Eye on Iran: U.S. Sanctions 8 Iran Officials for Crackdown

For continuing coverage follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group. Top Stories NYT: "Opening a new front in its pressure campaign against Tehran, the Obama administration on Wednesday put eight Iranian officials on a blacklist for their role in the bloody suppression of anti-government activists after the disputed Iranian election last year. The United States, citing human-rights abuses for the first time as a basis for sanctions, will freeze foreign assets and deny visas to eight people, among them the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the minister of welfare and social security, and several intelligence officials." http://nyti.ms/bRTwwP BBC: "The head of Iran's atomic agency says power generation from its first nuclear plant will probably begin in January - two months later than announced. Ali Akbar Salehi said the apparent delay at the Bushehr reactor had nothing to do with the Stuxnet computer worm, but gave no other explanation. The Russian-built plant was inaugurated in August after several years of delay. It will be internationally supervised. It is not seen by analysts as posing a significant proliferation risk." http://bbc.in/bsS6nB NYT: "Deep inside the computer worm that some specialists suspect is aimed at slowing Iran's race for a nuclear weapon lies what could be a fleeting reference to the Book of Esther, the Old Testament tale in which the Jews pre-empt a Persian plot to destroy them. That use of the word 'Myrtus' - which can be read as an allusion to Esther - to name a file inside the code is one of several murky clues that have emerged as computer experts try to trace the origin and purpose of the rogue Stuxnet program, which seeks out a specific kind of command module for industrial equipment. Not surprisingly, the Israelis are not saying whether Stuxnet has any connection to the secretive cyberwar unit it has built inside Israel's intelligence service." http://nyti.ms/aYh8k7 Nuclear Program WashPost: "New sanctions against Iran, recently implemented by the United Arab Emirates, have led to a sharp drop this week in the value of Iran's currency, the rial, disrupting the country's markets and prompting the government to consider intervening to curb the rise in hard currency exchange rates. But analysts say the rate increase means that the government - widely seen as on a drive to boost its income - will receive more rials for its petrodollars, even as the currency drop could contribute to inflation... The currency drop comes as several gold merchants in the capital closed for a fifth consecutive day to protest the implementation of a 3 percent value-added tax. The Tehran steel bazaar, an important center of private enterprise in Iran, has also been on strike since Saturday." http://wapo.st/dfxvkA AFP: "The Japanese government and oil developer Inpex Corp. plan to completely withdraw from Iran's largest onshore oil field project to avoid possible US sanctions, news reports said Thursday. The move, which may be announced this week, is to prevent government-backed Inpex being included in a list of companies subject to US sanctions against Iran, the Yomiuri Shimbun and the Nikkei reported, citing government sources. Iran's Azadegan oilfield, which has some 42 billion barrels of oil, was initially to have been developed with Inpex." http://bit.ly/aS8X5l FT: "Barack Obama's policy to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capability is under pressure from members of Congress, who argue that Washington should make clear it will consider military action unless sanctions yield swift results. This comes in spite of the administration arguing that sanctions are proving more effective than expected, with companies and countries severing Iran ties. 'Our goal here is to convince Iran to stop its nuclear weapons development programme by economic and diplomatic means if we can but [to make clear] that we are prepared to use military means if we must,' said Joseph Lieberman, the independent senator from Connecticut, in an interview with the Financial Times." http://bit.ly/96DN4y Human Rights Guardian: "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's closest aide has called for more rights for Iran's 'oppressed' women - the latest comments from a man who has become a lightning rod for divisions in the country's ruling elite. 'Women have been oppressed and treated unjustly in our society in the past, and this oppression still exists,' Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, the Iranian president's chief of staff, was quoted as saying by Iranian newspapers today. Iranian women's rights have long been championed by activists abroad, most recently over the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman sentenced to be stoned for adultery." http://bit.ly/ajcG1S NPR: "One young Iranian who fled to Turkey says he was targeted by authorities for two offenses: going public with his homosexuality and taking part in last year's post-election anti-government protests. Ramin Haghjoo, 25, who is slender with a red streak in his long, curly hair, still laughs when he recalls the incident. His smile vanishes, however, when he talks about what it's like to live as a gay man in Iran. In an Istanbul cafe, Haghjoo spoke of friends estranged from their families, living in fear and depression, wondering if their future holds prison or worse." http://n.pr/atUzLe Domestic Politics Radio Farda: "Gold merchants throughout Iran are joining a strike to protest a new tax on gold that they say severely hurts their business, RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports. The gold bazaar in Tehran went on strike shortly after the government announced on September 26 that it was adding a 3 percent VAT (value-added tax) on gold products. The strike has since stretched to other cities such as Mashhad, Shiraz, Ghazvin, Qom, and Sabzevar." http://bit.ly/9KCLqS Opinion Mark Dubowitz & Benjamin Weinthal in WSJ: "The European Union in July imposed unprecedented sanctions against Iran's energy and financial sectors. But despite the crackdown, some European companies continue to sign up for business deals in Iran that may be both directly and indirectly supporting Iran's nuclear-weapons development. Take the example of Ceresola TLS. According to a hard copy of the confirmation of a contract we have obtained, the Swiss firm recently signed an agreement worth over €1 billion with Rahab Engineering Establishment in Tehran. According to the contract, Ceresola has agreed to provide Rahab with tunneling technology to facilitate the construction of a metro line in Iran. But in the past, the regime in Tehran has used similar agreements to help hide its nuclear-weapons program. Although the confirmation order lists the deal as a project for a metro line, obtaining heavy earth-moving equipment and technology is also a top priority for Iran's nuclear program." http://bit.ly/bYMIrY Aluf Benn in Haaretz: "Three weeks from now, Netanyahu will have a one-time opportunity to stop the new Hitler and thwart the incitement to genocide. Ahmadinejad will pay his first visit to Lebanon and devote an entire day to a tour of the southern part of that country. He will visit sites where Hezbollah waged battles against Israel and, according to one report, he will also pop over to Fatima Gate, just beyond the border fence at Metula. The route is known, the range is close and it is possible to send a detail across the border to seize the president of Iran and bring him to trial in Israel as an inciter to genocide and Holocaust denier. The media effect will be dramatic: Ahmadinejad in a glass cage in Jerusalem, with the simultaneous translation earphones, facing grim Israeli judges. In the spirit of the times, it will also be possible to have foreign observers join them." http://bit.ly/9DnxBY Senator Joseph Lieberman at CFR: "But fourth and probably most importantly, I believe, the major geopolitical driver for the heightened anxiety about America's staying power in the Middle East is the Islamic Republic of Iran - more specifically, its determined push to become the dominant power in the region and tilt the balance of governance there towards Islamist extremism - and whether the United States has the will to stop that push. The Iranian regime's pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability cannot be separated from its long-term campaign of unconventional warfare, stretching back decades, to destabilize the region and remake it in its own Islamist extremist image... If Iran succeeds in acquiring a nuclear weapons capability, it would severely destabilize the Middle East, a region whose stability has been an important long-term American national and economic security goal." http://bit.ly/aE8FnS Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons. UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.

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