Top Stories
WashPost: "President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's government, already faced with growing opposition from competing
political forces within Iran, is confronting new pressure brought on by severe
economic problems, including some triggered by international sanctions. The
sanctions, intended to push the country to abandon its nuclear program, are not
yet crippling the Islamic Republic, economists and analysts say. But they are
causing prices to rise and making it increasingly difficult for Iranian
companies to work internationally. U.S. officials have noted recently that the
sanctions are having an impact, and also acknowledged the confluence of
challenges." http://wapo.st/bkeFKH
AP: "Iran's opposition leader
said yesterday that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's foreign policies are
destructive and his performance as president should be judged in a referendum. Mir
Hossein Mousavi said the president's actions on the world stage, such as a speech
at the United Nations last month in which he questioned the attacks of Sept.
11, 2001, have helped deepen Iran's isolation and worsen its economy. 'Who has
given you the permission to put the country against the entire world through
adventurism and dictatorship that has led to the current grave economic and
political situation?' Mousavi said on his website, Kaleme.com. 'Don't cry hurray for yourself. Hold a referendum
to see whether the people recognize these destructive policies or not.'" http://bit.ly/c9fGHX
WSJ: "Banks
in the United Arab Emirates have curtailed financial dealings with a handful of
Iranian banks blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury, officials here said, drying up
one of Iran's financial lifelines amid tightening international sanctions aimed
at curbing Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Washington has pushed many of Iran's
Persian Gulf neighbors to close off financial access to Tehran's banks. The
U.A.E.'s move is especially significant since Dubai has in recent years been an
important re-export hub for Iranian importers, prohibited by previous sanctions
from importing goods directly from the U.S. and elsewhere... Malaysia also
recently suspended the local unit of Iran's second-largest bank, Bank Mellat,
which the U.S. and the United Nations said was involved in facilitating 'millions
of dollars' in transactions aimed at advancing Iran's nuclear program." http://bit.ly/9gMbFM
Nuclear
Program
AFP: "Iran's rial rebounded
against the dollar on Tuesday as banks in the Islamic republic offloaded the
greenback to curb the local currency's recent steep losses triggered by
sanctions, dealers said. The dollar was trading at around 10,750-10,800 rials
compared with 12,500 on Wednesday last week when banks restricted the sale of
foreign currencies to private individuals. Long queues were seen on Tuesday
outside several banks and official foreign exchange houses as dollars became
freely available again." http://bit.ly/aK5L1X
AFP: "Afghan police said
Wednesday they had seized 22 tons of explosives stashed in boxes marked 'food,
toys and kitchenware' that were imported from neighboring Iran. The discovery
was made Tuesday in a customs office in the western province of Nimroz on the
Iranian border, deputy provincial police chief Mohammad Musa Rasouli said. 'We
found these materials hidden in a 40 foot (12 meter) shipping container that
had come from Iran. The explosives were disguised as merchandise like food,
toys and kitchenware,' he added." http://bit.ly/c4OUcc
JPost: "Iran's top military
official said the country can supply weapons to over 50 countries, Iranian news
source PressTV reported on Wednesday. 'At the moment the Islamic Republic is at
the height of power and is able to export defense products,' Brigadier-General Ahmad
Vahidi was quoted as saying. Vahidi said Teheran had manufactured
defense products and that the country is self sufficient in military
industries, producing military equipment and weapons, as well as electronic,
radar and optical projects." http://bit.ly/devPBm
Human
Rights
Radio Farda: "Political activist
Heshmatollah Tabarzadi has been sentenced by a Tehran revolutionary court to
nine years in jail and 74 lashes, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports. Tabarzadi, who
heads Iran's banned opposition Democratic Front, was arrested by Intelligence
Ministry officials in Tehran following bloody protests on the holy day of
Ashura on December 28." http://bit.ly/cHffre
Foreign Affairs
Reuters: "The U.S. State
Department said on Tuesday it had warned the Lebanese government about the
risks of a visit by Iran's president to Lebanon next week. Lebanese officials expect President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad of Iran, a staunch ally the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah which
dominates southern Lebanon and which the United States views as a terrorist
organization, to visit Beirut on Oct. 13-14. Ahmadinejad's visit is his first
to Lebanon as president and comes at a time of greater tension in Beirut in the
run up to indictments expected to be issued against Hezbollah members in the
2005 assassination of statesman Rafik al-Hariri." http://bit.ly/9paFPJ
Opinion
Roger F. Noriega in FP: "Venezuelan
President Hugo Chávez admitted last week that his government is 'carrying out
the first studies' of a nuclear program. He attempted to portray it as an
innocuous program designed solely for peaceful purposes. On Sept. 21, I held a
briefing for journalists and regional experts where I revealed for the first
time information about Chavez's nuclear program and his troubling and
substantial collaboration with Iran. This research -- conducted during the past
12 months by a team of experts who analyzed sensitive material obtained from
sources within the Venezuelan regime -- paints a far darker picture of Chavez's
intentions. Chávez has been developing the program for
two years with the collaboration of Iran, a nuclear rogue state. In addition to
showing the two states' cooperation on nuclear research, these documents
suggest that Venezuela is helping Iran obtain uranium and evade international
sanctions, all steps that are apparent violations of the U.N. Security Council
resolutions meant to forestall Iran's illegal nuclear weapons program." http://bit.ly/bGS3gf
Benjamin
Weinthal in NRO: "Pres. Barack Obama chose last week to sanction the
Swiss-based Naftiran Intertrade (NICO) energy-trading company for violating the
recently enhanced U.S Iran Sanctions Act, which bars significant investments in
Iran's energy and gas sectors... Unfortunately, the U.S. State Department's meek
approach toward sanctions enforcement was on display in the handling of NICO, a
subsidiary of Iran's national oil company, which has no economic presence in
the United States. Sanction enforcement ought to replicate contract
enforcement. Legislation, like a contractual agreement, is worthless unless
there is aggressive enforcement. But according to Republican congresswoman
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, who serves on the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, 'Critical questions concerning the big companies' involvement with
Iran remain unanswered. The heavy lifting remains undone.'" http://bit.ly/aZ0Ndr
Josh Rogin in FP: "The State
Department has been stepping up both its rhetorical and punitive actions
against Iran, but the question still remains whether the administration will go
as far as to sanction companies based in countries where relations are
delicate, especially China. Last week, the United States announced two steps to
increase pressure on Iran: President Obama signed an executive order on Sept.
29 targeting eight Iranian individuals for serious human rights abuses, and the
State Department announced on Sept. 30 that it was imposing sanctions on the
Switzerland-based Naftiran Intertrade Company (NICO) due to its involvement in
the Iranian petroleum sector. These actions are based on the Iran sanctions
legislation passed overwhelmingly by Congress and signed into law by President Obama last June. On Monday,
the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a new report that
identified 16 companies as having sold petroleum products to Iran between Jan.
1, 2009, and June 30, 2010. Of those 16, the GAO reported that five have shown
no signs of curtailing business with Iran. Three of those companies are based
in China, one in Singapore, and one in the UAE." http://bit.ly/cvs4y9
Thierry Coville
in the World Policy Institute: "Clearly,
the recent plunge of the rial against the dollar came as a shock. So what
happened? It seems that the American-inspired sanctions have led to a
disruption of relations between the Iranian banking system and their
correspondent banks abroad. Under the sanctions regimen, is more difficult for
Iranian companies and individuals to move money between Iran and the outside
world. As exporters and individuals have trouble transferring dollars from
abroad, there is a lower level of supply of the American currency in the Tehran
black market for foreign exchange." http://bit.ly/cXqrQZ
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