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Top Stories
Reuters: "Iran's
crude exports are set to drop by about a quarter in December from the
preceding month to the lowest level since tough sanctions were applied
this year, shipping sources said, as the OPEC-member comes under pressure
to curb its nuclear programme. Oil shipments by Iran have more than
halved in 2012 due to U.S. and European sanctions on its oil trade,
straining Tehran's finances, pressuring its currency and igniting
inflation... While the exact reasons for December's sharp drop are not
clear, sources in China said Iran may be struggling to find enough
tankers to ship the crude as more and more are being used to store unsold
oil. Most of the crude is scheduled to head to energy hungry Asian buyers
-- China, India, Japan and South Korea -- with the drop in December
shipments from November representing a loss of about $800 million (496
million pounds) for Iran at current oil prices. China, Iran's top trading
partner, is expected to drive the cut by lifting its lowest volume of the
year, said the sources, who declined to be identified because of policies
on talking to the media. Iran's customers, including Turkey, the only
non-Asian buyer, will lift 834,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude in
December compared with 1.08 million bpd in November, an industry source
with direct knowledge of Tehran's shipping plans said." http://t.uani.com/TUbDmE
Reuters:
"Iranian oil tankers are sending incorrect satellite signals that
confuse global tracking systems and appear to conceal voyages made by
other ships to Syria, which, like Iran, is subject to international
sanctions. The two countries are close allies and have helped each other
deal with shortages by swapping badly needed fuels such as gasoline for
diesel... Iranian state tanker company NITC has already changed many
tanker names as part of its response to sanctions, though shipping
experts say such a tactic would not confuse anyone in the business about
a vessel's whereabouts. Now tanker tracking data monitored by Reuters and
shipping specialists have highlighted a more subtle twist. Large vessels
must transmit their identity and location to other ships and coastal
authorities using an automatic satellite communication system, but in the
last month Iranian vessels sailing in Asian seas have sent signals that
took over the identity of other vessels, so the same ship appeared to be
in two places at once. 'It is of course possible to manipulate or falsify
information in these messages,' said Richard Hurley, a senior analyst at
IHS Fairplay, a maritime intelligence publisher. At least three Iranian
oil tankers are transmitting such false signals, effectively taking over
the identity of Syrian-owned vessels travelling between Syria, Libya and
Turkey. All the vessels in question were registered in Tanzania...
Despite all the paired vessels appearing to be registered under Tanzanian
flags, officials in mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar denied holding any
information on the vessels. They have directed queries to a shipping
agency in Dubai, Philtex Corporation, which they say registered some
Iranian ships under the Tanzanian flag without their knowledge. Philtex
confirmed it had registered the Syrian-owned Lady Rasha, but could not
provide details on the Iranian tankers in question... 'We have no idea
and we cannot justify why they are emitting the same satellite signals,'
said Jocelyn Acosta, director of operations at registering agency Philtex
Corporation. Acosta said Philtex cooperated with requests made by United
States government agencies and others to identify a ship's owner and had
deregistered a number of vessels accordingly." http://t.uani.com/Upy1oW
Reuters:
"Western pressure that forced foreign ship classifiers out of Iran
has increased safety risks including the danger of an Iranian vessel
spilling oil on another country's coast, the chief executive of Lloyd's
Register said. Last month, the China Classification Society became the
last of the world's top companies in the field to confirm it had stopped
verifying safety and environmental standards for Iranian vessels - a requirement
for insurance and access to ports... The world's top 13 certifiers are
all members of the International Association of Classification Societies
(IACS) and some of them had provided Iran with cover. The IACS classes
more than 90 percent of the world's merchant fleet. There are more than
50 classification societies. Other IACS members, including Germany's
Germanischer Lloyd and France's Bureau Veritas have left Iran in recent
months after being targeted by U.S. pressure group United Against Nuclear
Iran (UANI), whose board includes former U.S. ambassadors and former U.S.
and British intelligence chiefs. UANI, which is funded by private
donations, defended its campaign against certifiers. 'It is rather
disingenuous to portray business with Iran as an exercise in public
safety, given how many companies and individuals stand to profit from
it,' a UANI spokesman said. 'Iran's shipments are illegitimate, and as
such no legitimate business should be certifying them.'" http://t.uani.com/11KeEfz
Nuclear
Program
Bloomberg: "The drone Iran says
it captured appears to be a U.S.-made ScanEagle, Pentagon spokesman
George Little said, in a change from the initial U.S. rejection of the
Iranian claim. While Iran said it extracted valuable data from the
unmanned aerial vehicle, Little told reporters yesterday that it was
'highly improbable' that useful intelligence could be gained from the
relatively unsophisticated drone. He said it couldn't be determined if it
was operated by the U.S. The ScanEagle, made by Boeing Co., is used by a
number of countries and is less advanced than other unmanned aircraft
employed by the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency, such as the
Global Hawk and Predator." http://t.uani.com/WLCsdE
Sanctions
The Citizen
(Tanzania): "Tanzania yesterday denied reports that
it has registered 17 Iranian tankers that have been blacklisted, allowing
them to remain in business. It has now invited other countries, including
the United States, to conduct investigations aimed at pinning down the
truth. Tanzania deregistered 36 Iranian tankers in July after it was
established that the tankers were flying its national flag. In October,
Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Bernard Membe
said, his ministry responded to these allegations and clarified the
position. But the ministry received a letter from the US embassy in Dar
es Salaam renewing the accusation. The embassy claimed in the letter that
Tanzania had registered another 17 Iranian tankers that had been
deregistered in Pacific archipelago nation of Tuvalu. Some members
of the European Union have expressed concern over the same issue. 'It's
very embarrassing when these claims come after we deregistered the
Iranian tankers in July,' Mr Membe said. In November, he added, his
ministry responded to the allegations and explained that it had not
registered any Iranian ship. Tanzania has also asked the US and other
development partners to provide details of a company known as Philtex, an
agent based in Dubai, which has been registering Iranian ships on behalf
of the Zanzibar Maritime Authority. 'After the truth has been
established,' he said, 'we shall deal with whoever is involved in
tarnishing the image of our country... we can even think of suspending
the binding contract between the Tanzanian government, the revolutionary
government of Zanzibar and the agent.'" http://t.uani.com/YEy5rq
Reuters:
"The United States expects countries that buy oil from Iran to
further reduce their purchases if they want to avoid U.S. sanctions, a
State Department source said on Wednesday. 'The law requires additional
cuts so we expect buyers to make additional cuts,' a source at the State
Department said about the U.S. sanctions law signed a year ago by
President Barack Obama. Under that law, banks in countries that buy oil
from Iran can be cut off from the U.S. financial system unless the
purchases are reduced. China, India, Japan and South Korea and other
countries got six-month 'exceptions' to the sanctions in June for
reducing oil shipments from Iran. The law says the cuts have to be
'significant' but does not dictate how deep they must be. The sanctions
are designed to make it harder for Iran to fund its nuclear program,
which Washington suspects is enriching uranium to levels that could be
used in weapons, a charge Iran denies. The architects of the sanctions
legislation, Democratic Senator Robert Menendez and Republican Senator
Mark Kirk, have urged the White House to require countries to reduce
purchases by about 18 percent before getting the next round of waivers."
http://t.uani.com/XsPemx
Reuters:
"Standard Chartered expects to pay $330 million to settle a case
with U.S. regulators who accused the Asia-focused bank of failing to
comply with sanctions against Iran, further denting profit growth this
year. The settlement will be on top of the $340 million it paid to New
York's Department of Financial Services in the third quarter, which
pushed its before tax profit growth in 2012 to a mid-single-digit
percentage from more than 10 percent, StanChart said in a statement on
Thursday... Standard Chartered said it expected talks with U.S. Federal
regulators to conclude shortly, confirming a Reuters report earlier in
November." http://t.uani.com/11XQOwf
JTA:
"A Republican and a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives
are circulating a letter among their colleagues that would urge House
negotiators to preserve over Obama administration objections tough
new Iran sanctions in a defense budget bill. The National Defense
Authorization Act passed Tuesday by the U.S. Senate includes an amendment
authored by Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Joseph
Lieberman (I-Conn.) that would tighten sanctions on Iran's energy sector,
targeting entities that circumvent existing banking sanctions by paying
for Iranian oil in gold and other precious metals. 'The inclusion of
these bipartisan provisions in the NDAA is a critical next step in our
legislative effort to bring crippling economic pressure on the Iranian
regime,' said the message circulating Wednesday from Reps. Robert Dold
(R-Ill.) and Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) asking other House members to sign their
letter to House negotiators set to attend conference talks reconciling
the Senate and House versions of the National Defense Authorization
Act... 'This letter strongly encourages House conferees to support and
protect this language in conference committee negotiations, and to resist
efforts to weaken or water down the provisions,' read the message from
Dold and Deutch to their colleagues." http://t.uani.com/REcQ61
AP:
"Four men have been charged with arranging shipments to China and
Iran of weapons materials or a substance that can be used in uranium
enrichment, officials announced Wednesday after indictments containing
the charges were unsealed. Three of the men have been arrested while the
fourth is in being sought to face charges described in court papers in
U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Those charges include allegations that
they broke embargo and export laws, with two of them accused of arranging
to send a shipment of carbon fiber to Iran, where U.S. Attorney Preet
Bharara said it 'most assuredly had the potential to end up in the wrong
hands.' Authorities said carbon fiber can be used in gas centrifuges that
enrich uranium and in military aircraft and strategic missiles." http://t.uani.com/YQCRkx
Opinion &
Analysis
WSJ Editorial
Board: "For years, U.S. officials have insisted that
the Russian-built reactor at Bushehr posed a negligible proliferation
risk. Instead, they concentrated nearly all their attention on Iran's
efforts to enrich uranium. At the same time, the U.S. bought Iran's
argument that the country was within its legal rights to operate
'peaceful' facilities such as Bushehr, never mind the question of why an
oil-rich state would spend billions on a reactor it didn't need. Far be
it for us to suggest the world should be less alarmed by the strides Iran
has made in enriching uranium-close to eight tons to reactor-grade level
of 5%, along with 238 kilos to a near-bomb grade level of 20%, according
to a report last month by the International Atomic Energy Agency. With
some additional enrichment, those quantities suffice for probably six
bombs. But uranium is not the only route to a bomb. There's also
plutonium, and Iran has long been at work on a plutonium-breeding
heavy-water reactor in the city of Arak. The Iranians say the reactor is
solely for research, yet IAEA inspectors have not been given access to
the plant since August 2011. Then there's Bushehr. Under the terms of
Iran's agreement with Russia's State Atomic Power Corporation, or
Rusatom, Iran is supposed to return all of the reactor's spent fuel rods
to Russia for storage. Now it transpires that Iran removed the fuel rods
in October, a mere two months after the reactor became fully operational.
Iran claims the fuel rods have since been returned to the reactor core,
though we are not aware of any independent corroboration of that claim.
The official reason for the transfer of the fuel was a safety test, and
Rusatom has denied a report that the move was prompted by the discovery
of loose bolts that could have caused a major accident. But as the
Journal suggested in its story, the transfer could also have been a test
run for the Iranians should they decide to reprocess those rods into
weapons-grade plutonium. As many as 24 Nagasaki-type bombs could be
produced with 220 pounds of plutonium. So much, then, for the notion that
the Bushehr reactor is 'proliferation resistant,' an idea that largely
boils down to the fact that IAEA inspectors are routinely at the site.
Yet legally the IAEA is only permitted to inspect Bushehr once every 90
days, and Iran has forbidden the agency from installing video cameras
with near-real time surveillance capacity. That means Iran could contrive
an excuse to move the fuel rods without the agency knowing about it in
time. And while Western intelligence agencies do not believe Iran has a
reprocessing capability, experts tell us that the rapid extraction of
weapons-usable plutonium from spent fuel rods is a straightforward process
that can be performed in a fairly small (and easily secreted)
space." http://t.uani.com/TGxy49
Benjamin Weinthal
& Emanuele Ottolenghi in The Weekly Standard:
"Germany appeared over the past several months to have finally
fallen in line behind European Union efforts to stiffen economic
sanctions against Iran. But in late October a group of German
parliamentarians dealt a blow to the campaign to isolate Iran's rulers.
Bundestag Members Bijan Djir-Sarai of the Free Democratic Party, Thomas
Feist of the Christian Democrats and Angelika Graf of the Social
Democratic Party traveled to Tehran for a five-day visit. mong other
regime figures, the delegation met with Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head
of Iran's human rights committee, who made a name for himself in Germany
by denying the Holocaust, justifying the stoning of women, and calling
for the destruction of Israel during a 2008 conference in Berlin.
Predictably, the Iranian state-controlled media touted the German
lawmakers' trip as a political and moral endorsement for the regime.
Iran's Fars News wrote that Djir-Sarai was 'pleased' with his visit and
hope that exchange programs with 'Iranian and German parliamentary
officials and parliamentary friendship groups would work to bring the
nations closer.' American officials have expressed irritation with the
tour. 'At this particularly sensitive juncture in diplomatic relations,
the international community needs to continue to send a clear, unified
message to Tehran as we pressure the regime to come to the negotiating
table,' Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire wrote in a press
statement. 'A formal visit at this time-no matter how well-intentioned-is
counterproductive and undermines our joint efforts to put an end to
Iran's nuclear ambitions.' Djir-Saraj's meeting with the Chamber of
Commerce symbolizes a larger problem. For years, Germany sought to strike
a balance between its businesses' desire to expand their already robust
trade relations with Iran, and its commitments as a member of the six-country
team pursuing a deal to stop Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. A
comprehensive statistical account of German Iranian trade published by
Germany's federal office of statistics in Wiesbaden, covering the
1950-2012 period, shows a booming trade relation during Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's presidency (2005 to present), resulting in over 25 Billion
€ of German exports to Iran. Clearly, Germany's declaratory policy is
largely undermined by its business pursuits. In theory, sanctions are
meant to exert increasing pressure on Iran's economy, persuading its
rulers to change their stance on their nuclear pursuit. In reality,
Germany's practice is evidence that Iran still gets German trade,
including dual-use goods, equipment that has both a civilian and a military
purpose. According to official German statistics, German exports to Iran
in 2011 were worth over €3 billion. Of these, 579 deals approved by BAFA,
Germany's export control agency, involved dual-use goods, for a total
value of 65 million €. Between January and July 2012, Germany increased
its exports of industrial machinery to Iran by 14.5 percent and of
chemical products by 9.6 percent, over the same period a year earlier.
With German exports accounting for nearly one third of the total European
Union exports to Iran for 2011, this is hardly the kind of crippling
sanctions touted by Western policy makers and decried by Iranian
spokesmen. Germany's business community, largely in defiance of its
government, stands behind this enduring trade relation. In 2011, the
Tehran branch of the German-Iranian Chamber of Commerce published a
members only booklet, which we have obtained, detailing the activities of
dozens of German companies in Iran. In some cases, such trade is
innocuous. There is no harm in selling Iran ceramic tiles or strings for
musical instruments. However, many of the enterprises German companies
are engaging are not innocuous. For instance, according to the pamphlet,
the engineering giant Herrenknecht AG is selling Iran heavy tunneling
equipment, some of which it claims has the capability of 'drilling down
to depths of 6,000 meters.'" http://t.uani.com/TUhbNS
Ilan Berman in
Forbes: "Over the past year, policymakers in
Washington have woken up to a new threat to U.S. security. Since October
of 2011, when law enforcement agencies foiled a plot by Iran's
Revolutionary Guards to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in the nation's
capital, U.S. officials have begun to pay attention in earnest to Iran's
growing activities and influence in the Western Hemisphere. What they
have found has been deeply worrisome. The Islamic Republic, it turns out,
has made serious inroads into Latin America since the mid-2000s,
beginning with its vibrant strategic partnership with the regime of
Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez. Today, Iran enjoys warm diplomatic ties
not only to Venezuela, but to similarly sympathetic governments in
Bolivia and Ecuador as well. It has begun to exploit the region's
strategic resource wealth to fuel its nuclear program. And it is building
an operational presence in the region that poses a direct danger to U.S.
security. Exactly how significant this threat is represents the subject
of a new study released in late November by the U.S. House of
Representatives Homeland Security Committee. That report, entitled A Line
In The Sand, documents the sinister synergies that have been created in
recent years between Iran and Hezbollah on the one hand, and radical
regional regimes and actors-from Venezuela to Mexican drug cartels-on the
other. Some of these contacts, the study notes, are financial in nature,
as Iran seeks to leverage Latin America's permissive political and fiscal
environments to skirt sanctions and continue to engage in international
commerce amid tightening Western sanctions. But these contacts could
easily become operational as well. The report suggests that 'the standoff
with Iran over its nuclear program, and the uncertainty of whether Israel
might attack Iran drawing the United States into a confrontation, only
heightens concern that Iran or its agents would attempt to exploit the
porous Southwest border for retaliation.' The U.S. response, meanwhile,
is still nascent. To date, only one piece of Congressional
legislation-the Countering Iran in the Western Hemisphere Act of 2012-has
seriously taken up the issue of Iran's penetration of the Americas, and
the potentially adverse implications for U.S. security. Fortunately, the
Act has found a receptive ear among many in Congress, and is now likely
to pass the Senate with only minor modifications during the current lame
duck session of Congress. Yet, in and of itself, the Act does not
constitute a comprehensive strategy for competing with Iran in the
Americas-or for diluting its influence there. To the contrary, America's
strategic profile in Latin America is now poised to constrict
precipitously." http://t.uani.com/120fLHd
Omid Memarian
& Roxana Saberi in The Daily Beast: "For 49
days, jailed Iranian human-rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh went on a
life-threatening hunger strike. Her goal: to force Iranian authorities to
stop harassing her family and remove a travel ban on her 12-year-old
daughter. Drinking nothing but water mixed with sugar and salts,
Sotoudeh's limbs grew weak. Her weight reportedly fell to under 100
pounds. On Tuesday, her hunger strike ended, in what human-rights
activists called a major victory. The news came at a time when Iran has
ramped up pressure on family members of dissidents and activists-both
inside Iran's prisons and living in exile. 'I would like to congratulate
Nasrin and all Iranian political prisoners and prisoners of conscience
for this triumph,' said Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian attorney and Nobel Peace
Prize winner, who has lived in exile in Europe since 2009. This year,
several human-rights defenders reported arrests and interrogations of
prisoners' family members in Iran, according to Ahmad Shaheed, the United
Nations' special rapporteur on human rights in Iran. Some families have
been 'threatened, insulted, and tortured,' to discourage them from
publicly talking about the plights of their loved ones and to place
pressure on the prisoners, according to Shaheed. Sotoudeh's husband told
The Daily Beast that Iranian authorities warned him to stop speaking out
for his wife, who was arrested in 2010. She is serving a six-year prison
sentence and has been barred from practicing law for a decade. 'They once
detained me for 24 hours and handed me to my wife's interrogators to
pressure me to keep silent,' said Sotoudeh's husband, Reza Khandan, who
is prohibited from leaving Iran. 'Another time, they detained me, our two
children, and my wife's sister during a prison visit ... for
five-and-a-half hours, without giving the children anything to eat.' Such
tactics are becoming the norm in Iran, according to Ebadi and other
activists. 'The Iranian government has been using different means to
bring political and civil activists to their knees, like exploiting their
feelings toward their family members,' said Ebadi. 'Activists' family
members are now routinely put under pressure to force the activists into
passivity.'" http://t.uani.com/TUiegS
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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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