NEWS,30.03.2012.

Obama moving ahead with Iran sanctions

Washington - President Barack Obama is moving ahead with tough new sanctions aimed at squeezing Iran's oil exports after determining there is enough crude on world markets to take the step without harming U.S. allies. Obama's move allows the U.S. to go forward with sanctions on foreign banks that continue to purchase oil from Iran. The sanctions aim to further isolate Iran's central bank, which processes nearly all of the Islamic Republic's oil purchases, from the global economy. U.S. officials hope ratcheting up economic pressure will both push Iran to abandon its disputed nuclear program and convince Israel to give sanctions time to take hold before pursuing a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. The U.S. and allies believe that Iran is pursuing a nuclear bomb; Iran denies that. Under a sweeping defense bill Obama signed at the end of December, he had until Friday to determine if there was enough oil supply on the world market to allow countries to cut their oil purchases from Iran. Obama announced his decision in a statement Friday after a source initially confirmed the news to The Associated Press. The president said he based his determination on global economic conditions, the level of spare oil capacity and increased production by some countries, among other factors. He said he would keep monitoring the global market closely to ensure it can handle a reduction of oil purchases from Iran. With oil prices already rising this year amid rising tensions over the nuclear dispute between Iran and the West, U.S. officials have sought assurances that pushing countries to stop buying from Iran would not cause a further spike in prices. That is particularly important for Obama in an election year that has seen an increasing focus on gas prices. The congressionally mandated sanctions target foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran's central bank - barring them from operating in the U.S. to buy or sell Iranian oil. The penalties are to take effect at the end of June, around the same time Europe's embargo on Iranian oil kicks in. Countries can still avoid the sanctions if they take steps to significantly reduce their imports before then. Domestic and foreign policy concerns have complicated the administration's decision to pursue the oil sanctions. Many of the countries that buy oil from Iran are U.S. allies, including several European Union nations, Japan, South Korea and India. In order to provide flexibility to countries friendly to the U.S., the sanctions bill allows the U.S. to grant waivers to nations that significantly reduce their purchases of Iranian oil. Even before Friday's decision, the State Department announced that it would grant waivers to 10 European Union countries and Japan because of steps they have already taken to cut back on Iranian oil. An E.U. oil embargo, approved in January, is set to take effect in July. Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat, who co-authored the sanctions legislation with Republican Sen. Mark Kirk, said he welcomed Obama's support in targeting Iran's Central Bank. Menendez's office says he was also notified of the decision earlier Friday “Today, we put on notice all nations that continue to import petroleum or petroleum products from Iran that they have three months to significantly reduce those purchases or risk the imposition of severe sanctions on their financial institutions,” Menendez said in a statement. He predicted most countries would cut their purchase of oil from Iran, either out of fear of sanctions or a shared fear over the Iran's pursuit of nuclear weaponry. The United States has not said what constitutes a significant reduction in Iranian oil purchases, and analysts believe the administration could use different metrics for different countries. Administration officials say a February report from the Energy Information Administration shows there is excess oil supply on the global market. But the report also showed that prices are high

Suspected Islamists rounded up ahead of French poll

French police arrested 19 people in a crackdown on suspected Islamist networks Friday as President Nicolas Sarkozy made the battle against extremism the keynote of his re-election campaign. Arrests took place in several cities, including Toulouse, where extremist gunman Mohamed Merah was shot dead by police last week after a series of cold-blooded shootings that left seven dead, including three Jewish children. Sarkozy said the arrests targeted “radical Islam” and that the trauma in France after the shootings in Toulouse and nearby Montauban was like that felt in the United States after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Agents from the DCRI domestic intelligence agency and elite police carried out the dawn raids in Toulouse in the southwest, as well as the Paris region, Nantes in the west, Lyon in the southeast and the Provence region. Among those arrested in the Nantes region was Mohammed Achamlane, the head of a suspected extremist group called Forsane Alizza, sources said. Three Kalashnikovs, a Glock pistol and a grenade were seized from his home. Three of the 19 suspects arrested were women, police said. Judicial sources said 17 of those arrested were being held for questioning. In France, suspects in terror-related cases can be held for up to four days without charge. A senior police source told AFP authorities had up to 100 suspected radicals in their sights and Sarkozy said Friday's operation was only a start. “There will be other operations that will continue and will also allow us to expel from our national territory a certain number of people,” said Sarkozy, in the thick of campaigning for an April-May presidential election. “What must be understood is that the trauma of Montauban and Toulouse is profound for our country, a little - I don't want to compare the horrors - a little like the trauma that followed in the United States and in New York after the September 11, 2001 attacks,” he told Europe 1 radio. After trailing Socialist candidate Francois Hollande for months in the polls, Sarkozy has jumped ahead in first-round voter intentions and seen his support rise in the wake of the attacks. Generally seen as stronger on security than Hollande, Sarkozy is keen to make law and order a key issue in a campaign that has so far been dominated by the economy, jobs and spending power, where the Socialist is stronger. The latest poll by CSA released Wednesday said 30 percent of voters would pick Sarkozy and 26 percent would go for Hollande in the April 22 first round. But all polls still predict Hollande winning the May 6 second round. Some of Sarkozy's opponents branded the arrests a public relations stunt, with Steeve Briois, the general secretary of the far-right National Front, calling the raids “an electoral manoeuvre”. “The 'big haul' made overnight by the DCRI and the RAID Ä the elite police unit that shot Merah Ä doesn't fool anyone,” he said in a statement. “Waiting for the horror of the Toulouse killings to start taking action shows the cynicism and opportunism of Nicolas Sarkozy.” But Interior Minister Claude Gueant said: “These are people who on the web... claimed support for a radical extremist ideology, for an ideology of combat.” The arrests came a day after the body of Merah, who was shot dead by a RAID sniper on March 22 at the end of a 32-hour siege at his flat in Toulouse, was buried in the city under heavy police guard.

The 23-year-old had shot dead three soldiers, and three children and a teacher at a Jewish school, in a killing spree this month that shocked the country. On Thursday, France banned four Muslim preachers from entering the country for a conference of the Union of Islamic Organisations in France (UOIF), citing their “calls for hatred and violence”. The ban applies to Saudi clerics Ayed Bin Abdallah al-Qarni and Abdallah Basfar, Egyptian cleric Safwat al-Hijazi and a former mufti of Jerusalem, Akrama Sabri, who had been due in Paris next month. National Front presidential candidate Marine Le Pen on Friday called for the conference to be cancelled and the UOIF to be disbanded. A French court meanwhile has sentenced a 20-year-old man, Mohamed Redha Ghezali, from the same neighbourhood as Merah to three months in prison for praising his crimes, prosecutors in Toulouse said. Ghezali was convicted Thursday of “provoking racial hatred” and “apology for terrorism” and Toulouse prosecutor Michel Valet said the state would “systematically pursue” anyone expressing support for Merah. The Depeche du Midi reported that the man, while haranguing a group of police officers, had said: “My mate Mohamed, that's a real man. It's too bad he didn't have time to finish the job.”