Eye On Iran: Iran Defends Rights Record as Opposition Cancels Rally

For continuing coverage follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group. Top Stories NYT: "As Iran defended its record before the United Nations Human Rights Council, calling itself a model of Middle East democracy, opposition leaders in Tehran on Thursday canceled a weekend rally marking one year since the country's disputed presidential election because the government did not give them a permit." http://nyti.ms/caopJy WP: "Now, a year later, the masses that made up the movement have disappeared from the streets of Tehran. Dozens of protesters have been killed in clashes with determined government forces; hundreds have been arrested and put on trial. Faced with overwhelming force, without guidance or organization, the dissidents these days cannot agree on their goals, much less mount a significant challenge to the country's leadership." http://bit.ly/bINqPa WSJ: "The U.S. has accelerated its effort to provide dissidents in Iran with computer hardware and software to evade government censors. But it's a shift that many activists say is insufficient to bring political change in Tehran. During much of the Obama administration's first year-reversing the approach of the George W. Bush administration-the White House withheld action on unilateral economic sanctions and other measures seen as challenging Iran's regime. Its hope was to engage Iran diplomatically instead." http://bit.ly/a2qi2I Nuclear Program LAT: "The Obama administration, which labored for months to impose tough new United Nations sanctions against Iran, now is pushing in the opposite direction against Congress as it crafts U.S. sanctions that the White House fears may go too far. Administration officials have begun negotiations with congressional leaders, who are working on versions of House and Senate bills that would punish companies that sell refined petroleum products to Iran or help the country's oil industry." http://bit.ly/d63XpP AP: "A Kremlin official says Russia will not be able to deliver S-300 air-defense missiles to Iran because of the new U.N. sanctions. The Kremlin official spoke the day after the Foreign Ministry spokesman said the sanctions did not forbid delivery of the missile systems." http://bit.ly/cq3VTd AP: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the United States of hypocrisy during a visit to the World Expo in Shanghai on Friday, two days after host China yielded to international pressure to back new nuclear sanctions against Tehran." http://bit.ly/9XZQiE AP: "An Iranian dissident who went missing for almost two weeks in Germany has told The Associated Press he was kidnapped by four Arabic-speaking man who threatened to kill him for a film he made that is critical of the Iranian regime." http://bit.ly/c3v8SJ Human Rights AP: "Three Americans detained in Iran for almost a year on suspicion of spying will likely go on trial soon if prosecutors decide there is enough evidence to press charges, Iran's top human rights official said Friday." http://bit.ly/dqcNmI Opinion Fouad Ajami in WSJ: "Three decades ago, before his final flight to exile, the Shah of Iran had drawn a line: He would not fire on his people. He was a king, he said, and not a dictator. The army had not yet cracked; there were loyalists keen to make a stand against the revolutionary upheaval. But the man at the center of the storm had boarded a plane, with his immediate family, in search of a country that would have him. It's impossible to fathom such a principled retreat by today's 'Supreme Leader,' Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his vast apparatus of repression and terror." http://bit.ly/bRzqNY Charles Krauthammer in WP: "In announcing the passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Iran, President Obama stressed not once but twice Iran's increasing 'isolation' from the world. This claim is not surprising considering that after 16 months of an 'extended hand' policy, in response to which Iran accelerated its nuclear program -- more centrifuges, more enrichment sites, higher enrichment levels -- Iranian 'isolation' is about the only achievement to which the administration can even plausibly lay claim." http://bit.ly/ac8EOV Gerald F. Seib in WSJ: "On that same day, this newspaper's European edition carried an article reporting that companies in Germany-a nation that nominally supports the sanctions effort-increased their exports to Iran by 48% in March and 15% in the first quarter. Their imports from Iran rose by even greater margins. On the German front, at least, if Iran is to be economically isolated, the process has a ways to go." http://bit.ly/bAVsTX News Analysis David Sanger in NYT: "No one in the Obama White House believes that, by themselves, the newest rounds of sanctions against Iran's military-run businesses, its shipping lines and its financial institutions will force Tehran to halt its 20-year-long drive for a nuclear capability." http://nyti.ms/9b1K8a Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons. UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.

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