Top Stories
WSJ: "The Obama administration enacted new financial sanctions on Iran's elite military unit and the country's largest shipping company, as the U.S. intensifies efforts to choke Tehran off from the global financial system. The U.S. Treasury Department's announcement Tuesday comes just weeks ahead of a scheduled second round of negotiations in Turkey between Iran and the international community focused on containing Tehran's nuclear program, which Iran says is peaceful in nature. Senior U.S. officials said the new measures illustrate that Washington and its allies won't relax their financial campaign against Iran even as the diplomatic process continues in late January. 'It's clear that our policy is going to be to continue to impose pressure on Iran so long as it defies its international obligations,' said Stuart Levey, the Treasury's point man on Iran sanctions... The Treasury said Bonyad Taavon Sepah oversees and structures IRGC investments. Ansar Bank, it said, provides financial credit to IRGC personnel, while Mehr Bank provides financial services to the IRGC's Bassij, a volunteer militia. Also on Tuesday, the Treasury sanctioned Moallem Insurance Co., described as the primary maritime insurer for vessels owned by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, or IRISL, Iran's largest shipping firm... U.S. officials said Tuesday that the growing financial pressure on IRISL has caused the company to default on more than $500 million in debts in recent months." http://on.wsj.com/gJdZOy
WashPost: "Thousands of Iranian truck drivers began a second day of strikes Tuesday after a sharp increase in the price of diesel fuel, transportation company officials said, as the Obama administration announced a further tightening of economic sanctions intended to pressure Iran over its nuclear program. The apparently spontaneous strikes in several cities were the first sign of public discontent since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government raised fuel prices Sunday as part of an elaborate plan to slash state subsidies in the coming weeks. 'At least half of all truck drivers in the country are on strike or not working,' said Mohammad Arjmandi, a manager for a Tehran-based transportation company. Those who were working, he said, had raised their fees for transporting goods by nearly 40 percent. Under the new plan, truck drivers will have to pay more than 20 times as much for diesel fuel, which has been heavily subsidized in Iran and is still extremely cheap by U.S. standards. Truckers can fill up their tanks once during the next month for the old price of $0.06 a gallon. But after that, they will have to pay $1.32 a gallon. The price of non-diesel fuel is also going up, but less drastically, with a maximum price increase of 60 percent, to about $2.65 a gallon." http://wapo.st/gh6VLX
NYT: "One of Tehran's signature landscapes - the imposing, rugged line of the Alborz Mountains at the city's northern boundary - has suddenly become an elusive one. Instead, Tehranis' eyes, and complaints, have turned toward a dense and noxious wall of smog that has only rarely lifted during the past two months... After initially issuing flat denials of a problem and then blaming a typical winter temperature inversion - despite above average temperatures throughout November and early December - the Iranian government has since resorted to drastic compensatory measures like sudden two-day public holidays and harsh traffic-control directives. But even as such measures have begun to counter the worst of the pollution, a trickle of recent statements from politicians and officials have raised suspicions that the smog may have been of Iran's own making, as officials ordered at least five of the country's major petrochemical plants to switch production to gasoline after Western pressure led many of the world's top refining companies to cut off Iran's imports." http://nyti.ms/eVXaXd
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
CNN: "Police manned gas stations, some cab drivers raised fares and several residents complained privately after gas and oil prices rose in Iran this week when the country cut subsidies to bolster the nation's sagging economy. A day after the cuts went into effect Sunday, the government deployed security forces to several major gas stations in the capital city, Tehran, to offset the threat of potential protests. Witnesses told CNN they saw up to 20 police officers at three major gas stations in central and northern Tehran. Three years ago, protesters torched 12 gas stations in Tehran after the government's last-minute decision to ration monthly fuel allotments. This week, there have been no reports of riots or protests -- with one Tehran resident blaming it on fear. 'I hope enough people will protest these ridiculous changes, but they are scared of the security forces because of the past protests where our citizens were beaten,' said a 34 year-old civil engineer, who did not want his name used to avoid inviting repercussions." http://bit.ly/eY3s9y
Human Rights
AFP: "The UN General Assembly on Tuesday approved a resolution expressing 'deep concern' over 'recurring' human rights violations in Iran, where authorities have been targeting rights lawyers in their ongoing crackdown on dissent. The resolution, approved 78-45 with 59 abstentions, follows a December 13 letter from more than 80 leading world figures urging Iran to free Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman sentenced to death by stoning in a case that has attracted global attention. The General Assembly 'expresses deep concern at serious ongoing and recurring human rights violations' in Iran, such as 'torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including flogging and amputations.' The Assembly also noted 'the continuing high incidence and dramatic increase in the carrying out of the death penalty in the absence of international recognized safeguards, including public executions' by stoning and hanging." http://bit.ly/eKtPRW
Foreign Affairs
AP: "Iran has banned fuel exports to Afghanistan, stranding about 3,000 fuel trucks at the border and driving up wholesale prices for the refined products ahead of what many Afghans fear will be a blistery winter in their oil-poor nation, officials said Wednesday. Although Tehran has not officially confirmed the move, it appears to reflect Iran's concern that the fuel is being funneled to NATO forces fighting the Taliban. Afghan officials insist the stranded shipments - which include gasoline, diesel and heating oil from Iraq, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan - are aimed for the local market. There are as many as 3,000 trucks stranded on the Iranian side of the border that were headed for the eastern Afghan provinces of Farah, Nimroz and Herat, according to Afghan customs and commerce ministry officials." http://bit.ly/evblA7
AFP: "Iran's new Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi made his first international appearance Wednesday as he joined regional counterparts for economic cooperation talks in Istanbul. Salehi, also Iran's nuclear chief, made brief welcoming remarks for the participants as his country handed over the rotating presidency of the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) to Turkey. Meeting at an Ottoman palace at the bank of the Bosphorus, foreign ministers and senior officials from the 10 member states were to prepare the ground for Thursday's summit of their leaders, to be attended also by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Salehi was appointed foreign minister last week after Ahmadinejad sacked Manouchehr Mottaki in a surprise move signalling an apparent falling out over nuclear policy. Ahmadinejad was expected to arrive in Istanbul late Wednesday and meet behind closed doors with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan." http://bit.ly/dV36eF
Reuters: "As tension grows between Pakistan and Iran after a mosque bombing in Iran, Pakistan could find itself increasingly isolated as its western neighbour looks to increase its influence in the region, analysts say. Jundollah, a Sunni Muslim militant group Iran says is based in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan, claimed responsibility for a December 15 double suicide bombing in the Iranian town of Chabahar that killed 39 people and wounded more than 100. Iran has demanded Pakistan take action with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calling this week on his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari, to arrest 'identified terrorists' and hand them over to Iran. Iran says Jundollah fighters find shelter in Pakistan. Pakistan denies providing shelter for the group. But in an echo of U.S. demands regarding Taliban sanctuaries in northwest Pakistan, a member of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee suggested that if Pakistan didn't act, Iran would." http://bit.ly/hmZVOl
AFP: "Lebanon's Saudi-backed ruling camp on Tuesday brushed aside comments by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who dismissed a UN probe into the murder of former premier Rafiq Hariri as 'null.' 'This is Iran's position,' Prime Minister Saad Hariri, son of the slain Sunni Muslim ex-premier, told a news conference. 'We have nothing but respect for Ayatollah Khamenei, and we fully respect all of his opinions, which he is free to hold,' he added. 'We in Lebanon, as a government, have our own views of the tribunal,' said Hariri, who heads a deeply divided cabinet. 'There is no doubt that all parties have their own views on this matter, but when it comes to international resolutions, they are international resolutions.' But MPs of Hariri's pro-Western Future Movement struck a less conciliatory tone, lashing out openly at Iranian cleric." http://bit.ly/gbLGe0
Opinion & Analysis
Sarah Palin in USA Today: "Iran continues to defy the international community in its drive to acquire nuclear weapons. Arab leaders in the region rightly fear a nuclear-armed Iran. We suspected this before, but now we know for sure because of leaked diplomatic cables. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia 'frequently exhorted the U.S. to attack Iran to put an end to its nuclear weapons program,' according to these communications. Officials from Jordan said the Iranian nuclear program should be stopped by any means necessary. Officials from the United Arab Emirates and Egypt saw Iran as evil, an 'existential threat' and a sponsor of terrorism. If Iran isn't stopped from obtaining nuclear weapons, it could trigger a regional nuclear arms race in which these countries would seek their own nuclear weapons to protect themselves. That wouldn't be the only catastrophic consequence for American interests in the Middle East. Our credibility and reputation would suffer a serious blow if Iran succeeds in producing its own nuclear weapons after we've been claiming for years that such an event could not and would not be tolerated. A nuclear-armed and violently anti-American Iran would be an enormous threat to us and to our allies. Israel in particular would face the gravest threat to its existence since its creation. Iran's leaders have repeatedly called for Israel's destruction, and Iran already possesses missiles that can reach Israel. Once these missiles are armed with nuclear warheads, nothing could stop the mullahs from launching a second Holocaust. It's only a matter of time before Iran develops missiles that could reach U.S. territory. Even without nuclear weapons, Iran has provided arms used to kill American soldiers and Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran is also the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world. It has shielded al-Qaeda leaders, including one of Osama bin Laden's sons. Imagine how much worse it would be for us if this regime acquired nuclear weapons." http://usat.ly/i96WNP
Gissou Nia in CNN: "Starting this week, several of Iran's most prominent women's rights activists, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, will stage a sit-in in front of the U.N. Human Rights Council offices in Geneva, Switzerland, to protest Iran's imprisonment of their colleague Nasrin Sotoudeh. Iranian authorities arrested Sotoudeh, one of Iran's most well-known criminal defense attorneys, on September 4 for a range of 'security' offenses, including her legal representation of Ebadi. She has spent months in solitary confinement and has waged a hunger strike that has seriously debilitated her and made her husband, friends and colleagues fear for her life. The Iranian legal system, whose injustices Sotoudeh fearlessly championed against during the course of her career, has cruelly denied her the ultimate legal right: a fair trial. Sadly, Iran's attack on Sotoudeh is not unique. In the past year, the arrests of defense attorneys who represent repressed minorities, opposition figures and other targeted people have spiked alarmingly. The Iranian government, which seeks to suppress human rights progress, finds lawyers such as Sotoudeh compelling targets. Since the 2009 election in Iran, the focus has sharpened on the country's human rights situation. But the deterioration in human rights in Iran began much earlier. One of the most salient features of the government's tactics has been its continued and intense targeting of criminal defense lawyers who represent defendants in politically motivated cases." http://bit.ly/eHOQyP
Elliot Hen-Tov and Nathan Gonzalez in FP: "This week, Iran implemented an overhaul of its national subsidy system, in effect cutting billions of dollars worth of subsidies for daily consumer use, especially fuel and electricity. Though cushioned by transfer payments to low-income households, it is akin to a major austerity move. While the economic impact is clear, many outsiders remain baffled how a regime ridden with internal factionalism (and widespread unpopularity) can manage such radical reforms. The past few weeks have seen rumors of a looming impeachment trial of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, followed by his humiliating dismissal of Foreign Minister Mottaki. These are hardly the signs of calm leadership steering through an economic crisis. But narratives grabbed from the headlines can be misleading, and longer-term developments in Tehran point in a surprising direction. Today, the Islamic Republic is set to become more politically stable, and may even offer the chance for improved US-Iranian relations under what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called an emerging 'military dictatorship.' Although this development was well under way at from at least the mid-1990s, the 2009 post-election fiasco was the ultimate coming-out party of the security apparatus, notably the Revolutionary Guards. Observers have termed it a 'praetorian takeover,' borrowing the name from ancient Rome's Praetorian Guard, the feared imperial bodyguard of the Caesar who used their proximity to power to eventually become kingmakers themselves." http://bit.ly/gHSVWv
Robert Tait in Radio Farda: "A long-awaited radical overhaul of Iran's economy that has seen the scrapping of state subsidies is being used to punish and intimidate opponents of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, analysts say. Individuals and families deemed politically suspect or disloyal to Ahmadinejad's government are reportedly being denied cash handouts brought in to replace the extensive subsidy regime. The claim, based on studies partly conducted by economists in Iran, comes after Ahmadinejad announced the end of subsidies in a move that saw fuel prices soar by 400 percent overnight. Subsidies on a wide range of products are to be replaced by monthly cash payments of $40 per head, ostensibly targeted to those deemed most in need. The government has presented the plan as necessary to save the treasury up to $100 billion a year at a time when Iran's economy is under increasing strain from international sanctions imposed in response to its nuclear program. However, Mehrdad Emadi, an Iranian economist based in London, says the compensation payments are being closely screened by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and volunteer Basij militia. 'You can see a political screening of people and categorizing them into groups -- who are with us and groups who have not made the right level of effort to be with us,' Emadi says. Between 4 million and 5 million people who should qualify on financial grounds have yet to receive their first handout, according to a study, including many suspected of having participated in opposition Green Movement protests against Ahmadinejad's disputed reelection in 2009." http://bit.ly/gUq4Za
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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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