Top Stories
AFP: "Hardline
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed on Wednesday the holding of
direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, saying the negotiations
will fail to resolve conflict in the Middle East. 'Tens of negotiations have
been held in more than 30 years and tens of plans have been proposed, but they
have all failed,' Ahmadinejad told Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam Television in
an interview." http://bit.ly/c5CAJE
Bloomberg: "President Barack Obama
leads Israel and the Palestinian Authority into direct talks starting tomorrow
aiming for a big prize: a peace deal that will help stabilize the region and
thwart Iran's bid to expand its influence... Dennis Ross, Obama's Middle East
adviser on the National Security Council and formerly President Bill Clinton's
top negotiator in the region, has said a peace agreement would help counter
Iran. The U.S. suspects Iran is trying to develop a nuclear arms capability." http://bit.ly/c6Pxm7
Guardian: "Sakineh
Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning, was told
on Saturday that she was to be hanged at dawn on Sunday, but the sentence was
not carried out, it emerged tonight. Mohammadi Ashtiani wrote her will and
embraced her cellmates in Tabriz prison just before the call to morning prayer,
when she expected to be led to the gallows, her son Sajad told the Guardian." http://bit.ly/djW2xl
Nuclear Program
Guardian: "The west should use force against Iran if it 'continues to develop nuclear
weapons,' Tony Blair said today, aligning himself with US hawks who have called
for strikes against Iranian nuclear sites. The former prime minister made his
comments in a BBC interview to publicise his memoirs, A Journey, which are
published today. Blair said it was 'wholly unacceptable' for Tehran to seek a
nuclear weapons capability and insisted there could be 'no alternative' to
military force 'if they continue to develop nuclear weapons.'" http://bit.ly/cffI4w
Commerce
JPost: "Iran plans to publish a list
of multi-national companies with Israeli links that will have sanctions applied
against them, an Iranian official said, according to a Tuesday report by semi-official
news agency Press TV. Iran's Vice President for Parliamentary Affairs
Mohammed-Reza Mir-Tajeddini said that the Israelis run a global economic cartel
that is constantly establishing new companies under new brands that the list
will expose and mark for embargo." http://bit.ly/bimU5f
Human Rights
LAT: "Amid the controversy and international outcry sparked by the stoning
sentence handed down to a 43-year-old Iranian mother of two, Sakineh Mohammadi
Ashtiani, Iran's supreme court reportedly has sentenced two more people to
stoning on charges of adultery. The court's decision came just days after the
Iranian judiciary revealed fresh details about Ashtiani's case." http://bit.ly/cG3tKj
Domestic Politics
Reuters: "Iranian paramilitaries surrounded the house of leading opposition
figure Mehdi Karoubi Tuesday to prevent the cleric from participating in a
religious ceremony, his website said. 'Right
now there are more than 50 members of the Basij (a volunteer force fiercely
loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) and plainclothes men who covered
their faces around his house,' the Saham News website said." http://bit.ly/bOBRqy
Foreign Affairs
BBC: "But Kayhan, the paper which made the original comments, went on to call
for Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy's death. In a statement, the French foreign ministry
said: 'We are letting the Iranian authorities know that the insults put out by
the daily newspaper Kayhan and taken up by Iranian websites regarding several
French personalities, including Mrs Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, were unacceptable.'" http://bbc.in/bL4OH0
WT: "The call in Iran's state-run
media for the execution of France's first lady, the Italian-born model and
actress Carla Bruni-Sarkozy,
sent shock waves through the French and Italian embassies in Washington on
Tuesday." http://bit.ly/aEiRbG
AFP: "Iran has dismissed as 'unacceptable'
the continued deployment of American troops in Iraq as US President Barack
Obama was to announce on Tuesday the end of combat operations in the country. 'You
see in practice that the massive presence of US forces under different pretexts
such as training (Iraqi) forces is not acceptable,' foreign ministry spokesman
Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters." http://bit.ly/dD0TGQ
Reuters: "The Iraqi government has
warned neighboring countries thinking they can fill the vacuum once U.S. troops
withdraw not to interfere in its affairs, Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said
Tuesday. Shi'ite Iran has gained considerable influence in Iraq since the fall
of Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and Iraqi
officials also complain of meddling by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Syria." http://bit.ly/9Rh3df
News
Analysis
David Sanger in NYT: "President Obama is attempting a triple play this week that eluded his
predecessors over the past two decades: simultaneous progress on the most
vexing and violent problems in the Middle East - Israeli-Palestinian peace, Iraq
and Iran - in hopes of creating a virtuous cycle in a region prone to downward
spirals... But as the Iranians have learned in recent months, Mr. Obama also
seems persistent in finding new ways to turn the screws, and that is another
element of the strategy." http://nyti.ms/avZZaO
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