Top Stories
WSJ: "Iranian authorities are taking extraordinary security measures ahead of cuts to energy and food subsidies this month, in an effort to prevent unrest by a public upset about rising expenses and inflation. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cautioned the public on Wednesday against politicizing the economic reforms and threatened to severely punish businesses that raise prices of consumer goods in reaction to subsidy cuts. In a nationally broadcast speech to a rally in the northeastern city of Bojnurd, he said government agents would 'catch and fine anyone who abused the situation and make them regret it forever.' The government, in a five-year phaseout plan, seeks to eliminate up to $100 billion a year in food and energy subsidies that keep costs down for consumers." http://bit.ly/9stjCV
AP: "Iran's foreign minister said Wednesday that no final decision has been made about a woman who could be stoned to death for adultery, amid reports that her execution was imminent. Manouchehr Mottaki's statement follows an international outcry over the stoning sentence against the 43-year-old woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. 'Everyone has to be punished for murder,' Mottaki said at a news conference in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. 'The person has killed her husband and I think this fact will be considered as a crime in every country ... But in this case the final decision has not been made yet.'" http://yhoo.it/amGD9W
AFP: "Iran said on Wednesday that any nuclear fuel swap with the major powers must be based on an agreement it signed with Brazil and Turkey, dismissing reports a revised proposal was on the table. 'If the Vienna group is ready for negotiation over the fuel swap... it would be based only on the framework defined in the Tehran Declaration,' Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told state news agency IRNA. Mottaki was reacting to reports that the six major powers which have been seeking to allay international concerns over Iran's nuclear program have been drawing up a new fuel swap deal to replace one proposed last year." http://bit.ly/ayByWx
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
WSJ: "Luxembourg-based software company Skype, which is in registration for an initial public offering, has answered a subpoena from the Treasury Department seeking information about transactions involving Iran. Silver Lake Partners, the tech-centric private equity firm that bought the majority share in Skype in 2009, was served an administrative subpoena in July, Skype said in a Nov. 2 filing with the Securities and Exchange commission. The little-noticed subpoena was first disclosed by the company in its August registration statement. The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces U.S. sanctions, requested information on transactions since 2005, including those related to call termination fees to an unnamed Iranian telecommunications provider, the company said." http://bit.ly/bNamRf
Bloomberg: "Transocean Ltd., the world's largest offshore oil driller, said it may have violated U.S. sanctions when goods bound for a company-owned rig in Turkmenistan traveled through Iran. The equipment was shipped through Iran by a freight forwarder, Vernier, Switzerland-based Transocean said today in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The potential violation was detected by the company's internal compliance program and was reported to the U.S. Treasury Department... It's against U.S. law to export U.S.-origin items to Iran, Transocean said in the regulatory filing." http://bit.ly/9vw6qZ
Human Rights
AP: "Brazil's president-elect says it would be 'barbaric' if a woman in Iran were executed for adultery. Dilma Rousseff did not say what she would do about the planned stoning after she takes office on Jan. 1, but Brazilian officials have tried to use their friendly ties with Iran to influence the case. In August, Brazil offered to take in the woman if her life were spared. Iran rejected the offer." http://wapo.st/cGFLDe
AFP: "Canada's First Lady Maureen Harper on Wednesday condemned Iran's 'senseless and continual' disregard for women's rights and called for the release of a woman sentenced to death. 'We are deeply troubled by the flagrant disregard of women's rights in Iran,' Harper said in an open letter. 'In particular, the most recent and public case of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani is an affront to any sense of moral or human decency and is symbolic of the plight of Iranian women.'" http://bit.ly/9uM8EO
Foreign Affairs
AP: "Thousands of anti-American demonstrators marked the anniversary of the 1979 storming of the U.S. Embassy in a rally Thursday held under tight security but without challenges from opposition groups. The annual pro-government event outside the former embassy compound brought clashes and chaos to central Tehran last year after protesters held counter-marches over their claims of massive vote rigging in the presidential election. But it was among the last major displays of opposition anger on the streets as embattled authorities stepped up crackdowns and threats to quell the most serious domestic unrest since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution." http://yhoo.it/cmZjeF
AP: "The State Department named a Sunni militant group in Iran to a U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations on Wednesday, a move likely to be welcomed by Tehran just weeks before the resumption of talks over its disputed nuclear program. A State Department spokesman said adding the Jundallah organization to a terrorist list that contains 46 others - including al-Qaida, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and the Pakistani Taliban - was not intended as a conciliatory gesture. But some experts said the timing could still help smooth relations in advance of a new round of negotiations over Iran's uranium enrichment program, the central source of tension between Tehran and Washington. Those talks are expected to resume before the end of this month." http://wapo.st/cxvzN9
BBC: "Iran says it has arrested four men allegedly paid by a man based in Britain to carry out assassinations, an official state TV station reports. Press TV said the four 'Britain-linked terrorists' were detained in the western city of Marivan. The men are accused of carrying out five assassinations in the past two years for money, Press TV reports. In London, the UK government dismissed the story as the latest in a line of 'baseless Iranian allegations.'" http://bbc.in/91zzuf
Opinion & Analysis
Tony Karon in TIME: "There's no indication that the President or other key decisionmakers have abandoned their skepticism of a military solution to the standoff, based on an awareness that the consequences of starting a war could be more dangerous than any threat currently posed by Iran. But the Times reports that a debate is under way within the Administration over whether Obama should be amplifying the threat of military action if Iran remains defiant. The Administration's Iran point man, Dennis Ross, has made clear in his writings on the matter that he believes Iran will back down only if it believes it faces a credible threat of military action. But there's no legal basis for military action - all relevant U.N. resolutions have been carefully crafted to avoid giving the U.S. the loopholes used by the Bush Administration to claim legal authority for attacking Iraq - because most of those nations supporting sanctions remain resolutely opposed to military action. So threatening force could potentially break up whatever diplomatic consensus currently exists, and that would suit Iran." http://bit.ly/dtRtTV
Mohammad Bazzi in GlobalPost: "And the Iranian regime has also gained the upper hand in the latest political maneuvering. Tehran has brought together two of its staunchest Shiite allies: Maliki and the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr... But U.S. officials have little sway over Iraqi groups that are now more concerned about currying favor with regional powers, especially Iran. While the Iranian regime suppressed internal dissent last year over the tainted reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, it also worked to maintain its influence over Iraq's Shiite factions. By surviving the challenge from the 'Green Revolution,' the Iranian regime has become stronger and more emboldened to engage in adventurism abroad. Since the March 7 elections, the United States has been sidelined in the political machinations of Iraq. With remaining U.S. troops set to withdraw by the end of 2011, the Obama administration has little leverage to force Iraqi leaders to reach a compromise. And Iran is waiting patiently to get its way." http://bit.ly/9AzZsN
Bernard-Henri Levy in HuffPo: "And so Iran is backing down. The Islamic Republic does it in its own way, tortuously, but it is backing down. And that is what is evident in two stands made public this morning, after the new stay of execution accorded Sakineh under the pressure of public opinion and of the chancelleries... For me, of course, the struggle continues. It continues even more than ever. For a stay of execution is not a pardon. And, lamentably, execution of the sentence can still occur, and at any moment. We must keep up the pressure. There must be increasingly more citizens--signing, for example, the petition of La Règle du Jeu-who express their solidarity with the young woman unjustly condemned and, of course, with her son, Sajjad. Let's not give in. Let's continue to be 'insolent.'" http://huff.to/b2iwH0
Barbara Slavin in AOL News: "Of all the bad advice offered to President Barack Obama to contend with the Democrats' post-midterm losses, one recommendation stands out for its ignorance and irresponsibility: that Obama should go to war with Iran. On Sunday, veteran Washington Post columnist David Broder was the latest to put forward this idea. George Friedman of Stratfor has also proposed attacking Iran, albeit conceding that the move would have considerable risks. Broder suggested that Obama would have strong Republican support for the military option and that the nation 'will rally around Obama because Iran is the greatest threat to the world in the young century.' There is so much that is wrong with this analysis that it's hard to know where to begin." http://aol.it/9ZQDVb
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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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