EU bans import of Iranian gas to European countries – German FM

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the EU is banning the import of Iranian natural gas into union nations. The announcement came as EU governments agreed to one of the toughest sets of sanctions yet on Iran's nuclear program.

The sanctions also include a ban on financial transactions between European and Iranian banks, with some exceptions for those involving humanitarian aid, food, and medicine purchases.

The decision was made during Monday’s meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

“The [EU] Council has agreed additional restrictive measures in the financial, trade, energy and transport sectors, as well as additional designations, notably of entities active in the oil and gas industry," a written statement issued by the European Union council said.

Further export restrictions were imposed on industrial software, graphite, and the metals which the EU believes could be used to develop ballistic missiles. The new restrictions also prohibit eurozone companies from providing shipbuilding technology and classification services to Iranian tankers and cargo vessels.

The sanctions aim to pressure Iran to cooperate in talks regarding its nuclear program. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the new sanctions were a “sign of our resolve in the European Union that we will step up the pressure.”

Also on Monday, leading European satellite provider Eutelsat SA took 19 Iranian television and radio broadcasters off the air, in a move to abide by earlier EU sanctions. The decision prompted accusations of censorship and threats of lawsuits from Iranian state television.

“We terminated the contracts because it was the order of the European Commission. We have to follow it,” Karen Badalov, area manager of Eutelsat SA, told Press TV.

This is the second round of EU sanctions imposed on Iran in the past few months.

In July, the European Union banned the import of Iranian crude oil, as well as financial services relating to the sale, purchase and transport of Iranian oil.

The sanctions marked a major policy change for the EU, which was traditionally a major importer of Iranian oil.

The decision followed a set of sanctions issued by the US last June, when Washington banned the world's banks from making oil-related transactions with Iranian financial institutions. Previous US sanctions have banned almost all trade with Iran, with certain exceptions for activity ‘intended to benefit the Iranian people.’

Several other countries – including Switzerland, Japan, Australia and Canada – have also imposed sanctions on Iran in recent years, in response to what they describe as Tehran’s lack of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA).

The US and its allies have long accused Iran of using its nuclear program as a cover to develop atomic weapons, though Tehran frequently vows its program is solely for civilian purposes.

Iranian Death Wish AGAIN !

Iran vows 'unchangeable' support for Syria with 'experience and capabilities'

 Warmonger and Asshole Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) meeting with Syrian parliament speaker Jihad Lahham (L) in Tehran.

Iran has pledged more support for Syria amid mounting “foreign pressure" and promised not to leave its ally “alone in difficult times.”

“Given that powers have united to damage the Syrian nation, Iran’s stance toward Syria is not changeable – it will always stand by its Syrian brothers,” Iran’s first vice president, Mohammad Reza Rahimi, said on Thursday while meeting Syria’s deputy prime minister, Omar Ibrahim Ghalawanji, in Tehran.

The secretary of Iran's National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, called relations between Iran and Syria “strategic”, saying that Tehran is ready to support Damascus "more than before in the face of foreign pressure."

In response, Ghalawanji expressed his gratitude to Iran, stressing that the West’s “cruel sanctions” against Syria have hit the Syrian people more than they have affected the government.

Earlier on Wednesday night while meeting Ghalawanji, Iran’s vice president in charge of international affairs, Ali Saeedlou, said that “Tehran is ready to give its experience and capabilities to its friend and brother nation of Syria.”

The statements come while a Syrian delegation of 15 ministers and high-ranking officials are in Tehran on a three-day visit to seek the expansion of economic cooperation.

Tehran expressed its readiness to reconstruct facilities damaged in Syria during the uprising. The Syrian delegation also secured Iran’s support in developing electricity and water facilities.

Syria and Iran have agreed a deal on importing 50MW (megawatts) of Iranian electricity into Syria via Iraq. The figure will climb to 200MW at the next step.

"We agreed with Iran that in one month agreements will be made with Iraq, so that putting problems to one side, electricity imports from Iran will begin," Syria's electricity minister, Imad Khamis, said on Thursday.

Iran and Syria have also signed cooperation agreements which include the construction of a dam along with a power plant. At the same time, Iran reiterated it is not going to dispatch military units or hardware to Syria. On Wednesday Iran’s defense minister, General Ahmad Vahidi, said that at present “Iran has no military forces in Syria” and does not plan to send any.

Seeds of hatred sprout in soil of Greek crisis

Gangs are attacking immigrants all over Greece – a fact ignored by authorities, says Human Rights Watch. Some are allegedly linked to the far-right Golden Dawn party. Migrants are blamed for crimes and for eating into shrinking government subsidies.

­Moreover, police often discourage victims from filing complaints and sometimes even threaten them with detention if they insist on an investigation.

“Migrants and asylum seekers spoke to Human Rights Watch of virtual no-go areas in Athens after dark because of fear of attacks by often black-clad groups of Greeks intent on violence,” says Tuesday’s report by the advocacy group, as cited by Reuters. “While tourists are welcome, migrants and asylum seekers face a hostile environment, where they may be subject to detention in inhuman and degrading conditions, and risk destitution and xenophobic violence.”

The report is based on interviews with 59 people who experienced racist attacks between August 2009 and May 2012. In two of these cases, the attacks were directed against pregnant women.

Human Rights Watch says certain facts suggest that perpetrators attacking migrants are associated with local vigilante groups and the far-right Golden Dawn party. It had no evidence, however, that the group directed such attacks.

The party itself, which campaigned on a pledge to clear Greece of all immigrants, denies any connection with violence directed against migrants, as well as denying its ideology is neo-Nazi.

Greece is a major gateway for illegal migrants from Asia and Africa flocking to the European Union for a better life. The issue has become particularly painful as the country goes through its fifth straight year of recession and record-high unemployment is fuelling anti-immigrant sentiment.

Lawmakers of the extreme-right ultra nationalist Golden Dawn party are sworn in during the inaugural session of the Greek parliament in Athens on June 28, 2012. (AFP Photo/Louisa Gouliamaki)

Lawmakers of the extreme-right ultra nationalist Golden Dawn party are sworn in during the inaugural session of the Greek parliament in Athens on June 28, 2012. (AFP Photo/Louisa Gouliamaki)

­Scapegoating as new national ideology

­Meanwhile, violent clashes between supporters of the Golden Dawn party and groups of anarchists shook the western city of Agrinio on Monday night. Police reports say that the fighting caused considerable damage to cars and shops, leaving the city's streets in a mess.

Yanis Varoufakis, an economist and lecturer at Athens University, says that “the serpent’s egg” of hatred begins to hatch whenever people lose hope and those spreading the hatred end up as the only winners.

“It should act as a warning for all of us that whenever a social economy implodes, as opposed to just going to a recession, scapegoating becomes the order of the day,” he told RT.

Greece’s authorities themselves are infiltrated by this kind of mentality, says the economist.

“We have, unfortunately, an extremely cozy relationship between neo-Nazis and police, and we have neo-Nazis in Parliament. And we have the breakdown, effectively, of the consensus that prevails since World War II in Greece, where fascism and Nazism were simply not on,” he explained.

“The only people who win are the ones who spread the [seeds] and narratives of hatred,” Varoufakis concluded.

The ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn party, whose flag closely resembles the Nazi swastika, got around 7 per cent of the vote, which launched it from obscurity to win 21 seats in Greece’s Parliament in the May 6 election – the first time it had passed the threshold to enter the legislative body. More than half of the country’s police officers voted for Golden Dawn.