Iran Becomes Jet Fuel Exporter

Domestic Economy Desk

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated a new phase of a gasoline production facility, enabling the country to join the world’s jet fuel exporters.
In a ceremony marking the 34th anniversary of the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution on Thursday, the president inaugurated the second stage of the third phase of the gasoline production unit at Abadan Oil Refinery, Press TV reported.
The new unit will add two million liters of 94 and 95-octane super-premium gasoline, conforming to Euro-4 standard, to the daily production capacity of Abadan Refinery.
The development will enhance the total gasoline production of Abadan Refinery, Iran’s oldest refinery, to 15 million liters per day (lpd).
Iran is currently a leading producer of jet fuel for passenger and cargo planes. The gasoline production unit of Abadan Oil Refinery, built by Iranian experts, would allow the production of fuel for helicopters, crop dusters and trainers.

Abadan Refinery
Meanwhile, deputy oil minister said Abadan refinery is the only plant which supplies the fuel required by training and crop-dusting helicopters.
Alireza Zeighami explained that the fuel which has an octane rating of more than 100 used to be imported. But with inauguration of alkylation unit of Abadan refinery, its capacity to produce 100-octane petrol has reached over two million liters, Mehr News Agency wrote.

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More US Veterans Commit Suicide

Every day about 22 veterans in the United States kill themselves, a rate that is about 20 percent higher than the Department of Veterans Affairs’ 2007 estimate, according to two-year study by a Department of Veterans Affairs researcher.
The VA study indicates that more than two-thirds of the veterans who commit suicide are 50 or older, suggesting that the increase in veterans’ suicides is not primarily driven by those returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported.
The freshman senator’s recent conservative moves suggest a desire to keep his base energized.
“There is a perception that we have a veterans’ suicide epidemic on our hands. I don’t think that is true,” said Robert Bossarte, an epidemiologist with the VA who did the study. “The rate is going up in the country, and veterans are a part of it.” The number of suicides overall in the United States increased by nearly 11 percent between 2007 and 2010, the study says.
As a result, the percentage of veterans who die by suicide has decreased slightly since 1999, even though the total number of veterans who kill themselves has gone up, the study says. VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said his agency would continue to strengthen suicide prevention efforts.

Amnesty: Mali’s Army ‘Killing Civilians’

A new report by Amnesty International says the army in Mali has killed civilians and committed “serious human rights abuses” during the conflict against armed groups in the country.
It follows a ten-day visit to the region by observers from Amnesty International.
Releasing a new briefing based on the research on Friday, Amnesty also said that extremist armed groups have committed serious human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, including unlawful killings and the recruitment of child soldiers. Additionally, said the organization, there is evidence that at least five civilians, including three children, were killed in an airstrike carried out as part of a joint operation by the French and the Malian armies in order to stop the offensive of the extremist armed groups.
During its visit, the Amnesty delegation conducted research in the towns of Ségou, Sévaré, Niono, Konna and Diabaly.
The briefing includes witness testimonies alleging that the Malian army arrested and extrajudicially executed more than two dozen civilians, mainly in the northern city of Sévaré on 10 January, on the eve of the French intervention.

Bodies ‘Dumped Into a Well’
Eyewitnesses in the city described how they saw soldiers dump the bodies of several people into a well in the Waïludé neighborhood.

Asia Leading Global Recovery

Economy Desk

The Philippine and Taiwan economies grew more than forecast last quarter and Singapore’s jobless rate fell to a five-year low, signaling an upswing at the end of 2012 that underscores Asia’s role leading a global recovery.
In the Philippines, gross domestic product grew 6.8 percent from a year earlier, while Taiwan reported a preliminary 3.42 percent gain and upgraded its full-year growth forecast. Singapore’s unemployment was 1.8 percent, Bloomberg wrote.
Asia’s resurgence as China rebounds contrasts with the US reporting an unexpected decline in gross domestic product after defense spending plunged.
Meanwhile, Japan’s economic outlook depends on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reviving wages and spending, with less-than-forecast industrial output for December highlighting the challenge ahead.

Forecast Upbeat
“Asia is leading the global recovery,” said Glenn Levine, an economist at Moody’s Analytics in Sydney, who has covered Asian economies for almost eight years.
China has started to gather momentum as the various domestic stimulus policies kick in and that lifts the region. Southeast Asia is doing very well autonomously.

Russian FM: Iran Entitled To Upgrade Centrifuges

Iran’s move to upgrade centrifuges is within legal limits, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday.
Following reports that Tehran is going to upgrade its nuclear technology, the Russian foreign minister pointed out the new technology falls within the guidelines imposed on the country by the international community.
Tehran has notified the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in a letter that it plans to install new centrifuges at the Natanz site in central Iran, according to an anonymous source at the UN nuclear watchdog.
“We were told by the IAEA that they (the Iranians) will install next generation centrifuges,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Moscow on Thursday. “However, (Iran) is doing everything in line with their commitments under the Safeguards Agreement,” RT reported.
The Safeguards Agreement, which was signed between the IAEA and Iran in 1974, sets forth the parameters for Tehran’s nuclear activity. Iran presently enriches uranium to 20 percent concentration--enough to power nuclear reactors and medical research, but far below the level needed for nuclear weapons.
Iran and the IAEA held talks in Tehran earlier in January.

Strong Reaction To Israel Urged

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi warned of an international plot in Syria, urging a serious reaction to Israel’s air strike on a research center near the Syrian capital to prevent the regime from repeating such attacks.
“A serious reaction should be shown to the event. We should be very cautious about the regime’s dirty goals in the region because the Zionist regime [of Israel] does not move within the framework of humanity, wisdom and international regulations,” Salehi said on Thursday, Press TV reported.
He hoped regional countries would reconsider their approaches and unanimously condemn the Israeli regime’s airstrike on Syria.
“We expect those countries in the region which are moving in a direction that is not in accordance with safeguarding Syria’s national interest to rethink their strategy, Salehi pointed out.
The Syrian Army said in a statement on Wednesday that two people were killed and five others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a scientific center in Jamraya, located 25 kilometers (15 miles) northwest of the capital Damascus.
The minister said Tehran has repeatedly emphasized that Syria, as a main chain of resistance, is facing an ‘artificial crisis’ and added that since the outset of the crisis in the Arab country, the Islamic Republic insisted that every government should be accountable to the legitimate demands of the people.
Salehi stated that time proved that many armed foreign militants have come to Syria and caused major catastrophe in the country.

Bombing at US Embassy in Ankara Claims 2 Lives

A suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the entrance of the US Embassy in the Turkish capital on Friday, killing himself and one other person, officials said.
US Ambassador Francis Ricciardione told reporters that a guard at the gate was killed in the 1:15 p.m. blast, and a Turkish citizen was wounded, AP reported.
The bomb appeared to have exploded inside the security checkpoint at the side entrance of the embassy, but did not do damage inside the embassy itself. Footage showed that the door had been blown off its hinges and debris littered the ground and across the road.

Ashton: Iran, P5+1 Will Meet Soon

Political Desk

The European Union foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton expressed confidence that there will soon be a meeting between Iran and the P5+1 group.
“I am confident there will be a meeting soon,” Ashton said on Thursday in Brussels.
Ashton represents the P5+1 group (the United States, France, Russia, Britain, China, and Germany) in the talks.
The comment came one day after, according to Ashton’s chief spokesman Michael Mann, the European Union also has invited Iran to hold a new round of talks on its controversial nuclear program in February.
Ashton who brokers contacts with Iran on behalf of the ‘sextet’ of international mediators, hoped to see the next round of six-party talks on Iran take place on January 28-29 in Istanbul, but Iran did not agree to the proposal.
“We have proposed a new date in February and we are waiting for a response from the Iranians,” Mann said.
On Wednesday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said no new date or venue has been set for the next round of talks between Iran and the group. Iran and the P5+1 group have held several rounds of talks on Iran’s nuclear energy program. The last round of negotiations between Iran and the group was held in Moscow in June 2012.
Tehran has announced that it welcomes the fact that the P5+1 group is ready to hold constructive talks with Iran.
The United States, Israel, and some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program. Iran rejects the allegations, arguing that as a committed signatory to the NPT and an IAEA member, it is entitled to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

Oil Revenues Near Full Capacity

Iran ‘does not really care anymore’ about economic sanctions imposed on its energy sector because of export revenues, an economic consultant said on Friday.
Olivier Jakob, managing director at Swiss consultant Petromatrix GmbH, was quoted by Bloomberg News as saying oil export revenues are close to ‘full capacity’.
“With exports close to 1.5 million barrels a day and Brent crude above $110 a barrel Iran does not really care anymore about the sanctions,” said Jakob.
Western countries, led by the United States, have imposed oil and financial sanctions on Tehran because of its civilian nuclear program.
Additional oil sanctions from the United States go into force next week.
Diane Munro, a supply analyst with the International Energy Agency, also told Bloomberg that the agency wasn’t ready to revise its Iran data until next month. Crude oil shipments from Iran as of Jan. 18 were reported by the IEA at 1.2 million bpd.
The next monthly market report from the IEA is expected Feb. 13.
In January, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad underlined that the people in Iran do not care about the sanctions imposed by western states on the country’s oil sector since they have many other resources and talents to meet their financial needs.

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