Top Stories
NYT: "The German software engineer who in September was the first to report that a computer worm was apparently designed to sabotage targets in Iran said Friday that the program contained two separate 'digital warheads.' The malicious program, known as Stuxnet, is designed to disable both Iranian centrifuges used to enrich uranium and steam turbines at the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which is scheduled to begin operation next year, said the engineer, Ralph Langner, an industrial control systems specialist based in Hamburg, Germany. His analysis adds further detail to a report by researchers at the Symantec Corporation, an American computer security company, which concluded that the software code was intended to induce fluctuations in the rotational speed of motors, by taking over a power device known as a frequency converter." http://nyti.ms/d5q42N
Guardian: "Britain is to further restrict exports to Iran after the government admitted there was a risk that specialist equipment currently approved for sale to the Middle Eastern country could help it develop its nuclear programme. Until this month the government had allowed British companies to export items such as nickel alloy pipes, vacuum pumps, radiation detectors, spectrometers, heat furnaces and specialised gaskets. The equipment was included on an EU list of 'dual-use items which may have potential utility to Iran's nuclear programmes' but which could be exported on a case-by-case basis. However, Mark Prisk, the business minister, acknowledged in a parliamentary statement that the risk Iran was using the equipment to develop its nuclear programme was 'so great that we need to go further.' In a notice to British exporters, the Department for Business Innovation & Skills said: 'All licences will be refused except in cases where there is manifestly no risk.'" http://bit.ly/anqWLc
Reuters: "Iran will continue to provide motorists with rationed gasoline for another month, again delaying a risky fuel subsidy cut feared to ignite street protests in the Islamic state, a senior official was quoted as saying by the students' news agency ISNA. The subsidy phase-out had been due to start in the second half of the Iranian year, which began on Sept. 23. 'The 60 litre rationed gasoline will be given to motorists for the (Iranian) month of Azar (starting on Nov. 22). The allocated amount will remain unchanged,' Mohammad Royanian, head of Iran's Transportation and Fuel Management Office, told ISNA... Under a rationing scheme, introduced in 2007, a motorist can buy 60 litres of subsidised fuel per month for just 1,000 rials per litre (around $0.11), and beyond that amount they have to pay a 'semi-subsidised' price of 4,000 rials." http://bit.ly/beMdVU
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
Reuters: "Iran has been experiencing years of problems with equipment used in its uranium enrichment programme and the Stuxnet computer virus may be one of the factors, a former top U.N. nuclear inspections official said. Olli Heinonen, who stepped down in August as head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog's inspections worldwide, said there may be many reasons for technical glitches that have cut the number of working centrifuges at Iran's Natanz enrichment plant. 'One of the reasons is the basic design of this centrifuge ... this is not that solid,' Heinonen, a former deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and now a senior fellow at Harvard University, told Reuters on Friday. Asked about the Stuxnet virus, he said: 'Sure, this could be one of the reasons ... There is no evidence that it was, but there has been quite a lot of malfunctioning centrifuges.'" http://bit.ly/c2gbv8
Reuters: "An Iranian lawmaker dealing with foreign policy said on Sunday Iran will increase its production of nuclear fuel despite a possible resumption of talks with major powers over its disputed uranium enrichment programme. Iran will probably try to blunt international pressure on it to curb enrichment once it resumes talks with the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. The venue and agenda of the talks have yet to be agreed upon. 'Iran will increase the production of nuclear fuel to secure its needs,' Esmail Kowsari, a member of parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency, without giving details. Since the last round of talks between Iran and big powers in October 2009, Tehran has continued to stockpile low-enriched uranium (LEU) and now has enough for at least two atomic bombs, experts say, if it was refined to a much higher level." http://bit.ly/cLajQt
AP: "Nigeria's drug enforcement agency says Europe was the destination for a recent catch of 286 pounds (130 kilograms) of high-quality heroin hidden inside a shipment of auto parts sent from Iran. Agency chairman Ahmadu Giade says the drugs were worth $9.9 million. He says the U.S. helped Nigerian officials find the illegal shipment but did not give details on the collaboration. He also says arrests have been made but did not elaborate in his statement on Saturday. The catch comes after Nigerian officials seized a shipment of military-grade weapons, allegedly from Iran, in Lagos' busiest port last month. Nigeria this week reported Iran to the United Nations over the weapons shipment, which contained artillery rockets, mortars and ammunition." http://yhoo.it/aZnwKm
AFP: "Latin American nations need to be cautious with Iran and its motives when negotiating development of their nuclear capacities, the US defense chief warned here Sunday. 'I think that countries that are dealing with Iran in this arena need to be very cautious and very careful about how they interact with the Iranians in terms of what the Iranians motives might be and what they're really trying to do,' US Defense Secretary Robert Gates told journalists ahead of a pan-American defense meeting. Host nation Bolivia is among countries interested in developing nuclear abilities with Tehran. The United States and some western powers believe Iran's nuclear program is military; Tehran insists it is civilian in nature." http://bit.ly/d9UEkG
AFP: "France's President Nicolas Sarkozy said Saturday that Iran poses the main threat of the type of rogue attack that NATO's planned anti-missile defence shield is designed to foil. 'No name appears in the documents made public by NATO, but let's call a spade a spade: today's missile threat, it's Iran,' he told reporters at the NATO summit in Lisbon. The 28 member alliance had earlier agreed on a plan to design a network of radars and interceptor rockets to shoot down missiles targeted at NATO member states, and to invite former rival Russia to take part." http://bit.ly/9CIM8J
AFP: "The Iranian capital is equipped with air defences against cruise missiles, a top military official said on Friday, warning against any attack on Iran over its controversial nuclear programme. 'Tehran is one the rare capitals of the world which has been equipped with a defence system against advanced cruise missiles,' said Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, the Revolutionary Guards aerospace division chief, quoted by Fars and Mehr news agencies. He did not elaborate on the defence system but said it has been tested during Iran's wargames this week." http://bit.ly/b4tncV
Commerce
Reuters: "Iran has explored a layer of 34 billion barrels of crude under an offshore gas field in the Gulf, the Oil Ministry's website Shana reported on Sunday. Shana quoted Ali Vakili, managing director of Iran's Pars Oil and Gas Co (POGC), as saying the layer was one of the biggest in the Islamic state. 'It is located under our Ferdowsi gas field in the Persian Gulf. Drilling of (an) appraisal well is going on to complete the assessments,' he said, without giving further details." http://reut.rs/dvSl6S
Human Rights
AP: "The lawyer for three Americans facing espionage charges in Iran said Sunday that a new trial date of Feb. 6 has been set but that the judge has refused to allow him to meet with his clients to prepare a defense. The trial was to have started on Nov. 6, but authorities said they delayed it because one of the Americans, who was freed on bail, had not been summoned to return to the country to appear in court. Their lawyer, Masoud Shafiei, said he received an official notification Sunday of the new trial date. Sarah Shourd was freed in September and returned to the United States. Her fiance, Shane Bauer, and their friend Josh Fattal remain in prison." http://wapo.st/ao4Da6
AP: "A German newspaper on Sunday dismissed as 'absurd' Iranian suggestions that two of its reporters detained in connection with a highly publicized stoning case were spying, and called for their immediate release. The two were arrested in Iran last month while interviewing the son and lawyer of 43-year-old Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who was sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery. Iranian officials have questioned whether the Germans are journalists and accused them of being spies, saying they posed as reporters without providing any evidence to support the claim. Bild am Sonntag editor-in-chief Walter Mayer wrote in Sunday's edition of the weekly paper that 'that is absurd.'" http://wapo.st/a8SFbA
AP: "An opposition website says two lawyers representing political activists have been released from jail a week after they were detained. Kaleme.com said Friday that Maryam Kianersi and Rosa Gharachorlu were among five lawyers detained on security charges upon returning home from abroad. The other three lawyers remain in detention. Their arrests appeared to be part of Iran's crackdown on dissidents and the lawyers defending them that began after the disputed presidential election in June 2009." http://bit.ly/9N9iMV
AFP: "There is a 'good chance' that the life of an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery could be spared, the head of Iran's High Human Rights Council said in an interview aired on Monday. 'Our judiciary made a lot of efforts (in reviewing the case) and we think there is a good chance her life could be saved,' Mohammed Javad Larijani told Iran's English-language Press TV. Larijani, who was speaking in English, did not give details of the judiciary's review of the Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani case or the basis of his optimism that her life would be spared." http://bit.ly/9SQohj
Domestic Politics
AP: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged young girls to marry at age of 16 in his latest rejection of the country's once effective family planning program, local newspapers reported on Sunday. Following record birth rates in the wake of the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran implemented an internationally praised family planning program in the 1990s that dramatically reduced the growth rate. Ahmadinejad has criticized the program as an ungodly and a Western import. 'We should take the age of marriage for boys to 20 and for girls to about 16 and 17,' he said, according to the state-owned Jam-e Jam daily. 'The marriage age for boys has reached 26 and for girls to 24, and there is no reason for this.'" http://wapo.st/dudSoM
NYT: "In little more than a year, the Persian-language satellite television channel beamed into Iran by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and a prominent Afghan family has rapidly become one of the most popular stations in the country. A little too popular, it appears. This week, a long-running campaign led by the Iranian government to undermine the channel, Farsi1, took a menacing turn: A group calling itself the Iranian Cyber Army hacked into Farsi1's Web site, as well as several sites owned by the Mohseni family, and posted a cryptic but sinister warning. 'The allies of Zionism should know this,' said the message, which stayed on the Web sites for about six hours on Thursday. 'Dreams of destroying the foundation of the family will lead straight to the graveyard.' The exact meaning of the message was unclear, but conservative Iranian leaders complain that the programming - a heavily censored variety of comedies, soap operas and dramas - is eroding traditional Iranian values." http://nyti.ms/bBYYIq
Opinion & Analysis
Bernd Debusmann in Reuters: "Who says that the United States and Iran can't agree on anything? The Great Satan, as Iran's theocratic rulers call the United States, and the Islamic Republic see eye-to-eye on at least one thing, that the Iranian opposition group Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) are terrorists. America and Iran arrived at the terrorist designation for the MEK at different times and from different angles but the convergence is bizarre, even by the complicated standards of Middle Eastern politics. The United States designated the MEK a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 1997, when the Clinton administration hoped the move would help open a dialogue with Iran. Thirteen years later, there is still no dialogue. But the group is still on the list, despite years of legal wrangling over the designation through the U.S. legal system. Britain and the European Union took the group off their terrorist lists in 2008 and 2009 respectively after court rulings that found no evidence of terrorist actions after the MEK renounced violence in 2001. On July 16, a federal appeals court in Washington instructed the Department of State to review the terrorist designation, in language that suggested that it should be revoked. But Hillary Clinton's review mills appear to be grinding very slowly." http://reut.rs/dgqf9x
Tony Karon in TIME: "An open disagreement between Israel and the Pentagon in recent weeks has highlighted the dilemma President Barack Obama faces in making progress on Iran. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday poured cold water on last week's suggestion by Israeli Prime Minister that the only way Iran can be stopped from acquiring nuclear weapons is for the U.S. to threaten military action. Military action, Gates warned, would solve nothing; in fact it would be more likely to drive Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. Netanyahu had warned, during a visit to the U.S., that 'economic sanctions are making it difficult for Iran, but there is no sign that the Ayatullah regime plans to stop its nuclear program because of them.' The Israeli media reported that Netanyahu had told Vice-President Joe Biden, 'The only way to ensure that Iran will not go nuclear is to create a credible threat of military action against it if it doesn't cease its race for a nuclear weapon.' Gates, however, turned Netanyahu's argument on its head, warning that bombing Iran's nuclear facilities would provide only a 'short term solution,' setting the Iranians back two or three years. But any military strike would "bring together a divided nation [and] make them absolutely committed to obtaining nuclear weapons" via programs that would simply 'go deeper and more covert.' Instead, Gates argued, 'The only long-term solution to avoiding an Iranian nuclear weapons capability is for the Iranians to decide it's not in their interest.'" http://bit.ly/9zSM5N
Barbara Slavin in Asia Times: "Of all the arguments the administration of US President Barack Obama is marshalling in support of a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia, the one that may have the greatest resonance with Republicans is over Iran. White House nuclear non-proliferation chief Gary Samore made the link on Thursday, saying that failure to ratify START in the lame-duck congressional session would 'weaken the coalition' against Iran's nuclear program, especially with regard to 'maintaining coordination with Russia.' Russia has proved more helpful against Iran than many had expected. It voted in favor of tough new sanctions in the United Nations Security Council last summer and canceled the sale of its S-300 air-defense system that Iran had sought to deter a US or Israeli attack on its nuclear sites. Experts agree that this cooperation could be jeopardized if the senate fails to ratify START, the jewel in the crown of the US-Russia reset." http://bit.ly/acB69z
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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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