Top Stories
AP: "As Iran and world powers
prepare for new nuclear talks, letters by Tehran's envoys to top international
officials and shared with The Associated Press suggest major progress is
unlikely, with Tehran combative and unlikely to offer any concessions... While
both letters say Iran is ready to talk, the one to Ashton - the point person
for the six big powers - sets the bar perhaps unreachably high, suggesting that
Tehran is prepared to come to the table only if the other side ends its 'hostility,'
avoids 'any kind of pressure or threat' and states its 'clear position on the
nuclear weapons of the Zionist regime.'" http://bit.ly/9IFTqK
ABC: "President Obama said
international sanctions against Iran are creating 'disquiet' in the country,
and he suggested that the United States would seek to sketch out a series of
confidence-building steps that Iran could take to reassure the international
community about its nuclear program. We have picked up 'rumblings that there is
disquiet about the impact' in Iran about the latest sanctions, the president
told me Wednesday at the White House, although he did not go into specifics... The
President refused to be drawn into a discussion on what the US would do if Iran
refused negotiations and continued development of its nuclear program. 'I'm not
going to issue any public red lines. Iran should understand when I say we have
all options on the table. I'm not going to announce any particular red lines at
a meeting like this,' he said." http://bit.ly/bKQTys
Reuters: "China pushed back at U.S. pressure on its
business and oil trade with Iran in comments published on Wednesday, while
Iran's oil minister was in Beijing seeking to shore up ties with the big
customer... Jiang, the Chinese spokeswoman, said her country's trade dealings
with Iran should not be criticised. 'China's trade with Iran is a normal
business exchange, which will not harm the interests of other countries and the
international community,' she said in comments published in the official China
Daily." http://bit.ly/cxiVG2
Nuclear Program
AFP:
"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged the United States on Wednesday to
join talks on a nuclear fuel swap deal, reiterating that Tehran was ready to
start talks near the end of the month. Ahmadinejad also repeated an offer to
hold talks with US President Barack Obama on 'global problems' at the UN
General Assembly in September, although Washington has rebuffed his proposal." http://bit.ly/bkW7o9
RIA Novosti: "The recent report
by the Iranian Fars news agency about deliveries from Belarus of S-300
surface-to-air missile systems to Tehran is a bluff, a Russian arms expert said
on Thursday. The Belarusian government denied on Wednesday rumors that Minsk
had allegedly sold S-300 air defense systems to Iran. Fars reported that Iran
had acquired two S-300PT (SA-10 Grumble) systems from Belarus and two more
systems from an unidentified supplier. There has been no official confirmation
from Tehran." http://bit.ly/96rYGt
FT: "South
Korean authorities face mounting US pressure to close the Seoul branch of an
Iranian bank that is the focus of international sanctions, after Japan
responded to Washington's demand by imposing trade and investment restrictions
against 40 Iranian organisations. South Korea is torn between its $10bn annual
bilateral trade with Tehran and its need for a strong alliance with the US in
the face of increasing belligerence from North Korea." http://bit.ly/9SDeju
Reuters: "The $41.3 billion Massachusetts pension fund will have to sell
investments in any company involved in Iran's oil industry under new rules
adopted on Wednesday. Gov. Deval Patrick
signed legislation requiring the state's Pension Reserves Investment Management
Board to identify all such companies within one year. The board would then have
one more year to divest shares of the companies. A preliminary review found the
fund may have to sell up to $294 million of securities under the new ban,
spokesman Dave Kibbe said." http://bit.ly/clJKV1
Human
Rights
Radio
Farda: "'I was the lawyer of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani and I had the right to defend
her,' says Iranian lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei in his first interview after
fleeing Iran... He condemned the Iranian judiciary for taking his wife as 'a
hostage' and said he will never surrender to Iranian authorities. He also
talked about the circumstances under which he was forced to escape Iran and
leave his family, including his seven-year-old daughter, behind." http://bit.ly/cqBLpW
NYT: "Ever
since the brutal crackdown on the Iranian opposition in June 2009, in which
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's security forces and militias killed at least
250 people, more than 4,300 Iranians have fled to Turkey. There, they are stuck in a difficult situation. The
European Union has not opened its doors to people who had won so much
international respect and praise for their courage in challenging Mr.
Ahmadinejad's election victory, which was widely criticized as fraudulent." http://nyti.ms/9bYC96
AFP: "The
lawyer of an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery is in
Turkey and has requested asylum, the UN refugee agency said Wednesday. The
lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaie, had been missing since July 24 when Iranian police
went to his office to execute an arrest warrant and failed to find him." http://bit.ly/cLgGSg
Domestic Politics
AFP: "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
said Iran is working on a three-stage rocket to carry a satellite 1,000
kilometres (more than 600 miles) into space, Fars news agency reported on
Thursday. 'The country's scientists are working on a three-stage rocket that will
take us to 1,000 kilometres,' Ahmadinejad, quoted by Fars, told a local
television in the western city of Hamedan." http://bit.ly/cSVmD9
Foreign Affairs
Radio
Farda: "Apparently
England is a small island located in west Africa, according to a speech given
by Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad in Hamedan today. 'England, a tiny
little island in West Africa, they built boats, they made weapons, they
attacked India which is 10 times bigger than England and has a population 10
times bigger than England. They brought it under their control,' Ahmadinejad
said. The video clip of him saying this has become an instant hit among
Iranians." http://bit.ly/91LRu7
Opinion
Shirin Ebadi in WSJ: "The harrowing case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani-a mother
of two sentenced to stoning by an Iranian court for adultery-has rightfully
drawn attention to Iran's draconian penal code, which reserves its cruelest
punishments for women. Even Tehran's new political ally, President Luiz Inácio
Lula da Silva of Brazil, has been roused into action, publicly offering Ms.
Ashtiani asylum in his country. Iran has yet to respond formally, and a foreign
leader can have no direct bearing on a domestic legal proceeding. But the
intervention-a direct appeal to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad-demonstrates
that the Islamic Republic's human rights record can't be divorced from its
nuclear diplomacy." http://bit.ly/cYyuTC
Geneive Abdo and Arash Aramesh in IHT: "In fact, there is now a full-blown rift between Khamenei
and many of the conservative and traditional clerics who once supported him, or
at the very least, did not publicly oppose him. Many prominent clerics are at
odds with Iran's leadership - a development that casts a question mark over the
legitimacy of the Islamic state. This conflict between the state and clerics is
different now than in the past because it has been exacerbated by clerical
opposition to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is Khamenei's protégé." http://nyti.ms/c8y4d4
David Ignatius in
WashPost: "Why is Obama talking
engagement with Iran when many analysts are debating the growing risks of a
military confrontation? Administration officials cite two factors: First, the
sanctions against Iran are beginning to bite, making Tehran potentially more
interested in dialogue; and second, U.S. intelligence reports indicate that the
Iranians have had technical troubles in their nuclear-enrichment program --
which allows more time for diplomacy." http://bit.ly/atLypa
James Kirchick in NY Daily News: "Assange
believes that by leaking information about the frustrated war effort in
Afghanistan, he will sap American will. In truth, by revealing the extent of
Iranian aid to Sunni radicals, he only confirmed what astute observers have
long known. That is, we've been at war with Iran for years. It is a war
declared by Iran, which has been killing our soldiers and allies in various
theaters. But it is a war a reluctant America has refused to recognize it is
fighting. Perhaps the WikiLeaks deluge will change that complacency. So here's
to Julian Assange for illuminating the age-old observation that the enemy of
one's enemy - no matter how ideologically antagonistic - can indeed be one's
friend." http://bit.ly/9yrRKY
WashPost
Editorial Board: "Though it is
questionable whether the sanctions add up to the 'crippling' regime that Mr.
Obama once promised, the early signs are that they are having a significant
effect. 'We are getting some indications that there is disquiet in Iran about
the impact of the sanctions,' the president told a group of journalists at the
White House Wednesday. European Union measures adopted last week were stronger
than either the administration or Iran expected. Russia has withheld the sale
of key weapons systems and is publicly feuding with Tehran. Mr. Obama is probably
correct when he says that 'the cost of the sanctions is going to be
higher' than Iran expected 'six months or a year ago.'" http://bit.ly/cbpCCk
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