NewsMax.com Wires
Monday, July 30, 2007

BERLIN -- U.S. sanctions have hit the European operations of Iran's Bank Sepah hard, despite Tehran's contention the penalties have had little impact and initial U.S. concern they did not go far enough, Western diplomats say.

In March the U.N. Security Council imposed a second round of sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend a nuclear program the West fears is aimed at making bombs.

Penalties included the freezing of foreign assets of 28 Iranian individuals and entities, including Bank Sepah.

Iran denies it is developing nuclear weapons and says its atomic ambitions are limited to generating electricity. Tehran also says the U.N. sanctions are having a minimal impact.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told U.S. National Public Radio last week: "In today's world, the instrument of sanctions is no longer effective."

But European and U.S. officials say Bank Sepah, which a senior U.S. Treasury Department official described as "the financial linchpin of Iran's missile procurement network", is struggling to survive the stranglehold of U.N. sanctions.

"The U.N. sanctions have seriously hurt the bank in Europe," a diplomat told Reuters, citing financial intelligence gathered by his country. He estimated that Bank Sepah's total commitments amounted to over $4 billion.

t was not immediately possible to verify that figure or get any specifics on the balance sheet of the parent bank in Tehran. Iranian officials in Tehran had no immediate comment.

"This bank is under serious pressure," another diplomat told Reuters. He also requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Other diplomats confirmed that one or more of the bank's European branches in Frankfurt, Paris, Rome and London were struggling under the sanctions, which required the freezing of assets and a halt to commercial transactions unless special permission is obtained to carry them out.

All four branches refused to provide details about their current financial situation.

However, an official at Bank Sepah International Plc (BSIP), Bank Sepah's fully owned subsidiary in London, told Reuters life had not been easy since the U.N. sanctions were imposed on the bank. But he dismissed the idea that BSIP was teetering.

"We're not on the verge of collapse," said Liam Brennan, BSIP compliance officer. "We're limited in what we can do."

He added he could only speak for BSIP, not for the other Bank Sepah branches.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini denied Bank Sepah was on the verge of bankruptcy on Monday.

He was echoed by an official, who spoke under the condition of anonymity at Bank Sepah in Tehran, who said bankruptcy was "out of the question", as well as Deputy Central Bank Governor Mohammad Mojarad.

"Government-owned banks including bank Sepah have no problems regarding capital and the Economy and Finance Ministry has made a commitment to support them," Mojarad told Reuters.

Set up in 1925, Bank Sepah is Iran's fifth-largest. The bank has 1,700 branches. It focuses on import-export and financing trade for customers in Iran and the Middle East.

A British government source said depositors and people holding letters of credit with BSIP can apply to the Treasury to recover funds, and that BSIP is can deal with these claims and guard against fraudulent ones, but cannot do other business.

In its annual report for the year ending on March 31, 2007, BSIP managing director Mohammed Reza Fatemi said "the operating environment for the bank became increasingly difficult".

BSIP had assets amounting to $563 million at the time of latest annual report, down from $1.512 billion a year earlier.

The Frankfurt and Paris branches declined to comment. A Bank official in Paris said only that they were moving offices.

Iran's Ambassador to Rome, Abolfazl Zohrehvand, told Reuters in April that the Rome branch's activities had slowed significantly and did not have much cash left there.

Italian central bank Deputy Director General Giovanni Carosio told Reuters in May that even before the sanctions were imposed the branch was engaged in "modest activity that was in decline even before it was placed under" Italian administration.

If the four branches had any liquidity problems, Iran's central bank has ample funds thanks to windfall oil revenues and could easily bail them out.

But several diplomats said the central bank appeared loath to do this because the funds would immediately be frozen.

One European diplomat said the sanctions, paired with a U.S.-led crackdown on Iranian traffic in dollars, euros and other currencies, had reduced Iranian officials and businessmen to using "briefcases with cash" to conduct deals in Europe.

U.S. Undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence Stuart Levey said Iranian state-owned institutions -- including the central bank and Bank Sepah -- had been asking other institutions they do business with to handle transactions without using their names.

European and U.S. officials say the next round of sanctions on Iran will likely add two more Iranian banks to the U.N. blacklist -- Bank Saderat, which Washington accuses of supplying funds to Lebanon's Hezbollah militants, and Bank Melli.

For U.S. officials who once complained that the final U.N. Security Council resolutions had been "watered down" to accommodate fellow veto-wielding Council members Russia and China, the sanctions' effectiveness was a pleasant surprise.

Many in Washington would like to see the European branches of Bank Sepah collapse, diplomats and analysts say.

Mark Fitzpatrick of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said the failure of Bank Sepah's European branches could strengthen the hand of those in Washington pushing for diplomacy and undermine hardliners who would like to see military action used to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities.

"If the overseas branches of Bank Sepah do fall, it will certainly encourage Washington in the diplomatic track and not to seek alternatives," said Fitzpatrick, a former U.S. State Department official.

© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

Kenneth R. Timmerman
Saturday, July 28, 2007

WASHINGTON – Congress is expected to pass legislation on Monday that will make it easier for state pension funds to divest from companies doing business in Iran, despite the efforts of fund managers and pro-regime lobbyists to block their efforts.

Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., who will run the floor debate next week, told an audience at the American Enterprise Institute on Thursday that the new bill was designed to moot the arguments of fund-managers who have opposed disinvestment legislation now pending in some 15 states on the grounds that it would open them up to shareholder lawsuits.

"I know of nobody who was sued for divesting from South Africa," Sherman said. "I can't imagine a judge saying it is good business to invest in Iran."

While details of the measure were still being worked out, Sherman indicated that it would provide protection from lawsuits to state pension funds, grandfather pending state laws, and change tax basis rules so that individuals or fund managers shedding stock in companies investing in Iran would not get stuck with capital gains on their profits.

"I think we should be encouraging disinvestment, not taxing it," Sherman said.

Known as the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act (H.R. 2347), the bill targets companies with investments of $20 million or more in Iran's energy sector. It was introduced in May by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services committee, after a joint hearing with Sherman's foreign affairs subcommittee on April 18.

Support for harsher sanctions against Iran is building in both parties.

The Frank bill has 43 co-cosponsors, including key Republicans such as Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, the ranking member of the foreign affairs committee, Dan Burton of Indiana, Eric Cantor of Virginia, Joe Knollenberg of Michigan, and Trent Franks of Arizona.

Last week, the House cut off access to U.S. government export credits offered by the Overseas Private Investment Corp. to any company selling goods or services to Iran.

And a separate bill that passed recently, known as the Iran Counter-Proliferation Act of 2007 (H.R. 1400), would make secondary sanctions mandatory against foreign oil companies doing business in Iran.

Until now, those sanctions – initially passed in 1996 – could be waived by the president and have never been imposed by Presidents Clinton or Bush.

"We have a lot of tools in the toolbox we could use against Iran," Sherman said. "The bad news is, we haven't had the political will to take them out of the toolbox."

Over the past year, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has pursued a behind-the-scenes effort, jawboning his foreign counterparts to convince them to scale back their exposure in Iran.

This has led the German export credit agency, Hermes, to reduce its export credits for new business in Iran by 30 percent this year, said Danielle Pletka, AEI's vice president for foreign affairs and defense programs.

"The Treasury sanctions have made the cost of money to the Iranians almost double," she added.

As a result of these efforts, Iranian banks are having a hard time clearing international transactions, and major foreign banks have announced they are pulling out of Iran.

While the Congressional Research Service has compiled an impressive table showing more than $100 billion in recent energy contract by foreign companies with Iran, many if not most of those deals exist only on paper, according to economist Patrick Clawson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

"New foreign projects have not moved forward," Clawson said. Without massive injections of foreign oil field technology, Iran could cease exporting oil by 2015, Clawson added.

The economic pain the United States and its allies have begun to inflict appears not to faze President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who revels in sticking his finger in America's eye.

"Ahmadinejad's supporters come from the hinterland, not from the middle classes or the elites," said the Kenneth Katzman of the Congressional Research Service.

"There is no pressure from his [lower class] constituents to cave in to international demands" to stop Iran's nuclear program, Katzman added. "The pressure comes from bazaaris," Iran's business and trading class.

Iran's business community has long sought to get U.S. sanctions on Iran lifted, and has panicked over the disinvestment campaign now under way in 15 states because it directly impacts their ability to profit from foreign trade.

The National Iranian American Council, a recently created group that lobbies Congress against sanctions, held a separate conference on Thursday to oppose the disinvestment campaign as well as State Department funding for pro-democracy groups inside Iran.

"We're tracking disinvestment," NIAC legislative director Babak Talebi told NewsMax. "But there are so many bills."

At least a dozen Iranian-Americans who accused NIAC of supporting the goals of the Tehran regime were denied entry to the NIAC event, which was hosted at the Rayburn House Office Building by Rep. Christopher Van Hollen, D-Md., and Rep. James Moran, D-Va.

"This has all the trappings of a regime-sponsored event," a U.S. government official told NewsMax.

Moran, an outspoken opponent of the Bush administration and the Iraq war, derided sanctions and dismissed the State Department efforts to provide funding for pro-democracy groups inside Iran.

"I think it's stupid to put money into democracy assistance," he said. "That $75 million is interpreted [by the Iranian government] as money to overthrow the regime. That's not an intelligent or productive thing to do."

However, Moran said he would vote for the disinvestment bill because it also called for disinvestment from companies doing business in Sudan, a popular cause with the left.

Out in the hallway after the NIAC event, Iranian-Americans handed out papers calling NIAC founder Trita Parsi "a consistent advocate of a policy of appeasement" toward the Tehran regime.

"Trita Parsi and NIAC do not represent the Iranian-American community," said women's rights activist Mandana Zand-Erwin, who was denied entry to the NIAC event.

"They represent the Islamic regime," she told NewsMax.

© NewsMax 2007. All rights reserved.

UPDATE : Timmerman's Bio :

Il convient de préciser quelques points. Cette indifférence insupportable est le résultat d’une complaisance continuelle de la presse écrite, des radios et des télés françaises ou internationales à l’égard de leurs invités iraniens ou spécialistes de l’Iran. Qui a déjà vu ou entendu un artiste ou un sportif d’origine iranienne prendre le temps de sensibiliser l’opinion sur ce qui se passe en Iran à propos de la lapidation, des pendaisons de mineurs ou d’homosexuels ? Assurément personne, tout tourne autour de leur petite personne et les journalistes respectent leur indifférence si semblable à celle des collaborateurs français sous l’occupation.

Mais cette indifférence est encore plus grave, les autres étaient collaborateurs car ils vivaient sous une occupation, nous avons là des personnages qui ont la chance de vivre dans un pays libre, qui en ont obtenu la nationalité mais ne font aucun usage de cette liberté pour dénoncer les violations officielles des droits de l’homme en Iran. Par là, nous n’entendons même pas la condamnation des sévices sur les prisonniers politiques, sévices que le régime nie, mais nous constatons que ces Iraniens qui ont accès aux médias ne condamnent aucune violation des droits de l’homme commise dans le cadre de l’application du code pénal. En outre, il s’agit bien de condamnations avérées et de faits publiés par la presse officielle iranienne et republiés par les médias occidentaux.

C’est Alireza Jamshidi, le porte-parole du pouvoir judiciaire des mollahs, celui qui avait reconnu la lapidation d’un homme iranien qui a également annoncé la pendaison de vingt personnes pour « crimes immoraux » : viol, abjuration, blasphème... et 6 des 20 condamnés seront pendus pour deux autres « crimes immoraux » : « fornication et sodomie », selon le jargon très châtié des mollahs.

Le très charmant Khatami a également rappelé récemment que la « fornication sodomite » devait être récompensée par de la torture (80 coups de fouets) suivie de la peine de mort, au choix par pendaison ou précipitation du haut d’une falaise (joies de la charia).

Les Iraniens médiatiques qui squattent les télés pour parler de leur petite personne (ou faire la promo de leur biographie) se gardent bien d’utiliser ce jargon et d’ailleurs tous savent qui parmi les mollahs est tenté par ces crimes immoraux car en Iran le régime ne punit que les « sodomites » sans relations haut placées.

Le Guide Suprême du régime est réputé pour ses penchants homosexuels (son rang lui permet d’ailleurs de laisser libre court à son appétit : photos ci-dessous) ! Mais la justice des mollahs ne l’accable pas, il y a d’autres cas célèbres comme le fils de Fallahian qui tua son amant dans un accès de rage le jour du mariage de ce dernier devant tous les invités, jamais il ne fut inquiété. L’homosexualité est très courante parmi les mollahs : c’est le secret de polichinelle de ces messieurs. Mais sous le régime des mollahs, on ne tue pas ceux du sérail, on tue uniquement ceux qui posent problème, ceux qui ne servent plus à rien.

D’ailleurs pour éviter une sur-médiatisation le régime a toujours fait exécuter les opposants politiques ou les emmerdeurs sous d’autres prétextes : violeurs, trafiquants de drogue, meurtriers... Dans ce cas qui nous intéresse, il y a une volonté de médiatiser ces pendaisons, d’affirmer la méchanceté de ce régime, sa capacité de punir avec sévérité ce qui est permis pour les gros bonnets du régime et leurs mômes.

C’est pourquoi l’indifférence pesante des Iraniens célèbres de la diaspora, les Satrapi-Ebadi et nos valeureux sportifs naturalisés français, est encore plus choquante : le régime ne se cache même pas et agit ouvertement. C’est l’été et ces pendus seront vite oubliés. Aucun journaliste n’ira harceler les célèbres iraniens de France pour si peu.

2nde indignation | A l’heure où nous avions fini l’article, nous avons remarqué un article de Thierry Meyssan qui prenait à parti Pascal Riché. Meyssan s’indigne : on veut diaboliser l’Iran !

On croit entendre le leitmotiv de Satrapi qui inlassablement utilise le mot IRAN pour désigner les mollahs. Bref Meyssan s’indigne : il ne faut pas diaboliser l’Iran.

Il affirme que Riché est un falsificateur d’infos et que contrairement à ce qu’il prétendrait, aucune des personnes condamnées à mort en Iran ne l’est « simplement parce qu’elle est homosexuelle ». Meyssan parle sans doute de ses propres fréquentations à Téhéran, où rappelons le, les gays d’en haut ordonnent la mort des gays d’en bas.

Meyssan affirme également que la lapidation n’existe pas dans le chiisme et n’a donc aucun rapport avec ce que l’on nomme péjorativement le « régime des mollahs » qui selon Thierry y serait opposé.

Enfin, Meyssan revient sur le cas de Jila, condamnée à être lapidé à 13 ans, sauvée par une campagne internationale (la campagne française avait été initiée par le fondateur de ce site).

Meyssan l’indigné s’attaque à Elisabeth Badinter qui avait sensibilisé l’opinion française sur le cas de Jila et avait contribué à la sauver. Selon Meyssan, elle serait un agent du Pentagone ! Faut arrêter de sniffer de l’Ajax Thierry. Au fait, à l’époque, aucun de nos people iraniens, écrivain, BDiste, tenniswoman, ex-tennisman rigolo, peintre, éditeur, cinéaste, productrice de cinéma, boxeur ou autres grandes gueules iraniennes n’avait mis le nez dehors pour défendre la petite ou crier halte à l’exécution des mineurs.

PS | Pascal Riché semble découvrir l’approche des médias sur l’Iran alors qu’il a travaillé pour Libé, ce journal qui a fait la fortune de Persépolis sans jamais inquiéter Satrapi avec des questions embarrassantes sur l’Iran. Quitte à s’indigner, il faut aussi balayer devant sa porte.

© WWW.IRAN-RESIST.ORG

| Recherche Par Mots Clefs : Pendaisons |

| Mots Clefs | Violence : Violations des Droits de l’Homme |

| Mots Clefs | Réformateurs : Les Intellectuels « apolitiques » iraniens |

© WWW.IRAN-RESIST.ORG

Pour en savoir + sur Thierry M et les Mollahs :
  Thierry Meyssan va en Iran… Pour goûter à la spécialité culinaire des mollahs !
  (23 juin 2006)

| Mots Clefs | Resistance : Lobby pro-mollahs en France et ailleurs ! |