Iran signs $3.2-billion natural gas deal with China

By Borzou Daragahi

Reporting from Beirut -- Iran announced a $3.2-billion natural gas deal today with China, a move that underscored the difficulty of using economic sanctions to pressure Tehran to bow to Washington's demands on its nuclear program.

Iranian state television quoted a senior government official as saying the deal with a Chinese consortium, announced two days after the Obama administration renewed U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic, would eventually include an unnamed European country as a partner.

Under the three-year deal, China will help develop the South Pars field, a sprawling cavity beneath the Persian Gulf seabed that is part of what geologists describe as the world's largest natural gas reservoir.

Washington has routinely renewed embargoes on doing industrial-scale business with Iran since the 1990s, even barring foreign companies that do more than $10 million a year of business with the Islamic Republic from operating in the U.S.

Under Washington's pressure, the French energy giant Total has quietly scaled back plans to develop Iranian gas fields. But many companies still do business with Iran, especially from the rapidly expanding Asian economic and political powerhouses of India and China and in countries with few commercial ties to the U.S., such as Russia.

Iran says it supplies China with 14% of its oil and recently announced that it was signing a $1.3-billion deal for two methanol plants with the Danish firm Haldor Topsoe and a $260-million deal for a tire factory with Italy's Maire Tecnimont.

On Thursday, the Obama administration extended U.S. sanctions for another year, a move Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed as "childish." President Obama has called for talks with Tehran as a way of resolving a years-long dispute over the nature of the Iran's nuclear energy program and its support for Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups opposed to Israel.

Some European officials, frustrated after years of attempts at dialogue with Iran, say that Obama must work harder to coordinate his policies with Moscow and Beijing.

"The big challenge will be to get the Russians and Chinese on board for tougher actions and sanctions once [the Americans] try to engage and fail," said a Western diplomat in Tehran, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Advocates of sanctions say they keep Tehran's ambitions in check and its leadership isolated by denying Iran revenue and technical expertise.

But Iranian officials say sanctions hurt mostly ordinary people while convincing all Iranians of the need to forgo Western partners in favor of cultivating their own technological advances. That includes Iran's controversial drive to master the enrichment of uranium, a process that can be used to produce fuel for a nuclear reactor or fissile material for a bomb.

Source : Los Angeles Times

Chinese Indonesians recognize improvement

By Erwida Maulia , THE JAKARTA POST

Chinese-Indonesians are beginning to enjoy the lowering of many major hurdles in living in the mainly Muslim country, a top Confucian leader says.

The only remaining problem is the issue of ID cards, over which ethnic Chinese residents still face discrimination in many parts of the country, said Indonesia Confucianism High Assembly (Matakin) chairman Budi S. Tanuwibowo.

He was speaking during a celebration in Jakarta on Sunday for Chinese New Year, which was attended by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Some 6,000 Confucians were present at the event organized by Matakin.

In turn, Yudhoyono called on all state officials to improve their services to the country's Confucian and Chinese-Indonesian communities, saying all discriminatory acts against minorities must be put to an end.

He added there had been significant progress in the fulfillment of civilian rights for both minority groups over the last 10 years.

“I’m asking the religious affairs minister, the education minister and the justice and human rights minister, as well as all related parties in both central and local administrations, to continue to improve the quality of their services so as to fulfil the civilian rights of the Confucian and ethnic Chinese communities,” Yudhoyono said in his address.

“In accordance with the 2006 Law on Citizenship, you [state officials] should not have any doubts about giving good service.

"There should be no more discriminatory treatment against anyone."

The improvement of minority groups' rights, the President added, could be found in marriage registrations, now available to Confucian couples.

It can also be seen in the education sector, with the Religious Affairs Ministry’s issuance of two regulations legalizing the incorporation of Confucian teachings in school curricula.

“Also, the Center for Religious Harmony now serves Confucianism. And there are no more problems now about the establishment of houses of worship for Confucians,” Yudhoyono said.

In response, Matakin's Budi Tanuwibowo acknowledged the improving conditions, citing “three big occurrences” last year, including the issuance of the two ministerial regulations and the granting of a plot of land at the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah theme park to establish a Confucian temple, whose ground-breaking ceremony will take place Monday.

Another “historic” occurrence was Yudhoyono’s attendance, the first ever by a president, at the celebration last October of Prophet Kong Zi’s 2559th birthday in Cibinong, West Java, Budi added.

"All problems [over the rights of Confucians and ethnic Chinese communities] are over now, except in the application of ID cards, which remains problematic in many regions," he said.

Indonesia officially began celebrating Chinese New Year after former president Abdurrahman Wahid in 1999 annulled a 1967 presidential instruction banning all activities related to Chinese traditions, including the practices of Confucianism teaching.

Three years later, Wahid's successor Megawati Soekarnoputri officially declared Chinese New Year a national holiday.

Yudhoyono, who is seeking another five-year term in office, seized upon Sunday's event to ask Confucians to vote during the upcoming legislative and presidential elections.