Rooyesh

Angry Iranian youths attacked a petrol station in the capital Tehran on Tuesday, burning a car and pumps after the government announced it was going to begin rationing fuel, witnesses said. The youths, who attacked the station in the Pounak area of northwest Tehran, also threw stones and shouted angry slogans denouncing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Since the announcement earlier Tuesday of the rationing plan, which allows for only 100 litres of petrol per month for private cars, long queues started appearing at fuel pumps not only in Tehran but also in the countryside. “One car, a Peugeot Persia, was burnt inside the petrol station which was partially on fire,” an AFP journalist said after witnessing the attack in Pounak. “The demonstrators were throwing stones. Anti-riot police deployed in the neighbouring streets intervened regularly to disperse the demonstrators before pulling back,” he added. According to an Iranian journalist, another petrol station in the south of Tehran was attacked in the Azadi area. Iran’s oil ministry issued a statement earlier on Tuesday announcing that the government was launching as of the following day its long-awaited plan to ration petrol. “From midnight tonight (2030 GMT) petrol for all vehicles and motorcycles will be rationed,” state television said in an announcement quoting a ministry statement. It said private cars using just petrol would be rationed to 100 litres of petrol a month while those that used petrol and compressed natural gas (CNG) would only be allowed 30 litres. The government said rationing for privately owned cars that either only burn petrol or use petrol and CNG would continue for four months and might be extended to six months at a later date. The maximum amount of petrol allowed in total for the period was 400 liters for the petrol burning cars and 120 litres for those which consume both CNG and petrol. The statement added that quotas could be saved and used later. More than 10 days ago, Iran launched the first phase of the rationing plan, targeting only government vehicles. The plan aims to reduce colossal state petrol subsidies. “The maximum quota for each government car at the start of the programme is 10 litres per day,” an oil ministry official said at the time. He did not give details for purchases in excess of this limit but the rationing law passed by parliament in March dictates that these would be at a much higher price. The significance of the rationing law was only expected to be realised when it was enforced on private car owners, forcing Iranians to pay a higher price for a commodity that now costs less than a comparable amount of mineral water. Cheap pump prices have encouraged such consumption that the OPEC number two oil producer ironically has to spend billions of dollars each year importing petrol. Iran has already raised pump prices by 25 percent, to around 10 cents per litre, and forced consumers to use smart cards to keep track of their purchases. However, problems in distributing the cards have delayed implementation of the rest of the plan. Pumping gas into the cars is only possible when the smart card is inserted into the pumping machine.

Source: AFP

The Nobel Peace prize-winning lawyer, Shirin Ebadi, has complained to Iran’s judiciary that criminals are treated better than political prisoners. She said the fact bail for an accused rapist was set 50 times lower than for a detained reporter reflected political interference in the judiciary. Parnaz Azima, a US-Iranian journalist, was released but cannot leave Iran.

Ms Ebadi said if Iranians were silent about social justice and poverty, it was a silence of oppression, not calm. Ms Ebadi is one of the few dissenting voices in Iran still speaking out in an atmosphere where most are frightened to be critical. In a letter to the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi, Ms Ebadi complained that a confessed rapist had been treated more leniently than Ms Azima, who has been accused of producing propaganda against the Islamic state. Bail was set for the Radio Free Europe journalist at $500,000 (£250,214), 50 times that of a rapist, and she had her passport confiscated. The Nobel laureate is representing another US-Iranian detainee - the 67-year-old academic, Haleh Esfandiari. However, Ms Ebadi still has not been able to see her client. She said Ms Esfandiari called her mother from jail to say she was being held in solitary confinement in stifling heat and with an injured arm. The call only lasted one minute, but Ms Esfandiari’s voice was said to be weak. The cases of four US-Iranians being detained in Iran are being closely watched from Washington. But at a seminar on peace, Mrs Ebadi also spoke of teachers, civil servants and workers arrested in Iran for demanding higher salaries. She called for the release of several students arrested for expressing their views and, in a thinly veiled criticism of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, she said winning an election did not confer the right to rule without respect for human rights.

Source: BBC

Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces have been spotted by British troops crossing the border into southern Iraq, The Sun tabloid reported on Tuesday. Britain’s defence ministry would not confirm or deny the report, with a spokesman declining to comment on “intelligence matters”. An unidentified intelligence source told the tabloid: “It is an extremely alarming development and raises the stakes considerably.

In effect, it means we are in a full on war with Iran — but nobody has officially declared it.” “We have hard proof that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps have crossed the border to attack us. It is very hard for us to strike back. All we can do is try to defend ourselves. We are badly on the back foot.” The Sun said that radar sightings of Iranian helicopters crossing into the Iraqi desert were confirmed to it by very senior military sources. In response to the report, a British defence ministry spokesman said: “There is evidence that explosive devices used against our troops in southern Iraq originated in Iran.” “Any Iranian link to armed militias in Iraq either through weapons supply, training or funding are unacceptable.” Britain has about 7,100 soldiers in Iraq, most of whom are based in the southern city of Basra and surrounding areas, though the government has pledged to reduce that to between 5,000 and 5,500 this year. Source: AFP

The Financial Times reports Japan’s private sector, responding to signals from Washington, is adding to financial pressure on Iran by restricting loans and rejecting an Iranian request to pay for oil imports in currencies other than the dollar, banking and official sources say. A senior banker said three big banks - Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho and Sumitomo Mitsui - had told the Iranian authorities in April that they would not conduct new business in Iran. The development puts Japanese banks in a different position to many European counterparts that have reduced dollar transactions with Iran but are still willing to conduct business in euros.

The banker, who asked not to be named, said the banks’ action followed pressure from Washington and reflected a hardening line towards Iran by Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister. The banker and a Japanese energy official said Iran had also proposed to Japanese trading houses in April that they pay for Iranian oil in non-dollar currencies. This apparently reflects Iran’s concerns about the vulnerability of its dollar assets to a freeze by the US and its increasing difficulty in conducting international transactions in dollars. Trading companies declined to stop paying in dollars after consulting the Japanese government, the banker said. The energy official denied government influence, saying it was a private-sector matter. The US Treasury is at the forefront of Washington’s efforts to put pressure on Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons programme and alleged support for “terrorist” groups in the Middle East. Iran, which rejects the allegations, says sanctions will not stop its civilian nuclear programme. Analysts argue over the likely impact of sanctions, noting that Iran’s revenues are swelled by high oil prices. Hank Paulson, Treasury secretary, says US “outreach” to the international private sector is paying dividends. In recent months the US has also stopped two Iranian banks - Sepah and Saderat - from carrying out dollar transactions with other banks.