Iran #39;s Rouhani Says Will Try to Clinch Nuclear Deal as Talks With U.S. Resume
President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday that he would try to clinch a nuclear deal with world powers despite opposition from some quarters in Iran. Rouhani was speaking as Iran resumed talks...
By: WochitGeneralNews
View post:
Iran's Rouhani Says Will Try to Clinch Nuclear Deal as Talks With U.S. Resume - Video
Saudis Target Iran, Russia in High-Stakes Oil War
Americans are actually smiling as they fill up at the pump these days. But for some of America #39;s adversaries like Russia and Iran, plummeting oil prices are hurting -- and hurting bad.
By: CBN News
Excerpt from:
Saudis Target Iran, Russia in High-Stakes Oil War - Video
SYDNEY Iran tried to extradite the gunman behind Sydney's deadly hostage crisis years ago, Tehran's top cop said, amid questions over how the self-styled cleric had found his way to Australia but not onto a watch list. Man Haron Monis, a 50-year-old born in Iran, took 17 people hostage inside a downtown Sydney cafe on Monday. He was killed when police stormed the cafe to free the captives. Two hostages also died.
Monis grew up in Iran as Mohammad Hassan Manteghi. In 1996, he established a travel agency, but took his clients' money and fled, Iran's police chief, Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, told the country's official IRNA news agency Tuesday. Australia accepted him as a refugee around that time. The police chief said Iran tried to have Monis extradited from Australia in 2000, but that it didn't happen because Iran and Australia don't have an extradition agreement.
Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he wanted to know how Monis had been granted permanent residency and why he had been receiving welfare benefits for years, despite being able-bodied "if not necessarily of sound mind."
First published December 17 2014, 3:08 AM
See the article here:
Iran Says It Requested Sydney Gunman's Extradition
Iran is said to be offering its main crude grade to customers in Asia at the deepest discount in 14 years, taking a cue from Saudi Arabia in trimming price differentials.
National Iranian Oil Co. cut its official selling price for January shipments of light crude to Asia to a discount of $1.80 a barrel below the regional benchmark as Middle Eastern producers vie to keep selling in the region, according to four people with knowledge of the decision. An official at NIOCs crude-marketing department in Tehran declined to comment.
Iran cut the differential to a discount from a premium of 13 cents a barrel to the average of the Oman and Dubai benchmark crudes for December. The light crude grade hasnt sold at such a steep discount since Bloomberg began tracking the countrys official selling prices in March 2000.
Oil prices have collapsed since the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided on Nov. 27 to maintain its output target, fanning speculation that Saudi Arabia and other members are determined to make North American shale drillers and other producers share the burden of reducing oversupply. Saudi Arabias state oil company prompted speculation that the kingdom was seeking to preserve market share when it lowered prices for November.
Expanding supplies from North American shale deposits coupled with weakening demand growth in China, the worlds second-largest oil consumer, helped push crude into a bear market this year. Middle Eastern producers are increasingly competing with cargoes from Latin America, North Africa and Russia for buyers in Asia.
Saudi Arabian Oil Co. lowered the official selling price for its Arab Light grade to Asia next month to $2 a barrel less than a regional benchmark, the company said by e-mail Dec. 4, marking the biggest discount since Bloomberg began compiling data in June 2000. Saudi Aramco, as the company is known, cut all differentials in January for buyers in Asia and the U.S. and raised them for customers in Europe.
Fellow OPEC members Iraq and Kuwait also cut selling prices to Asia, on Dec. 8 and Dec. 10, respectively.
Iran deepened the discount for Iran Heavy crude to $3.51 a barrel for January sales to buyers in Asia, compared with a $1.66 discount for December, according to the people, who asked not to be identified since the pricing information is confidential. That cut puts Irans heavy crude at the deepest discount December 2008.
Saudi Aramco set the discount for its comparable Arab Medium crude at the deepest level since December 2008.
For Related News and Information: Deepest Saudi Oil Discount Intensifies Fight for Asia Market Iran Said to Set Dec. Lt Crude to Asia at 13cts Over Oman-Dubai
Read the original:
Iran Said to Discount Light Crude to Asia to Deepest in 14 Years
Man Maron Monis in Sydney. Photo: Nick Ralston
Iranian police had requested the extradition of Man Haron Monis, the gunman who was shot dead in the Martin Place siege, 14 years ago but Australian authorities would not hand him over, Iran's police chief has claimed in comments to reporters.
Monis had committed a number of "violent" and fraud-related offences before he fled the country "in disguise" in 1996, according to Iran's chief of police, General Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam.
At the time, Monis went by the name of Mohammad Hassan Manteqi. He fled first to Malaysia in 1996 and then to Australia, GeneralMoghaddam claimed.
Advertisement
Monis applied for, and was in 2001 granted, refugee status in Australia.
GeneralMoghaddamtold the Iranian Mehr News Agency that Monis posed as a cleric at the time to gain political asylum. Earlier Monis had been themanager of a travel agency in Iran, authorities there said.
GeneralMoghaddamsaid Iranian police spent four years collecting evidence against Monis, before seeking his extradition to Iran from Australia.
But that request was knocked back, GeneralMoghaddam claimed.
"It lasted four years to collect evidence on Manteqi's [Monis'] identification documents and we reported this to the Australian police but since Australia has no extradition treaty with Iran, they didn't extradite him," GeneralMoghaddam told the Mehr News Agency.