Netanyahu: squeeze Iran with sanctions

As usual, he talks sense.

"We cannot wait for them [Iran] to obtain nuclear weapons; we must prevent it now. This has to be the focus of all responsible countries," opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu said Monday.

"The military option must stay on the table, but countries like the US and some in Europe must squeeze Iran with sanctions, voluntary sanctions - not through the UN," Netanyahu said at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism's Seventh Annual Conference at IDC Herzliya.

"The UN is paralyzed from launching effective sanctions. They can do a lot to bring economic pressure on the Iranian regime," he added.

Netanyahu suggested to "focus on the 20 to 30 European countries that prop up the Iranian oil and gas sector."

Dresdner stops doing business in Iran, but not without protest

That's good news, especially considering it's a large German bank. The whole article can be found here, with excerpts below.

And the Islamic Republic's central bank is protesting...

Dresdner Bank has decided to wind up its remaining business in Iran, a spokesman for the German bank said on Tuesday.

"We are winding down our business in, with and to Iran," the spokesman said, adding that the administrative costs of doing business in Iran had become too high.

Dresdner, part of German insurer Allianz, has been scaling back its activity in Iran for months.

US chides allies for trade deals with Tehran

The full thing can be found here.

America's allies must do more to cut commercial and energy ties with Iran if the international campaign to halt Tehran's nuclear-weapons programs is to succeed, a top State Department official said yesterday.

R. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, said the U.S.-led drive to sanction Iran's economy through the United Nations is being undercut when allies in Europe, Turkey, India, Japan and South Korea continue to make lucrative trade deals and even offer credits to businesses trading with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The United States lost its major holdings in Iran after the 1979 revolution and has had only very limited trading since, Mr. Burns said.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards join US terrorist list

That's good news - hopefully the US can be more active against them now...

The Washington Post and New York Times are reporting that the US is preparing to "designate" Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organisation allowing it to target the organisation's finances among other things.

The Guards work independently of Iran's armed forces and have long been connected to many terror organisations in the Middle East most notably Hezbollah in the Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza.

More recently the US and Britain have accused Iran of using them in Iraq and Afghanistan to supply the insurgents and Taliban with weapons and training.

That said this move is a provocative one as the Guards are still an officially sanctioned unit of the Iranian state even if they are more a clerics private army. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is said to be behind the move, according to the New York Times.

Shell's Iran venture to continue...after all

The Telegraph had another report on Shell's dodgy Iran dealings. Looks like they're going to continue supporting the mullahs (for economic reasons, of course).

Royal Dutch Shell's chief executive Jeroen van der Veer said there were no plans to halt preparatory work on possible investments in Iran, despite renewed pressure about the risks of operating in a country where America has imposed economic sanctions.

Shell CEO says economics, not politics, are delaying Iran deal

Sure, it's 'economics'...right Jeroen, we believe you.

It wouldn't be because "US pension funds ask Shell to scrap £5bn Iran project"

The chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell Plc said rising industry costs and negotiation on deal terms had delayed a planned multi-billion dollar investment in Iran, rather than the threat of sanctions. "It is primarily project reasons ... are the reasons for delay," Jeroen van der Veer told a conference call with reporters.

Shell has been in talks for years about building Iran's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, which would be fed by the giant South Pars gas field.

Iran faces possible UN sanctions on investment because of its nuclear programme, which Washington says is a cover for the search for an atomic bomb.

It has already been subjected to limited UN sanctions and U.S. sanctions. Van der Veer said Shell would consider the political environment when it had agreed a viable technical plan -- made more difficult by the U.S. sanctions which preclude the use of products or services from U.S. oil service corporations.

American investors tell Shell to get out of Iran

That's welcome news. Somehow I doubt you'd find people that logical and 'right'-headed amongst Europe's larger asset managers. The full Monte is here, and an excerpt is below.

A political row threatens to overshadow tomorrow what promises to be one of the best sets of results from Shell for months after it emerged that a group of US pension funds have called on the group to scrap a £5 billion project in Iran.

Some of America’s most influential institutional investors have written to Shell and other seven international energy companies warning they may suffer international sanctions because of their ties to the pariah state.

The investors include New York City’s five main pension funds and the California Public Employee’s Retirement System.

A two-page letter sent to Jeroen van der Veer, Shell's chief executive, and his peers at Gazprom, France’s Total and five other energy companies referred to Iran as a “state sponsor of terrorism”.

The letter added: “It is increasingly likely that the the worsening situation and tightening economic sanctions will negatively impact companies doing business there.”

Shell and Spain’s Repsol hold a prelminary agreement with Iran to develop two phases of the country’s huge South Pars natural gas field.

Mr van der Veer has continually refused to clarify Shell’s intentions, stating only that a final decision is at least a year away.

US acts against groups aiding Hezbollah

Some movement from the Bush administration. Funny, it always seems to come from the financial side of things...god forbid they actually try to do something overtly & directly against the mullahs and for the Iranian people...

The Bush administration took action Tuesday against an Iran-based foundation, including its U.S. branch, for allegedly providing support to Hezbollah, a terrorist group the United States has blamed for bloodshed in the Middle East.

The Treasury Department's action covers the Martyrs Foundation and Goodwill Charitable Organization of Dearborn, Mich., which the government identified as a fundraising office for the foundation.

"We will not allow organizations that support terrorism to raise money in the United States," said Stuart Levey, the Treasury Department's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

The government also moved against al-Qard al-Hassan, a Beirut firm that the U.S. government believes was used by Hezbollah "as a cover to manage its financial activity."

Two Lebanese people - Qasem Aliq and Ahmad al-Shami - also were covered by Tuesday's order.

Michigan is the next state in the US to tackle pension investments benefitting Iran

Good for them.

A few updates on this front:

1. Michigan Latest State to Target Sudan
2. Pension $'s In Pockets of Terrorists
3. Pension Funds Weigh In on Iran (Wall Street Journal)

Santander gets nailed

The big European bank is doing business with blacklisted Iranian banks...details here and below.

Santander, one of Europe's biggest banks, has been trading with an Iranian bank that is blacklisted by the US for allegedly financing nuclear proliferation.

Santander, Spain's largest bank and the owner of Abbey in the UK, was doing business with Teheran-based Sepah as recently as March, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

Trading with businesses that are blacklisted for alleged links to terrorism is a serious breach of US law and can have draconian consequences....

...The treasury spokesman said: "We've been meeting with our government counterparts, as well as financial institutions, throughout Europe, Asia and the Middle East to discuss the risks of doing business with Iran."

Galloway booted out

Thank goodness for that. And, in the words of Ali G, 'Respect...'

The 'beloved' Guardian has the news. Some earlier video footage can be found here.

George Galloway was ejected from the Commons chamber on top of his suspension from parliament last night.

The Respect MP had expected the 18-day expulsion after the standards and privileges committee last week criticised him over the transparency of his charity, the Mariam Appeal.

But, while defending himself in the chamber last night, Mr Galloway was ejected by the Speaker, Michael Martin, after repeatedly criticising the committee and its members.

The outspoken anti-war MP had been talking for more than an hour as he sought to defend himself against a motion to suspend him.

British banks fight US over Iran embargo

They want to do business with the mullahs, just like they always have...and the City of London views the US approach as a great bit of annoyance. They don't care where there money comes from, or how many innocent people die because of it at the end of the day. They're banks - their job is to make profits. I have a feeling the US will have more success with HSBC because it has significant US-based operations which the US can leverage against it if things get dirty...

The Guardian has the story...

A mounting US crackdown on foreign companies and banks doing business with Iran is provoking serious opposition in the UK and Europe, where diplomats are warning that the action could lead to a new trade war.

Congress wants all international companies to end their investment in Iran now and is pushing through a bill that would penalise companies that fail to do so. The British government, along with other European governments, views the US approach as draconian and are lobbying hard against it.

The US move reflects frustration at the failure so far of western diplomacy to persuade Iran to stop its uranium enrichment programme, which the US, Britain and others suspect is a step towards achieving a nuclear weapons capability. Iran denies it has ambitions to build a nuclear weapon.

A senior British banking source said today there was a great deal of annoyance in the City with the US approach. The two British banks most frequently mentioned in Washington in relation to Iran are HSBC and Standard Chartered.

Good for Bulgaria

They've imposed an arms embargo on Iran.

Bulgaria’s Cabinet has decided to put an arms embargo on Iran, Liberia and Somalia.

The embargo will be in accordance with a resolution by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the opinion of the Council of the European Union, Focus news agency reported.

The international community introduced a series of restrictions on Iran and the arms embargo is a consequent restriction, Focus said.

Total doing more business wih the mullahs

Hopefully it will fail. The FT reports.

Benjamin Netanyahu still fighting he good fight

He is still fighting for divestment in Iran - read more here & below.

Iran divestment campaign in trouble By Kaveh L Afrasiabi His star may be fading in Israel, but hawkish Likud leader and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is making steady progress in his other campaign - for divestment in Iran.

Since officially launching it in Boston last January, Netanyahu and his right-wing US supporters, such as Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, have managed to persuade a number of state and local governments in the United States to adopt the key objective of his campaign, that is, forcing US pension-fund companies to divest from firms doing business with Iran.

Union wants release of Iranian activist

As you know, I've been away and just learned through reading through the headlines that Mansour Osanloo has been taken by the authorities. What a shame, but only a matter of time for him, I suppose, as he was actually trying to do something to harm the regime, so it would seem. Details can be found here.

The International Transport Workers' Federation has appealed for the release of an Iranian union leader who reportedly was kidnapped earlier this week in Tehran.

Mansour Osanloo, leader of a bus workers union, ``is still in custody somewhere by agents unknown,'' federation spokesman Sam Dawson said Thursday.

The Associated Press was unable to contact any member of his family in Tehran for information on the case.

Osanloo, 47, president of the Sandikaye Kargarane Sherkate Vahed (Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company), was accosted by several men as he stepped off a bus Tuesday evening, the federation said, quoting information from its Iranian affiliate.

Iran bans negative petrol stories

What do you expect? I don't know what to make of all of this activity in Iran right now. Usually when there is 'real', significant and unified protests taking place across the country by people who truly want to remove the mullahs from power, there is absolutely no international (Western) media coverage of such events. This is the true 'black box' of (Western) journalism. So when the likes of al-BBC, al-Reuters and al-CNN begin covering 'riots' and mass 'protests' in Iran, I am automatically dubious as to who is organizing the activities and what their actual motives are. Saying that, this could be a legitimate expression of the Iranian peoples' continuing and intensifying hatred of the ruling regime, but as of now the jury would seem to be out. In any case, al-Beeb's article on the media clampdown can be found here, with excerpts below.

Iran's top security body has ordered local journalists not to report on problems caused by petrol rationing, a day after its surprise introduction.

Angry motorists have reacted violently to the curbs, attacking up to 19 petrol stations in the capital, Tehran.

There are still long queues outside filling stations.

The authorities switched off the mobile text messaging system in Tehran overnight to prevent motorists from organising more protests.

House pressures Iran with gas bill

This is a follow-up to a brief post I made earlier in the week which includes more details of the bill. The full Washington Post article can be found here, with excerpts below fyi. The fact that the mullahs lack the refining capacity to produce enough petrol/gas to fulfil their domestic needs is an illustration of their systematic under-investment in crucial industries within their economy, and blame should therefore not be placed upon countries/companies who are now deciding to limit or cease oil exports to Iran because of very valid political reasons. But you can rest assured the MSM will spin it to make everything the USA & Co.'s fault.

Leaders of a bipartisan House panel, seeking economic pressure against Iran, acted Thursday to try to reduce Tehran's import of gasoline.

A bill introduced by Reps. Mark S. Kirk, R-Ill., and Robert E. Andrews, D-N.J., who set up a congressional group on Iran's nuclear programs two years ago, coincided with angry protests in Tehran against fuel rationing.

While Iran is one of the world's largest oil producers, a lack of refineries compels it to import nearly half the gasoline used by Iranians.

Besides the rationing, which led to street demonstrations in Tehran and criticism of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's government boosted gasoline prices last month.

Under the proposed legislation, any company that provides Iran with gasoline or helps it import gasoline after the end of the year could lose its access to U.S. customers.

"This is becoming the critical weakness of the Iranian government, meaning its dependence on gasoline," Kirk said in a telephone interview. "The riots show the gasoline shortage is a growing danger to the Iranian regime and a diplomatic opportunity for Western countries to force Iran to adhere to international nuclear rules."

Iran fuel rations spark violence

al-Beeb is on the scene.

UPDATE: so are many others:

• Iran's economy could undo Ahmadinejad (The Times of London)
• Protests rage over petrol rationing in Iran (The Telegraph)
• Gas Rationing Sparks Anger in Iran (NYT)
• Nationwide Protests Triggered (AFP)
• Photos (Iran Focus): 1, 2 & 3

At least 12 petrol stations have been torched in the Iranian capital, Tehran, after the government announced fuel rationing for private vehicles.

Windows were smashed and stones thrown at the stations, and there was traffic chaos as motorists queued to buy fuel.

Iranians were given only two hours' notice of the move that limits private drivers to 100 litres of fuel a month.

Despite its huge energy reserves, Iran lacks refining capacity and it imports about 40% of its petrol.

The country has a large budget deficit largely caused by fuel subsidies and the inflation rate is estimated at 20-30%.

US House Foreign Affairs Panel passes Iran Sanctions Bill

Good news. CNN Money has the headline.

A key House panel Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to pass a wide-ranging bill that would toughen U.S. sanctions on Iran and on companies that invest in the country.

The Foreign Affairs Committee voted 37-1 to pass the Iran Counter- Proliferation Act of 2007. The bill is part of a concerted congressional effort to tighten an economic stranglehold on Iran to deter it from a nuclear fuel enrichment program which the U.S. and other countries believe is for nuclear weapons.