Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh has broken her hunger strike after 27 days, to the relief of her family and supporters.
We-change website reports that Sotoudeh was allowed a visit of her sister during which she informed her that she has ended her hunger strike.
Sotoudeh was reportedly not allowed to speak of anything other than her general health, and her sister indicated that while Nasrin Sotoudeh had lost much weight, her morale was high.
Numerous prominent political figures such as Zahra Rahnavard, Habibollah Peymon, Ezatollah Sahabi and Azam Taleghani had urged Sotoudeh to end her strike in concern for her health. Rahnavard had also written a letter to the head of the judiciary urging him to release Sotoudeh along with all other political prisoners. Sotoudeh was arrested on September 4 and is currently in solitary confinement. She is charged with "activities against national security and propaganda against the regime."
Iranian Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi condemned the arrest of Sotoudeh and said in an interview with Radio Zamaneh: "Iran’s judiciary has long lost its independence and has become a mere tool in the hands of security and intelligence officials."
Before her arrest, Sotoudeh had told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that she had been contacted by government officials and warned that if she did not withdraw her defence from the State's case against Shirin Ebadi, "she would face trouble."
Nasrin Sotoudeh was also a defence attorney to a number of prominent political figures that have been detained in the post election turmoil of the past one year and a half.
source: Radio Zamaneh
BP PLC will likely have to shut down a natural gas field in the North Sea that it jointly owns with Iran, a sign that tough new European sanctions are beginning to affect the Islamic Republic’s oil and gas sector.
European Union foreign ministers approved new measures Monday which would, among other things, ban joint energy investments by Iranian and Western companies. The sanctions are designed to bring Iran to the negotiating table over its nuclear program. A spokesman for the EU foreign-affairs chief Catherine Ashton said the new sanctions would affect Rhum, a gas field co-owned by BP and a state-owned Iranian oil company, “and could lead to its closure.”
The shutdown of Rhum would have few repercussions for BP, the U.K., or Iran. It is a small field, producing the equivalent of 15,000 barrels of oil a day, and accounts for just 5% of BP’s U.K. North Sea oil and gas production, the company says. EU officials say it is the only Western-Iranian joint venture of its kind in Europe.
However small the impact, the field’s closing underscores how tightening sanctions are beginning to take a toll on Iran’s energy sector, which has been hit by a steady drumbeat of defections by Western corporate interests.
Since June, the United Nations, the European Union and U.S. have been stepping up measures aimed at deterring Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran says its nuclear ambitions are peaceful, but the U.S. and others say they are directed toward weapons production.
In recent months, a number of big oil companies and oil-trading firms have stopped supplying gasoline to Iran, while a clutch of big refiners have halted imports of Iranian crude. Compliance with sanctions hasn’t been universal, however. This year, Russia completed construction of Iran’s first nuclear-power station near the port city of Bushehr, and Iranian engineers began fueling the reactor core Tuesday. A number of South Korean companies are still involved in Iranian energy projects and Russia’s OAO Gazprom is in talks to develop the country’s oil and gas fields.
BP said it is waiting for the EU to publish its regulation on Iran, setting out the details of the new sanctions, and until it had seen them “we can’t assess the potential impact it may have on our operations at Rhum.”
A spokesman emphasized “BP always complies with legislation in the countries where we operate.”
The U.K.’s foreign secretary, William Hague, praised the new sanctions as a sign of the EU’s willingness to get tough with Iran.
He said: “This is the EU using its collective weight in the world absolutely in the right way, working with the U.S. and sending a clear message to Iran that it is important to negotiate on its nuclear program and that the pressure from Europe will intensify in the absence of those negotiations.”
source: The Wall Street Journal
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