Thursday, April 25, 2013

Eye on Iran: Iran Parks Millions of Oil Barrels on Tankers as Buyers Retreat









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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
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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

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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