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Iran’s nuclear expansion slows, says IAEA

Hassan Rouhani addresses the 68th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York ©Reuters Hassan Rouhani addresses the UN General Assembly in New York Iran has sharply slowed down the expansion of its nuclear programme over the past three months, the international nuclear watchdog said on Thursday, providing a potential boost to ongoing nuclear talks with Tehran . The International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran was continuing to enrich uranium which could potentially be used to build a nuclear bomb , in contravention of a series of UN resolutions. However the Vienna-based watchdog said the rapid expansion in the Iranian programme had come to a near-halt since August, coinciding with the start of the new government of Iran’s more pragmatic president Hassan Rouhani . The report comes ahead of a new round of international talks next week to try and strike a deal that would place […]

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Israeli PM dismisses IAEA report on Iran

  • Netanyahu said he was “not impressed” by the report which charged Iran slowed nuclear activities.   • Netanyahu reiterated his stance that the world powers must keep sanctions against Iran intact.   • Netanyahu campaigns against lifting sanctions and “hurrying into a deal”.   JERUSALEM, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) – Israel i Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday dismissed a report released by the International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA ), which indicated that Iran had significantly slowed down its efforts to reach nuclear capabilities. Speaking at a convention for American Jewish youth in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said he was “not impressed” by the report which charged that the rate of uranium enrichment at the nuclear facility in Natenz had dropped significantly in the past three months, under the regime of the recently-elected Hassan Rouhani. The report specifically stated that the stockpile of high-level enriched uranium had risen by five percent since […]

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Hezbollah Chief Says His Forces Will Stay in Syria

LONDON — The head of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group whose armed followers are fighting in Syria on the side of President Bashar al-Assad, pledged on Thursday that his forces would remain there as long as necessary. The leader, Hassan Nasrallah, spoke at a Shiite ceremony in his stronghold in southern Beirut, the Lebanese capital, held to observe Ashura, one of the most important holidays on the Shiite religious calendar. It commemorates the killing of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Mr. Nasrallah’s battle-hardened fighters joined the fray in Syria earlier this year to recapture a border town, and Mr. Assad’s foes say they have also been deployed on other fronts in the south near Damascus, the capital, and Aleppo in the north. “As long as the reasons remain, our presence there will remain,” Mr. Nasrallah told thousands of his followers. “Our fighters, our mujahedeen, are […]

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Insight: As powers push for talks, Syria balance tilts towards Assad

BEIRUT (Reuters) – More than two and a half years into the civil war devastating Syria, the United States and Russia are pushing the combatants to the negotiating table in Geneva, but on terms that mark a shift in favor of Bashar al-Assad against the increasingly fragmented rebels seeking to oust him. Since the August 21 nerve gas attacks on rebel suburbs ringing Damascus, which brought the U.S. to the brink of a missile assault on Assad’s forces, the diplomatic tide has turned against the opposition, which briefly believed external intervention would enable its forces to launch a final offensive. Instead, the combination of hesitation by President Barack Obama’s administration and an 11th hour deal brokered by Russia, a key Assad ally, to decommission Syria’s chemical arsenal, has wrong-footed the rebels, now under intense U.S. and European pressure to attend talks in Geneva with a vague agenda. Syrian opposition […]

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Exclusive: Assad allies profit from Syria's lucrative food trade

LONDON (Reuters) – As food begins to flow into Bashar al-Assad’s Syria after several months of disruption, some of the president’s close allies stand to make substantial profits from the secretive trade, according to trade and opposition sources with knowledge of the situation. While civil war grinds on, Syria is facing its worst wheat harvest in three decades and Assad has been scrambling to bolster depleted food supplies. Using front companies and shipping lines, a discreet commercial and logistical network is now emerging, which aims not only to procure food commodities but to generate big returns for members of Assad’s inner circle, trade sources familiar with the matter say. The sources declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the trade in time of war. Rami Makhlouf, Assad’s cousin and top financial ally, together with Ayman Jaber, another prominent figure subject to international sanctions, are among those involved […]

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Exclusive: Assad allies profit from Syria’s lucrative food trade

LONDON (Reuters) – As food begins to flow into Bashar al-Assad’s Syria after several months of disruption, some of the president’s close allies stand to make substantial profits from the secretive trade, according to trade and opposition sources with knowledge of the situation. While civil war grinds on, Syria is facing its worst wheat harvest in three decades and Assad has been scrambling to bolster depleted food supplies. Using front companies and shipping lines, a discreet commercial and logistical network is now emerging, which aims not only to procure food commodities but to generate big returns for members of Assad’s inner circle, trade sources familiar with the matter say. The sources declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the trade in time of war. Rami Makhlouf, Assad’s cousin and top financial ally, together with Ayman Jaber, another prominent figure subject to international sanctions, are among those involved […]

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In Iraq, a Day of Religious Observance, and of Blood

BAGHDAD — A wave of attacks against Shiite Muslims in Iraq killed at least 47 people and wounded dozens on Thursday, security officials said, as they were marking the holy day of Ashura, which commemorates the killing of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, 1,300 years ago. In the worst violence, 35 people were killed and 75 wounded in Diyala Province, northeast of Baghdad, when a suicide bomber blew himself up at an arena where a crowd had gathered to watch a play about the death of Imam Hussein. Women, children and actors in the play were among the dead. One witness, Mohammed Saadoun, 40, said the explosion took place at the end of the death scene. “I saw those who were acting out the death had died in reality,” he said in an interview. “They were on the ground covered with blood.” He added, “We have […]

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Apache, Sinopec complete Egyptian deal

Apache Corp. has completed its sale to Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration & Production Corp. of a one-third interest in its Egyptian oil and gas business ( OGJ Online, Aug. 30, 2013 ). After closing adjustments, Apache received $2.95 billion in cash. It will remain operator of the interests, which cover 9.7 million gross acres, mostly undeveloped.

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East Libya breakaway blocks bid to reopen oil ports

BENGHAZI, Libya, Nov. 13 (UPI) — Efforts to revive Libya’s oil industry, crippled by militia fighting and post-revolution chaos, have suffered a major setback with a unilateral declaration of a self-rule by the oil-rich Cyrenaica region in the oil-rich east. Leaders of the autonomy movement in the eastern region, whose capital Benghazi was the cradle of the 2011 revolution that toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi , said Monday they have already set up a shadow government and established a regional oil company to handle exports separately from the shaky central government in Tripoli. Oil fields, pipelines, terminals and ports in the east, where 60 percent of Libya’s oil is produced, have been closed in a wave of protests that began in July with a strike by armed guards in the oil fields and grew into a blockade of most of the country’s energy industry. In Cyrenaica, the original economic […]

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Lure of Israel's gas may dampen Turkish ire

TEL AVIV, Israel, Nov. 14 (UPI) — Israel is on the cusp of becoming a natural gas exporter and key energy power in the Middle East, a move that could produce significant geopolitical changes in a region beset by turmoil. That includes a new alliance with Turkey, which seems to be moving toward setting aside its political differences with the Jewish state, just as it is doing with Iraq’s oil-rich Kurds, in the interest of achieving its ambition to become the main energy broker in the region. Israel is now considering its options for exporting gas from its Tamar field, which began production March 30, and the larger but still undeveloped Leviathan field, which is due to come onstream in 2015. Between them these fields contain an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of gas. Israel has set aside 40 percent of its gas production for export, expected to earn […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple