Category: Iran

Iran depends heavily on Turkey for Gold

from Bullion Street:

Sanctions hit Iran is reported to have piling up gold reserves to face any eventuality and is depending heavily on neighbor Turkey for the purpose.

Iranians purchased $4.8 billion worth of gold in 2012′s second quarter, up from roughly $1 billion in the first quarter of the year.

Analysts said deteriorating Iranian economy, as a result of tightening international economic sanctions is seen as a key factor behind the surge in gold exports.

Turkey’s gold exports to Iran witnessed a surge this year raising questions whether the gold purchases are the latest attempt by Tehran to circumvent increasingly tough international sanctions.

The surge in gold exports also has been matched by a similarly impressive growth in Iranian businesses opening in Turkey.

Turkey’s total gold and precious stone exports have amounted in the first seven months of 2012 to nearly $8.9 billion, while the figure was only $1.8 billion in the same period last year.

via Iran depends heavily on Turkey for Gold « SGTreport – The Corporate Propaganda Antidote – Silver, Gold, Truth, Liberty, & Freedom.

September 18, 2012
Syrian opposition group decries insult to Prophet Mohammad

By IANS,

Istanbul: A major Syrian opposition group has expressed its distress over the insults caused by a US movie towards Prophet Mohammad but also stated that it is shocked over some Muslims’ reaction in the form of murder, arson and vandalism.

“We condemn the repeated insults to the noble prophet … and are outraged to see the insults tied to the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, which suggests there is a connection between the event and the tolerant message of Islam,” Xinhua quoted The Syrian National Council as saying in a statement.

“As we condemn the insults and consider them an assault on the feelings and beliefs of nearly one fourth of the population of the globe, we stress the right of everyone who has been offended to express peacefully their rejection and condemnation,” the Istanbul-based Syrian opposition group added.

The group also denounced the killing of the US ambassador and three other US diplomatic staffers in Libya.

On Tuesday night, protesters stormed the US consulate in Libyan city of Benghazi, and set fire to the building to protest against the video allegedly ridiculing Prophet Mohammad.

The film has also ignited protests in Yemen, Iran and Egypt.

via Syrian opposition group decries insult to Prophet Mohammad | TwoCircles.net.

September 15, 2012
Iran Imports From Turkey Surge To $8 Billion YTD – $3.2 Billion Worth Of Bullion In Q2 2012

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Mark OByrne| 9 Comments

Some $3.2 billion of Turkey’s $4.4 billion of gold sales to Iran in
the first half of the year were in bullion form.

People, companies and banks in Iran are buying gold as a safe haven
against months of sanctions induced currency devaluation.

This trend looks set to continue and may even intensify if Israel
attacks Iran in the coming months.

*Today’s AM fix was USD 1,731.00, EUR 1,352.77 and GBP 1,081.33 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,732.75, EUR 1,355.09 and GBP 1,082.63 per ounce.

Silver is trading at $33.57/oz, €26.36/oz and £21.02/oz. Platinum is trading at $1,602.75/oz, palladium at $668.20/oz and rhodium at $1,025/oz.

Gold fell $8.80 or 0.506% in New York yesterday and closed at $1,729.20. Silver closed in New York at $33.57 down 0.06%.

Cross Currency Table – (Bloomberg)

Gold inched higher on Tuesday as investors await the German ruling on the eurozone’s bailout fund and a possible US Fed decision on QE3. There are expectations of a pullback by market participants, including clients, but what tends to happen after break outs like this is that gold continues to surprise to the upside and buyers only buy with conviction after gold is at record highs in dollar terms and again making some headlines.

0800 GMT tomorrow is the German constitutional court decision as to whether Germany can contribute to the European Financial Stability Mechanism.

The court has already rejected a last bid by Peter Gauweiler to delay the case (because of Draghi’s pledge of unlimited funds to buy government bonds) and its decision tomorrow is crucial to the future of the euro and the eurozone.

If Germany does not ratify the ESM treaty, the ESM and other bailout measures may be thrown into chaos leading to considerable market volatility tomorrow. A no vote would likely see a considerable increase in risk aversion.

Last week, Mario Draghi announced the ECB was ready to buy unlimited quantities of short-term government bonds of nations signed up to rescues from the ESM or the temporary European Financial Stability Facility it is designed to replace.

Gold has gained almost 7% in the past month on news of the ECB bond buying plans and hints from the US Fed minutes released saying that action would be taken to stimulate the US economy if necessary.

Gold is increasingly attractive as a safe haven for investors as a hedge against inflation due to rampant money printing by central banks.

Diversification into gold continues with gold holdings in exchange-traded products backed by gold rose to a record for the fifth straight session. The amount increased 6.3 metric tons, or 0.3 percent, to 2,480.43 tons.

Credit Suisse and Unicredit have joined JP Morgan, Goldman, UBS, Bank of America and other banks in revising upwards their gold forecasts.

Gold will advance to $1,775 an ounce in three months and $1,850 in 12 months, Credit Suisse Group said in a report which was picked up by Bloomberg.

UniCredit sees gold returning to $1,900/oz an ounce towards the end of 2012.

UBS increased its near term precious metals prices on “strong” likelihood of QE3, given the poor payrolls report. UBS raised the 1 and 3 month gold price estimate to $1850/oz from $1700. Silver to $37/oz from $32/oz and $35/oz respectively previously

Central bank demand internationally continues and demand for gold in the increasingly volatile Middle East remains robust as seen in data from the Istanbul Gold Exchange.

It showed that Turkey’s gold imports were 11.3 metric tons last month alone. Silver imports were 6.7 tons, the data show. Much of these imports may be destined for Iran where imports have surged an astonishing 2,700% in just one year – from $21 million to $6.2 billion.

In the first seven months of this year, Turkey’s exports to Iran have also skyrocketed to $8 billion, up from $2 billion in the same period last year. And it is widely believed that the major portion of the increase, which is $6 billion, stems from the export of gold.

There is speculation that the Iranian central bank is buying gold and that they may be accepting gold in payment for oil and gas in order to bypass western sanctions.

Turkey is paying for the oil and natural gas it is importing from Iran in gold, Turkish opposition deputies have claimed, drawing attention to the enormous increase in Turkey’s gold exports to Iran in 2012.

“Gold is being used as an instrument for payment. Under the guise of exportation, gold is being sent to Iran in exchange for oil,” Sinan Aygün, a deputy from the Republican People’s Party (CHP), has told Turkish daily Today’s Zaman.

Iranian people, encouraged by the state are also buying large quantities of gold and saving in gold in order to protect against inflation and the devaluation of the Iranian real.

Turkey’s total gold and precious stone exports have amounted in the first seven months of 2012 to nearly $8.9 billion, while the figure was only $1.8 billion in the same period last year. Some $3.2 billion of Turkey’s $4.4 billion of gold sales to Iran in the first half of the year were in bullion form.

Iranians purchased $4.8 billion worth of gold in 2012′s second quarter, up from roughly $1 billion in the first quarter of the year.

Iran appears to be circumventing western sanctions in this way.

The rise marks the continuation of a gold buying spree that saw sales in the first half of 2012 grow more than eight fold over the first half of 2011.

The US is said to be uneasy about Iran’s skyrocketing purchases of Turkey’s gold and has been following the sales closely.

There are rumours that Iranians purchase Turkish gold via third parties in order not to be noticed and that they entrust the purchased gold to the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), again via third parties.

The Central Bank of Iran supports the purchases to order to create an “economy of resistance” in the face of increasing sanctions from Western countries.

Iranians have turned to gold as a method of saving in the face of tightening Western sanctions.

People, companies and banks in Iran are buying gold as a safe haven against months of sanctions induced currency devaluation.

This trend looks set to continue and may even intensify if Israel attacks Iran in the coming months.

September 12, 2012
Spy Arrests Raise Turkish-Iran Tensions

Dorian Jones

September 11, 2012

ISTANBUL — The recent arrest by Turkey’s security forces of nine people accused of spying for Iran has increased tensions between the former close allies. Bilateral relations have soured over the two countries’ support of opposing sides in the Syrian conflict.

Kerem Balci, a columnist for the Turkish newspaper Zaman, says the arrests may be part of a deeper probe.

“It suggests that there should be lots of more Iranian spies working in Turkey and in fact police intelligence managed to get information from the nine people arrested that the number is about 100 Iranian spies,” said Balci. “It suggests there is a kind of cold war already going on between Iran and Turkey.”

What has caused alarm in Ankara is that the accused spies are suspected of gathering intelligence for the Kurdish rebel group, the PKK, which is fighting the Turkish state for greater minority rights.

It would not be the first time Tehran has used the PKK to apply pressure on Ankara, according to columnist Asli Aydintasbas of the Turkish newspaper Milliyet. She says the arrests of the alleged spies is an indication of a proxy war between the neighbors over Syria.

“It has to do with Syria. It is all tying to the large sectarian warfare that has started in our region,” said Aydintasbas. “Turkey supporting the rebels in Syria, and Iranians are retaliating by giving tacit clandestine support to the PKK, allowing them to operate out of their territory, turning a blind eye and at times letting them carry over weapons over areas they control into Turkish territory. So the background is the big Turkish – Iranian rivalry, read Sunni – Shia rivalry.”

Ankara had seen Tehran as a partner in its battle against the PKK. Last month the Turkish deputy prime minister, Bulent Arinc, admitted that sensitive intelligence information gathered by U.S. surveillance drones on rebel activities had been passed to Iranian security forces.

Until the Syrian crisis, the neighbors were close allies. But Suat Kiniklioglu, director of the Istanbul-based research group Stratim and former member of parliament, says the spying allegations against Tehran will have consequences.

“This is obviously a source for serious concern and I think there has been a source of unwarranted optimism about the relationship and I think that is now being corrected,” said Kiniklioglu.

While Turkey’s population is predominantly Sunni, there are some followers of the Shi’ite faith known in Turkey as Ja’faris, the same branch of the Islamic faith as predominantly Shi’ite Iran.

According to columnist Balci of Zaman, the growing numbers of converts to Shi’ism in Turkey could attract the attention of Turkish security forces in the light of the Iranian spy scandal.

“Their numbers are growing day by day,” said Balci. “If this conversion is accompanied by espionage links it becomes a problem. Out of the nine people who were arrested, six of them were Turkish citizens who were Ja’fari. This conversion becomes problematic because it is accompanied a political project of Iran.”

Soli Ozel, a teacher of International relations at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University, worries that the Iranian spying scandal is adding to increasing sectarianism in Turkey’s Islamic media.

“They can only see the world either though Islamism or Sunni – Shia divisions, and I don’t think is going to get us far,” said Ozel. “I don’t think this is getting us to a good place, and this is a way actually to analyze the world. And it is very, very dangerous for Turkey to be caught in that sectarian discourse.”

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is being accused of increasingly using sectarian language and taking a pro-Sunni stance over Syria, something he denies.

via Spy Arrests Raise Turkish-Iran Tensions. VOA

September 12, 2012
Turkey-Iran cold war

By Emre Uslu

Monday, 03 September 2012

Emre Uslu

Recent news reports indicate that Turkey and Iran have entered into a new cold war. Recently, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç openly criticized the Iranian regime and said: “I am disappointed with the Iranians’ attitude. Turkey was sharing intelligence with Iran concerning the PKK, but Iran did not help Turkey know more about PKK units on Iranian territory.” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has also criticized Iran in recent months.

In the last two weeks, Turkish media have started reporting about Iranian intelligence activities. The Türkiye daily, for instance, reported in a lead story on how Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) was disappointed by its Iranian counterpart. Following that piece of news, police in the border province of Iğdır conducted an operation in which they arrested nine people –two Iranian and seven Turkish citizens –allegedly working for Iranian intelligence and sharing information about strategic infrastructure.

These nine agents and informants were allegedly looking for strategic targets and conveying the information on to the PKK, and the PKK was acting on the information. There was indeed a noticeable increase in PKK activity in and around Iğdır and its neighboring province of Ağrı.

Those who closely follow the PKK’s activities know that there is no strategic reason for the PKK to intensify its activities in a remote corner of Turkey, its eastern provinces, where most of the population does not support the PKK anyway. PKK activities in this area intensify when the PKK calculates a strategic gain. For instance, the PKK deployed 1,000 militants here back in 1993 because Turkey and Azerbaijan had agreed at the time to build a crude pipeline which goes through this region.

The PKK deployed its militants in this region to prevent the building of the pipeline at that time. Indeed, because of PKK activities, the cost of insurance increased and the route for the pipeline was eventually changed. One of the reasons was increased PKK activity.

The second period during which the PKK increased its activities in this region was late 2006, 2007 and 2008. In this period, the PKK intensified its activities and mostly targeted a Turkey-Iran natural gas pipeline nearby the town of Doğubayazıt. This period was very critical for the PKK because the PKK was seeking international support to maintain its existence. When we look at the timing of the attacks, there is a strong correlation between the timing of Turkey’s efforts to sign contracts with Iran to invest in Iranian natural gas fields and the PKK’s attacks.

This is the third time that the PKK has increased its activities in this strategic location; however, unlike in 2007 and 2008, this time the PKK did not target the strategic infrastructure that is the Turkey-Iran pipeline. To those who closely monitor the PKK’s activities, its decision to not target the Turkey-Iran pipeline itself says a lot about possible Iranian support of the PKK.

When we read media reports about Iranian intelligence activities, the PKK’s increased activities on the Turkey-Iran border, the PKK’s cease-fire with Iran, and Turkish and Iranian officials’ statements about each other, we can easily argue that Turkey and Iran are in a cold war.

Unfortunately, in this war, the Iranian side is in a more advantageous position than Turkey. On the economic front, Turkey depends on Iranian natural gas in the coming winter, which Iran will use against Turkey. Iran considered Turkey an area in which to conduct economic activity while the rest of the world sanctions Iran. Indeed, the Turkish press reported that between January and July Iran had imported gold from Turkey worth $7 billion. On the economic front, both parties have tools that can harm the other.

On the political front, however, Iran has more tools to use against Turkey. Given the fact that Iran is a country best known for its proxy wars, Iran would use tools such as the PKK, and to some degree the Kurdish Hizbullah and other sleeper cells pretending to be Islamists in this country, to destabilize Turkey. Turkey, however, has very limited groups inside Iran which it could mobilize against the Iranian regime. Furthermore, Turkey does not know how to wage a protracted proxy war.

Moreover, there are influential intellectuals among the Islamists, even in the Cabinet, and members of Parliament who have sympathy towards Iran. For this very reason the government, despite the warnings from inside and outside, insists on its policies to support Iran in the international arena and to keep the doors of economic activity open.

Thus, Iran can easily destabilize Turkey if Turkey further deepens the cold war with Iran.

(Published in Turkey’s Today’s Zaman on Sept. 3, 2012)

September 4, 2012
Quds, Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh

Gulnara Inandzh, Director of Information and Analytical Center Etnoglobus (ethnoglobus.az), editor of Russian section of Turkishnews American-Turkish Resource website www.turkishnews.com , mete62@inbox.ru

Since 1982 every last Friday of Ramadan, in the initiative of the leader of the Islamic Revolution of Iran Imam Khomeini, “Quds Day” has been marked in a tribute to the solidarity with the Palestinian people. This year it was marked on the 17^th of August.

According to wills of Imam Khomeini, spread of Islamic values is noted as one of the leading lines of the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran. “Quds Day”, as one of the wings of the spread of this policy, is of particular importance.

Over the past 30 years, the collapse of the Soviet Union and political change in the Arab world have expanded the geography of the “Quds Day” as a branch of the policy of exporting the Islamic revolution and its ideology.

The purpose of marking the “Quds Day” is to attract world attention to the occupied territories, includingPalestine. Loss of 20% of Azerbaijani territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh as a result of the war withArmeniaandAzerbaijan, also joined the list of states whose territories are under occupation.

In recent years, the reason of activity of “Quds Day” is connected with the coming to power of Islamist forces in some Arab countries.

OfficialTehran, using the favorable situation created by the so-called “Arab spring” to expand its influence in the region, expanded the range of “Quds Day”.Iranimprovises the liberation of Muslims from tyrannical regimes, by expanding geographic scope of their mission as a protector of the Muslims and thereby trying to regain the Muslim world.

“Arab Spring” changed the views regarding Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the West as well as in the East. Statement by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia Prince Khalid bin Saud bin Khalid, “the need in this stage to increase pressure of the international community on Armenia in order to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” confirms this position.

Latest statement by supreme spiritual leader of Islamic Republic of Iran Ali Khamenei also draws attention in this regard: “Karabakh is Islamic land …. The Iranian parliament will support the fact that Karabakh belongs to Islam,Azerbaijan.

With the elections in Nagorno Karabakh there are attempts to neglect the facts that these lands’ belong to Azerbaijan and Islam. No matter how much time has passed the reality that Karabakh is Islamic land will not be forgotten. Karabakh will be released by the Muslim Azerbaijanis.”

Increase of reputation of Azerbaijanin the Middle East created good condition for leading Arabic countries andIran, along withIsrael, to take advantage of the situation.

In order to attract the interest, Azerbaijanfirst of all needs to advance effective suggestions and support.

Iranplan, within the framework of the “Qods Day”, to bring to the agenda the issue with respect to the liberation of occupied Azerbaijani territories byArmenia, including the Nagorno-Karabakh and to bring this conflict to the attention of the world Muslim community. The above statement by Ali Khamenei in connection with the Nagorno-Karabakh should also be seen on this plane.

Official Baku recognizes independence of Palestineand supports the idea of partition of Palestine Qodsi on the western and eastern parts. Azerbaijanshall take advantage of imposition of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on account of the Islamic world along with the status of Gods.

The processes in the Arab world, a tough fight of the regional states and world powers for the division of spheres of influence and control on the Middle East, creates condition for causing the conflict out of control in the Caucasus, including conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Violation of the last months of ceasefire by the Armenian side and the loss of our soldiers endangers the resumption of hostilities frontal zone, with difficulty repressed for 20 years. Taking into account the impacts of the Armenian communities of the Arab countries by the Armenian lobby in the policies of these countries, in the event of renewed hostilities on the Armenian-Azerbaijani front, position of the Islamic world towards the Nagorno-Karabakh issue will be of great importance forAzerbaijan.

Under such circumstances,Azerbaijanis interested in delivering the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through the Islamic world to the attention of world public opinion.

August 22, 2012