Frank26: IOO …….. What IRAQ took to do in 12 years ………. IRAN will do in less than 1.
KTFA Frank
Dnari131: NEW YORK TIMES Iran Plays Down ‘Implementation Day’ as It Prepares to Rejoin World Economy
By THOMAS ERDBRINKJAN. 16, 2016
There were no flag-waving youths or cheering crowds on Tehran’s streets, just the usual Saturday morning rush hour, the start of the Iranian workweek.
The low-key reception given “implementation day,” when the nuclear deal is finally to be completed and Iran freed to rejoin the international economy, reflects the multiple disappointments and broken promises Iranians have experienced in the two years the negotiations dragged on. While the government talked up the deal to lift people’s hopes, few expect to see any improvement in their lives.
“I haven’t seen any excitement,” said Ali Shoja, an office cleaner riding the Tehran subway on his way to work. “They speak of billions of dollars coming, but as in the past, I don’t expect those dollars to reach my pockets.”
State television has its own reason to play down the festivities. The end to the sanctions is a success for the government of Hassan Rouhani, but a costly one for Iran’s ruling system. Since the deal was signed in July, Iran has had to put into storage more than 12,000 centrifuges, ship out almost its entire stockpile of enriched uranium and remove the core of its heavy-water reactor. Many officials, especially hard-liners, find it hard to present the nuclear agreement as a victory, especially when so much was given up in compromise.
The government, at odds with the hard-liners, prefers to focus on the economic gains Iran can expect now that sanctions, some in place since 2007, are to be lifted. Mr. Rouhani also emphasizes at almost every opportunity how, during his administration, Iran has stepped out of its isolation.
And so it has. The German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, is planning his second visit to the country; the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, will visit Tehran on Jan. 22; and Mr. Rouhani will visit Italy and France immediately after Mr. Xi leaves.
At the center of the diplomatic activity stand the big rewards of the nuclear agreement — Iran’s vast natural resources, which go well beyond oil and gas, and access to one of the last untapped markets in the world. Several deals have already been made, and await only the lifting of the sanctions.
Mr. Rouhani likes to call the deal a “win-win” for both sides, though conservatives in both Iran and the United States say it is more win-lose, with the other side winning. Whatever the outcome of that debate, Iran indisputably will once again be able to sell its oil and make international financial transactions. But as Europe and Asia gear up for their share of the bonanza, businesses in the United States, the main broker of the nuclear agreement, will mostly be watching from the sidelines.
American companies are showing interest, but sanctions dating back to 1984, when Iran was designated a state sponsor of terrorism, force them to work through subsidiaries. Because of that, one analyst predicted, European and Asian companies will divvy up the Iranian market.
American companies “will wait at least until after the U.S. presidential elections” before making any serious moves, to see who wins, said Cyrus Razzaghi, the president of Ara Enterprise group, a Tehran-based business consultancy. The risk of a Republican winning and reimposing harsh sanctions, he said, was too great. “In reality, any American company will only come a year later.”
It might take even longer, given the hodgepodge of sanctions still in place and removable only by a Republican-dominated Congress that has no interest in lifting them.
With some exceptions, there is still an American trade embargo with Iran, largely preventing most Americans from doing business with Iran and vice versa. While Iranian financial institutions will once again have access to the international banking system, they generally cannot use it to conduct transactions that go to — or even through — the United States, as many major financial transactions now do.
Even after implementation day, a complicated maze of exceptions to the remaining American sanctions rules will still “give much pause” to United States businesses, Mr. Alavi said.
Iran complied with the requirements of the nuclear deal at breakneck speed, something that analysts attributed to Mr. Rouhani’s wish to bring that triumph to critical parliamentary elections in February. But there was another reason. Insiders admit that the government is near bankruptcy, after years of burning up savings, and that the economy has all but ground to a halt.
Iranians see the signs everywhere. “My husband owns a shop for ladies’ coats, and he hasn’t sold a thing in the past few weeks,” said Mojgan Faraji, an unemployed former journalist. The implementation of the deal will “mostly have a positive psychological impact,” she said. “After that, we’d have to wait to see whether purchasing power will increase.”
Under the weight of the sanctions, declining oil sales and, lately, declining oil prices, Tehran has been forced to scrap direct cash handouts for some of the wealthier strata of society. Middle-class Iranians, hurt by inflation that only recently declined from 42 percent to 12 percent, wonder whether the rate has really dropped as far as the government has been saying.
Few think the lifting of sanctions will mean an overnight improvement in their financial situation. Cynicism has the upper hand, after years of what many say were empty promises of improvement.
“I do not follow the nuclear news,” said Ali Baseri, a 45-year-old printing-house worker who was taking his father to the hospital. “How will this solve my economic problems? I do not care, and I don’t see anybody around me caring.”
Many point to the drop in oil prices. Historically, oil sales have provided a third to a half of the government’s annual budget expenditures. But the price collapse now endangers that.
Iran itself will contribute to the problem after sanctions are lifted, adding 500,000 barrels a day on top of the approximately 1.2 million barrels now being produced daily. The aim, the oil minister, Bijan Zangeneh, has repeatedly said, is to eventually return to the former production capacity of 4 million barrels a day.
The end of the sanctions will also give a lift to trade and commerce. “Now, we have over 1,000 letters of credit waiting to be accepted by international banks,” said Hamidreza Taraghi, a political commentator with close ties to the government. “We are expecting a big boost for our companies.”
Mr. Razzaghi, the consultant, said he was entertaining representatives from a Turkish company who are thinking of investing over $100 million in food processing operations. He also said that a European bank had shown interest in investigating the potential purchase of a midsize Iranian bank.
“But that would be a long process, maybe two to three years,” he said. “What matters is that after the implementation things will start moving.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/world … tions.html
Zerb: oh me oh my Saleh…this looks like Iraqi banking platforms w international banks…eh? (see article below)
Remember boys put the horse in front of the cart hee hee hee. Imo many things going on behind the curtain…come on OZ a little more flame please Blessings family! TY NEWSHOUNDS
Walkingstick: Iraq Plans Bond Sales This Month to Cover $20 Billion Budget Gap
Khalid Al Ansary
Issuance to include local and foreign debt, PM adviser says
Securities for overseas investors to be offered in tranches
Iraq plans to sell bonds in domestic and international markets beginning this month to fill an annual budget gap forecast to swell to 24 trillion dinar ($20 billion) after oil prices plunged.
Domestic instruments will include 5 trillion dinars to public investors and $6 billion in treasury bills to banks, Mudher Saleh, adviser to Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi, said in an interview Thursday. Debt to international buyers will be offered in tranches, he said without providing details on the amount.
Iraq, which has the world’s fifth-largest oil reserves, is facing a deficit this year which it plans to cover by borrowing from the International Monetary Fund, Islamic banks and bond sales. The country is grappling with oil selling at the lowest prices since 2004 and a war on Islamist militants who seized a swath of the country’s northwest.
The government appointed Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co. for its first international bond issue in a decade to raise $6 billion, Muneer Mohammed Omran, director general of the central bank’s investor department in Baghdad said last August.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ … budget-gap
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Frank26: Then one must also remember a lesson learned long ago at KTFA:
MEDIA is more so for mis-information as much as it is for any ………… Information.
You know ….. I know ………… Iraq knows their BONDS are a joke until MATH is fully calculated via a Time Frame of OIL increase ………… Coming.
In the Holy areas. In the Psyche of their minds for the near proximal future.
BTW ……… When You Pray KTFA FAMILY …………. Know that SECURITY in The CBI is a Need and Goal.
Also ……… IOO one should not Pray for higher OIL PRICES ………… One should watch what it does in a couple of weeks. It follows a 70’s model to seek it’s True Value to ………… All.
KTFA Frank
Aggiedad77: Frank….is that flag you were looking for about to get planted
Lots in the news today…..a renewed effort perhaps
Will the citizens be willing to jump on these new bonds….maybe with a new rate in hand
I fear though the rest of the world is about to unleash a nasty pitbull as they fill their banking coffers this weekend….SMH
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Frank26: Yes ……… A is planting many Flags ………. But one to come will cause You to find peace within.
CITZ are NOT being told of the BONDS ………….. They are telling YOU ……….. The INTERN WORLD in order to keep the Flame Burning.
I promise not to post too much today …………… LOL ………. I wouldn’t be able to stop.
These WS articles are for You. Can You imagine what other articles we possess and STUDY?
Aloha ………… \m/ KTFA Frank
Derivations: The first thought that came to mind after reading this article was ” Mirror Image”! (see article below)
RealTormc: Remember Frank mentioned sanctions being put back on Iraq…If there is an eruption by the people, I believe they could get sanctions put back on and then the UN/US will dismantle the government and Iraq would have to start over politically…
It seems that the citizens/clerics and the IMF have been waiting patiently for the GOI to get things together…what will be the final straws of either taking Iraq’s sovereignty or Iraq’s current government the finishing the laws for the MR..
We’ve already got troops there…it seems that the GOI is feeling pressure on all fronts…which is good!!!
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Posted on January 16, 2016 by Muhamed Hassan in Politics
Muhamed Hassan | Special to Ekurd.net
If there is any hope that real change will happen in Iraq, it would emanate from two key players: the top Shiite clerics, and the mass demonstrations that are held every Friday across the country.
On Friday’s sermon (15-01), in holy city Najaf, the cleric Sadr al-Deen Qubanchi, warned the government that al marjaiya (the highest authority of Grand Ayatollah Al Sistani) had been waiting impatiently to see the application of drastic reforms, reveal the names of the corruptors, and the phoney projects.
On the other side, for more than four months, ten Iraqi provinces, in addition to the capital Baghdad, have been witnessing protests against the rampant corruption and poor state services. These provinces are: Babil, Karbala, Najaf, Diwaniyah, Muthanna, Dhi Qar, Wasid, Misan, Basra and Diyala.
The protesters stress that so far the government of prime minister Haider al-Abadi had only made marginal, toothless reforms, and did not achieve any real change, nor did it prosecute any top ranking official.
Like the religious front, the protesters in their last Friday’s ritual demanded that the government secure the wages of those workers who are employed on temporary contracts, and those who get their wages on a daily basis.
So those two key players are the main drivers for change, and the balance was in their favour to start with, but soon their cries met with walls of silence and indifference. In fact, as the protests dragged on, it lost some momentum and the mood started to drift away.
While Iraqis are languishing on many fronts: ISIS, corruption, unemployment and many other social woes, the last thing they want to see is falling oil prices. This is only going to make matters worse, making Iraqis poorer in economic terms, and in health terms.
And up north, the Kurds are lamenting their faith too. Qubad Talabani, deputy chairman of Iraqi Kurdistan Region voiced his concern of the acute shortage of funds.
‘It is a problem of paying the wages. It is a problem of halting future investments, and the fight against ISIS’, he said on Friday.
Thus Iraq, whether south or north, is in deep trouble. The politicians are hurrying up to mitigate the looming catastrophe, shore up their incompetence, making visits abroad for loans to sustain people’s wages, and buy weapons to fight ISIS.
http://ekurd.net/iraqi-politicians-pani … 2016-01-16
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Dnari131: Tehran Stock Exchange Sets New Record ahead of JCPOA Implementation
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – In the wake of the imminent implementation of a recent nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers (known as the JCPOA), Iran’s main share index increased by 1344 units on Saturday, setting a new record after 18 months of depression.
The Tehran Stock Exchange Index (TEDPIX) increased by 1344 units to close at 64.860 points, data released by the TSE showed on Saturday.
An increase of 1000 units was achieved within the first hour after the market was opened in the first day of the week.
The recent gains in the Tehran Stock Exchange come against the backdrop of the upcoming announcement of JCPOA implementation, after which all nuclear-related anti-Iran sanctions will be terminated.
The Tehran Stock Exchange has come a long way. It has evolved into an exciting and growing marketplace where individual and institutional investor trade securities of over 420 companies.
TSE, which is a founding member of the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges, is seen as one of the world’s best performing stock exchanges in the years 2002 through 2013.
http://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2016/ … ementation
