Iran- Latest News

Lighthouse · **Joined:** Thu Mar 02, 2006 1:00 am **Posts:** 1431

SoothSayer wrote:

...

or perhaps confuse everyone and invade ... Grenada.

....

What about Venezuela? That would work ...

seahorse2 · **Joined:** Mon Oct 18, 2004 12:00 am **Posts:** 2062

Iran openly courts its allies Syria and Hamas in its nuclear struggle at the UN. Israel says a "black cloud" is forming over the region.

Yahoo News

Although Syria and Hamas aren't big players in this nuclear stand-off, it is clearly an attempt by Iran to inflame the issue, akin to Iran saying the Holocaust never happened.

This is more evidence, to me at least, the Iranians want the US or Israel to take military action.

ekaggata · **Joined:** Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:00 am **Posts:** 126

seahorse2 wrote:

This is more evidence, to me at least, the Iranians want the US or Israel to take military action.

Yes; I see it something like this: Ahmadinejad sniffs weakness and is in full provocation mode. He calculates that the Emperor has no clothes, and he feels that even if he is slightly wrong in this calculation he doesn't really fear military action, partly because he is a war veteran himself.
Politically, he must be right, it looks like a no brainer to me. But militarily? I guess only the Pentagon knows for sure..

RdSnt · **Posted:** Fri May 19, 2006 6:59 am

ekaggata wrote:

seahorse2 wrote:

This is more evidence, to me at least, the Iranians want the US or Israel to take military action.

Yes; I see it something like this: Ahmadinejad sniffs weakness and is in full provocation mode. He calculates that the Emperor has no clothes, and he feels that even if he is slightly wrong in this calculation he doesn't really fear military action, partly because he is a war veteran himself.
Politically, he must be right, it looks like a no brainer to me. But militarily? I guess only the Pentagon knows for sure..

Here's the big problem though, Ahmadinejad, being a war veteran and having experienced being under fire, is the only one who knows when to blink.

mullen112280 · **Posted:** Sat May 20, 2006 1:07 pm

Ahmadinejad thinks he is the 13th imam. He wants a full blown nuclear war. We're thinking economics and politics. He's thinking religion and apocalypse

abelardlindsay · **Posted:** Fri Jun 02, 2006 12:17 am

China and Russia Join Iran Deal...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... ory-footer

Wow I wonder what we had to give em' behind the scenes.

Graeme · **Posted:** Sun Jun 04, 2006 3:39 am

New Evidence Against Iran?

Quote:

The unity could crumble if the Vienna group differs on whether Tehran is cooperating. But for now the pressure on Iran from all sides is growing. An International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran's activities is expected next week, and Western diplomats tell Time that it will include "potentially incriminating" details about traces of highly enriched uranium found by inspectors recently on equipment at the Lavisan-Shian military site. The find is significant not because of the residue--it isn't bomb-grade and may have been on the equipment when it was bought from renegade Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan--but because Iran hasn't explained why such enrichment tools were found at a military facility. Iranian officials still insist their military is not engaged in nuclear work.

Skye · **Posted:** Mon Jun 05, 2006 3:27 am

Around and around we go...

FoxV · **Posted:** Tue Jul 11, 2006 12:42 pm

seahorse2 wrote:

Iran says all its oil will be priced in Euros beginning in July 06.

btw has anybody heard anything more on this.

Scactha · **Posted:** Wed Jul 12, 2006 4:39 am

The Iranians have threatened with the IOB a number of times and haven´t pulled through in the end so there was little reason to expect it now.

Scactha · **Posted:** Wed Jul 12, 2006 4:39 am

EDIT : double post

Petrodollar · **Posted:** Thu Jul 13, 2006 5:49 am

...The most recent annoucement this month states that late-September 2006 is the start date (implying a 6-month delay from the original March 2006 date). I expect trade volumes to be somewhat low until 2007...

http://www.fin24.co.za/articles/compani ... 83_1963115

Quote:

Iran oil bourse plans to begin
July 5, 2006

Tehran - Iran will start the initial phase of its planned Iranian oil bourse at the end of September, the news agency ISNA reported on Wednesday.

An unnamed oil ministry official told ISNA that his ministry had already presented the relevant documents to the economic and finance ministry and the bourse organisation.

The building that will house the oil bourse has reportedly already been purchased in the southern Iranian island of Kish.

Petrochemical and oil-related products will be made available to customers in the first phase but the volume of the shares to be traded is not yet clear, the official told ISNA.

Economics and Finance Minister Davoud Danesh-Jafari said last April that the issue had already been agreed upon and that the oil ministry had given the go-ahead for the opening of the bourse.

The exchange will have a positive impact on oil sales, not only in Iran but in the wider Gulf region and is slated to replace the current dollar-based oil exchange with one based on the euro, he said.

The International Petroleum Exchange in London and the New York Mercantile Exchange, on which oil is currently traded, both use the dollar.

Iran argues that as long as 60% of global oil and 25% of natural gas needs are met by Gulf states, oil dealing in either New York or London made no sense.

Iran also wants to circumvent dollar-based oil exchanges to avoid being impacted by the United States economy.

The plan to open the exchange in Kish was raised by the administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year.

It was due to be opened before the beginning of the Persian New Year on March 21 but has been postponed several times.

SAPA: South African Press Association

FoxV · **Posted:** Thu Jul 13, 2006 7:26 am

Petrodollar wrote:

...The most recent annoucement this month states that late-September 2006 is the start date (implying a 6-month delay from the original March 2006 date). I expect trade volumes to be somewhat low until 2007...

I suspect now that the bourse is a non-starter and just a political tool (as is much that comes out of Iran these days).

However selling their oil in Euros is a fairly easy (and I would think ovbious) thing to do. So I thought they would at least carry through with that plan. Although it may just be another negotiation tool as Iran has now been sent to the UN (as if anything will come of that :lol:

)

Petrodollar · **Posted:** Thu Jul 13, 2006 8:38 am

Quote:

However selling their oil in Euros is a fairly easy (and I would think ovbious) thing to do. So I thought they would at least carry through with that plan

Just a note: Iran actually swtiched to euro-based payments three years ago (mid-2003), but these oil transactions bound for the EU, China and India are still dollar-priced/invoiced. Here's a reference:

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/bli ... 380500.htm

Quote:

“Iran Offers Oil to Asian Union on Easier Terms,”
by C. Shivkumar, Hindu Business Line, June 16, 2003

(excerpt)
...Dr Mojarrad made it clear that Iran would prefer the payments to be denominated in euros, though invoiced in dollars. In fact, Iran has been in the forefront on insisting that payments settlements among the ACU {Asian Clearing Unit} member countries be permitted in alternative currencies including the euro. All payments settlement between the ACU members is currently done in dollars.

Iran's oil and gas exports destined mostly for Europe are already denominated in euros. Iran produces about 3.5 barrels and is the second largest oil exporter among the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). About 30 per cent of the Iran's oil exports are destined for European markets. The other two large consumers of Iranian Oil are India and China. Even in the case of Indian only a small quantum of the oil imports come through the ACU mechanism.

As a result of the large exports to Europe, Dr Mojarrad said 60 per cent of Iran's foreign reserves were held in the form of euros. Iran's current foreign exchange reserves are estimated to be equivalent to $20 billion.

But, he added, the switch to the euro, which as done during the last few months had helped the country to negate the effects of a depreciating dollar and falling international oil prices. He said that if the country had continued its receipts in US dollars, it would have meant large losses, which would have translated into domestic inflation. This was because large volumes of its imports are also sourced from Europe. The Iranian central bank was keen to avert that situation and had consequently adopted the euro-denominated payments to ensure that the losses were minimised. The country had also resorted to managing its reserves to minimise the effects of the depreciating dollar, he added.

Please note: This oil bourse is designed to allow any oil-exporting or oil-purchasing nation to use a euro-based pricing system (i.e. Persian Gulf crude oil marker). This is a VERY important distinction, and reportedly both China and India are interested in petrro-euro pricing and payments (not to mention Italy & other eurozone nations that purchase Iran's oil).

So, I would not casually dismiss this issue as a political ploy given the millions have been spent on building this platform, and the apparetn international and regional interest in an alternative oil transaction system that is seperated from a depreciating US dollar. The Iranian govrnment has referred to the Kish International Oil, Gas and Petrochemical bourse as "essential"...

http://www.iran-daily.com/1384/2461/pdf/i3.pdf

Quote:

Kish Oil Bourse Essential
Iran Daily, December 26, 2005

TEHRAN, Dec. 26--Establishment of an oil stock market in the Persian Gulf island of Kish would play a significant role in improving interactions with the global economy, said deputy head of Kish Free Zone Organization(KFZO), Abdolrahman Nadimi.

(excerpt)

...The official stated that stock exchange and the establishment of a number of foreign banks branches in Kish, an international oil-gas and petrochemical bourse would significantly help develop the island's economy and transform Iran into an active country in the field of international oil transactions. Nadimi pointed to the strategic location of Kish in the Persian Gulf, which holds 65 percent of the world's energy reserves, adding the island is an important base for companies involved in oil and gas projects." A large number of giant oil companies have transferred their offices to Kish Island which is located close to exploration and drilling regions.

It is obvious that the US is determined to make all negotations fail re Iran by setting various pre-conditions that they know are untenable to the vast majority of the Iranian people - full suspension of uranium enrichment (even if its only to the 5% level). Germany mentioned that some enrichment is probably OK, so did the head of the IAEA...but Washington wants this to fail, so it is arguing for full-suspension - forever...

As many have noted, Washington wants regime change in Tehran (a nice autocratic, dictator like the late Shah of Iran would be the neocons' first choice - as long as he was stauchly pro-US petroleum-banking-conglomerate oriented and anti-China/EU/Russia oriented), but that is not possible b/c many Iranians have a very acute memory of operation Ajax circa 1953.

So, instead of covert operations the US Treasury Dept is nowseeking "smart" economic sanctions outside the UN to block Japan et al form engaging in "financial transactions" with Iran - thereby attempting to undermine the IOB with no effect on the nuclear issue. Indeed, the nuclear issue is simply the canard to hide the real geostrategy here - just as the WMD/Terrorism canard was used regarding Iraq circa the propaganda campaing from Aug 2002 to March 2003...

Think about it. Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program according to the IAEA (after 3 years and I think over a hundred inspections), and what is the real difference for waiting for Iran's response this week or 5 weeks from now (Aug 22)? None. So, this referral is simply political posturing with a pre-determined outcome - failed "negotiations." This article states what is quite obvious outside US/stateside media commentary.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HG13Ak01.html

Quote:

US's zero-sum diplomacy toward Iran
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi

On the eve of the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Russia, President George W Bush and his top policymakers openly boast about the US's multilateralist diplomacy toward Iran and, yet, their all-or-nothing approach with respect to Iran's nuclear enrichment program represents a zero-sum pseudo-diplomacy bound to fail.

While pressing Iran to provide a response to the international package prior to the much anticipated summit in St Petersburg, the US government has preemptively rejected the middle-of-the-road option of putting Iran's enrichment program on standby while the talks continue.

In talks in Brussels on Tuesday, the two sides made no headway with Iran, which is still refusing either to accept or reject the offer of incentives made five weeks ago by six of the world's powers in return for giving up its uranium enrichment program.

In a recent interview with the Arms Control Association, the US envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), George L Schulte, clarified that the US opposes the idea of Iranian centrifuges running on "empty". Suspension, Schulte, explained, "means all enrichment activities to include research and development. We are not looking to parse that in some fashion. We're looking for a full suspension".

Lending a scientific hand to this maximalist US demand, the nuclear scientist David Albright has stated: "Among the proposals and counterproposals seeking a resolution to this issue, one that is especially gaining momentum in some quarters of Europe and Iran is to allow Iran's centrifuges to spin but with no uranium hexafluoride. This would give Iran important knowledge of centrifuge cascade operations with proliferation risks of its own, and must not be part of the negotiated settlement".

Yet, what Albright misses is the reason this option is gaining momentum in Iran and Europe, that is, its feasibility as a viable third option that, as stated by this author in a previous article, can potentially break the present impasse on nuclear talks, since anything beyond that, that is, full suspension, is simply not in the realm of political possibilities in Iran today.

...and it appears that fissures exist could grow if one reads the less biased/non-US corporate media re Iran...

Quote:

In addition to readily dismissing a viable option increasingly favored by the Europeans, the US diplomacy is suffering from a chronic lack of creativity thinly cloaked by pseudo-solutions aimed at capturing the headlines more than providing substantive grounds for multilateral diplomacy. [/quote

...the G8 meeting will be interesting. I think when the cards are shown, I don't think the EU, Japan, Russia or China will allow the US to pursue its desperately punative agenda given the adverse outcome to everyone's energy supply and economic ties to Iran. We shall see...

seahorse · **Posted:** Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:11 am

The new ME conflict where Israel is moving into Lebanon could easily involved Iran. Israel is now saying its prisoners being held by Islamist may be taken to Iran.

Quote:

Israel has rejected Hizbollah demands that it release Arab prisoners in exchange for the captive soldiers, named by the Israeli army as Ehud Goldwasser, 31, and Eldad Regev, 26, but says it fears the soldiers could be spirited to Iran.

"Those concerns have a basis," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev.

Yahoo News

Iran- Latest News

Who is online