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Why would Iran be moving funds now and where are they investing their money?

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Why would Iran be moving funds now and where are they investing their money?

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Iran’s economy minister played down on Sunday reports Tehran was withdrawing assets from Europe in the face of tightening sanctions over its nuclear programme. Hossein Samsami, acting economy minister, also said the sanctions were not having a major impact on the economy of the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter. Asked whether it was true that Iran was moving money from European banks, he told state radio, without giving details: “No, it is as yet not serious.” An Iranian weekly this month said Iran had withdrawn $75 billion (38 billion pounds) from Europe to prevent the assets from being blocked under threatened new sanctions over its disputed atomic plans. The Shahrvand-e Emrooz weekly quoted Mohsen Talai, deputy foreign minister in charge of economic affairs, as saying that a part of Iran’s assets in European banks had been converted to gold and shares and another part transferred to Asian banks. The Etemad-e Melli newspaper had earlier carried a similar report without giving any f

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The headlines on Russo-Iranian relations at the end of January focused on Iran’s support for a “gas OPEC” and Russia’s reiteration of the idea that this is an attractive prospect that it needs to examine (www.president.ru, February 1, 2). However, this proposal is hardly news. Iran first called for it in 2001 (Kommersant, January 30), and Russian officials were initially skeptical and even dismissive of the idea at the time (RIA-Novosti, January 29). Nonetheless, Russian President Vladimir Putin had called for a gas cartel led by Russia in 2002 and for an energy club at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s annual summit in 2006 (NTV, June 15, 2006). Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad soon seconded that idea. But perhaps no less interesting — but generally overlooked by commentators — was Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Motaki’s statement last month that Russia and Iran could jointly play an important role in ensuring stability in Central Asia and the Caucasus (Kommersant, Ja

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