Thursday, September 2, 2010

Eye on Iran: Japan Set to Toughen Sanctions on Iran



























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Reuters: "Japan is set to toughen
sanctions against Iran as early as this week over its disputed nuclear
programme, the Nikkei business daily said, following the United States and
European Union's leads in pressuring Tehran.
The unilateral measures, which go beyond sanctions imposed by the United Nations,
include banning new investments in energy-related industries and imposing a
limit on trade insurance, the Nikkei reported on Wednesday." http://bit.ly/bh9ipG

Reuters: "The European Union's
foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Thursday she had pressed China to
ensure that Chinese companies did not fill the void left by other firms leaving
Iran due to U.N. sanctions. U.S. officials
said in July that Chinese companies had been pursuing trade with Iran despite
the threat of U.S. sanctions and a June United Nations Security Council
resolution imposing more punitive measures on Tehran over its nuclear
programme." http://bit.ly/cbY9bu

Reuters: "Turkey's
gasoline exports to Iran dropped by a hefty 74 percent in July after U.S.-led
sanctions against the Islamic Republic came into force, figures obtained by
Reuters from Turkey's statistics office showed on Wednesday. Turkey sold 35,444
tonnes of the fuel to Iran in July, equivalent to roughly one standard cargo
tanker or 301,272 barrels, which is down from exports of 138,673 tonnes in
June." http://bit.ly/9I3gC6

Iran Disclosure Project

Nuclear Program





































Radio Farda:
"Mojtaba Zolnour, deputy representative of Iran's supreme leader in the
Revolutionary Guard, has said that 'Zionists' are waiting for the Hidden Imam
to appear to kill him. Hojatoleslam Zolnour made the comments earlier
this week at Qom University." http://bit.ly/9u7Fz1


Human Rights



AFP: "Prominent Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, barred from attending the
screening of his short film 'The Accordion' at the Venice film festival, on
Wednesday decried his 'mental imprisonment.' 'Although I have been released
from prison now, I am still not free to travel outside of the country,' Panahi,
50, said in a statement read out before the screening of 'The Accordion.'" http://bit.ly/dkc0pX

Domestic Politics

FT: "The wife of one of
Iran's opposition leaders pleaded with the country's supreme leader on
Wednesday to protect her family from the regime's militias. Fatemeh Karroubi,
whose husband Mehdi Karroubi contested last year's disputed presidential
election, said members of the Basij militia and the Revolutionary Guard Corps
had been outside the family home in Tehran for three days. The men had shouted
abuse at Mr Karroubi, insulted his neighbours and vandalised property, she
said. They chanted that the 'illiterate Karroubi' was an agent of Mossad, the
Israeli intelligence service." http://bit.ly/ag1pQN

AFP: "Hardline 'thugs' surrounded the
home of opposition Iranian leader Mehdi Karroubi, pelting the building with
rocks to prevent the cleric from attending a rally, his website said. In the
latest such incident, members of the Islamist Basij militia 'violently attacked'
the building where the opposition cleric lives, the sahamnews.org website said."
http://bit.ly/dg4Yw4

Radio
Farda:
"Iran's
opposition Green Movement has officially launched a new satellite TV channel,
RASA TV (Resan-e Sabz-e Iran or Iran's Green Media), RFE/RL's Radio Farda
reports. Ebrahim Nabavi, one of the channel's organizers, said their aim is to
break the state-controlled broadcasters' monopoly on the flow of information,
fight against censorship in Iran, reflect the views of all Iranian people, and
frankly discuss all issues related to Iran." http://bit.ly/bZF3VY

Foreign Affairs

NYT: "In the political arena, Iran
versus the United States is a matchup that gets attention. In a basketball
arena, that wasn't the case on Wednesday. 'For me, it's a normal game,' said
Mahdi Kamrany, Iran's captain for the world championships in Turkey. The United
States won easily, 88-51, in Istanbul to earn a top seed in the knockout round
in the first meeting between two countries with a history of contentious
relations." http://nyti.ms/cwzXSr

LAT: "The United States,
including Lakers star Lamar Odom, blew out Iran score-wise in the
basketball game between the two teams in the FIBA World Championship in
Istanbul on Wednesday with an 88-51 victory over the Islamic Republic But Iran
may have won a smaller victory. It may have prompted the otherwise lightly clad
Ukrainian cheerleaders to dress a little more conservatively for the game." http://bit.ly/d8VfmL

AFP: "Egypt said Thursday it has
postponed a visit to Cairo by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki over
comments criticising the role of some Arab leaders in facilitating Middle East
peace talks. The head of the Iranian interests section in Cairo was summoned to
explain comments attributed to Mottaki in which he criticised 'the
participation of certain Arab leaders in the relaunch of direct peace talks
between the Palestinians and Israelis in Washington,' the foreign ministry
said." http://bit.ly/bDfXP5

AFP: "President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad is to make a brief visit on Sunday to Qatar, Iran's closest ally
among the Gulf Arab states, the Iranian ambassador in Doha, Abdollah Sohrabi,
said. Ahmadinejad will hold talks with Qatari emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa
al-Thani, on issues including the Palestinian question and the devastating
floods in Pakistan, Sohrabi told reporters on Thursday." http://bit.ly/dihw5X

Opinion

Tony Karon in
TIME:
"The U.S. - whose remaining 50,000
troops are still by far the strongest armed force in the country - maintains a
veto over military events in Iraq, but Washington's political influence is
marginal. Iran, however, retains effective political veto power via its allies
among the Shi'ite majority. It may not be influential enough to impose a client
regime of its own in Baghdad, but Tehran can prevent the formation of any
government that is aligned with Iran's adversaries, including the U.S." http://bit.ly/9HghVn

Lawrence
Haas in the Bellingham Herald:
"On the
very day Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the United States
would lead a renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace effort, Iran boasted that it had
test-fired a surface-to-air missile. A day later, Iran began loading fuel rods
into its Bushehr nuclear reactor, marking further progress on its quest for
nuclear weapons... These developments illustrate a big problem with the U.S.
peace effort - it will divert U.S. time and attention from the far more
pressing challenge of containing Iran's regional hegemonic ambitions, which
threaten our allies, our role in the region, and our ongoing efforts in Iraq,
Afghanistan and other hotspots." http://bit.ly/chGKH2


News Analysis

Scott Wilson in WashPost: "As
President Obama convenes the first direct Middle East peace talks in 20 months,
the question many observers here and in the region are asking is what, if
anything, makes this round any more hopeful than the last. One reason for
optimism may be the shared regional fear of Iran, which has only grown since
talks broke off between Israelis and Palestinians in December 2008. Obama began
a series of bilateral meetings Wednesday morning with the four leaders involved
in the talks. Each has his own interest in seeing them succeed, but Iran's
threat is a common concern to all of them." http://bit.ly/cMwoM7


Robert Tait in Radio Farda: "A record boom in Tehran's stock market
will end in a spectacular crash that could trigger a prolonged depression
producing multiple bankruptcies, mass unemployment, and acute economic
hardship, analysts say. The warning follows months of soaring share prices that
have prompted officials in Iran's Islamic regime to proclaim that the country's
economy is flourishing despite fresh international sanctions aimed at combating
its nuclear program." http://bit.ly/bTtGOE























Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com



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