Top Stories
AP: "The head of the U.N. nuclear
watchdog agency warned Monday that Iran's selective cooperation with his
inspectors means that he cannot confirm that all of Tehran's atomic activities
are peaceful. Yukiya Amano also chided Iran for barring some of those
inspectors, warning that move hampered his agency's attempts to monitor Iran's
nuclear program. And he suggested the jury is still out on allegations that
Tehran conducted secret experiments meant to develop atomic arms because the
Islamic Republic continues to stonewall an IAEA probe into U.S. and other
intelligence reports purporting to contain evidence of such experiments." http://bit.ly/9uGHNC
WashPost: "Iranian judicial
authorities on Sunday said they would free an American woman on $500,000 bail
after earlier scuttling a government-organized release ceremony that had been
set for Saturday. Sarah Shourd, 32, one of three Americans being held here on
charges of illegal entry and spying, will be released and will be free to leave
the country once the bail money is paid, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari
Dolatabadi told Iranian media. He said Shourd is sick, which led to the
decision to free her." http://bit.ly/cpliSx
WSJ: "Now
another industrial engineering firm is in the process cutting all its business
operations in Iran because of economic sanctions against the Islamic state.
This time: The Linde Group of Germany, an engineering firm that is also one of
the world's biggest industrial gas suppliers. Linde spokesman Uwe Wolfinger
told the WSJ Friday that the company recently decided 'to stop our
activities in Iran and with Iran completely.' For sure, the move will
hardly make a dent on the company's operations, with Iran having recently
accounted for around €39 million, or just 0.3%, of Linde Group's total sales,
which topped €6.10 billion in the first six months of this year." http://bit.ly/9pGrqO
Nuclear Program
Daily Telegraph: "Nato's
Secretary-General has urged the construction of a new missile defence system to
protect Europe from the threat of Iranian nuclear attack. Anders Fogh Rasmussen
told The Sunday Telegraph he has full American backing for a proposed €200 million
(£165 million) defensive 'shield', which he hopes will be agreed in November at
a summit of members in Lisbon. He was speaking after weapons inspectors from
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned last week that Iran had
passed a crucial nuclear threshold which took it nearer to being able to arm
ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads." http://bit.ly/8ZTvTA
Reuters: "The chief U.N. nuclear
inspector has named a new head for the department in charge of investigating
Iran's nuclear activities. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya
Amano has appointed Herman Naeckarts to the vacant post of deputy director
general in charge of safeguards. That position was left vacant with the
departure of Olli Heinonen, who had acquired a reputation of toughness in his
investigation of Tehran's nuclear program. Diplomats described Naeckarts to
reporters as pulling no punches in critizing Iran's spotty cooperation with
IAEA probes into its nuclear activities." http://bit.ly/dDfPps
AFP: "Accusations that Iran is
hampering the UN atomic watchdog's investigation into its nuclear programme by
vetoing key inspectors look set to dominate the IAEA's week-long meeting this
week. The 35-member board of the International Atomic Energy Agency is to
convene for its traditional September meeting starting Monday with a packed
agenda. In addition to topics ranging from nuclear security to the agency's
two-yearly programme performance report, governors will be formally notified of
the appointment of a number of deputy directors general, including the
successor to the IAEA's top inspector Olli Heinonen, who resigned last month." http://bit.ly/ctag6w
AP: "The world's terrorists are
patient and working on a long-term strategy that includes the troubling
recruitment of U.S. citizens to help their extremist causes, Massachusetts Sen.
Scott Brown said Saturday... The Republican, who serves on the Senate's Armed
Services and Homeland Security committees, recently returned from a trip to
Jordan and Israel with his
terrorism adviser and said that as dangerous as al-Qaida is, the world's
greatest threat is now from Iran."
http://bit.ly/9k0sFO
Commerce
Bloomberg: "Iran's Oil Minister
Masoud Mir-Kazemi last week said that more than $1.5 billion have been
allocated to explore for oil and gas, Shana reported. Iran has discovered 13
new oil and gas fields with combined reserves of 14 billion barrels of oil and
45 trillion cubic feet of natural gas within the past year, the Oil Ministry
said last month. The country has $69.1 billion in revenue from oil exports in
the past year, according to the ministry." http://bit.ly/ckli4y
Human Rights
AP: "An Iranian diplomat who quit his
job at his country's embassy in Finland said Monday he will apply for political
asylum there. Hossein Alizadeh said he stepped down as the embassy's No. 2
because of the Iranian government's crackdown on citizens protesting the
re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year. 'I cannot accept,
tolerate this fraud election. The situation got worse because ... my people are
being killed still,' Alizadeh told reporters in Helsinki." http://bit.ly/dap95e
AFP: "Around
1,000 people rallied in Paris on Sunday to show support for Iranian
mother-of-two Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani who is facing execution by stoning, an
AFP correspondent reported. Celebrities such as singer Jane Birkin and
philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy as well as political leaders attended the rally
on the central Place de la Republique. 'Other women are at risk of stoning, but
Sakineh has become a symbol despite herself,' Levy told the crowd." http://bit.ly/ag7yjj
AFP: "A vocal Iranian women's rights
activist and journalist, charged with 'warring against God', has been released
after posting bail of around 500,000 dollars, an opposition website reported. 'Shiva
Nazar-Ahari was freed from Evin prison after posting bail of five billion rials
(around 500,000 dollars),' Kaleme.com said late on Sunday. Nazar-Ahari, 26, had
faced trial on charges of 'Moharebeh' (warring against God), conspiring and
gathering to commit a crime, propaganda against the regime and harming public
order, the report said." http://bit.ly/c1cbln
Domestic Politics
Reuters: "Up to 10
Iranian workers died on Saturday in hospital after being badly burnt in an
explosion in a gas pipeline, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. The pipeline transporting gas from the Khangiran
refinery in Sarakhs to the city of Mashhad in Iran's northeastern province of
Khorasan-e Razavi exploded on Friday when it was accidentally struck by an
excavating machine, state media reported." http://bit.ly/c8lbHq
AP: "Iran's
internal battles over the handling of American detainee Sarah Shourd flared
again Monday as the mouthpiece of the powerful Revolutionary Guard led the
backlash against a decision to free her on $500,000 bail. The criticism by
Guard-linked Fars news agency and others - including one lawmaker calling it a 'bonus
for Quran burners' in the United States - show the judiciary's offer to release
Shourd on health grounds had failed to quiet the political tempest among Iran's
conservative factions." http://bit.ly/c55iW8
Foreign Affairs
JPost: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Friday that the planned
Koran burning by Florida Reverend Terry Jones will bring the destruction of
Israel, according to a PressTV report. According to the report, Ahmadinejad
said that the plan to burn Korans was a 'Zionist plot, and against the
teachings of all divine prophets... The Zionists and their supporters are on
the path to collapse and decline and such desperate actions will not save them,
but will accelerate their fall and annihilation,' Ahmadinejad said at a Teheran
meeting with Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and other leading Iranian officials."
http://bit.ly/aCAYTZ
Opinion
NYT Editorial Board:"After imprisoning three Americans for more than one year, Iran raised and
then dashed hopes that it would release one of them, Sarah Shourd, on Saturday.
All three should be freed. Shane Bauer, Joshua Fattal and Ms. Shourd have lived
lives of fear and depravation in Tehran's infamous Evin prison for far too long...
According to news reports, the Iranians had planned to release Ms. Shourd to
recognize the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan but then canceled
because the 'legal process' was not complete. It is common in the Muslim world
to celebrate the Id al-Fitr holiday by showing clemency to prisoners. The three
should never have been arrested. Clemency and justice should be applied to them
all." http://nyti.ms/dyagwy
Reuel Marc Gerecht and Mark Dubowitz in WSJ: "Today, nearly 15 years later,
the major European states have tired of Tehran's mendacity and begun to cut
business ties with Iran. Even the Japanese, who have always been resistant to
American-backed sanctions, recently announced the suspension of new oil and gas
investments. But China and Russia have filled the void-and will continue to
undermine any sanctions effort unless the U.S. decides to punish their
subversiveness. The State Department will soon announce a new list of foreign
companies blacklisted for Iranian transgressions. In doing so, Foggy Bottom
must understand the futility of naming and fining a few companies while
allowing major sanctions-busters, and the governments behind them, to go
unpunished. The administration is going to have to choose between maintaining
the broadest diplomatic coalition possible-with enormous Russian and Chinese
holes in the sanctions regime-and taking on Moscow and Beijing." http://bit.ly/bRO4jI
Ramzy Mardini in The Daily Star: "At this late stage, the Obama administration must prepare
the regional diplomatic groundwork for containing a nuclear Iran. Effective
balance of power configurations do not form by design. They are created and
reinforced by concerned states through constant cooperation and coordination in
the military, political, and economic spheres. Although the US is wary of a
military option, we should not assume that it has drafted an alternative
containment strategy. As US Defense Secretary Robert Gates remarked in June: 'I
don't think we're prepared to even talk about containing a nuclear Iran ... We do
not accept the idea of Iran having nuclear weapons.' Three crucial features
must be included in any containment approach." http://bit.ly/95mSIP
Dario Cristiani in World Politics
Review: "In early August, at the fourth trilateral summit between Iran,
Afghanistan and Tajikistan held in Tehran, Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad urged the leaders of the other two countries to join in an alliance
to counterbalance NATO's growing presence in Central Asia. Though any such
formal alliance is unlikely, the declaration reflects Tehran's desire to play a
larger role in Central Asia's regional dynamics. If Iran has always been
geographically part of the regional context of Central Asia and the Caucasus,
Tehran's geopolitical orientation has historically been focused southward, on
the Persian Gulf." http://bit.ly/dbDhY3
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