola and Nigeria, a Reuters survey showed on Thursday... The most notable trend in August is the lack of a further decline in Iranian exports, which have dropped sharply this year due to U.S. and European sanctions. Supply rose by 50,000 bpd in August, according to the survey, to 2.85 million bpd... However, Iran's supply remains near a historic low. July's output was its lowest since 1988, when it pumped 2.24 million bpd, according to figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration." http://t.uani.com/Nz2UZL

Reuters: "Iran's top crude oil buyers - China, India, Japan and South Korea - have worked their way around a European Union insurance ban that took effect July 1. Insurance companies based in the EU are not allowed to provide cover for ships that carry Iranian cargo... Following are details on how Iran's four biggest oil customers - who together, purchase more than half of Iran's oil exports - are dealing with the sanctions." http://t.uani.com/OLBE7g

Reuters: "Japanese crude oil imports from Iran fell sharply in July, but imports continued despite a halt in loadings by Japanese buyers to avoid running foul of a European Union ban on insuring cargoes from the Middle East nation. Japanese buyers stopped loading cargoes in early June to avoid vessels sailing the final part of their journeys to Japan uninsured after the EU sanctions targeting Iran's nuclear programme kicked in on July 1. Japan imported from Iran 126,726 barrels per day last month (624,585 kilolitres), down 52.5 percent from the same month a
year ago and down 23.1 percent from June, data from the ministry of finance showed. The imports may have been due to a delay in customs clearance on one or more cargoes that arrived in late June or earlier." http://t.uani.com/PzoZ4U

Human Rights

AP: "The U.N. chief jolted his Iranian hosts for a nonaligned nations meeting Wednesday by pointing out 'serious concerns' in Tehran's human rights record and urging cooperation with the world body to improve freedoms. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had signaled he would not shy away from criticism of Iran during his visit to the Nonaligned Movement gathering in Tehran, but the sharp comments appeared to catch Iranian officials off guard just hours after his arrival. 'We have discussed how United Nations can work together with Iran to improve the human rights situation in Iran. We have our serious concerns on the human rights abuses and violations in this country,' he told a news conference as he sat next to Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, who frowned at the remarks." http://t.uani.com/Rumupd

Opinion & Analysis

Andrew Ortendahl & Andrea Stricker in ISIS: "Iran recently took over leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), a 120-nation consortium of developing countries, for a period of three years.  Iran is now hosting the group's 16th Summit in Tehran where member states are gathered to discuss issues of mutual importance.  However, it is disappointing given Iran's intransigence about its unresolved nuclear case that so many member states decided to send top-level representation.  Those attending should deliver a clear message to Iran that its many violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions and lack of transparency with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are unacceptable and a blemish on the NAM's struggle for the peaceful resolutions of conflicts. Iran reportedly views its tenure as the NAM chair, and in particular this conference in Tehran, as an opportunity to garner an international platform for its views about the nuclear crisis, a venue it craves after being shut out of many forums due to the ongoing confrontation over its nuclear program.  Iran has sought to use this conference as a way to denounce economic and financial sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security Council and Western nations and to try to create new economic alliances.  In a few years, it is possible that Iran may also seize the opportunity as NAM chair to attempt to derail consensus at the 2015 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference. At the NAM Summit, Iran has already attempted to gather support for its point of view by calling on member states to support its falsely asserted an unconditional 'right' to peaceful nuclear energy, a right it does not have under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi also called on the NAM to 'seriously confront financial sanctions by certain countries,' which in fact are legitimately imposed under U.N. Security Council resolutions and national laws.  Iran has sought to undermine the IAEA's safeguards obligations among NAM members by falsely representing its nonproliferation commitments under the NPT. As it faces increasing economic isolation, Iran is also endeavoring to strengthen trade ties with countries as a way to help alleviate the effects of U.N. and unilateral sanctions, including denial of access to financial markets and oil embargoes. Toward that goal, it has had potentially promising negotiations with countries such as Nigeria. Iran's leadership of the NAM presents yet another, more long-term risk: it could seek to derail consensus at the 2015 Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference." http://t.uani.com/O5Ttwv 

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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