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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