Top Stories
Reuters: "Iran's assertion that
it has side-stepped some international sanctions and become self-sufficient in
gasoline is political propaganda, experts say, but it could become a reality as
early as 2013. U.S.-led sanctions have scared off Iran's regular gasoline
suppliers, hitting what is seen as the Islamic Republic's Achilles' heel as
lack of refining capacity forces it to import around one-third of its gasoline
needs from abroad. While Tehran is still managing to import fuel from friendly
powers since the sanctions over its nuclear programme took full effect in July,
it is also fervently pursuing gasoline production through an array of
downstream projects." http://reut.rs/cfCZjm
CNN: "The Iranian economic
affairs and finance minister is in Washington for meetings of the International
Monetary Fund, the Iranian interest section said in a press release. Shamseddin
Hosseini also will brief reporters Friday, the statement said, where he will
discuss world economic developments and Iran's economy. The minister is even
willing to do individual interviews, the statement said. Although Hosseini has
been to Washington for IMF meetings in the past, he has kept a low profile
until now, as have other Iranian officials who make rare visits to Washington. Iranian
leaders visit the United Nations regularly, but the State Department must
approve visits by Iranian officials to other areas of the United States." http://bit.ly/dt7b8Z
AP: "Germany's
foreign minister has urged Iran to comply with its international duties and
show full transparency regarding its nuclear program. Guido Westerwelle told
journalists on Friday that Iran still lacks the necessary transparency on its
nuclear ambitions. Westerwelle said Iran has shown increased interest to engage
in new talks, 'but whether that will lead to concrete discussions remains to be
seen.'" http://lat.ms/aI2zcd
Nuclear
Program
WT: "Bahrain's ambassador to the United
States told The Washington Times that she fears her country - home to the U.S.
Navy's 5th Fleet - could become the first casualty of a nuclear-armed Iran. 'Iran
has had claims in the past on Bahrain,' Ambassador Houda Nonoo said in an
interview. 'The latest was on their 30th anniversary in February 2009, where they
mentioned Bahrain as the 14th province. Very similar to [Saddam Hussein's] Iraq
mentioning Kuwait as their 19th province.' 'We're a small country, we're just
across the pond,' she said, noting that the island nation is 'just 26 miles
away from Bushehr,' the Iranian port city that hosts one of the nuclear
program's key installations. 'If Iran has [a nuclear] capability, nobody is
going to be able to stop them.'" http://bit.ly/aTlTF5
FT: "South Korea has appointed
two state-run banks to finance commerce with Iran and revive business ties
damaged by sanctions in an effort to protect $10bn in annual trade with Tehran.
Woori Bank and the Industrial Bank of
Koreawill from this month be allowed to finance legitimate trade
with Iran in sectors unaffected by sanctions, channelled through Iran's central
bank. 'We are closing the door on Iran but leaving a window open,' Ernst Lee, a
spokesman for South Korea's regulators, said on Thursday." http://bit.ly/a1KQ10
JPost: "Authorities in the Netherlands
improperly supplied nuclear equipment to the sanctioned Atomic Energy
Organization of Iran (AEOI), the Dutch Economic Affairs Ministry wrote in an
October 4 letter obtained by The Jerusalem Post. According to Economic Affairs
Minister Maria van der Hoeven's letter, 'That shipment contained a helium-leak
detector, which was ordered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in
line with its technical cooperation program with Iran, [but] was shipped to a
banned recipient (AEOI).' The UN agency's involvement in the delivery of EU sanctioned
material raises thorny questions about the role of the IAEA in monitoring
Iran's illicit proliferation efforts." http://bit.ly/cO6YkB
Reuters: "Iran justifies its
atomic activity with plans to set up a network of nuclear power plants, but
Western analysts say a lack of indigenous resources and growing international
isolation make those ambitions look far-fetched. The issue of whether Iran can
build as many as 20 reactors during the next two decades goes to the heart of
an eight-year diplomatic row over the Islamic state's nuclear programme. Iran
insists it needs to enrich uranium -- material which can also be used to make
weapons if refined much further -- to fuel future power stations designed to
generate electricity and enable the country to export more of its gas and oil
riches." http://bit.ly/am0s7u
Commerce
Bloomberg: "Iran offered to
rehabilitate Lebanon's refineries and invest in water projects and gas supplies
in the east Mediterranean country and officials from the two countries will
discuss the offer today, the Lebanese energy minister's senior adviser said... Iranian
officials said they were looking into helping with the rehabilitation of
Lebanon's two refineries, which currently are only used for storage, he said.
Iran has also proposed to supply Lebanon with natural gas, in cooperation with
neighboring Syria and Turkey, said Ghajar." http://bit.ly/bDF3uE
Human
Rights
Radio Farda: "Iranian blogger
Hossein Maleki Ronaghi has been reportedly sentenced to 15 years in prison. Ronaghi's
mother, Zoleikha Mousavi, told the BBC's Persian service that authorities
informed him about the heavy prison sentence verbally. She said that Ronaghi
has been on a hunger strike since October 3 to protest his mistreatment in
prison. He's reportedly being held in an Evin prison ward that is controlled by
the Revolutionary Guard Corps." http://bit.ly/cL52tH
Domestic Politics
AP: "A pair of gunmen opened fire
on a police patrol in Iran's Kurdish region on Thursday, killing four officers
and a bystander, the Iranian official news agency reported. The attack took
place in Sanandaj, the capital of Iran's Kurdistan province some 310 miles (500
kilometers) west of Tehran, where authorities have been battling a separatist
Kurdish movement for years." http://bit.ly/aX9Zl5
VOA: "A satirical television show called Parazit has become one of
Iran's most popular programs, even though it is broadcast from Washington and
produced by the Voice of America. The 30-minute weekly show, which pokes fun at
Iranian officialdom, has a Farsi language Facebook page that now routinely
records about 500,000 impressions after each new program is posted. Last month,
Parazit's Facebook friends surpassed 100,000 - up from 60,000 just two months
earlier. Many viewers also watch the show on satellite dishes, which are
illegal in Iran." http://bit.ly/cuC0qw
Foreign Affairs
AFP: "A Lebanese-Iranian film
about two Hezbollah fighters and their women during the 2006 war with Israel is
one of the biggest ever made in the country, one of its producers said on
Thursday. 'South of Heaven is one of the biggest movies ever filmed in Lebanon,'
the executive producer from Lebanon's Rihanna Group, Ali Abu Zaid, told AFP. The
story is set in the border village of Aita Shaab, from which Hezbollah fighters
crossed into Israel and captured two soldiers in a deadly raid in 2006... It is
due to be released next year." http://bit.ly/bDz46r
Opinion
Philip Stephens in FT: "John
McCain framed the dilemma during the 2008 US presidential election campaign.
The only thing worse than war with Iran, the senator postulated, would be a
nuclear-armed Iran. Barack Obama took another view and went on to win the White
House. He may yet find it impossible to sidestep the choice posed by his
opponent. Some things have moved in the right direction during the intervening
couple of years. The uprising on the streets that greeted Iranian president
Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad's fraudulent re-election showed his regime to be more
vulnerable than many had imagined... The hope is that Mr McCain's binary choice
can be avoided. Through a combination of sticks and carrots, Iran might be
persuaded to trade its nuclear ambitions for a return to the community of
nations. The chances still seem slim. The best a high-ranking US official will
offer is that a deal is 'not impossible.'" http://bit.ly/cnW61w
Meir Javedanfar in The Guardian: "The
Iranian government is very enthusiastic about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's coming visit
to southern Lebanon and has been doing much to promote it. The state-owned
PressTV news outlet - which Ahmadinejad was instrumental in setting up - has
been at the forefront of promoting the visit. In one article it hailed the trip
as a 'visit for unity' ... However, what both the US and Israel should note is
that the biggest reason why Ahmadinejad has decided to go to Lebanon is
domestic. Israel and the US are further down his list of priorities. The
Iranian president is visiting Lebanon mainly because of his growing
unpopularity at home. In fact, Ahmadinejad has never been more unpopular in
Iran, not only with the public but also his conservative allies and the clergy.
By going to Lebanon, he is going to one of the last places where the Islamic Republic
still has genuine support." http://bit.ly/dxylEF
Kaveh Afrasiabi in Asia Times: "The indications are
that Moscow has now joined the United States' 'strategic game' against Iran. As
Tehran's preoccupation grows over this unsettling issue about its northern neighbor
and sole nuclear partner, rumors are circulating that authorities have
interrogated several Russian technicians at the Russian-built Bushehr power
plant over their possible involvement with the recent cyber-attack that
infected staff computers at the facility. The Bushehr plant was due to open
this month, but due to technical difficulties, a 'small leak' according to
officials and not the cyber-attack as initially reported, operations are now
slated to begin early next year. The mystery of the origins of the powerful
cyber-attack against Iran continues, and there are strong suspicions in Iran of
a joint US-Israeli operation, though some in the West now place the blame on
Russia." http://bit.ly/9WMilH
Maryam Sinaiee in The National: "The
threat by Tehran's top prosecutor this week to take legal action against what
he called 'economic saboteurs' is aimed by authorities at helping reverse a
recent sharp downturn in the value of the national currency, analysts
said. Tehran prosecutor general Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi said Wednesday
that Iran's courts had the authority to act against those 'who disturb public
order by hoarding commodities, closing the bazaar or manipulating the supply of
commodities in the market.' Mr Dowlatabi's warning, reported by Mehr News
Agency, came against the backdrop of the rial's weakened value against the
dollar, a drop that began last week. In a bid to bolster confidence in the
currency, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday the country's foreign
currency reserves were at an unprecedented level and there was no cause for
concern." http://bit.ly/ckzPug
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