Top Stories
WSJ: "The U.S. Treasury
blacklisted 21 state-owned Iranian companies as part of a growing and
coordinated international effort to undercut Tehran's ability to use units in
Europe and Asia to facilitate financial transactions and weapons development. The
Obama administration's point man in its financial war on Iran, Stuart Levey,
also announced Tuesday U.S. sanctions against leaders in Iran's elite military
unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well measures targeting Iranian
foundations accused of supporting militant groups in Lebanon, Afghanistan and
the Palestinian territories." http://bit.ly/caZL0J
ABC: "The Iranian government has
denied a report that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the target of an
assassination attempt today. According to a conservative Iranian news website,
however, a grenade was thrown at the presidential convoy as it passed through
the western city of Hamedan this morning. The attacker cried 'death to the
hypocrites' before lobbing the grenade, which landed about 100 yards from the
president's car, KhabarOnline reported. A man was immediately apprehended,
according to the website." http://bit.ly/ahZsbI
AFP: "The White House on Tuesday rebuffed a call from Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for face-to-face talks with his US counterpart Barack
Obama, saying Iran was not serious about discussing its nuclear program. White
House spokesman Robert Gibbs nonetheless held the door open to US-Iran talks as
the State Department saw signs that Tehran may now be seeking a dialogue with
Washington under the pain of new sanctions." http://bit.ly/9LrXBJ
UANI
in the News
NY Post: "A security group is
threatening to boycott the Hilton hotel chain for planning to host Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during next month's UN General Assembly meeting,
The Post has learned. United Against Nuclear Iran said the Hilton Manhattan
East should not be accepting 'blood money' from Ahmadinejad and the Iranian
delegation. 'The Hilton's short-term profit from hosting the Iranian delegation
is far outweighed by the grave implications of supporting a terrorist state
that is illegally developing nuclear weapons,' UANI President Mark Wallace said
in letters to Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta and Manhattan East GM Louis Lach.
Wallace is a former homeland-security official. The hotel declined comment." http://bit.ly/d874ja
Nuclear Program
BBC: "For banks, oil companies
and other big businesses around the world, from India to Japan, Russia and
Germany, the US now has a clear message: you're either with us or with Iran. Doing
business with both is no longer possible, at least in theory. 'This cannot be
business as usual and we recognise that there is going to have to be a lot of
due diligence,' said State Department spokesperson PJ Crowley in a BBC
interview." http://bit.ly/aBQ93a
AFP: "Japan imposed sanctions on
Iran over its contentious nuclear program on Tuesday in line with a United
Nations (UN) resolution and said it plans to announce additional punitive
measures later this month. The cabinet of Prime Minister Naoto Kan announced
the steps as the United States State Department's special adviser for
non-proliferation and arms control Robert Einhorn headed for Tokyo as part of
an East Asian tour. The measures include an asset freeze on 40 Iranian entities
and one individual suspected of being involved in nuclear and missile
development." http://bit.ly/9PjXXf
Reuters: "London's marine insurance market has created a clause ensuring
underwriters do not breach sanctions due in part to western measures against
Iran, a senior Lloyd's Market Association (LMA) official said on Monday." http://bit.ly/dzbAUm
Human
Rights
NYT: "Iran appears to be
answering international criticism of its handling of the case of a woman
sentenced to death by stoning by suggesting that she is guilty not only of
adultery, but also of murder. On Tuesday, in the first official response to the
Brazilian president's weekend offer of asylum for the woman, Sakineh Ashtiani,
43, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the president had not been
fully informed on the case and that 'the details of the conviction of this individual'
would render it 'clear.'" http://nyti.ms/dyuXhs
AP: "The lawyer of a woman who had
been sentenced to death by stoning in Iran is in Turkey and has the option of
applying for asylum, the U.N.'s refugee agency said Wednesday. The lawyer,
Mohammad Mostafaei, went missing after being questioned by judicial officials
at Tehran's Evin prison for several hours on July 23, according to Amnesty
International." http://nyti.ms/9MfEgy
Foreign Affairs
AP: "Iran has obtained
four S-300 surface-to-air missile systems despite Russia's refusal to deliver
them to Tehran under a valid contract, a semiofficial Iranian news agency
claimed Wednesday. The Fars news agency, which has ties to Iran's elite
Revolutionary Guard, Iran's most powerful military force, said Iran received
two S-300s from Belarus and two others from another unspecified source. Fars
didn't elaborate, and there was no official confirmation of the report." http://bit.ly/cZmhrG
LAT: "The Iranian media have cast a recent
summit meeting of leaders from Syria, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon as a victory for
Iran and its ally in Lebanon, the militant group Hezbollah, but some observers
say the Islamic Republic is secretly worried that its role in Lebanon may be
compromised." http://bit.ly/9Q3QW8
Opinion
Frank Perley in WT: "Three American hikers
started their second year in captivity in Iran on Sunday, and the world finally
has begun to recognize the nature of their predicament: They are hostages. But
options are few for gaining their release. For President Obama in dealing with Iran,
every diplomatic matter large and small hinges on the central issue of the
Islamic regime's obsessive quest for nuclear weapons. Unfortunate as it is for
the three hikers, the president's first obligation is not to their safety but
the security of the United States. In the coming months, their fate might well
be subordinated to the struggle between the two nations." http://bit.ly/9bxtBY
Jackson Diehl in WashPost: "The
best friend of tyrants in the democratic world -- Brazilian President Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva -- has once again been humiliated by one of his clients. That
would be Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the sponsor of terrorism and Holocaust
denier whom Lula has publicly embraced -- literally. Over the weekend, under
pressure from domestic protesters, Lula appealed to the Iranian president to
free Sakineh Ashtiani, an Iranian women condemned to death by stoning on
charges of adultery, and allow her to go into exile in Brazil." http://bit.ly/biU6JV
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