Top Stories
Reuters: "Iranian gasoline usage fell by a sixth on the first day after the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad implemented a deeply unpopular four-fold price rise, the oil ministry website said on Monday. The price rise is part of Ahmadinejad's policy to bolster Iran's sanctions-hit economy by phasing out subsidies on a range of essentials such as energy, food and water. People rioted when the government started rationing subsidised petrol in 2007, but a heavy police presence at gas stations and a general feeling of resignation meant no trouble was reported on Sunday. Until the price hike, subsidies had allowed Iranians -- who see cheap fuel in the oil-rich country as a birthright -- to pay just 1,000 rials (about 10 U.S. cents) per litre for the first 60 litres they buy per month. Beyond that they paid 4,000 rials per litre. The price hike pushed the 60-litre ration price up to 4,000 rials and the higher price to 7,000 rials. Consumption on Sunday was down 16.6 percent, according to the ministry website." http://bit.ly/eTUbHv
Reuters: "Intesa SanPaolo has suspended financing Iranian oil trading deals, becoming the last Italian bank to bow to pressure from the United States to cut ties with the Islamic Republic, trading sources told Reuters. A tightening of international sanctions against Iran has complicated financing of any deals involving buying Iranian crude or selling refined oil products to the Islamic Republic, the world's fourth largest crude oil exporter. 'They have stopped from last month. They were the last Italian bank available for Iranian crude. I guess people will have to look elsewhere for financing now. Maybe China. But it is getting more and more difficult,' a trading source said... 'Business is continuing but much less than before,' said a crude trader with a European oil company." http://bit.ly/gKNg8E
AP: "Iran has sentenced two prominent opposition filmmakers to six years in jail each on vague charges of working against the ruling system, their lawyers said Monday. One of the two, internationally renowned filmmaker and opposition supporter Jafar Panahi, has won awards at the Chicago, Cannes and Berlin film festivals. Several of his films have been banned in Iran. He has also been banned from shooting films or scriptwriting for 20 years and was barred from leaving the country for the same period, his lawyer Farideh Qeirat said... Mohammad Rasulov, another opposition filmmaker, received a six-year jail term, his lawyer Iman Mirzazadeh said. Mirzazadeh said he will also appeal the sentence. Both filmmakers supported the opposition in Iran's disputed presidential election last June... Another opposition filmmaker, Mohammad Nourizad, is serving a 3 1/2-year prison sentence for spreading propaganda against the government and insulting the country's leaders." http://wapo.st/eyQxSv
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
NYT: "Seemingly unaffected by a sharp increase in gasoline prices that went into effect at midnight on Sunday, drivers jammed the streets here on Monday after the government lifted traffic restrictions aimed at reducing severe air pollution. Government subsidies, which had kept the basic price of gas at about 38 cents a gallon, were drastically cut, quadrupling the rationed fuel price overnight and pushing the 'free' price, at which motorists can purchase an unlimited amount, to $2.55 a gallon - a staggering price for Iranians, who on average make little more than one-fifth of what Americans earn. But Iranians took to the streets as if nothing had changed. Iran's subsidies, introduced to ensure the fair distribution of goods during the Iran-Iraq war, have placed enormous strains on the country's finances, with energy subsidies alone costing $114 billion a year. That, coupled with gas shortages stemming from international sanctions, prompted the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to take a step that his predecessors had avoided for fear of the potentially high political costs. To help soften the blow, the government is offering a one-time cash payment of around $77 per person." http://nyti.ms/h0QueU
Human Rights
AFP: "Jailed filmmaker Jafar Panahi accused Iranian authorities of 'kidnapping' Iranian artists to intimidate them, according to a transcript of his trial plea published in France Tuesday. Panahi, 50, was handed a six-year jail term by an Iranian court for 'propaganda against the system,' his lawyer said. Another director working with him, Mohammad Rasoulof, was also reportedly sentenced to six years' jail. 'My imprisonment and that of those I work with symbolises the kidnapping by those in power carried out against all artists in the country,' he said in his plea to the court on November 7, published by French newspaper Le Monde. 'The message these actions gives seems to me clear and sad: whoever does not think like us will be sorry for it,' he added." http://bit.ly/ePAqp0
Reuters: "Two jailed Iranian students have gone on hunger strike, a reformist website said on Tuesday, the latest in a string of such protests which have drawn expressions of concern from the United Nations and even some of the Islamic Republic's conservative clerics. Bahareh Hedayat, who was nominated for the 2010 Student Peace Prize by the European Students' Union, is serving nine and a half years for anti-state propaganda. Her fellow hunger striker, Mahdieh Golroo, is serving one year. The reformist Kalame website said both had started refusing food. It gave no further details about their condition as they have been denied visits. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed concern in November about detained human rights activists in Iran staging hunger strikes and a group of conservative clerics has also spoken out." http://bit.ly/fvSkY3
Domestic Politics
AP: "Iran's judiciary spokesman confirms the country's first vice president is facing corruption charges. The semi-official ISNA news agency quoted judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi as saying Monday that First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi will have to stand trial. In recent months, conservative lawmakers have openly accused Rahimi of financial corruption. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's deputy has denied the charges and threatened to sue his accusers. Iran has 12 vice presidents but Rahimi is the most senior among them." http://wapo.st/feGAfe
AP: "Rescue teams managed to pull all survivors from under the rubble Tuesday after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck a remote area in southeastern Iran late the previous night, killing seven and injuring 33 people. Iranian state TV said the strong quake hit Hosseinabad, a small town of a few hundred residents in a sparsely populated Chah Malek region in the country's southeast late on Monday." http://wapo.st/gcIDVD
Foreign Affairs
AFP: "Lebanon's Saudi-backed ruling camp on Tuesday lashed out at Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after the cleric brushed aside a UN probe into the murder of former premier Rafiq Hariri. 'It seems that Ayatollah Khamenei's remarks aim to undermine calm in Lebanon and across the Arab world,' MP Ammar Houry of Prime Minister Saad Hariri's Future Movement told AFP. 'Khamenei's statements signal (Iran's) cover for certain local political positions ... or at least for Hezbollah,' said Jamal al-Jarrah, another legislator representing the Future Movement in Lebanon's 128-strong parliament. Khamenei on Monday dismissed as 'null and void' imminent rulings by the UN court probing the 2005 murder of ex-Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri. 'This tribunal is receiving orders from elsewhere and whatever ruling it hands down is null and void,' Khamenei told visiting Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani in a Tehran meeting." http://bit.ly/gbLGe0
The National: "The international community will not stand by and watch Iran become another North Korea, the British defence secretary said yesterday. Liam Fox, who was visiting Dubai to meet British troops and hold talks with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said it was inevitable that Gulf states would co-ordinate their armies increasingly closely and security concerns would continue to become more global in nature. 'Having just watched the experience of North Korea, the international community is not simply going to stand by and watch further nuclear proliferation, and trigger what would probably be a nuclear arms race in the region,' Dr Fox said. 'We must want something better for the future generation.' He drew attention to the different tacks taken by the GCC states and Iran at the recent conference on Gulf security in Bahrain." http://bit.ly/hlTt1D
AFP: "Iran and Qatar on Monday pledged to cooperate for greater regional security during a visit to Tehran by the emir of the tiny but energy-rich Gulf state, official media reported. 'By consultation and harmony Iran and Qatar can strengthen unity among regional countries and implement security and stability,' Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying in a meeting with Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. Ahmadinejad also described ties between Tehran and Doha as 'brotherly and excellent,' state television reported. 'Cooperation between Iran and Qatar can guarantee security and stability in the region,' the emir was quoted as saying. It was the first visit by an Arab leader to the Islamic republic since US diplomatic memos from Arab countries in the Gulf were released by whistleblower WikiLeaks late last month, uncovering a fixation on the Iranian nuclear threat." http://bit.ly/eoJt0j
AFP: "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari on Monday to arrest and hand over 'known terrorists,' the Iranian leader's office said on its website. In a telephone call, the Iranian president 'asked Zardari to order his country's security forces to quickly arrest known terrorists and hand them over to the Islamic Republic of Iran,' Ahmadinejad's office said in a statement posted on its website. The phone call followed a suicide attack last week in the southeastern Iranian city of Chabahar that killed 39 people during a Shiite mourning procession. The attack was claimed by Sunni militant group Jundallah (Army of God), which Iran claims receives support from the intelligence services of Pakistan, Britain and the United States." http://yhoo.it/eiva57
Opinion & Analysis
NY Post Editorial Board: "A leader of Iran's Revolutionary Guard has threatened to murder American generals to retaliate for the apparent assassinations of two Iranian nuclear scientists. It may sound like an empty threat, or an unhinged response -- like sacrificing a rook to take a pawn in chess. But the threat is dead serious -- proof of how hellbent Iran is to split the atom. Just ask President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who fired his foreign minister last week and gave the job to his nuclear chief, who now holds both positions. For Iran, nukes are its foreign policy -- along with the terror it exports to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Which is why we were so disturbed when the United States admitted last week that North Korea has likely created a secret network of nuclear sites -- showing how useless sanctions and inspections have been. It's too late to disarm the North -- but here lies a lesson of what happens if America allows Iran to get the bomb, too. Think: How did South Korea respond when the North torpedoed its warship Cheonan in March, killing 46 sailors, or when it shelled a Southern island last month, killing four?" http://bit.ly/gZnrH1
Meir Javedanfar in The Guardian: "However, beneath the surface all is not well. The method by which Ahmadinejad is implementing the reform package, plus its timing, means that the regime could be about to bring in one of the most self-defeating measures in its history. In fact, the package could cause more damage to the legitimacy of the regime, and its all-important economic engine, than any western-imposed sanctions. This is because the scheme is very likely to hurt the poor, where the regime gets most of its support. The damage could also reach all the way to the top. The group that stands to lose the most will be the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC). The reason is simple: upon closer inspection, we can see that the package is badly planned and executed. One of its major short- and long-term consequences is that it is going to push inflation up, for two reasons. Number one, the scheme includes cash handouts. One of the reasons why Iran already suffers from relatively high inflation of 10.8% (unofficially it is thought to be 20%) is because of Ahmadinejad's existing cash handouts to the poor and cheap, quick loans given to businesses. The amount of cash circulating in the economy is now about to get another major boost through more handouts via the subsidy reforms package. There is also the fact that when you reduce subsidies, prices go up. It has already been reported that the price of bread has increased. However, one area that could lead to serious damage to the economy is the price of diesel. As of Sunday, the Iranian government increased its price from 1.6c to 15c a litre - a 900% increase. It is envisaged that soon this will increase to 35c." http://bit.ly/eVrWY5
Jennifer Rubin in WashPost: "Time will tell who is right, but whatever position the administration takes will be greatly undermined by two decisions from earlier in Obama's term. First, administration officials have, from the get-go, downplayed the threat of military force. This provides comfort to the Iranian regime and makes the job of persuading the regime to give up its nuclear program that much more difficult. And second, we have done a poor job of supporting the Green Movement, and arguably have undercut the efforts of the regime's opponents. So, if part of the effort is to exert maximum pressure on the regime, we have, by defunding a number of groups aiding the Green Movement and by bestowing the aura of legitimacy on the despotic regime, undercut our own goal. For those of us who believe sanctions in and of themselves will not force the regime to give up its nuclear program, the question should not simply be whether more sanctions and less talk are in the offing. The real issue is whether the administration will, if needed, employ force to disarm the revolutionary Islamic state. I remain extremely doubtful that this administration will. I hope I am wrong, or that through continued espionage we can delay the Iranians' nuclear progress until a president arrives on the scene who has no qualms about threatening and using force to defend vital American interests." http://wapo.st/gtiY1k
Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian: "But just in case we needed a reminder that film-making actually means something, and that something is at stake in being a film-maker, comes some astonishing news from Iran. The director Jafar Panahi has been sentenced to six years in prison and banned from film-making for 20 years due to what appear to be still cloudily formulated offences: chiefly the notion he was inciting protest and discontent with a documentary he was working on. Panahi is a well-known supporter of the Green movement and the opposition to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president. He has already been arrested and jailed several times following the democratic protests of 2009. During his imprisonment in 2010 Panahi went on a hunger strike, and was bailed in May for the equivalent of $200,000 after an international campaign by film-makers including a dramatic demonstration at the Cannes prize-giving ceremony by Juliette Binoche. Now the Iranian state has spoken with chilling decision. The social brutality, cultural nullity, political arrogance and geopolitical incompetence of this move is breathtaking. To silence an artist, and indeed to alienate possible constituencies of liberal sympathy for Iran in the west, is fantastically crass." http://bit.ly/eHokt8
Ilan Berman in Forbes: "The two-day meeting which took place between Tehran and Western powers in Geneva in early December may have been heavy on pomp and circumstance, but it was remarkably devoid of substance. Ahead of the talks, Iranian officials had made abundantly clear that they weren't prepared to discuss the main point of discord between their government and the West-their regime's nuclear ambitions. True to their word, the dialogue that followed skirted the substantive issues relating to Iran's persistent nuclear effort, serving simply to set the stage for more in-depth discussions which are ostensibly to follow in the future. The Obama administration, however, has been eager to depict the parlay a step forward, albeit only a tentative one. In a recent interview with the BBC, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pointed to Iran's willingness to talk as proof positive that U.S. and international sanctions are beginning to bite. 'Iran comes to the table with a much more sober assessment of what isolation means, what the impact on their economy has been, and we hope that will cause them to have the kind of serious negotiation we're seeking,' she said earnestly. But others are increasingly skeptical that this is in fact the case. As the usually-sympathetic Washington Post put it in a scathing editorial: 'There is another logical explanation for Iran's willingness to talk - that it seeks to delay further sanctions, create dissension among the United States and its allies, and distract attention from its continuing crackdown on the opposition Green movement.' Iran, in other words, is playing for time. And the Obama administration is playing right into its hands." http://bit.ly/hPaQBJ |
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