Investing in Iran

Looks like Iran's development of Nuclear Technology is having unintended consequences. From Yahoo/Reuters

Traders shun Iran bourse as atomic crisis deepens
Investors are bailing out of Iran's stock market, preferring gold and foreign bourses while international pressure ratchets up against Tehran's disputed atomic programme, traders said on Sunday.

The total bourse capitalisation had dropped to $38.2 billion dollars on Sunday, down from $45 billion in late June when conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a landslide presidential election victory.

The TEPIX all-share index stood at 10,151 points on Sunday, down 27 percent in the 14 months from August 2004, when it stood at 13,880.

"Everything depends on the nuclear negotiations, and the market really craves good news," said Akbar Zarganinejad, the head of a leading brokerage.

Iran stands on the brink of referral to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions after failing to convince the world its atomic ambitions are peaceful. Iran insists it needs atomic technology to fuel power stations.

Whoops -- not exactly confidence-building. The issue with Iran's development is that they are putting a lot of effort into equipment than can only be intended for bombs. The level of purity for a bomb is a lot higher than is needed for nuclear fuel so the fact that they are looking at these technologies means that they are not looking at a power reactors. Spending all this money on power reactors is strange as well as they are sitting on a huge reserve of oil.