Top Stories
AFP: "Iran has conducted defence drills at its sensitive nuclear facilities, a senior commander told media on Sunday, adding that fresh aerial war games will be launched across the country next week. 'This year, we carried out tactical drills which resembled real combat in Fordo, Tehran, Natanz, Bushehr and Esfahan,' where the country's nuclear plants are located, the Mehr news agency quoted Ahmad Mighani as saying. Mighani did not specify when exactly the exercises were conducted. Iran's arch-foes Israel and the United States have not ruled out a resort to military action to prevent it developing a nuclear weapons capability, an ambition it strongly denies. Mighani said the armed forces will stage a new five-day air defence drill from Tuesday 'all over the country in order to improve defence capability,' the Fars news agency reported." http://bit.ly/bqMBWc
AFP: "Iran said on Sunday that the world economy is in a position to absorb an oil price of 100 dollars a barrel even as it finds the current price range suitable for investments. 'Oil prices increasing to 100 dollars (per barrel) would not hurt the global economy,' Mohammad Ali Khatibi, Iran's representative at the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), told the oil ministry news agency SHANA. Khatibi also said that the current price range of 70 to 90 dollars was a 'suitable' range. 'Not only producers, but consumers have reached this agreement that 70 to 90 dollars is a suitable price for oil because it encourages investment and does not hurt the global economy,' he said. His remarks come days after OPEC revised upward its world oil demand growth estimates for both 2010 and 2011." http://bit.ly/do9ueL
AFP: "Iran said on Monday that an arms shipment sent from an Iranian port and discovered in Lagos was heading to a West African country, and the 'misunderstanding' had since been cleared up with the Nigerian authorities. 'A private company which had sold conventional defence weapons to another country in West Africa had transferred the shipment via Nigeria which raised some doubts with relevant officials,' Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters. Mottaki said an Iranian national who was in Nigeria as the representative of the company 'had offered explanations (to Nigerian authorities) and I believe the misunderstanding has been cleared.' He did not specify whether the firm was Iranian. On Friday, Nigeria threatened to report Iran to the UN Security Council if the arms shipment, which included rockets and grenades, violated sanctions over its sensitive nuclear programme." http://bit.ly/bD2LiN
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
AP: "Iran's first nuclear power plant will start feeding the country's power grid late next month, state television reported Sunday. It quoted Behzad Soltani, deputy head of Iran's nuclear department, as saying the feed from the Bushehr plant in southern Iran will begin when its output reaches 250 megawatts. The power plant's energy output was scheduled to reach about 900 megawatts by spring next year, he added." http://wapo.st/9WDoL1
AFP: "The United States said Friday that any new international nuclear talks with Iran should take place first in central Europe but added that follow-on talks could be held in Turkey, as Iran has proposed. In Brussels, European Union diplomacy chief Catherine Ashton on Friday agreed to resume the long-stalled nuclear talks between six world powers and Iran on December 5, and suggested they be held in Austria or Switzerland. 'Istanbul could still be a location for a second follow-on meeting,' US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters. 'But the general consensus is that the first meeting should be somewhere in central Europe.' Iran this week proposed the talks take place in Istanbul but 'Ashton's preference is that the first meeting take place somewhere else in Europe and has proposed Austria or Switzerland,' her office said." http://bit.ly/b2UVRw
AFP: "North Korea is supplying banned nuclear and ballistic equipment to Iran, Syria and Myanmar using 'surreptitious' means to avoid international sanctions, according to a UN report released Friday. China had blocked publication of the report which has been ready for six months, diplomats said. North Korea is involved with 'the surreptitious transfer of nuclear-related and ballistic missile-related equipment, know-how and technology' to countries including Iran, Syria and Myanmar, said the report." http://bit.ly/aMZnK7
Reuters: "The foreign ministers of China, Russia and India urged Iran on Monday to prove to the world that its nuclear ambitions are peaceful, and urged a return to talks... 'The three foreign ministers recognize Iran's right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy,' they said in a joint statement released on the Chinese foreign ministry's website after a meeting in China's Wuhan city. 'At the same time, Iran should restore the faith of the international community of the totally peaceful nature of its nuclear activities,' they added. 'The only path to resolving the Iran nuclear issue is through dialogue, negotiations and other such peaceful methods.'" http://reut.rs/aQf5Ma
AFP: "The central bank of Kuwait has asked Gulf emirate banks, investment companies and money exchange firms to start implementing UN sanctions against neighbouring Iran, local media said on Friday. The instructions called for the freezing of assets and financial resources related to 'Iran's sensitive nuclear programmes or activities,' said Al-Rai newspaper, citing a circular by the central bank. The paper said the circular was based on a letter by the foreign ministry which stressed that the sanctions were mandatory... The circular bans the opening of branches or representative offices for Iranian banks in Kuwait and forbids Kuwaiti financial institutions from opening offices or accounts in Iran. The central bank asked Kuwaiti financial institutions to exercise caution while making trade transactions with Iran-based establishments, including those controlled by the Revolutionary Guards and Iran's marine transport company." http://bit.ly/b4WStP
CNN: "Iran's military is working to exponentially boost the range and numbers of its radar systems as part of a series of stepped-up defense measures, state-run media reports. Brig. Gen. Ahmad Miqani, commander of the Khatam ol-Anbia Air Defense Base, said Sunday that Iran is working on a radar system to detect low-altitude objects as far as 3,000 km (1,864 miles) away, according to Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency. Previously, the maximum range for Iranian radar was 400 km (250 miles), he said. 'Today, we are building all types of active or passive radar systems, with any kind of range and in any frequency,' Miqani said, according to Fars." http://bit.ly/aDwb0P
Commerce
AFP: "Iran's Entekhab Industrial Group has signed a contract sealing its acquisition of South Korea's Daewoo Electronics for 518 million dollars, reports and officials said on Sunday. The buyout by the privately owned Iranian company comes about two months after Seoul's government imposed unilateral sanctions against the Islamic republic over its sensitive nuclear drive. Entekhab, which along with Swedish giant Electrolux has been pursuing the South Korean company for the past year, had 'purchased Daewoo Electronics for 518 million dollars,' said a report in the reformist Shargh newspaper. A diplomat who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity confirmed the 'final contract was signed a few days ago and the acquisition of Daewoo Electronics by Entekhab is complete.'" http://bit.ly/cePxco
Human Rights
Reuters: "Five lawyers have been arrested in Iran for security-related offences, a local news agency said on Sunday, the latest in a series of arrests of human rights' activists since last year's disputed presidential election. Tehran general prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said three of the lawyers were arrested when they returned from a trip to Turkey, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. 'Two other lawyers related to the three were also detained in Iran,' the prosecutor told Fars. 'They have been detained for committing security-related offences and violating the Islamic Republic's moral standards outside Iran,' he said, without elaborating on the charges." http://bit.ly/aFgohP
Foreign Affairs
AFP: "Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rasoul arrived in Tehran on Sunday on the first high-level visit by an Afghan official since President Hamid Karzai admitted Kabul had received Iranian cash payments. Rasoul's visit also comes as Iran is still holding seven Afghan military personnel who strayed across the border last month. Iran's ISNA news agency reported that Rasoul headed a delegation including several deputy ministers that sought to boost relations between Kabul and Tehran. Karzai's administration was plunged into controversy last month after the New York Times reported that his chief of staff, Umar Daudzai, had received regular cash payments from Iran. The report cited officials as saying the payments were intended to secure the allegiance of Daudzai, a former ambassador to Tehran who briefs Karzai daily and consistently advocates an anti-Western line." http://bit.ly/aeUS8q
LAT: "Call it a case of dueling consulates. Almost every morning, crowds of visa-seekers flock to the sprawling Iranian diplomatic mission here, a prime center of gravity in this western Afghan city with deep Persian roots. Now, a new U.S. Consulate is poised to open as well, staking out a commanding hillside position in a landmark building that was once a luxury hotel. Diplomats being diplomats, neither the U.S. nor the Iranian side acknowledges any rivalry, or any wish to keep tabs on the other's activities. But in Herat, an hour's drive from the Iranian border, Tehran's growing bid for influence is on clear display." http://lat.ms/di1RXd
Opinion & Analysis
Bari Weiss in WSJ: "President Obama provoked some controversy earlier this fall when he professed his affinity for the rap of Jay-Z and Lil Wayne, the latter of whom spent the past eight months jailed at Rikers Island on gun charges. But if the president really wants to cause a stir next time he's asked what's on his iPod, he should mention Hichkas and Yas instead. Those are the names of two of Iran's most famous rappers-musicians who have a huge following among Iranian youth despite the fact that their songs are officially banned by the regime. Since Ayatollah Khomeini came to power in 1979, Western music has been forbidden in the Islamic Republic. To record a CD, musicians have to get the official blessing of the Culture Ministry. No prize for guessing what sort of lyrics they deem kosher. But perhaps no musical genre vexes the regime quite so much as rap. And understandably: Hip hop was born in the South Bronx. Iranian rappers openly admit that they've been inspired by American artists like Tupac and Eminem, imitating their use of slang and heavy beats. Forced to record in basement studios, these determined rappers-men and women-get their songs out on black-market CDs, websites devoted to Persian music, and YouTube. Last week came the latest crackdown on this underground music scene." http://on.wsj.com/blO2or
Glenn Kessler in WashPost: "For four months now, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili have traded a series of letters trying to pin down a time and place for Iran to meet with a group of powerful countries concerned about its nuclear program. Finally, late last week, the two sides appeared to have settled on a start date: Dec. 5. But they have yet to agree on venue, a length for the talks or even the subject. Iran says it is willing to talk about everything but its uranium enrichment program; the other countries - the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany - want to talk mostly about the entire nuclear program. The difficult path to restarting the talks, which have been on hold for more than a year, doesn't bode well, analysts and diplomats say. The latest round of U.N. Security Council sanctions, which by all accounts have been more crippling than anticipated, was intended to force Tehran to begin negotiating seriously about its nuclear program. But Iranian officials, insisting that the program is for peaceful energy purposes, have given little indication they are interested in such a negotiation. U.S. officials say that Iran's well-documented problems with its uranium enrichment program this year have greatly reduced concerns that Iran is on the brink of producing a nuclear weapon, giving additional time to strike a deal." http://wapo.st/azT6Le
Stephen Kinzer in The Boston Globe: "This week in New Delhi, President Obama went further than any of his predecessors toward embracing India as an ally, and most Indians are thrilled by this warm treatment. This does not mean, however, that the two countries will align all of their foreign policies. In some areas, India would like the United States to change its approach. One key difference is over Iran. India has the wiser policy, and Obama should consider emulating it. Despite some changes in atmospherics, Obama's approach to Iran has been remarkably similar to the one President George W. Bush took in his second term: don't bomb Iran, but continue to threaten that 'all options are on the table'; steadily intensify economic sanctions, despite ample evidence that they weaken civil society and lavishly enrich the repressive Revolutionary Guard; insist on negotiations on the nuclear issue, but refuse to broaden the agenda to include issues that concern Iran. India, like many other regional powers, takes the Iranian threat far less seriously than the United States does. It does not see Iran as an existential threat to anyone, but rather as just another thuggish country with resources, and wants to see it enticed back into the world's mainstream. India would like the United States to adopt a more accommodating policy toward Iran - and could even serve as the bridge that makes it possible." http://bit.ly/9BScZk
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment