Top Stories
NYT: "The European Union is considering tough new sanctions against Iran to protest its nuclear program, including banning investment in the oil and gas sector and tightening restrictions on shipping and finance." http://nyti.ms/bJJDwT
AP: "Iran's parliament authorized tit-for-tat retaliation Tuesday against countries that inspect cargo on Iranian ships and aircraft as part of new U.N. sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program. A fourth Security Council sanctions resolution imposed last month calls on, but does not require, all countries to cooperate in such cargo inspections if there are 'reasonable grounds' to believe the items could contribute to the Iranian nuclear program, and any inspection must receive the consent of the ship's flag state." http://bit.ly/cHVSUN
AFP: "Global energy majors are welcome to help develop oil and gas projects in Iran despite new sanctions imposed on the Islamic republic, a top official told reporters on Monday. 'We welcome all international companies, eastern or western. The oil industry cannot be deprived of cooperation,' said Mohammad Hossein Mousavizadeh, adviser to Pars Oil and Gas Co, which is developing the giant South Pars fields in Gulf waters." http://bit.ly/a2iOYK
Nuclear Program
AP: "German authorities are investigating the activities of a Hamburg-based bank that specializes in financing trade between Europe and Iran, after it was blacklisted by the U.S. government in connection with sanctions against Tehran." http://bit.ly/cSTlYQ
WSJ: "Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki accused the U.S., Pakistan and allied forces of utilizing Afghanistan to support terrorist strikes inside Iran, including last week's bomb blasts in eastern Sistan-Baluchistan province." http://bit.ly/b9TKaX
Human Rights
Radio Farda: "You Can Tell Web Censorship Is Really Bad In Iran...When even websites based inside the country and close to the establishment provide users with antifiltering tools. The popular 'Tabnak' website, which is said to be close to the former head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Mohsen Rezai, has posted a link to a proxy server on its website for users to bypass Internet filtering in Iran. (According to media watchdog 'Reporters Without Borders,' Iran is only second to China in the extent and sophistication of its web censorship.)" http://bit.ly/9WgxrT
AFP: "Iran has hanged three men in a prison in Kerman in the south and one in public in the western city of Ahvaz after they were convicted of drug trafficking, newspapers reported on Tuesday. Shargh newspaper identified three men executed in Kerman city on Monday as Abbas Y., Ruhollah B., and Mohammad Naim Sh." http://bit.ly/cEEN9T
CNN: "Want a job in Iran's executive branch? Quit smoking. People addicted to tobacco cannot get jobs with the government's executive branch, according to the semi-official Iranian Labour News Agency, which cited a directive published Monday by the Cabinet's information office." http://bit.ly/acoday
Toronto Sun: "It's a country that will execute women for adultery, has more than 100 children under 18 on death row and answered public protests over election results by opening fire on crowds numbering in the thousands. Still, Iran thinks it has lessons to teach Canada when it comes to human rights. Last week, Iran summoned Canada's top diplomat in Tehran to ask him about how Canadian police handled protests at the G20 summit in Toronto." http://bit.ly/avlxhr
Domestic Politics
LAT: "A recently concluded strike throughout Iran's main traditional markets, or bazaars, was initially embraced by the opposition movement born out of last year's allegedly fraudulent reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But as it became clear the stakes were more about cash than politics, those supporting the self-described Green movement appeared to distance themselves from it." http://bit.ly/909Th9
Opinion
Reuel Marc Gerecht in The Weekly Standard: "There is only one thing that terrifies Washington's foreign policy establishment more than the prospect of an American airstrike against Iran's nuclear-weapons facilities: an Israeli airstrike. Left, right, and center, 'sensible' people view the idea with alarm. Such an attack would, they say, do great damage to the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Tehran would counterattack, punishing 'the Great Satan' (America) for the sins of 'the Little Satan' (Israel)." http://bit.ly/9TW4Uz
Bret Stephens in WSJ: "Why hasn't Israel bombed Iran yet? It's a question I often get from people who suppose I have a telepathic hotline to Benjamin Netanyahu's brain. I don't, but for a long time I was confident that an attack would happen in the first six months of this year. Since it didn't, it's worth thinking through why." http://bit.ly/aeozAL
Arang Keshavarian in FP: "The government is right to be concerned. The Iranian capital's marketplace has proven among the most reliable catalysts of political upheaval in the country's long history. Bazaaris have used similar methods of resistance to channel opposition to rulers and show support for larger political movements. Bazaari dissent was instrumental to the successes of Iran's constitutional movement of 1905, the nationalization of the oil industry in the 1950s, and the overthrow of the monarchy in 1979." http://bit.ly/bBN5qN
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