Top Stories
WSJ: "Iran's state shipping company has changed the names
and ownership of most of its vessels to evade U.S. sanctions, but the Treasury
Department has yet to update the blacklist that U.S. companies use to verify
they are in compliance, according to a new report." http://bit.ly/bn4Rfy
AP: "Iran announced the development of a new, more
advanced, anti-aircraft system, the defense minister said Sunday on national
television. Ahmad Vahidi said the new
Mersad, or Ambush, air-defense system would be able to hit modern aircraft at
low and medium altitudes." http://bit.ly/ahHAYe
Reuters:"President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, taunting the
United States for trying to halt Iran's nuclear program, unveiled a new
centrifuge on Friday which officials said would enrich uranium much faster then
existing models." http://nyti.ms/bT5tDq
Nuclear Program
NYT: "A large majority of Iranian lawmakers, angered over
the Obama administration's new nuclear weapons policy that conspicuously makes
Iran and North Korea possible targets, urged their government on Sunday to
formally complain to the United Nations in a petition that called the United
States a warmonger and threat to world peace." http://nyti.ms/9j9PwO
Reuters:"President Barack Obama will seek to build
momentum with China in his push for sanctions on Iran as world leaders assemble
in Washington on Monday for an unprecedented nuclear security summit." http://bit.ly/bnL8H6
Reuters:"Iran is not yet 'nuclear capable' and the U.S.
government has not concluded that it is inevitable that Tehran will get the
bomb, Pentagon chief Robert Gates said in remarks aired on Sunday. 'It is our judgment ... they are not nuclear
capable, not yet,' Gates, the U.S. defense secretary, said on NBC's 'Meet the
Press.'" http://bit.ly/cN4iHX
Radio Farda:"Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei has warned U.S. President Barack Obama that his statements about the
Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear program are 'disgraceful' and reveal that
the U.S. government is 'wicked and unreliable.'" http://bit.ly/9kCvmq
Human Rights
Radio Farda:"Iran is reported to have hanged five people
convicted of drug trafficking. The Mehr
news agency said the five were executed at a prison in the northeastern city of
Masshad today. It did not identify any of the convicts." http://bit.ly/9GDKyR
Domestic Politics
NYT: "Mohsen Sazegara recognizes that nonviolent protest
is a tough sell for most Iranians, given that bloodshed is a part of both their
long history and their faith. But Mr.
Sazegara ticks off a couple points in its favor. First, the Islamic Republic
has disenchanted a wide section of the population. Second, he believes that
Iranians harbor a mystic tradition that could be channeled into the kind of
nonviolent tide of dissent that bends history." http://nyti.ms/9IMDse
AP:"Iran's official news agency reports assailants
blasted open a prison wall with rocket propelled grenades in western Iran,
allowing two convicted murderers to escape." http://bit.ly/bRSNSE
Foreign Affairs
NYT:"Iran, which has acted as a major power broker in
Iraqi politics, called Saturday for Iraqi leaders to include Sunnis in the
long-overdue new government and said Shiites would have to form an alliance
with them for that to happen." http://nyti.ms/cMI1KR
Opinion
Arthur Herman in National Review Online: "They humiliated
Carter. They nearly brought down Reagan's presidency. They perplexed Bush
Senior and defied Bush Junior, while beguiling and then betraying President
Clinton in between. Now they have run
complete circles around President Obama, as their two-decade-long quest for
nuclear weapons bids fair to become a reality." http://bit.ly/cTxYew
Jaime Daremblum in RCW:"Today in Washington, political
leaders from around the world will gather for the start of President Obama's
Nuclear Security Summit. The 800-pound gorilla in the room will be Iran, which
plans to thumb its nose at Washington by hosting a counter-summit this coming
weekend. The attendees in Tehran will reportedly include officials from
Venezuela, one of Iran's closest allies. While the idea of an Iranian-led
nuclear conference is risible, we should not dismiss the significance of the
Tehran-Caracas relationship, which has highlighted the weakness and incoherence
of Obama's Latin America policy." http://bit.ly/b2UaB6
David Ignatius in WP:"The book opens with this
encompassing disclaimer: 'This is the true story of my life as a CIA agent in
the Revolutionary Guards of Iran; however, every effort has been made to
protect my identity (Reza Kahlili is not my real name), my family, and my
associates. To do so, it was necessary to change all the names (except for
officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran) and alter certain events, chronology,
circumstances, and places.' If we cannot
depend precisely on the who, what, where or when in a nonfiction memoir, then
what do we have?" http://bit.ly/cjLICQ
Ray Takeyh in WP:"The notion that the incumbent Arab
regimes are reluctant to collaborate with the United States on Iran because of
the prevailing impasse in the peace process is a misreading of regional
realities. The Arab states, particularly the Persian Gulf sheikdoms, have an
odd policy toward Iran." http://bit.ly/aFuAyT
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