Top Stories
NYT: "In their last report before the United Nations
Security Council votes on sanctions against Iran, international nuclear
inspectors declared Monday that Iran has now produced a stockpile of nuclear
fuel that experts say would be enough, with further enrichment, to make two
nuclear weapons." http://nyti.ms/btDo7X
AFP: "Iran has awarded a business unit of the elite
Revolutionary Guards the rights to develop phases 13 and 14 of the giant South
Pars gas field, the Mehr news agency announced on Friday. The move comes after global firms Royal Dutch
Shell and Repsol YPF were given two weeks on May 10 to say whether they wished
to move forward on the two phases." http://bit.ly/bfd9sC
NYT: "Moving to thwart any protests on the anniversary of
a disputed election, the authorities in Iran have ordered at least two million
paramilitary members into Tehran, re-arrested dissident activists furloughed
from prison and aggressively enforced public bans on mingling of the sexes and
un-Islamic women's clothing." http://nyti.ms/9Xys29
Nuclear Program
LAT: "International arms control inspectors say sensitive
equipment that could be used to extract plutonium for an atomic bomb has gone
missing from a Tehran laboratory months after the apparatus was disclosed to a
United Nations watchdog agency, according to an official report released
Monday." http://bit.ly/acBrnm
Reuters: "A report by U.N. watchdog saying Iran is
stepping up uranium enrichment measures leaves world powers no alternative but
to push for sanctions, France's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday." http://bit.ly/crLEU3
AP: "Iran's foreign minister said Monday he is optimistic
for international approval on a deal to swap nuclear fuel with Turkey, and that
Tehran hopes to restore diplomatic relations with Washington in the future. Iran last week submitted the deal for
approval to the International Atomic Energy Agency. It involves exchanging
enriched uranium for fuel rods that can be used in nuclear reactors but not in
nuclear weapons." http://bit.ly/b12B0g
AFP: "The United States said that a UN agency report
showed 'Iran's continued failure to comply with its international obligations
and its sustained lack of cooperation' with the UN on its nuclear program." http://yhoo.it/9Wrkim
Commerce
Bloomberg: "Iran aims to be self-sufficient in gasoline
production within two years when it completes $11.4 billion in upgrades to its
existing refineries, the country's deputy petroleum minister said at conference
in Bahrain. Seven new refineries planned
in Iran, partly to process heavy crude, will also help to more than quadruple
the amount of gasoline and almost double the amount of gasoil the country
produces, Shahnazi Zadeh, who is also president of the National Iranian Oil
Refining and Distribution Co., said today." http://bit.ly/cROKGg
Reuters: "An Iranian oil rig fire may take six months to
put out, an official in charge of extinguishing the blaze was quoted as saying
on Monday." http://bit.ly/bjzB3U
Human Rights
AP: "The Iranian ambassador in Baghdad said the recent
release of two Iranians from Iraqi custody is not an indication of any
impending deal to free three Americans held by Tehran on spying charges." http://bit.ly/cP0IOu
AP: "An Iranian reformist website says the country's
opposition has formally asked authorities for permission to hold a rally on the
anniversary of the disputed June 12 presidential election. The request indicates the opposition plans to go ahead
with the gathering despite earlier warnings by police they will confront any
illegal demonstration on that date." http://bit.ly/dAcdLe
AFP: "Banned after the 1979 Islamic revolution, cosmetics
like lipstick and nail polish have flooded Iran so much in recent years that it
is now the Middle East's second largest beauty products market. Following the revolution, the morality police
patrolled the streets, fining or even arresting women who flaunted the strict
rules until they were eased after the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war." http://bit.ly/bNS4mD
Radio Farda: "Mansur Osanlu, the jailed head of Tehran's
bus drivers union, has been transferred to a prison section where drug addicts
are kept, his mother has told RFE/RL's Radio Farda." http://bit.ly/9crzei
Opinion
Brian Siegal in The Miami Herald: "One year ago a
disputed victory by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iranian elections prompted mass
protests on the streets of Tehran. Never an exemplar of protecting the human
rights of its own citizens, the regime has since regularly crushed peaceful
demonstrations in Iranian cities, and secretly executed political prisoners." http://bit.ly/baEoqT
Nikola Krastev for Radio Farda: "Hopes were that the 2010
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference, which ends on May 28,
would result in a resolution showing the strength of the global
nonproliferation effort. But as the 189
treaty members mulled over a draft final declaration, it appears they might
have to wait for the next treaty review in five years to move forward." http://bit.ly/b1RwNa
Philip McCrum for International Relations and Security
Network: "Five years after his hotly contested election, Ahmadinejad's fragile
hold on power is threatened by growing economic instability, an emerging reform
movement and the mounting threat of sanctions." http://bit.ly/c1IvI9
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment