Top Stories
AP: "The head of Russia's arms
manufacturer reportedly says it will return Iran's advance payment for the air
defense missiles whose delivery was canceled by the Kremlin. Sergei Chemezov,
head of the state-controlled Russian Technologies holding company, was quoted
by Russia's news agencies as saying Thursday that Russia will return $166.8
million it received as payment from Iran. He said that Russia owes nothing else
to Iran, since the 2007 contract for the delivery of the S-300 missiles was
canceled because of UN sanctions on Iran." http://bit.ly/aFU4a5
AFP: "South Korea will suspend
the operations of an Iranian bank for two months, financial regulators said
Thursday, as part of international sanctions over Tehran's suspected nuclear
weapons programme. The Seoul branch of Bank Mellat will be suspended from
October 11 for violating laws on foreign exchange transactions, the Financial
Services Commission said. 'Its operations in Seoul will remain virtually
paralysed as most of its business is related to foreign exchange transactions,'
a commission official told AFP." http://bit.ly/dfGQno
Reuters: "The
Argentine prosecutor who accuses former Iranian officials of masterminding the
1994 bombing of a Jewish center says hosting a trial on neutral ground could
help break the deadlock in the case. President Cristina Fernandez suggested
last month that Iran nominate a third country in an effort to persuade the
Islamic Republic to hand over the suspects, saying that would help reassure
them they would get a fair trial. Iran denies any involvement in the bombing,
which killed 85 people, and the government has not responded to Fernandez's
suggestion." http://reut.rs/d92Ai1
Nuclear
Program
Reuters: "Iran is expanding one
of its main refineries as part of a drive to rapidly increase gasoline
production capacity, a refinery official said, as the country seeks to counter
international sanctions. 'The production of gasoline will increase by 4 million
litres (per day) over the next 14 days,' Abdolreza Mehrban, managing director
of the Abadan refinery, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news
agency on Wednesday. In September, Iran surprised the market with the
announcement that it had achieved a 40 percent increase in domestic gasoline
production in an emergency plan after sanctions had stopped many companies from
selling to the Islamic Republic." http://bit.ly/bK8j4R
Human
Rights
AP: "A prominent Iranian human
rights lawyer has gone on a hunger strike to protest her detention in solitary
confinement on suspicion of spreading propaganda against the ruling system, her
husband said Wednesday. Nasrin Sotoudeh told her husband in a phone call from
Evin Prison, north of Iran's capital, that she began a hunger strike on Sept.
25, he said. Sotoudeh's arrest last month could signal a widening of Iran's
crackdown on the pro-reform opposition that took the streets in protest after
the June 2009 presidential election." http://bit.ly/cIIUlQ
AFP: "Iran has hanged eight drug
traffickers in a prison in the southeastern city of Kerman, Fars news agency
reported on Thursday. The agency, which published only the first names of the
eight, did not say when the executions were carried out or if the condemned
were all hanged at the same time. The latest hangings bring the number of
executions in Iran to at least 125 this year, according to an AFP count based
on media reports. At least 270 people were hanged in 2009." http://bit.ly/993yEE
Domestic Politics
AP: "Iran authorities have threatened to take legal action against gold
merchants in Tehran's main bazaar if they don't call off their two-week-old
anti-tax strike, local media reported Thursday. Iran's government has been
trying to find ways to boost revenue - including by raising taxes - amid low
oil prices and other woes that have hampered the country's ailing economy. But
it has had to be cautious in the face of widespread public discontent. Several
newspapers, including the state-owned Jamejam and the Donya-e Eqtesad economic
daily, quoted Tehran chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi as saying the 'judiciary
will confront whoever disturbs public order by closing the bazaar.' He did not
elaborate." http://wapo.st/cQjPhW
Foreign Affairs
NYT: "Hezbollah's television
station, Al Manar TV, reports that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hopes
to find time during a visit to Lebanon next week to throw a rock at Israel. The
Lebanese channel's report, 'Ahmadinejad to Throw Stone Toward the Israeli Enemy,'
suggests that Iran's president might take part in what for him could be the
ultimate photo-op." http://nyti.ms/ds2qQc
BBC: "Iran's President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad has written to the Pope, thanking him for condemning an American
pastor's threat to burn the Koran last month. In his letter, Mr Ahmadinejad
also called for closer co-operation between Iran and the Vatican... The letter
was delivered to the pontiff by the Iranian Vice President, Mohammad Reza
Mirtajodini, and a copy of it is on the president's website." http://bbc.in/a28mQb
AP: "Brazil and Iran will meet
for the first time Thursday in an exhibition soccer match in Abu Dhabi. Coach
Mano Menezes has assembled a young squad for the game at Zayed Sports City.
Barcelona defender Daniel Alves and AC Milan forwards Robinho and Alexandre
Pato will provide the star power." http://bit.ly/at4foc
Opinion
Haleh Esfandiari in LAT: "When Sarah
Shourd, one of three Americans arrested and held without formal charges in an
Iranian prison for more than a year, was finally released last month, people
hoped that her two companions, Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal, would soon be
released as well. But Iran seldom works in logical ways. Almost from the day
the three Americans were arrested while hiking along the Iran-Iraq border in
Iraqi Kurdistan, the government has been divided over what to do with them. The
hikers were first accused of illegal entry, and then espionage, a charge
Iranian officials toss about freely. Some wanted to try the hikers for spying,
despite the absence of evidence. Others, in the Revolutionary Guard and
elsewhere, seem to have argued against release because of the fractious
relations between Iran and the United States. Still others came to understand
the damage this case was doing to Iran and sought its early resolution." http://lat.ms/avQ9t2
Arash Aramesh in The Majalla: "It was only five years ago
when the then unknown mayor of Tehran kissed the hands of Iran's Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei during his inauguration as president. At the time, the unknown
mayor surfed on a wave of public anger towards the establishment, and with the
blessing of Khamenei and his loyal armed forces, this man became the sixth
Iranian president. It was not long before the unknown mayor became a well-known
president, who, along with his powerful friends, asked for a bigger share of
power in Iran. The defeat of Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani in 2005 at the hands of
then Tehran's Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad brought to the fore a major cleavage
within the conservative camp in Iran. And this rift has only widened in the
years since. Those on the conservative side considered moderates feel that they
have been marginalized by the hardliners. The hardliners, led by President
Ahmadinejad and his allies in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC),
are unwilling to allow any room for their political rivals. Supreme Leader Ali
Khamenei, who has been one of Ahmadinejad's ardent supporters, has felt the
threat posed to the regime by Ahmadinejad and the IRGC's recently growing and
unchecked powers. Acting accordingly, he has taken a number of steps to check
their influence and clear the path for moderate-conservatives to return to the
table." http://bit.ly/ba1o51
Geneive Abdo in FP: "Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr
Mottaki in recent days met with dignitaries at the United Nations to generate
international support for Iran to engage in talks with the United States and
other permanent members of the UN Security Council over Iran's nuclear program.
But when Mottaki and other Iranian officials in Tehran have talked recently
about restarting talks, they are not referring to the nuclear negotiations the
Europeans and the United States are hoping for; rather, they are trying to gain
traction on negotiations about the Tehran Declaration, the agreement brokered
between Iran, Brazil and Turkey in May, which is limited to a swap deal over a
portion of Iran's enriched uranium.This is the deal the United States, Britain,
and France dismissed in May as a sideshow and a manipulative tactic by Iran to
get out of tough sanctions, shortly before crippling sanctions were passed in
the United Nations, the European Union, and the U.S. Congress. At the time,
this action prompted a hostile reaction from Iran. Now that Mottaki is placing
the deal squarely on the table again, the Obama administration should seize the
moment." http://bit.ly/bkVFtb
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