UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Authorities step up crackdown on companies linked to Iran

 

Is it a public relations offensive meant to ease pressure on it from the United States, or is the United Arab Emirates finally cracking down on illicit trade with Iran?

The Dubai-based Gulf News reported Monday that the government has shut down more than 40 companies with alleged links to the Iranian government or the Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The UAE, and its glittery city-state of Dubai in particular, have been criticized in the past for acting as a conduit for banned materials and laundered money in and out of Iran.

Earlier this month, the United Nations approved a fourth round of sanctions against Iran, citing its unwillingness to cooperate over its nuclear enrichment program. The sanctions singled out 40 companies linked to Iranian financing, imports and shipping, including 15 tied directly to the Revolutionary Guards.

A number of those companies were based or maintained offices in the Emirates, sometimes hiding behind front companies that were registered in a third country. As a result, all Iranian-owned companies in the UAE have come under suspicion, even those that are not subject to sanctions.

"Everyone is being investigated," Theodore Karasik, director of research and development at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai, told Babylon & Beyond.

'"These closures have been going on for a while,"  he said.

LEBANON: Government split down the middle on latest U.N. sanctions on Iran

Lebanon's government split into two rival camps, deeply divided on whether to abstain or oppose the latest round of United Nations Security Council sanctions against Iran. Though Lebanon ultimately abstained from the vote, the question of how Lebanon as a country should view Iran unearthed domestic political fissures.

The Cabinet of Ministers failed to reach consensus on the sanction issue, with 14 in favor of abstention and 14 opposed to sanctions. Lebanon's Ambassador to the United Nations, Nawaf Salam, had to keep the Security Council waiting for an hour until Beirut gave him directions on how to vote. Ultimately, Lebanon had no choice but to  abstain.

IRAN: Conflicting videos raise questions over missing scientist

Will the real Shahram Amiri please stand up, or at least upload something?

Two contradictory videos have surfaced within days of each other, both claiming to reveal the truth of what happened to Amiri, the Iranian scientist who disappeared last year and reportedly defected to the United States.

The first video, shown on Iranian state television Monday, claimed to depict Amiri recounting his kidnapping and torture by American intelligence forces in Tucson, where he says he is being kept against his will.

In the second video, posted on YouTube one day later, Amiri, or someone who looks just like him, says he is in the United States to pursue a doctorate and hopes to return to Iran after completing his studies.

Neither tape has been verified, leaving the world to speculate about the authenticity of both tapes and the possible motives behind making them. Did the Iranians forge Amiri's plea for help? Was Amiri a victim of extraordinary rendition? Did he get bored in witness protection? Is he lying on one or both tapes to protect his family in Iran?

The theories are endless, and the tapes offer little in the way of answers.

IRAN: Revolutionary Guard to conduct war games amid heightened nuclear tensions

Iran's Revolutionary Guard will start three days of war games on Thursday in the Persian Gulf and specifically the Strait of Hormuz, officials announced in a move that will likely add to already rising tensions in the region. 

The Revolutionary Guard's second-in-command, Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, told state television the drills were intended to "highlight the constructive and positive, influential and determining role of the Islamic Republic in securing this region" and should not be seen as a threat to Iran's Arab neighbors.

Many countries, including the United States, conduct war games in the Persian Gulf. But the timing of this latest drill by Iran comes at a particularly tense time, not only between Iran and Israel and the West, but between Iran and some of its Arab neighbors.

In addition to Arab states' objections to Iran's nuclear program and sponsorship of the militant Shiite group Hezbollah in Lebanon, United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed this week called Iran's control over Gulf islands claimed by the Emirates a "shameful occupation," according to the Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National.

News of the war games also follows a heated Iranian response to Washington's new nuclear policy, which the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, recently described as an "implicit atomic threat" and a "black spot on the U.S. government's record."

IRAN: Ahmadinejad announces 'nuclear Iran'; experts skeptical

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday announced the creation of significantly more powerful centrifuges for producing nuclear fuel, but avoided certain details that made it difficult to assess whether Tehran could dramatically increase the pace and scope of its uranium enrichment program.

The president’s remarks were made during Iran’s fourth annual National Nuclear Day, which this year coincided with a summit in New York to discuss new sanctions against the Islamic Republic in the face of its refusal to halt its nuclear program. The West believes that Tehran wants to build atomic weapons, but the Iranians say their program is for peaceful purposes.

Ahmadinejad has been speaking of building faster, more reliable centrifuges for years, but without knowing how many of the new centrifuges Iran has or is capable of producing, most experts have been cautious in their assessments. Centrifuges spin at high rates of speed to enrich uranium that could be used for a nuclear weapon or to generate electricity.  

Iran’s chief nuclear scientist, Ali Akbar Salehi, said the new third-generation centrifuge is in the final stage of development and is six times more efficient than the first-generation version. 

“If they can deploy them, it’s a problem because they can deploy a lot less, which means a smaller facility that’s easier to hide,” David Albright, a former inspector with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, told The Times.

IRAN: Sporty new French hatchbacks entering market despite tough sanctions talk

 

French President Nicolas Sarkozy talks a tough game when it comes to imposing sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. 

But that hasn't stopped France's second-biggest automaker, PSA Peugeot Citroen, from expanding its presence in the Islamic Republic with the upcoming launch of the Peugeot 207i, an Iranian-made version of the Peugeot 207, which is set to roll out in late March. 

Peugeot 206s, assembled in Iran under a licensing deal, have proved enormously popular in Iran. 

Pierre Foret, a Peugeot representative in Iran, was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse that the launch of the 207i was part of the firm's effort to "develop its market" in the Islamic Republic.

The 207i will be priced at $15,500 to $19,000, an Iranian auto official was quoted as saying by the website of the state-owned Press TV.

Meanwhile, two large German insurance companies, Allianz and Munich Re, have announced plans to pull out of Iran, apparently succumbing to international pressure.

-- Los Angeles Times

Photo: Iran's state-owned car manufacturer Iran Khodro unveils the Peugeot 207i, a locally built version of the French automobile firm's 207 model. Credit: Atta Kenare / AFP / Getty Images

IRAN: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says nuclear program aimed at 'awakening the spirit' of Muslim world

Iran's top leader said his nation's nuclear program was not aimed at making weapons but at bolstering the spirit of the Islamic world. 

"We only seek to awaken the spirit of dignity in the whole of the Muslim community," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in comments Friday. 

Khamenei wasted little time in responding to the International Atomic Energy Agency's latest report on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, released Thursday.

Obama administration expands sanctions against Iran

The Obama administration on Wednesday expanded sanctions against Iran, adding four subsidiaries and a person all connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard to the list of those facing business limitations.

The move comes as Iran has signaled it is stepping up its nuclear program and President Obama said this week that the United States was considering more sanctions as a way of forcing the Islamic Republic to give up its nuclear ambitions.

At a news conference, Obama said the United States was hopeful that Russia and China would go along.

To read more, go to D.C. Now

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Photo: Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard attend the first day of celebrations marking the anniversary of the Islamic revolution at the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in Tehran on Feb. 1. Credit: Atta Kenare / AFP/Getty Images

IRAN: Munich machinations continue despite skepticism of Tehran and Western leaders

Iran's foreign minister sounds as though he's ready to cut a deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency over the country's nuclear program.

Problem is, his colleagues back home don't.

During the 46th annual Munich Security Conference in Germany this weekend, diplomats hobnobbed in an attempt to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program, possibly by getting Iran to agree to the once-vaunted proposal to exchange the bulk of its enriched uranium for plates to fuel a medical reactor in Tehran. 

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who met Saturday with atomic agency chief Yukiya Amano, said negotiations continue.

"It is very common that in business the buyer talks about quantity and the seller about the price," he said. "We would inform the parties about our requirements. It may be less, it may be more" than the 2,600 pounds of uranium to be sent abroad under the terms of the proposal floated last year.

IRAN: U.S. business groups call on White House to drop proposed sanctions

In his State of the Union address Wednesday night, President Obama offered a seemingly softened rhetoric toward the Islamic Republic on the issue of sanctions over its controversial nuclear program.

He said Tehran would "face growing consequences" if it failed to curb its nuclear program. But he didn't specify whether those consequences would include sanctions, as demanded by U.S. lawmakers expected to take action on a new set of proposed sanctions targeting Iran's gasoline imports.

This week, several prominent American business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Foreign Trade Council, came out strongly against sanctions.

The groups warned White House national security advisor James Jones and high-level economic policy advisor Lawrence Summers that expanding sanctions on Iran would hurt U.S. national interests on several levels.

"The undersigned business organizations are profoundly concerned that current legislative proposals to expand U.S. sanctions on Iran would significantly undermine the U.S. national interest. ... The proposed sanctions would incite economic, diplomatic and legal conflicts with U.S. allies and could frustrate joint action against Iran," read the letter posted on foreign policy journalist Laura Rozen's blog, which was among the first outlets picking up on the story. 

IRAN: No progress, no movement, no nothin' on deadlocked talks over nuclear program

An informal Dec. 31 deadline set by the Obama administration came and went, but little progress has been made in breaking the logjam over Iran's nuclear program one way or the other. 

Tehran appeared to deny reports by some Western news agencies that it had even submitted a formal counterproposal to the once-ballyhooed proposal to swap Iran's enriched uranium for nuclear fuel plates for a medical research reactor that's about to sputter out.

"Iran has offered no new proposal concerning the supply of fuel to the Tehran research reactor," Mehr news agency quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as saying today, in a report cited by the website of Iran's state-owned Press TV channel. "Our views are the same as what was previously announced and basically there has been no new development regarding the issue."

A spokesman for the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, also told The Times there had been no new developments since the new year. 

"The proposal made by the IAEA in October 2009, which was supported by France, Russia and the United States, continues to be on the table," Gill Tudor, a spokesman for the agency, said in reference to the fuel-swap proposal.

IRAN: Amid tight security, tensions mount at scientist's funeral

Around 9 a.m. this morning a gray Mercedes hearse brought the body of slain Iranian scientist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi to his home for a funeral procession that, like many other recent events, became a display of  the political cleavages within Iranian society. 

The Tehran University professor was killed Tuesday in a mysterious bomb blast that government officials immediately blamed on Israel and the United States as part of a plot to slow Iran's nuclear program. Some of his students, colleagues and opposition news outlets, however, pointed out that his field of expertise in theoretical particle physics would hold little importance for the West, while his role as a campus supporter of the opposition made him a person of interest for hard-liners.

They suggested he was among the many Iranians assassinated by suspected hard-line vigilantes over the years for his reformist political views and activities.

In any case, security forces were prepared for any kind of confrontation, with armored police vehicles and motorcycles associated with pro-government militia members surrounding the area.