Iran, the world’s foremost state sponsor of Jihadist terrorism and a country that is building nuclear weapons in defiance of United Nations resolutions, is set to issue $5 billion in sukuk (Islamic bonds) to finance its huge South Pars offshore oil and gas field.
Five billion dollars in bonds will be issued in the current Iranian calendar year (to end March 20, 2012) to speed up the implementation of South Pars gas field projects, the National Iranian Oil Company’s managing director Ahmad Qalebani told the Shana news agency.Iran will also issue $15 billion in sukuk bonds in the current year to be invested in the domestic oil industry, oil minister Rostam Qasemi said earlier this month.Sukuk is an Islamic financial certificate, similar to a bond that complies with Sharia, Islamic religious law. Sukuks must be able to link the returns and cash flows of the financing to the assets purchased, or the returns generated from an asset purchased.
Oil and gas revenue is the primary means by which Iran funds its support of Hezbollah, Al Qaeda and Hamas and arms militias in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan. It is also the primary method by which Iran funds its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Because of this, anyone who buys these sukuk is contributing to the sponsorship of terrorism and the proliferation of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
