Forbes: Is Iran really isolated?

[Prometheus Bound]

OP Note: Although this is an anti-Iran piece, I have excerpted just the paragraphs that list Iran's outreach around the globe.

Iran's Global Bedfellows
Claudia Rosett, 12.17.09, 12:01 AM EST
If isolation is supposed to stop the Iranian bomb, there's still far to go.

.....But is Iran really isolated?

.....To list just a few highlights of Ahmadinejad's other interactions in recent times: Since Iran's June election...Ahmadinejad has posed alongside Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at a regional security summit in the Urals, met with the president of Turkey, hosted the Emir of Qatar, dropped in on The Gambia and made plans to visit Turkmenistan. Last month he made the latest in a series of swings over the past five years through Latin America. There he dropped by Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela. In Brazil he attended the signing of 13 Iranian-Brazilian cooperation agreements, in areas ranging from banking to technology to scholarships to the lifting of visa requirements. In Venezuela, he had a chance to follow up with his despotic chum, President Hugo Chavez, with whom he declared four months ago--during one of Chavez's many visits to Iran--joint plans to set up an Iranian-Venezuelan "nuclear village."

So busy has the Iranian president's office been that even Ahmadinejad's wife--who usually stays under wraps--took the UN stage in November, speaking at a summit of the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome.

More broadly, while the Obama administration has been reaching out to Iran, the Iranian regime has continued its own outreach around the globe. In recent months this has run the gamut from multibillion-dollar deals for Chinese investment in Iranian oil refineries, to plans to run a bank and assemble Iranian cars in the despotic, weapons-mongering state of Belarus--as well as build an amusement park in the Belarusian capital of Minsk.

.....In recent years, Iranian interests have wound themselves into everything from resources for the Indonesian fuel industry, to Ghanaian banking, to irrigation and oil refining in Sri Lanka, to initiatives by Iran's Ministry of Agricultural Jihad (yes, that's the name) for projects across much of Africa. Add to this Iran's membership in OPEC and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, as well as its busy dance card at the UN and continuing business with Europe, Russia and China.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/16/iran-politics-government-chavez-opinions-columnists-claudia-rosett.html

[madrchsod]

1. i worked at a printing plant during 2003-6...

where we made and shipped out-- r&d and industrial medical trade magazines to iran.

[Prometheus Bound]

2. Here's a list of US exports to Iran according to a Wikipedia entry. Nice trade surplus in 2008.

The volume of trade between Iran and the United States hit $623 million in 2008. According to the US Census Bureau, the value of US exports to Iran reached $93 million in 2007 and increased to $537 million in 2008. However US imports from Iran decreased to $86 million in 2008, while the figure stood at $148 million in 2007.<176> This data does not include trade through third countries to circumvent the trade embargo.

Top US exports to Iran include cigarettes ($73 million), corn ($68 million); chemical wood pulp, soda or sulphate ($64 million); soybeans($43 million); medical equipment ($27 million); vitamins ($18 million); and vegetable seeds ($12 million). The value of cigarettes sold to Iran was more than twice that of the No. 2 category on the export list, vaccines, serums and blood products ($73 million).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_%E2%80%93_United_States_relations#Economic_relations

[bemildred]

3. I'm surprised Forbes is still in business. nt

[Prometheus Bound]

4. I guess of the big three business mags, they're in the best shape.

which isn't saying much.

The Sun Sets On BusinessWeek, Forbes, And Fortune
May 3, 2009

....The print business at Forbes is doing as poorly as it is at BusinessWeek and Fortune. Forbes has the advantage of a much larger audience online. In the US, it has almost 5.6 million unique visitors and 66 million pageviews. Revenue from the Forbes online business is between $70 million and $80 million, but is not growing. Forbes management might say that its online operations are profitable and that its print business loses money. It is convenient to separate the two businesses, but they share so many resources, that this is not a realistic description of the Forbes overall business.
http://247wallst.com/2009/05/03/the-sun-sets-on-businessweek-forbes-and-fortune/