Bank Sepah and Bank Sepah

ITR: TSRA Notice for TSRA License Holders and Applicants On January 9, 2007,

• Bank Sepah and Bank Sepah International PLC were designated pursuant to Executive Order 13382 of June 28, 2005, "Blocking Property of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferators and Their ... Global Terrorism (SDGT) Designation and Removals The following entities have been added to OFAC's SDN list: TAMILS REHABILITATION ORGANISATION (a.k.a. ORGANISATION DE REHABILITATION TAMOULE; a.k.a. ORGANISATION PRE LA REHABILITATION TAMIL; a.k.a. ORGANIZZAZIONE PER LA RIABILITAZIONE DEI TAMIL; a.k.a. ...
  
• Release of Civil Penalties Information New OFAC enforcement information was released on: 11/08/2007
  See more from terrorists-list-checks (9)

The Rest @ the OFAC

Bank Sanctions Impact Iran (Kuwait News)

Published Date: November 05, 2007 TEHRAN:

The Iranian economy is starting to feel the sting from a raft of banking sanctions
applied by the United States to pressure Tehran over its controversial nuclear drive.

Washington has blacklisted Iran's three main banks and has also successfully encouraged
virtually all major European banks into cutting business with the Islamic republic.

• "Practically all the major European banks have ceased their cooperation with Iran," said an official from Iran's Export Development Bank, who asked
  not to be named.
• It is no longer possible to wire money by dollar into Iran and for the payments in euros there are just three European banks. They could stop cooperating with us at any moment," said the official.
• British-Asian bank HSBC and the Swiss giants UBS and Credit Suisse were the first to
  cut business with Iran back in 2006 while Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank and BNP Paribas
  have followed suit this year.

Meanwhile, Washington has blacklisted Iranian banks Melli, Mellat and Saderat, accusing
them of acting as a conduit for "terrorist financing" - something the banks vehemently deny.

The decision has effectively cut the Iranian banks off from the dollar-based financial system
and turned them into pariah institutions with whom their foreign counterparts are unwilling to
deal.....

But it acknowledged the measures would be felt by ordinary Iranians: "It may inflict harm on
the lives of ordinary people using services." The moves against Iran's financial system have
been in parallel to two sets of UN sanctions against its ballistic missile and nuclear
programmes.

• But it is the unilateral US actions that are being felt most keenly in Iran. In
  essence, the sanctions aim at cutting off Iran's financial lifeblood. Foreign banks, who were already refusing to accept letters of credit issued by their Iranian counterparts, are now refusing to carry out even simple operations of money transfers to Iran.

"We wanted to import equipment to construct prefabricated houses but the Australian banks
refused to accept letters of credit," said Touraj, an Iranian businessman who preferred not to
give his surname.

Even Asian banks from countries that still have close economic links with Iran - such as South
Bank sanctions stinging in Iran »

Korea and China - have been imposing restrictions on business with the Islamic republic. "The
big banks from China, one of Iran's most important partners, are now refusing to deal with
Iran as they have important interests in the United States and fear reprisals," said Mehrdad
Mahmoudi, a leading currency dealer.

Even banks on the Arabian peninsula - notably US ally the United Arab Emirates, Iran's
number one trading partner - may not be prepared to deal with the Islamic republic forever.

"Iranian banks can still use the services of small Asian banks or the Persian Gulf but that will
not last forever," said Bijan Khajepour, director of Atieh Consulting in Tehran.

"Firms are increasingly having to pay in cash or go through a third country to import their goods which will make the finished product even more expensive," he added.

The Rest @ Kuwait Times

AQIM Order of Battle for Akroun Attack in Tizi Ouzo

On September 21, al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) posted a new video titled "The Battle of Akroun" on the official AQIM website (www.qmagreb.org) and distributed it to various jihadist websites, such as al-Boraq (www.alboraq.info/forumdisplay.php), that post AQIM videos.

The video features Abu Mousab Abdel Wadoud (a.k.a. Droukdal), leader of AQIM, addressing and inspecting his fighters alongside the former emir of Katibat al-Ansar, Sofiane Fassila, who was killed in October by Algerian security forces in the province of Tizi Ouzou.

The narrator says that Droukdal participated in the alleged July 2007 Akroun attack as he happened to be in AQIM's central zone at the time.

Coordinated, Complex Attack

• In the video, four groups of fighters walk to the assembly point from allegedly different locations in an unidentified forest.
• Each group consists of seven to 25 men.
• Preparation for the attack is divided among groups each with a different assignment.
• One group is responsible for making bombs, for example, another with loading rifle magazines, and a third with inspecting RPGs.
• Approximately seven long plastic sheets (3x8 feet) covered with white powder are left in the open to dry, after which the powder is deposited into empty gas tanks cut in half to make the bombs.
• According to the narrator, 100 mujahideen participated in the Akroun attack in the province of Tizi Ouzou, including Droukdal who was present in the region at that time.

That estimate of the number of the fighters involved is supported by a careful visual count of the men in the video.

• Their ages range from approximately 25 to 40, though five of the fighters appear to be under the age of sixteen.
• According to the AQIM video statement, three fighters were killed in the attack; two of them had more than ten years of combat experience with other Algerian terrorist groups.

The Rest @ OSAC

Possible Sanctions:
-Shimron

Europäisch-Iranische Handelsbank is a
Hamburg-based bank that specialises in
processing foreign trade between Europe and
Iran.

Head Office Hamburg:Fon: +49 40 3210

Portfolio


S.W.I.F.T.: EIHBDEHH Bank Code 203 103 00 VAT-ID No. DE 118513728
Kish Branch
Europäisch-Iranische Handelsbank AGKish BranchSanaee AvenueP.O. Box 79415-1836Kish Island 79415I. R. of IRAN
Contact
Mr. Ali Hashemi - Branch ManagerMr. Masoud Gharaati - Assistant ManagerFon: +98 764 4424590Fax: +98 764 4423790E-Mail: infokish(at)eihbank.ir

Tehran Representative Office
Europäisch-Iranische Handelsbank AGTehran Representative OfficeNo. 25, Tandis Street, Africa AvenueP.O. Box 15815-1787Tehran 19156I. R. of IRAN
Contact

Mr. Mahmoud Hassanzadeh Gharaie - Chief Representative
Mr. Ebrahim Dadmehr - Dep. Chief RepresentativeFon: +98 21 22057271-3Fax: +98 21 22057737E-Mail: eihtehran(at)gmail.com

Update on the Spread of Sukuk in Islamic Financing

DOHA, Nov 4 - More borrowers are considering offering Islamic bond sales in the United States, traditionally overlooked in roadshows, to gain better pricing for longer- term maturities, Barclays' head of Islamic finance said on Sunday.

To date, most Gulf sales of Islamic bonds, called sukuk, have been convertible into shares, which tend to be more expensive for the borrower, to attract investment in what were relatively young, unrated companies.

But as more companies gain ratings and a longer financial track record, they may be more attractive to U.S. investors, enabling them to sell cheaper non-convertible sukuk by diversifying their investor base.

"Given the size of the financing requirements and issuers wanting longer terms you need to expand your investor base," Barclays Capital's Arul Kandasamy told Reuters on the sidelines of an Islamic finance conference in Qatar.

"You now have issuers from the Middle East that are attractive to U.S. investors ... If you want big-sized, straight long tenure sukuk, then you want to target the United States, which has the deepest pool of funds," he added.

Kandasamy declined to outline what proportion of Barclays' sukuk pipeline would be sold in the United States, saying only that there was strong interest in doing so.

Dubai developer Nakheel's $3.52 billion sukuk sale in 2006 was the largest to date, and the bonds were later convertible into shares.

"Equity-linked sukuk were used for relatively new companies which may have found it difficult to target the straight debt market for large sized, unrated financing," Kandasamy said.

"A convertible has both equity and debt risk, and convertible investors are willing to take more risk, but equally want more returns in the equity option," he added.

Sukuk comply with Islam's ban on the receipt of interest, and returns derived from underlying physical assets are paid to bondholders instead.

The sukuk industry has surged on growing demand from the world's 1.2 billion Muslims, and by European and Asian institutions seeking more exposure to booming Gulf economies.

Kandasamy said there was now a growing awareness of Islamic finance in the United States.
Barclays arranged the sale of Dubai Ports World's $1.5 billion sukuk sale in June, which were also sold to U.S. investors. The bonds had a tenure of 10 years, relatively rare among sukuk of Gulf origin, which mostly have a tenure of five years.

Last month, Abu Dhabi National Energy Co sold $2 billion of conventional five- and 10-year bonds in the United States.

Both DP World's and Taqa's bonds were sold under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's 144a rule, which governs private placements.

Selling under 144a is quicker and easier to arrange than public sales in the United States, which has relatively strict financial regulations compared to the Gulf, bankers say.


The Rest @ Yahoo Singapore

Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) Ambushes Niger Amry Convoy

NIAMEY, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Niger's government said on Saturday four soldiers were missing and three injured after Tuareg-led rebels attacked a civilian convoy with a military escort in the north.

The rebel Niger Justice Movement (MNJ) said it had killed 15 soldiers and taken four prisoners, including an army lieutenant, in the attack on Friday on the road from the regional capital Agadez to the town of Arlit, towards the border with Algeria.

The MNJ frequently exaggerates the death tolls from its attacks.

The rebels demand greater autonomy and government revenues for the uranium-producing north of Niger. They said in a statement on their Web site (m-n-j.blogspot.com) that anyone travelling by road to or from Agadez did so at their own risk.

The Rest @ Reuters Africa

Bomb East of Algiers in Maatkas Algeria Wounds Several

ALGIERS, Nov 10 (Reuters) - A bomb exploded near a police station in a village 80 km (50 miles) east of Algiers on Saturday, wounding several people, residents said.

Further details were not immediately available about the blast in the village of Maatkas in the Kabylie region east of the capital. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The Rest @ Reuters Africa