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CNN: "A key United Nations committee has approved a draft resolution expressing 'deep concern at serious human rights violations in Iran,' including torture, persecution of ethnic minorities and violence against women. The General Assembly's Third Committee, which handles humanitarian issues, passed the resolution 80-44 Thursday in New York, with 57 abstaining from the vote, according to minutes from the meeting released by the United Nations. The resolution could be adopted by the General Assembly next month. Canadian representative John McNee sponsored the measure, arguing that there has been a 'very regrettable' deterioration in Iran's human rights situation in the past year. Iran's representative, Mohammad Javad Larijani, criticized the move, saying the United States was 'the mastermind and main provocateur behind a text that had nothing to do with human rights,' according to U.N. meeting minutes. The draft resolution approved Thursday also includes the high incidence in carrying out the death penalty and increased persecution against members of the Baha'i faith in its list of human rights concerns in Iran. It also notes 'particular concern' about what it calls a failure of Iran's government 'to investigate or launch an accountability process for alleged violations following the presidential elections' in June 2009." http://bit.ly/bjSfyI
AFP: "Russian President Dmitry Medvedev used frank talks Thursday to urge Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to keep his country's nuclear ambitions peaceful or risk further international isolation. In what the Kremlin called a 'completely open' exchange, Medvedev told Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of a regional summit here that nations stood ready to support Iran as long as it kept any military ambitions in check. 'The conversation was of a completely open nature. Neither ourselves nor our colleague avoided the unpleasant questions,' Medvedev's top foreign policy aide Sergei Prikhodko, who took part in the talks, told reporters after the meeting. 'The president (Medvedev) spoke of the importance of the continuation of a peaceful Iranian nuclear programme. An example (of such cooperation) came at Bushehr' where Russia recently launched Iran's first nuclear power plant, he added. Prikhodko stressed that projects such as Bushehr were possible because they came under the auspices of the United Nations -- a clear reference to how Russia would like to see Iran behaving." http://bit.ly/dATdCS
LAT: "Iran's military this week is showing off its defensive capabilities, including what it described as new air defenses, amid renewed talk of airstrikes on Iran's nuclear sites. Iranian military authorities said they activated radar and signal detection installations along the mountainous nation's 4,200 miles of borders; put army, Revolutionary Guard and Basiji militia forces on alert; and launched a six-plane mock military raid by the fictional 'orange forces' likely meant to mimic an Israeli or United States airstrike on its nuclear facilities. 'The radar network acts as the watchful eyes of the air defense system in all the border areas of the country and in various locations, detecting the slightest movements within the skies of the Islamic Republic, accurately monitoring them all,' Air Marshal Hamid Arzhangi, spokesman for the war games, told the semiofficial Fars News Agency. Iran described the war games as its largest ever." http://lat.ms/bE9zf2
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
NYT: "Experts dissecting the computer worm suspected of being aimed at Iran's nuclear program have determined that it was precisely calibrated in a way that could send nuclear centrifuges wildly out of control. Their conclusion, while not definitive, begins to clear some of the fog around the Stuxnet worm, a malicious program detected earlier this year on computers, primarily in Iran but also India, Indonesia and other countries. The paternity of the worm is still in dispute, but in recent weeks officials from Israel have broken into wide smiles when asked whether Israel was behind the attack, or knew who was. American officials have suggested it originated abroad. The new forensic work narrows the range of targets and deciphers the worm's plan of attack. Computer analysts say Stuxnet does its damage by making quick changes in the rotational speed of motors, shifting them rapidly up and down. Changing the speed 'sabotages the normal operation of the industrial control process,' Eric Chien, a researcher at the computer security company Symantec, wrote in a blog post. Those fluctuations, nuclear analysts said in response to the report, are a recipe for disaster among the thousands of centrifuges spinning in Iran to enrich uranium, which can fuel reactors or bombs." http://nyti.ms/cNSBfg
AP: "Nigeria's drug enforcement agency says it has seized 286 pounds (130 kilograms) of high-quality heroin hidden inside a shipment of auto parts sent from Iran. The announcement Friday by Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency comes after security officials seized a shipment of military-grade weapons in Lagos' busiest port last month. An agency statement says arrests have already been made in the case. The agency says it received intelligence about the drug shipment four months earlier from 'the agency's foreign collaborators.'" http://wapo.st/9VN1qM
Human Rights
WSJ: "Iran's top human-rights official gave a robust defense of his country's right to engage in the stoning of criminals and imprison lawyers viewed as threatening the stability of the Islamic Republic, as a United Nations committee censured Tehran for what it said was an accelerating crackdown on its opponents. Mohammad-Javad Larijani, a senior envoy and chief of Iran's Human Rights Council, said in an interview that the U.N.'s actions were engineered by the U.S. and its allies as part of a campaign to confront Tehran and undercut its drive to develop nuclear technologies. 'We think this line of action is neither fair, nor contributes to the promotion of human rights,' Mr. Larijani said at Iran's U.N. mission in New York before the vote by the committee, which comprises all U.N. members. 'This resolution is stemming from American hostility towards Iran... It's a politicization of human rights.'" http://on.wsj.com/beXOO6
Domestic Politics
LAT: "Iran has invested heavily in literacy campaigns over the past 30 years, but some Iranian officials and high-ranking clerics suggest Iranians aren't embracing books after all. They warned recently that 'the culture of reading books' among Iranians is dwindling and, in a string of public speeches during a book event this week, called for the launching of campaigns to increase reading nationwide. 'The society places greater value on sandwiches than it does on books,' Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency quoted the high-ranking cleric Ayatollah Yusef Tabatabainejad as saying in a speech he delivered in Isfahan. 'Some only read and study books for financial gain and consider book reading a profession, which is a pity. We need to promote reading in a way to develop logical and rational thinking.'" http://lat.ms/csxPGW
Foreign Affairs
AP: "A U.S. naval ship came to the aid of two stranded Iranian sailors in the early hours of the morning Thursday in the Persian Gulf, providing food and water until the arrival of the Iranian coast guard. The U.S. Navy was notified by a merchant vessel of the two stranded sailors in a life raft after an emergency flare was seen and the U.S.S. Oscar Austin was sent to provide help, said a statement issued by the Bahrain-based U.S. Fifth Fleet. The sailors were found just about 1,000 yards (1 kilometer) outside Iranian territorial waters at 5 a.m. local time and were provided food and water. The U.S. Navy contacted Iranian authorities via neighboring Oman." http://wapo.st/bfdSXR
The Hindu: "Upset over persistently critical statements by Iran on Jammu and Kashmir, India on Friday summoned its acting Ambassador, telling him that such remarks impinged on the country's territorial integrity. New Delhi issued a strong demarche to Iran's Charge De Affairs Reza Alaei expressing its 'deep disappointment' over the remarks, which is seen in India as 'impingement of territorial integrity and sovereignty.' On Thursday, India, for the first time, abstained from voting on the U.N. resolution on the human rights violations in Iran. In past, India has always voted against the resolution. Noting that it was a matter of 'serious concern', the sources said these comments have also factored India's decision to abstain from voting on the U.N. resolution, which was piloted by Canada and several other countries." http://bit.ly/9utLaw
Opinion & Analysis
WashPost Editorial Board: "Part of President Obama's mantra about Iran has been that 'all options are on the table' - meaning he will not rule out military action to stop its attempt to acquire nuclear weapons. President George W. Bush said the same thing; in fact, there is broad agreement among American policymakers that the threat of force must be part of the mix of pressures and incentives aimed at Tehran. So why does Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates keep undercutting the message? Twice in the past week, Mr. Gates has publicly argued against a military option - even though neither the United States nor Israel appears to be close to launching a strike... To be clear: We agree that the administration should continue to focus for now on non-military strategies such as sanctions and support for the Iranian opposition. But that does not require publicly talking down military action. Mr. Gates's prediction of how Iranians would react to an attack is speculative, but what we do know for sure is that the last decision Iran made to curb its nuclear program, in 2003, came when the regime feared - reasonably or not - that it could be a target of the U.S. forces that had just destroyed the Iraqi army. As for the effect of the sanctions, Tehran has not shown itself ready to begin serious bargaining about its uranium enrichment. Mr. Gates's Pentagon has been a center of opposition to discussing military options for Iran for years. Given the potentially high costs and uncertain outcome of such a mission, that's understandable. But by sending the message to Iran that U.S. military action is not a serious possibility, the defense establishment only makes it more likely that the United States and Israel will eventually face a terrible choice between launching an attack and accepting an Iranian bomb." http://wapo.st/9RFWFD
WSJ Editorial Board: "Five German law makers recently returned from Iran, where they had traveled to promote 'cultural exchange.' They justified their meetings with Iranian officials in part as an attempt to win the release of two imprisoned German journalists. For their trouble, Tehran gave the parliamentarians a lesson in the futility of appeasement, charging the reporters on Tuesday with espionage. The two Germans, who work for Bild am Sonntag but whose names have not been released, were arrested in mid-October while interviewing the family of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a woman sentenced to death by stoning for alleged adultery... The espionage charges, which could carry the death sentence, come just as the West is trying to entice Iran to restart negotiations about its nuclear weapons program. Berlin is reluctant to impose harsh sanctions against the Islamic Republic. German Chancellor Angela Merkel still refuses to shut down the Hamburg-based European Iranian Trade Bank, which the U.S. Treasury blacklisted in September. As long as Tehran hold those journalists, Berlin will have to think twice about following Washington's lead. Then again, the fate of the two journalists could also help steel Mrs. Merkel's resolve. If having their journalists treated as hostages is what Germany gets for its 'critical dialogue' and 'cultural exchange' with Iran, then maybe it's time for her government to take a tougher line." http://on.wsj.com/bQPRpA
Michael Singh in FP: "In a four-day journey at the beginning of November that took him through Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, and Benin, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki asserted that the United States was 'displeased with the expansion of relations between Iran and African countries,' and opined that while the U.S. had a 'thirst for power,' Iran practiced the subtler 'power of logic.' He described his top priority in Africa as 'the exportation of technical and engineering services.' Less than two weeks later, Mottaki had to hastily return to West Africa to deal with the exposure by Nigerian authorities of another, more nefarious export: rocket launchers, grenades, and other illicit arms disguised as building materials and accompanied, apparently, by two members of the elite 'Quds Force' unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. The contrast between Iran's public campaign to drum up diplomatic support and build economic ties to stave off increasing isolation and its shadowy network of arms smuggling, support for terrorism, and subversive activities serve as a stark reminder of the nature of the Iranian regime and the dangers it poses well beyond its own borders, and well beyond the nuclear issue. This latest revelation of Iranian malfeasance is hardly without precedent." http://bit.ly/aFe1hc
Mehdi Khalaji in The Majalla: "After years of relying on Islam as the buttress of Iranian domestic and foreign policy, recent comments by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have shed light on a new force, the development of an Iranian nationalist ideology based on Shi'ism. While this nationalist rhetoric may cost Ahmadinejad the support of a wider public, particularly Arab Shi'as, the evolution of religious political rhetoric could also reflect a shift in Iran's view of the greater Islamic world. In a speech this October at the national conference on 'soft war' in Tehran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad emphasized that, 'there are many interpretations of Islam, but [the] basis for our practice is the Iranian interpretation. The historical experience proves that the Iranian interpretation of the truth is the closest one to the truth.' This statement not only enraged Ahmadinejad's conservative critics who claim that only Islam, not nationalism, should be reckoned as a basis for the Iranian government's practices, but also shocked international observers familiar with the Islamic Republic's record in the last 30 years. Before this statement, Iranian leaders have always insisted that Islam is the main underpinning of the Islamic Republic's domestic and foreign policies." http://bit.ly/bO7Nml
Michael Theodoulou in The National: "Iran's ambitious president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, often proclaims that there are only two major world powers now: his country and the United States. And Iran, he predicted in a recent interview with state television, would gain overall supremacy within 15 years. Populist yet authoritarian, the quixotic, polarising and unpredictable son of a village jack-of-all-trades has been accused of many things during his turbulent five years in office. Lacking self-confidence is not one of them. When he first took office in 2005, his declared ambition was to revive the revolutionary spirit that infused the country after the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. That spirit, he said, had waned during the tenure of his reformist predecessor, Mohammed Khatami. Today, analysts say, he views himself as nothing less than an historic leader who will restore Iran to the ranks of a world superpower as it was during the Persian Empire, even as it spreads the message of Islam worldwide. In the coming months, Mr Ahmadinejad, 54, will need all the self-confidence and sense of mission he can muster to address the challenges he faces at home and abroad." http://bit.ly/cga2y6
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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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