Top Stories
AFP:
"Danish shipping and oil group A.P. Moeller-Maersk said Monday it had paid a
3.1-million-dollar (2.3-million-euro) fine to the United States for having
violated its embargo on Iran and Sudan. US authorities sued the Danish group's
shipping branch Maersk Line for having used ships registered in the United
States to carry commercial cargo to Sudan and Iran between January 2003 and
October 2007, thus breaching Washington's embargo on the two countries." http://bit.ly/dkHn3u
WT: "A
Pentagon strike against Iran would rely heavily on the B-2 bomber and cruise
missiles to try to destroy the regime's ability to make nuclear weapons,
analysts say, after the top U.S. military officer said a war plan is in place.
The missiles, fired from surface ships, submarines and B-52 bombers, would take
out air defenses and nuclear-related facilities. The B-2s would drop tons of
bombs, including ground penetrators, onto fortified and buried sites where Tehran
is suspected of enriching uranium to fuel the weapons and working on warheads."
http://bit.ly/cGD3Jt
AFP: "The United States should immediately impose sanctions on Russia and China
under a US law that punishes major investments in Iran's energy sector, a
senior US lawmaker said Monday. 'It's
time to implement our sanctions laws and demonstrate to Russia and China that
there are consequences for abetting Tehran and flouting US sanctions,'
Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement." http://bit.ly/az2B9d
UANI
in the News
Fox News:
"Danish shipping giant Maersk on Monday rejected allegations made last week that
it was flouting U.S. sanctions by conducting business with Iran, claiming its
Iranian ties are above board and legal... United Against Nuclear Iran
spokeswoman Kimmie Lipscomb said Monday that the firm still needs to 'come
clean' on its dealings with Iran. She said the extent of that relationship is
'unclear,' but nevertheless improper. 'Maersk has acknowledged they do business
in Iran. That business is inappropriate given the sizable business that they
conduct with the United States,' she said." http://bit.ly/duJPlP
Nuclear Program
Bloomberg:
"Iran's gasoline imports fell 50 percent last month as sanctions over the
nation's nuclear program spurred traders to halt supplies, according to Energy
Market Consultants Ltd. Iran received about 60,000 barrels a day in July,
compared with 120,000 in May, Vijay Mukherji, a London-based research associate
at EMC, said by phone today. The consultant revised its earlier estimate of
65,000 to 70,000 barrels a day." http://bit.ly/cU4SO1
Reuters: "Ships
carrying petroleum to Iran face greater scrutiny at ports in the United Arab
Emirates as new western sanctions bite leaving the Islamic Republic to seek
alternative hubs, trade and shipping sources say... Analysts said given the
growing heat in the UAE, Iran could potentially use ports in Turkey or possibly
Pakistan." http://bit.ly/bQEg31
Reuters: "Talks to revive a stalled plan for Iran to swap some nuclear material for fuel
could start within months, the U.N. atomic watchdog chief said on Monday, and
there had been some positive signals from the countries involved." http://bit.ly/aIYOVf
Commerce
Dow Jones: "Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Monday called for the completion of the
nationalization of Iran's oil sector and said current crude prices are
unrealistically low, Iranian news agencies said." http://bit.ly/aTj9Ar
Human
Rights
NYT: "Iran's
conservative establishment appears to have reacted coldly to an entreaty by
Brazil's president to allow an Iranian woman convicted of adultery to take
asylum in Brazil rather than face execution by stoning at home. The reaction to
the plea over the weekend by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva may introduce
a strain into what has been an increasingly cordial relationship between Iran
and Brazil." http://nyti.ms/cYKvlK
Slate: "When stonings happen, how do they work? First, you get buried.
Iran's Islamic Penal Code states that men convicted of adultery are to be
buried in the ground up to their waists; women, up to their chests. If the
conviction is based on the prisoner's confession, the law says, the presiding
judge casts the first stone. If the conviction is based on witness testimony,
the witnesses throw the first stones, then the judge, then everyone
else-generally other court officials and security forces. Stones must be of
medium size, according to the penal code." http://bit.ly/cwFWcw
Radio Farda: "Mohammad Ali Abtahi is a former Iranian vice president who
was jailed in the crackdown following last year's disputed presidential
election and put on trial along with over 100 other key reformist figures,
journalists, student activists, and others. He has for the first time publicly
acknowledged that the trial was staged." http://bit.ly/cahmif
Domestic Politics
Irish Times: "Iran's Supreme leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said yesterday that music was 'not compatible' with the
highest values of the Islamic republic, and it should not be practised or
taught. In some of the most extreme comments by a senior regime figure since
the 1979 revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei said: 'Although music is halal,
promoting and teaching it is not compatible with the highest values of the
sacred regime of the Islamic Republic.'" http://bit.ly/9yK4xk
Foreign Affairs
Radio Farda: "Addressing a gathering of Iranians residing abroad on August 2, Iranian
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad claimed that Israel has hired people to
assassinate him. 'The Zionists have send people to assassinate me. Look how
hopeless they are. They [Israelis] have assassinated so many Iranians,'
Ahmadinejad said." http://bit.ly/9tJZrp
Opinion
Victor Kotsev in Asia Times: "'Never interfere with an enemy while he's in
the process of suicide.' This is a quote widely attributed to Napoleon
Bonaparte, and it is also the advice Israeli analyst Guy Bechor gives to
Israeli leaders. It appears to be more or less the approach of the United
States and its allies with respect to Iran at the moment. Whether they have
read the situation right, and for how long it will work, is another matter." http://bit.ly/9lQ27x
Andy Zelleke and Robert Dujarric in
Christian Science Monitor: "But with the
American intelligence community judging Iran to be on track to have nuclear
weapons within two years, a clash with Tehran may soon be deemed unavoidable -
in Jerusalem, if not in Washington. Even if undertaken solely by Israel, a
military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities poses considerable risks to
American interests. That's why the White House should insist that an Israeli
strike - if it happens - doesn't merely weaken Tehran's capabilities, but also
entails a decisive breaking of the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate." http://bit.ly/ayv6LI
Boston Globe Editorial Board: "But Lula's humane offer of asylum to Ms.
Ashtiani illuminates the moral and political contradictions a progressive
leader creates by embracing a fascistic figure like Ahmadinejad. Those Iranians
who would like to have a Lula of their own leading their country are being
silenced, imprisoned, and killed under Ahmadinejad's police state. Lula - and
all other democratic leaders - ought to befriend those Iranians, not their
tormentor." http://bit.ly/c5rEVt
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