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U.S. officially has asked the Japanese government to withdraw from the oil project in Azadegan, Iran. The Japanese company Inpex Corp. has been involved in oil projects in Iran, so that the U.S. needs to issue the official request. This is related to the sanctions from Washington against the Islamic Republic who refuses to stop nuclear enrichment program.

Iran government insists, their nuclear enrichment program is for peaceful purposes. But the U.S. and his colleagues - Western countries - pointed the program to make weapons of mass destruction.

U.S. pressure against the Japanese government disclosed by Japanese media, the Yomiuri newspaper. Moreover, the Japanese government holds a majority stake in Inpex Corp., of 30 percent.

Inpex Corp. known as one of the biggest exploraion company for natural gas and oil in Indonesia and Australia, along with other oil-rich areas such as the Caspian Sea, Middle East, and South America. The company, which is focusing its efforts on the cleaner burning liquified natural gas (LNG), exports its products from Indonesia to Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Inpex Corp. has partnered with companies such as BP and Chevron to explore for and produce crude oil from fields in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Iran, and through the acquisition of Japan Oil Development has working interests in offshore oil fields in the United Arab Emirates.

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sun, 06/20/2010 5:30 PM

The Indonesian government has said that Iranian nationals are the most common smugglers of class-A drugs into the country as of January this year.

Malaysians were the next-highest group, with eight suspects arrested so far this year, followed by India with six suspects, tempointeraktif.com reported.

The Customs and Excise Office at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, has arrested 15 Iranian nationals this year linked to 22 cases. It has also seized a total 115 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, locally known as shabu-shabu), ketamine, heroin, cocaine and marijuana.

"All of the evidence together is worth Rp 278 billion (US$30.5 million) at market value," the office's head Baduri Wijayanta said Sunday.

All of the arrested Iranian smugglers were believed to be part of an Iran-based international drug syndicate, he added.

The office's head of prosecutions Gatot Sugeng Wibowo said the Iran-based drug mafia might not have been aware that Indonesia enforced the death penalty for drug smuggling.

The 2009 Narcotics Law carries the death penalty and a Rp 10 billion fine for anyone in possession of more than 5 grams of drugs.

Related Article:

News maker: Journalists take pictures of Soekarno-Hatta airport customs office head Bahaduri Wijayanta following a press conference on the arrest of three Iranians for a drug smuggling attempt. The Iranian nationals were presented during the conference on Wednesday.-- JP/Multa Fidrus

Customs and excise officers have arrested three Iranians at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport for attempting to smuggle two kilograms of crystal methamphetamine from Tehran into the country.

The arrest on Tuesday has brought the number of Iranian nationals apprehended for drug smuggling attempt to 11 since January.

Bahaduri Wijayanta, head of customs office at the airport, identified the latest three suspects as Jeihouni Sohrab, 28, Fadaelfatehviri Fardin, 33 and Nousratpour Sohrab, 40. The latter is a woman.

Making their first trip to Indonesia, the three Iranians arrived at the airport on Tuesday aboard Qatar Airways flight QR-672 that flew from Doha.

“Our profile analyses conducted on passengers found the three suspects displayed suspicious behavior so that we decided to examine them,” Bahaduri told a media conference at his office on Wednesday.

The officers found a total of 990 grams crystal methamphetamine hidden in false concealments under the sandals of Jeihouni and Fardin. Another 1,040 grams of the same drug was concealed in the luggage pushers carried by Nousratpour.

“All the suspects admitted to having been promised payment worth US$900 each for delivering the drug to someone in Jakarta,” Bahaduri said.

The suspects will be charged with violating Article 113 of the 2009 anti-narcotics law. If proven guilty, the suspects will face maximum penalty of death.

Airport police chief Sr. Comr. Tornagogo said that police were intensifying their crackdown on drug at the domestic terminal under an operation code named Nila, which started on June 4.

Tempo Interactive, Monday, 29 March, 2010 | 22:06 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: East Java Police arrested 47 Iranian immigrants in a regency about 210 kilometers southwest of Surabaya early on Monday (29/3), which were trying travel to Christmas island by boat.

Thirty eight male, seven female and four children were being detained by maritime police in Pacitan Regency in the southern coast of Java since their capture earlier today.

Head of the regency Marine Police Unit Adjutant Second Inspector Yahudi said the immigrants were in good condition. He said local fishermen spotted the immigrants on a life boat-like vessel about three miles of the coast of Pacitan and reported them to the police.

A translator helping police to communicate with the immigrants said the Iranians were trying to head to Christmas Island.

Police suspected the immigrants entered Indonesia legally and spent several times in a temporary shelter in Bogor, West Java before continue with their trip. No report on the persons who guided the immigrants with their movements in Indonesia.

ISHOMUDDIN

Desy Nurhayati, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar | Fri, 03/26/2010 10:34 AM | Bali

At the Denpasar District Court on Thursday, prosecutors in the trial of an Iranian caught of smuggling crystal methamphetamine said they were seeking the death penalty.

Prosecutors said defendant Saeid Shahbazi violated the 2009 Narcotics Law by importing or supplying 22 capsules of crystal methamphetamine with a total weight of 162.13 grams and could face the death penalty.

“The defendant intentionally brought the drugs through the Ngurah Rai International Airport arrival gate,” prosecutor I Ketut Sujaya said during the session presided over by judge Sigit Sutanto.

The 34-year-old Iranian, the sole defendant in the case, allegedly attempted to smuggle the crystal meth capsules by swallowing the drugs.

He was arrested by Customs and Excise officers at the airport upon his arrival from Doha via Kuala Lumpur onboard a Qatar Airways flight on Dec. 21 last year.

The court heard testimony from two Customs and Excise officers, a medical worker at the Bali International Medical Center and two police officers.

The defendant looked panicked when approaching the immigration booth at the airport, Customs and Excise officer Ketut Suciawan said. Suciawan was posted at the arrival gate at the time.

“We suspected something and immediately took him to the examination room and later to the hospital,” he said.

Prosecutors said that the officers didn’t find the drugs when searching the defendant’s luggage, but noticed that his stomach looked bloated and that his demeanor was panicky.

Doctors at the hospital scanned his stomach and found several small plastic bags that resembled capsules.

After an X-ray was performed on the defendant and he was given laxatives, medical staff recovered 22 capsules containing crystal meth.

Bali has seen many cases of drug smuggling in the last couple of months.

Among the foreigners arrested for smuggling drugs was Indian national Mohammed Umar, who was carrying 9.8 kilograms of ketamine in his luggage last month.

The 36-year-old man smuggled the white crystal powder, usually used as an anesthetic, inside a water heater he brought from India.

In January, officers arrested a Malaysian woman, Hoon Yue Chin, for bringing in 0.62 grams of crystal meth.

Several days later, French national Francois Virgile Arthur Sidoine was caught with 0.78 grams of heroine in his underwear.

In the same month, two Malaysians, Chang Cheng Weng and Boo Guan Teik, were arrested for smuggling in two kilograms of crystal meth.

Weeks before Saeid was arrested, the Customs and Excise Office arrested seven other Iranians attempting to smuggle five kilograms of crystal meth by also swallowing the drugs.

In December, 48-year-old Australian Robert Paul McJannett was also detained by the police for attempting to smuggle two grams of marijuana into the island.

Jakarta Globe, March 18, 2010

An Iranian man has been arrested by customs officers at Jakarta's Soekarno Hatta International Airport for allegedly trying to smuggle in a kilogram of methamphetamines worth around Rp 2.3 billion ($252,192).

According to authorities, the suspect was arrested at Terminal 2-D on Wednesday night after arriving in Jakarta on Emirates Airways from Dubai. The meth was hidden inside a folded chessboard. The head of the airport's customs office, Bahaduri Wijayanta, told poskota.com an X-Ray inspection showed suspicious objects inside the board.

Last year, nine Iranians were arrested at Soekarno-Hatta for bringing methamphetamine ingredients inside their luggage. They arrived separately over a three-day period and claimed they did not know each other.

JG

Tempo Interactive, Friday, 19 February, 2010 | 20:25 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: About 9,5 kilograms of methamphetamine had been seized by customs officials at Soekarno Hatta Airport and one Iranian arrested in the biggest drug bust at the airport to date, authorities said on Friday (19/2).

The drug came in on February 12th through Etihad Airways' EY 472 flight cargo from Teheran, packed in about eight packages of marble home decorations. But the bust was not made until an Iranian picked up the packages at the airport on on February 18th.

A local aviation company PT JAS according to authorities handled the ground and cargo service for the packages.

Head of the Enforcement and Investigation Section of the Customs Office Gatot Sugeng Wibowo said 9,56 kilograms of methamphetamine found stuffed inside the marble decorations with a total weight of 1,200 kilograms.

Baduri Wijayanta Head of the Soekarno-Hatta Customs Office said it was the biggest drug smuggling scheme through cargo in the history of the Customs Office, estimated to worth around Rp20 billion.

Authorities have detected the drugs since its arrival and began to watch closely on every Iranian arriving at the airport. Five days after the packages arrived an Iranian arrived on a Qatar Airways and came to claim the package on February 17th.

The suspect identified as Mehdi Tajbakhsh Valadi could not complete the pick up on the same day as he was in short of cash, and returned on Freburay 18th to complete the pick up.

Methamphetamine is a category I drug under Indonesian law which bears a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison or death penalty for cases involving more than five grams of the drug.

JONIANSYAH | AYU CIPTA

The Jakarta Post, The Associated Press, Kuala Lumpur | Thu, 02/11/2010 2:13 PM

Malaysian airport authorities have stepped up surveillance on Iranian travelers after dozens were held this year on suspicion of smuggling drugs, officials said Thursday.

Six Iranians were arrested this week alone for allegedly having methamphetamines while arriving on four separate flights at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, said Nordin Kadir, head of the police narcotics department in central Selangor state.

"It is a very big number," Nordin said, adding there were indications the Iranians were catering to a rising demand for methamphetamines among Malaysian drug-users.

The suspects face death by hanging if convicted of drug trafficking, though none has been charged yet because police haven't completed their investigations.

Those detained all came from Tehran and made transit stops in Bahrain and Dubai, Nordin said. Most of the drugs were hidden in the suspects' luggage. One man allegedly had eight packets of methampethamines sewn into his jacket, he said.

So far this year, 41 Iranians have been held for allegedly smuggling nearly 200 pounds (90 kilograms) of methamphetamines worth up to $6.5 million into Malaysia, said Othman Harun, deputy police chief of the federal narcotics department. For the whole of last year, 24 Iranians were detained for similar offenses.

Police have deployed more officers to monitor Iranian travelers at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Othman said.

A Malaysian and two Singaporeans believed linked to Iranian smugglers were arrested Tuesday at an airport outside Kuala Lumpur, Othman said. They were on the way to the Philippines when allegedly found with 80 pounds (36 kilograms) of methamphetamines in their luggage, he said.

Iranian Parliament has been approved the first woman minister in the 30-year history of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Thursday, September 3, 2009. The first Iranian woman minister endorsed is Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi. The woman with a hardline conservative background would be served as health minister.

As quoted from the BBC, Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi became one of 18 nominations for the new cabinet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Two other women, including the rejected candidates. BBC correspondent reported, in the past Marzieh was filed a separate health care proposals in Iran, women caring for women and men caring for men.

Two women who rejected are Fatemeh Ajorlou, as minister of welfare and social security and Sousan Keshavarz as minister of education. The third candidate who was rejected is the candidate for energy minister proposed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mohammad Aliabadi. Ahmadinejad had three months to find their replacement candidate who did not qualify.

Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad's choice for Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi, received strong support from the parliament. Vahidi is a former leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and one of six former and current Iranian officials sought by Interpol for the bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center in 1994.

The Iranian officials said they had been releases five of the nine detained staff of British embassy who arrested on accusations of stoking post-election unrest, a move that further threatened tense ties with London and the West.

AFP reported this announcement came as Iran's top election board started their partial recount of the fiercely-disputed presidential election, after demonstrators from the opposition parties defiantly faced off against riot police in Tehran.

Hassan Ghashghavi foreign ministry spokesman said that "Out of nine people arrested, five have been released."

Iran has repeatedly accused Britain and the United States of "meddling" in the violent aftermath of their presidential election, which then triggered the biggest crisis since the Islamic revolution 30 years ago.

But even as the international community voices continuing alarm over the situation in Iran, Ghashghavi said Tehran no plans to close embassies or downgrade diplomatic ties with foreign nations.

The Fars news agency, announcing the arrests on Sunday, said the embassy staff had played a "considerable role" in the unrest that swept Iran after the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on June 12.

Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie accused the embassy of sending local staff "undercover among rioters in order to push its own agenda," the official IRNA news agency reported.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said London had protested strongly over the arrests, which he described as "harassment and intimidation" and dismissed as baseless claims the embassy was behind the unrest.

EU nations also vowed to respond to any harassment of diplomats in Iran with a "strong and collective response", Miliband told reporters at an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Corfu.

But Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki -- who has previously said Tehran was considering downgrading its ties with London after the two nations expelled diplomats -- urged Britain and the EU not to take rash action over the arrests.

"Don't continue with this losing game because this is neither in the interests of the British people nor the two countries' relations that have (already) been damaged because of the British government's behaviour," he said.

Against the backdrop of diplomatic tensions, Iran began a partial recount of ballots cast in the election that the opposition claims was marred by widespread irregularities and fraud.

"The Guardians Council has started a partial recount of 10 percent of the ballot boxes," state-owned Arabic-language television Al-Alam said.

The opposition is demanding a complete rerun of the vote and has staged massive demonstrations in a dispute that has shaken the very foundations of the Islamic regime.

On Sunday, riot police in Tehran dispersed about 3,000 supporters of Ahmadinejad's strongest rival Mir Hussein Mousavi who defied a ban on public gatherings, witnesses said.

A witness spoke of a "minor confrontation" between police and the demonstrators who had gathered around Ghoba mosque to mark the anniversary of a prominent cleric killed in a bombing 28 years ago.

The information could not be independently verified as foreign media are banned from the streets under tough new restrictions imposed by the authorities in the wake of the election.

The Guardians Council, an unelected body of 12 jurists and clerics, has set up a committee to conduct the recount but Mousavi and fellow defeated candidate Mehdi Karroubi rejected the panel and declined to send any representatives to oversee the count.

Karroubi, a reformist former parliament speaker, insisted in a letter to the council on Sunday that a partial recount was "not enough" and called for an independent body to probe "all aspects of the election."

Mousavi, who was prime minister in the post-revolution years, won 34 percent of the vote against 63 percent for Ahmadinejad, a gap of 11 million votes, according to official results. Karroubi came a distant fourth with less than one percent.

The Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights said on Sunday that more than 2,000 people are still in detention and hundreds more are missing across Iran since a government crackdown on protesters and opposition supporters.

Since the election at least 17 people have been also killed and many more wounded in clashes with security forces, according to state media.

Among those arrested are reformists, journalists and analysts, including supporters of Mousavi and even some figures closed to top officials, in a sign of cracks appearing within the regime over the election.