Iran oil bourse scheduled [awaiting undersea cable repairs?]

"Even if cutting the cables halted the Bourse, that's only going to hold for a week or ten days until repair ships can get to the area. Plus Iran has communications satellite links onto which Internet traffic is shifting.

If someone wants the Bourse shut down, it will have to be bombed."
--Mike Rivero

Iran oil bourse scheduled

by Staff RELATED NEWS:
http://www.energybulletin.net/39844.html
Geopolitics - Jan 25...

EB reader BB writes:
Iran was scheduled to inaugurate its Oil Bourse this coming week.

That probably isn't going to happen because all internet access in Iran was cut over the weekend (the undersea cables were chopped). This was mentioned on Wikipedia for a day... but now the article links and coverage have disappeared.

Iran is in total internet blackout at the moment. Any further information is appreciated.

Iran Oil Bourse to deal blow to dollar
MK/JG/RE/HAR, Iran Press TV

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=37468&sectionid=351020103

The long-awaited Iranian Oil Bourse, a place for trading oil, petrochemicals and gas in various non-dollar currencies, will soon open.

Iran's Finance Minister Davoud Danesh-Jafari told reporters the bourse will be inaugurated during the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution (February 1-11) at the latest.

"All preparations have been made to launch the bourse; it will open during the Ten-Day Dawn (the ceremonies marking the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran)," he said.

The Minister had earlier stated that the Oil Bourse is located on the Persian Gulf island of Kish.

Some expert opinions hold inauguration of the bourse could significantly devalue the greenback.
(4 January 2008)
Also reported at IranMania http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=56789&New... and mentioned in a report from Global Research (Jan 23, 2008) http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7877 . Otherwise, no reports seem to appear in the media.
-BA

Third undersea cable reportedly cut between Sri Lanka, Suez
Tahani Karrar, Dow Jones Newswires

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/third-undersea-cable-reportedly-cut/story.aspx?guid={1AAB2A79-E983-4E0E-BC39-68A120DC16D9}

A third undersea fibre optic cable running through the Suez to Sri Lanka was cut Friday, said a Flag official.

Two other fiber optic cables owned by Flag Telecom and consortium SEA-ME-WE 4 located near Alexandria, Egypt, were damaged Wednesday leading to a slowdown in Internet and telephone services in the Middle East and South Asia.

"We had another cut today between Dubai and Muscat three hours back. The cable was about 80G capacity, it had telephone, Internet data, everything," one Flag official, who declined to be named, told Zawya Dow Jones.

The cable, known as Falcon, delivers services to countries in the Mediterranean and Gulf region, he added.

"It may take sometime to fix the cut but we are rerouting the traffic to another cable in the U.K. and U.S., the bandwidth utilization will go down," the official said.

There are conflicting reports of how the two Alexandria cables were cut. Oman's largest telecom, Omantel, said a tropical storm caused the damage while du, the United Arab Emirates' second largest telecom, said the cables were cut due to ships dragging their anchors.
(1 February 2008)
According to the Internet Traffic Report site, the router located in Iran (router1.iust.ac.ir) is out of commission. Looking at other reports on the site, however, one sees that several other routers are out of commission (in Africa, Florida and Columbia).

Several posts have appeared on the Internet, claiming that Iran may have been targeted.

A Reuters report on the outage doesn't mention Iran.

http://in.reuters.com/article/topNews/idINIndia-31722520080202