WOOING AFGHANISTAN
With a planned U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan inching closer, Iran is stepping up its efforts to exert influence over the geopolitical direction of its eastern neighbor - and ensure America's exit. In recent weeks, Tehran has reportedly commenced new outreach toward Afghanistan, providing financial aid to local politicians and working to expand cultural ties between the two countries. The new approach is intended to tilt Kabul toward Tehran, and away from Washington. “Certain Western countries seek to extend their military presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014 by maintaining their military bases there,” Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has said. He further urged Afghans to “discard the presence of foreign military forces and especially disallow the founding of foreign military bases in Afghanistan.” (Washington Post, January 4, 2012)
SANCTIONS DRIVE IRANIAN RIAL DOWNWARD
Widening international economic pressure on Iran over its nuclear program have thrown the country's currency into a tailspin. On January 2nd, the Iranian rial lost an estimated 12 percent of its value in the wake of the Obama administration's imposition of new sanctions against the country's central bank. The drop left the Iranian regime scambling to impose a series of new fiscal measures, including setting a fixed rate of 14,000 rials to the dollar and reducing the amount of U.S. currency Iranians can purchase at a discounted rate. Iran's Commerce Minister, Mehdi Ghazanfari, has said that the government was further considering "a number of measures to control the exchange market" and stabilize the economy. (Agence France Presse, January 4, 2012)
A FALLING OUT WITH AL-JAZEERA
The Arab world's premier television outlet has run afoul of Iranian authorities. A new document issued by satellite provider Arabsat accuses the Islamic Republic of jamming broadcasts by the Al-Jazeera satellite channel. The purported reason? The channel's coverage of the brutal ten-month-old domestic clampdown by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. "We believe that this is happening because of our coverage of Syria," a senior official at Al Jazeera confirms. The Qatari channel's broadcasts into the Islamic Republic are being jammed from two separate locations - one west of the Iranian capital, Tehran, and the other in northwestern Iran. Other regional stations are believed to have been similarly blocked by Iranian authorities. (Reuters, January 10, 2012)
IRAN'S NEWEST ENERGY PARTNER
As new sanctions progressively squeeze Iran's energy economy, officials in Tehran have begun casting about for new international partners. Iran is now poised to sign an agreement with Ukraine's Inter Naft Gas Prom Pars company permitting the latter to explore three major oilfields in Iran as part of a deal worth an estimated $1 billion. The three fields, Koohmond, Boushkan and Kouhkali, are expected to generate between 10,000 and 12,000 barrels of oil in their first phase, and about 25,000 barrels per day in their second phase. (Tehran Fars, December 26, 2011)
A NEW CYBER-CLAMPDOWN
The Iranian regime is expanding its efforts to regulate access to the Internet on the part of its citizenry. Fresh "guidelines" issued by the Iranian government on January 3rd force Internet cafes to record the personal information of customers - including vital data such as names, national identification numbers, and phone numbers. Café owners are similarly required to install closed-circuit cameras to keep video logs of all customers accessing the World-Wide Web. (Radio Free Europe, January 4, 2012)
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