Top Stories
AFP: "Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad told US television Wednesday that more sanctions will not hurt the
Islamic republic, as Western nations urged tougher action over Tehran's nuclear
program. 'Our nation does not need the United States whatsoever,' Ahmadinejad
told NBC news in an interview that took place in Tehran and aired in the United
States Wednesday evening. 'Even if the US administration increases the
sanctions... 100 times more, and even (if) the Europeans join the United States
to impose heavier sanctions, we in Iran are in a position to meet our own
requirements.'" http://bit.ly/aeThCM
Reuters: "The United Nations has
been slow to set up a panel to monitor Iran's compliance with U.N. sanctions
over its nuclear program and needs to do so quickly, U.S., British and French
envoys said on Wednesday. 'We are concerned by the delay in setting up the
panel, and we urge a renewed focus to enable this body to become operational as
soon as possible,' U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice told the
council during a meeting on Iran." http://bit.ly/d9w97w
AFP: "UN
atomic watchdog chief Yukiya Amano and Iran's nuclear envoy waged a fierce war
of words here Wednesday in a deepening dispute over Tehran's decision to bar
key nuclear inspectors from the country. At a meeting of the International
Atomic Energy Agency's 35-member board of governors here, the Islamic
republic's ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh accused Amano of bias and kow-towing
to western powers in the watchdog's long-running investigation into Iran's
contested nuclear programme... When such experienced inspectors were 'de-designated,
this can disrupt the smooth running of the entire team of inspectors dedicated
to Iran,' the Japanese diplomat argued in comments relayed to AFP." http://bit.ly/awK9S5
Nuclear Program
AP: "Rising to Syria's defense, a
senior Iranian diplomat accused the organization - the International Atomic
Energy Agency - of harassing Syria by leveling false allegations in collusion
with Israel and its allies. The two officials spoke as the 35-nation atomic
agency board meeting turned its attention from the agency's probe of Iran's
nuclear activities to suspicions that Syria has a hidden nuclear program." http://bit.ly/bKPX0D
AFP:"Diplomats from six world powers that
monitor Iran's nuclear program will meet in New York next week, a US official
said Wednesday. 'We do expect that there will be a P5 plus one' meeting to
review where we are in terms of trying to encourage Iran to come forward and
engage constructively with the international community,' said US State
Department spokesman Philip Crowley. The meeting will be held just over three
months after the latest United Nations Security Council sanctions on Iran's
controversial nuclear program." http://bit.ly/cqnoXM
Bloomberg: "U.S. Defense
Secretary Robert Gates called talks yesterday with his Russian counterpart,
Anatoly Serdyukov, 'very productive,' as the two sought common ground on
divisive issues including missile defense, Iran and Georgia... The leaders didn't
achieve a breakthrough on Russian objections to U.S. plans for expanding
missile defenses against threats such as Iran, or on assessments of the danger
posed by the Persian Gulf nation, according to a U.S. defense official." http://bit.ly/cDzKIE
RIA Novosti: "Russia's second
largest oil producer LUKoil issued an official statement on Wednesday rejecting
the accusations of two U.S. congressmen that the company violated sanctions
against Iran by supplying the country with petroleum products. 'In April of
2010 a final sale of gasoline to Iran was completed under a preexisting supply
contract by LUKoil's trading affiliate LITASCO,' the company said. 'The
non-existence of LUKOIL sales of refined petroleum products to Iran since April
this year is consistent with the general rules of the international energy
market in respect to sanctions on Iran.'" http://bit.ly/aCUEJW
Commerce
Reuters: "Turkey wants to triple
its trade volume with Iran within five years, Turkey's prime minister told
businessmen on Thursday, at a time when sanctions are scaring off Western
investors from the Islamic Republic. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian
First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi oversaw the meeting which brought
together over a hundred businessmen, including Turkish investors eager to buy
into Iran's mostly government-owned textile, machinery and automotive
industries." http://bit.ly/9XMxl4
Reuters: "Uganda has been unable
to obtain a $46 million credit offered by Iran because of complications in
transferring the money due to U.N. sanctions, according to a government memo
seen by Reuters on Wednesday. Over the past two years, Iran has been
strengthening relations with the east African country, which is set to become
an oil producer in 2011, and there have been reciprocal state visits by the
nations' leaders." http://bit.ly/bef4EH
WSJ: "A
Venezuelan state airline has canceled its flight to Iran and Syria, which began
three years ago and drew concerns from U.S. intelligence officials that it was
perhaps being used for terrorist activities, Fox News reported on its Web site.
'I am sorry, but we are no longer flying to Tehran and I do not know when the
flights will resume. It was a flight that left Caracas on Tuesdays, but it no
longer does,' said Jenny Gil Romero, who handles international departures for
Conviasa, the national airline that operates the flight, in a message to Fox
News." http://bit.ly/cHJ9CY
Human
Rights
NYT: "A woman facing death by
stoning after being convicted of adultery appeared on state television on
Wednesday to say she had not been whipped or tortured. Sakineh Mohammadi
Ashtiani, left, whose stoning sentence was suspended in July, was reported to
have been given 99 lashes on Sept. 2 after a British newspaper ran a picture of
an unveiled woman mistakenly identified as her, her lawyer said at the time." http://nyti.ms/9MFClL
ABC: "American Sarah Shourd is
feeling 'strong and healthy,' according to a source close to the hiker's
family. After almost 14 months of mostly solitary confinement in Iran on
charges of espionage, Shourd was released Tuesday on $500,000 bail partially
because of medical concerns, Iranian officials said. She reportedly is
suffering from a serious gynecological condition and found a lump in her
breast. Shourd was scheduled to visit a doctor today for a medical examination
on her first day of freedom from an Iranian prison, sources familiar with the
situation told ABC News." http://bit.ly/abkVtI
CBS: "A
day after the Iranian government released one of three American hikers
imprisoned there for over a year, the mothers of the two remaining prisoners
said they are happy and hopeful but it is time for their sons to be freed too. Laura
Fattal and Cindy Hickey, whose sons Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer have been
jailed in Tehran for more than 14 months, appeared on CBS' 'The Early Show' Wednesday. On Tuesday, Iran freed the third
hiker, Sarah Shourd, on $500,000 bail." http://bit.ly/cXIeh9
Domestic Politics
Reuters: "Iran
has delayed the phase-out of gasoline subsidies, prolonging the uncertainty
about when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's risky flagship economic reform will
take effect. Ahmadinejad hopes to save $100 billion a year by axing subsidies
for food and fuel -- a policy which will inevitably push up prices and which
some analysts say could reignite the popular unrest which flared after his
re-election last year. The subsidy phase-out had been due to start in the
second half of the Iranian year, which begins on Sept. 23, but a senior
official said that deadline would be missed by at least a month." http://bit.ly/b52e49
Foreign Affairs
Guardian: "It was not an easy
decision for the British Museum to lend one of its most treasured artefacts to
a country which has a notoriously prickly relationship with the UK. So curators
in London are paying close attention to an Iranian threat not to return the
famous Cyrus Cylinder - now embroiled in political intrigue in the Islamic
Republic. The 6th century BC Babylonian object, sometimes described as the
world's first human rights charter, arrived in Iran at the weekend and is due
to be displayed for four months at the national museum." http://bit.ly/cIvnAA
Daily Telegraph: "The mysterious
figure behind the sudden release of US hiker Sarah Shourd from a jail in Iran
is believed to be the billionaire Sultan of Oman. After more than a year of
trying to secure her release, her freedom is believed to have been brokered by
the Sultan of Oman. US officials said that the country played a critical role
in organising the bail payment and assuring it did not violate American
economic sanctions on Iran. The State Department said the small Gulf nation had
been a 'key interlocutor' with Iran, but would not comment on who posted bail."
http://bit.ly/bk4zAj
Opinion
San
Francisco Chronicle Editorial Board: "After
410 long days in an Iranian prison, Sarah Shourd is heading home. Shourd, a
32-year-old UC Berkeley graduate, is one of three Americans who were taken into
Iranian custody while hiking in a border area of Iraq's Kurdistan region. Their
case - the Iranian government claims that the three were spying, though the
charge seems highly implausible - has become yet another source of tension
between Tehran and Washington. Tehran must enjoy the attention, because it's
still holding onto Shourd's fellow hikers, Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, both
28. Both Fattal and Bauer need to be released immediately." http://bit.ly/ahznBk
Trudy Rubin in The Philadelphia Inquirer: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad likes to boast about
the superiority of Iranian moral values to those of the West. So, a week before
he traveled to the U.N. General Assembly, he sought to divert attention from
Iran's dismal human rights record by intervening to free Sarah Shourd, one of
three American hikers who had been jailed for 13 months in Tehran. He claimed
this was a gesture of Islamic compassion due to her health problems. But his
gesture rings hollow given that Shourd's two companions - her fiance, Shane
Bauer, and friend Josh Fattal of Elkins Park - remain in Evin Prison. Nor can
Ahmadinejad's gesture hide the horrors perpetrated on hundreds of Iranians
imprisoned since rigged elections last year." http://bit.ly/96VXTp
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