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EU Approves Iran Oil Imports Ban

The World — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:00:18 +0000

European Union foreign ministers have formally adopted an oil embargo against Iran over its nuclear program.

The sanctions involve an immediate ban on all new oil contracts with Iran, while existing contracts will be honored until July 1.

Tehran denies that it is trying to develop nuclear weapons and says talks and not sanctions are the only way to resolve the dispute.

The EU currently buys about 20 percent of Iran’s oil exports.

(Graphic: BBC)

Meanwhile, the Pentagon said the US aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, as well as a British Royal Navy frigate and a French warship, have passed through the Straits of Hormuz at the entrance to the Gulf without incident in the wake of Iranian threats to block the trade route.

Under the new deal, EU governments are expected to stop signing new contracts with Iran when the ban comes into place – which could be as soon as this week, Reuters news agency reports.

All existing contracts will have to be phased out by July 1.

The Impact of New Sanctions on Iran

The World — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:40:30 +0000

As concerns over Iran’s nuclear ambitions continue to rise, the US and other European countries are contemplating new sanctions against Tehran’s oil sector.

What impact will new sanctions have on the country and can Iran’s threats about blocking the strait of Hormuz be taken seriously?

Anchor Lisa Mullins talks to Iran expert Dr. Trita Parsi.

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Lisa Mullins: Today, Iran threatened once again to stop ships from moving through the strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. That’s an unsettling prospect. At least one sixth of the world’s oil flows through the strait. But today, Iran’s navy chief called closing it very easy for Iranian naval forces. A spokesperson for the US Fifth Fleet responded, the spokesperson said that the United States will not allow any disruption of traffic in the strait of Hormuz. Dr. Trita Parsi is the author of A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran. Can you tell us, Iran says it may close this vital oil trade route that is the strait of Hormuz if the US imposes more sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program. How credible do you think the threat really is?

Dr. Trita Parsi: I have to say I think it is largely bluster, but at some stage if the west continues with sanctions and particularly if some form of an oil embargo is imposed on Iran, then Iranians don’t have as much to lose from actually taking this step. Right now if they were to close the strait of Hormuz they would also shutdown their own oil exports, but if much of their oil exports already have been taken off the market because of an oil embargo, then Iran has less incentives not to play this card.

Mullins: Well, it has less incentive, but does Iran really want a war?

Parsi: Well, the thing is if there is an oil embargo that is imposed on Iran that is in and of itself viewed by Iran and there’s some support in international law, that is already an act of war, so that would be an Iranian response to a declaration of war.

Mullins: How is that considered an act of war in any sense because there certainly have been sanctions against Iran before. Iran has made threats before. Iran even if it is not to sell oil to the US or Europe could sell oil to China or Russia instead of the West.

Parsi: Any type of naval embargoes have to be approved by the UN Security Council to actually have the force of international law behind it. If it is not then it is considered an act of war. The current form of oil embargo that the US is discussing is not gonna get support in the Security Council as you mentioned because of the opposition from Russia and China. What we’re seeing is that we are in a confrontational dynamic. Both sides are trying to maximize the amount of pressure put on each other, and at some point we’re gonna lose sight of what the actual issue was, and we’re just trying to escalate further in order not to lose face. So I think there is unfortunately, a significant risk that this will get out of control and actually lead to an open warfare between the two countries.

Mullins: How do you think it’s gonna spiral out of control when so many parties here have so much at stake, particularly Iran itself.

Parsi: Right now there’s almost no communication between the different governments and as Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had warned right before he left office, he said that this lack of communication is very dangerous because it gives way for misperceptions. And when you misperceive you miscalculate. And when you miscalculate you escalate and suddenly there you have it, you have a war that you never intended to have.

Mullins: Well, not yet though. What are the aspects of diplomacy that could be exerted right now?

Parsi: Well, diplomacy is not going to be easy, nor is it gonna be quick. The diplomacy that the Obama administration pursued in 2009 essentially only lasted about two and a half months maximum. And there were only two, two and a half meetings directly with the Iranians. That’s not diplomacy and certainly not an exhaustion of diplomacy. But the political space to pursue that option does not exist in Tehran nor does it exist in Washington, and it’s forcing leaders to abide by the already very constrained political landscapes that they’re in and pursue escalation rather than pursuing conflict resolution.

Mullins: Just to be clear, what could once again, what could be done right now in terms of diplomacy that would prevent confrontation?

Parsi: Under best scenario you would start negotiations right away and negotiations would not be limited just to the nuclear issue. The nuclear issue is probably the toughest issue to resolve because the two sides have dug themselves in so deeply in their positions, but there are other areas, whether it is regional security, Afghanistan or other areas in which conversations and diplomacy can begin. Diplomacy is very much about reducing mistrust. And when you reduce mistrust and you increase transparency information about the other side, that in and of itself is a huge favor towards making sure that there are no accidental escalations.

Mullins: That’s Dr. Trita Parsi, author of A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran.

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Reunion Time in Tehran

Carol Hills — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 12:41:10 +0000

Canadian cartoonist Gary Clement imagines a reunion of sorts outside the British embassy in Tehran this week.

Iran Protesters Storm UK Embassy in Tehran

The World — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:00:30 +0000

Protesters in the Iranian capital, Tehran, have broken into the UK embassy compound during a demonstration against sanctions imposed by Britain.

Militant students are said to have removed the British flag, burnt it and replaced it with Iran’s flag. State TV showed youths smashing embassy windows.

The move comes after Iran resolved to reduce ties following the UK’s decision to impose further sanctions on it.

Laura Lynch reports.

More at the BBC

Russia Rejects New Iran Sanctions

The World — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:00:21 +0000

A new UN report says Iran is getting closer to making an atomic bomb. But Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace tells host Marco Werman that the new evidence has not swayed China and Russia, and so Washington is unlikely to get tough international sanctions against Tehran.

Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. Iran’s President says his country will not budge one iota on its controversial nuclear program. That program is back in the spotlight thanks to a new report by the UN’s Nuclear Agency. The IAEA says there is credible evidence that Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device. The Iranian government continues to insist that its nuclear program is peaceful. The new report has led to fresh calls to strengthen international sanctions against Iran. Karim Sadjadpour is an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He says the report might complicate Tehran’s relationship with its allies.

Karim Sadjadpour: This report is going to make it more difficult for Russia and China to continue to vouch for Iran’s peaceful nuclear intentions, but I think Russia and China will continue to argue that the only way to resolve this issue is diplomacy, not coercion. So, I don’t see the basic facts on the ground changing. What I would further argue is that, for those who are cynical about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, no additional proof is necessary. And for those who are cynical about American intentions vis-a -vis Iran, no additional proof is sufficient.

Werman: That sounds like the eternal standoff. I mean, stepping back, what will it take in the long run for the US and the Iranians to sit down?

Sadjadpour: I think the challenge you have from the vantage point of the US government is that you’re dealing with a regime in Tehran who sees their opposition to the United States as central to their identity. I think there are now 3 symbolic pillars of their identity as a regime, and that’s animosity towards the United States, animosity towards Israel, and the veil – the hijab for women. So, I think the challenge for the US government is how do you go about reaching a modus vivendi; how do you reach a rapprochement with a regime in Tehran which needs you as an adversary? And that’s the challenge for any US government whether you are Republican or Democrat. So, my sense is that moving forward US policy towards Iran is going to increasingly resemble US foreign policy towards the Soviet Union in the 1980′s. I think the challenge will be to contain our dispute with Iran, contain Iran itself until the regime is eventually forced to change under the weight of its own internal contradictions and economic malaise, or the regime essentially changes like we’ve seen in parts of the Arab world now.

Werman: Will this report and the reaction to it from the West accentuate the deep internal divisions among Iran’s rulers? I’m wondering if there are divisions over what this report says in the Iranian street, as well.

Sadjadpour: There was a very telling moment after the US-led or the NATO-led intervention in Libya. The Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei gave a speech, and he said that Muammar Gaddafi’s main mistake was giving up his nuclear program, because when he gave up his nuclear program he made himself vulnerable to this NATO intervention. So, sometimes when you read between the lines of Iranian officials, you get a sense that they believe that if they were to acquire nuclear weapon it would actually alleviate the pressure against them rather than augment it. When it comes to the Iranian people – the proverbial Iranian street- there hasn’t been any open debate about the cost and benefits of this nuclear program. I think if they were…

Werman: And that’s because they don’t care, or because there is no disagreement?

Sadjadpour: The way the Iranian government has framed this issue is that the “Imperialist West” wants to deprive Iran of this wonderful civilian nuclear energy technology. The reality is that this nuclear program for Iran has had enormous costs – tens of billions of dollars of sunk costs, not to mention the tens of billions of dollars that Iran has lost from sanctions. But, I think very few Iranians have been aware of that cost-benefit analysis. And, as a former Iranian official once put it several years ago – he said that if you were to ask the average Iranian whether they want a nuclear program, everyone would say yes; and if you were to ask the follow-up and say, “Okay, well what is exactly a nuclear program?”, very few people would be able to explain to you what it is. That’s the testament to the way the regime has limited information. And it’s also a testament to Iranian nationalism and the sense that, historically, the great powers of the world, be it Britain, the United States, Russia, have wanted to keep Iran down for their own benefit. I don’t think that’s true anymore, but that narrative still has a lot of currency within the Iranian body politic.

Werman: Karim Sadjadpour, an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, speaking with us from Washington. Thanks very much.

Sadjadpour: My pleasure. Thank you.

Iranian Singer Googoosh

The World — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 12:00:23 +0000

Ever since the revolution began in 1979, rights there have been curtailed. Musicians have experienced that since only certain forms of music are permitted and female musicians have an even harder time expressing themselves.

Women solo vocalists for example can only perform before all-female audiences.

Little surprise then that many female Iranian musicians have left Iran to work in freer atmospheres. One such performer is Fargheh Atashin, better known by her stage name Googoosh.

Born in Iran in 1950, she reached her stride of popularity in the late 1970s. That is also when the revolution in Iran took hold and a lot of her music was banned.

Googoosh left Iran in the early 80s after being jailed for several months for living with her boyfriend out of wedlock.

In recent years, she performs only sporadically and her latest project this year was launching a line of cosmetics that she has endorsed.

Her younger Iranian fans, who have just discovered her, may have come across little back-catalog material recorded by Googoosh. So those young fans will be happy to hear that the independent record label Finders Keepers has released a collection of rare Googoosh songs.

This new collection features songs recorded on 45 singles in Iran that have been long-forgotten and in these eclectic tracks, Googoosh take cues from disco, psychedelic rock and even bossa nova.

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Mousavi’s Recommendation Makes “News of a Kidnapping” a Hit in Tehran

The World — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:50:21 +0000

There is no release in store for the leader of Iran’s opposition, Mir Hossein Mousavi.

The former presidential candidate has been under house arrest since February.

Recently, Mousavi was allowed to meet briefly with his daughters and according to news reports, he told them that if they wanted to know what his detention is like, they should read a book called “News of a Kidnapping.”

The news caused a run on Tehran’s bookstores as opposition supporters rushed to buy their own copies.

“News of a Kidnapping” is not an Iranian book. It was written in Spanish in 1996 by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The English translation of the book was released in 1997. It describes the abduction of politicians in the author’s native country, Colombia.

Anchor Lisa Mullins talks to Ilan Stavans, professor of Latin American Culture at Amherst College, Massachusetts, about why Iranians are seeking out the Colombian author.

Mullins: There is no release in store for the leader of Iran’s opposition, former presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. He has been under house arrest since February. Recently, Mousavi was allowed to meet briefly with his daughters and, according to news reports, he told them that if they want to know what his detention is like they should read a book called “News of a Kidnapping.” That caused a run on Tehran bookstores as Iranians rushed to buy their own copies. “News of a Kidnapping” is not an Iranian book though. It was written in 1996 by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez of Columbia. Ilan Stavans is a professor of Latin American Culture at Amherst College in Massachusetts. The book, “News of a Kidnapping”, he says, describes the abduction of politicians in Columbia.

Ilan Stavans: This is the story of a friend of Garcia Marquez, Maruja Pachon and her husband Alberto Villamizar, who in the late ’90s were kidnapped by drug cartels. These two abductions were actually part of a larger orchestrated effort by the drug cartel to kidnap major celebrities in order to be able to put the government in a difficult position and give in to what the drug cartel needed at that time. Garcia Marquez enters the world of these two individuals, Maruja and Alberto, and through them the world of many more that at that time felt vulnerable to this paramilitary entity, the drug cartel, that was actually doing what it wanted without any control from the government. It is a very different context from what is happening in Iran today. But the fact that this can be taken as a metaphor for a larger picture, the larger picture being that if you are going to speak to your mind against the government you are going to end up being pushed aside and silenced, is one that they clearly is speaking very loudly in Iran today.

Mullins: Is the…was the speaking very loudly in Iran today…is there something about Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s writing that is particularly universal or is it just the circumstances he’s talking about in terms of political persecution in Iran, or those who go up against the drug cartels in Colombia that has a resonance?

Stavans: Not too long ago we read another important book that came from Iran “Reading Lolita in Tehran”, a book about finding good literature and trying to use it as a way to understand a world that was being declothed by the religious fanaticism at that time. That [??] can be embraced in a society like Iran is, in many ways, something similar that is happening to Garcia Marquez. Garcia Marquez is a writer that becomes universal precisely by focusing on the particulars of his country; on the reality in Bogota, in [??], and other parts of his country. I love the fact that a good literature when it is able to transcend its own borders, it proves that it is not only written for the immediate readers of that particular country; that literature has no nationality but it becomes something global. On the other hand, I wonder what it means to become a bestseller in Tehran? A bestseller in Colombia can be 3,000 copies, 5,000 copies. Perhaps it really doesn’t matter how many copies in the end are circulating. What matters is that a book is being used as a message to show that the paradime of a politician in one country is very similar to the one in another country regardless of the differences those two countries have.

Mullins: Ilan Stavans is a professor of Latin American Culture at Amherst College in Massachusetts.

No Necklaces for Men in Iran

The World — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 14:00:33 +0000

Iranian authorities announced this week that men in the Islamic republic can no longer wear necklaces. Los Angeles Times Bureau Chief Borzou Daragahi tells anchor Marco Werman why Iran’s government fears what it calls “a Western cultural invasion.”

Marco Werman: It looks like men in Iran may have to start hiding their bling. This week Iranian officials declared that Iranian men can no longer wear necklaces. They’re un-Islamic. Iranians weren’t shocked by the announcement. Authorities there have long frowned on Western style haircuts for men, and women aren’t supposed to wear loose-fitting headscarves and tight-fitting coats. It’s all part of a larger effort to fight what Iranian authorities call a Western cultural invasion. Los Angeles Times Bureau Chief Borzou Daragahi is in Beirut.

Borzou Daragahi: This happens every year, you know. For a week or two, all my Iranian friends cover up a little better, they dress a little bit more conservatively. And then the crackdown ends and the headscarves go back further, the bling comes out, the sandals come out, the jeans get shorter, etc. The clothes get tighter, and the hairstyles get more outrageous. It just happens over and over again.

Werman: But I imagine, when there are these restrictions, and they’re announced to the public, it’s probably pretty sensitive for young people?

Daragahi: Actually, the young people are the ones who really don’t give a hoot. Every young person I know in Iran has spent 12-24 hours locked up for not being dressed properly or for saying something inappropriate to a security official or something like that. It’s a kind of mark of pride. Iran is a strange country where, for example, it’s a mark of distinction if you’ve spent time in prison, you know, rather than a blemish. And if you’re a guy who has never been pinched by the morality police, so to speak, no girl will want to date you. Something that’s very strange about Iran, where the security forces, like in many authoritarian states, are viewed as such the enemy of the people, that it’s not a stigma to be arrested or detained for something like this.

Werman: Tehran’s moral police are enforcing the dress code. Remind us of who they are and what they do.

Daragahi: They used to be a lot more reckless and a lot more willing to even invade people’s homes and so on. In recent years they’ve been put, so to speak, under more and more of a leash. Now they’re uniformed and they drive around in official vehicles and they’re a little bit more under the control of the security forces. It should said that they seem to come out whenever there’s a politically sensitive time. So this whole morality police “card” becomes an excuse to deploy additional forces around the city to frighten people, to keep a sort of control over people. It’s about control more than what people are actually wearing or not wearing.

Werman: This week marks the second anniversary of what Iranian dissidents call the stolen election. Iran’s Green Movement has called for silent protest. Did anyone take to the streets?

Daragahi: Yeah, a lot of people took to the streets. They went into the streets, but there was apparently such a huge security presence that no one dared chant any slogans for fear of being arrested over nothing.

Werman: Can Iran’s Green Movement still be energized by the Arab Spring? Is that even in the cards?

Daragahi: Iran moves to a different rhythm than the Arab world. Iran has been much more unstable in many ways than the Arab world has been. They’ve had so much regime change. They’ve already been through this once. Sort of like Lebanon, where I am now. They say “Pft, revolution? We tried that once, and look where it got us.” Taking to the streets in protest, it doesn’t really work. There’s a sort of jadedness in countries that have a history that’s different from the mainstream of the Arab world. In Egypt, in Syria, in Libya, these are novel things, taking to the streets in hopes of making change. But in Iran, it’s something that has been happening for 100 years. It’s just a different rhythm. In addition, Iran is definitely part of the Arab world, in that they speak a totally different language, they’re not watching the same TV channels. The Al Jazeera effect… There’s no Al Jazeera Iran. There’s no legitimate, popular international, locally based television channel that unites the Iranians the way that Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera do.

Werman: Los Angeles Times Bureau Chief Borzou Daragahi in Beirut. Thank you very much, Borzou.

Daragahi: It’s been a pleasure.

Earliest human rights charter

The World — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 19:45:23 +0000

National Iran Museum, Tehran.(Photo: Zereshk)

For today’s Geo Quiz we are looking for a country which currently houses what is thought to be one of the earliest human rights charter. The charter itself is on an ancient Persian clay object called Cyrus Cylinder. The words written on it date back to 6 BC and pay tribute to the Persian King Cyrus the Great. These fragments were part of the British Museum’s Persian collection, but have been loaned to another country’s national museum for the past half year. So, can you name this country or its national museum?

Geo Answer
The answer to today’s Geo Quiz is Iran and its National Museum in Tehran. This is where the Cyrus Cylinder has been on loan from the British Museum for the past half year and huge crowds have been flocking to see the exhibit about ancient Persia. BBC’s John Wilson has more from Tehran.

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Iran’s beleaguered opposition

The World — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 21:25:02 +0000

What began in Tunisia and spread to Egypt may now be energizing the beleaguered opposition in Iran. Thousands of anti-government protesters rallied yesterday in central Tehran. It was the first major show of strength from Iran’s opposition in more than a year but hardline members of Iran’s parliament are determined to avoid a repeat of what happened in Egypt. On Tuesday, more than 200 Iranian lawmakers called for two leading opposition politicians to be tried and put to death. Karim Sadjadpour follows Iran at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He tells anchor Lisa Mullins the regime’s resolve to crush the opposition is a short-term strategy. Download MP3

Lisa Mullins: I’m Lisa Mullins, and this is The World. What began in Tunisia and spread to Egypt may be energizing the beleaguered opposition in Iran. Thousands of anti-government protesters rallied yesterday in central Tehran. It was the first major show of strength from Iran’s opposition in more than a year, but hardline members of Iran’s parliament are determined to avoid a repeat of what happened in Egypt. Today, more than 200 Iranian lawmakers called for two leading opposition politicians to be tried and put to death. You’re hearing the voices of those Iranian lawmakers right now. Karim Sadjadpour, Middle East Analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, I want you to weigh in on what you just heard. That sounds like quite a dramatic scene at the Iranian parliament where the lawmakers apparently, Iranian state television showed a senior cleric up on this platform before the assembly leading the chant with a clenched fist, calling for executions of the opposition. Is this fear or resolve that we’re seeing?

Karim Sadjadpour: I think they’re trying to create an atmosphere of fear and terror, Lisa, and what’s quite remarkable is that less than six, seven years ago, the individuals whom they are now calling for their execution today were in positions of leadership. Mohammad Khatami, today they were calling for death to Mohammad Khatami, was president of the Islamic Republic for eight years. So, you see how far right the political spectrum has shifted in Iran, and I don’t think they are going to pursue even the imprisonment of these opposition leaders because they recognize that will probably be like pouring gasoline on the fire and provoking the opposition, but certainly they do want to create an atmosphere of fear and terror, and I think that the advantage they have is that the international media is not there to bear witness.

Mullins: Not there to bear witness because they simply can’t get in? The government won’t let them in?

Sadjadpour: The Iranian regime has effectively imposed a media embargo. You don’t have the CNN’s and the Al Jazeera’s and the BBC’s reporting the events that are taking place in Iran, so that makes an enormous difference psychologically for the protesters. When there’s an effective media embargo, I think people fear that this regime can get away with doing a lot more without accountability.

Mullins: Well that seemed to be what President Barack Obama had in mind today. He held a news conference earlier this morning, in fact, and he addressed specifically what’s happening in the Middle East and he seemed to be directing comments specifically to Iran as well. Let’s hear.

Barack Obama: You can’t maintain power through coercion. At some level, in any society, there has to be consent, and that’s particularly true in this new era where people can communicate – not just through some centralized government or state-run TV – but they can get on a smart phone or a Twitter account and mobilize hundreds of thousands of people.

Mullins: That’s what we heard earlier today from President Obama. Now we, of course there was a mobilization through social networking in Egypt. Could that same thing happen in Iran and somehow overcome the media blackout that the Iranian government has imposed?

Sadjadpour: It’s difficult, Lisa. I mean, I agree with President Obama’s point in the longer term that the days of dictatorial regimes ruling by coercion is not what the future foretells, but I think in the short run, this lethal marriage which Iran has at its disposal, which is oil and Islam, is a very formidable combination; and the Iranian regime’s support – its popular support – may not be very wide, but what it lacks in width it makes up for in depth, meaning you still have a lot of hard-core supporters of this government in Iran who are willing to kill on their behalf. I’m talking about the Basij militants, the Revolutionary Guardsmen, and I think in the short term, social networks – Facebook, Twitter – are no match for those who are willing to inflict violence and create atmospheres of terror.

Mullins: Karim Sadjadpour, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, thank you very much.

Sadjadpour: My pleasure, Lisa.

Iran cracks down on protesters

The World — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:15:49 +0000

Protests in Iran

Iranian security forces clubbed and tear-gassed demonstrators who marched today in Tehran and other major cities in Iran to protest against the regime. Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with a protester who used the pseudonym “Behzad” about today’s events. Download MP3

This Youtube video shows protesters burning a picture of the late Ayatollah Khomeini
and Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Hoseyni Khamenei.

Live Updates

Iran’s first day without fuel subsidies

The World — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 21:00:20 +0000

Security is tight in the Iranian capital, Teheran, today, a day after the government slashed subsidies on gas and fuel. Anchor Lisa Mullins gets details from the BBC’s Iran correspondent, James Reynolds.Download MP3

LISA MULLINS: One of the countries that the inspectors of tomorrow may work in is Iran. The West expects that the Islamic Republic is building an atomic bomb. Iran denies the claim. Still, the U.S., the United Nations and the European Union have imposed sanctions, and Iran’s government having to cut spending to make ends meet. That includes slashing subsidies on lots of goods and services. This weekend Tehran axed the subsidy for gasoline. The BBC’s Iran Correspondent, James Reynolds is in London. He says Iranian drivers are having a pretty bad day.

JAMES REYNOLDS: Going to the gas station now, what a shock for most ordinary Iranians when they pull up to the pump and find their petrol has gone up to $1.50 a gallon, which is about a 400% rise from what they used to pay. Now, of course, this price doesn’t compare to what a lot of your listeners will have to pay in America or what listeners will have to pay in Europe. Still, for ordinary people in Iran, that is a huge leap.

MULLINS: And why would the price of gasoline have to go up in a place like Iran, in particular? And why would it have to have been subsidized in the first place?

REYNOLDS: It was subsidized in the first place because that was the overall policy back in 1980, make goods cheap for everyone. And, essentially, it’s taken 30 years to find that policy might not work. Iran, of course, has huge amounts of oil reserves but it refines very little of that oil. It even has to import a lot of the oil, a lot of it’s petrol cause it simply can’t refine it properly.

MULLINS: Okay, so, presumably, that would have a knock on effect on the price of everything that’s transported by truck in Iran?

REYNOLDS: Yeah, and the taxi drivers now are already saying, look, they’re going to have to put up their meters. They’re going to have to put up their prices. Anything that you have to fill up a car or a truck or a van for, you can expect the prices to go up.

MULLINS: Okay, so tell us more about the reaction in Iran so far?

REYNOLDS: Well, first of all, the government was extremely worried because when President Ahmadinejad gave warning of the price rises on Saturday night, we understand from people in Iran, that the police were sent to guard petrol stations or gas stations cause they were worried about unrest. They were worried because in 2007, when some rationing was announced, there were riots. So far, we haven’t heard of any riots or unrest, but clearly the authorities are uneasy, which is why the police are manning gas stations.

MULLINS: Aside from sending security forces out on the street, what else has the Iranian government done to try and soften the blow for Iranians?

REYNOLDS: Well, there’s really one idea the Iranian government’s got at the moment which is this: cash handouts to the Iranians for the next two months to get them through the initial shock of the price rises. So, we expect families and individuals to get, perhaps, $8 a month, perhaps, a bit more over the next two months in order to allow them to pay for, for high gas prices, to pay for when they go to the store and find the bread is suddenly more expensive, to be able to pay for that. But, here’s the key point. This runs out after a couple of months. After that, by and large, they’re on their own.

MULLINS: All right. The BBC’s James Reynolds. Thank you very much, James.

REYNOLDS: My pleasure.

Stuxnet virus threat is real

The World — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 21:15:58 +0000

Stuxnet virus attacks Iran

By Clark Boyd

Stuxnet’s been called “a game changer” in the field of cyber-security.

An expert even went so far as to call it “a fearsome prototype of a cyber-weapon that will lead to a new arms race.”

Eric Chien, technical director at Symantec Security Response, has been studying the worm for months.

“We could tell it was trying to sabotage some industrial control systems,” Chien said. “But we couldn’t see exactly what.”

Turns out Stuxnet was locating and reprogramming Programmable Logic Controllers, devices that monitor, and control, other industrial devices including things like the motors on conveyor belts.

Or, in this case, says Chien, something called frequency converters.

“What it does is it actually changes what’s called the frequency on these things called frequency converters,” Chien said. “And basically it will speed it up and slow it down, and that will definitely sabotage or interfere with a targeted process.”

Turns out that frequency converters control the speed of the motors that spin the centrifuges used to enrich uranium. And in particular, Stuxnet was designed to target converters made by a Finnish company and an Iranian company.

Both kinds are used at nuclear facilities in Iran. That’s when David Albright, director of the Washington based Institute for Science and International Security took at closer look at what Stuxnet was designed to do.

“Over a pretty short period of time it would take the speed up to pretty high level, then drop it down to almost zero and then return it to a certain speed,” Albright said. “And so you’d have a situation where if it was driven up to a pretty high speed, the rotor would simply fall apart.”

It’s unclear whether that happened at any facilities in Iran. Officials in the country have been silent on whether any damage actually occurred.

But the mere fact that Stuxnet was so specifically targeted makes it clear to experts that this wasn’t the work of amateurs.

“The code in Stuxnet looks nothing like what you would see from Eastern European malware, it doesn’t have any of the tell tale signs of anything you’d see in the code from the Asia pacific rim,” said Tom Parker, director of the security consulting firm Securicon. “You’re looking at an organization that’s highly funded and highly capable.”

Parker says that the odds are Stuxnet is the product of a nation-state in the West, written with some inside help of those familiar with these specific kinds of equipment.

And Parker says he hopes Stuxnet shows everyone how important it is to protect our own critical infrastructure which brings water to our taps, electricity to our homes and allow traffic controllers to keep planes in the air.
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Moms of detained US hikers travel to Iran

The World — Tue, 18 May 2010 19:52:52 +0000

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The mothers of three American hikers detained in Iran are heading to Tehran today to appeal for the release of their children. The mothers are asking for compassion from the Iranian government. The World’s Jason Margolis reports on the role of governments — both American and Iranian — in cases like this.

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MARCO WERMAN: The mothers of those three American hikers detained in Iran are attempting a charm offensive of their own. They’re heading to Tehran to appeal for the release of their children. The three were arrested along the Iran/Iraq border. They’ve been jailed in Iran since last July and have yet to be brought to trial or charged with a crime. The mothers are asking the U.S. government to help secure the release of their children, but what is the role of governments in securing the release of civilians detained in dangerous places? The World’s Jason Margolis has more.

JASON MARGOLIS: Last year the French government talked about drawing a line in the sand. The French foreign minister drafted a law that said hostage victims who ignore official advice and stray into dangerous place, they’ll have to pay the bill for protecting their well being or for being rescued. The proposed French law raises a question. If travelers know that a government won’t come to their rescue, or at least that they’ll have to pay for it, will this minimize risk taking behavior? Jack Matlock, former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union says probably not.

JACK MATLOCK: The people who wandered into North Korea, they were warned locally, not only by officials, they still went anyway.

MARGOLIS: Matlock is referring to two journalists who were captured last year by North Korea. They were released after feverish diplomacy and a visit by former President Bill Clinton. Gary Sick, a professor of Middle East Politics at Columbia University says when U.S. citizens are taken, even if they are at fault, the government has to respond.

GARY SICK: It’s very hard for a government to say oh I’m sorry, they made a mistake, they happen to be citizens of our, but you know we’re not going to bother with it. It’s easy to say something like that perhaps; it’s very hard to do for a political party or political foreign administration.

MARGOLIS: With regards to the hikers held in Iran, Jack Matlock says the question is not whether the U.S. government is obliged to do something. The better question is what can the government do?

MATLOCK: Not only do we have no official relations, but our political relations are very difficult. The ability of the government to help is going to be extremely limited, and maybe even counter-productive.

MARGOLIS: That’s because hostages often become political footballs. That’s already happening with the three hikers in Iran, says Gary Sick. Several Iranians have been extradited to the United States where they’re being held. Now Iran is saying you’ve got some of our citizens, we’ve got some of yours.

SICK: And it was pretty clear that they were saying if you want to swap, okay let’s do that. But it hasn’t happened yet and I don’t know whether it will.

MARGOLIS: The story of the detained hikers is of course not just about politics and strained diplomatic relations; there’s a human element. Cindy Hickey is the mother of one of the captured hikers, 27-year-old freelance journalist Shane Bauer.

CINDY HICKEY: I spoke to my son in March when he called and that phone call lasted for a minute. It began with Mom this is Shane, I love you, I miss you, I’m strong how are you? I answered him saying I love you and I miss you and I’m very strong and determined and that won’t end until you get home.

MARGOLIS: Hickey says her son simply went hiking with some friends. She says she doesn’t know much about what the two governments are doing to secure her son’s release.

HICKEY: We really ask that the two governments set aside the politics and work from their hearts and release our children.

MARGOLIS: The State Department is working for the release of the three American hikers. It has never suggested that the families will have to pay for its diplomatic efforts. For The World, I’m Jason Margolis.

A glimpse into the Persian blogosphere

The World — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:53:36 +0000

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Persian language bloggers, both inside and outside the country, have been weighing in on the day’s events in Tehran. Those bloggers are the subject of some new research carried out by The BBC World Service Trust and a Persian social media website called Balatarin. Marco Werman hears more from The World’s technology correspondent Clark Boyd.

MARCO WERMAN: Persian language bloggers, both inside and outside Iran, have been weighing in on the days events in Tehran. Those bloggers are the focus of new research by the BBC World Service Trust and a Persian-language website called Balatarin. Our technology correspondent Clark Boyd has been speaking with the people behind the research. And Clark you’ve reported quite a bit on the so-called Iranian blogosphere over the past five years. Anything new and interesting here?

CLARK BOYD: Well I think one of the interesting things for me that it does is reinforce a breakdown of stereotypes. I think in the west especially we tend to get caught up in oh it’s a Persian-language blogger. It’s a blog about Iran. It must be about politics. It must be about nuclear weapons. It must be about US-Iranian relations or something like that. And what this research has really shown in collating a wide number of Persian-language blogs is that by and large Persian-language bloggers are blogging about a lot of the same things that we blog about. Sure some of it may be political but some of it may have to do with what they fed their cat yesterday. One of the interesting things though is that they noted that there were a lot of blogs about poetry and about literature. Now that’s not so strange.

WERMAN: Strong tradition there.

BOYD: Very strong tradition there. But what’s interesting is how the language in those blogs is being used. We can hear now from Mehdi Yayanajad who is the director of this website called Balatarin.

MEHDI YAYANAJAD: They are using poetry language to kind of show what is going on and what’s wrong with politics, what’s wrong with economy. But they are using poetry language because it’s safer to use that. It’s not direct and poetry language helps them to say things that they can’t say normally.

WERMAN: So Clark these bloggers are hiding from the sensors by creating blogs that are ostensibly about poetry but seemingly about politics underneath?

BOYD: Yes and no. Again I think there are political messages that seem to be embedded in the language of these blogs but at the same time they’re also celebrating the Persian language itself. And like we said before there’s actually a very long tradition in Iran not only of using poetic language but using that poetic language in service of politics. So in that sense they’re just using one of the tools that readily available to them to make their statements.

WERMAN: So what other things did the BBC World Service Trust research unearth?

BOYD: Well another interesting thing they noted is this rise of the conservative Persian blogosphere. And I think that what we’re seeing here is concerted effort on the part of the authorities in Iran to get more people who agree with them blogging about it. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad himself has a blog. He hasn’t updated it for a long time but he does have a blog. So you’re seeing this rise of conservative blogging. And of course Iran is famous for being a regime that really knows how to play defense right. I mean they really know how to keep information out. They’re very good at filtering the net. But what we’re seeing now that they seem to be actually be going on the offensive here and recruiting people to go out and blog their side of things.

WERMAN: And the World Service is also behind this Persian-language website aggregating all this Persian-language content. What’s the end result do they hope?

BOYD: What they really want it to be is a service. There’s no overt political goal here according the people that I spoke to about it. They really just want it to be a service. A resource for Persian speakers. And eventually what they would like is to get a team of volunteers together who would help translate all of this Persian-language material into English. I’m sure it would make absolutely fascinating reading for us.

WERMAN: Well we’ll stay on top of this. I’m sure you will. The World’s Clark Boyd. Always a pleasure. Thanks.

BOYD: You’re welcome.