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Business
Nov 30-Dec 4, 1998 / Azar 9-13, 1377

News | Sports | Arts | Rights | Community

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

News | Sports | Arts | Rights | Community


Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday


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Iranian Trade Association


$ 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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