US punishes companies for Iran sales
The US has sanctioned three foreign companies for doing business with Iran, as the international pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program intensifies and the fallout from the assassination of another of its scientists continues. Under the sanctions, all three companies are barred from receiving US export licenses, US export import bank financing, and loans over $10 million from US financial institutions.
”The result of these actions has been an unprecedented international sanctions effort aimed at convincing Iran to change its behaviour,” the State Department said. ”The sanctions are an important step toward that goal, as they target the individual companies that help Iran evade these efforts.”
EU foreign ministers are expected to agree on a ban on imports of Iranian crude oil on January 23, Reuters reports, however the financial crisis has forced some countries, including Iran’s three biggest European importers - Italy, Spain and Greece - to look for a way to soften the impact on their already fragile economies.
Bloody end to botched Syrian propaganda tour
An exercise to promote the government’s cause left nine dead and questions as to who launched the attack. It was a trip Syria’s Ministry of Information had gone to some lengths to arrange: taking foreign journalists to Homs, where government forces are fighting an opposition they call armed terrorists.
Gilles Jacquier was killed along with eight Syrians by mortar bombs or grenades and was the first Australia journalist to die in President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown. The United Nations says more than 5000 people have been killed as the result of protests, and that the killings have accelerated since the arrival of Arab League monitors two weeks ago to oversee a plan aimed at halting the bloodshed.
Following unconfirmed reports that mortar bombs were used in the attack, the local revolutionary council blamed government forces, claiming that only the Syrian army had mortars. Sana, Syria’s official news agency, blamed ”terrorists” for the attack and said that mortars had been used. But the Syrian Revolution General Commission said in a statement: ”This is what the regime does to justify its attitude in front of the Arab observers … and also to terrorise the media coverage of [the] Syrian revolution.” France demanded an investigation into the killing.
