LATEST: Mehr News Finds Silver Lining For Syria In Egypt Crisis
This morning’s top five items on Fars News English, linked to the Revolutionary Guards, are a litany of fantastic news about the booming Iranian economy:
“Iranian Oil Minister Praises Domestic Manufacturing“: “[Minister of Oil Rustam Qassemi] said that sanctions have created a good opportunity for Iran’s oil industry so that they have enabled domestic manufacturers to procure a great part of equipment and devices needed by the oil industry.”
“Iran’s Private Sector Signs Two Petrochemical Agreements with Korean, Turkish Companies“: “Head of the National Petrochemical Company Abdolhossein Bayat…added that Iran’s petrochemical sector has a bright future ahead.”
“Siri NGL [Liquified Natural Gas] Plant Earning $4 m/d”
“NIOPDC Delivers 6.5 Billion Liters of Fuel to Power Plants”
“Iran-Turkey Trade Value Rises Fivefold in 3 Years“: “’The value of trade transactions between Iran and Turkey has risen by more than four or five times compared to three years ago, urging the two countries’ officials to target $30 billion in their trade relations,’ Iran’s East Azarbaijan Governor-General Ahmad Alirezabeigi said.”
Surprisingly, however, Fars seems to have missed another economy story, the subject of an EA analysis this morning, “Central Bank Halves Value of Currency“.
Latest Updates, From Top to Bottom
Mehr News Finds Silver Lining For Syria In Egypt Crisis: Assad More Popular, Better Manager Than Morsi
Amid turmoil in Egypt, Mehr News finds a silver lining — Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s ouster shows that the situation for Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is not just better but quantifiably so. Mehr explains:
If we consider the Syrian crisis as 2 years old — while it is more than 2 years since it began — the total crisis has taken 17,520 hours during which 3 of the Syrian top officials resigned; therefore Bashar Assad has lost a loyalist every 5,840 hours. This is while Morsi lost 8 over 48 hours, meaning he has practically lost one senior official every 6 hours! Thus loyalty to Assad in his cabinet is approximately 973 times more than Morsi’s
Mehr draws this conclusion:
[T]his figure also reveals that Assad has better management capabilities over his loyalists than Morsi does.
Bus Company Claims To Install High Speed WiFi For Passengers
While Iranians complain about slow internet speeds — particularly in the run-up to and during the June Presidential election — an Iranian bus company claims to have installed high speed WiFi access for its passengers.
Meanwhile, this report from June claims to present evidence that Iran uses internet throttling to prevent the spread of information during periods of public unrest.
“360 Million Articles To Disrupt Presidential Election”
Claim of the day comes from the Secretary of the Supreme Cyber Council, Mehdi Akhavan Behabadi, who says 9000 sites published 360 million articles on 9,900 to disrupt June’s Presidential elections.
Behbadi said that malevolent activity from Iran’s enemies designed to disrupt the elections had increased tenfold during the election period.
Friday Prayer Leader: Sunnis See Hope in Rouhani
The leader of the Sunni community in Sistan and Baluchistan Province, cleric Molavi Abdolhamid, has given has told Rooz Online:
The Sunni community listened to the speeches, remarks and the various debates after all. The only candidate that raised hope among the Sunni community was [President-elect Hassan] Rouhani. People concluded that they can overcome their problems with his election. They felt that he was a serious man who knew the issues.
That is why they expect him to use representatives from among the centrist principlists, centrist reformists and also ethnic and religious minorities in various posts in the administration. People felt that he wants to establish a national unity; an inviting government that includes all Iranians. This is our demand and the demand of people as well: that this administration forms a national unity government.
“Tax Exemptions Up to 100%” for Foreign Investors
Iran will offer foreign investors tax exemptions as high as 100%, according to Deputy Minister of Economy Behrouz Alishiri said.
Foreigners investing in the country’s agriculture sector will not have to pay any taxes, and investments in industry and mining will be exempt up to 80%.
Minister of Interior Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar said in March that Iran attracted $7 billion from abroad between March 2012 and 2013, compared with $5 billion the preceding year.
That figure is small in comparison with the $300 billion in annual domestic and foreign investment that Alishiri said is needed by 2015 to meet economic objectives.