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Nov 30-Dec 4, 1998 / Azar 9-13, 1377
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Today
* German banks talking to Iran on new loan - source
* Iran warns on Caspian oil politics
* Iran open for business but investors wary
* Illegal trade charges against Norcross company end 3-year
federal investigation
Previous
* Germany denies report of new Hermes loans for Iran
* Iranian banker reports breakthrough on $3 bln loan
* Iran sees China buying 110,000 bpd crude in Jan
* Pipeline Dreams In the Caspian
* ABB wins 100 mln Sfr Iran hydropower deal
* Esfahan seeks to woo back foreign tourists
* Ukraine still mulling Iran turbine sale-source
* New law could slash Iran gasoline use-oil minister
* More bad news for Iran economy as non-oil exports down
* The plight of the Persian carpet
* US official talks Iran deal compensation in Ukraine
* Kharrazi hail relations with Italy
* Iran, Thailand agree chemical and oil ventures
* U.S. official admits Iran route cheapest for Caspian oil
* Saudi Arabia not behind drop in oil prices: Iranian ambassador
* Budget to triple petrol price for heavy users
* Khatami's budget speech
* The role of oil sales in next year's budget
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$ Rate
Updated December 4, 1998
* To send money to Iran, the rate is 685-700 tomans per
dollar, depending on how much you wish to send.
* To send money out of Iran, the rate is 706 tomans per
dollar.
Source: Sehaty Foreign Exchange. Preferntial rates for readers of The
Iranian Times. Call in U.S.: 602-595-0777 OR 500-288-8881,
Fax: 602-595-0222. Address: PO Box 3230, Carefree, AZ 85377,
USA. Mention this code: BAJ 07
Friday,
December 4, 1998
* German banks talking to Iran on new loan - source
BONN, Dec 4 (Reuters) - A consortium of German banks is holding talks
with Iran over a new $1 billion credit line, a German banking source said
on Friday. `There are talks. They are at a confidential stage at the moment.
There is no agreement which can be made public at the moment,'' the source
told Reuters. Germany's government-backed export credit guarantee agency,
HERMES, on Thursday denied an assertion by a top Iranian banker that an
agreement on principle had been reached on the loan and said no new loans
to Tehran were planned... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran warns on Caspian oil politics
BAKU, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Oil-rich Caspian states should be free to export
their oil as economically as possible and not be pressed to export through
expensive, politically-motivated pipelines, Iran's ambassador to Azerbaijan
said on Friday. As several major Western-dominated oil consortia develop
projects offshore Azerbaijan, Iran is backing a pipeline to take Caspian
oil through its territory. However, the U.S, Turkey and Azerbaijani governments
are putting huge diplomatic efforts into urging the consortia to build
a main export pipeline west to Turkey... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran open for business but investors wary
LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Almost 20 years after the Islamic revolution
swept away the pro-Western Shah, Iran is finally opening up to Western
investment again. But foreign investors are wary of the terms and timing.
A slump in oil prices, fierce international competition for investment
capital and the ``buyback'' terms offered by Tehran are doing more to discourage
foreign oil firms than a receding fear of U.S. sanctions, experts say...
FULL
TEXT
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* Illegal trade charges against Norcross company end 3-year federal
investigation
December 4, (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) - The indictments against
a pair of Norcross-based exporters charged with selling $600,000 worth
of car parts to Iran in defiance of a U.S. embargo wrap up one of the biggest
cases of its kind in years, officials said. Federal agents spent three
years rooting through garbage in Norcross and poring over bank records
in Germany to build the case against Medhi "Michael" Azarin of
Atlanta and Farhad Azarin of Norcross, both officials with Federal Parts
International Inc. Investigators say the pair--Michael, 58, owns the company,
while nephew Farhad, 33, is a manager there--shipped three huge containers
of spare parts to businesses in Tehran... FULL
TEXT
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Thursday
December 3, 1998
* Germany denies report of new Hermes loans for Iran
BONN, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Germany denied reports on Thursday that it was
about to extend new loans to Iran through its export credit guarantee agency,
HERMES. A spokesman for the Economics Ministry in Bonn said that Germany
had not extended Iran HERMES loans nor were there plans to supply new lending.
"There are no credits for Iran and nothing is planned," the spokesman
said.
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* Iranian banker reports breakthrough on $3 bln loan
LONDON, Dec 3 (Reuters) - A senior Iranian banker said on Thursday that
Iran had achieved a breakthrough in its efforts to negotiate a $3 billion
bridging loan from its major trading partners to enable it to service foreign
debt due by next March. Ahmad Azizi, chairman and managing director of
the state-owned Bank of Industry and Mines, said Germany's Ausfuhrkreditanstalt
(AKA), representing a consortium of about 40 German banks, had negotiated
an agreement in principle with the Iranian central bank to give Tehran
a $1 billion credit line... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran sees China buying 110,000 bpd crude in Jan
NEW DELHI, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Iran expects to resume selling 110,000
barrels per day (bpd) of crude to China from January, after sales dropped
to around 20,000 bpd in the fourth quarter, a senior Iranian oil company
official said on Thursday. Hojjatollah Ghanimi-Fard, Director of International
Affairs and Crude Marketing at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC)
also said Iran hoped to increase sales to India from this year's levels
of around 70,000 bpd, once India allows refineries freedom to buy their
own crude... FULL
TEXT
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* Pipeline Dreams In the Caspian
By David J. Kramer
Thursday, December 3, 1998
The Washington Post
The region around the Caspian Sea has assumed a large role in the Clinton
administration's strategy toward Russia and the other new independent states
in the area, as well as Iran and Turkey.
The key to this strategy is promotion by the administration of a pipeline
from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Ceyhan, Turkey. This route, in bypassing both
Russia and Iran, would accomplish three U.S. foreign policy goals: strengthen
the independence of the Caspian states by reducing their dependence on
Russia for energy exports; exclude Iran from any possible windfalls; and
solidify ties with Turkey, a NATO member. (From Turkey's perspective, it
also would cut down on traffic through the crowded Bosporus Straits.)...
FULL
TEXT
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Wednesday
December 2, 1998
* ABB wins 100 mln Sfr Iran hydropower deal
ZURICH, Dec 2 (Reuters) - ABB Power Generation Ltd has won a 100 million
Swiss franc ($73 million) order for the extension of several hydropower
plants in northern and southeastern Iran, ABB Switzerland said on Wednesday.
Construction on the first extension phase is already under way and is due
for completion in 2003. The construction programme consists of two extension
phases with a total installed power of around 8,000 megawatts ... FULL
TEXT
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* Esfahan seeks to woo back foreign tourists
ESFAHAN, Iran, Dec 2 (AFP) - This ancient city on the edge of the Iranian
desert is sprucing up its majestic blue-tiled mosques, vast open square
and centuries-old bazaar to woo back wary tourists after 20 years of isolation.
"Our country gets about half a million tourists a year and we could
do with 10 million," said Hossain Payghambary, a carpet trader whose
tiny shop on the huge Maidan-e-Imam square has become a de facto tourist
office for the handful of adventurous travellers who pass through the city...
FULL TEXT
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* Ukraine still mulling Iran turbine sale-source
KIEV, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Ukraine may yet take part in a Russian deal
to build a nuclear power plant for Iran if Kiev does not receive compensation
from the United States for bowing out, a top Ukrainian government official
said on Wednesday. ``Ukraine still has a chance to change its mind on not
participating in the Russian-Iranian nuclear project,'' the official told
Reuters... FULL
TEXT
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Tuesday
December 1, 1998
* New law could slash Iran gasoline use-oil minister
TEHRAN, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Iran's oil minister said on Tuesday that a
bill before parliament aims to slash domestic gasoline consumption, and
could involve scrapping subsidies. The official Iranian news agency IRNA
quoted Bijan Zanganeh as saying local gasoline consumption is expected
to rise to 32 million litres (8.5 million gallons) a day in the Iranian
year which starts on March 21, 1999... FULL
TEXT
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* More bad news for Iran economy as non-oil exports down
TEHRAN, Dec 1 (AFP) -Iran's non-oil exports have fallen nearly three
billion dollars below expectations for the current fiscal year, an Iranian
official said Tuesday, bringing further bad news for the Islamic republic's
faltering economy. Customs Director Mehdi Karbassian said non-petroleum
exports would reach just three billion dollars for the fiscal year that
ends in March and not the 5.7 billion as planned in the budget.
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* The plight of the Persian carpet
TEHRAN, Dec 1 (AFP) - Ali Bidani sits disconsolately in his corner shop
in a passage in Tehran's sprawling old bazaar, surrounded by piles of luxurious
hand-woven carpets he says he cannot afford to sell. After almost two decades
running a business that has been in his family for generations, Bidani
is considering joining some of his fellow Iranian carpet merchants and
simply shutting up shop... FULL
TEXT
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* US official talks Iran deal compensation in Ukraine
KIEV, Dec 1 (Reuters) - A top U.S. aid official visiting Ukraine this
week will discuss compensation to firms affected by Ukraine's agreement
not to participate in Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant project, the foreign
ministry said on Tuesday. ``There will be talks about some compensation
for those Ukrainian companies which declined to take part in the Bushehr
project,'' First Deputy Foreign Minister Yevhen Bersheda told a news briefing...
FULL
TEXT
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* Kharrazi hail relations with Italy
TURIN, Italy, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi
on Tuesday described relations between Iran and Italy as ``exemplary''
and said the two nations could jointly play an important role in the Middle
East. On the first day of an official visit to Italy, Kharrazi said Iran
did not need a rapport with the United States, ``which is not ready for
relations based on equality and mutual respect'' and sought to ``eliminate
Iran's liberty and independence.'' ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iran, Thailand agree chemical and oil ventures
BANGKOK, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Iran and Thailand have agreed to enter into
multi-million-dollar joint ventures to produce fertilisers and refine oil,
the visiting speaker of Iran's parliament, Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, said
on Tuesday. The powerful Iranian leader said his country had been seeking
to deepen ties with Thailand and that is why it had proposed the joint
ventures... FULL
TEXT
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* U.S. official admits Iran route cheapest for Caspian oil
LONDON, Dec. 1, IRNA - in a further sign of change in american oil policy,
a u.s. official admitted tuesday that iran was the most viable route for
exporting caspian crude. senior middle east analyst at the u.s. energy
department, robert copaken, said that washington's caspian pipeline policy
favouring the route from baku to the turkish port of ceyhan was "unhelpful."
... FULL TEXT
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* Saudi Arabia not behind drop in oil prices: Iranian ambassador
RIYADH, Dec 1 (AFP) -Iran's ambassador to Riyadh on Tuesday denied Saudi
Arabia was responsible for the calamitous drop in world oil prices and
said claims to that effect by a fundamentalist Tehran newspaper did not
reflect the government's position. "The Iranian government does not
hold Riyadh responsible for the price decline," Mohammad Reza Nuri
said, cited by the official news agency SPA.
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Monday
November 30, 1998
* Budget to triple petrol price for heavy users
TEHRAN, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The Iranian government, facing crippling
costs for fuel subsidies, has proposed effective quotas for petrol consumption
and a big jump in prices for heavy users, press reports said on Monday.
The new budget for the next fiscal year, presented to parliament on Sunday,
includes increases in petrol prices to 250 rials (eight U.S. cents) per
litre from 200 rials for the first 45 litres purchased each month, Iranian
newspapers said... FULL
TEXT
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* Khatami's budget speech
Tehran, (Hamshahri) - President Khatami details the country's poor economic
conditions and how he intends to deal with in next year's budget ...
FULL TEXT
IN PERSIAN
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* The role of oil sales in next year's budget
Tehran, (Hamshahri) - Plan and Budget Organization chief Mohammad Najafi
explains projected oil revenues for next year (begns March 1999) and increases
in the price of gasoline ... FULL
TEXT IN PERSIAN
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