Top Stories
Reuters: "The European Union will turn down an offer from Iran to tour its nuclear facilities, EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said on Friday, but remains optimistic about talks with Iran later this month. Iran has sent letters to a number of ambassadors to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, inviting them to visit two sites -- the Natanz uranium enrichment plant and the Arak heavy water complex -- in the coming weeks. Diplomats from Britain, France, Germany and the United States were not invited. But Hungary, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union until July, was invited, leaving the EU in a quandary over what to do. 'What I'll be saying is the role of the inspections of nuclear sites is for the IAEA and I do hope Iran will ensure that the IAEA is able to go and continue and fulfill its work,' Ashton told Reuters after talks with Hungarian Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi, saying the invitation would be declined." http://nyti.ms/g0Ahjv
AP: "Israel's newly retired spy chief thinks Iran will not be able to build a nuclear bomb before 2015, Israeli media reported Friday - further pushing back Israeli intelligence estimates of when Tehran might become a nuclear power. Meir Dagan, who left his post as head of the Mossad intelligence service this week, said Thursday that Iran's nuclear program had been delayed by unspecified 'measures' employed against it, according to the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot. Other Israeli media reported Dagan's prediction, citing 'closed conversations' he held Thursday before leaving his post as head of Israel's covert intelligence arm... The assessment by Dagan adds another year to that estimate. Dagan also said Israel 'should not hurry to attack' Iran, according to the Yediot Ahronot report." http://wapo.st/hPUGgM
AP: "Hundreds of Afghans demonstrated outside the Iranian Embassy in Kabul Friday to protest Iran's blocking of thousands of fuel trucks at the border with Afghanistan, a step that has sent domestic fuel prices soaring as the country's harsh winter sets in. The unofficial ban on fuel trucks crossing the Iran-Afghanistan border began about two weeks ago, with about 2,500 trucks stuck at the crossing. The move, which Afghan officials have criticized as being tantamount to an embargo, has led wholesale domestic fuel prices to rise as much as 70 percent. Carrying banners and chanting 'down with Iran,' about 300 to 400 people marched through the streets of Kabul to demonstrate outside the Iranian embassy." http://wapo.st/eCSL2w
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
WSJ: "Federal authorities arrested a former Central Intelligence Agency official on Thursday, accusing him of leaking classified information to a New York Times reporter who published a book discussing Iran's suspected weapons program. Jeffrey Sterling, 43 years old, worked at the CIA for nine years and left in 2002 amid a dispute over his attempt to write a memoir and his allegations that he was a victim of racial discrimination at the agency, according to a grand jury indictment filed by federal prosecutors in Alexandria, Va. In the months before he left the agency, Mr. Sterling provided information to a reporter related to a classified CIA program that Mr. Sterling previously helped to run, according to the indictment. The information included the identity of a confidential source who had provided information to the CIA as part of the program, the indictment says." http://on.wsj.com/eWhluf
NPR: "The mystery surrounding a former Iranian general believed to have defected to the U.S. or Israel has taken an even more puzzling turn. The individual in question, Ali Reza Asgari, left Iran three years ago and turned up in Istanbul. He is a former high-ranking officer in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard. It is believed he possessed valuable information the government of Iran would not want shared with the CIA, including knowledge of Iran's secret nuclear activities and Iran's relationship with Hezbollah in Lebanon. In late December, the claim emerged that he had died in an Israeli prison cell. But the reliability of that information is now in question.In late 2006 Asgari left Iran, apparently without authorization, says Meir Javedanfar, an Israeli specialist in Iranian affairs. 'He went to Syria, crossed the border into Turkey, and he disappeared into thin air,' Javedanfar says. Asgari apparently put himself into the hands of the CIA or the Mossad - Israel's secret service - says Karim Sadjadpour, who follows Iran for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace." http://n.pr/eCpqfG
Reuters: "India's state-run lender State Bank of India cannot open letter of credit for crude imports from Iran, an official at the bank said on Friday. India and Iran are working to sort out an oil payments dispute that could block imports of 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and New Delhi is walking a fine line in balancing its energy needs and global diplomatic interests. Iran is India's second-largest supplier of crude oil after Saudi Arabia, but Washington has been putting pressure on governments to end dealings with Tehran over its nuclear programme." http://bit.ly/i1HaTh
Human Rights
WSJ: "Iranian authorities have arrested dozens of Christians in the two weeks since Christmas, the latest challenge to the Mideast's small but vibrant Christian communities. The arrests around the country appear focused on individuals who have converted from Islam or sought to convert others from Islam-actions considered sins under Islamic law and punishable by death in Iran. Tehran's governor, Morteza Tamadon, confirmed there have been detentions and said more arrests were on the way, state media reported. Mr. Tamadon suggested the roundup hadn't targeted the mainstream Armenian Christians or Catholics, which make up most of the small Christian population in Iran. Instead, he suggested the arrests targeted Protestant evangelicals, who have run into trouble elsewhere in the Mideast." http://on.wsj.com/eJJued
Bloomberg: "Iran's government denied reports that a U.S. woman entered the country and was then arrested on espionage charges, according to the Iranian state-run Arabic- language television network, al-Alam. Further details weren't immediately available in the report, which followed accounts today by two Iranian state-run news organizations that said a 55-year-old American woman was arrested in Iran for spying after entering from Armenia. The Iran newspaper said the woman was found with 'spying devices' implanted in her teeth when she was detained in the border town of Nordouz. The woman was arrested a week ago, the Fars news agency reported." http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hfdiftcab&et=1104208961520&s=30860&e=001OfHjfSTm2F8-KXwDTxCgdI9I-Fd5EhOh-sW6Rk5wCChA_Vf-gUIrQX_akyEaeR0W_KixXUIhDEHVn40d-UZkH7Cgw-6rgPsgdTMoy2GPOQg=
Domestic Politics
AFP: "A close aide to former Iranian reformist president Mohammad Khatami has been arrested by security forces, opposition websites reported on Thursday. Morteza Haji, who was education minister during Khatami's first term from 1997 to 2001, was arrested on Wednesday evening, Rahesabz.net reported. Rahesabz, which is close to reformist opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, cited 'informed sources' as saying that Haji had been taken to Tehran's Evin prison, but it did not say why he had been arrested. The arrest comes after Khatami warned that more 'restrictions' will be imposed on future elections in the Islamic republic, and called on the authorities to ensure 'fairness' in the electoral process." http://bit.ly/erZzqe
Foreign Affairs
Reuters: "U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit several key Gulf allies beginning on Saturday, seeking to buttress U.S. ties in an oil-rich region shadowed by Iran's nuclear ambitions. Clinton's trip to the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar from Jan 8-13 will be her second to the Gulf in two months, highlighting U.S. concern over a region central to U.S. energy interests... Clinton is also expected to use the trip to attempt further damage control after the Wikileaks release of secret U.S. diplomatic cables, some of which embarrassed leaders in Gulf countries and next-door Saudi Arabia by detailing their hopes for a tough U.S. stance on Iran. Clinton's trip comes just days ahead of an expected second round of talks between Iran and six major powers over its nuclear program, which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes but which the United States and its allies fear is aimed at acquiring atomic weapons." http://bit.ly/f2OWKr
AFP: "Iran's foreign minister courted top clerics in Najaf, the Iraqi religious heartland, on Thursday, the second day of a visit to Iraq aimed at boosting ties between the Shiite-majority neighbours. 'I came carrying a letter from the Iranian leadership to the religious authorities in Najaf,' Ali Akbar Salehi told a news conference in the central Iraq Shiite shrine city. 'I had a good meeting with (top Iraqi Shiite cleric) Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and I also just finished a meeting with Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Said al-Hakim,' Salehi said. 'And I will meet Grand Ayatollah Bashir al-Najafi and Grand Ayatollah Ishaq al-Fayad in order to give them the message from the Islamic republic,' he said, referring to other senior Shiite clerics." http://bit.ly/fk66UR
Opinion & Analysis
Charley J. Levine in WT: "Three attacks on developing nuclear centers have occurred around the world, the most recent scant months ago. It is amazing that the year 2010 - pegged universally as crunch time for Iran's atomic ambitions - ended with such a whimper, not a bang. It was to be a year characterized ultimately by a crippling counterblow to Tehran's plans - with nary a peep from the media. No 'top 10 stories of 2010' inclusions. Not even a WikiLeak... Most amazing of all, the third attack was 'silent but not subtle,' as one analyst observed. Stuxnet. Even the name discourages casual conversation. Try saying it five times, fast. Perhaps the most sophisticated, complex worm virus ever designed (massively comprising 15,000 lines of code) invaded the rapidly developing computer control systems of Iran's atomic facilities. Analysts ascribed the capability to develop this level of malware to a small circle of candidates: the United States, Britain and Israel. Washington's Institute for Science and International Security concluded that Stuxnet infected as many as 30,000 institutional computers involved in the project and outright broke 1,000 Iranian IR-1 centrifuges at the Natanz uranium-enrichment facility, prompting a rare understatement from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, citing technical problems as the cause for a temporary shutdown of the plant. World security experts opined that Stuxnet was 'amazing' and 'groundbreaking,' even a 'prime example of clandestine digital warfare.' Most concurred that basement hackers would not be likely sources of the malware, which required tremendous time, brainpower and government-level resources to create... The temporary derailment of Iran's atomic program is the greatest news story not reported on in 2010, made possible by the world media's fierce indifference to this defeat by malware. Meanwhile, the West can sleep just a little better tonight as a result, comforted by the amazing results that transcended tepid international sanctions - results secured by a smart and civic-minded Lone Ranger who might be considered for the next Nobel Peace Prize. But nobody for sure knows who that quiet masked man was. Or what he did. Or why he did it." http://bit.ly/dPawjv
Howard LaFranchi in CSM: "The curious case reported by Iranian state media Thursday of an American woman with espionage equipment planted in her mouth being detained by Iranian authorities sounds like the stuff of a John le Carré novel. But with cases of Americans detained or even disappearing in Iran periodically surging into the news, questions of a more mundane nature arise, like: How many Americans even go to Iran, and, what are conditions for those who do? The short answers appear to be: not many; and not great - other than for those very few Americans who travel to Iran on a visa as journalists or academics. President Obama may have spoken eloquently in his Norooz (Persian New Year) message to Iranians of increased exchange between Iranians and Americans, but in reality both governments are acting to make that unlikely any time soon. With the Iranian government under increased economic and political pressure and dealing with growing rifts even within the regime, some Iran experts say any Americans traveling there are susceptible to being used as diversions for taking public attention off the internal problems. 'For Americans to go to Iran for whatever reason is a very risky endeavor,' says Ali Safavi, president of Near East Policy Research, a consulting firm in Alexandria, Va., and a figure in the exiled Iranian opposition. 'As the regime has weakened and faced mounting problems in recent years, it has liked nothing better than to seize foreigners and make them pawns in an effort to divert attention from its ebbing standing in the country.'" http://bit.ly/ezXT4i
Michael Petrou in Maclean's: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faces a regime-buffeting revolt-not just from secular-minded students and youth who continue to gather at universities to denounce him as a traitor and call for his death-but also from the very heart of the Islamic Republic's conservative establishment. Conservative members of Iran's Majlis, or parliament, recently tried to summon Ahmadinejad for questioning, which in theory could have led to his impeachment. According to a letter sent by a parliamentary committee to the chairman of the Guardian Council, another governing body, they 'refrained from the questioning and impeachment of the president' only because they were ordered not to do so by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The parliamentarians accuse Ahmadinejad of concentrating power in his office. They say he withdrew $590 million from the Central Bank's foreign reserve fund without parliamentary approval, that he illegally imports oil and natural gas, and spends government money without transparency. These specific allegations reflect deeper and more fundamental opposition. Already scorned by reformists who believe he stole the presidency in a rigged election last summer-not to mention Iranians who want an outright end to the country's theocracy-Ahmadinejad has now alienated many influential political and religious figures in the country. The reasons for his break with the clergy may seem odd to those in the West who associate Ahmadinejad with radical Islam. He is a religious extremist-but not one cut from the same cloth as most of the country's mullahs." http://bit.ly/fWPvxG |
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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