AFP: Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah movement came under increasing pressure over accusations it is backing regime troops in Syria, as a rebel leader warned of the risk of sparking a sectarian war.
Hezbollah under pressure over Syria fighting
Switzerland’s government denies natural gas agreement with Iran
Bloomberg: Iran’s state-owned Press TV website said on April 19th that the country finalized an export deal, citing Javad Owji, deputy oil minister and head of the National Iranian Gas Co. The reports are “nonsense,” Conradin Rasi, a spokesman for the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, said today by telephone.
Syria expects more financial aid from Russia, Iran
Reuters: Syria hopes to clinch more financial aid from its allies Russia and Iran soon, but still has enough foreign reserves to pursue its war on rebels trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad, the central bank governor said.
Rushdie says ‘Midnight’ film closes circle
AFP: The 1981 novel won the coveted Booker Prize and launched the Anglo-Indian writer’s career — but seven years later the glamorous literary life came to an abrupt stop when Iran slapped a death sentence on him for “The Satanic Verses.”
Iran cooking oil price surges after currency rule change
Bloomberg: Iranian meat and cooking oil prices surged after the government stopped providing foreign currencies at a preferential exchange rate to importers of essential goods, the Tehran-based Shargh newspaper and other local media reported.
Iran parks millions of oil barrels on tankers as buyers retreat
Reuters: Iran is storing millions of barrels of oil on tankers in its territorial waters as Tehran struggles with tougher Western sanctions on its vital seaborne export trade, ship industry sources say.
Iran moves away from oil to withstand sanctions, minister says
Bloomberg: Iran’s finance minister says his country’s economy is adapting to Western sanctions by finding new markets for agriculture and mining products after oil exports plunged by almost half.
Fearing price increases, Iranians hoard goods
New York Times: Iranians rushed to supermarkets to buy cooking oil, red meat and other staples on Tuesday, stockpiling the goods over new fears of price spikes from a change in the official exchange rate that could severely reduce the already weakened purchasing power of the rial, the national currency.
Nepal: Iranian with fake Israeli passport arrested
AP: An Iranian man using a fake Israeli passport is being questioned in Nepal after being arrested outside the Israeli embassy, police said. The man identified only as Mohsin Khosravian is being held in a detention center in Katmandu.
Iran unleashed, unbowed
Washington Post: One of the Obama administration talking points is that it has weakened and isolated the Iranian regime. Aside from the economic beating Iran has taken, there really isn’t any evidence that has come about.
