Top Stories
AP: "Defense Secretary Robert Gates says that Iran's resistance to a new round of proposed U.N. sanctions proves that they might work. The U.S. introduced a resolution this week calling for a series of economic and trade restrictions related to Iran's nuclear and weapons programs, after winning support from China and Russia." http://bit.ly/bcb7YK
Dow Jones: "A lobbying group is turning up its pressure against Honeywell International Inc. (HON) for its business activities in Iran. United Against Nuclear Iran wants U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to bar Honeywell from receiving defense department contracts as long as a subsidiary of the aerospace and industrial conglomerate continues to do business with Iranian companies. The group said defense contracts worth $3.45 billion were awarded to New Jersey-based Honeywell last year." http://bit.ly/bfYO8M
NYT: "In their first public appearance, the three - Sarah E. Shourd, 31; her companion, Shane M. Bauer, 27; and their friend Joshua F. Fattal, 27 - described their nearly 10 months in the notorious Evin Prison and expressed hope that they would be freed soon on 'humanitarian grounds.' They said they had not been allowed to see a lawyer." http://nyti.ms/cL1D9d
Nuclear Program
AFP: "The International Atomic Energy Agency is still waiting for an official notification from Iran on a uranium enrichment deal with Turkey and Brazil, the nuclear watchdog's chief Yukiya Amano said Wednesday. Amano told reporters during a visit to Bucharest that he knew of the accord struck by the Iranian, Brazilian and Brazilian presidents in Tehran on Monday." http://bit.ly/cP56aJ
Reuters: "Iran on Wednesday dismissed a draft U.N. resolution to expand sanctions over its nuclear program, saying the measures were unlikely to be approved and would not break its economy if they were implemented." http://bit.ly/aoyk5i
BBC News: "Both were disappointed by proposals for new sanctions tabled a day after Tehran agreed to trade uranium for ready-enriched reactor fuel. Iranian officials said major powers would be 'discrediting' themselves if they ignored the hard-won deal." http://bit.ly/9K8wfx
Radio Farda: "A top Russian politician says possible international sanctions against Iran will not affect current Russian contracts with Tehran. The statement today by Mikhail Margelov, the head of the International Relations Committee of Russia's upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, contradicts earlier reports that the sanctions under discussion could prevent Russia from delivering S-300 surface-to-air missiles to Iran." http://bit.ly/d7w1cW
WSJ: "China's biggest oil company is pressing ahead with oil-and-gas projects in Iran valued at billions of dollars, its top executive said, highlighting Beijing's strong economic ties to Tehran even as China has signed onto a U.S.-led sanctions effort against Iran." http://bit.ly/9MABAq Human Rights
Radio Farda: "A prominent Tehran-based lawyer has accused the government of failing to address the problem of child abuse in Iran, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports. Nastrin Sotoudeh told Radio Farda that judicial authorities pay little attention to such mistreatment." http://bit.ly/dquoK9
Opinion
Boston Globe Editorial Board: "Facing new UN sanctions for refusing to suspend its uranium enrichment, Iran executed a clever evasive maneuver, announcing a deal with Turkey and Brazil to ship some of its low-enriched uranium overseas, where it would then be converted for peaceful uses. In responding to Iran, President Obama needs to match shrewdness with shrewdness." http://bit.ly/cL61dN
Michael Anton in the Weekly Standard: "Just when you thought the Iran problem couldn't get worse, it's worse. Earlier this week Tehran agreed to a deal, brokered by Brazil and Turkey, to ship out more than 2,500 pounds of its enriched uranium across the border to Turkey. In exchange the Iranians will receive fuel rods containing about 250 pounds of uranium enriched to 20 percent for use in their low-wattage Tehran Research Reactor, which the regime says will be used to generate medical isotopes (for instance, sodium iodide 131I to treat thyroid cancer)." http://bit.ly/8ZQUSj
Gerald Seib in WSJ: "A piece of paper can't stop a bomb, and a United Nations resolution that hasn't even been passed yet certainly can't do the trick. Yet the announcement this week that the U.S. and the other permanent powers on the U.N. Security Council have agreed on a proposed new set of sanctions on Iran represents a significant moment in the tangled, long-running drama over Iran's nuclear program." http://bit.ly/b3dCOL
Roger Cohen in NYT: "John Limbert, once a U.S. hostage in Tehran, now charged with Iranian affairs at the State Department, has given a good description of the caricatures that bedevil American-Iranian non-relations." http://nyti.ms/bN6UGJ
News Analysis
Sylvia Westall and Fredrik Dahl for Reuters: "A draft plan for new U.N. sanctions seeks to squeeze Iran's banking and shipping sectors and strengthen curbs on military and nuclear work, but crippling steps were passed over in favor of big power unity." http://bit.ly/b91ZFr
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