Iran news headlines on Monday include Iran test-firing missiles in naval drill; Huawei technologies accusation of offering embargoed HP gear to Iran; Ahmadinejad criticizing pressure to impose Islamic values on people; U.S. Treasury Department Undersecretary David Cohen remarks over Iran intentions on resolution over its nuclear program; Iranian police officials announcement on arresting more gold and foreign currency brokers and Iranian ship detaining in Sri Lanka.


Iran's Navy successfully test-fires advanced torpedoes in drill
Iran's Navy has successfully test-fired state-of-the-art torpedoes by hitting and destroying targets on the fourth day of the ongoing Velayat 91 military exercises. Senior Iranian commander Rear Admiral Amir Rastegari said on Monday that “following successful coastal defense and the retreat of the enemy’s vessels,” Iranian sub-surface vessels ambushed the mock enemy forces and destroyed them with advanced torpedoes.




Huawei partner offered embargoed HP gear to Iran
A major Iranian partner of Huawei Technologies offered to sell at least 1.3 million euros worth of embargoed Hewlett-Packard computer equipment to Iran's largest mobile-phone operator in late 2010, documents show. China's Huawei, the world's second largest telecommunications equipment maker, says neither it nor its partner, a private company registered in Hong Kong, ultimately provided the HP products to the telecom, Mobile Telecommunication Co of Iran, known as MCI. Nevertheless, the incident provides new evidence of how Chinese companies have been willing to help Iran evade trade sanctions.


Ahmadinejad slams pressure to impose Islamic values
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has again spoken out against the use of pressure to impose Islamic values on people, especially university candidates, media reported on Monday. "You cannot impose things by issuing decrees and directives -- a choice imposed by force has no value whatsoever," Ahmadinejad said in a speech on Sunday.


'Iran showing signs it wants deal on nuke program'
There have been signs over the past year and particularly over the past weeks, that Iran has an interest in reaching a resolution over its nuclear program, the US Department of the Treasury top sanctions official said Monday. "Pressure is working" David Cohen, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the US Department of the Treasury, said in an interview with Army Radio.

 
Iran: Police announce more arrests around currency crisis
Police officials reported today, December 30, that 88 people had been arrested for being engaged in the illegal and criminal handling of gold and foreign currencies, the Fars News Agency reports. The detainees are charged with selling “fake gold coins, stealing money from their customers, and distributing counterfeit dollars and low-quality coins.”

 
Iranian ship detained in Sri Lanka
The Lankan authorities had reportedly, acting on behalf of a German bank, detained the Iranian ship as the shipping company IRISL of Iran had taken a loan of Euro 250 million from the bank to buy the ship but had changed the name of the ship MV Shere to MV Amina without making the necessary payments and let it sail in international waters, the sources said.

 

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