عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News

Iran Central Bank Announces Deal to Unlock Funds in Baghdad

Governor of Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Abdolnaser Hemmati holds talks with his Iraqi counterpart, Mustafa Ghalib Mukheef, in Baghdad on Monday, October 12, 2020 (IRNA)
Governor of Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Abdolnaser Hemmati holds talks with his Iraqi counterpart, Mustafa Ghalib Mukheef, in Baghdad on Monday, October 12, 2020 (IRNA)
    Baghdad - Fadhel al-Nashmi, Asharq Al-Awsat
TT
TT

Iran Central Bank Announces Deal to Unlock Funds in Baghdad

Governor of Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Abdolnaser Hemmati holds talks with his Iraqi counterpart, Mustafa Ghalib Mukheef, in Baghdad on Monday, October 12, 2020 (IRNA)
Governor of Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Abdolnaser Hemmati holds talks with his Iraqi counterpart, Mustafa Ghalib Mukheef, in Baghdad on Monday, October 12, 2020 (IRNA)

Iran’s central bank chief said on Monday an agreement has been reached with Iraqi officials to unlock Iranian funds.

Governor of Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Abdolnaser Hemmati arrived in Baghdad on Monday for a one-day visit to develop banking and trade cooperation.

His remarks were made following talks with Governor of Iraq's Central Bank Mustafa Ghalib Mukheef and Chief of the Trade Bank of Iraq Salem Jawad Abdul Hadi al-Jalabi.

The official Iraqi and Iranian sides said the visit comes in line with bilateral banking cooperation. However, economists say the move aims to reduce the effects of the US sanctions against Tehran.

IRNA quoted Hemmati as saying that he had reached an agreement with officials of Iraq’s Central Bank and the Trade Bank of Iraq on the release of Iran’s financial assets to buy essential goods for the country.

He noted that his country has “significant” financial resources in Iraqi banks. The financial resources are Iran’s revenues derived from the export of electricity and gas to the neighboring country.

Hemmati also met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who promised to follow up the implementation of the agreement during this week, IRNA reported.

Referring to its positive talks with Iraqi officials, the Governor expressed hope that the agreement would help both countries take positive steps toward developing economic and banking relations.

Fars News Agency of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps said Mukheef proposed that both countries set up a joint committee to explore means to resolve financial issues.

Last week, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned 18 major Iranian banks.

Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said this action reflects the commitment to stop illicit access to US dollars.

“Our sanctions programs will continue until Iran stops its support of terrorist activities and ends its nuclear programs,” he stressed, adding that sanctions will continue to allow humanitarian transactions to support the Iranian people.

Commenting on the Iranian official’s visit, Economist and Professor at the Iraqi University Abdulrahman al-Mashhadani said it is very obvious that Iranians are looking for a way out of the crisis created by the US sanctions.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the new sanctions against Tehran have affected major Iranian banks that finance the country’s import and export processes.

Facing such a major issue forced Iran to seek, through the Iraqi banking sector, to circumvent these sanctions, especially that it is known to have many banks in Iraq that secretly operate to serve their interests, Mashhadani noted.

Monetary Policy Professor at Baghdad University Ihsan Jaber agreed with Mashhadani that the visit was aimed at facing US sanctions through Iraq.

Jaber told Asharq Al-Awsat that this visit is not beneficial to Iraq, and it may have dire consequences if the US discovers that Iraq has become a conduit for Iranian funds.

The US Treasury has previously enlisted some of the Iraqi banks for their dealings with the IRGC, Lebanese Hezbollah and other groups, he stressed.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Iraq Hopes to Ship Oil to Türkiye by Pipeline as War Cuts off Exports

Technicians working at the Majnoon oil field in Basra, Iraq. (Reuters)
Technicians working at the Majnoon oil field in Basra, Iraq. (Reuters)
TT
TT

Iraq Hopes to Ship Oil to Türkiye by Pipeline as War Cuts off Exports

Technicians working at the Majnoon oil field in Basra, Iraq. (Reuters)
Technicians working at the Majnoon oil field in Basra, Iraq. (Reuters)

Iraq is hoping to ship up to 250,000 barrels of oil per day to a port in Türkiye via a rehabilitated pipeline, its oil minister said, after the US-Israeli war on Iran cut off its main export route.

The amount would be just a fraction of the roughly 3.5 million barrels per day (bpd) that Iraq exported before the conflict, mostly through its southern Basra port and the Strait of Hormuz, where traffic has been severely disrupted by the war.

Authorities want to restore an old pipeline -- out of service for years -- that links the northern Kirkuk oil fields to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, where the oil could be shipped onwards to international buyers.

Oil Minister Hayan Abdel Ghani said late Sunday that the pipeline's rehabilitation is "complete, but there is a 100-kilometer section that needs to be inspected".

Teams will "conduct a hydrostatic test, which is the final phase of the pipeline's rehabilitation", hopefully "within a week", Ghani added, citing an export target of roughly 250,000 bpd.

The pipeline was damaged by the ISIS group in 2014.

Its use, however, requires "contact with the Turkish side and an agreement on logistical and technical issues", said oil expert Assem Jihad.

Initially, Baghdad wanted to send exports to the Ceyhan port via another pipeline that runs through Kurdistan.

But "so far, no agreement has been reached", Ghani said, as relations between the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan and the federal government in Baghdad have deteriorated.

He acknowledged that "Iraqi oil exports were halted two or three days after the start of the war".

The country is also considering the possibility of transporting 200,000 bpd by tanker trucks, primarily via Jordan and Syria.

Iraq derives more than 90 percent of its revenue from oil.

Experts have warned that without this income, the state -- Iraq's largest employer -- will be unable to pay civil servants' salaries and risks a foreign currency shortage to finance imports or stabilise its exchange rate.

World

Appeal Trial Opens for France’s Sarkozy Over Alleged Libyan Funding

FILED - 17 June 2011, Berlin: Then French President Nicolas Sarkozy speaks at a press conference in the Chancellery in Berlin. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa
FILED - 17 June 2011, Berlin: Then French President Nicolas Sarkozy speaks at a press conference in the Chancellery in Berlin. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa
TT
TT

Appeal Trial Opens for France’s Sarkozy Over Alleged Libyan Funding

FILED - 17 June 2011, Berlin: Then French President Nicolas Sarkozy speaks at a press conference in the Chancellery in Berlin. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa
FILED - 17 June 2011, Berlin: Then French President Nicolas Sarkozy speaks at a press conference in the Chancellery in Berlin. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was back in court Monday for a retrial on charges he sought Libyan financing for his 2007 election, in a case that last year saw him become France's first modern-day head of state to go to prison.

A lower court in September found the right-wing politician -- who was president from 2007 to 2012 -- guilty of seeking to acquire funding from Muammar Gaddafi's Libya for the campaign that saw him elected.

Sarkozy -- who has denied any wrongdoing -- in October entered a Paris prison, serving 20 days before he was released pending the appeal, AFP reported.

The 71-year-old entered the Paris Appeal Court ahead of Monday's hearing, shaking hands with police and lawyers before taking his seat in the front row of the dock.

In the retrial, set to run until June 3, the former head of state is once again presumed innocent.

Sarkozy has faced a series of legal issues since leaving office and has already received two definitive convictions in other cases.

In one, he wore an electronic ankle tag for several months, until it was removed in May last year, after being convicted for trying to extract favours from a judge.

And in the other, he will have to serve more time over illegal financing of his failed 2012 re-election bid.

In the so-called "Libyan case", he has appealed a five-year prison sentence.

A lower court in September convicted Sarkozy of criminal conspiracy over what it said was a scheme to acquire Libyan funding for his 2007 presidential run.

But it did not conclude that Sarkozy received or used the funds for the campaign.

His legal team immediately appealed, but the lower court ordered him to be sent behind bars, citing the "exceptional gravity" of the conviction.

On October 21, he became the first former head of a European Union state to be incarcerated.

- Prison diaries -

In the initial trial, prosecutors had argued Sarkozy's aides, acting in his name, struck a deal with Gaddafi in 2005 to illegally fund his victorious presidential election bid two years later.

Investigators believe that in return, Gaddafi was promised help to restore his international image after Tripoli was blamed for the 1988 bombing of a passenger jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, and another over Niger in 1989, killing hundreds of passengers.

Members of Sarkozy's circle did not wish to comment before the retrial.

Sarkozy published a hastily written book about his time in prison titled "Diary of a Prisoner", with supporters lining up around a city block in Paris to buy a copy when it came out in December.

In the 216-page book, he recounts his mundane struggles with noise and low-quality food.

But he also hints at a possible alliance between the traditional right-wing Republicans party he once headed and the country's main far-right party to "rebuild the right".

He and his wife, singer and model Carla Bruni, face another possible trial over allegations that they tried to bribe a key prosecution witness in the Libya campaign financing case with the help of a paparazzi boss. They deny wrongdoing.

Varieties

Oldest Known Whale Recording Could Unlock Mysteries of the Ocean

Carcasses of pilot whales found on Macquarie Heads beach on the west coast of Tasmania in 2022 (AFP)
Carcasses of pilot whales found on Macquarie Heads beach on the west coast of Tasmania in 2022 (AFP)
TT
TT

Oldest Known Whale Recording Could Unlock Mysteries of the Ocean

Carcasses of pilot whales found on Macquarie Heads beach on the west coast of Tasmania in 2022 (AFP)
Carcasses of pilot whales found on Macquarie Heads beach on the west coast of Tasmania in 2022 (AFP)

A haunting whale song discovered on decades-old audio equipment could open up a new understanding of how the huge animals communicate, according to researchers who say it’s the oldest such recording known.

The song is that of a humpback whale, a marine giant beloved by whale watchers for its docile nature and spectacular leaps from the water, and was recorded by scientists in March 1949 in Bermuda, said researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

Just as significant is the sound of the surrounding ocean itself, said Peter Tyack, a marine bioacoustician and emeritus research scholar at Woods Hole. The ocean of the late 1940s was much quieter than the ocean of today, providing a different backdrop than scientists are used to hearing for whale song, he said, The AP news reported.

The recovered recordings “not only allow us to follow whale sounds, but they also tell us what the ocean soundscape was like in the late 1940s,” Tyack said. “That’s very difficult to reconstruct otherwise.”

A preserved recording from the 1940s can also help scientists better understand how new human-made sounds, such as increased shipping noise, affect the way whales communicate, Tyack said. Research published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration states that whales can vary their calling behavior depending on noises in their environment.

The recording predates scientist Roger Payne's discovery of whale song by nearly 20 years. Woods Hole scientists on a research vessel at the time were testing sonar systems and performing acoustic experiments along with the US Office of Naval Research when they captured the sound, said Ashley Jester, director of research data and library services at Woods Hole.

The scientists didn't know what they were hearing, but they decided to record and save the sounds anyway, Jester said.

“And they were curious. And so they kept this recorder running, and they even made time to make recordings where they weren't making any noise from their ships on purpose just to hear as much as they could,” said Jester. “And they kept these recordings.”

Woods Hole scientists discovered the song while digitizing old audio recordings last year. The recording was on a well-preserved disc created by a Gray Audograph, a kind of dictation machine used in the 1940s. Jester located the disc.

While the early underwater recording equipment used to capture the sound would be considered crude by today's standards, it was cutting-edge at the time, Jester said. And the fact that the sound is recorded on a plastic disc is significant because most recordings of the time were on tape, which has long since deteriorated, she said.

Whales' sound-making ability is critical to their survival and key to how they socialize and communicate. The sounds come in the form of clicks, whistles and calls, according to NOAA scientists who study them.

The sounds also allow the whales to find food, navigate, locate each other and understand their surroundings in the vast ocean, scientists say. Several species make repetitive sounds that resemble songs. Humpback whales, which can weigh more than 55,000 pounds (24,947 kilograms), are the ocean's most renowned singers, capable of complex vocalizations that can sound ethereal or even mournful.

The discovery of long-lost whale song from a quieter ocean could be a jumping-off point to better understanding the sounds the animals make today, said Hansen Johnson, a research scientist at the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium.

“And, you know, it's just beautiful to listen to and has really inspired a lot of people to be curious about the ocean, and care about ocean life in general,” said Johnson, who was not involved in the research. “It's pretty special.”