Top Stories
Reuters: "Iran is finding it increasingly difficult to access the financial services it needs to run its economy and may lose up to $60 billion in energy investments due to global sanctions, U.S. officials said on Wednesday. The officials told U.S. lawmakers that United Nations-backed sanctions imposed over the summer are inflicting economic pain on Tehran and hampering its drive to develop nuclear weapons. 'With great regularity, major companies are announcing that they have curtailed or completely pulled out of business dealings with Iran,' Stuart Levey, U.S. Treasury undersecretary undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, told the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs. 'And, as has been widely reported, Iran's leadership appears to have underestimated the severity and effects of the global financial measures, giving rise to internal Iranian criticism and finger-pointing,' Levey added. Levey said the sanctions were restricting Iran's access to dollars and were the likey cause of a nearly 20 percent plunge in Iran's rial currency in September, prompting weeks of intervention from Iran's central bank to stabilize it." http://reut.rs/fMfxwg
WSJ: "U.S. officials are holding out promise of greater economic and energy assistance for Iran if it commits to begin constraining its nuclear program during a long-anticipated second round of international negotiations scheduled for next week in Switzerland. But some U.S. officials say political rivalries may keep Tehran's leadership from striking a compromise with the West, a view illuminated by the recent leak of State Department correspondences with foreign governments. Even seemingly simple decisions, such as whether to host a U.S. badminton team, are held hostage by political feuds, according to the cables. The Iran talks, to be held on Dec. 6-7 in Geneva, are emerging as a make-or-break test of the Obama administration's efforts to use diplomacy to end Tehran's nuclear work. Iranian officials have damped hopes for progress by saying Tehran isn't ready to halt production of nuclear fuel, the principal demand of the U.S. and the United Nations. The White House, in turn, is threatening to ratchet up economic penalties." http://on.wsj.com/hh9r2f
AFP: "US lawmakers united Wednesday in anger over China's insidious links with Iran, but also blamed Washington for failing to impose sanctions on Beijing for aiding Tehran's nuclear program. The harsh criticism came from both Republicans and Democrats after leaked secret cables showed US diplomats frustrated at China's apparent reluctance to block missile parts shipments from North Korea to the Islamic republic ahead of talks between world powers and Tehran over its nuclear drive. 'There seems to be no doubt that Chinese companies are pursuing energy investments and selling Iran refined petroleum. The Chinese acknowledge it,' said Howard Berman, the Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. 'I'd like to know why we haven't sanctioned any of the Chinese companies engaged in clearly sanctionable actions,' he told the committee gathered to assess the impact of tightened sanctions on Iran." http://bit.ly/hgqaVZ
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
WSJ: "A top Treasury Department official said Wednesday that his office has contacted governments and financial institutions 'in more than a dozen countries' to investigate possible violations of U.S. sanctions against Iran. Stuart Levey, Treasury's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, told a congressional committee that his office has moved quickly to enforce a July law that threatens foreign financial institutions with possible banishment from the U.S. financial system if they do business with sanctioned people and entities in Iran. Levey, testifying before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, did not name the countries or institutions. But he said the response so far had been 'very positive.' 'Even banks that had been willing to maintain accounts for designated Iranian banks are now reversing course or cutting ties with Iran altogether,' he said in his prepared remarks. 'Nevertheless, we know that Iran continues to search for work-arounds, and we must and will remain vigilant in enforcing this law.'" http://on.wsj.com/g7cfgf
WSJ: "Total SA was warned in early 2010 that its U.S. shale-gas investments could be at risk because its sales of refined petroleum to Iran ran counter to U.S. efforts to isolate the nation, according to diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks. Dow Jones Newswires' Siobhan Hughes reported on the warning, which was delivered by House Foreign Affairs Committee Staff in January just after Total announced a $2.25 billion investment in U.S. shale. In June, the French company announced it stopped shipping gas to Iran, something it reiterated in late September. President Barack Obama in July signed new Iran sanctions into law that barred companies doing business with blacklisted entities in Iran from operating in U.S. markets... Another company, Italian oil giant Eni SpA, 'insisted' on completing a contract in Iran, and obtained a waiver to do so, according to the report. Eni officials, according to the document, said they would only complete the terms of that contract and not explore further investment as it had planned, demonstrating goodwill." http://on.wsj.com/fjmRrA
AP: "The head of the U.N. nuclear agency says he cannot confirm that all of Iran's atomic activities are peaceful. Yukiya Amano blames lack of cooperation by Iran with his International Atomic Energy Agency in attempts to clear up questions about Tehran's past and present nuclear programs... Iran is under U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to freeze uranium enrichment. Tehran says it is enriching to make nuclear fuel but the activity can also produce material for warheads." http://wapo.st/gm3Lz7
Guardian: "Iran today said it would increase security for its nuclear scientists after one of its top nuclear experts was killed and another injured in co-ordinated attacks on Monday. Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, told the ISNA news agency: 'We have been pursuing serious protective measures for hundreds of our scientists and experts since last year and, based on the recent decision, we are to increase protection measures multiple-fold and take other steps as well.' Bombs killed Majid Shahriari, of the nuclear engineering faculty at the Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, and injured Fereidoun Abbasi, a nuclear physicist who was named on UN security resolution 1747 as being 'involved in nuclear or ballistic missile activities'. Earlier this year another Iranian nuclear scientist, Masoud Ali Mohammadi - an expert on particle physics - was killed in a similar assassination." http://bit.ly/h8o7TN
Domestic Politics
Reuters: "Tehran is choking. Gridlock on urban highways makes the city feel more like Los Angeles than the Middle East, while adding a toxic yellow halo of smog to otherwise perennially blue skies... Yet there is an alternative to being stuck in traffic. Below the streets, a gleaming subway system has been in operation since 1999, with four lines that crisscross the city. But Mohsen Hashemi, manager of the Tehran Metro, says it also risks becoming overloaded if it is not upgraded soon. Parliament has voted to finance an extension of the existing lines, complete two new ones, and extend the network 40 kilometers, or 25 miles, out of the city to Imam Khomeini International Airport. But the work is being delayed in what appears to be a political power struggle over the money." http://reut.rs/eVabio
Reuters: "Iran's Economy Ministry denied a newspaper report on Wednesday that the price of gasoline was set to rise by 700 percent when subsidies are cut. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad plans to save up to $100 billion a year by phasing out subsidies on essentials. Gasoline is one of the most politically sensitive goods and sporadic riots flared when fuel rationing was introduced in 2007. The subsidy phase-out had been due to start in the second half of the Iranian year, which began on Sept. 23, but Iranian authorities delayed implementation of the plan several times and have yet to announce the amount of the price hike." http://bit.ly/hXjqa6
Foreign Affairs
LAT: "Even though Canadian officials told American counterparts that they were 'very, very worried' about Iran's ambitions and actions, they continued to maintain contacts between Ottawa and Tehran's spy services, said a secret July 9, 2008, dispatch by the United States Embassy in the Canadian capital. Jim Judd, retired chief of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, told an American diplomat that his agency had recently talked to Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security after the agency had requested 'its own channel of communication' to Canadians. He told Americans, 'The Iranians agreed to help on Afghan issues, including sharing information regarding potential attacks.'" http://lat.ms/h8N1ba
WT: "Israel and its adversaries in the Persian Gulf in recent years carried out extensive secret diplomacy to coordinate policy and exchange information on the threat posed by Iran, despite both sides' public posture of mutual hostility. A classified 2009 diplomatic cable disclosed this week provides a rare glimpse into the secret and often high-level diplomacy between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, all countries that officially do not recognize the Jewish state. Contrary to the condemnatory rhetoric opposing Israel in public, Arab diplomats behind the scenes have asked Israel to carry messages to the U.S. government and urged tougher action on Iran. The March 19, 2009, cable quotes Yacov Hadas, deputy director of Israels Foreign Ministry, as telling an American diplomat: 'The Gulf Arabs believe in Israel's role because of their perception of Israel's close relationship with the U.S., but also due to their sense that they can count on Israel against Iran.'" http://bit.ly/fYWteB
Reuters: "Dubai will never sever trade ties with neighbour and major trade partner Iran, a senior Dubai economy official said on Wednesday, as pressure on Tehran to curb its uranium enrichment drive keeps mounting. The United Arab Emirates, to which Dubai belongs, has signalled it will rein back its role as a trading and financial lifeline for Iran after the U.N. Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions on Iran in June over accusations it is developing a nuclear bomb. 'It's never an option to end trade with Iran,' Sami al-Qamzi, director general of Dubai's Department of Economic Development, told reporters on the sidelines of an event. Asked what effect sanctions would have on Dubai's economy, he said: 'There will be a weight, there will be an impact, but we hope that through negotiations we'll come to a solution to reduce the negative impact.'" http://reut.rs/gkvxbv
Opinion & Analysis
Doyle McManus in LAT: "The headlines from the WikiLeaks dump of thousands of not-very-classified State Department cables have focused, understandably, on the embarrassment factor: It's not good for American diplomacy when foreign leaders see what they thought were confidential conversations reprinted on websites and in newspapers. But the substance is another thing. Take Iran. What do the cables tell us? That the United States has been telling the truth about what it wants from Iran; that the Obama administration desperately wants to find a solution that doesn't include military action; and that a formidable alliance of other countries, not only Israel but most of Europe and Iran's Arab neighbors as well, shares the U.S. concerns. The WikiLeaks cables report that Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has implored President Obama to 'cut off the head of the snake' - embarrassing for the king, perhaps, but no surprise to any of his subjects who have been paying attention. The cables also report the wry reaction of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who insists that military action against Iran is a bad idea: The Saudis, he said, want to 'fight the Iranians to the last American.' There is a limit, though, to how much a random assortment of cables can show. From reading every document released about Iran so far, you might miss the most important fact: The Obama administration's long campaign to increase pressure on Iran is actually showing signs of progress." http://lat.ms/eDej7E
John Limbert in FP: "If we believe the recently leaked U.S. State Department messages, some leaders of Arab states harbor unkind thoughts about their Iranian neighbors. In addition to describing them in terms like 'liar' and 'snake,' they have expressed a wish to American visitors that this troublesome neighbor would somehow go away. For his part, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stung by these harsh epithets, claims that the entire WikiLeaks affair is a foreign conspiracy to sow discord between Iranians and Arabs and to strengthen the Americans' claim that Iran has become a diplomatic polecat in its own region. Arab-Iranian hostility is not uniform. Iranians enjoy correct if not warm relations with their Qatari and Omani neighbors. Relations with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are icy, with the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait falling somewhere in the middle. When pushed to the wall, both sides have been capable of putting aside old prejudices and grievances (real and imagined) and can act in their own interest and maintain cordial state-to-state ties. Nevertheless, the big picture is negative, as the cables dramatically show. What is going on here? What is behind this intra-Islamic and intraregional strife? Are those Arabs denouncing the Iranians speaking just for themselves or for a broader segment of public opinion? Why do Iranians beat their chests for Palestine, an Arab cause? And despite what they say, do the Saudis and others really want the Americans -- and perhaps the Israelis by extension -- to attack Iran?" http://bit.ly/hl5Sxf |
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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