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EU bans oil imports from Iran, imposes other curbs

Brussels/Tehran, Jan 23 The European Union banned imports of oil from Iran on Monday and imposed a number of other economic sanctions, joining the United States in a new round of measures aimed at deflecting Tehran's nuclear development programme.

A file photo shows a USS aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea. The vessel passed through the Strait of Hormuz and is now in the Gulf. — AFP

Special to the tribune
Saudis jittery over Iran’s nuclear plans
As question marks persist over the direction and intent of Iran’s nuclear programme, the Saudi authorities have signalled how a nuclear arms race could develop in West Asia. The Saudi prediction follows reports first published in the Israeli and US media that Riyadh is considering a secret nuclear pact with Pakistan to match Tehran’s military ambitions.

Special to the tribune
‘Pak ignored army’s rights abuse’
Washington, January 23
The Pakistani government, under pressure from its army, appeased extremist groups and ignored human rights abuse by the army in 2011, while security in the country deteriorated dramatically as a consequence of a surge in attacks by militants, according to Human Rights Watch.

Memogate: Fearing arrest, Ijaz wants statement recorded in London
January 23
American businessman and central figure in the Memogate scandal, Mansoor Ijaz, has declined to come to Pakistan, citing inadequate security being promised by Pakistan government, his counsel Akram Sheikh told reporters on Monday afternoon.

EU bans oil imports from Iran, imposes other curbs
Tehran responds with threat to block Strait of Hormuz

Brussels/Tehran, Jan 23
The European Union banned imports of oil from Iran on Monday and imposed a number of other economic sanctions, joining the United States in a new round of measures aimed at deflecting Tehran's nuclear development programme.

In Iran, one politician responded by renewing a threat to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, an oil-exporting route vital to the global economy, and another said Tehran should cut off oil to the EU immediately. That might hurt Greece, Italy and other ailing economies that depend heavily on Iranian crude and, as a result, won as part of the EU agreement a grace period until July 1 before the embargo takes full effect.

A day after a US aircraft carrier, accompanied by a flotilla that included French and British warships, made a symbolically loaded voyage into the Gulf in defiance of Iranian hostility, the widely expected EU sanctions move was likely to set off further bellicose rhetoric in an already tense region. Some analysts say Iran, which denies accusations that it seeking nuclear weapons, could be in a position to make them next year.

So, with Israel warning it could use force to prevent that happening, the row over Tehran's plans is an increasingly pressing challenge for world leaders, not least U.S. President Barack Obama as he campaigns for re-election in November.

Meeting in Brussels, foreign ministers from the 27-state EU, which as a bloc is Iran's second-biggest customer for crude after China, agreed to an immediate ban on all new contracts to import, purchase or transport Iranian crude oil and petroleum products. However, EU countries with existing contracts to buy oil and petroleum products can honour them up to July 1.

EU officials said they also agreed to freeze the assets of Iran's central bank and ban trade in gold and other precious metals with the bank and state bodies. Along with US sanctions imposed on December 31, the Western powers hope choking exports and hence funding can force Iran's leaders to agree to curbs on a nuclear programme the West says is intended to yield weapons. — Reuters 

Special to the tribune
Saudis jittery over Iran’s nuclear plans
Shyam Bhatia in London

As question marks persist over the direction and intent of Iran’s nuclear programme, the Saudi authorities have signalled how a nuclear arms race could develop in West Asia. The Saudi prediction follows reports first published in the Israeli and US media that Riyadh is considering a secret nuclear pact with Pakistan to match Tehran’s military ambitions.

In London, there is speculation that Tehran could carry out a nuclear test as early as January 2013. It was Pakistan’s discredited scientist A.Q. Khan who first offered to share and sell nuclear weapons technology to Saudi Arabia and other neighbouring Muslim countries.

His offer, picked up in 2003 by experts at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, was preceded by the claims of a defecting Saudi diplomat, Mohammad Abdalla al-Khilewi, who claimed he had hard evidence of Riyadh bankrolling Pakistan’s nuclear research.

More recent reports that Saudi Arabia has given Pakistan a US $ three billion advance payment to purchase a small number of nuclear warheads in case Iran tests the bomb have been denied by Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former Saudi intelligence chief and ex-Saudi ambassador to the US and the UK.

But Prince Turki has also cautioned that failure to stop Iran’s nuclear progress could push Gulf states to consider acquiring a nuclear deterrent. His warning is consistent with the assessment of former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Chas Freeman, who noted how Saudi officials had told him that “If and when Iran acknowledges having, or is discovered to have, actual nuclear warheads, Saudi Arabia would feel compelled to acquire a deterrent stockpile.”

Special to the tribune
‘Pak ignored army’s rights abuse’
Ashish Kumar Sen in Washington

Washington, January 23
The Pakistani government, under pressure from its army, appeased extremist groups and ignored human rights abuse by the army in 2011, while security in the country deteriorated dramatically as a consequence of a surge in attacks by militants, according to Human Rights Watch.

In a new report, the New York-based human rights group says high-profile assassinations, killings of journalists and attacks on civilians by the Taliban as well as sectarian and ethnic militant groups were commonplace.

"The past year was disastrous for human rights in Pakistan," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Bombs killed hundreds of civilians, advocates of religious tolerance were assassinated and the military undermined democratic institutions. From Karachi to Quetta, Pakistan is teetering on the edge of becoming a military-run Potemkin democracy."

"The military has gained increasing control of state institutions to the detriment of the rights of the Pakistani people," Adams added. President Asif Ali Zardari's government has a tempestuous relationship with the army as well as the judiciary.

The Supreme Court has initiated contempt of court proceedings against Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani over his failure to reopen a corruption investigation against Zardari. And earlier this month, the army warned Gilani of "serious ramifications with potentially grievous consequences" after he criticised army chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani and the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, in connection with what is called the Memogate scandal.

Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's former ambassador in Washington, resigned in November 2011 after Mansoor Ijaz, a Pakistani-American businessman, accused him of being the architect of a memo urging US help to prevent a military coup in Pakistan. Haqqani, who has been living under virtual house arrest in Islamabad, fears for his life.

Freedom of expression and belief were dealt serious blows by the assassinations of Punjab's governor Salmaan Taseer and the federal minorities' minister Shahbaz Bhatti over their support for amending the controversial and frequently misused blasphemy law. Taseer's bodyguard and self-confessed killer, Mumtaz Qadri, was convicted of murder, but the presiding judge fled the country amid fears for his safety.

Memogate: Fearing arrest, Ijaz wants statement recorded in London
Afzal Khan in Islamabad

Sheikh said he had also written to the army chief seeking help in provision of security, but has yet not received any reply.