Top Stories
AFP: "Defence Minister Ahmad
Vahidi said on Tuesday that Iran will unveil next week an array of weapons,
including missiles, speedboats and a long range drone, the ISNA news agency
reported. Two missiles, Qiam (Rising) and the third generation Fateh 110
(Conqueror) would be tested next week when Iran marks the annual government
week, Vahidi said in reference to the Iranian week which starts on Saturday. Iran
will also unveil the long-range drone, Karar, he said using the nickname of
revered Shiite Imam Ali." http://bit.ly/d6FjMc
AFP: "Russia on Wednesday defended
the nuclear power plant it is building for Iran in the southern city of
Bushehr, days ahead of a ceremony to mark the formal launch of the
controversial facility. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the plant as
an 'anchor' that would keep Iran firmly fixed to peaceful use of nuclear power."
http://bit.ly/bh0EnW
FT: "A
federal judge on Tuesday criticised Barclays'
$298m deal with the US authorities to settle charges of facilitating payments
that violated sanctions against countries including Cuba and Iran. Emmet
Sullivan, US district judge, suggested that regulators were giving big banks
preferential treatment by offering them settlement options not available to
individual defendants facing criminal charges. A full hearing is set for
Wednesday." http://bit.ly/9gBNAj
Nuclear Program
Bloomberg: "The Aug. 21 opening
of Iran's first nuclear power plant will show the country's resistance to 'extraordinary
pressure and sanctions,' said Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Iranian Atomic
Energy Organization. The 1,000-megawatt Russian-built facility in the southern
province of Bushehr will be a 'thorn in the eye of ill- seekers,' the official Islamic
Republic News Agency cited Salehi as saying today." http://bit.ly/cTZXdF
AFP: "The latest sanctions on Iran will harm trade with the United Arab
Emirates, an Iranian business official said on Tuesday, as UAE authorities said
the embargo must not hurt legitimate commerce. 'The reality is that this kind
of sanctions on Iran will have a negative impact on the trade in the UAE,
particularly in Dubai -- there is no question about it,' said Morteza
Masoumzadeh, vice president of the Iranian Business Council in Dubai." http://bit.ly/azKGTr
AP: "American authorities accuse
him of plotting to sell missile components to Iran in a deal exposed in an
undercover sting - but British retiree Christopher Tappin insisted yesterday
that he is the innocent victim of entrapment by US customs agents. Tappin, 63,
faces three charges in the United States over an alleged plan to sell
specialized batteries for Hawk missiles to Tehran." http://bit.ly/apVTlK
Commerce
Times of India: "Government on Tuesday said the
Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline was not sidelined and India was
making
all efforts to implement it, keeping in mind the issues concerned."
http://bit.ly/9zccDR
Human Rights
Radio
Farda: "We reported on August 17 about the lawsuit against Nokia Siemens Networks
by a prominent jailed Iranian journalist, Isa Saharkhiz, who implicated Nokia
Siemens in his arrest last year. He accuses them of delivering surveillance
equipment to Iran that allowed authorities to trace his whereabouts through his
cell phone. 'Persian Letters' spoke to Edward Moawad, an attorney at the
Maryland-based Moawad & Herischi law firm, who is representing Saharkhiz
and his son, blogger Mehdi Saharkhiz." http://bit.ly/cWI44f
Radio Farda: "Jailed Iranian student
leader Majid Tavakoli has been transferred from Tehran's Evin prison to the
nearby Rajaeeshahr prison, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports. Tavakoli's brother,
Ali Tavakoli, told RFE/RL that neither Majid's lawyer nor his family were told
that Majid had been transferred on August 15 to the prison in Karaj, which is
20 kilometers outside of Tehran." http://bit.ly/bsIKOr
Domestic Politics
FOX News: "Iran has developed a humanoid robot -- and taught it to dance. Robot
researchers at Iran's Tehran University unveiled a life-size robot named Surena
2 during
the country's celebration of 'Industry and Mine Day' in
July. New details and videos released Monday of the robot reveal more details
about its capabilities -- which appear to include dancing." http://bit.ly/akN8SS
Foreign Affairs
FT: "One of the largest arms deals
in US history, involving the sale of weaponry worth some $60bn to Saudi Arabia,
is likely to go through Congress without significant objections, according to
people on Capitol Hill. The deal would include 84 Boeing F-15 fighter aircraft
along with Blackhawk and Apache helicopters. People knowledgeable about the
deal say a big factor smoothing its passage is Israel's relatively relaxed
position, at a time when it and Saudi Arabia are both focusing on a possible
threat from Iran." http://bit.ly/9N60Vg
Scotsman: "A senior Iranian politician who claimed the British
were inhuman idiots ruled by a 'mafia' and a stupid prime minister has rowed
back on some of his more outrageous remarks. Mohammad Reza Rahimi, Iran's first
vice-president, only meant to insult 'some' British politicians." http://bit.ly/cpMfes
Opinion
Ray Takeyh in WashPost: "Thursday
marks the anniversary of one of the most mythologized events in history, the
1953 coup in Iran that ousted Prime Minister Muhammad Mossadeq. CIA complicity
in that event has long provoked apologies from American politicians and
denunciations from the theocratic regime. The problem with the prevailing
narrative? The CIA's role in Mossadeq's demise was largely inconsequential. The
institution most responsible for aborting Iran's democratic interlude was the
clerical estate, and the Islamic Republic should not be able to whitewash the
clerics' culpability." http://bit.ly/c75kaY
Robert Wright in NYT: "Has the
Atlantic magazine become a propaganda tool - 'a de facto party to the
neoconservative and Israeli campaign to initiate a global war with Iran'? That
question was being discussed last week on The Atlantic's own Web site, among
other places, after the magazine unveiled a cover story saying that Israel is
likely to bomb Iran within a year.The article wasn't an argument for bombing,
just a report on Israel's state of mind. So why all the outrage - why, for
example, did Glenn Greenwald of Salon title his slashing assessment of the
Atlantic article 'How Propaganda Works: Exhibit A'?" http://nyti.ms/bopCW2
WT Editorial Board: "Israel is the
only country likely to mount a military strike, and the Bushehr site is an
exposed facility that could be taken out with conventional weapons. It's
located on Iran's west coast, less than a third of a mile from the shore; air
forces would not have to spend much time overflying Iran to attack it. The
plant also could be hit using sea-launched cruise missiles from Israeli
submarines. With an effective range of at least 900 miles, the subs wouldn't
have to transit the Strait of Hormuz to mount the attack." http://bit.ly/cRDPmk
Arnaud de
Borchgrave in WT: "This reporter first began covering Iran in August 1953
when the shah fled a revolutionary upheaval (returning 10 days later after a
military crackdown and covert CIA assistance). There is little doubt that an
Israeli attack on Iran would trigger mayhem up and down the Persian Gulf and
trigger a third war that would be yet another force multiplier for the U.S.
deficit: Federal spending is now at $3.6 trillion; the national debt, $13.4
trillion; cost per citizen, $43,000; cost per taxpayer, $120,000. Check the
debt clock online - in real time. Gulf and other Arab rulers who wish secretly
for aerial bombing action against Iran's nuclear facilities will be the first
to denounce Israel and its only ally when and if the first Iranian target is
hit." http://bit.ly/aK3dEy
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