Top Stories
WSJ: "Iran said Tuesday it has
started exporting domestically produced gasoline, drawing skepticism from
oil-industry experts but representing Tehran's latest show of defiance amid
international sanctions aimed at curbing its nuclear ambitions. Iran, one of
the world's largest oil producers, has in the past year relied on imported
gasoline to meet 40% of its domestic consumption, because of a lack of refining
capacity. Amid Iran's standoff with the West over its nuclear program,
Washington and allied governments have considered those gasoline imports a
vulnerability. Earlier this year, the U.S. enacted sanctions aimed at punishing
international firms involved in the trade." http://bit.ly/czC6is
AP: "Two senior senators are
urging the Obama administration to punish the Chinese National Petroleum Co.
for investing in Iran. In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton, Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., say the Chinese
company has violated a new U.S. law aimed at discouraging foreign investment in
Iran. A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said China strongly
opposes sanctions against Iran's nuclear activities beyond those imposed by the
United Nations, which he said should be followed by all members. The letter is
aimed at prodding the administration to enforce the U.S. law generally. It
singles out the Chinese company specifically, however, for its agreement last
year to invest in Iran's South Azadegan oil field." http://bit.ly/cUoUAL
NYT: "Judicial
authorities have sentenced a prominent reformist journalist to three years in
prison, his family members confirmed Tuesday, while an Iranian-Canadian blogger
was sentenced to a 19-year incarceration after having already spent more than
two years in detention. The punishments reinforced the repression on freedom of
expression in Iran, where a crackdown under way since the disputed presidential
election of June 2009 has intimidated and silenced many voices of dissent. Amnesty
International has said 70 Iranian journalists are in prison, while many more,
arrested then released, are at risk of arbitrary re-arrest." http://nyti.ms/b59CDi
Nuclear
Program
FOX: "Senator Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., in what his staff is
billing as 'a major policy address' on Wednesday, plans to deliver a sharp
warning for Iran's leadership that military action should remain on the table
should the authoritarian regime refuse to halt its pursuit of nuclear weapons. In
a speech on 'the Future of American Power in the Middle East,' to be delivered
at the Council on Foreign Relations, the senator, a senior member of the Armed
Services Committee, will 'up the rhetorical ante against Iran', according to an
aide, and discuss the next stage if current sanctions do not work." http://bit.ly/aKTrt6
Reuters: "Iran, dependent on imported gasoline but squeezed by
international sanctions, is working to eliminate subsidies on oil and natural
gas, International Monetary Fund economists said on Tuesday. Iran's energy
price reform is expected to lower demand as prices rise in the country. The
higher prices will prompt more efficient energy use within Iran while
increasing the supply of oil and gas available for export, the economists said
in an interview published on the IMF website... The energy price reform comes as
Iran faces tough economic sanctions targeted at its nuclear program that have
already caused prices to soar in other sectors of its economy." http://bit.ly/cKkf9i
Commerce
WSJ: "Turkish banks and
businesses are free to trade with Iranian firms, Turkey's deputy prime minister
said Wednesday, in comments likely to add to concern in Washington over
Ankara's continued trade with Tehran despite the U.S.-led sanctions program. Addressing
reporters on the sidelines of a financial conference in Istanbul, Ali Babacan,
who also oversees economic policy, said Turkish banks and businesses are 'free
to trade with Iran' and that the U.S. blacklist against companies trading with
Tehran 'does not bind Turkey.' ... Turkey-Iran trade has surged in recent years,
reaching $10 billion in the past year compared with $1 billion in 2000. Some
80% of that represents Iranian exports, mostly natural gas. The Islamic
Republic supplies Ankara with one-third of its energy needs. Official figures
show bilateral trade jumping 86% in this year's first seven months." http://bit.ly/c5vkB1
Reuters: "China wants deeper
trade ties with Iran, a senior Chinese leader was quoted as saying on Wednesday,
praising relations between the two countries despite the controversy over
Tehran's nuclear programme. 'China is willing to continue maintaining
high-level contacts and exchanges at all levels with Iran and deepen mutual
political trust,' the People's Daily quoted Li Changchun, Communist Party chief
propaganda official, as saying. The two sides should 'deepen trade and economic
relations, earnestly put into effect signed agreements and contracts, develop
infrastructure, communication, auto and light rail cooperation', Li said during
a visit to Iran." http://bit.ly/byJiuQ
AP: "California farmers may be the
big beneficiaries of a U.S. ban on Iranian pistachios that began Wednesday. President
Barack Obama signed the ban on July 1 in response to Iran's nuclear policies.
It went into effect as California's farmers were in the midst of their harvest.
The United States and Iran have been vying for the title of No. 1 pistachio
producer. California, which grows more than 95 percent of U.S. pistachios, has
doubled acreage devoted to the nut in the past decade. Bad weather in Iran also
has helped put the U.S. in the top spot in the past couple of years, according
to the U.S. Department of Agriculture." http://bit.ly/bpN8bG
Human
Rights
AP: "Iran said Tuesday no final
decision has been made on the fate of a woman who could be executed by stoning
on an adultery conviction in a case that has sparked widespread international
outrage. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said 'the judiciary
process has not been completed' and that once it has, a verdict will be
announced. The outcry from world leaders and human rights activists opposed to
the brutality of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's sentence has riled Iranian
officials already deeply at odds with the West over the country's nuclear
program." http://bit.ly/cOhcfr
AP: "An Iranian semi-official
news agency says families of three opposition protesters who died in prison
last year are demanding the former chief prosecutor be punished. Mehr news
agency said Wednesday that the families of three detainees issued a statement
calling for the 'prosecution and punishment' of those who ordered their
imprisonment, a reference to then Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi. In
January, a parliament probe found Mortazavi responsible for the death of the
protesters from torture in Kahrizak prison." http://bit.ly/a9mO4e
Radio Farda: "Iranian state-controlled television has accused
Facebook and Twitter of being Iran's 'hidden enemies' and tools used by Western
intelligence agencies in order to recruit new members and gather data on individuals.
The website Mardomak has posted a video of the report. The segment starts with a short
biography of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, but then goes on to say that the
website is social only in appearance. According to the report: 'The aim of
Facebook is to identify people for special operations for Western spying
agencies.'" http://bit.ly/9L5kmy
Foreign Affairs
AP: "Nearly four minutes of
shaky, hand-held video clips show roadside bombs hitting U.S. convoys, a
battery of Katyusha rockets and a soldier who appeared to be downed by sniper
fire. And digitally burned into the left hand corner is the raised-rifle emblem
of a Shiite militia linked to Iran... Iran has been accused for years of aiding
violent Shiite gangs - a charge Tehran denies. But U.S. and Iraqi authorities
say a possible splintering of Shiite factions in Iraq could open even more
channels for Iran to back proxy attacks and harassment of American forces and
Sunni allies." http://bit.ly/a77otQ
AFP: "Former Iraqi premier Iyad
Allawi said he had asked Syria on Wednesday to persuade Iran to keep out of his
protracted battle for the premiership with incumbent Nuri al-Maliki. Allawi,
whom opponents have accused of leaning on the support of Iran's regional rival
Saudi Arabia in the drawn out coalition talks that have left Iraq without a
government since an inconclusive March 7 general election, said that it was
Iran that was blocking progress in the talks. 'Iran is interfering in Iraqi
affairs,' Allawi told a news conference in Damascus after his meeting with
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad." http://bit.ly/daENHb
Opinion
Reza Khalili in NRO: "In
1981, I met a young woman who spent almost a year of her life in Iran's Evin
Prison, the infamous torture chamber where political prisoners are held. I was
relieved she was free but felt helpless knowing this teenage girl spent a year
in suffering and was now broken, mentally and physically. Shortly after we met,
she sent me a letter. My heartbreak returns every time I read it and relive the
pain and anguish I first experienced after I received the letter all those
years ago. Today, after 30 years, that damned prison remains open. Prisoners
there live - and die - as no human deserves to." http://bit.ly/bNx0hV
Cliff Kupchan and Jonathan Tepperman
in FP: "Last week was a busy one in New York, and Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, in town for the U.N. General Assembly meeting, kept the media
spotlight focused firmly on Turtle Bay with his usual antics: absurd claims
about 9/11, some casual Holocaust denial, a little pro forma denunciation of
Zionism, and some reflexive chest beating directed at Washington. But the
president's performance distracted attention from where the really interesting
action was taking place: in Tehran, where a possibly game-changing battle
within the conservative elite has intensified in recent weeks. The tensions
between clerics and pragmatic conservatives on the one hand and Ahmadinejad and
his allies on the other has been brewing for some months, but recently reached
a fever pitch. At issue are several disputes." http://bit.ly/buH6AE
Matt Gurney in the National Post: "Iran has released images of its new 'flying boats' a
flotilla of small aircraft, designated by Iran as the Bavar-2, that look like
the lovechild of a jetski and a bumper car, and oddly for a military vessel,
seem to have bright red paint. Typically, you want to make it hard for the
enemy to aim at you. That's why virtually every warship and aircraft in the
world is painted a very similar shade of gray- it blends well with the horizon,
the sea and the skies. Blue and red? Not so much. While it's easy to look at
the mini-planes and chuckle at the thought of them tangling with some real hardware,
such tiny float planes might actually serve a role in Iranian war planning -
they are tailor-made to provide a potentially devastating platform for suicide
attacks against Western warships." http://bit.ly/alioep
Brian
Whitaker in the Guardian: "Readers
of the Guardian's news section may have seen that Hossein Derakhshan, the
prominent Iranian blogger, has been jailed for 19 and a half years by a court
in Tehran. Derakhshan, who also has Canadian citizenship, was apparently
convicted of 'co-operation with hostile countries, spreading propaganda against
the establishment, promoting counter-revolutionary groups, insulting Islamic
thought and religious figures and managing obscene websites.' My first reaction
was relief that he is not to be executed, since there were reports a few days
ago that prosecutors were seeking the death penalty. But, even so, 19 and a half
years is a shocking sentence for activities that would not be a crime at all in
many countries." http://bit.ly/aMyfe7
Hamid Dabashi in CNN: "Still, too
many of Ahmadinejad's statements went unchallenged last week --particularly
those that had to do with the vast array of atrocities in his own country.
These are not problems that can be solved by handing to journalists a list of
questions to ask a head of state with just too many skeletons in his closet to
count. These are problems that American journalism as an institution faces as
it tries to cope with and cover a far more globalized planet than we've ever
seen before." http://bit.ly/c9LkB1
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