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Poster: 'We will make history'

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:50:48 +0000

Poster: 'We will make history'

Israel teams with terror group to kill Iran's nuclear scientists, U.S. officials tell NBC News

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:21:43 +0000

Deadly attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists are being carried out by an Iranian dissident group that is financed, trained and armed by Israel’s secret service, U.S. officials tell NBC News, confirming charges leveled by Iran’s leaders.

The group, the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, has long been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, accused of killing American servicemen and contractors in the 1970s and supporting the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran before breaking with the Iranian mullahs in 1980.

The attacks, which have killed five Iranian nuclear scientists since 2007 and may have destroyed a missile research and development site, have been carried out in dramatic fashion, with motorcycle-borne assailants often attaching small magnetic bombs to the exterior of the victims’ cars.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Obama administration is aware of the assassination campaign but has no direct involvement.

The Iranians have no doubt who is responsible – Israel and the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, known by various acronyms, including MEK, MKO and PMI.

“The relation is very intricate and close,” said Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior aide to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, speaking of the MEK and Israel. “They (Israelis) are paying … the Mujahedin. Some of their (MEK) agents … (are) providing Israel with information. And they recruit and also manage logistical support.”

Moreover, he said, the Mossad, the Israeli secret service, is training MEK members in Israel on the use of motorcycles and small bombs. In one case, he said, Mossad agents built a replica of the home of an Iranian nuclear scientist so that the assassins could familiarize themselves with the layout prior to the attack.

Much of what the Iranian government knows of the attacks and the links between Israel and MEK comes from interrogation of an assassin who failed to carry out an attack in late 2010 and the materials found on him, Larijani said. (Click here to see a video report of the interrogation shown on Iranian televsion.)

The U.S.-educated Larijani, whose two younger brothers run the legislative and judicial branches of the Iranian government, said the Israelis’ rationale is simple. “Israel does not have direct access to our society. Mujahedin, being Iranian and being part of Iranian society, they have … a good number of … places to get into the touch with people. So I think they are working hand-to-hand very close. And we do have very concrete documents.”

Two senior U.S. officials confirmed for NBC News the MEK’s role in the assassinations, with one senior official saying, “All your inclinations are correct.” A third official would not confirm or deny the relationship, saying only, “It hasn’t been clearly confirmed yet.” All the officials denied any U.S. involvement in the assassinations.

As it has in the past, Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined comment. Said a spokesman, "As long as we can't see all the evidence being claimed by NBC, the Foreign Ministry won't react to every gossip and report being published worldwide."

For its part, the MEK pointed to a statement calling the allegations “absolutely false.”

Ali Safavi, a long-time representative of the MEK, underscored the denial after publication of this article,

"There has never been and there is no MEK member in Israel, period," he said. "The MEK has categorically denied any involvement. The idea that Israel is training MEK members on its soil borders on perversity. It is absolutely and completely false."

The sophistication of the attacks supports the Iranian claims that an experienced intelligence service is involved, experts say.

In the most recent attack, on Jan. 11, 2012, Mostafa Ahamdi Roshan died in a blast in Tehran moments after two assailants on a motorcycle placed a small magnetic bomb on his vehicle. Roshan was a deputy director at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility and was reportedly involved in procurement for the nuclear program, which Iran insists is not a weapons program.

Previous attacks include the assassination of Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, killed by a bomb outside his Tehran home in January 2010, and an explosion in November of that year that took the life of Majid Shahriari and wounded Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, who is now the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization.

In the case of Roshan, the bomb appears to have been a shaped charge that directed all the explosive power inside the vehicle, killing him and his bodyguard driver but leaving nearby traffic unaffected.

Although Roshan was directly involved in the nuclear program, working at the huge centrifuge facility between Tehran and Qom, Iran’s religious center, at least one other scientist who was killed wasn’t linked to the Iranian nuclear program, according to Larijani.

Speaking of bombing victim Ali-Mohammadi, whom he described as a friend, Larijani told NBC News, “In fact this guy who was assassinated was not involved in the nitty-gritty of the situation. He was a scientist, a physicist, working on the theoretically parts of nuclear energy, which you can teach it in every university. You can find it in every text.”

“This is an Israeli plot. A dirty plot,” Larijani added angrily. He also claimed the assassinations are not having an effect on the program and have only made scientists more resolute in carrying out their mission.

Not so, said Ronen Bergman, an Israeli commentator and author of “Israel’s Secret War with Iran” and an upcoming book tentatively titled, “Mossad and the Art of Assassination.”

Bergman said the attacks have three purposes, the most obvious being the removal of high-ranking scientists and their knowledge. The others: forcing Iran to increase security for its scientists and facilities and to spur “white defections.”

He explained the latter this way: “Scientists leaving the project, afraid that they are going to be next on the assassination list, and say, ‘We don't want this. Indeed, we get good money, we are promoted, we are honored by everybody, but we might get killed. It isn't worth it. Maybe we should go back to teach … in a university.’”

There are unconfirmed reports in the Israeli press and elsewhere that Israel and the MEK were involved in a Nov. 12 explosion that destroyed the Iranian missile research and development site at Bin Kaneh, 30 miles outside Tehran. Among those killed was Maj. Gen. Hassan Moghaddam, director of missile development for the Revolutionary Guard, and a dozen other researchers. So important was Moghaddam that Ayatollah Khamenei attended his funeral.

Unlike the assassinations, Iran claims the missile site explosion was an accident; the MEK, meanwhile, trumpeted it but denied any involvement.

Indeed, there may be other covert operations carried out either by Israel acting alone or in concert with others, according to Bergman.

“Two labs caught fire,” said Bergman, enumerating the attacks. “Scientists got blown up or disappeared. A missile base and the R&D base of the Revolutionary Guard exploded some time ago, with the director of the R&D division of the Revolutionary Guard being killed along with … his soldiers.”

Bergman added, “So, a long series of … something that was termed by an Israeli (Cabinet) minister … as ‘mysterious mishaps’ happening and rehappening to the project. Then the Iranians claim, ‘This is Israeli Mossad trying to sabotage our attempts to be a nuclear superpower.’”

Dr. Uzi Rabi, director of the Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, said the supposed accidents could all be part of “psychological warfare” conducted against Iran. “It seems logical. It makes sense,” he said of possible MEK involvement, “and it’s been done before.”

Rabi, who regularly briefs Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Iran also said the ultimate goal of the range of covert operations being carried out by Israel is “to damage the politics of survivability … to send a message that could strike fear into the rulers of Iran.”

For the United States, the alleged role of the MEK is particularly troublesome. In 1997, the State Department designated it a terrorist group, justifying it with an unclassified 40-page summary of the organization’s activities going back more than 25 years. The paper, sent to Congress in 1998, was written by Wendy Sherman, now undersecretary of state for political affairs and then an aide to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

The report, which was obtained by NBC News, was unsparing in its assessment. “The Mujahedin (MEK) collaborated with Ayatollah Khomeini to overthrow the former shah of Iran,” it said. “As part of that struggle, they assassinated at least six American citizens, supported the takeover of the U.S. embassy, and opposed the release of the American hostages.” In each case, the paper noted, “Bombs were the Mujahedin's weapon of choice, which they frequently employed against American targets.”

“In the post-revolutionary political chaos, however, the Mujahedin lost political power to Iran's Islamic clergy. They then applied their dedication to armed struggle and the use of propaganda against the new Iranian government, launching a violent and polemical cycle of attack and reprisal."

U.S. officials have said publicly that the information contained in the report was limited to unclassified material, but that it also drew on classified material in making its determination to add the MEK to the U.S. list of terrorist organizations.

The MEK and its sister organizations have since the beginning been run by Massoud and Maryam Rajavi, a husband-wife team who have maintained tight control despite assassination threats and internal dissent. Massoud Rajavi, 63, founded the MEK, but since the U.S. invasion of Iraq has taken a backseat to his wife.

The State Department report describes the Rajavis as “fundamentally undemocratic” and “not a viable alternative to the current government of Iran.”

One reason for that is the MEK’s close relationship with Saddam Hussein, as demonstrated by this 1986 video showing the late Iraqi dictator meeting with Massoud Rajavi. Saddam recruited the MEK in much the same way the Israelis allegedly have, using them to fight Iranian forces during the Iran-Iraq War, a role they took on proudly. So proudly, they invited NBC News to one of their military camps outside Baghdad in 1991.

“The National Liberation Army (MLA), the military wing of the Mujahedin, conducted raids into Iran during the latter years of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War,” according to the State Department report. The NLA's last major offensive reportedly was conducted against Iraqi Kurds in 1991, when it joined Saddam Hussein's brutal repression of the Kurdish rebellion. In addition to occasional acts of sabotage, the Mujahedin are responsible for violent attacks in Iran that victimize civilians.”

“Internally, the Mujahedin run their organization autocratically, suppressing dissent and eschewing tolerance of differing viewpoints,” it said. “Rajavi, who heads the Mojahedin’s political and military wings, has fostered a cult of personality around himself.”

The U.S. suspicion of the MEK doesn’t end there. Law enforcement officials have told NBC News that in 1994, the MEK made a pact with terrorist Ramzi Yousef a year after he masterminded the first attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. According to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Yousef built an 11-pound bomb that MEK agents placed inside one of Shia Islam’s greatest shrines in Mashad, Iran, on June 20, 1994. At least 26 people, mostly women and children, were killed and 200 wounded in the attack.

That connection between Yousef, nephew of 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, and the MEK was first reported in a book, “The New Jackals,” by Simon Reeve. NBC News confirmed that Yousef told U.S. law enforcement that he had worked with the MEK on the bombing.

In recent years, the MEK has said it has renounced violence, but Iranian officials say that is not true, that killings of Iranians continue. Still, through some deft lobbying, the group has been able to get the United Kingdom and the European Union to remove it from their lists of terrorist groups.

The alleged involvement of the MEK in the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists provides the U.S. with a cloak of deniability regarding the clandestine killings. Because the U.S. has designated the MEK as a terrorist organization, neither military nor intelligence units of the U.S. government, can work with them. “We cannot deal with them, “ said one senior U.S. official. “We would not deal with them because of the designation.”

Iranian officials initially accused the Israelis and MEK of being behind the attacks, but they have since added the CIA to the list. Three days after the Jan. 11, 2012, bombing in Tehran that killed Roshan, the state news agency IRNA reported that Iran’s Foreign Ministry had sent a diplomatic letter to the U.S. claiming to have “evidence and reliable information” that the CIA provided “guidance, support and planning” to assassins directly involved in the attack.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton immediately denied any connection to the killings. “I want to categorically deny any United States involvement in any kind of act of violence inside Iran,” Clinton told reporters on the day of the attack.

But at least two GOP presidential candidates have no problem with the targeting of nuclear scientists. In a November debate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich endorsed “taking out their scientists,” and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum called it, ”a wonderful thing.”

The MEK’s opposition to the Iranian government also has recently earned it both plaudits and support from an odd mix of political bedfellows.

A group of former Cabinet-level officials have joined together to support the MEK’s removal from the official U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organization list, even taking out a full-page ad last year in the New York Times calling for the removal of the MEK from the U.S. terrorist list. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton; former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, former FBI Director Louis Freeh and former Rep. Patrick Kennedy were among those whose signatures were on the ad.

“There’s an extraordinary group of bipartisan or even apolitical leaders, military leaders, diplomats, the United States … the United Kingdom, the European Union, even a U.S. District Court in Washington, said that this group that was put on the foreign terrorist organization watch list in 1997 doesn’t deserve to be there,” Ridge said in November on “The Andrea Mitchell Show” on MSNBC TV.

U.S. politicians also have been pushing the U.S. government to protect the 3,400 MEK members and their families at Camp Ashraf in Iraq, about 35 miles north of Baghdad. With the departure of U.S. troops, the MEK feared that Iraqi forces, with encouragement from Iran, would attack the camp, leading to a bloodbath. At the last minute, however, agreement was brokered with the United Nations that would permit the MEK members’ departure for resettlement in unspecified democratic countries. As of this week, there’s been little movement on the planned resettlement.
The Iranians see what’s happening as terrorism and hypocrisy by the United States. They have forwarded documents and other evidence to the United Nations – and directly to the United States, they say.

“I think this is very cynical plan. This is unacceptable,” said Larijani. “This is a bad trend in the world. Unprecedented. We should kill scientists … to block a scientific program? I mean this is disaster!”

Daniel Byman, a professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and also a senior fellow with the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, said that if the accounts of the Israeli-MEK assassinations are accurate, the operation borders on terrorism.

“In theory, states cannot be terrorist, but if they hire locals to do assassinations, that would be state sponsorship,” said Byman, author of the recent book, “A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism.” “You could argue that they took action not to terrorize the public, the purpose of terrorism, but only the nuclear community. An argument could also be made that degrading the program means that you don’t have to take military action and thus, this is a lower level of violence and that really these are military targets, where normally terrorist targets are civilians.”

But ultimately, Byman said, there is a “spectrum of responsibility” and that Israel is ultimately responsible.

Ronen Bergman, while not speaking on behalf of the Israeli government, suggests that there is a justification, citing an oft-repeated but disputed quote in which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s said that Israel should be wiped off the face of the earth.

“Meir Degan, the chief of Mossad, when he was in office, hung a photograph behind him, behind the chair of the chief of Mossad,” notes the Israeli commentator. “And in that photograph you see -- an ultra-orthodox Jew -- long beard, standing on his knees with his-- hands up in the air, and two Gestapo soldiers standing -- beside him with guns pointed at him. One of -- one of them is smiling.

“And Degan used to say to his people and the people coming to visit him from CIA, NSA, et cetera, ‘Look at this guy in the picture. This is my grandfather just seconds before he was killed by the SS,’” Bergman said. “’… We are here to prevent this from happening again.’"

NBC News

The views expressed in this article are those of the individual who expressed them and may not necessarily reflect the Green Voice of Freedom's editorial policy.

Mousavi daughters threatened with arrest

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:03:30 +0000

GVF — Iranian authorities are resorting to scare tactics to intimidate the daughters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, a leader in Iran’s opposition Green Movement.

On Thursday, Kaleme, a website close to Mousavi, reported that security agents had recently threatened the daughters of the opposition leader with imprisonment. Meanwhile, one of the daughters, who had been studying arts at Azzahra University, has already been barred from attending school.

During the June 2009 presidential election, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi ran against incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who was announced the as the victor. The reformist pair however refused to acknowledge the results of the disputed election describing it as “engineered” and “fraudulent.” Following the fraud allegations, massive demonstrations questioning the validity of the vote erupted across the country.

Despite the authorities’ brutal crackdown on protesters, the opposition Green Movement dominated the streets for seven months with a series of highly disciplined yet mainly self-organised mass rallies across the country.

After almost a year of absence from the streets and in the wake of revolts in the Arab world, Mousavi and Karroubi called for rallies to be held in February 2011 in support of the pro-democracy movements in the region. However, shortly after their call for protests, the men were placed under house arrest along with their wives, Zahra Rahnavard and Fatemeh Karroubi, respectively.

The Coordination Council for the Green Path of Hope, the movement’s most important decision-making council, recently called for a fresh wave of opposition marches on 14 February to mark the anniversary of last year’s demonstrations.

On Tuesday, Kaleme published a statement by the children of Mousavi and fellow opposition leader Mahdi Karroubi describing their parents’ on-going house arrest as “inhumane” and “illegal.”

“Echo our demand for justice,” they called on Iranians.

“We, the families of our dear ones, say with certainty and explicitly that, contrary to their free will and the law, they’ve been in prison for a year now. With the exception of a few limited, short and controlled phone calls and visitations, they’ve been deprived of any contact with the outside world. They’re deprived of their legal rights. Up till now, not a single official has accepted responsibility for this illegal act. There is no impartial body monitoring their food, health or medication. There are many ambiguities surrounding their security and place of detention and our concerns grow daily.”

According to the website, the latest episode of intimidation against the Mousavi household is not an isolated incident. Iran’s intelligence agencies regularly harass the girls by calling them and delivering death threats or telling them they risk losing their jobs.

Kaleme also reported that one of Mousavi’s daughters had been suspended from Azzahra University without receiving any form of written explanation. Azzahra is the only university in Iran only women can attend. Mousavi’s wife Zahra Rahnavard used to be a professor and chancellor at the university for a number of years.

During a brief encounter with his daughter during the holy month of Ramadan, Mousavi reportedly told his daughters, “If you want to know about my situation in captivity, read Gabriel García Márquez’s News of a Kidnapping.” “Under the status quo, one can’t be hopeful about the upcoming [parliamentary] elections and taking part in them,” he told his daughters.

“The future is bright,” he told them.

When news of the meeting leaked onto green websites, authorities further isolated the opposition couple from the outside world, while queues formed in some bookshops after the book became a rare commodity in a matter of days.

Posters in anticipation of 14 Feb protests

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:32:51 +0000

Sane Jaleh and Mohammad Mokhtari, two protesters killed during last year's protests on 14 Febraury 2011 in solidarity with the Arab Spring.

'Echo our call for justice,' say families of Green opposition leaders

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:27:53 +0000

GVF — The continued house arrest of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, the leaders of the Green Movement, violate the provisions of international human rights as well as Iran’s own constitution, their families say.

According to websites affiliated with the two, their children issued a joint letter addressed to the Iranian people as well as “justice and freedom seeking people around world” on Tuesday, calling their continuing house arrest as “illegal” and “inhumane.” It comes exactly a week before Iranians take to the street next Tuesday, the first major opposition protest since 14 February 2011.

The statement dismissed claims by some Iranian officials that the decision to impose house arrest on the 2009 presidential candidates was to ensure their own safety. In late December 2011, the daily Ebtekar quoted Hossein Taeb as saying that the house arrest had been enforced at the leaders’ own request. “They are under house arrest not to obstruct their actions, but to prevent people from beating them.

“It was at their own request. Stones were being thrown at them as they travelled to various places … They themselves asked to have increased security,” Taeb alleged.

However, the opposition leaders’ families believe that their loved ones’ captivity is against their will.

Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi spearheaded the Green Movement until mid-February 2011, when they were placed under house arrest after calling for protests in solidarity with the Arab Spring. The 14 February demonstrations were marred by the security forces’ violent crackdowns, which left at least two dead. The Coordination Council of the Green Path of Hope, the movement’s highest decision-making body, has called for nationwide opposition demonstrations protesting the worsening economic conditions as well as the continued detention of dissident figures, particularly Mousavi and Karroubi.

The families maintained that their parents’ absence from the public eye would not deter millions of Iranians from pursuing their rights.

They also warned that Iran’s ruling elite had lured Iran to “war and destruction,” urging them to “the path of reason and the interests of the people and the country.”

“We call on our oppressed, suffering and self-sacrificing countrymen, as well as all those who seek justice and freedom, to echo our call for justice to the entire world, in line with our fellow compatriots in the country who seek the formation of true democracy. Convey our message to the world: ‘Release our beleaguered yet steadfast detainees and all political prisoners and [prisoners of] conscience across Iran. A country and a nation with such dignity and valour does not deserve this level of economic and political hardship, or, God forbid, war’.”

Speaking to the Green Voice of Freedom, former reformist lawmaker Rajab Ali Mazrooei said the imprisonment of Mousavi and Karroubi demonstrated the authorities’ fear of the men’s influence amongst the wider public. “A few seemingly harmless statements by the Green Movement leaders about the upcoming parliamentary elections are enough to infuriate the authorities,” he noted.

“The 14 February protests will offer a new opportunity for Iranians to express their protest against this illegal form of detention,” said Mazrooei, who was once economic advisor to former President Mohammad Khatami.

During a brief encounter with his daughter during the holy month of Ramadan, Mousavi reportedly told his daughters, “If you want to know about my situation in captivity, read Gabriel García Márquez’s News of a Kidnapping.” “Under the status quo, one can’t be hopeful about the upcoming [parliamentary] elections and taking part in them,” he told his daughters.

“The future is bright,” he told them.

On Friday, Reporters without Borders, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and the Iranian League for the Defence of Human Rights issued a joint statement urging the international community to take a much firmer stance against Iran’s human rights violations in the talks currently under way with the country’s authorities.

These organisations said Mousavi, Rahnavard (Mousavi’s wife) and Karroubi had been “deprived of all their rights for nearly a year. Their relatives have not been able to visit them for months and are very worried about their state of health.”

“The Islamic Republic must bring this unacceptable state of affairs to an end. Arbitrary arrest and holding political prisoners incommunicado violate international law. Such practices are tantamount to enforced disappearance, yet are widely and frequently used by the authorities.”

The three human rights organisations expressed their backing of the appeal of 39 political prisoners, journalists and intellectuals issued on 25 January, calling upon “all freedom fighting citizens across the globe to create public awareness of the upcoming sham and rigged parliamentary elections in March and to continue to do everything in their power to ensure that the detained leaders of the Green Movement are released in the month of February.”

Members of the Nobel Women’s Initiative, who are also Nobel laureates, recently called for the “unconditional release” of the green leaders, urging “all freedom-loving people and human rights organisations throughout the world not to remain indifferent to the fate of the prisoners of conscience in Iran, in particular the aforementioned individuals, and to employ every means at their disposal to secure their release.”

In an interview with Radio Farda, RFE/RL’s Persian-language service, Reporters without Borders spokesperson Reza Moini described the year-long house arrest as a “crime against humanity.” “Today, the family of Mr Mousavi and Karroubi don’t know exactly where they are being detained, because there’s no record of their imprisonment anywhere.”

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran demanded that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei “immediately release” the three opposition figures on Wednesday.

“Khamenei bears the ultimate responsibility for these house arrests, which indeed are nothing short of a kidnapping,” said Hadi Ghaemi, the Campaign’s spokesperson. “Khamenei is operating above the law of the land, and the intelligence and judicial apparatus are tools of repression in his hands, operating with impunity and without any regard for the law or the constitution,” he added.

Video - News of a kidnapping: one year into the house arrest of Iran’s opposition leaders

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:30:32 +0000

Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi spearheaded the Green Movement until mid-February 2011 when they were placed under house arrest after calling for protests in solidarity with the Arab Spring. The 14 February demonstrations were marred by the security forces’ violent crackdowns which left at least two dead. The Coordination Council of the Green Path of Hope, the movement’s highest decision-making body, has called for nationwide opposition demonstrations in protest at the worsening economic conditions as well as the continued detention of dissident figures, in particular Mousavi and Karroubi.

The following video was released by the International Campaign for Human Rights on the first anniversary of their illegal house arrest:

Signs build that Iran sanctions disrupt food imports

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:05:54 +0000

More evidence emerged on Tuesday of the crippling impact of new sanctions on Iran, with international traders saying Tehran is having trouble buying rice, cooking oil and other staples to feed its 74 million people weeks before an election.

New U.S. financial sanctions imposed since the beginning of this year to punish Tehran over its nuclear program are playing havoc with Iran's ability to buy imports and receive payment for its oil exports, commodities traders said.

Iran denies that sanctions are causing serious harm to its economy, but Reuters investigations in recent days with commodities traders around the globe show serious disruptions to its imports. That is having a real impact on the streets of Iran, where prices for basic foodstuffs are soaring.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak was in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the latest leader of a major Asian oil importing country to visit the Middle East seeking alternative sources of oil as sanctions make it more difficult to import from Iran.

Traders in Asia told Reuters on Tuesday that Malaysian exporters of palm oil - the source of half of Iran's consumption of a food staple used to make margarine and confectionary - had halted sales to Iran because they could not get paid.

That followed news on Monday that Iran had defaulted on payments for rice from top supplier India, and news last week that Ukrainian shipments of maize had been cut nearly in half.

Rice is one of the main staples of the Iranian diet. With the rial currency plummeting, prices have more than doubled to $5 a kilo at bazaars in Iran from about $2 last year.

Maize is used primarily as animal feed, and the cost of meat has almost tripled to about $30 a kilo, beyond the budget of many middle class Iranian families.

The measures have had a dramatic impact on daily life in the country ahead of a March 2 parliamentary election that will pit supporters of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against opponents seen as even more conservative.

Reformists are barely represented in the election, which is being seen as a referendum on Ahmadinejad's economic policies that have seen subsidies for basic goods cut and replaced with direct payments to families.

Next month's election will be Iran's first since a presidential vote in 2009, when a disputed victory for Ahmadinejad triggered eight months of violent protests. The authorities put that revolt down by force, but since then the Arab Spring has shown the vulnerability of governments in the region to popular anger fuelled by economic hardship.

Traders in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur said palm oil shipments to Iran had largely been halted since late last year, after U.S. and European sanctions made it difficult for buyers to obtain letters of credit and make payments via middlemen in the United Arab Emirates.

"They keep asking in the spirit of Muslim brotherhood. The last I heard was an enquiry for 5,000 tonnes for February or March delivery, but no one wants to take that risk now," said one trader in Kuala Lumpur, speaking on condition of anonymity while discussing commercial contracts.

A margarine factory owner in Iran, who asked not to be identified, said there was a shortage in supply of the oils needed to make margarine that could halt production soon.

"The way things are going, I predict that over next three to four months our edible oil will run out because of sanctions. It is no longer being imported and Iran itself cannot produce that much."

A Tehran market wholesaler said: "There is a big shortage of margarine in the market, due to drop in imports. What is being sold now is our previous stockpiles."

A default by Iranian buyers on purchases of 200,000 tonnes of Indian rice is potentially more crippling. The average Iranian eats 40 kilos of rice a year, 45 percent of which is imported, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. India is the main supplier.

The president of the All India Rice Exporters' Association said it was advising exporters to stop selling rice to Iran with the customary 90 days credit for payment.

"As part of our efforts to minimize losses, we are asking our colleagues to avoid sending rice on credit," Vijay Setia said.

Exporters have also had difficulty in Pakistan, another of Iran's major sources of rice.

Javed Agha, head of the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan said: "We use lines of credit opened through agents in Dubai, but that too has become difficult because of sanctions and the resulting currency fluctuations."

Iranian buyers normally pay for Indian rice through middlemen in the UAE, but falls in Iran's rial means buyers have trouble covering the cost in hard currency.

HAMMER BLOW

While it is too early to talk of hunger from the rising prices of food in Iran, international organizations are keeping an eye out for a sign of hardship.

Gaelle Stevenier, spokeswoman for the U.N.'s World Food Programme, said the agency was "monitoring" the situation but had no further comment.

The ultimate hammer blow to Iran's economy could come in the next few months if it becomes unable to sell the 2.6 million barrels of oil a day that it is accustomed to exporting, or is forced to offer such steep discounts that its revenue shrivels.

While Iran has a more diverse economy than other big oil exporters in the Gulf, energy exports are still its main source of earnings to buy food and other necessities.

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia - long a regional rival of Iran - has promised to make up for lost supply for countries that stop buying Iranian crude.

South Korea's Lee became on Tuesday the latest Asian leader to visit Saudi Arabia in search of additional oil supplies to replace possible cuts of oil from Iran. The leaders of Japan and China visited in recent weeks.

"I believe Saudi can play a major role in stabilizing the global economy," Lee said in a speech. Korea bought 87 percent of its oil from the Middle East last year, including 9 percent from Iran.

Where Iran is still able to sell oil, it has difficulty getting paid, or exchanging payment from the buyer's domestic currency into dollars so that it can use the money for international trade.

South Korea owes Iran's central bank some $5 billion for crude oil imports, but the money is trapped in the Korean banking system because of U.S. sanctions.

The European Union, which bought about a fifth of Iran's oil exports last year, has announced a total embargo which will take force over the next six months.

China, which also bought about a fifth of Iran's oil last year, is demanding steep discounts to keep doing business with Tehran, and has cut its imports by more than half over the first three months of this year while pressing Iran to cut its price.

A senior executive of a U.S. oil company said Saudi exports have risen by 200,000 barrels a day, mostly to Asia, making up for most of the decline in China's imports of Iranian oil. China has also been increasing its purchases from Russia and West Africa, oil traders say.

Energy is not the only Iranian export that has been hurt. Traders said that China is likely to cut its purchases of Iranian iron ore as well, worth $2 billion a year.

"There is a huge risk ahead, and many haven't realized it yet," said a senior executive at a Shanghai-based trading firm that has a long-term partnership with an Iranian ore supplier.

"It is easy for the United States to freeze our business, forcing large Chinese Iran ore traders, which have large trading volumes with Iran, to be more cautious when making bookings. It's not worth taking the risk."

A Chinese iron ore buyer based in eastern China's Shandong province said some of his Iranian suppliers had rushed shipments, a sign that they too were worried about potential payment problems. Shipments booked in February had arrived early, and he expected imports to decline by March.

The new U.S. sanctions, which come into effect gradually by June, would make it impossible for countries to use the international financial system to pay for Iranian oil. Washington has said it will provide waivers to countries to prevent chaos on oil markets, but wants them to demonstrate that they are cutting imports in order to receive the permits.

The sanctions have been imposed to halt Iran's nuclear program, which the West believes is being used to develop a nuclear bomb. Iran's leadership says the nuclear program is peaceful, and it is willing to endure sanctions to maintain it as a national right.

Last month, Iran took the important step of beginning production of highly enriched uranium at a new facility hidden deep under a mountain, where it would be difficult for U.S. or Israeli warplanes to destroy it.

Talks between Iran and the West over the nuclear program broke down a year ago. Iran has repeatedly said it wants to restart the talks, but has refused Western demands to make clear first that its uranium enrichment would be up for negotiation.

As the sanctions have tightened, Iranian officials have made repeated threats of military strikes against Mid-East shipping and the United States, which protects the Mid-East oil trade with a giant flotilla based in the Gulf.

In the latest threat, the Iranian ambassador to Russia said Tehran was prepared to attack U.S. interests "anywhere in the world" if Washington launches a strike on Iran.

Reuters

Cartoon by Touka Neyestani

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:03:09 +0000

Cartoon by Touka Neyestani:

Video: 'Dictator! Say hello to the end!'

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:51:17 +0000

The following video promotes the opposition movement in Iran which will take to the streets once again on 14 February. It is titled "Dictator! Say hello to the end!"

Blogger Mahdi Khazali sentenced to 14 years in prison plus exile, flogging

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:15:57 +0000

GVF — Dissident Iranian blogger, publisher and physician Mahdi Khazali, has been sentenced to fourteen years in prison, exile and flogging.

According to the BBC’s Persian service, Khazali, currently on hunger strike in Tehran’s Evin prison, has been sentenced by Judge Pirabbasi to fourteen years in prison, tens years in exile, and ninety lashes. His lawyer Mohammad Hossein Aghasi has confirmed the reports about his client’s verdict.

Shortly after his arrest on 9 January 2012, Khazali went on hunger strike to protest his detention. At the time of his arrest, Khazali’s wife described her husband’s apprehension as “violent.” “I don’t know how long these men had been ambushing him, but the moment he exited his office, they [the security forces] attacked him and injured his arm, teeth and other areas of his body,” she explained. According to Khazali’s wife, the security forces presented an expired judicial summons while making the arrest.

Khazali, best known for the anti-government views he regularly expressed on his weblog, has been imprisoned a number of times in the past two and a half years. His most recent arrest came in July 2011 when he was held in Evin for 27 days.

Mahdi Khazali is the son of Ayatollah Khazali, an influential cleric and member of the Assembly of Experts, the body with the authority to dismiss or appoint the leader. In strike contrast to his son’s critical views, Ayatollah Khazali is seen as a staunch supporter of Iran’s ruling elite, especially the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. He has openly distanced himself from his son’s positions on a number of occasions.