AFP: Pakistan’s president has delayed a visit to Iran to discuss a huge gas deal despite Tehran’s offer of a loan to help finance a project which the US opposes, officials said Tuesday.
Visit delay raises questions over Iran-Pakistan project
Tehran denies Iranian missile experts in North Korea
AFP: Iran on Tuesday denied a South Korean report that its missile experts were in North Korea offering technical assistance for the planned launch of a long-range rocket.
Iran to build oil refinery near Caspian Sea, Tehran Times says
Bloomberg: The Iranian Oil Ministry plans to build a refinery near the Caspian Sea that will process crude from the Sardar Jangal field, the Tehran Times reported, citing Masoud Jahdi, the explorations director of Khazar Oil Co.
Iran arrests 28 over links to religious networks
AP: Tehran’s chief prosecutor says authorities have arrested 28 Iranians for alleged links to foreign-based TV networks advocating the Baha’i religion, which is banned in the Islamic Republic.
Iran says Western sanctions harm safety for ships
Reuters: Western sanctions imposed over the past months against Iran’s shipping industry will seriously affect international maritime and environmental safety, a senior Iranian official said.
HSBC to pay $1.9 bn to settle US claims: report
AFP: US authorities plan to announce a record $1.9 billion settlement with British bank HSBC to end allegations of money laundering, The Wall Street Journal reported on its website.
Sanctions push Iran into recession: IIF
Reuters: Crude oil exports have dropped sharply, the Iranian rial has plummeted and inflation has soared in 2012, the Washington-based Institute for International Finance said in its report on the Middle East and North Africa.
U.N. nuclear inspectors to press Iran on military site access
Reuters: U.N. nuclear inspectors will press Iran this week for a long-sought green light to visit a key military site, although suspected clean-up work may make it difficult to find evidence of any illicit atomic bomb research there.
Iran says it decoded data from captured CIA drone
AP: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard aerospace chief, Gen. Ami Ali Hajizadeh, told state-run Press TV that that the RQ-170 Sentinel craft had not carried out missions over nuclear facilities before it went down in December 2011 near the eastern border with Afghanistan.
Standard Chartered to pay $327 mn to settle US sanctions probe
AFP: British bank Standard Chartered will pay the United States $327 million to settle charges it violated US sanctions on Iran as well as on Myanmar, Libya and Sudan, the US Treasury announced Monday.
