Joined: Sep 17, 2006 Posts: 633 Location: No man's land
Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 10:06 am Post subject: Re: Iran- Latest News
Quote:
Iran shifts oil sales away from dollar
Sat, 01 Mar 2008 14:19:28
Deputy head of the National Iranian Oil Company for international affairs says Iran has completely dropped dollar in its oil sales.
“We issue invoices in dollars and agree with clients that the letters of credit and other means of payment will have a non-dollar basis,” he said.
In an interview with The Financial Times, Hojjatollah Ghanimifard said that over the past three months, Iran has received 75 percent of the proceeds from its oil sales in euros and the remaining 25 percent in the Japanese currency, yen.
Analysts are of the view that Iran's oil revenues have enabled the country to bear the costs of UN sanctions and US attempts to prevent dollar transactions through third party banks.
Ali Shams-Ardakani, head of the energy committee of Iran's Chamber of Commerce, said the move away from the dollar was “absolutely right” and was economically justifiable on the grounds that it helped prevent losses due to the fall in the value of the US currency. “It should have happened much earlier,” FT quoted him as saying.
Ghanimifard did not deny there have been some problems for Iran in opening letters of credit but did not elaborate on the extent of the problem or which banks were involved.
“Sanctions could not harm our exports and those banks that have problems issuing letters of credit for our clients are the ones that lose income,” he said, insisting that trying different channels did not cost Iran “even one single cent”.
“We understood that money does not exist only in the west,” Ghanimifard said.
Press TV-Iran _________________ "It is no measure of health to be deemed sane in an insane society" J. Krishnamurti
Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2008 12:37 pm Post subject: Re: Iran- Latest News
Iran has the right to develop nuclear weapons because the NPT treaty is null and void. This treaty required the nuclear powers to disarm at the same time as non-nuclear states pledged not to develop nuclear weapons.
The current anti-Iranian hysteria in the west is based on pure "you better do what we want or else" bullying and not on any principle or logic.
Given that the US and its lackeys want to kill millions of Iranians and destroy its infrastructure, much like the rape of Iraq, Iran must develop nuclear weapons as a deterrent.
BTW, Iranian Shiites are not wahabi nutbars so the whole muslim terrorist angle is rubbish.
Joined: Oct 15, 2004 Posts: 2196 Location: Arkansas
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 1:02 pm Post subject: Re: Iran- Latest News
Israel says Iran is a threat and says diplomatic pressures will not be enough - but then throws in the usuall expression that diplomacy may work.
Quote:
According to Olmert, sanctions were not enough to halt Iran in its race to attain nuclear weapons. "Israel definitely considers itself threatened by Iran, but Israel has the might to defend itself from any threat - no matter the circumstances," he said.
But then, quickly throw in this, much more diplomatically palatable statement:
Quote:
The prime minister, however, expressed optimism regarding the efficacy of international pressure on the Islamic Republic, saying that "I believe that ultimately, with a concerted and broad international effort, it will be possible to halt Iran's nuclearization."
Joined: Jun 20, 2007 Posts: 521 Location: USS Poland
Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 3:52 pm Post subject: Re: Iran- Latest News
alokin wrote:
...and they didn't go to war with Venezuela. Maybe to concentrate on an attack of Iran.
Delusions of grandeur end with empty pockets.
United States have no army to attack any country more, and have no money to go for it. _________________ The poor complain; they always do,
But that's just idle chatter.
Our system brings rewards to all,
At least to all who matter.
Joined: Oct 15, 2004 Posts: 2196 Location: Arkansas
Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 8:15 am Post subject: Re: Iran- Latest News
"Janes" now jumping on the badwagon and reporting Iran has a secret nuclear weapons program.
Quote:
Evidence emerges of Iran's continued nuclear weapons research
By Mark Harrington
14 March 2008
Documents shown exclusively to Jane's indicate that Iran is continuing its pursuit of the advanced technologies necessary to develop a nuclear weapon, regardless of Tehran's claims that its nuclear programme is purely peaceful.
Jane's was shown the information by a source connected to a Western intelligence service, and the documents were verified by a number of reliable independent sources in Vienna.
The picture the papers paint starkly contradicts the US National Intelligence Estimate released in December 2007, which said Tehran had frozen its military nuclear programme in 2003. It also comes against a backdrop of the UN's 4 March approval of a third round of trade and economic sanctions against Iran (under Security Council Resolution 1803) for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment and heavy-water-related projects.
Iran continues to officially deny any connection between the Iranian ministry of defence (MoD) and nuclear research and development in its dealings with the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but the documents seen by Jane's show that Iran has made great strides with one of the key non-nuclear technologies needed for a working nuclear weapon: the implosion system.
The papers shown to Jane's state that an organisation within the Iranian MoD has actively pursued the development of a nuclear weapon system based on relatively advanced multipoint initiation (MPI) nuclear implosion detonation technology for some years, in parallel with developments within the Atomic Energy Authority of Iran.
Image: Schematic of the advanced multipoint initiation (MPI) nuclear implosion detonation technology that Iran has tested. (Jane's/IDR)
Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 4:22 pm Post subject: Re: Iran- Latest News
Some years ago, I made a prediction on this thread that, more likely than not, Bush would attack Iran before leaving office and would use "Stratcom" to do it. All arguments about an attack on Iran aside, if you are not familiar with Stratcom, this is an interesting read.
Joined: Oct 15, 2004 Posts: 2196 Location: Arkansas
Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 9:03 am Post subject: Re: Iran- Latest News
I once said that a declining US economy would put pressure on Israel to strike Iran, bc Israel's economy depends on the US economy, and if the dollar or the US isn't able to finance Israel, Israel is forced to strike Iran while it still has the ability to do so. Basically, if the US economy goes down, Israel goes down.
Well, it looks like the declining dollar is starting to put economic pressure on Israel, and for the first time in years, The Bank of Israel intervened in the currency exchange to prop up the dollar against the shekel.
Quote:
'Dollar has moved against us'
By SHARON WROBEL
The Bank of Israel intervened in the foreign exchange market on Thursday for the first time since 1997, buying an undisclosed amount of foreign currency as the shekel-dollar exchange rate fell below the psychological barrier of NIS 3.40.
Financial expert Dan Gerstenfeld on the dollar's decline
The move is designed to stem the recent decline in the dollar against the shekel, before it causes serious damage to the economy, in particular to the export sector.
"In light of the exceptional behavior of the shekel exchange rate over recent days, the central bank bought foreign currency," the Bank of Israel said in a statement on Thursday afternoon, while declining to provide further details.
Speculations in the market estimated that the central bank probably bought between $50 million and $100m., but in any case not more than $200m., in foreign currency.
The move by the Bank of Israel came as a surprise, since over the past couple of months Governor of the Bank of Israel Stanley Fischer reiterated the bank's stance in favor of a free market for the shekel, rejecting urgent calls by exporters to intervene to ease the sharp plunge of the shekel-dollar exchange rate hurting their profits.
"What's going on now is that the dollar has moved against us. Indeed, it's moved against everybody in terms of exports," Fischer said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post to be published next week. "Against the euro we haven't strengthened so much, so the European market looks better, and there is growth in Asia. So the exporters have to start reorienting [themselves], without being so extremist as to forget that there will continue to be a huge market in the US, in a year from now when the recovery starts."
Fischer added that the exporters have well understood what they have to do and that data showed that they were "reorienting" to the new dollar rate.
Capital market analyst Prof. Rafi Eldor of the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya said on Thursday that "the Bank of Israel cannot deal with a 'speculative attack' on the shekel-dollar exchange rate on its own. To have an impact, the central bank would have to make regular purchases of millions of dollars."
Eldor added that in 1997, when the central bank first interfered in the level of the shekel, it had to make regular purchases of $20m. to keep the shekel-dollar exchange rate at NIS 4.
The bank's announcement came as the shekel-dollar exchange rate dropped more than 2 percent, to an 11-year low of NIS 3.34 in early trading on Thursday. Following the announcement in the afternoon, the dollar strengthened slightly, trading at NIS 3.43.
"The dollar continues to fall to new record lows against the shekel and the euro," said Benny Menashe, head of the dealer room at Finotec. "Investors are losing confidence in the rescue solutions by the US Federal Reserve to help dampen the repercussions of the US subprime mortgage crisis and avert a recession in the US economy."
Since the middle of December, the shekel has appreciated 16% against the dollar, even after the Israeli central bank cut interest rates by half a percentage point to 3.75% on February 25.
"We've had a dollar-selling wave, which was triggered after it broke a nine-year low Monday morning," said Neil Corney, head trader at Citi Israel, a subsidiary of Citigroup Inc. "There was a realization that even though the Bank of Israel has cut its rate, the interest gap with the US is still widening."
Over recent months, Fischer and the Finance Ministry have come under heavy pressure from Manufacturers Association President Shraga Brosh to take urgent action to stem the sharp slide of the shekel-dollar exchange rate and avert a "national disaster" in the export sector. If nothing was done, the manufacturers said, industry was poised to lose $3.5 billion worth of orders and 30,000 jobs this year.
Joined: Jun 13, 2007 Posts: 3639 Location: Minniesotuh
Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 3:54 pm Post subject: Re: Iran- Latest News
Guess where Iran got some of its material (old news):
UK cleared nuclear cargo to Iran
Defence experts demand tightening of export regulations on potential weapon materials
Antony Barnett The Observer, Sun 8 Jan 2006
This article appeared in the Observer on Sunday January 08 2006 on p14 of the News section. It was last updated at 00:04 on 8 Jan 2006.
British officials have allowed the export to Iran of a cargo of radioactive material that experts believe could be used in a nuclear weapons programme, The Observer can reveal.
The disclosure has prompted calls for an inquiry into how the international trade in such compounds is controlled.
On 31 August a truck carrying 1,000kg of zirconium silicate supplied by a British firm was stopped by Bulgarian customs at the Turkish border on its way to Tehran, after travelling 2,400 kilometres (1,500 miles) from Britain, through Germany and Romania, without being stopped. Zirconium can be used as a component of a nuclear programme. According to one expert, it is used in nuclear reactors to stop fuel rods corroding and can also be used as part of a nuclear warhead. The metal can be extracted from zirconium silicate. It is because the compound can be used for military purposes that its trade is usually tightly controlled. ...
Latest U.S. terror assessment says Iran is world's most active state sponsor of terror.
Quote:
The report once again identifies Iran as the world's "most active" state sponsor of terrorism for supporting Palestinian extremists and insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq, where it says elements of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps continued to provide militants with weapons, training and funding.
"In this way, Iranian government forces have been responsible for attacks on coalition forces," State Department counter terrorism coordinator Dell Dailey told reporters. Iranian forces are also giving weapons and financial aid to the Taliban in Afghanistan, he said.
Latest U.S. terror assessment says Iran is world's most active state sponsor of terror.
"In this way, Iranian government forces have been responsible for attacks on coalition forces," State Department counter terrorism coordinator Dell Dailey told reporters. Iranian forces are also giving weapons and financial aid to the Taliban in Afghanistan, he said.
While there may be some truth to it, unfortunately, we cannot believe Anything from the government, or its "coordinators." I guess since the Syrian/N. Korean hans't agitated anyone, they back on Iran.
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I guess since the Syrian/N. Korean hans't agitated anyone, they back on Iran.
