LONDON, Feb. 8--Despite US pressure, Iran’s finest oil minds are maneuvering their way around efforts to restrict the OPEC producer’s export revenue.
Hojjatollah Ghanimifard of the state-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) told Reuters on Thursday the world’s third biggest oil exporter would always find a way to carry on the trade that earned the country $70 billion last year.
Leading attempts to isolate the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, Washington last year imposed hostile sanctions on two Iranian banks and is pressing for a third set of UN Security Council sanctions.
“Iran has worked around America’s pressure on our oil transactions,“ said Ghanimifard, international affairs director at NIOC. “We are disarming those who made threats against us.“
As a first step, Tehran by last autumn had cut all ties with the US dollar. Washington in turn leant harder on international banks.
Some European banks bowed to the pressure by refusing to open letters of credit--a standard form of payment guarantee in the oil trade.
“That did not hurt us. We found other banks,“ Ghanimifard said.
He added Iran had shifted away from using some European banks to ones in other regions and had also begun using different methods of payment.
“We’ve changed the list of acceptable banks we deal with and are using more non-traditional means of arranging payment.“
He declined to identify the new banks or those who had had stopped dealing with Iran.
“We prefer not to memorize the names of those who are trying to hurt us,“ he said.
A buyer of crude or refined oil products is usually required to open a letter of credit from a top bank with which the seller does business to guarantee payment.
The bank charges a fee and can net a share of the oil revenues and the NIOC official said banks would miss the business.
“Who’s getting hurt? We’re not losing one single cent of our income. This is money they have lost,“ he said.
“Letters of credit are not the only solution. Other payment instruments are available to Iran.“
Some bankers in the Middle East have said it was also possible to use front companies that are not banks as guarantors.
Around 70 percent of the revenues rolled into Asia, with most of the rest destined for Europe and Africa.

TEHRAN, Feb. 8--Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei called on Muslim heads of state to join hands to break the siege of Gaza.
“Muslim governments should break siege of Gaza and the Egyptian government and nation have a heavy duty in that concern. All Muslim nations should help the Egyptian government and nation fulfill the duty,“ said Ayatollah Khamenei in an address to the Islamic Republic Army Air Force personnel on Friday, Fars News Agency reported.
The leader noted that the problem with Palestine, siege of Gaza and massacre of Gazans are the result of the wrong Middle East policies of the US and of the Annapolis Conference.
“At a time when Gaza burns in fire and blood, and (at a time when) the US president’s tour of the region has ended up in disaster, any talks between regional states and the US and the usurper Zionist regime will be futile,“ he said.
Ayatollah Khamenei said Arab states should be watchful that they or others are not used against the Gaza people, because such a dirty act will always remain a dark stain.
Referring to domestic issues, the leader said elections in Iran are the healthiest across the world, calling on officials in charge of the elections to strictly observe the law which, he said, is the yardstick between right and wrong.
The Islamic Republic Air Force met the leader three days before the anniversary (February 11) marking the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution as a replay of the Air Force’s meeting the same day 29 years ago with the Father of Islamic Revolution and Founder of the Islamic Republic, the late Imam Khomeini.
Ayatollah Khamenei said officials should be careful to avoid any injustice in any candidate’s case and also honor people’s rights.
The leader said that in line with the law, one should be careful not to include any incompetent individual (in the list of candidates) or ignore the rights of qualified people.
Terming elections as “decisive and crucial“, Ayatollah Khamenei said the global hegemonic powers have been engaged in their hostile publicity to undermine public presence and discourage them but to no avail.
“This shows the importance of elections,“ he added.
Calling participation in elections “a national duty“, Ayatollah Khamenei said the duty has not changed with the coming to power of different governments or different political parties and all should consider themselves duty-bound to take part in the process and refrain from making any excuse.

BAGHDAD, Iraq,
Feb. 8--The US envoy to Iraq Ryan Crocker said the US supported the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein when he imposed the 1980-88 war on Iran.
Americans need to realize that conflicts in the Middle East do not fall into neat chapters, with beginnings and ends, Crocker said in an interview with the Spokesman-Review, which was quoted by the Seattle Post Intelligence newspaper on Wednesday, Presstv reported.
“Sometimes, the American government has made a decision to support governments that it knew were repressive, including Saddam Hussein when he was fighting Iran in the 1980s,“ he said.
“We knew he was really, really bad,“ said Crocker, who served in Iraq while Saddam was in power. “But the United States made the choice to back Saddam to stop Iran, which had then overthrown the shah and was threatening to dominate the region.“
The US ambassador also touched on the security situation in Iraq and said he has a 187-page list of things that makes him worried about the situation in Iraq.
“Everything about Iraq is hard,“ Crocker said. “There is no switch you flip to turn it from chaos into order overnight.“
Pointing to the prospect of the US military presence in Iraq, Crocker said, “We may be closer to the beginning than the end of the need for American assistance.“

MOSCOW, Feb. 8--The recent launch of an Iranian rocket was strictly for peaceful purposes, and was designed to obtain meteorological data, the Islamic Republic’s ambassador to Moscow said on Friday.
Tehran successfully tested on Monday the Explorer-1 research rocket, purportedly capable of carrying a satellite into orbit.
“We hope that these rockets will enable us to receive more reliable data about climate change,“ Gholamreza Ansari told a news conference at RIA Novosti.
He said Iran would orbit the nation’s first satellite in the foreseeable future.
“Within the next several months, we are planning to launch a satellite called Hope,“ the envoy said, adding that natural disasters often happen in Iran and the Islamic Republic requires accurate environmental data.
He said any possible new UN sanctions against Iran would be counterproductive and that any issues connected with its nuclear program could only be dealt with through dialogue.
“Dialogue is the only possible path,“ Ansari said, adding that Iran does not intend to abandon its uranium enrichment program.
He warned that new sanctions would affect Tehran’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The ambassador said Iran would continue its nuclear research program under international supervision.
“Iran’s nuclear research is extensive and it will expand further,“ he said. “We are not setting any limitations [for research].“
Iranian media gave no details about the rocket, but some experts believe it could be an advanced version of the Shahab-3 ballistic missile, which has a range of up to 2,000 kilometers (about 1,200 miles).
Long-range ballistic missiles are generally designed to deliver nuclear weapons because their payload is too limited for conventional explosives to be efficient. They have a range of 2,500-5,000 kilometers (1,600-3,100 miles).
Iran has been involved in a long-running dispute with the West over its controversial uranium enrichment program, with two sets of UN sanctions against Tehran in effect.
The White House issued a statement on Monday calling the Iranian launch an “unfortunate“ development.

MOSCOW, Feb. 8--President Vladimir Putin heralded a wealthy Russia able to compete in a new “arms race“ with a speech on Friday setting long-term priorities for his handpicked successor ahead of next month’s presidential election.
Putin used the televised address in an ornate Kremlin hall before Russia’s ruling elite, including the full government, parliamentary leaders and top generals, to outline a roadmap up to 2020, AFP reported.
He said his “plan to bring Russia out of systemic crisis“ meant the country was again respected and that “lawlessness is over“.
However, more must be done in the coming years to pull the economy from “extreme inefficiency“ and to guard against western pressure, said Putin, whose eight-year presidency has seen a flood of energy export revenues and the return of military clout.
“There is a new turn in the arms race ... Russia will always respond to this new challenge,“ Putin said, promising “new weapons that are qualitatively the same or better than those of other countries“.
Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign minister called US plans to build a global missile defense shield an example of “imperial thinking“, and suggested in comments published Thursday that Washington was using the system to try to encircle Russia.
Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza that elements of the missile defense system “exist or will be built in Alaska, California, northeast Asia“.
“If we look at a map, it’s clear that all of it is concentrating around our borders,“ he was quoted as saying. “Most likely in the near future, we are going to hear about hundreds, and maybe even thousands, of interceptors in various regions of the planet, including Europe.“
Washington wants to place 10 missile defense interceptors in Poland and a radar system in neighboring Czech Republic as part of a global system it says is necessary to protect against future attacks from its enemies.
Lavrov brushed aside those assurances, saying “such a threat does not exist“. He said only one country in eastern Europe has strategic ballistic missiles: Russia.

NAIROBI, Kenya,
Feb. 9--Kenya’s ruling party and opposition have agreed to form a joint government in an effort to end weeks of bloodshed that have engulfed the country since the disputed presidential election, an opposition lawmaker said on Friday.
The two sides still were discussing who would lead the government and what roles each party would play, said William Rutto, a lawmaker from the opposition Orange Democratic Movement, AP reported.
“We have finally agreed there is a problem in the country and neither side can proceed on its own,“ Rutto told The Associated Press. “We have agreed to form a joint government. Details of that government, its time and how to share it are under discussions.“
There was no immediate comment from the government or President Mwai Kibaki’s Party of National Unity. But former UN Chief Kofi Annan, who is heading talks aimed at resolving the crisis, was expected to make a statement later Friday.
Word of the power-sharing government came hours after Kibaki said he was ’committed’ to the negotiations.
Speaking at a prayer meeting in Nairobi, Kibaki said he was ’encouraged’ by progress in talks and reiterated “my personal support and that of my entire government to this process“.