The Non-Choice in Iran Wall Street Journal (subscription) Iranian voters head to the polls later this month to elect their next president, without much of a choice. The contest is shaping up as a race between several Islamic hard-liners and one hard-liner whom the Western media prefer to cast as a moderate. |
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The Non-Choice in Iran - Wall Street Journal (subscription)
This investment, should it be completed, represents an opportunity to capitalise on the continued strong growth expected in the Iranian broadband market, with an initial focus on eight of the main cities, said MTN.
Iranian Net has clinched a licence to build and operate an optical data transmission network and a fibre-optic access network across Iran. The deal is still subject to the conclusion of final transaction agreements.
But MTN has previously struggled to repatriate funds from the country, with MTN Irancell paying out only five years worth of dividends amounting to 468m earlier in 2017. The Iranian subsidiary also repaid a 425m loan to MTN.
The cash-repatriation problems have eased significantly [after] the easing of sanctions on Iran, said Peter Takaendesa, portfolio manager at Mergence Investment Managers. There is always a risk of geopolitical events affecting Iran again, so MTN needs to balance that risk with the significant growth [in] the Iranian market.
Consumers in Iran offered significant growth potential in the long term, supported by a population of 80-million people, Takaendesa said. MTN Iran reported 77% mobile data revenue growth for the quarter ended March 2017, he said.
MTN investor relations head Nik Kershaw said the data growth was driven by improved 3G and 4G penetration. Iran is our highest market around 3G or smartphone penetration We have seen a very strong performance around that.
The group reported 48-million subscribers in Iran, up 1% on the previous quarter.
Telecoms companies globally are moving more towards offering converged fixed and mobile connectivity services, so the proposed transaction would play into that theme if concluded as proposed, said Takaendesa.
Converged services would help MTN capture expected strong growth in data consumption in consumer and corporate markets, he said. While corporate customers were early adopters of fibre networks, the consumer market was increasingly doing so for home use.
Wireless network operators also require fibre networks to link up their base stations to provide faster wireless data services.
There are therefore several ways the Iranian Net transaction could complement MTNs existing mobile offering, said Takaendesa.
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MTN deal to grow Iran presence - Business Day (registration)
Angry coal miners besieged a car carrying Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday after he visited the site of a deadly mine explosion, a rare protest targeting the nation's top elected official as he campaigns for reelection.
The miners, some covered in coal soot from searching for fallen comrades still missing in Wednesday's disaster in Iran's northern Golestan province, began kicking and banging on the armored SUV carrying Rouhani. Video posted online by the semi-official Fars news agency showed one miner on the SUV's roof, another jumping up and down and kicking its hood.
Dear brothers! I beg you wait for a couple of minutes! someone shouts during the video.
Rouhani's SUV eventually nudges its way through the crowd amid the shouting. Another miner rushes up to kick the back of the vehicle as it speeds away down a hill.
The SUV appeared largely undamaged from the incident. There was no immediate word on state media or officials about the miner's protest.
Rouhani traveled to the Zemestanyourt mine and gave a speech to miners and their families gathered there. He acknowledged that as the government, we are responsible for their lives and it is our duty.
Be sure that we will pursue this issue and also your demands, Rouhani said. Those who are guilty in this incident should be prosecuted by a court.
The explosion Wednesday happened after the coal mine filled with methane gas. Three semi-official news agencies have said at least 35 people were killed in the disaster. Iranian officials say they've recovered 22 bodies, and the search continues.
Rouhani's visit comes ahead of Iran's May 19 presidential election. Rouhani remains the favorite in the election as every Iranian president since Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei himself took the presidency in 1981 has won reelection. However, many in the country remain discontented as the benefits of the nuclear deal with world powers have yet to trickle down to the average Iranian.
Oil-producing Iran is also rich in a variety of minerals. Iran annually consumes 2.5 tons of coal but extracts only about 1 million tons from its mines per year. The rest is imported, often consumed in the country's steel mills.
This is not the first disaster to strike Iran's mining industry. In 2013, 11 workers were killed in two mining incidents. In 2009, 20 workers were killed in several incidents. Lax safety standards and inadequate emergency services in mining areas often are blamed for the fatalities.
Since its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, the country has begun an effort to renovate some of its coal mines. Delegations have visited Tehran from other countries including the Czech Republic, hopeful for contracts.
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Miners at disaster site besiege Iranian president's car - Los Angeles Times
Iran plans to lift its crude oil production capacity by 3 million bpd, Iranian oil ministrys news service, Shana, reported on Monday, quoting a senior official as saying that the move was aimed at boosting the Islamic Republics footing in OPEC and the global market.
Speaking on the sidelines of an oil industry conference in Iran, Gholam-Reza Manouchehri, Deputy Head of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) for Engineering and Development, did not provide specific timeframe for Iran reaching that increase, which Platts is calculating at about an 80-percent capacity boost.
Iran, currently OPECs no. 3 biggest producer behind Saudi Arabia and Iraq, was allowed to slightly lift its production to up to 3.797 million bpd between January and June, while the two biggest, archrival Saudi Arabia, as well as Iraq, had to cut the most.
Since western sanctions on Iranian oil exports were lifted in January 2016, Tehran has tried to return to pre-sanction levels of output and exports, and used this bargaining chip to obtain an OPEC exemption from cuts.
According to OPEC data, Iran has largely stuck to its commitment for production in the three months to March, exceeding slightly its output in February and pumping below its quota in January and March.
According to an S&P Global Platts survey, Iran produced 3.77 million bpd of crude oil in April.
Nonetheless, Iran is looking beyond the OPEC deal, and has said that it wants to increase its production to 5 million bpd by 2021. Related:Tech Breakthroughs May Save Deepwater Oil
Iran needs a lot of foreign investments to achieve much higher production, but international oil companies continue to be cautious in signing deals with Iran and committing to investments in its oil industry.
According to Manouchehri, as reported by Shana, the NIOC has signed 24 memoranda of understanding (MoU) with domestic and international companies since January 2016.
The Iranian oil company is also considering signing US$80 billion worth of deals with domestic and international contractors over the next two years, Manouchehri said.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Iran Plans To Raise Crude Oil Production Capacity By 3 Million Bpd - OilPrice.com
Interests of Washington, Ankara and Tehran are on trajectories suggesting accelerating clashes within and among the three states. President Trump made a congratulatory call to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoan after a controversial vote on a referendum then invited him to the White House, prompting a plethora of bipartisan criticism; also, Tehrans agents assassinated an Iranian businessman in AnkaraSaeed Karimian, founder of Gem TV, who had previously been tried in absentia by an Iranian court.
Its no surprise Ankara is playing down the possibility of an Iranian hit team operating on Turkish soil. Hinting it was an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) team would anger some politicians in Tehran, and what is left of the Turkish opposition media will note Erdogans sacking of thousands of police and security forces has left Turkey vulnerable to terrorist attacks. With the IRGC in a spat with one of the approved candidates (First Vice President Eshagh Jahangiri) in the Iranian elections this month, now is not the time the IRGC needs negative publicity about being involved in an assassination abroad.
With this breaking news in mind, consider how Washington, Ankara and Tehran are on trajectories suggesting accelerating clashes.
On April 25, 2017, Turkish planes carried out airstrikes against suspected Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq and in northeastern Syria, killing elements of the Syrian Kurds militia, known as the Peoples Protection Units, or YPG, and, with errant fire, elements of the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Governments peshmerga. The Turkish military said its goal was to prevent Kurds from smuggling fighters and weapons into Turkey. Ankara accuses members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) of conducting terrorist attacks in Turkey from neighboring Iraq and Syria. It considers the YPG an affiliate of the PKK. Washington expressed concerns that this action was not properly coordinated, potentially imperiling U.S. military personnel in Syria fighting alongside Syrian anti-Islamic State forces.
Washington agrees the PKK is a terrorist organization, but disputes the conclusion that YPG is a group that all parties to the Syrian conflict concur is a terrorist organization in word and deed, in part due to its membership in the American-led international coalition against the Islamic State. The Islamic State seized large parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014. Since then, the coalition has made significant gains against the terror group. Coalition forces have been relying on the ground forces of the American-backed and YPG-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and are closing in on the de facto capital of the Islamic State, the city of Raqqa, Syria.
Collision of American, Iranian and Turkish Interests
Iran and Turkey share with the United States opposition to the Islamic State and to increased Kurdish autonomyan independent Kurdish state is, for Tehran and Ankara, unimaginable. Still, they approach each other warily in cooperation against Islamic State and Kurdish rebelsmore frenemies than partners. This situation is partially due to widely different relations of the state to religion in each country: in Turkey, the elected president dominates religious leaders; in Iran, the Ayatollahs dominate the political leaders. Washingtons approach to how Iran and Turkey conduct their respective military operations in Iraq and Syria needs to reflect the joint and competing interests of the two coalitions in northern Iraq and in northeastern Syria.
An example of the accelerating clash of American and Iranian interests in Iraq is praise Iraqi president Fuad Masum gave to Iran. Per MEMRI on March 28, 2017, Masoum hailed Iran for the effectual supports [sic] it has provided for the Arab country in the fight against terrorism [and stressed] that . . . Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Gen. Qasem Soleimani is in Iraq as part of Baghdads plan to get help from foreign-military advisors. Then, on February 7, 2017, to counter Iran, the Trump administration is considering designating the entire IRGC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, rather than only individuals or units, some of which are currently designated, according to Reuters.
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America, Turkey and Iran Could Be Headed Toward a Showdown - The National Interest Online