Top Stories
AP: "CIA Director Leon Panetta says Iran probably has enough low-enriched uranium for two nuclear weapons, but that it likely would take two years to build the bombs. Panetta also says he is doubtful that recent U.N. penalties will put an end to Iran's nuclear ambitions." http://bit.ly/bBRItR
AP: "Iran's president says Tehran will not hold talks with the West over its disputed nuclear program until late August to 'punish' world powers for imposing tougher economic sanctions. The U.N. Security Council approved new sanctions against Iran earlier this month over Tehran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment." http://bit.ly/9RnHll
LAT: "U.S. and European officials in charge of efforts to tighten sanctions against Iran have expressed new concerns that China is quietly positioning itself to undermine the latest measures. In the last two weeks, the United States and the European Union imposed new sanctions to pressure Tehran to curtail its nuclear program. The measures, which augment United Nations sanctions adopted this month, aim to discourage international investment in Iran, particularly its energy sector." http://bit.ly/9mAjIB
Nuclear Program
LAT: "Tapper asked about suspicions that the U.S. was secretly helping Iran stumble in its research. That wouldn't exactly be transparent, would it? But, hey, when it comes to nukes in the hands of the likes of those types, whatever works, right? Panetta, of course, is not really going to answer. 'Why, yes, Jake. We did give his scientists the incorrect recipe for enriching uranium just the other day.' But see if you read into Panetta's non-answer here a hopeful sign that the Obama administration may not be as passive as it looks." http://bit.ly/coraSb
Commerce
Reuters: "Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Ali-Reza Zeighami says emergency plans will help boost the country's gasoline output sharply by early 2012. The daily 'Resalat' quotes Zeighami as saying on June 27 that daily gasoline production would increase by 17 million liters by the end of the next Iranian year, which runs until March 2012. This would amount to almost the same volumes that Iran is now importing." http://bit.ly/9n8C3D
WSJ: "Total SA has become the latest company to discontinue the sale of refined products to Iran, a person familiar with the matter said Monday, amid new U.S. sanctions targeting Iran's gasoline imports." http://bit.ly/ahN1il
WSJ: "Iran's beleaguered oil industry could be on its way to passing an ignominious milestone: being replaced by its onetime nemesis, Iraq, as the Middle East's second-biggest oil producer. That possible drop in standing, largely a result of economic sanctions and Iranian mismanagement, raises the prospect of less revenue for Tehran at a time when new sanctions are piling up against the regime." http://bit.ly/bxxR9m
Dow Jones: "Iran's negotiations to finalize an oil-fields deal with Russia's OAO Gazprom Neft (SIBN.RS) are in final stages, a top Iran government official said Friday. Russia has come into trouble with Iran after agreeing to support US efforts to get new sanctions from the UN Security Council But speaking to Dow Jones Newswires, Hojatollah Ghanimifard, vice president in charge of investment affairs at the National Iranian Oil Co., said: 'We hope to have a final decision soon' on the Gazprom Neft deal." http://bit.ly/b9NgPT
Dow Jones: "Iran is leaving the door open to Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA, RDSB, RDSA.LN, RDSB.LN) to join a giant gas project but Repsol YPF (REP, REP.MC) has completely pulled out, a top government official said Friday. The statement comes after state-owned Pars Oil and Gas Co. awarded contracts to develop phases 13 and 14 of the South Pars field to domestic companies after talks with Shell and Repsol came to no avail." http://bit.ly/9TLQly
Human Rights
NYT: "At least 30,000 opponents to the Iranian government gathered on Saturday in a stadium in this quiet town outside Paris to support the National Council of Resistance to Iran in a large rally coming a year after disputed elections in Iran." http://nyti.ms/cokaGx
Foreign Affairs
AP: "Iran will not be sending a blockade-busting ship to Gaza in defiance of Israeli warnings, an Iranian lawmaker said Saturday, citing Israeli 'restrictions.' Mahmoud Ahmadi Bighash told the semiofficial ISNA news agency that instead of sending a ship, an Iranian delegation of lawmakers would travel to Lebanon and sail on one of the aid ships expected to head to Gaza from there." http://bit.ly/bXOgyQ
Reuters: "Iranian lawmakers protesting Israel's naval blockade of Gaza plan to travel on an aid ship that is expected to leave from Lebanon, a member of the Iranian Parliament said on Saturday. Lebanon said last week that it would allow a Gaza-bound ship, the Julia, to sail via Cyprus, despite warnings from Israel that it reserved the right to use all necessary means to stop ships that tried to sail to Gaza from Lebanon." http://nyti.ms/cf8Ehl
Culture
LAT: "If pop culture is a measure of cultural visibility, then Iranian Americans have been invisible for decades. Of course, there was Iran itself, hardly invisible. But as a teenager, I knew my reality, one far from hostage crises and contra trials, was never going to make it pop culturally; in fact, I would have bet my little hyphenated life against the very moment of pop cultural breakthrough we're finally reaching now." http://bit.ly/aq2ggw
Opinion
Mort Zuckerman in U.S. News: "What is at stake here is too menacing for the world to delude itself that Iran will somehow change course. It won't. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, does not want a seat at the negotiating table with the great powers, he wants to overturn the table. He is a messianic revolutionary, not a leader." http://bit.ly/bu9tSe
Golnaz Esfandiari for Radio Farda: "A dispute over control of one of the world's largest universities has turned into a fight between government bodies that is exposing deep fissures within the Iranian establishment. At the center of the tug-of-war is Azad University: its leadership, board, 1.4 million students, and tens of billions of dollars in assets." http://bit.ly/aRP4pm
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