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WSJ: "The engineering arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps said Friday it was pulling out of projects in a giant Iranian natural-gas field in the Persian Gulf, blaming mounting sanctions from the West. The decision is a blow to a push by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to tighten control of the country's oil and gas industry and suggests a round of fresh international sanctions specifically targeting the IRGC is causing new difficulty for the group, a paramilitary organization with a range of business subsidiaries." http://bit.ly/duQ1fy
BBC News: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said the US must stop using 'cowboy logic' if it wants dialogue with Iran over its nuclear program. He said he was for negotiations, but that imposing sanctions would not make his country change course." http://bit.ly/9ztB0M
WP: "The Iranian scientist who returned to his homeland this week was one of two CIA informants whisked out of Iran last year by the agency amid concerns that the Tehran government had discovered they were providing secrets to the United States, current and former U.S. officials said." http://bit.ly/9F9zDN
Nuclear Program
NYT: "The Educational Testing Service has announced that it is temporarily suspending registration for its tests in Iran, including the popular Test of English as a Foreign Language, in what may be one of the first tangible effects of the new sanctions levied against the country by the international community." http://nyti.ms/aT4zUO
WSJ: "India's petroleum secretary said the latest round of U.S. sanctions against Iran could complicate the activities of Indian state-controlled companies that are looking to invest in Iran's oil and gas sector. The official, S. Sundareshan, said in an interview that Indian public-sector firms, including Oil and Natural Gas Corp., are exploring opportunities in Iran, a huge potential market as India hunts for energy resources abroad. India also recently renewed talks with Iran over a proposed $7.4 billion pipeline that would deliver natural gas to Pakistan and India." http://bit.ly/aRtVO9
WSJ: "As the international sanctions noose tightens around Iran's nuclear program, Tehran is increasingly relying on a small, Iranian-owned bank in Germany to conduct business on behalf of the regime's blacklisted companies, Western officials say. The European-Iranian Trade Bank AG-known as EIH Bank for its German initials-has done over a billion dollars of business for Iranian companies associated with Iran's conventional military and ballistic missile procurement programs, including companies blacklisted by the U.S., the United Nations and the European Union, according to a person familiar with the matter." http://bit.ly/bNwnU6
NYT: "Viewed one way, Mr. Amiri's decision to return is a huge propaganda boon for the Iranians. For months they have insisted that Mr. Amiri was kidnapped in Saudi Arabia in June 2009, by the C.I.A. and Saudi intelligence, then drugged and tortured into making up stories about Iran's covert nuclear program. 'I was under the harshest mental and physical torture,' Mr. Amiri said when he landed in Tehran, an account American officials dismissed as a 'fantasy' spun to save his life. Viewed another way, the Amiri case must be deeply unsettling to the Iranians." http://nyti.ms/9bJa9n
Domestic Politics
NYT: "Having successfully suppressed the opposition uprising that followed last summer's disputed presidential election, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his supporters are now renewing their efforts to marginalize another rival group - Iran's traditional conservatives." http://nyti.ms/c8xwFP
NYT: "Iran's deputy police chief accused Pakistan on Saturday of providing a haven for members of an armed rebel group that has claimed responsibility for the deadly twin suicide bombings last week in front of a mosque in the southeastern city of Zahedan." http://nyti.ms/aYQmmt
NYT: "Market-design maven Al Roth points to a new working paper about Iran's kidney market. Kidney donors in Iran receive regulated payments from the recipients, a gift from the government 'for appreciation of her altruism,' and occasionally an additional payment from the recipient. Once administrators identify an available donor, 'a meeting between the two parties is arranged (they are provided with a private area within the foundation building if they want to reach a private agreement) and they will be sent for tissue tests.'" http://nyti.ms/b8qgfE
AP: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday Iran will file a complaint to international bodies over the deadly mosque bombing by an insurgent group he says the U.S. supports. The twin suicide bombings of a mosque in southeast Iran killed 28 people Thursday night, in an attack claimed by the Jundallah insurgent group as revenge for the execution of its leader by Iranian authorities in June." http://bit.ly/d3hP3v
AP: "Iranian police arrested 40 people following the devastating bombings of a mosque in the country's southeast as funerals were under way for the victims, local media reported on Saturday. Gen. Ahmad Reza Radan, Iran's deputy police chief, told the semiofficial Fars news agency that those detained 'intended to create insecurity in Zahedan after the bombing,' but all was now calm in the city." http://bit.ly/9Y2Aza
AP: "President Barack Obama is condemning the double suicide bombing against a mosque in Iran as an outrageous terrorist attack. In a statement Friday, Obama says the deaths of innocent civilians in their place of worship is an 'intolerable offense' and says those who carried out the attack must be held accountable. Obama says the U.S. stands with the families of those killed and with the Iranian people." http://bit.ly/aSZpF4
Opinion
WP Editorial Board: "The more information becomes available about Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri, the more the Obama administration's version of events seems borne out: He freely chose to leave Iran for the United States, and he freely chose to return. That he was allowed to do so is in keeping with U.S. law and common decency. But it also ought to provide an example for the government of Iran, whose respect for its own laws, not to mention decency, is sporadic at best." http://bit.ly/d7ZYb5
WSJ Editorial Board: "If an Iranian prosecutor has his way, a 43-year-old mother of two will soon be taken from her cell in Tabriz prison, wrapped in a white shroud, buried up to her chest in a dirt pit, and stoned to death. In accordance with Iran's penal code, the rocks pelted at her head will be big enough to inflict pain, but not large enough to kill her immediately. It will take time-maybe half an hour-for her to die." http://bit.ly/cWTRyq
Gabriel Schoenfeld in WSJ: "Since late last year, U.S. intelligence has been preparing a new estimate of Iran's nuclear program. The critical question is whether the forces that led to politicization in 2007 have been eradicated. Will the drafters of the new Iran NIE call the shots as they are, or will they once again use intelligence as a political lever? Already some hints are emerging." http://bit.ly/bHDflg
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