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Iran backed out of nuclear deal – Kerry

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi leaves the Geneva talks (9 November 2013) 11 November 2013 Last updated at 10:12 A senior US official reportedly said the deal was “too tough” for the Iranians US Secretary of State John Kerry has said Iran backed out of a deal on its nuclear programme during talks with world powers in Geneva on Saturday. Amid reports that France’s reservations scuppered an agreement, Mr Kerry told reporters in Abu Dhabi: “The French signed off on it, we signed off on it.” Iran had been unable to accept the deal “at that particular moment”, he added. Mr Kerry said he hoped in the next few months they could “find an agreement that meets everyone’s standards”. Representatives from Iran and the so-called P5+1 – the US, UK, France, Russia and China plus Germany – will meet again on 20 November. Powers ‘unified’ Some reports said […]

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Iran Faces Monitoring Test After Failing to Sway Powers

Iran faces a new test with United Nations monitors after failing to convince world powers the time was right to reduce tension over its nuclear work. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano led a delegation of inspectors flying to Tehran for negotiations today aimed at widening access to people and places connected with Iran’s nuclear work. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said his country is ready to improve cooperation. “Negotiations with the IAEA will continue in Tehran and will be finalized with Amano,” Zarif told ISNA news agency after the Geneva talks. “Our relationship with the agency should be on a serious basis of finalizing all issues. We are prepared to do everything for the agency so that they can do their technical work.” Zarif spoke after three days of discussions in the Swiss city with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov […]

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Iranian deputy minister shot dead

An unidentified attacker shot dead an Iranian deputy minister of industry in Tehran on Sunday, the state news agency IRNA reported, in what appeared the first reported killing of a senior central government official in years. Safdar Rahmat Abadi was shot in the head and chest as he got into his car in the east of the capital, IRNA said, quoting witnesses as saying the attack occurred at about 7:50 p.m local time.  “Investigations show that two shots were fired from inside the vehicle,” the agency quoted a police official as saying. “That two shells were found inside the car shows a strong likelihood that the assailant was inside the car and in conversation with Mr Abadi. There was no sign of struggle at the scene of the killing.” The student news agency ISNA said a special homicide investigator and criminal prosecutor were at the scene. It cited a […]

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Iraq-Turkey pipeline capacity to be raised

by Bloomberg News November 10, 2013 , 6 : 21 pm SAVE THIS ARTICLE Baghdad: Work to increase the capacity of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan crude pipeline from Iraq to Turkey will be completed within months, according to a Turkish government official. Daily flows through the link will rise by about 100,000 to 200,000 barrels a day, from the current rate of 300,000 to 400,000 barrels, when improvements to pumping station equipment in northern Iraq are complete, the official said, asking not to be identified because the issue hasn’t been publicly announced. The main northern crude export pipeline, running from Iraq’s Kirkuk oil fields to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, operates at far below its designed capacity of 1.6 million barrels a day after years of disrepair amid international sanctions against Saddam Hussein’s regime and more recent sabotage attacks. Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, whose economy has boomed from oil production […]

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After Clashes With Saudis, Laborers Opt to Go Home

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Thousands of foreign laborers turned themselves over to the authorities in Saudi Arabia on Sunday to be sent to their home countries after a night of protests and clashes in which one foreigner and one Saudi were killed. The protests were directed against a Saudi campaign to arrest and deport illegal immigrants who were given until last week to get valid work permits or leave the country. In recent days, the security forces have raided the work sites of large employers of foreign laborers and the neighborhoods where they live to round up violators. Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich Persian Gulf nations have long relied on large numbers of foreign laborers from Africa, Asia and elsewhere to keep their economies running by doing jobs like driving taxis and building skyscrapers as well as staffing hospitals, schools and universities. Human rights organizations have accused the gulf countries […]

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Oil Flow Reported at Givot Olam's Well in Central Israel

By Sara Toth Stub Special to DOW JONES NEWSWIRES JERUSALEM–Israeli energy exploration company Givot Olam Oil Exploration Ltd. Partnership (GIVOL.TV) said Monday oil flowed to the surface during drilling at its well in central Israel. The flow of oil, at about five barrels a minute, doesn’t change expectations of the amount of reserves in its Meged field, Givot Olam said. The company said in its most recent estimates that the field may contain up to 7.8 million barrels of oil. Givot Olam was founded by Jewish geologist Tovia Luskin, who claims that the Bible promises oil will be found in Israel. The company began looking for oil in Israel in 1992 and discovered the Meged reserve in 2004. Although significant quantities of oil haven’t previously been found in Israel, in recent years large, commercially viable quantities of natural gas have been discovered offshore Israel. Increased production from those natural […]

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Oil Flow Reported at Givot Olam’s Well in Central Israel

By Sara Toth Stub Special to DOW JONES NEWSWIRES JERUSALEM–Israeli energy exploration company Givot Olam Oil Exploration Ltd. Partnership (GIVOL.TV) said Monday oil flowed to the surface during drilling at its well in central Israel. The flow of oil, at about five barrels a minute, doesn’t change expectations of the amount of reserves in its Meged field, Givot Olam said. The company said in its most recent estimates that the field may contain up to 7.8 million barrels of oil. Givot Olam was founded by Jewish geologist Tovia Luskin, who claims that the Bible promises oil will be found in Israel. The company began looking for oil in Israel in 1992 and discovered the Meged reserve in 2004. Although significant quantities of oil haven’t previously been found in Israel, in recent years large, commercially viable quantities of natural gas have been discovered offshore Israel. Increased production from those natural […]

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Syrian opposition agrees to participate in Geneva peace talks

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – – The Western-backed Syrian opposition agreed to participate in international peace talks in Geneva, the Syrian National Coalition said in a statement early on Monday. The statement, translated from Arabic, outlined conditions that must be met before the talks, which aim to end Syria’s two-and-a-half year civil war, by creating a transitional governing body. The Syrian National Coalition’s leader has expressed a willingness to attend the U.S. and Russian sponsored talks but this is the first time the group as a whole has committed to the proposed conference, while making stipulations. It was hoped that the talks would take place before the end of November but the Syrian coalition’s failure to come up with a clear stance, as well as differences between Washington and Moscow over the purpose of the talks and opposition representation made delays likely. The coalition held that previous commitments, such as the […]

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Egypt relies on Gulf aid for economy: Then what?

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt is engaged in a high stakes gamble, using billions of dollars from Gulf Arab allies to stimulate the economy and keep its politically charged streets calm in the hope that investors and tourists will return. The biggest Arab country’s finances are in a precarious state with a massive deficit but the government, armed with billions of Gulf petrodollars, has rejected the conventional wisdom of IMF-prescribed austerity measures. If the plan fails, a new government expected to be elected early next year could find itself deep in debt, its currency overvalued and an economy in crisis. "Now we are living on a ventilator, (with) aid from neighboring countries and that is understandable in the midst of a meager tourism industry and reluctance of direct foreign investment," Sherif Samy, Egypt’s Financial Supervisory Authority head, said. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates pledged more than $12 […]

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Syrian Rebels Said to Recapture Base

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syrian rebels recaptured a base near the international airport in the northern city of Aleppo in a counteroffensive hours after the Syrian Army had advanced into the area, activists said on Saturday. The rebels were able to recapture the military base of Brigade 80 after government troops seized parts of it early Friday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an antigovernment monitoring group based in Britain, and the Aleppo Media Center, another rebel group. The observatory said 40 rebels and more than 20 government troops were killed in the latest fighting, which began Friday and continued early Saturday. The main job of Brigade 80 was to protect the government-held Aleppo International Airport, which has been closed because of fighting for almost a year. Syria ’s state-run news agency, SANA, said a rocket fired by opposition fighters struck near a health center in Aleppo’s Ashrafieh […]

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