Top Stories
WashPost: "The Stuxnet computer worm that infiltrated industrial systems in Iran this fall may have been designed specifically to attack the country's nuclear program, potentially crippling centrifuges used to enrich uranium gas, according to new research. In a blog post late last week, a Stuxnet researcher at Symantec wrote that the software firm had concluded that the worm targeted industrial systems with high frequency 'converter drives' from two specific vendors, including one in Iran. Independently, Langner Communications of Germany, a systems security firm, also announced over the weekend that another part of the worm's attack code was configured in a way to target a control system for steam turbines used in power plants, such as those installed at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran. Langner also confirmed that the worm appeared to attack key components of centrifuges." http://wapo.st/bt7Cwh
AP: "Iran kicked off five-day air defense war games on Tuesday to display the country's capabilities in protecting its nuclear facilities from possible attack, state television reported. The drill followed an announcement by the Iranian Air Force saying its troops earlier this year conducted an exercise at several facilities - from the uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, the under-construction enrichment site at Fordo, to the nuclear conversion facility near Isfahan and the Bushehr nuclear power plant. Gen. Ahmad Mighani, head of an air force unit in charge of responding to threats to Iran's air space, was quoted by state TV as saying the drill seeks to 'upgrade the combat preparedness' of the country's air defense system." http://wapo.st/d1zg0J
AP: "Iran's foreign ministry spokesman says the country has agreed with the West on the timing of talks about Tehran's nuclear program. Ramin Mehmanparast's announcement Tuesday follows a letter to Iran last week in which EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, suggested the meeting be held in Vienna or Switzerland on Dec. 5. Ashton rejected Tehran's preference for a meeting in Istanbul, where Iran would have Turkish allies on the sidelines. She said she had discussed the matter with the six-nation group of negotiators - the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. Mehmanparast said, 'I think we have reached an agreement on the time' but gave no date or details." http://wapo.st/b9ADrz
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
Reuters: "Nigeria has reported the seizure of an illegal arms shipment from Iran intercepted by its secret service in Lagos last month to the U.N. Security Council, Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia said on Monday. Rockets and other explosives, hidden in containers of building materials shipped to Nigeria from Iran, appear to put Tehran in breach of U.N. sanctions imposed over its refusal to halt a sensitive nuclear program, diplomats have said. As a U.N. member, Nigeria was obliged to report the matter to the Security Council's sanctions committee." http://reut.rs/905nta
Human Rights
WashPost: "A prominent Iranian human rights lawyer was put on trial Monday, highlighting an intensifying crackdown on lawyers who defend influential opposition politicians, activists and journalists. Nasrin Sotoudeh, 47, was arrested in September and accused of endangering national security. The start of her court case follows the Saturday arrest of five more lawyers in what lawyers are describing as a crackdown on those defending opponents of Iran's leaders. Sotoudeh's court case, which is expected to take several weeks, was held behind closed doors. Lawyers and family members were told not to discuss its details with foreign media. In recent months, at least 10 lawyers have been sentenced to prison terms or are awaiting trial. Several others have fled the country." http://wapo.st/aUNEPy
AP: "Iranian state television has broadcast a purported statement by an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery in which she calls herself a 'sinner.' The stoning sentence against the 43-year-old Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has been put on hold and is now being reviewed by Iran's supreme court, but she still faces a possible death sentence by other means. The outcry over the case is one of the latest thorns in Iran's relationship with the international community, as the U.S., EU and international human rights groups have urged Tehran to stay the execution. A woman identified as Ashtiani said in the state TV report shown Monday: 'I am a sinner.' Her face was blurred and her words were voiced over in what the TV report said was a translation into Farsi from Azeri Turkish, which is spoken in parts of Iran." http://wapo.st/abOCO3
BBC: "Iran has charged two Germans with spying after they interviewed the son of a woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, reports say. The charges come a day after they appeared on Iranian state TV and said they had been 'tricked' by an activist in Germany into speaking with the family of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. The pair were arrested in Tabriz, north-west Iran, in October. They have been identified only as a reporter and a photographer. Germany has said it is doing all it can to try to secure their release." http://bbc.in/aedZUH
AP: "A human rights activist has alleged that two Germans detained in Iran in connection with a highly publicized stoning case were likely pressured by the authorities to make false accusations against her. Iranian state TV said in a Monday broadcast that the two Germans, whom Iran has accused of being spies, confessed they had been hired by Germany-based Mina Ahadi to speak with the son and lawyer of 43-year-old Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery." http://wapo.st/dCeLfG
Foreign Affairs
BBC: "The friendly international between Nigeria and Iran, scheduled for this week, has been called off. The match was due to have been played in Tehran on Wednesday. The game was due to have been the final match in charge of the stand-in Nigeria coach, Austin Eguavon, who is being replaced by Samson Siasia. The postponement comes at a time of tense relations between the two countries, following the discovery of a shipment of arms in Lagos." http://bbc.in/9tFofE
Opinion & Analysis
Benjamin Weinthal in WSJ: "Germany has a bizarre way of working through its history. While the government, rhetorically at least, opposes Iran's nuclear weapons program as a threat to Israel's security, members of its parliament courted Tehran's Holocaust deniers just last month. Five German law makers-including members of Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition parties-traveled to Iran in October to meet with a motley crew of leading human-rights violators, misogynists, and anti-Semites. The five MPs sought to promote "cultural cooperation" between the two parliaments and countries. Ironically, the five legislators went from a closed society in Iran to a closed-door parliamentary session in Germany last week to report on their journey. While the European Parliament recently refused to visit Iran because of the regime's wretched human-rights record, the German legislators saw nothing wrong with schmoozing with the mullahs. Peter Gauweiler, chairman of the Bundestag's foreign affairs cultural and education committee, told Spiegel Online during his tour of the Islamic Republic that 'Germany understands its foreign cultural politics as a contribution to crisis prevention, the protection of human rights and encouragement of freedom.' When asked whether his visit may have had the opposite effect by lending legitimacy to an oppressive regime, Mr. Gauweiler seemed surprised at the thought: 'No. Why?,' he answered." http://on.wsj.com/aPl8Kn
Fredrik Dahl in Reuters: "Iran is likely to stick to a stalling strategy toward world powers, seeking to blunt their pressure to curb its uranium enrichment drive without making any major concessions over work the West fears has military aims. The Islamic state has agreed to meet with a representative of the six big powers for the first time in more than a year, but diplomats and analysts see little chance of a breakthrough in the long-running dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme. At most, they say, the talks that could take place early next month between Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton may be followed by more meetings to halt a downward spiral in ties. Both sides have expressed readiness to resume discussions on December 5 but they have yet to agree on a venue. A senior Western diplomat in Tehran voiced pessimism about the latest bid to find a diplomatic solution to the row, which has the potential to kindle a regional arms race and spark a military conflict in the Middle East. 'I don't believe it will lead anywhere,' the diplomat told Reuters. 'The fundamental differences are so large and the room for compromise is so small.'" http://reut.rs/b0rkC5
Jonathan Schanzer in The Atlantic: "In recent years, Cairo has also expressed its staunch opposition to Iran's nuclear program, which Egypt and other Arab states view as a threat. But Egypt-Iran relations are not as black-and-white as they may seem. Egypt is expanding its financial ties with Iran through a jointly owned financial institution: the Misr Iran Development Bank. MIDB was founded in 1975, four years before Iran's Islamic revolution, and has somehow endured the tumult since. Today, the MIDB may have become a vehicle for Iran to circumvent economic sanctions with extensive help from Egypt, one of America's closest allies in the region. It is a testament to how difficult it can be for the U.S. to enforce international sanctions, even among countries that appear to be natural allies in the effort to deter Iran. Egypt controls 59.86 percent of MIDB, split evenly between the state-owned National Investment Bank and Misr Insurance Company, which is partially owned by the state. Iran's 40.14 percent share in MIDB, worth about $80 million, is held by the Iran Foreign Investment Company. The IFIC is the investment arm of Iran's Oil Stabilization Fund, a sovereign wealth vehicle that generates profits for the Iranian government, with investments in the Middle East, Africa, South America, and beyond." http://bit.ly/btlVJ0
Robert Tait in Radio Farda: "The comments would have been blistering enough if they had been aimed at one of Iran's enemies. But the country President Mahmud Ahmadinejad was excoriating as Satan's sidekick was none other than Russia, long seen by the West as the Islamic republic's staunch champion and chief bodyguard. 'Some people who are under the influence of Satan thought that if they unilaterally and illegally cancel some defense agreements they have with us, it will hurt the Iranian nation,' Ahmadinejad told a rally in Bojnourd in northeastern Iran on November 3. 'I want to tell them on your behalf that we consider the deal to still be valid. They should execute it. If they don't, the Iranian people will seek its rights, the losses and the fines on it.' The 'deal' he was referring to was an estimated $800 million contract for Russia to sell Iran S-300 long-range antiaircraft missiles. The sale -- agreed in 2005 but repeatedly delayed by Russia for 'technical' reasons -- was finally canceled by President Dmitry Medvedev in September in a decree formally banning the supply of the missiles and other weapons to Iran. The decision followed a long period of diplomatic cat-and-mouse during which Moscow sent mixed signals and was subjected to fierce lobbying by the United States and Israel not to fulfill the contract. It was not the first time Iran has felt slighted by Russia, despite the two countries' presumed intimacy." http://bit.ly/db6qSE
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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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