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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran | ||
| Iranian protests prompt cash flight | ||
| 2009-06-27 | ||
| MILLIONS of dollars in private wealth have begun flooding out of Iran after the mass demonstrations that have paralysed commercial life. Fears of new crippling sanctions are also thought to have fuelled the exodus. Western intelligence agencies have reported that prominent private businesses and wealthy families have moved tens of millions of dollars out of Iranian banks into overseas accounts. The Italian foreign intelligence service is said to have detected multiple transactions, each of up to $US10 million ($12.4 million), by Iran's big four banks on behalf of families seeking a safe haven.
Meanwhile, one of Iran's leading foreign investors, the Austrian oil and gas company OMV, said it would not invest any more in a big offshore gas project and warned that it would pull out if Iran demanded more cash. Helmut Langanger, OMV's Iran representative, said the political environment would have to improve before it put any more money into the South Pars field. In the US a Republican congressman, Mark Kirk, said there was growing support for a bill he is sponsoring to strip US support from foreign companies supplying refined petroleum to Iran. Iran is a big oil producer but decades of financial isolation mean it must import petrol and other end products. Reliance, the Indian company, provides a third of Iran's daily needs but also has a massive trade loan from the US. Another bill that would exclude companies involved in the trade from doing business in the US was put on hold this year as a gesture from President Barack Obama to improve relations.
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| #4 yet gas prices are going down. Why? Not around here they're not, average is 2.50-2.60 and up about 15 cents I personaly think it's the 4th holliday coming up, Gasoline always goes up right before a holliday. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-06-27 21:47 |
| #3 dead martyrs don't stop production. Dinnerjacket rattling sabers externally might. These Iranian patriots are expendable. |
| Posted by: Frank G 2009-06-27 19:34 |
| #2 ...I have a question: Any other time, Dinnerjacket breaks wind and the price of oil goes up. This time, they're executing their own people in the street, and the Iranian government is more unstable than at any time since the Revolution, yet gas prices are going down. Why? Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2009-06-27 18:58 |
| #1 Iran is a big oil producer but decades of financial isolation mean it must import petrol and other end products. What mainly causes the petrol shortage is Iranian price controls. When petrol sells for about a quarter of what it costs to make, there's no incentive to produce. The other is Iranian subsidies. The fuel, being cheaper than its neighbors' fuel, ends up smuggled to them. So the Iranian gov't put up rationing. President Obama must not be pleased that President Ahmadenijad so firmly rejected the open hand of American friendship. Somebody postulated here earlier that Obama's antics were calculated to impress the 'Islamic World yokels' plus Russia and China; that if Iran rebuffed them he could shrug and say "I tried". I don't buy the latter part, but it'll end up being the excuse. Still, I'll bet he and his experts will not be pleased when it happens. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2009-06-27 12:40 |