Wall Street Journal – REVIEW & OUTLOOK: The Obama Administration has advertised its sanctions regime against Iran as the toughest ever applied and a great diplomatic success. So what are we to make of its decision this week to punish only a single company doing business with Iran’s oil and gas industry—and a small fry at that?
Unserious on Iran sanctions
India bans Iran nuclear-related trade
AFP: India has banned trade in all goods and services with Iran that could help Tehran pursue development of nuclear weapons, a government statement said.
Saudi urges Iran to keep nose out of Gulf
AFP: Saudi Arabia has urged Iran to mind its own business after a parliamentary panel in Tehran warned that Riyadh was “playing with fire” by deploying troops in Bahrain.
Iran plans to take three zeros off currency
Reuters: Iran aims to slice three zeros off the end of its currency which has weakened steadily over many years despite a policy to keep it loosely pegged to the dollar, the official news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.
Iran exchange to start fuel-oil trading in April, official says
Bloomberg: The Iran Mercantile Exchange, a Tehran-based commodities bourse, will start trading fuel-oil contracts this month as a prelude to other energy trading.
India restricts Iran trade as oil payment row rumbles
Reuters: India has banned all trade in goods and technology that could help Iran’s nuclear programme, a government statement said, seeking to align its policy at the U.N. Security Council where New Delhi is a non-permanent member.
FACTBOX-Iran’s oil trade under sanctions regime
Reuters: Iran has manouevred around sanctions for deacdes, but the task has become more complicated since Western powers introduced new measures in the middle of last year, which specifically targeted oil and gas trade.
Kuwait will expel Iran diplomats linked to spy cell, Qabas says
Bloomberg: Kuwait will deport three Iranian diplomats who, a court ruled, were involved with a spy network, Al-Qabas reported, citing Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed al- Sabah.
U.S. presses Germany to block Indian payments to Iran for oil
International Herald Tribune: Despite public embarrassment and pressure from the United States, German officials appear to be at a loss for ways to prevent a bank in Germany from being used by India to pay for Iranian oil, money that U.S. officials say could help finance Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Iranian cancer prisoner ‘died for lack of care’
RFE/RL: A former cellmate of an Iranian political prisoner who died this week of cancer says authorities provided medical treatment that was too little, too late, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports.
