no smart saraf puts their money to work in the line of business they are in.
they just try to make money off the commission. in fact one time I was about to sell Dollar and nobody was willing to buy from me.
because market was so volatile. they did not want to hang on to my dollars until end of the day. they just wanted turn around and sell my dollar. to another guy in ah hour.
they just try to make money off the commission. in fact one time I was about to sell Dollar and nobody was willing to buy from me.
because market was so volatile. they did not want to hang on to my dollars until end of the day. they just wanted turn around and sell my dollar. to another guy in ah hour.
Group Keeps Long-Distance Watch on Iran and Possible Sanction Violations
Jennifer S. Altman for The New York Times
United Against Nuclear Iran, a private advocacy group, keeps a long-distance technological eye on compliance with sanctions from Midtown Manhattan.
By RICK GLADSTONE
Published: June 20, 2013
Inside a nondescript Midtown Manhattan office, a couple of computer analysts spend their days peering intently at large screens of satellite mapping surveillance data, watching dozens of little blips moving like snails. Each one, they said, represents a ship controlled by Iran or its trading partners.
.
They said they were looking for suspicious behavior.
The analysts work for United Against Nuclear Iran, a privately financed advocacy group founded by former American diplomats that has become an annoying thorn to Iran, which regards it as a vigilante extension of a hostile American foreign policy. The group’s latest effort is its maritime monitoring system, which it says provides a new level of scrutiny of compliance with the sanctions imposed on Iran by the West because of Iran’s disputed nuclear energy program.
Although the economic and trade sanctions, including a European oil embargo, have deeply hurt Iran, the country has been somewhat successful in finding ways to evade them, the group says. A litany of clever tactics for cloaking commerce on the high seas has included reflagging, renaming or clandestinely acquiring ships, engaging in secretive ship-to-ship transfers to mask the origins of oil or other contraband, temporarily disabling onboard satellite transponders to hide their true locations or simply transmitting false destinations.
“Iran thrives on deception and disguise,” said Mark D. Wallace, the chief executive of United Against Nuclear Iran, who would like to see a maritime blockade.
Mr. Wallace said the recent Iranian presidential election, in which a cleric and former nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rowhani, was elected on a campaign promoting better relations with the outside world, had done nothing to alter his group’s view. “The regime has shown that it plans more of the same,” he said in a statement on the group’s Web site. “The world’s response should therefore remain the same — the continued isolation of Iran and comprehensive sanctions.”
Short of a blockade, he said in an interview, the maritime monitoring system, which has been in operation for about five months, has at least given Iran a new reason to worry.
“It’s a technology-based advocacy tool,” he said. “This technology and our monitoring allows us to expose sanctions-avoidance schemes.”
Martin House, the monitoring system’s director and lead analyst, said it used publicly available satellite transmissions from ship transponders, including data on speed, identity, direction and destination, and correlated the information with other navigational data and computer algorithms. He said the system created vessel behavior profiles that could identify questionable activities even if the transponders were temporarily turned off.
Several times, Mr. Wallace and his aides said, the system had exposed possible sanctions violations that the group had then publicized, forcing the Iranians or their partners to change plans.
In April, for example, an Iranian tanker sailing under a Tanzanian flag had to abandon a planned voyage to Malta, which has pledged compliance with the sanctions. Warned by Mr. Wallace’s group that it was a blacklisted vessel, the Maltese government informed the ship that it was not welcome, he said.
In another recent episode, the monitoring system showed that three vessels operated by Medallion Reederei GmbH, a German shipping company, had visited Iranian ports operated by Tidewater Middle East Company, a sanctioned Iranian port management company. After Mr. Wallace wrote to the shipper expressing concern, its managing director, Falk Holtmann, sent a letter assuring him he was looking into the port calls and would “not tolerate any breach of international sanctions.”
Other instances of what the group considered suspicious behavior discovered by its monitoring system have included mysterious linkups in the Red Sea between the Iranian bulk-carrier vessel Parisan and other vessels from Iran, Egypt and Turkey; and a curious anchoring of three old tankers near Singapore, nominally owned by a Greek shipper, that Iran may be using to store and transfer embargoed oil. The Greek shipper, Dimitris Cambis, was recently blacklisted by the Treasury Department for helping Iran evade sanctions.
“We’re not the only people in the world with this information,” said Nathan Carleton, a spokesman for United Against Nuclear Iran. “The Treasury and State Departments are following this, too. But there wasn’t anyone analyzing this in total. We really feel like watch people.”
Some maritime experts said the group’s monitoring system could also misidentify innocent activity as suspicious behavior. The transponders that commercial ships are required to use to signal their location, for example, can sometimes appear to be switched off in areas where reception is poor, which is sometimes the case in the Red Sea. A crew can forget to update a ship’s transmission data on destinations or cargo when plans change, but that is not necessarily a deliberate deception.
Richard Hurley, a senior data analyst in London for IHS Fairplay, a global information company that tracks shipping, said it would be unusual for large tankers, including Iran’s, to disable their transponders deliberately, unless they were anchored near their home ports. The transponders’ main purpose, he said, is to help minimize the possibility of collision.
“If you’re running a big tanker, obviously safety is paramount; you really don’t want an accident,” he said. “We think we know where most of Iran’s fleet is most of the time.”
United Against Nuclear Iran’s monitoring system, called Minerva (an acronym for Marine Intelligence Network and Rogue Vessel Analysis) is one of many tools used by the group in an increasingly aggressive campaign.
The group, formed in 2008 by Mr. Wallace and other prominent American diplomats including Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke, who died in 2010, has claimed success for persuading dozens of multinational corporations to stop doing business with Iran. It was also among the first to pressure Swift, a global banking communications consortium, to expel sanctioned Iranian financial institutions last year.
Registered as a nonprofit tax-exempt advocacy organization, the group relies on private donations and fund-raising to operate, according to its Web site. The group’s officials declined to identify the donors but said its annual budget was about $1.5 million.
For Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful and considers the sanctions illegal, the group is just another extension of what it sees as hostile and arrogant American government behavior, contradicting President Obama’s pledge to improve relations when he first took office.
Alireza Miryousefi, a spokesman for Iran’s United Nations mission, noted that the group’s founders had “worked within or were close to the U.S. government” and that Iran considered it “counterproductive and contrary to the policy announced by the new administration in early 2009, which purportedly sought to diplomatically interact with Iran.”
In a statement, Mr. Miryousefi said the formation of the group, taken in the context of other hostile American actions including cyberattacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities and unilateral sanctions, “convinced Iran that the U.S. does not mean what it says.”
Obama administration officials declined to say whether the group’s maritime surveillance had assisted the administration’s efforts to punish Iran sanctions evaders, which have intensified in recent weeks. “We take information from a lot of different sources,” said one official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the subject’s delicacy. “Sometimes it’s useful, sometimes less so, but we’re not sorry to have it. I don’t look at it necessarily as a nuisance.”
Jennifer S. Altman for The New York Times
United Against Nuclear Iran, a private advocacy group, keeps a long-distance technological eye on compliance with sanctions from Midtown Manhattan.
By RICK GLADSTONE
Published: June 20, 2013
Inside a nondescript Midtown Manhattan office, a couple of computer analysts spend their days peering intently at large screens of satellite mapping surveillance data, watching dozens of little blips moving like snails. Each one, they said, represents a ship controlled by Iran or its trading partners.
.
They said they were looking for suspicious behavior.
The analysts work for United Against Nuclear Iran, a privately financed advocacy group founded by former American diplomats that has become an annoying thorn to Iran, which regards it as a vigilante extension of a hostile American foreign policy. The group’s latest effort is its maritime monitoring system, which it says provides a new level of scrutiny of compliance with the sanctions imposed on Iran by the West because of Iran’s disputed nuclear energy program.
Although the economic and trade sanctions, including a European oil embargo, have deeply hurt Iran, the country has been somewhat successful in finding ways to evade them, the group says. A litany of clever tactics for cloaking commerce on the high seas has included reflagging, renaming or clandestinely acquiring ships, engaging in secretive ship-to-ship transfers to mask the origins of oil or other contraband, temporarily disabling onboard satellite transponders to hide their true locations or simply transmitting false destinations.
“Iran thrives on deception and disguise,” said Mark D. Wallace, the chief executive of United Against Nuclear Iran, who would like to see a maritime blockade.
Mr. Wallace said the recent Iranian presidential election, in which a cleric and former nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rowhani, was elected on a campaign promoting better relations with the outside world, had done nothing to alter his group’s view. “The regime has shown that it plans more of the same,” he said in a statement on the group’s Web site. “The world’s response should therefore remain the same — the continued isolation of Iran and comprehensive sanctions.”
Short of a blockade, he said in an interview, the maritime monitoring system, which has been in operation for about five months, has at least given Iran a new reason to worry.
“It’s a technology-based advocacy tool,” he said. “This technology and our monitoring allows us to expose sanctions-avoidance schemes.”
Martin House, the monitoring system’s director and lead analyst, said it used publicly available satellite transmissions from ship transponders, including data on speed, identity, direction and destination, and correlated the information with other navigational data and computer algorithms. He said the system created vessel behavior profiles that could identify questionable activities even if the transponders were temporarily turned off.
Several times, Mr. Wallace and his aides said, the system had exposed possible sanctions violations that the group had then publicized, forcing the Iranians or their partners to change plans.
In April, for example, an Iranian tanker sailing under a Tanzanian flag had to abandon a planned voyage to Malta, which has pledged compliance with the sanctions. Warned by Mr. Wallace’s group that it was a blacklisted vessel, the Maltese government informed the ship that it was not welcome, he said.
In another recent episode, the monitoring system showed that three vessels operated by Medallion Reederei GmbH, a German shipping company, had visited Iranian ports operated by Tidewater Middle East Company, a sanctioned Iranian port management company. After Mr. Wallace wrote to the shipper expressing concern, its managing director, Falk Holtmann, sent a letter assuring him he was looking into the port calls and would “not tolerate any breach of international sanctions.”
Other instances of what the group considered suspicious behavior discovered by its monitoring system have included mysterious linkups in the Red Sea between the Iranian bulk-carrier vessel Parisan and other vessels from Iran, Egypt and Turkey; and a curious anchoring of three old tankers near Singapore, nominally owned by a Greek shipper, that Iran may be using to store and transfer embargoed oil. The Greek shipper, Dimitris Cambis, was recently blacklisted by the Treasury Department for helping Iran evade sanctions.
“We’re not the only people in the world with this information,” said Nathan Carleton, a spokesman for United Against Nuclear Iran. “The Treasury and State Departments are following this, too. But there wasn’t anyone analyzing this in total. We really feel like watch people.”
Some maritime experts said the group’s monitoring system could also misidentify innocent activity as suspicious behavior. The transponders that commercial ships are required to use to signal their location, for example, can sometimes appear to be switched off in areas where reception is poor, which is sometimes the case in the Red Sea. A crew can forget to update a ship’s transmission data on destinations or cargo when plans change, but that is not necessarily a deliberate deception.
Richard Hurley, a senior data analyst in London for IHS Fairplay, a global information company that tracks shipping, said it would be unusual for large tankers, including Iran’s, to disable their transponders deliberately, unless they were anchored near their home ports. The transponders’ main purpose, he said, is to help minimize the possibility of collision.
“If you’re running a big tanker, obviously safety is paramount; you really don’t want an accident,” he said. “We think we know where most of Iran’s fleet is most of the time.”
United Against Nuclear Iran’s monitoring system, called Minerva (an acronym for Marine Intelligence Network and Rogue Vessel Analysis) is one of many tools used by the group in an increasingly aggressive campaign.
The group, formed in 2008 by Mr. Wallace and other prominent American diplomats including Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke, who died in 2010, has claimed success for persuading dozens of multinational corporations to stop doing business with Iran. It was also among the first to pressure Swift, a global banking communications consortium, to expel sanctioned Iranian financial institutions last year.
Registered as a nonprofit tax-exempt advocacy organization, the group relies on private donations and fund-raising to operate, according to its Web site. The group’s officials declined to identify the donors but said its annual budget was about $1.5 million.
For Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful and considers the sanctions illegal, the group is just another extension of what it sees as hostile and arrogant American government behavior, contradicting President Obama’s pledge to improve relations when he first took office.
Alireza Miryousefi, a spokesman for Iran’s United Nations mission, noted that the group’s founders had “worked within or were close to the U.S. government” and that Iran considered it “counterproductive and contrary to the policy announced by the new administration in early 2009, which purportedly sought to diplomatically interact with Iran.”
In a statement, Mr. Miryousefi said the formation of the group, taken in the context of other hostile American actions including cyberattacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities and unilateral sanctions, “convinced Iran that the U.S. does not mean what it says.”
Obama administration officials declined to say whether the group’s maritime surveillance had assisted the administration’s efforts to punish Iran sanctions evaders, which have intensified in recent weeks. “We take information from a lot of different sources,” said one official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the subject’s delicacy. “Sometimes it’s useful, sometimes less so, but we’re not sorry to have it. I don’t look at it necessarily as a nuisance.”
Iran Today: Plots, Plots, Plots
inShare.
LATEST: Rouhani Campaign Workers Released From Prison
Jump to Latest Update
President-elect Hassan Rouhani continues to prepare for his inauguration in early August with meetings with senior political figures. Saturday’s diary included discussions with Rouhani’s mentor, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, and reformist politicians, with the President-elect soon sitting down with MPs for the first time.
These chats, however, offer little significant in public statements, so Iranian media have to look elsewhere for headlines.
Enter Fars News, connected with the Revolutionary Guards, and their menu of plots, plots, plots.
This morning Fars’ English-language service offers “Most Salafis Fighting in Syria Come From Afghanistan“, declaring they are “affiliated to the al-Qaeda”. There are “Iraqi Plants Producing Chemical Arms for [Syrian] Rebels“. A “senior Iranian cleric” urges “the world Muslims to keep vigilant about the divisive plots exercised by the enemies”, while the deputy head of armed forces, Massoud Jazayeri asserts, “US Protégés Readying for Terrorist Operations in West“.
Of course, there are also the plots inside Iran against the Islamic Republic — leading MP Alaeddin Boroujerdi declares, “Several Mossad, CIA Plots Foiled by Iranian Intelligence Ministry“.
In other Fars news, “Supreme Leader Pardons Several Iranian Prisoners“.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Latest Updates, From Top to Bottom
Rouhani Campaign Workers Released From Prison
Three campaign activists for President-elect Hassan Rouhani — Behnam Nikzad, Amin Farid Yahyaei, and Ali Orojzadeh — have been released after five days in detention in Tabriz.
Journalist Bani Yaghoub Freed
Journalist Jila Bani Yaghoub has been released after serving her sentence in Evin Prison.
Bani Yaghooub and her husband, fellow journalist Bahman Ahmad Amoui, were arrested at their home five days after the disputed 2009 Presidential election.
In 2010, Bani Yaghoub was tried and convicted for “spreading propaganda against the system” and “insulting the president”. She was sentenced to one year in prison, with a 30-year ban on practicing journalism. On 2 September 2012, she was summoned to begin the prison term.
Ahmad Amoui is still in prison, serving a sentence of five years and four months.
Currency Rebound Continues After Rouhani Election
The Iranian currency, besieged and losing 70% of its value in 2012, is continuing its rise after the election of Hassan Rouhani nine days ago.
The Rial stood at 36400:1 vs. the US dollar before the vote, but has surged almost 20% to 29500:1.
Tehran: Invite Us to Syrian Peace Conference
The Islamic Republic has maintained its push to join any international “peace” talks on Syria, with Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi declaring on Saturday, “If invited, we will definitely take part at the international Geneva conference.”
Russia and US declared in early May that there would be a gathering in Geneva — initially scheduled for June — with the Syrian regime, opposition, and foreign parties. However, arrangements have stalled over the opposition’s pre-condition that President Assad step down, and Washington and its European allies have not welcomed Tehran’s involvement.
Last week, in a possible shift, French President Francois Hollande says Paris would accept the participation of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani if it was “constructive”.
inShare.
LATEST: Rouhani Campaign Workers Released From Prison
Jump to Latest Update
President-elect Hassan Rouhani continues to prepare for his inauguration in early August with meetings with senior political figures. Saturday’s diary included discussions with Rouhani’s mentor, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, and reformist politicians, with the President-elect soon sitting down with MPs for the first time.
These chats, however, offer little significant in public statements, so Iranian media have to look elsewhere for headlines.
Enter Fars News, connected with the Revolutionary Guards, and their menu of plots, plots, plots.
This morning Fars’ English-language service offers “Most Salafis Fighting in Syria Come From Afghanistan“, declaring they are “affiliated to the al-Qaeda”. There are “Iraqi Plants Producing Chemical Arms for [Syrian] Rebels“. A “senior Iranian cleric” urges “the world Muslims to keep vigilant about the divisive plots exercised by the enemies”, while the deputy head of armed forces, Massoud Jazayeri asserts, “US Protégés Readying for Terrorist Operations in West“.
Of course, there are also the plots inside Iran against the Islamic Republic — leading MP Alaeddin Boroujerdi declares, “Several Mossad, CIA Plots Foiled by Iranian Intelligence Ministry“.
In other Fars news, “Supreme Leader Pardons Several Iranian Prisoners“.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Latest Updates, From Top to Bottom
Rouhani Campaign Workers Released From Prison
Three campaign activists for President-elect Hassan Rouhani — Behnam Nikzad, Amin Farid Yahyaei, and Ali Orojzadeh — have been released after five days in detention in Tabriz.
Journalist Bani Yaghoub Freed
Journalist Jila Bani Yaghoub has been released after serving her sentence in Evin Prison.
Bani Yaghooub and her husband, fellow journalist Bahman Ahmad Amoui, were arrested at their home five days after the disputed 2009 Presidential election.
In 2010, Bani Yaghoub was tried and convicted for “spreading propaganda against the system” and “insulting the president”. She was sentenced to one year in prison, with a 30-year ban on practicing journalism. On 2 September 2012, she was summoned to begin the prison term.
Ahmad Amoui is still in prison, serving a sentence of five years and four months.
Currency Rebound Continues After Rouhani Election
The Iranian currency, besieged and losing 70% of its value in 2012, is continuing its rise after the election of Hassan Rouhani nine days ago.
The Rial stood at 36400:1 vs. the US dollar before the vote, but has surged almost 20% to 29500:1.
Tehran: Invite Us to Syrian Peace Conference
The Islamic Republic has maintained its push to join any international “peace” talks on Syria, with Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi declaring on Saturday, “If invited, we will definitely take part at the international Geneva conference.”
Russia and US declared in early May that there would be a gathering in Geneva — initially scheduled for June — with the Syrian regime, opposition, and foreign parties. However, arrangements have stalled over the opposition’s pre-condition that President Assad step down, and Washington and its European allies have not welcomed Tehran’s involvement.
Last week, in a possible shift, French President Francois Hollande says Paris would accept the participation of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani if it was “constructive”.
Amanpour's interview with Zibakalam:
Return to Transcripts main page
CNN'S AMANPOUR
Reviewing Iranian Election Result; `Girl Rising' Discussed
Aired June 21, 2013 - 15:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour, and welcome to the special weekend edition of our program.
First to Iran and its new president, Hassan Rouhani. World leaders who had gathered in Europe for the G8 summit this week are still trying to take the measure of this centrist reformer after he won Iran's presidential election in a stunning upset.
All week, analysts and, indeed, Iranian officials who used to work for Rouhani are trying to convince the West that he provides a new opportunity to resolve the nuclear issue. He himself has called for Iran to give more transparency on the nuclear program.
Analysts are saying that now Rouhani has a mandate to compromise and also the approval of Iran's all-powerful Supreme Leader.
Rouhani himself says the people's backing has ushered in a new era and he used his first address to the world to call for a more moderate and constructive Iranian foreign policy. He said the relationship with the United States is complicated, an old wound that somehow must be healed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HASSAN ROUHANI, PRESIDENT-ELECT, IRAN (through translator): We don't want to see more tension. But speaking to America in addition to that fact that it should be based on mutual respect and interest and it should be on an equal footing they need to expressly say that they will never interfere in the domestic affairs in Iran.
And secondly, all the rightful, right-set (ph) Iranian nation including the nuclear rights, need to be recognized by Americans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: So what will Rouhani's election mean at home and abroad after eight confrontational years of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Sadegh Zibakalam, a campaign adviser and leading member of the reformist camp, joined me on the phone from Tehran with some insight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Professor Zibakalam, thank you very much indeed for joining me from Tehran.
First of all, we heard the press conference; it sounded conciliatory.
What message is Dr. Rouhani trying to send to the world?
SADEGH ZIBAKALAM, ROUHANI CAMPAIGN ADVISER: He is sending this simple message to the world that there has been a real election in Iran and hopefully, Inshallah, there will be new foreign policy as far as Iran is concerned.
AMANPOUR: And what about -- is he a real reformer? Obviously it's within the system. Dr. Rouhani was a national security adviser. He's also one of the founders of the Islamic revolution.
Is he a reformer?
ZIBAKALAM: It is not the question of being a reformist at the moment or not. The most important issue is not to continue with the policies that have been running and guiding Iran during the past particularly four years, and moving towards a better conciliatory, realistic and pragmatist policy. I mean, that is the main issue.
And whoever can deliver this change is important. Be it a reformist, be it a pragmatist, being even a non-reformist.
AMANPOUR: Well, what do you make of, then, can he actually deliver? I note that Saeed Jalili, who is one of the more hardline conservatives -- he is the current nuclear negotiator and he was a presidential candidate. He tweeted that he supported and congratulated Mr. Rouhani and that everyone has to work together.
So does that mean the system, the Supreme Leader, is going to allow Dr. Rouhani to enact these things he's been saying?
ZIBAKALAM: Rouhani will have -- will have tremendous domestic resistance.
But as for the Supreme Leader, you must realize that, although the Supreme Leader has the tremendous power according to the constitution, but he doesn't take the decision in a vacuum. He must -- obviously he has seen that the mood of the people, the people are more or less tired of the hardline policies that have been governing Iran, particularly during the past four years.
AMANPOUR: And what kind of a government do you think we'll see from Mr. Rouhani? Will he try to bring in some of the so-called more conservative, more hardliners, to have a consensus government, a national unity government?
ZIBAKALAM: Well, there has been serious suggestion by his advisers that he must invite Mr. Velayati to his cabinet; he must invite Bagher Ghalibaf. He must invite Mohsen Rezaee. He definitely needs Velayati if he wants to conduct serious negotiation with 5+1 and also to break some ice with the West, because Velayati can get the support and confidence of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini.
So there's the -- some of his advisers have suggested to him that you -- we have to invite Velayati to the cabinet, either as foreign minister or as someone who is in charge of conducting negotiation with 5+1.
AMANPOUR: All right, Dr. Zibakalam, thank you very much indeed.
And, of course, to remind everybody, Mr. Velayati was a foreign minister and he has conducted negotiations with the West for many, many years.
Thanks very much for joining us.
ZIBAKALAM: You're welcome.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: So while reaching out, Rouhani also appealed to other nations to take advantage of this new opportunity, as he called it. In his press conference, he was asked whether he would be willing to engage in direct talks with the United States.
He said smiling, "That is a difficult question."
And so what will America do? Rouhani's election comes at a crucial time in negotiations over Iran's nuclear conflict -- nuclear program, which has come almost to the brink of conflict.
Vali Nasr is a former member of President Obama's foreign policy team at the State Department, and he is now dean of the School of International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. And I spoke to him moments ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Vali Nasr, welcome back to the program.
VALI NASR, SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: Good to be here.
AMANPOUR: Is this a real opportunity for the United States right now?
NASR: Yes, it is. First of all, just having a reformist person different than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the president of Iran provides much more breathing room, much more space for the administration and the international community to try something new with Iran.
And then, after all, Rouhani was the architect of probably the most forward-leaning position Iran ever had on the nuclear deal back in 2003.
AMANPOUR: In other words, the suspension of their program for a significant period of time.
NASR: Yes, and he's held onto that view, because literally every diplomat that Ahmadinejad fired for favoring engagement with the U.S. was later on hired by Rouhani in his think tank.
(CROSSTALK)
AMANPOUR: So he was --
NASR: So he's been working on this.
AMANPOUR: -- roundly criticized for that. Do you think that suspension has even a glimmer of a hope under him now?
NASR: Well, he's once bitten, twice shy. In other words, he's not going to stick his neck out for it to be chopped off. That's the challenge for the United States and the P5+1. They have to give him something tangible so he's not seen as naive and repeating the same mistake as 2003.
So we shouldn't read reformism as immediate capitulation at an open door for a deal (ph). We have work to do. But the opportunity is there.
AMANPOUR: Now you have written that actually the ball is in the U.S. court right now.
What do you mean?
NASR: Well, because the United States has to at least suggest that it's willing to deal with Rouhani different than they dealt with Ahmadinejad. In the past, the impression in Iran was that Ahmadinejad got better deals than Rouhani did.
And Rouhani can't come to the table seriously unless the indication is that he can deliver more than Ahmadinejad. We have to help strengthen his hand in Iran. That way he can actually sell a deal back home.
AMANPOUR: Now you've been inside the administration; you've worked on Afghanistan and Pakistan, but obviously Iran as well.
Is there a willingness to get beyond this really terrible 34-year wall of mistrust that has gone up between the two countries?
NASR: I don't think so. I think the administration's handled Iran tactically, not only managing it one step at a time with an eye on American domestic public opinion. There hasn't been an audacious view of bringing Iran in from the cold, as difficult as that might be.
AMANPOUR: Let's just call a spade a spade. I've spoken to Iranian officials, former negotiators, actually people who worked for Dr. Rouhani earlier, and they said that so far the American incentives to Iran in these nuclear negotiations amounts to demanding diamonds for peanuts. In other words, the incentives that the U.S. has given so far don't amount to much.
NASR: They don't amount to much at all. The United States has only offered aircraft parts and most recently modest permission to trade in gold and silver.
What Iran is really after is offer of taking Syria's sanctions off the table, which has not been -- and possibly recognizing Iran's right to enrichment.
Rouhani has to be -- has to be able to show Iran's Supreme Leader and Revolutionary Guards that the reformists can actually get the United States to offer these things. That's how you build momentum for reform in Iran.
AMANPOUR: And of course Iran has to show the United States, the West and Israel that there's going to be total transparency and that they're not going for a weapon.
Can he deliver on that?
NASR: This is a give-and-take, in other words, each side has to risk a little and be willing to offer something. And then you go from there.
So he's talked about transparency. He's talked about constructive engagement. Those are all positive things. We have to test those things. But he has to also know that if he takes a serious step in the direction of transparency, that he will not end up where he ended up in --
(CROSSTALK)
AMANPOUR: But you think the regime as a whole wants this, Supreme Leader, the Revolutionary Guards; do they want a ratcheting down of the crisis?
NASR: I think they want the sanctions to go away. Iran is really hurting. They may not be -- they may not want to give up the nuclear program but they know that they can't survive under the sanctions. The country's hurting.
So lifting sanctions is an objective. And they have to be -- they have to realize they have to give something for that. And that has to come out of the constructive negotiation process.
AMANPOUR: Let's move quickly to Syria because Dr. Rouhani has actually talked about it just the day before his election in an interview in Iran.
He said, "In my opinion, in order to reach a just solution in Syria that's accepted by all parties, Iran can play the role of mediator between the Syrian government and the opposition that is working hard to achieve democracy and good governance."
Can Iran actually play a role? Because right now we know the role it's playing is bolstering Assad and actually helping turn the tide in Assad's favor along with Hezbollah in Syria.
NASR: Well, Iran wants this conflict to go away. They don't want to lose. But they want the conflict to stop. And that's a beginning.
And secondly you're not going to get to any kind of a peace deal on Syria unless Iran is on board, because Iran is the most important of Assad's backers.
It is a possibility to use the new phase in Iran to see whether we can engage them and is a potential to see whether Rouhani would be willing to play a constructive role in the Geneva conference. It's a very, very slim chance but we have to use this opening in Iran to try and do things with them.
If we treat Iran the way we did before, as if there has been no change at the top, then there will be no change in (inaudible).
AMANPOUR: Vali Nasr, thank you very much indeed.
NASR: Good to be with you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Fascinating and important developments there in Iran.
And after a break, we turn to the power of education for women and girls around the world and for one unstoppable young girl in Haiti.
A new CNN documentary, "Girl Rising," says that it's possible to change the world one girl at a time. We'll show you when we come back.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program and to a very important topic that we continue to follow very closely and that is the struggle facing tens of millions of girls around the world who just want to go to school and who know that they need an education if they're ever to break out of their cycle of poverty.
We learned of their deep commitment to this cause when the Pakistani teenager, Malala Yousafzai, was shot in the head last year simply for speaking out publicly about defying the Taliban to go to school.
And it's by now a well-known fact that an educated girl grows up to improve not just her own lot in life, but her whole country's economic development. As the saying goes, girls are not the problem; they are the problem solvers.
And this is what's driving the innovative film "Girl Rising." It's actually a call to action for educating the 66 million girls around the world who are currently not in school. The program airs on CNN this weekend and it's already been released in cinemas here in the United States. It focuses on several girls from Ethiopia to Afghanistan, Nepal, Peru and many more parts of the developing world.
We've decided to focus on the 8-year old Wadley from Haiti, whose dreams were rudely shattered after the devastating earthquake in 2010, which reduced her school to rubble.
She eventually discovers this makeshift classroom on the side of a road and promptly sits down to learn. And Wadley, we see, won't let her family's poverty stand in the way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATE BLANCHETT, ACTRESS (voice-over): The next morning Wadley started for the tent school again. She wasn't sure what she was going to do. But she was determined to go and stay.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): Has your mother paid yet, Wadley? Has your mother paid the money?
WADLEY: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): Will you leave, Wadley?
WADLEY: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): You need to go home, Wadley.
WADLEY: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): This is the last time I'll tell you.
WADLEY (from captions): If you send me away, I will come back every day until I can stay.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): What's this?
WADLEY (from captions): Even if you send me away, I will come back every day until I can stay.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: Now Wadley told her story to the acclaimed Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat, and you may be able to recognize the narrator's voice in that film, superstar actress Cate Blanchett.
Edwidge, welcome.
EDWIDGE DANTICAT, HAITIAN-AMERICAN AUTHOR: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
AMANPOUR: That is such a touching clip. That's a dream sequence.
DANTICAT: Well, it's part dream, part reality. Wadley's school was destroyed after the earthquake. She did live in a tent camp. And every day she would actually walk by these schools that would emerge in the tent city and edge closer and closer. And the film is very impressionistic, as is a child's imagination.
And I was never quite sure whether she actually took that stand or she did it in her imagination. But we decided to tell the story they way she felt strongest about it, because she would, every day, edge closer and sort of would be turned away, but would come back every day.
AMANPOUR: So she really wanted to get into school.
What did she tell you about why?
DANTICAT: Oh, she would, you know, every day, she would wake up in the tent camp and tell her mother, when are we going to school? When am I going to school, because she really loved to learn, like a lot of these girls, like a lot of you know, children in general in Haiti. She loved to learn.
And like everybody else's child, you know, who wants an opportunity, she's a very curious little girl. She's got a great imagination. You know, when I first met her, that was her way of dealing with the trauma from the earthquake. She told me so many fantastical stories.
AMANPOUR: And as young as she is, she knew that this was her way out, education.
DANTICAT: Oh, absolutely, because her mother -- she has a wonderful family.
She has great parents who really have sacrificed so much for their -- for their children and her, you know, she could see, in spite of the poverty and eventually the destruction around her, that some of the kids who were going to school, you know, were eventually going to have a better life. Even though she was very young and was really shocked and shaken from the earthquake, she understood that.
And I think she wanted to get back to the normalcy of school after such a tragic event.
AMANPOUR: And just to be clear, she is in school now.
DANTICAT: She is in school now and we went back to Haiti and showed her the film with her family and some other school girls from the same area. She's -- you know her mom said that even a school she's in now is not, you know, up to her level. She's a really bright student, and next year she'll go to a different school that's more challenging for her.
AMANPOUR: Edwidge, as you know and I know, it's not just the earthquake that has severely crippled people's chances in Haiti. Haiti is one of the poorest places in the world. You grew up there.
What was your experience in trying to bust out of that cycle of poverty? You come from a poor family yourself.
DANTICAT: Well, I would say I think Haiti's poor in maybe financial terms, but you look at Wadley and her family, and these children and we're rich in resources, in human resources. And education for me, like a lot of us, education was what took us out of poverty.
And what I would hope for children, like Wadley, for example, is that they wouldn't have to migrate like my family did to have better opportunities, that there would be opportunities, educational opportunities for them within the country.
AMANPOUR: And what is the reality right now of opportunities, the new government, the new reality, so much aid from the West in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake? What is the reality for these kids?
DANTICAT: Well, so much is from the West that never really trickles down. The reality is that about 80 percent of schools are privately run and, in Haiti and in rural areas there, school is a very challenging thing to find.
And not only do you have to pay tuition, but you have uniforms and books, et cetera. So it's --
AMANPOUR: That's (inaudible) really expensive.
DANTICAT: Yes.
AMANPOUR: "Girl Rising" is a really interesting film because all these girls, whatever country, they matched up with writers such as yourself, each is matched up with a writer from her own country to tell the story. And then it's narrated, as we said, by some of these film stars, whose voices we recognize and who've also devoted themselves to the cause.
Why did you decide to get involved in "Girl Rising"?
DANTICAT: Well, I have daughters who are Wadley's age. And I see myself a lot in her. You know, I would not be able to do any of the things that I've done if I were not -- if I didn't have an education. I would say I think there are millions of women, boys, girls who are sort of better, probably more intelligent than me who didn't have the same opportunities that I have.
And I think it's, in that case, an obligation for us to try to pass on those opportunities to others, who -- you know, I could have easily been Wadley. That could have -- that could easily be me. She is me. I am her in many ways. And I think we sort of -- these places where our stories met were very interesting for me.
I look -- when I look at her, I see my daughters in her. I see the future in her. I see the future of Haiti in her face. And if we fail to educate girls and boys like her, we will never succeed.
AMANPOUR: Edwidge Danticat, thank you very much.
DANTICAT: Thank you for having me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: And after we take a break, another look at Iran's new president.
Does he herald a bold new breakthrough in relations with the West? Or is history repeating itself? When we come back.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
AMANPOUR: And finally tonight, Iran's new president is talking about moderation and raising hopes around the globe for a more constructive relationship with the West, including the United States.
Imagine a world where it's deja vu all over again, because back in 1998, the new reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, made front-page news around the world, inspiring optimism in people everywhere. When he sat down with me in Tehran and reached out to the American people becoming the first Iranian leader to apologize for the hostage crisis of 1979.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMAD KHATAMI, FORMER PRESIDENT OF IRAN (through translator): With regard to the hostage issue which you raised, I do know that the feelings of the great American people have been hurt, and of course I regret it.
AMANPOUR: The average American is familiar with one image from Iran, death to America, the burning of American flags and, as we talked about, the hostages.
You talk about a new chapter in relations between the peoples of the world.
What can you say to the Americans listening tonight, to show that person that your Iran is a new Iran or a different Iran?
KHATAMI (through translator): There are slogans being chanted in Iran. But, you as a journalist can ask all those chanting the slogans whether they are targeting the American people. And they would all say no. Not only we do not harbor any ill wishes for the American people, but in fact we consider them to be a great nation.
Our aim is not even to destroy or undermine the American government. These slogans symbolize a desire to terminate a mode of relations which existed between Iran and the United States.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR (voice-over): Now two years later in the year 2000, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright reciprocated in a speech that expressed regret for the CIA-backed coup of 1953 that deposed Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mosaddegh, and put the Shah of Iran back on the throne.
And for a while, there was a spirit of detente between the two nations. Now the window of opportunity seems to be opening again. So will both sides find a way to reach through it?
That's it for tonight's program. Meantime, you can always contact us on our website, amanpour.com. Thanks for watching and goodbye from New York.
END
Return to Transcripts main page
CNN'S AMANPOUR
Reviewing Iranian Election Result; `Girl Rising' Discussed
Aired June 21, 2013 - 15:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour, and welcome to the special weekend edition of our program.
First to Iran and its new president, Hassan Rouhani. World leaders who had gathered in Europe for the G8 summit this week are still trying to take the measure of this centrist reformer after he won Iran's presidential election in a stunning upset.
All week, analysts and, indeed, Iranian officials who used to work for Rouhani are trying to convince the West that he provides a new opportunity to resolve the nuclear issue. He himself has called for Iran to give more transparency on the nuclear program.
Analysts are saying that now Rouhani has a mandate to compromise and also the approval of Iran's all-powerful Supreme Leader.
Rouhani himself says the people's backing has ushered in a new era and he used his first address to the world to call for a more moderate and constructive Iranian foreign policy. He said the relationship with the United States is complicated, an old wound that somehow must be healed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HASSAN ROUHANI, PRESIDENT-ELECT, IRAN (through translator): We don't want to see more tension. But speaking to America in addition to that fact that it should be based on mutual respect and interest and it should be on an equal footing they need to expressly say that they will never interfere in the domestic affairs in Iran.
And secondly, all the rightful, right-set (ph) Iranian nation including the nuclear rights, need to be recognized by Americans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: So what will Rouhani's election mean at home and abroad after eight confrontational years of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Sadegh Zibakalam, a campaign adviser and leading member of the reformist camp, joined me on the phone from Tehran with some insight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Professor Zibakalam, thank you very much indeed for joining me from Tehran.
First of all, we heard the press conference; it sounded conciliatory.
What message is Dr. Rouhani trying to send to the world?
SADEGH ZIBAKALAM, ROUHANI CAMPAIGN ADVISER: He is sending this simple message to the world that there has been a real election in Iran and hopefully, Inshallah, there will be new foreign policy as far as Iran is concerned.
AMANPOUR: And what about -- is he a real reformer? Obviously it's within the system. Dr. Rouhani was a national security adviser. He's also one of the founders of the Islamic revolution.
Is he a reformer?
ZIBAKALAM: It is not the question of being a reformist at the moment or not. The most important issue is not to continue with the policies that have been running and guiding Iran during the past particularly four years, and moving towards a better conciliatory, realistic and pragmatist policy. I mean, that is the main issue.
And whoever can deliver this change is important. Be it a reformist, be it a pragmatist, being even a non-reformist.
AMANPOUR: Well, what do you make of, then, can he actually deliver? I note that Saeed Jalili, who is one of the more hardline conservatives -- he is the current nuclear negotiator and he was a presidential candidate. He tweeted that he supported and congratulated Mr. Rouhani and that everyone has to work together.
So does that mean the system, the Supreme Leader, is going to allow Dr. Rouhani to enact these things he's been saying?
ZIBAKALAM: Rouhani will have -- will have tremendous domestic resistance.
But as for the Supreme Leader, you must realize that, although the Supreme Leader has the tremendous power according to the constitution, but he doesn't take the decision in a vacuum. He must -- obviously he has seen that the mood of the people, the people are more or less tired of the hardline policies that have been governing Iran, particularly during the past four years.
AMANPOUR: And what kind of a government do you think we'll see from Mr. Rouhani? Will he try to bring in some of the so-called more conservative, more hardliners, to have a consensus government, a national unity government?
ZIBAKALAM: Well, there has been serious suggestion by his advisers that he must invite Mr. Velayati to his cabinet; he must invite Bagher Ghalibaf. He must invite Mohsen Rezaee. He definitely needs Velayati if he wants to conduct serious negotiation with 5+1 and also to break some ice with the West, because Velayati can get the support and confidence of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini.
So there's the -- some of his advisers have suggested to him that you -- we have to invite Velayati to the cabinet, either as foreign minister or as someone who is in charge of conducting negotiation with 5+1.
AMANPOUR: All right, Dr. Zibakalam, thank you very much indeed.
And, of course, to remind everybody, Mr. Velayati was a foreign minister and he has conducted negotiations with the West for many, many years.
Thanks very much for joining us.
ZIBAKALAM: You're welcome.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: So while reaching out, Rouhani also appealed to other nations to take advantage of this new opportunity, as he called it. In his press conference, he was asked whether he would be willing to engage in direct talks with the United States.
He said smiling, "That is a difficult question."
And so what will America do? Rouhani's election comes at a crucial time in negotiations over Iran's nuclear conflict -- nuclear program, which has come almost to the brink of conflict.
Vali Nasr is a former member of President Obama's foreign policy team at the State Department, and he is now dean of the School of International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. And I spoke to him moments ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Vali Nasr, welcome back to the program.
VALI NASR, SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: Good to be here.
AMANPOUR: Is this a real opportunity for the United States right now?
NASR: Yes, it is. First of all, just having a reformist person different than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the president of Iran provides much more breathing room, much more space for the administration and the international community to try something new with Iran.
And then, after all, Rouhani was the architect of probably the most forward-leaning position Iran ever had on the nuclear deal back in 2003.
AMANPOUR: In other words, the suspension of their program for a significant period of time.
NASR: Yes, and he's held onto that view, because literally every diplomat that Ahmadinejad fired for favoring engagement with the U.S. was later on hired by Rouhani in his think tank.
(CROSSTALK)
AMANPOUR: So he was --
NASR: So he's been working on this.
AMANPOUR: -- roundly criticized for that. Do you think that suspension has even a glimmer of a hope under him now?
NASR: Well, he's once bitten, twice shy. In other words, he's not going to stick his neck out for it to be chopped off. That's the challenge for the United States and the P5+1. They have to give him something tangible so he's not seen as naive and repeating the same mistake as 2003.
So we shouldn't read reformism as immediate capitulation at an open door for a deal (ph). We have work to do. But the opportunity is there.
AMANPOUR: Now you have written that actually the ball is in the U.S. court right now.
What do you mean?
NASR: Well, because the United States has to at least suggest that it's willing to deal with Rouhani different than they dealt with Ahmadinejad. In the past, the impression in Iran was that Ahmadinejad got better deals than Rouhani did.
And Rouhani can't come to the table seriously unless the indication is that he can deliver more than Ahmadinejad. We have to help strengthen his hand in Iran. That way he can actually sell a deal back home.
AMANPOUR: Now you've been inside the administration; you've worked on Afghanistan and Pakistan, but obviously Iran as well.
Is there a willingness to get beyond this really terrible 34-year wall of mistrust that has gone up between the two countries?
NASR: I don't think so. I think the administration's handled Iran tactically, not only managing it one step at a time with an eye on American domestic public opinion. There hasn't been an audacious view of bringing Iran in from the cold, as difficult as that might be.
AMANPOUR: Let's just call a spade a spade. I've spoken to Iranian officials, former negotiators, actually people who worked for Dr. Rouhani earlier, and they said that so far the American incentives to Iran in these nuclear negotiations amounts to demanding diamonds for peanuts. In other words, the incentives that the U.S. has given so far don't amount to much.
NASR: They don't amount to much at all. The United States has only offered aircraft parts and most recently modest permission to trade in gold and silver.
What Iran is really after is offer of taking Syria's sanctions off the table, which has not been -- and possibly recognizing Iran's right to enrichment.
Rouhani has to be -- has to be able to show Iran's Supreme Leader and Revolutionary Guards that the reformists can actually get the United States to offer these things. That's how you build momentum for reform in Iran.
AMANPOUR: And of course Iran has to show the United States, the West and Israel that there's going to be total transparency and that they're not going for a weapon.
Can he deliver on that?
NASR: This is a give-and-take, in other words, each side has to risk a little and be willing to offer something. And then you go from there.
So he's talked about transparency. He's talked about constructive engagement. Those are all positive things. We have to test those things. But he has to also know that if he takes a serious step in the direction of transparency, that he will not end up where he ended up in --
(CROSSTALK)
AMANPOUR: But you think the regime as a whole wants this, Supreme Leader, the Revolutionary Guards; do they want a ratcheting down of the crisis?
NASR: I think they want the sanctions to go away. Iran is really hurting. They may not be -- they may not want to give up the nuclear program but they know that they can't survive under the sanctions. The country's hurting.
So lifting sanctions is an objective. And they have to be -- they have to realize they have to give something for that. And that has to come out of the constructive negotiation process.
AMANPOUR: Let's move quickly to Syria because Dr. Rouhani has actually talked about it just the day before his election in an interview in Iran.
He said, "In my opinion, in order to reach a just solution in Syria that's accepted by all parties, Iran can play the role of mediator between the Syrian government and the opposition that is working hard to achieve democracy and good governance."
Can Iran actually play a role? Because right now we know the role it's playing is bolstering Assad and actually helping turn the tide in Assad's favor along with Hezbollah in Syria.
NASR: Well, Iran wants this conflict to go away. They don't want to lose. But they want the conflict to stop. And that's a beginning.
And secondly you're not going to get to any kind of a peace deal on Syria unless Iran is on board, because Iran is the most important of Assad's backers.
It is a possibility to use the new phase in Iran to see whether we can engage them and is a potential to see whether Rouhani would be willing to play a constructive role in the Geneva conference. It's a very, very slim chance but we have to use this opening in Iran to try and do things with them.
If we treat Iran the way we did before, as if there has been no change at the top, then there will be no change in (inaudible).
AMANPOUR: Vali Nasr, thank you very much indeed.
NASR: Good to be with you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Fascinating and important developments there in Iran.
And after a break, we turn to the power of education for women and girls around the world and for one unstoppable young girl in Haiti.
A new CNN documentary, "Girl Rising," says that it's possible to change the world one girl at a time. We'll show you when we come back.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program and to a very important topic that we continue to follow very closely and that is the struggle facing tens of millions of girls around the world who just want to go to school and who know that they need an education if they're ever to break out of their cycle of poverty.
We learned of their deep commitment to this cause when the Pakistani teenager, Malala Yousafzai, was shot in the head last year simply for speaking out publicly about defying the Taliban to go to school.
And it's by now a well-known fact that an educated girl grows up to improve not just her own lot in life, but her whole country's economic development. As the saying goes, girls are not the problem; they are the problem solvers.
And this is what's driving the innovative film "Girl Rising." It's actually a call to action for educating the 66 million girls around the world who are currently not in school. The program airs on CNN this weekend and it's already been released in cinemas here in the United States. It focuses on several girls from Ethiopia to Afghanistan, Nepal, Peru and many more parts of the developing world.
We've decided to focus on the 8-year old Wadley from Haiti, whose dreams were rudely shattered after the devastating earthquake in 2010, which reduced her school to rubble.
She eventually discovers this makeshift classroom on the side of a road and promptly sits down to learn. And Wadley, we see, won't let her family's poverty stand in the way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATE BLANCHETT, ACTRESS (voice-over): The next morning Wadley started for the tent school again. She wasn't sure what she was going to do. But she was determined to go and stay.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): Has your mother paid yet, Wadley? Has your mother paid the money?
WADLEY: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): Will you leave, Wadley?
WADLEY: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): You need to go home, Wadley.
WADLEY: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): This is the last time I'll tell you.
WADLEY (from captions): If you send me away, I will come back every day until I can stay.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): What's this?
WADLEY (from captions): Even if you send me away, I will come back every day until I can stay.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: Now Wadley told her story to the acclaimed Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat, and you may be able to recognize the narrator's voice in that film, superstar actress Cate Blanchett.
Edwidge, welcome.
EDWIDGE DANTICAT, HAITIAN-AMERICAN AUTHOR: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
AMANPOUR: That is such a touching clip. That's a dream sequence.
DANTICAT: Well, it's part dream, part reality. Wadley's school was destroyed after the earthquake. She did live in a tent camp. And every day she would actually walk by these schools that would emerge in the tent city and edge closer and closer. And the film is very impressionistic, as is a child's imagination.
And I was never quite sure whether she actually took that stand or she did it in her imagination. But we decided to tell the story they way she felt strongest about it, because she would, every day, edge closer and sort of would be turned away, but would come back every day.
AMANPOUR: So she really wanted to get into school.
What did she tell you about why?
DANTICAT: Oh, she would, you know, every day, she would wake up in the tent camp and tell her mother, when are we going to school? When am I going to school, because she really loved to learn, like a lot of these girls, like a lot of you know, children in general in Haiti. She loved to learn.
And like everybody else's child, you know, who wants an opportunity, she's a very curious little girl. She's got a great imagination. You know, when I first met her, that was her way of dealing with the trauma from the earthquake. She told me so many fantastical stories.
AMANPOUR: And as young as she is, she knew that this was her way out, education.
DANTICAT: Oh, absolutely, because her mother -- she has a wonderful family.
She has great parents who really have sacrificed so much for their -- for their children and her, you know, she could see, in spite of the poverty and eventually the destruction around her, that some of the kids who were going to school, you know, were eventually going to have a better life. Even though she was very young and was really shocked and shaken from the earthquake, she understood that.
And I think she wanted to get back to the normalcy of school after such a tragic event.
AMANPOUR: And just to be clear, she is in school now.
DANTICAT: She is in school now and we went back to Haiti and showed her the film with her family and some other school girls from the same area. She's -- you know her mom said that even a school she's in now is not, you know, up to her level. She's a really bright student, and next year she'll go to a different school that's more challenging for her.
AMANPOUR: Edwidge, as you know and I know, it's not just the earthquake that has severely crippled people's chances in Haiti. Haiti is one of the poorest places in the world. You grew up there.
What was your experience in trying to bust out of that cycle of poverty? You come from a poor family yourself.
DANTICAT: Well, I would say I think Haiti's poor in maybe financial terms, but you look at Wadley and her family, and these children and we're rich in resources, in human resources. And education for me, like a lot of us, education was what took us out of poverty.
And what I would hope for children, like Wadley, for example, is that they wouldn't have to migrate like my family did to have better opportunities, that there would be opportunities, educational opportunities for them within the country.
AMANPOUR: And what is the reality right now of opportunities, the new government, the new reality, so much aid from the West in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake? What is the reality for these kids?
DANTICAT: Well, so much is from the West that never really trickles down. The reality is that about 80 percent of schools are privately run and, in Haiti and in rural areas there, school is a very challenging thing to find.
And not only do you have to pay tuition, but you have uniforms and books, et cetera. So it's --
AMANPOUR: That's (inaudible) really expensive.
DANTICAT: Yes.
AMANPOUR: "Girl Rising" is a really interesting film because all these girls, whatever country, they matched up with writers such as yourself, each is matched up with a writer from her own country to tell the story. And then it's narrated, as we said, by some of these film stars, whose voices we recognize and who've also devoted themselves to the cause.
Why did you decide to get involved in "Girl Rising"?
DANTICAT: Well, I have daughters who are Wadley's age. And I see myself a lot in her. You know, I would not be able to do any of the things that I've done if I were not -- if I didn't have an education. I would say I think there are millions of women, boys, girls who are sort of better, probably more intelligent than me who didn't have the same opportunities that I have.
And I think it's, in that case, an obligation for us to try to pass on those opportunities to others, who -- you know, I could have easily been Wadley. That could have -- that could easily be me. She is me. I am her in many ways. And I think we sort of -- these places where our stories met were very interesting for me.
I look -- when I look at her, I see my daughters in her. I see the future in her. I see the future of Haiti in her face. And if we fail to educate girls and boys like her, we will never succeed.
AMANPOUR: Edwidge Danticat, thank you very much.
DANTICAT: Thank you for having me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: And after we take a break, another look at Iran's new president.
Does he herald a bold new breakthrough in relations with the West? Or is history repeating itself? When we come back.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
AMANPOUR: And finally tonight, Iran's new president is talking about moderation and raising hopes around the globe for a more constructive relationship with the West, including the United States.
Imagine a world where it's deja vu all over again, because back in 1998, the new reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, made front-page news around the world, inspiring optimism in people everywhere. When he sat down with me in Tehran and reached out to the American people becoming the first Iranian leader to apologize for the hostage crisis of 1979.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMAD KHATAMI, FORMER PRESIDENT OF IRAN (through translator): With regard to the hostage issue which you raised, I do know that the feelings of the great American people have been hurt, and of course I regret it.
AMANPOUR: The average American is familiar with one image from Iran, death to America, the burning of American flags and, as we talked about, the hostages.
You talk about a new chapter in relations between the peoples of the world.
What can you say to the Americans listening tonight, to show that person that your Iran is a new Iran or a different Iran?
KHATAMI (through translator): There are slogans being chanted in Iran. But, you as a journalist can ask all those chanting the slogans whether they are targeting the American people. And they would all say no. Not only we do not harbor any ill wishes for the American people, but in fact we consider them to be a great nation.
Our aim is not even to destroy or undermine the American government. These slogans symbolize a desire to terminate a mode of relations which existed between Iran and the United States.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR (voice-over): Now two years later in the year 2000, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright reciprocated in a speech that expressed regret for the CIA-backed coup of 1953 that deposed Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mosaddegh, and put the Shah of Iran back on the throne.
And for a while, there was a spirit of detente between the two nations. Now the window of opportunity seems to be opening again. So will both sides find a way to reach through it?
That's it for tonight's program. Meantime, you can always contact us on our website, amanpour.com. Thanks for watching and goodbye from New York.
END
despite harper regime's enmity towards iran it's good to see iran is offering to help poor canadians in their time of disaster and need:http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/06/23/310376/iran-offers-aid-to-floodhit-canadians/
Araqchi goh khord! If they're really interested in disaster relief, they should finish rebuilding the villages that were destroyed in the earthquakes in Azarbaijan and Bushehr. This is as ridiculous as when they offered their expertise to the US in the aftermath of the BP disaster, while they can't keep their own oil rigs floating for 5 minutes - straight to the bottom of the see. This is all propaganda for illiterate, uneducated, misinformed morons. Sorry to be blunt.
A possible explanation on why Rial's on booster rockets - or better yet, USD is in free fall in Iran:
میلیارد دلار ارز خانگی راهی بازار شده است
اکو ویژن - ۲۰ میلیارد دلار ارز در منازل مردم موجود بوده است که پس از انتخابات، برای جلوگیری از کاهش ارزش، راهی بازار شده است،*** این وضعیت تعادل عرضه و تقاضا را در بازار به نفع عرضه بر هم زده است ،***هر چند که ادامه این روند بستگی به تصمیم دولتمردان خواهد داشت.
به گزارش اکو ویژن ،*** عملکرد بانک مرکزی در طول ۴ سال گذشته برای حفظ ارزش پول ملی مثبت نبوده و بانک مرکزی نتوانسته است وظایف خود را در طی این مدت به درستی انجام دهد، واقعیت آن است که تورم موجود در دولت دهم و سیر صعودی آن در این دولت غیر قابل انکار است و دلایل متعددی از قبیل نقدینگی موجود در بازار،بدهکاری بانک ها به بانک مرکزی و چاپ اسکناس بدون پشتوانه دارد.
تاکیدات دستوری دولت به بانک مرکزی عدم مدیریت صحیح نقدینگی در این بانک را حکم فرما کرده است. به نحوی که نقدینگی در دولت دهم از ۷۰ هزار میلیارد به ۵۲۰ هزار میلیارد تومان رسید؛ این رقم بسیار بالا است و به این دلیل که متناسب با رشد این نقدینگی، تولید رشد پیدا نکرده است، به همین دلیل چاپ اسکناس بدون پشتوانه تولید بوده و این موضوع باعث می شود نقدینگی و به دنبال آن تورم بالا برود. این وضعیت اقتصاد کشور را ظرف 4 سال گذشته دچار بیماری هلندی کرده است .
تبدیل دلارهای نفتی به ریال و بالتبع آن ایجاد و شیوع بیماری هلندی در اقتصاد کشور برای اجرای طرح های عمرانی و کثرت واردات به کشور باعث شده است که تورم افزایش یافته و این شاخص از سال ۸۶ و ۸۷ به بعد رشد فزاینده ای به خود بگیرد.
در آن سال ها با توجه به طرح های عمرانی فراوانی که شروع شد و فقدان مصالح کافی در داخل ، واردات گسترده ای انجام شد و این واردات بی رویه و کمبودها در داخل به دلیل اجرای طرح های عمرانی و فقدان کالا در داخل ، باعث شد میلگرد و آهن با افزایش قیمت سریع رو به رو شود.
فقدان برنامه ریزی صحیح، فقدان تعادل بین تولید داخل و نیاز داخل و نیاز به طرح های عمرانی در داخل باعث شده است که قیمت ها افزایش پیدا کند و به دنبال این مسئله چاپ اسکناس توسط بانک مرکزی بدون پشتوانه باعث شد تا ارزش پول ملی به یک سوم تقلیل یابد؛ در این میان مصاحبه های نامنظم بانک مرکزی، اظهار نظرهای متعدد و گاها بدون پشتوانه محکم علمی و اظهارات نه چندان سنجیده از سوی مسئولان اقتصادی خود به افزایش نرخ تورم دامن زد .
در حال حاضر نیز باید توجه داشت که کاهش نرخ ارز در روزهای اخیر ناشی از ایجاد آرامشی نسبی و موقتی است که در اثر انتخاب رییس جمهوری یازدهم و اعلام برنامه سیاست های خارجی و داخلی با هدف کاهش قیمت ارز و سکه پدید آمده ، آرامش روانی در جامعه باعث شده است که قیمت ها پایین بیاید و این کاهش قیمت و نرخ ارز و طلا ارتباطی به مدیریت بانک مرکزی ندارد و مسئولان نمی توانند این مسئله را به اسم مدیریت بانک مرکزی مصارده کنند.
بر اساس برآورده ها در حدود ۲۰ میلیارد دلار ارز در منازل مردم موجود است ، مردم برای حفظ ارزش سرمایه های خود ،***پول خود را تبدیل به ارز کرده و در منازل نگهداری کرده اند.
نکته این که صرافی ها اعلام کرده اند کرده اند که مردم بعد از انتخابات بیش تر فروشنده هستند تا خریدار ،*** البته ادامه این وضعیت بستگی به تصمیمات دولت بعدی خواهد داشت.
میلیارد دلار ارز خانگی راهی بازار شده است
اکو ویژن - ۲۰ میلیارد دلار ارز در منازل مردم موجود بوده است که پس از انتخابات، برای جلوگیری از کاهش ارزش، راهی بازار شده است،*** این وضعیت تعادل عرضه و تقاضا را در بازار به نفع عرضه بر هم زده است ،***هر چند که ادامه این روند بستگی به تصمیم دولتمردان خواهد داشت.
به گزارش اکو ویژن ،*** عملکرد بانک مرکزی در طول ۴ سال گذشته برای حفظ ارزش پول ملی مثبت نبوده و بانک مرکزی نتوانسته است وظایف خود را در طی این مدت به درستی انجام دهد، واقعیت آن است که تورم موجود در دولت دهم و سیر صعودی آن در این دولت غیر قابل انکار است و دلایل متعددی از قبیل نقدینگی موجود در بازار،بدهکاری بانک ها به بانک مرکزی و چاپ اسکناس بدون پشتوانه دارد.
تاکیدات دستوری دولت به بانک مرکزی عدم مدیریت صحیح نقدینگی در این بانک را حکم فرما کرده است. به نحوی که نقدینگی در دولت دهم از ۷۰ هزار میلیارد به ۵۲۰ هزار میلیارد تومان رسید؛ این رقم بسیار بالا است و به این دلیل که متناسب با رشد این نقدینگی، تولید رشد پیدا نکرده است، به همین دلیل چاپ اسکناس بدون پشتوانه تولید بوده و این موضوع باعث می شود نقدینگی و به دنبال آن تورم بالا برود. این وضعیت اقتصاد کشور را ظرف 4 سال گذشته دچار بیماری هلندی کرده است .
تبدیل دلارهای نفتی به ریال و بالتبع آن ایجاد و شیوع بیماری هلندی در اقتصاد کشور برای اجرای طرح های عمرانی و کثرت واردات به کشور باعث شده است که تورم افزایش یافته و این شاخص از سال ۸۶ و ۸۷ به بعد رشد فزاینده ای به خود بگیرد.
در آن سال ها با توجه به طرح های عمرانی فراوانی که شروع شد و فقدان مصالح کافی در داخل ، واردات گسترده ای انجام شد و این واردات بی رویه و کمبودها در داخل به دلیل اجرای طرح های عمرانی و فقدان کالا در داخل ، باعث شد میلگرد و آهن با افزایش قیمت سریع رو به رو شود.
فقدان برنامه ریزی صحیح، فقدان تعادل بین تولید داخل و نیاز داخل و نیاز به طرح های عمرانی در داخل باعث شده است که قیمت ها افزایش پیدا کند و به دنبال این مسئله چاپ اسکناس توسط بانک مرکزی بدون پشتوانه باعث شد تا ارزش پول ملی به یک سوم تقلیل یابد؛ در این میان مصاحبه های نامنظم بانک مرکزی، اظهار نظرهای متعدد و گاها بدون پشتوانه محکم علمی و اظهارات نه چندان سنجیده از سوی مسئولان اقتصادی خود به افزایش نرخ تورم دامن زد .
در حال حاضر نیز باید توجه داشت که کاهش نرخ ارز در روزهای اخیر ناشی از ایجاد آرامشی نسبی و موقتی است که در اثر انتخاب رییس جمهوری یازدهم و اعلام برنامه سیاست های خارجی و داخلی با هدف کاهش قیمت ارز و سکه پدید آمده ، آرامش روانی در جامعه باعث شده است که قیمت ها پایین بیاید و این کاهش قیمت و نرخ ارز و طلا ارتباطی به مدیریت بانک مرکزی ندارد و مسئولان نمی توانند این مسئله را به اسم مدیریت بانک مرکزی مصارده کنند.
بر اساس برآورده ها در حدود ۲۰ میلیارد دلار ارز در منازل مردم موجود است ، مردم برای حفظ ارزش سرمایه های خود ،***پول خود را تبدیل به ارز کرده و در منازل نگهداری کرده اند.
نکته این که صرافی ها اعلام کرده اند کرده اند که مردم بعد از انتخابات بیش تر فروشنده هستند تا خریدار ،*** البته ادامه این وضعیت بستگی به تصمیمات دولت بعدی خواهد داشت.
شناگر زن: این لباس مسخره را به تن رضازاده کنید
سایت آفتاب: نخستین دختر رکورددار شنا در آب***های آزاد ایران که خردادماه رکورد شنای کرال سینه را در دریای خزر شکست، برای ثبت این رخداد مهم با مشکلی باورنشدنی مواجه شده است.
به گزارش عصرایران، «الهام السادات اصغری» با اشاره به این که تاکنون مراحل اداری ثبت رکورد شنای 18 کیلومتری او نتیجه***ای در پی نداشته، می***گوید: «با این که هنگام شنا از پوشش کامل اسلامی استفاده کردم و ناظران قانونی هم تمام مدت در پلاژ حضور داشتند، اما پس از آن مسوولان وزارت ورزش به من گفتند که باید ثبت این رکورد را فراموش کنم.»
این ورزشکار رکوردشکن که واکنش مسوولان ورزش کشور را تنها یک اعمال نظر شخصی می***داند، تصریح کرد: «استدلال آنها این است که چون پیشتر چیزی به اسم «لباس شنای آزاد بانوان» در وزارت ورزش تصویب نشده ، لباس من هنگام شنا در دریا هرقدر هم اسلامی بوده باشد، اما از نظر آنها مورد قبول نیست و ثبت این رکورد، از لحاظ شرعی مشکل دارد!»
الهام اصغری با بیان این که لباس ابداعی او کاملا پوشیده است و ناظران نیز آن را تایید کرده بودند، گفت: «پوشش من به اندازه یک لباس فضانوردی آزاردهنده و سنگین بود، اما چاره دیگری نداشتم. اکنون اگر لباسی از این جنس و با همین حجم را به تن آقای حسین رضازاده کنید و از او بخواهید تا وزنه بزند، همان لحظه دوباره از این رشته خداحافظی می***کند.»
شناگر رکوردشکن 32 ساله با تاکید بر این که شنای مسیر 18 کیلومتری کار ساده***ای نبوده که اکنون بتواند از کنار آن بگذرد، تصریح می***کند: «من وقتی ساعت***ها در دریا شنا می***کنم و تسلیم امواج نمی***شوم، برایم قابل پذیرش نیست که حالا در مقابل تصمیمات و نظرات شخصی برخی مسوولان سر فرود بیاورم، به همین دلیل همچنان در حال پیگیری حق قانونی خودم هستم چون رکورد من قانونی بوده و باید ثبت شود.»
سایت آفتاب: نخستین دختر رکورددار شنا در آب***های آزاد ایران که خردادماه رکورد شنای کرال سینه را در دریای خزر شکست، برای ثبت این رخداد مهم با مشکلی باورنشدنی مواجه شده است.
به گزارش عصرایران، «الهام السادات اصغری» با اشاره به این که تاکنون مراحل اداری ثبت رکورد شنای 18 کیلومتری او نتیجه***ای در پی نداشته، می***گوید: «با این که هنگام شنا از پوشش کامل اسلامی استفاده کردم و ناظران قانونی هم تمام مدت در پلاژ حضور داشتند، اما پس از آن مسوولان وزارت ورزش به من گفتند که باید ثبت این رکورد را فراموش کنم.»
این ورزشکار رکوردشکن که واکنش مسوولان ورزش کشور را تنها یک اعمال نظر شخصی می***داند، تصریح کرد: «استدلال آنها این است که چون پیشتر چیزی به اسم «لباس شنای آزاد بانوان» در وزارت ورزش تصویب نشده ، لباس من هنگام شنا در دریا هرقدر هم اسلامی بوده باشد، اما از نظر آنها مورد قبول نیست و ثبت این رکورد، از لحاظ شرعی مشکل دارد!»
الهام اصغری با بیان این که لباس ابداعی او کاملا پوشیده است و ناظران نیز آن را تایید کرده بودند، گفت: «پوشش من به اندازه یک لباس فضانوردی آزاردهنده و سنگین بود، اما چاره دیگری نداشتم. اکنون اگر لباسی از این جنس و با همین حجم را به تن آقای حسین رضازاده کنید و از او بخواهید تا وزنه بزند، همان لحظه دوباره از این رشته خداحافظی می***کند.»
شناگر رکوردشکن 32 ساله با تاکید بر این که شنای مسیر 18 کیلومتری کار ساده***ای نبوده که اکنون بتواند از کنار آن بگذرد، تصریح می***کند: «من وقتی ساعت***ها در دریا شنا می***کنم و تسلیم امواج نمی***شوم، برایم قابل پذیرش نیست که حالا در مقابل تصمیمات و نظرات شخصی برخی مسوولان سر فرود بیاورم، به همین دلیل همچنان در حال پیگیری حق قانونی خودم هستم چون رکورد من قانونی بوده و باید ثبت شود.»
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As Sanctions Bite, Iranians Invest Big in Georgia
TBILISI, Georgia—Economic sanctions against Iran have made it increasingly hard for Iranians to do business abroad. But Iranian businessmen are flocking to Georgia, a longtime U.S. ally in the Caucasus region, to pursue profits evaporating in much of the world.
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Benoit Faucon/the Wall Street JournalIranian Mohsen Bashiri sells copper cable in Georgia, sending payment by car via Turkey and Armenia.
In recent months, Iranian nationals have taken the reins of a private Georgian airline, a major trade bank and a scrap-metal plant. Persian is often heard, such as on a recent night at a Tbilisi casino, where Iranian tourists played roulette and sipped drinks brought by Russian hostesses.
Iranian products ranging from roofing materials to sour-cherry jam are pouring into Georgian markets, made more attractive by Iran's weak currency. Iran's government itself is buying Georgian land, Iran's agriculture minister has told Iranian media.
"It's all Iranian, even that one with the sticker 'Italy,' " said Iasha Tsatsanidze, a Georgian trader, pointing to a plastic garden hose among goods he was selling at a Tbilisi market last month. "It's cheap and good quality."
This is a boom being closely watched by U.S. authorities charged with enforcing sanctions that aim to block Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. "We are focused intently on shutting down any Iranian attempts to evade sanctions, including through possible business connections in Georgia," said David Cohen, the U.S. Treasury's top official overseeing Iran sanctions. "We are working closely with the Georgians on the issue." Two delegations from the Treasury have visited Tbilisi in recent months to discuss the matter, according to U.S. and Georgian officials.
In some cases, they may have reason for concern. The business branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has some 150 front companies in Georgia for the purpose of evading sanctions and importing dual-use technology, according to two members of the Revolutionary Guard and to the head of a Tbilisi facilitator agency—who said he helped set up such firms registered under Georgians' names.
"Investing in Georgia is a way of s***ting the sanctions," Iranian media quoted an Iranian development official as saying in December.
In Tbilisi, Javad Golchinfar, an Iranian who helps his countrymen set up Georgian businesses, said in an interview: "Especially in the banking sector, Georgia has become a key place to evade sanctions."
Georgian officials said they closely monitor the trade to prevent just that. "There's intense and routine coordination between the U.S. and Georgia on enforcing Iran sanctions," a senior Georgian official said.
Iran takes the position that the sanctions are illegal and its companies have the right to do business everywhere. Economics Minister Shamseddin Hosseini said in an interview that to offset declining commerce with Europe and Mideast states, Iran looks to expand trade with Asia and the Caucasus region.
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Benoit Faucon/The Wall Street JournalAn Iranian national founded FlyGeorgia airline.
"It's the new Dubai here" in Georgia, said a 25-year-old Iranian trader named Amin Akbari, referring to the United Arab Emirates financial center that historically has been the main overseas locus of Iranian business. Mr. Akbari's Tbilisi company, Saint Rich Amin, imports Iranian asphalt to Georgia and uses Georgia's Black Sea port to transport Ukrainian wheat to Iran—all legitimate trades.
Commerce such as that, a large part of the Iran-related business here, doesn't normally run afoul of sanctions. Yet U.S. and European officials suspect that some illicit funds handled by other Iranians are mixing into the financial flood here. Some recent developments suggest why Washington is concerned.
In the past two months, Georgian customs has caught Iranians landing from Dubai with a total of $315,000 in smuggled cash, according to the agency's website.
Among Iranian companies marketing products in Georgia is one that counts among its customers back home the hard-line Revolutionary Guard.
The company, Parsian Civilization Development Co., sells products in Georgia ranging from Iranian tomato sauce to bathroom tiles. "Georgia is a good market for us," said its general manager, Hamid Reza Miraftab.
Benoit Faucon/the Wall Street JournalAn Iranian waterproof material for sale in Tbilisi.
In Iran, though, Parsian sells a line of equipment that includes mobile-phone jammers. A list of customers on Parsian's website is a who's who of Iranian power centers: Besides the Revolutionary Guard there is the Interior Ministry, the office of the Supreme Leader and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
Mr. Miraftab didn't respond when asked about Parsian's business in Iran. There is no suggestion the group's Georgia business violates sanctions.
The surging Iranian presence in Georgia has startled the Obama administration because of deep U.S.-Georgia ties that developed after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. In 2008, the U.S. publicly supported Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili in Georgia's military clash with Russia. The U.S. also has supported Georgia's application, still pending, to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In addition, Georgia has been one of the few countries sending sizable troop deployments to back the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.
But when it comes to Iran, Georgia, which recently elected a prime minister who takes a less pro-American stance than Mr. Saakashvili, seeks to forge an independent line, its officials said.
A large portrait of George W. Bush stands along the highway to the Tbilisi airport, honoring the former U.S. president for his support in the 2008 war. Yet a few miles along the same road is a billboard for Sepahan Oil Co., an Iranian company subject to U.S. sanctions. Sepahan's office in Tehran didn't respond to requests for comment.
Georgian officials said they regard Iran as too important diplomatically and economically to isolate or ignore. Although Georgia has shunned heavily sanctioned Iranian crude oil and natural gas, it imports lubricants and asphalt from Iran, some of it over land, according to Iranian businessmen in Tbilisi. Such trade could violate U.S. sanctions if it involves companies such as Sepahan.
According to Georgian government officials, the closer ties between Iran and Georgia stem both from intimidation—after Iran threatened to recognize breakaway Georgian regions—and a need to tap into Tehran's economic potential. "It's not our interest to be on a high level of enmity with Iran," one official said.
Enlarge Image
In 2010, Georgia decided to lift visa requirements for Iranian nationals. It is one of just three countries in Europe and the broader Middle East that grant Iranians such easy access. The others are Turkey and Armenia.
Companies registered by Iranians in Georgia shot up to 1,489 last year from just 84 in 2010, a corporate registry shows.
More recently, the welcome has led growing numbers of Iranian nationals to move to Tbilisi from Dubai—which, under U.S. pressure, has been tightening its own restrictions on Iranian businesses, according to Georgian officials and Iranian businessmen.
Three men, in particular, have driven the Iranian investment boom in Georgia, according to corporate documents and Georgian and Mideast businessmen.
Houshang Hosseinpour, Pourya Nayebi and Houshang Farsoudeh have jointly established one of Georgia's first private airlines, FlyGeorgia; have gained control of a bank, JSC InvestBank; and have opened a string of other ventures.
They also negotiated last year to buy a Sheraton hotel in Tbilisi and the Poti industrial zone on the Black Sea, both from an investment fund controlled by one of the U.A.E.'s royal families. Mr. Nayebi said those efforts have been put on hold.
The trio's rapid expansion has raised alarms in Washington and Europe rooted in worries their efforts might be linked to Iran's government, said Western officials. In visits to Tbilisi, U.S. Treasury officials have specifically raised the matter of the men's acquisitions, according to Georgian and American officials, based partly on their bank's dealings in the Iranian currency.
Messrs. Hosseinpour and Nayebi, in separate interviews, denied any financial ties to Iran's government. They said they simply saw opportunity in Georgia after Dubai's welcome mat frayed.
"I have no connections to Iran," Mr. Hosseinpour said. "We have nothing to do with evading sanctions."
Mr. Nayebi said, "We are not working for Iran's government. We hate them and worked very hard to set up our businesses abroad away from Iran." The third man, Mr. Farsoudeh, didn't respond to interview requests.
Mr. Hosseinpour, in his mid-40s, was born in Tehran and later obtained residency permits in Canada and the U.A.E., plus in 2011 a passport from the tiny Caribbean nation St. Kitts and Nevis. His two partners also hold St. Kitts passports.
Mr. Hosseinpour said he initially ran a trading business in Dubai focused on supplying cars and auto parts in the Middle East and North Africa. His family had hailed from the Caucasus region, he said, and he was drawn to Georgia after the 2008 Russian-Georgian conflict. He said he had bought about 500 acres near Georgia's border with Armenia to raise corn and wheat.
Iranian airlines are increasingly cut off from international destinations as sanctions limit them in buying fuel and spare parts. Mr. Hosseinpour said that last year he founded FlyGeorgia, which established direct flights to Tehran. It is 65%-owned by him and Mr. Farsoudeh, Georgian corporate records show, with Mr. Nayebi as chairman.
Business wasn't booming on a recent FlyGeorgia flight to Tbilisi from Düsseldorf, Germany. On a largely empty plane, fliers were served Georgian wines by hostesses in tightfitting red dresses, practices hardly suggestive of a link to Iran's theocracy.
Messrs. Hosseinpour, Nayebi and Farsoudeh gained control of the Georgian bank InvestBank in 2011 through a Liechtenstein-based investment fund called KSN Foundation, Georgian corporate documents show. The bank that year reported holding some assets in Iran's rial, the only Georgian bank to do so.
This is a red flag for Washington. The U.S. has passed a law, taking effect July 1, that calls for sanctioning any firm dealing in the currency outside of Iran. InvestBank held no rials at the end of 2012, a newer audit showed.
Liechtenstein regulators began a preliminary inquiry into the foundation through which the Iranians bought InvestBank after learning the U.S. Treasury was investigating the bank on concerns it could be used to bypass U.S. sanctions on Iranian banks, said a top Liechtenstein financial regulator. Georgian financial regulators said that they are cooperating with the Treasury in investigating InvestBank.
The Georgian regulators said they hadn't found evidence the bank helped Iran avoid sanctions. They did say that the bank's Iranian owners hadn't properly disclosed changes in the bank's board, and the Georgian central bank is looking into "whether any unlawful change in the ownership structure…has taken place," said a central-bank legal officer.
Mr. Nayebi, InvestBank's chairman, said that "maybe [bank officials] didn't update" board changes with the regulator. He said the problem might have arisen because he was "too busy" with other Georgian ventures, such as one in agriculture.
"The U.S. government is wasting its time" in scrutinizing InvestBank, Mr. Nayebi said. "We didn't do anything in breach of sanctions."
Giorgi Kadagidze, the Georgian central bank's chief regulator, said his government is taking extra steps to make sure no sanctioned Iranian company can penetrate Georgia's banking system. Georgia recently amended its laws to bar any country subject to international sanctions from opening "microfinance" outlets that make small loans.
"Everything regarding Iranians makes us take a much closer look because of the sanctions," Mr. Kadagidze said.
Georgia banking officials said they have thwarted several efforts by Iranian banks or people linked to the Tehran regime to open finance offices in Georgia.
Two years ago, Mr. Kadagidze said, top managers from Iran-based Bank Pasargad visited Tbilisi three times seeking to open a branch. Denied a license, the bank complained to the Georgian Foreign Ministry, he said.
The U.S. has since blacklisted the bank, a designation that bars Americans from dealing with it and also puts pressure on foreign banks not to. A Pasargad public-relations official declined to comment.
Iranian businessmen search out channels to finance their Georgian enterprises. Mr. Akbari said for his wheat exports, letters of credit are issued using accounts in China and Qatar.
One Iranian trader in Tbilisi said he pays for imports from Iran by using a branch in neighboring Armenia of Iran's Bank Mellat, which is sanctioned by the U.S. and EU but not the U.N.
Some Iranians in Georgia said they had to send cash overland to Tehran to pay for imports—worth the risk because Georgia is a rare friendly market. "We send the payments…by car through Turkey and Armenia," said Mohsen Bashiri, who runs a Tehran-based company selling copper cable in Tbilisi. "We hope we can expand" in Georgia
TBILISI, Georgia—Economic sanctions against Iran have made it increasingly hard for Iranians to do business abroad. But Iranian businessmen are flocking to Georgia, a longtime U.S. ally in the Caucasus region, to pursue profits evaporating in much of the world.
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Benoit Faucon/the Wall Street JournalIranian Mohsen Bashiri sells copper cable in Georgia, sending payment by car via Turkey and Armenia.
In recent months, Iranian nationals have taken the reins of a private Georgian airline, a major trade bank and a scrap-metal plant. Persian is often heard, such as on a recent night at a Tbilisi casino, where Iranian tourists played roulette and sipped drinks brought by Russian hostesses.
Iranian products ranging from roofing materials to sour-cherry jam are pouring into Georgian markets, made more attractive by Iran's weak currency. Iran's government itself is buying Georgian land, Iran's agriculture minister has told Iranian media.
"It's all Iranian, even that one with the sticker 'Italy,' " said Iasha Tsatsanidze, a Georgian trader, pointing to a plastic garden hose among goods he was selling at a Tbilisi market last month. "It's cheap and good quality."
This is a boom being closely watched by U.S. authorities charged with enforcing sanctions that aim to block Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. "We are focused intently on shutting down any Iranian attempts to evade sanctions, including through possible business connections in Georgia," said David Cohen, the U.S. Treasury's top official overseeing Iran sanctions. "We are working closely with the Georgians on the issue." Two delegations from the Treasury have visited Tbilisi in recent months to discuss the matter, according to U.S. and Georgian officials.
In some cases, they may have reason for concern. The business branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has some 150 front companies in Georgia for the purpose of evading sanctions and importing dual-use technology, according to two members of the Revolutionary Guard and to the head of a Tbilisi facilitator agency—who said he helped set up such firms registered under Georgians' names.
"Investing in Georgia is a way of s***ting the sanctions," Iranian media quoted an Iranian development official as saying in December.
In Tbilisi, Javad Golchinfar, an Iranian who helps his countrymen set up Georgian businesses, said in an interview: "Especially in the banking sector, Georgia has become a key place to evade sanctions."
Georgian officials said they closely monitor the trade to prevent just that. "There's intense and routine coordination between the U.S. and Georgia on enforcing Iran sanctions," a senior Georgian official said.
Iran takes the position that the sanctions are illegal and its companies have the right to do business everywhere. Economics Minister Shamseddin Hosseini said in an interview that to offset declining commerce with Europe and Mideast states, Iran looks to expand trade with Asia and the Caucasus region.
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Benoit Faucon/The Wall Street JournalAn Iranian national founded FlyGeorgia airline.
"It's the new Dubai here" in Georgia, said a 25-year-old Iranian trader named Amin Akbari, referring to the United Arab Emirates financial center that historically has been the main overseas locus of Iranian business. Mr. Akbari's Tbilisi company, Saint Rich Amin, imports Iranian asphalt to Georgia and uses Georgia's Black Sea port to transport Ukrainian wheat to Iran—all legitimate trades.
Commerce such as that, a large part of the Iran-related business here, doesn't normally run afoul of sanctions. Yet U.S. and European officials suspect that some illicit funds handled by other Iranians are mixing into the financial flood here. Some recent developments suggest why Washington is concerned.
In the past two months, Georgian customs has caught Iranians landing from Dubai with a total of $315,000 in smuggled cash, according to the agency's website.
Among Iranian companies marketing products in Georgia is one that counts among its customers back home the hard-line Revolutionary Guard.
The company, Parsian Civilization Development Co., sells products in Georgia ranging from Iranian tomato sauce to bathroom tiles. "Georgia is a good market for us," said its general manager, Hamid Reza Miraftab.
Benoit Faucon/the Wall Street JournalAn Iranian waterproof material for sale in Tbilisi.
In Iran, though, Parsian sells a line of equipment that includes mobile-phone jammers. A list of customers on Parsian's website is a who's who of Iranian power centers: Besides the Revolutionary Guard there is the Interior Ministry, the office of the Supreme Leader and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
Mr. Miraftab didn't respond when asked about Parsian's business in Iran. There is no suggestion the group's Georgia business violates sanctions.
The surging Iranian presence in Georgia has startled the Obama administration because of deep U.S.-Georgia ties that developed after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. In 2008, the U.S. publicly supported Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili in Georgia's military clash with Russia. The U.S. also has supported Georgia's application, still pending, to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In addition, Georgia has been one of the few countries sending sizable troop deployments to back the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.
But when it comes to Iran, Georgia, which recently elected a prime minister who takes a less pro-American stance than Mr. Saakashvili, seeks to forge an independent line, its officials said.
A large portrait of George W. Bush stands along the highway to the Tbilisi airport, honoring the former U.S. president for his support in the 2008 war. Yet a few miles along the same road is a billboard for Sepahan Oil Co., an Iranian company subject to U.S. sanctions. Sepahan's office in Tehran didn't respond to requests for comment.
Georgian officials said they regard Iran as too important diplomatically and economically to isolate or ignore. Although Georgia has shunned heavily sanctioned Iranian crude oil and natural gas, it imports lubricants and asphalt from Iran, some of it over land, according to Iranian businessmen in Tbilisi. Such trade could violate U.S. sanctions if it involves companies such as Sepahan.
According to Georgian government officials, the closer ties between Iran and Georgia stem both from intimidation—after Iran threatened to recognize breakaway Georgian regions—and a need to tap into Tehran's economic potential. "It's not our interest to be on a high level of enmity with Iran," one official said.
Enlarge Image
In 2010, Georgia decided to lift visa requirements for Iranian nationals. It is one of just three countries in Europe and the broader Middle East that grant Iranians such easy access. The others are Turkey and Armenia.
Companies registered by Iranians in Georgia shot up to 1,489 last year from just 84 in 2010, a corporate registry shows.
More recently, the welcome has led growing numbers of Iranian nationals to move to Tbilisi from Dubai—which, under U.S. pressure, has been tightening its own restrictions on Iranian businesses, according to Georgian officials and Iranian businessmen.
Three men, in particular, have driven the Iranian investment boom in Georgia, according to corporate documents and Georgian and Mideast businessmen.
Houshang Hosseinpour, Pourya Nayebi and Houshang Farsoudeh have jointly established one of Georgia's first private airlines, FlyGeorgia; have gained control of a bank, JSC InvestBank; and have opened a string of other ventures.
They also negotiated last year to buy a Sheraton hotel in Tbilisi and the Poti industrial zone on the Black Sea, both from an investment fund controlled by one of the U.A.E.'s royal families. Mr. Nayebi said those efforts have been put on hold.
The trio's rapid expansion has raised alarms in Washington and Europe rooted in worries their efforts might be linked to Iran's government, said Western officials. In visits to Tbilisi, U.S. Treasury officials have specifically raised the matter of the men's acquisitions, according to Georgian and American officials, based partly on their bank's dealings in the Iranian currency.
Messrs. Hosseinpour and Nayebi, in separate interviews, denied any financial ties to Iran's government. They said they simply saw opportunity in Georgia after Dubai's welcome mat frayed.
"I have no connections to Iran," Mr. Hosseinpour said. "We have nothing to do with evading sanctions."
Mr. Nayebi said, "We are not working for Iran's government. We hate them and worked very hard to set up our businesses abroad away from Iran." The third man, Mr. Farsoudeh, didn't respond to interview requests.
Mr. Hosseinpour, in his mid-40s, was born in Tehran and later obtained residency permits in Canada and the U.A.E., plus in 2011 a passport from the tiny Caribbean nation St. Kitts and Nevis. His two partners also hold St. Kitts passports.
Mr. Hosseinpour said he initially ran a trading business in Dubai focused on supplying cars and auto parts in the Middle East and North Africa. His family had hailed from the Caucasus region, he said, and he was drawn to Georgia after the 2008 Russian-Georgian conflict. He said he had bought about 500 acres near Georgia's border with Armenia to raise corn and wheat.
Iranian airlines are increasingly cut off from international destinations as sanctions limit them in buying fuel and spare parts. Mr. Hosseinpour said that last year he founded FlyGeorgia, which established direct flights to Tehran. It is 65%-owned by him and Mr. Farsoudeh, Georgian corporate records show, with Mr. Nayebi as chairman.
Business wasn't booming on a recent FlyGeorgia flight to Tbilisi from Düsseldorf, Germany. On a largely empty plane, fliers were served Georgian wines by hostesses in tightfitting red dresses, practices hardly suggestive of a link to Iran's theocracy.
Messrs. Hosseinpour, Nayebi and Farsoudeh gained control of the Georgian bank InvestBank in 2011 through a Liechtenstein-based investment fund called KSN Foundation, Georgian corporate documents show. The bank that year reported holding some assets in Iran's rial, the only Georgian bank to do so.
This is a red flag for Washington. The U.S. has passed a law, taking effect July 1, that calls for sanctioning any firm dealing in the currency outside of Iran. InvestBank held no rials at the end of 2012, a newer audit showed.
Liechtenstein regulators began a preliminary inquiry into the foundation through which the Iranians bought InvestBank after learning the U.S. Treasury was investigating the bank on concerns it could be used to bypass U.S. sanctions on Iranian banks, said a top Liechtenstein financial regulator. Georgian financial regulators said that they are cooperating with the Treasury in investigating InvestBank.
The Georgian regulators said they hadn't found evidence the bank helped Iran avoid sanctions. They did say that the bank's Iranian owners hadn't properly disclosed changes in the bank's board, and the Georgian central bank is looking into "whether any unlawful change in the ownership structure…has taken place," said a central-bank legal officer.
Mr. Nayebi, InvestBank's chairman, said that "maybe [bank officials] didn't update" board changes with the regulator. He said the problem might have arisen because he was "too busy" with other Georgian ventures, such as one in agriculture.
"The U.S. government is wasting its time" in scrutinizing InvestBank, Mr. Nayebi said. "We didn't do anything in breach of sanctions."
Giorgi Kadagidze, the Georgian central bank's chief regulator, said his government is taking extra steps to make sure no sanctioned Iranian company can penetrate Georgia's banking system. Georgia recently amended its laws to bar any country subject to international sanctions from opening "microfinance" outlets that make small loans.
"Everything regarding Iranians makes us take a much closer look because of the sanctions," Mr. Kadagidze said.
Georgia banking officials said they have thwarted several efforts by Iranian banks or people linked to the Tehran regime to open finance offices in Georgia.
Two years ago, Mr. Kadagidze said, top managers from Iran-based Bank Pasargad visited Tbilisi three times seeking to open a branch. Denied a license, the bank complained to the Georgian Foreign Ministry, he said.
The U.S. has since blacklisted the bank, a designation that bars Americans from dealing with it and also puts pressure on foreign banks not to. A Pasargad public-relations official declined to comment.
Iranian businessmen search out channels to finance their Georgian enterprises. Mr. Akbari said for his wheat exports, letters of credit are issued using accounts in China and Qatar.
One Iranian trader in Tbilisi said he pays for imports from Iran by using a branch in neighboring Armenia of Iran's Bank Mellat, which is sanctioned by the U.S. and EU but not the U.N.
Some Iranians in Georgia said they had to send cash overland to Tehran to pay for imports—worth the risk because Georgia is a rare friendly market. "We send the payments…by car through Turkey and Armenia," said Mohsen Bashiri, who runs a Tehran-based company selling copper cable in Tbilisi. "We hope we can expand" in Georgia
Iran Today: What Now for the Supreme Leader?
inShare.
We start Thursday with two analyses looking at what is next for Iran and for the Supreme Leader following the election of Hassan Rouhani as President.
The video of Wednesday’s night panel at The Frontline Club, including EA’s Scott Lucas, accompanies a look at Ayatollah Khamenei’s attempt to claim authority in a speech yesterday morning — leaving a hostage to fortune, “Even those who don’t support System and trust it know that the Islamic Republic defends Iran’s interests.”
Meanwhile, the Supreme Leader’s office is back to work denouncing Washington:
“President-elect Hassan Rouhani’s office, however, is more in the mood for discussion, using Twitter to promote this story from State outlet Press TV about the nuclear issue: “[Rouhani] has formed a group to assess the future rounds of comprehensive negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers, the Iranian foreign minister says.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An Aerial Breakthrough in Iran-US Relations?
Tehran is playing up the possibility of air links between the Islamic Republic and the US, with Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi declaring, “We welcome direct flights between Iran and the United States, and have no problem with it. Launching direct flights is for the sake of public welfare, and we have no problem with this issue.”
On Tuesday, Mehr News Agency reported preparations for a memorandum of understanding, with Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines and Iran Air hoping to transport passengers between Iran and the US.
Rouhani Sends a Reply to Khamenei “No Support” Message?
We have paid great attention, both in Iran Today and our analysis this morning, to a statement from the Supreme Leader on Wednesday — in particular, asking if it is a wobble by Ayatollah Khamenei over his authority: “Elections proved that even those who don’t support System, trust it. They know that Islamic Republic defends Iran’s interests & dignity.”
We are not the only one to note the message — the office of President-elect Hassan Rouhani has re-tweeted it.
(www.twitter.com/HassanRouhani)
Currency Falling After Post-Election
There has been a flutter in the international press about a 20% rebound in the value of the Rial after the election of Hassan Rohani, strengthening to about 30000:1 vs. the US dollar from a pre-election rate of 36400:1.
The recovery appears to be short-lived. An EA correspondent summarises:
Dollar is back above 33000 Rials, heading towards 34000 today, and British pound is back on 51000.
inShare.
We start Thursday with two analyses looking at what is next for Iran and for the Supreme Leader following the election of Hassan Rouhani as President.
The video of Wednesday’s night panel at The Frontline Club, including EA’s Scott Lucas, accompanies a look at Ayatollah Khamenei’s attempt to claim authority in a speech yesterday morning — leaving a hostage to fortune, “Even those who don’t support System and trust it know that the Islamic Republic defends Iran’s interests.”
Meanwhile, the Supreme Leader’s office is back to work denouncing Washington:
“President-elect Hassan Rouhani’s office, however, is more in the mood for discussion, using Twitter to promote this story from State outlet Press TV about the nuclear issue: “[Rouhani] has formed a group to assess the future rounds of comprehensive negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers, the Iranian foreign minister says.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An Aerial Breakthrough in Iran-US Relations?
Tehran is playing up the possibility of air links between the Islamic Republic and the US, with Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi declaring, “We welcome direct flights between Iran and the United States, and have no problem with it. Launching direct flights is for the sake of public welfare, and we have no problem with this issue.”
On Tuesday, Mehr News Agency reported preparations for a memorandum of understanding, with Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines and Iran Air hoping to transport passengers between Iran and the US.
Rouhani Sends a Reply to Khamenei “No Support” Message?
We have paid great attention, both in Iran Today and our analysis this morning, to a statement from the Supreme Leader on Wednesday — in particular, asking if it is a wobble by Ayatollah Khamenei over his authority: “Elections proved that even those who don’t support System, trust it. They know that Islamic Republic defends Iran’s interests & dignity.”
We are not the only one to note the message — the office of President-elect Hassan Rouhani has re-tweeted it.
(www.twitter.com/HassanRouhani)
Currency Falling After Post-Election
There has been a flutter in the international press about a 20% rebound in the value of the Rial after the election of Hassan Rohani, strengthening to about 30000:1 vs. the US dollar from a pre-election rate of 36400:1.
The recovery appears to be short-lived. An EA correspondent summarises:
Dollar is back above 33000 Rials, heading towards 34000 today, and British pound is back on 51000.
Iran Analysis: Missing Point on Nuclear Talks & Supreme Leader
inShare.
On Wednesday, Ayatollah Khamenei reviewed the election, domestic affairs, and the nuclear talks in a meeting with judiciary officials.
Reuters and Fars News offer a vivid example of how to get completely different messages out of the same speech.
For Reuters, “Iran’s Khamenei Says Nuclear Talks Easy If Enemy Not Stubborn“:
“Some countries have organised a united front against Iran and are misguiding the international community and with stubbornness do not want to see the nuclear issue resolved.
But if they put aside their stubbornness, resolving the nuclear issue would be simple.”
In contrast, Fars does not see “easy” resumption of nuclear discussions, “Leader: Enemies Seeking to Prevent Iran’s Progress“:
They seek to block the nation’s progress and dominate our dear Iran again.
The Islamic Republic is standing mightily, independently and by relying on people and trust in God and defends Iran’s interests. Experience has also shown that anyone who resists in the right way is victorious.
By the end of its article, Reuters comes around to this less-cheerful outlook with another selection from Ayatollah Khamenei: ”Of course the enemies say in their words and letters than they do not want to change the regime, but their approaches are contrary to these words.”
So what is the real story here?
Perhaps it is that, while divided in their presentations, both Fars and Reuters are united in missing the main point of the Supreme Leader’s appearaance. This was not a speech aimed foremost at the nuclear talks, or relations with the US, but at asserting Khamenei’s authori9ty after the difficulties for the regime of the Presidential election.
The Supreme Leader, backed up by the messages from his office via social media, downplayed Hassan Rouhani’s unexpected victory — fostered part by the regime’s failure to put forth a “unity” candidate and its bungled attempt to block unacceptable candidates like former President Hashemi Rafsanjani — and played up the “epic” of voter turnout: ”This shows that even people who do not support the system, trust it and its elections because they know that a robust Islamic Republic stands up like a lion and defends the national interests and dignity well.”
Yet in that attempt to turn the election into a vindication of the “Republic” and his authority, Khameeni left behind a telling admission, summarised by his office on Twitter:
So does that mean that the 52.47% who voted for Rouhani did so because they “don’t support the System”? And if they don’t support the System, how can the Supreme Leader be sure that they still support him?
inShare.
On Wednesday, Ayatollah Khamenei reviewed the election, domestic affairs, and the nuclear talks in a meeting with judiciary officials.
Reuters and Fars News offer a vivid example of how to get completely different messages out of the same speech.
For Reuters, “Iran’s Khamenei Says Nuclear Talks Easy If Enemy Not Stubborn“:
“Some countries have organised a united front against Iran and are misguiding the international community and with stubbornness do not want to see the nuclear issue resolved.
But if they put aside their stubbornness, resolving the nuclear issue would be simple.”
In contrast, Fars does not see “easy” resumption of nuclear discussions, “Leader: Enemies Seeking to Prevent Iran’s Progress“:
They seek to block the nation’s progress and dominate our dear Iran again.
The Islamic Republic is standing mightily, independently and by relying on people and trust in God and defends Iran’s interests. Experience has also shown that anyone who resists in the right way is victorious.
By the end of its article, Reuters comes around to this less-cheerful outlook with another selection from Ayatollah Khamenei: ”Of course the enemies say in their words and letters than they do not want to change the regime, but their approaches are contrary to these words.”
So what is the real story here?
Perhaps it is that, while divided in their presentations, both Fars and Reuters are united in missing the main point of the Supreme Leader’s appearaance. This was not a speech aimed foremost at the nuclear talks, or relations with the US, but at asserting Khamenei’s authori9ty after the difficulties for the regime of the Presidential election.
The Supreme Leader, backed up by the messages from his office via social media, downplayed Hassan Rouhani’s unexpected victory — fostered part by the regime’s failure to put forth a “unity” candidate and its bungled attempt to block unacceptable candidates like former President Hashemi Rafsanjani — and played up the “epic” of voter turnout: ”This shows that even people who do not support the system, trust it and its elections because they know that a robust Islamic Republic stands up like a lion and defends the national interests and dignity well.”
Yet in that attempt to turn the election into a vindication of the “Republic” and his authority, Khameeni left behind a telling admission, summarised by his office on Twitter:
So does that mean that the 52.47% who voted for Rouhani did so because they “don’t support the System”? And if they don’t support the System, how can the Supreme Leader be sure that they still support him?