Top Stories
Reuters: "U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday he
expected to secure tough new sanctions on Iran this spring over Tehran's
disputed nuclear program. The West
suspects Iran is using its civilian nuclear program to covertly build nuclear
weapons, a charge Tehran denies. It says it wants nuclear power to generate
electricity and allow it to export more of its oil and gas." http://bit.ly/ceaJHC
Reuters: "Iran would respond to any military attack from
the United States by hitting U.S. forces stationed in the Middle East, its
military commander said on Thursday. 'If
America presents Iran with a serious threat and undertakes any measure against
Iran, none of the American soldiers who are currently in the region would go
back to America alive,' Major General Hassan Firouzabadi was quoted as saying
by the semi-official Fars news agency." http://nyti.ms/aOCFlp
FT: "Russia's second-largest oil group yesterday said
that it would consider ceasing the supply of petroleum to Iran, a move that
would make it the latest in a line of companies to halt shipments to Tehran. Lukoil's move may be a further signal that
Russia's government is beginning to throw its weight behind the drive to
increase pressure on Iran over its nuclear program. Senior officials at the
company told the Financial Times they were considering halting the shipments." http://bit.ly/bB2aSh
Nuclear Program
AP: "After months of diplomatic dancing, China has agreed
to sit down with five major powers Thursday to discuss possible new sanctions
against Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment and start talks on its
suspect nuclear program." http://nyti.ms/9Mw3ca
AP: "President Barack Obama says talks to reach an arms
treaty with Russia have also yielded closer cooperation toward achieving
sanctions against Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Obama says he and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (dih-MEE'-tree med-VYEH'-dyev)
can be frank with one another, and that helped facilitate their joint work
toward discouraging Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons." http://nyti.ms/djFF4A
WSJ: "Federal prosecutors in Germany have charged two men
with delivering to Iran embargoed tools that were intended to build missiles
capable of carrying a nuclear payload. A
spokesman for the German federal prosecutors' office said Wednesday that a
52-year-old Iranian businessman, whom authorities identified only as 'Mohsen A.',
and a 49-year-old engineer with dual Iranian and German citizenship, whom
prosecutors called 'Behzad S.,' were charged with violating Germany's
export-control law." http://bit.ly/aYmx0s
Domestic Politics
LAT:
"Oh, those lazy Iranians. Say what? A mid-ranking government official in Esfahan
has riled the national psyche by proclaiming: 'Iranians are lazier than the
average people in the world.'" http://bit.ly/bIaSRM
Opinion
LAT Editorial Board: "China's agreement to talk
about sanctions is a step in the right direction, though talking and voting are
two different things. In China's view, Iran has not gone as far as North Korea
in its pursuit of weapons and, therefore, should not be subjected to stricter
sanctions. Thus, some suggest that Beijing would support blacklisting
individuals and companies involved in the Iranian nuclear weapons program --
including the Revolutionary Guard Corps -- and freezing their assets, but not
broader sanctions targeting the financial and energy sectors, for example. The
United States would prefer tougher sanctions, but wants consensus among U.N.
Security Council members to send the message that Tehran is isolated." http://bit.ly/bZerc9
Abbas Djavadi for Radio Farda: "Of the hundreds of
political prisoners in Iranian jails, there is one group, probably the only
one, who have been tried and imprisoned not for attending demonstrations and
not for writing and speaking publicly against the government, but simply for
being members of a persecuted faith: the Baha'is. On April 10, seven prominent members of Iran's
Baha'i community are going to face their third court hearing in Tehran since
they were arrested two years ago." http://bit.ly/coeqI7
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