Monday, January 24, 2011

Eye on Iran: Iran Nuclear Talks Break Down Without an Agreement






























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WashPost: "Diplomatic efforts to end the eight-year-old impasse over Iran's nuclear program ran aground Saturday after Iranian officials refused to bargain with the United States and other world powers unless they first agreed to conditions including an immediate halt to economic sanctions. The standoff, played out over two days inside a picturesque palace on the shores of the Bosporus, ended with dueling diplomatic statements and deepening pessimism about prospects for solving one of the Obama administration's most vexing security challenges. There was no discussion of further talks in the near future. 'This is not the conclusion I had hoped for,' Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign-policy chief, said after the talks ended shortly past noon. She acknowledged that negotiators never came close to tackling the core issues, such as Iran's uranium enrichment program, because of Iran's insistence on concessions from the West. 'These preconditions are not a way to proceed,' Ashton said. U.S. and European officials said, however, they were encouraged by the cohesion shown by the six countries on the other side of the negotiating table." http://wapo.st/hsounj

AFP: "Iran is open to holding further talks with six world powers over its nuclear programme, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday, a day after the failure of the latest round of dialogue. Ahmadinejad's remarks came after the world powers expressed disappointment over the two days of talks held in Istanbul, even as the United States and Germany voiced hopes of holding new negotiations with the Islamic republic. 'They have talked for a few rounds, but we never expected that issues would be resolved during these few sessions because of the record and mentality of the other parties,' Ahmadinejad said in a speech aired live on state television from the nothern city of Rasht. 'But if the other side is determined and committed to justice, law and respect, one can hope that suitable results could be achieved in future sessions.' ... Ahmadinejad, under whose presidency the nuclear programme has grown, said however that the talks created the conditions for 'good agreements in future sessions' as both sides met and got acquainted to each other's views. But he charged that 'the uncultured Zionists (Israel) and some power-hungry people in Europe and the US are not interested in a good resolution of the issues.'" http://bit.ly/fFbxjh

WSJ: "The point man for the Obama administration's financial wars on Iran, North Korea and al Qaeda, Stuart Levey, has decided to leave his senior U.S. Treasury Department post at what is turning out to be a particularly critical time. Mr. Levey's departure will leave President Barack Obama without the principal architect of Washington's economic-sanctions campaign against Tehran, just as that campaign is likely to be ramped up following the breakdown of talks among Iran, the U.S. and a bloc of global powers on Saturday... Senior Obama administration officials disclosed Mr. Levey's departure, after nearly a decade in government service, but stressed that it doesn't signal a shift in U.S. policy or a slackening of Washington's financial campaigns against Tehran, Pyongyang and international terrorist groups. They said the White House is set to nominate David Cohen, Mr. Levey's deputy at Treasury and longtime confidante, to succeed him as the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. Mr. Levey, a Republican, was one of the few senior members of President George W. Bush's national security team to stay on under Mr. Obama." http://on.wsj.com/gsUwAc

Iran Disclosure Project


Nuclear Program
& Sanctions

AFP: "Leading American scientists Friday warned against Western complacency over Iran's nuclear drive, saying in a study that Tehran last year boosted its capacity to build an atomic bomb... The Washington-based Federation of American Scientists said on its website that the gas centrifuges at Iran's main enrichment plant in Natanz became more efficient in 2010. Centrifuges are the machines that enrich uranium for fuel in either civilian nuclear power plants or for a bomb's destructive power. Uranium must be enriched to 90 percent for a bomb, compared to five percent for power plants. 'Despite a drop in centrifuge numbers during 2010, the total enrichment capacity of Iran's main facility has increased relative to previous years,' said the study authored by Ivanka Barzashka. 'The growth in enrichment capacity from 2009 to 2010 is greater than from 2008 to 2009,' it said, adding the calculations were made on data provided by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. 'Contrary to statements by US officials and many experts, Iran clearly does not appear to be slowing down its nuclear drive. On the contrary, it has a greater enrichment capacity and seems to be more efficient at enrichment,' it said." http://bit.ly/g2y0d4

Bloomberg: "Iran stopped making gasoline at petrochemical plants after the government's reduction in fuel subsidies last month caused prices to quadruple and consumption to fall, an official at Iran's National Petrochemical Co. said. Iran produced gasoline at six petrochemical facilities under an emergency plan to help counter U.S. sanctions on fuel supplies, the official said in a telephone interview in Tehran, declining to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media. The country halted the production on Jan. 21, the official said." http://bloom.bg/fgwBQi

Human Rights

AP: "Iran has hanged two members of the opposition People's Mujahedeen convicted over the 2009 post-election turmoil. The official IRNA news agency says Jafar Kazemi and Mohammad Ali Hajaghaei were executed Monday after an appeals court upheld their death sentences. It says they filmed and distributed footage of massive anti-government protests that swept Iran after the disputed presidential election in June 2009." http://wapo.st/e5QwUw

AP: "Iran's state TV says the country has launched its first cyber police unit in the latest attempt by authorities to gain an edge in the digital world. The Internet has been a key outlet for Iran's political opposition since the disputed presidential election in 2009. Iran also has been trying to boost its web defenses after the Stuxnet computer worm made its way into computers involved with its nuclear program... The first cyber cops patrolling the web are in Tehran. Gen. Moghaddam says they will be in all police stations in the country by early 2012." http://wapo.st/hrgNU3

CNN: "Iranian authorities have ordered a ban on women from watching live broadcasts of soccer matches at public movie theaters, the semi-official ILNA news agency reported. A state police agency that monitors Iranian businesses called for the ban because 'the presence of women and families at movie theaters increases security risks and inappropriate behavior,' ILNA reported. Movie theaters in Iran's major cities have broadcast matches from this year's Asian Cup, where Iran's national soccer team has advanced to the quarterfinals after winning its first three matches." http://bit.ly/gyRmjz

Domestic Politics

AP: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has presented the acting foreign minister to parliament to be approved as the new top envoy for the nation. Ali Larijani, the parliament speaker, said in Sunday's parliament session that Ali Akbar Salehi had been put forward by the government as the new foreign minister. The parliament will discuses the nominee in late January, added the speaker. Under the law any minister needs approval by the parliament. Salehi is also head of Iran's nuclear department." http://wapo.st/hV7gRw

Reuters: "Iran has barred the mayor of Tehran from traveling to the United States for a ceremony honoring his city's advances in public transport, media reported on Saturday. Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, a losing candidate in the 2005 presidential election that brought Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power, is seen by some Iranians as a possible future presidential contender. Both conservatives, the two have been at odds over funding Tehran's extensive underground railway network which the municipality and national parliament say is owned $1 billion from state coffers. Qalibaf had been invited to Washington by a non-governmental organization, the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, for a ceremony on January 24 where Tehran is one of five cities up for the '2011 Sustainable Transport Award.'" http://reut.rs/dEi3NX

Foreign Affairs


CNN: "Iraqi radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has traveled to Iran for a visit, weeks after returning to Iraq and ending three years of self-imposed exile. An aide close to al-Sadr said the cleric is conducting regional visits to a number of countries, beginning with a stop in Tehran. Al-Sadr left Iraq on Thursday, said the aide, who is not authorized to speak to the media. During his three years away from Iraq, al-Sadr spent most of his time in Iran. Al-Sadr's aide did not say when the cleric plans to return to Iraq. An outspoken anti-American political figure, al-Sadr delivered a fiery speech earlier this month in Najaf, calling on tens of thousands of followers to 'resist' and 'disturb' the United States." http://bit.ly/eUSg31

Bloomberg: "An Afghan official says hundreds of tanker fuel trucks have crossed the border from Iran after being blocked in the neighboring country for nearly a month. Farid Shirzai, head of the Commerce Ministry's fuel department, says more than 200 trucks crossed into Afghanistan on Monday. Iran fully opened its borders following a Jan. 18 deal and the first trucks started crossing soon afterward. Shirzai says no more trucks are now stuck in Iran. Iran barred the trucks in late December, stranding about 2,500 of them at three border crossings. The move prompted fuel prices to rise as much as 70 percent." http://bloom.bg/i5BQml

AP: "Israel's Holocaust memorial has launched a version of its YouTube channel in Farsi to educate the country's most bitter enemy - Iran - about the Nazi genocide of 6 million Jews. Iran's president has called the Holocaust a 'myth' and said Israel should be 'wiped off the map.' The country also hosted a conference questioning whether the Holocaust took place. The YouTube channel was announced Sunday to coincide with the U.N.'s upcoming annual Holocaust remembrance day. The chairman of the Yad Vashem memorial says he hopes the site will allow viewers to connect to the Holocaust on a personal level, separate from regional politics." http://wapo.st/dF4PAU

AP: "A senior Iranian official has expressed support for North Korea's controversial nuclear activities, as long as they are restricted to energy projects. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Saturday that Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the country is 'not opposed' to North Korea using nuclear technology to generate electricity. Both North Korea and Iran are accused of using energy projects to hide the development of nuclear weapons and are under intense international pressure to give up their nuclear programs." http://wapo.st/hb6ge7

Opinion
& Analysis

Ted Koppel in WashPost: "On Jan. 20, 1981, 52 American diplomats, intelligence officers and Marines were finally released after being held hostage for nearly 15 months at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Americans saw it as the end of a long national nightmare. Iranians saw it as a successful phase in what the Pentagon would come to call the Long War. We were wrong; they were right... In their approach to the United States in the decade that followed, the mullahs provided chilling evidence of how closely they had studied the influence of the media and public opinion on U.S. foreign policy. During the hostage crisis, they learned how obsessively engaged our news media becomes when U.S. prisoners are taken. What Americans consider one of our greatest national virtues - concern for the individual - the Iranians recognized as a vulnerability. We in the American news media have a tendency to obsess over one crisis at a time, often to the exclusion of other important issues. Indeed, I can hardly overlook my own role in this. The title that ABC News gave to its nightly coverage seemed hyperbolic at first, but it proved frighteningly prescient: 'America Held Hostage.' The story held America's interest so tightly and for so long that our specials on ABC eventually morphed into a regular program - 'Nightline.' Iran watched and learned. They realized that the fixations of the American media could lead to shifts in U.S. policy. They observed how the hostage crisis cost Carter a second term, and they would soon learn that what influenced one administration could be applied to another... What Iran learned in those years - and we're still absorbing the consequences of those lessons today - is that kidnapping and terrorism are useful weapons against the United States. Ultimately, Reagan's broad-shouldered bravado was no more effective in dealing with Tehran than Carter's mild-mannered diplomacy... There was every reason to celebrate the release of those 52 Americans on Jan. 20, 1981. But what Iran learned then and has applied in the decades since has been costly for the United States. Here we are, 30 years after what we thought was the conclusion of a crisis, still wondering if the end will ever be in sight." http://wapo.st/fTUEsK

Daily Telegraph Editorial Board: "Tony Blair was jeered at the Chilcot Inquiry when he said that he 'profoundly' regretted the loss of innocent life in Iraq. This is a man who, more than any retired politician, is used to the sound of jeers - and worse: hysterical cries of 'Bliar!', 'war criminal!' and so on. So relentless is the chorus that the public has given up trying to listen to what he has to say, assuming that it is all glib self-justification (which, to be fair, is one of his specialties). But when he spoke yesterday, Mr Blair did more than discuss events that are now receding into history. He told us that Iran poses a 'looming, coming challenge' to world peace. 'I'm out in that region the whole time,' he said. 'I see the impact and influence of Iran everywhere. It is negative, destabilising. It is supportive of terrorist groups. It is doing everything it can to impede progress in the Middle East peace process.' The West, he said, must get its 'head out of the sand' and tackle the Iranian menace, by force if necessary. How should we respond to his warning? Ignore it because he made mistakes in Iraq and therefore nothing he says can be trusted? His analysis of Iran is based on far more reliable information than was available about Saddam's Iraq. Like him or not, Mr Blair is a well-briefed ex-prime minister whose views, like those of his predecessors, should command our attention. And, as it happens, he is right about Iran." http://bit.ly/ey0r8t

Glenn Kessler in WashPost: "After years of worry about Iran's nuclear ambitions, there has been an apparent ray of hope, as exemplified by Clinton's quote above, made during a tour of the Persian Gulf earlier this month. Clinton warned that pressure on Tehran should not be eased, even though Meir Dagan, the retiring head of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, recently told reporters that Iran could not produce a nuclear weapon until 2015, significantly increasing the timeline for diplomacy. (The Israeli government was furious at Dagan's remarks.) Yet over the weekend talks between Iran and major powers collapsed, with little prospect of resuming soon. Why would Tehran balk from talks if it is under so much pressure? As part of our occasional effort to provide context for stories in the news, here is an update on Iran and the international efforts to restrain its nuclear program... The situation with Iran remains extraordinarily dangerous. Despite reports of problems with Iran's nuclear program, it continues to build a stockpile of enriched uranium that may some day form the core of a crash effort to build nuclear weapons. Sanctions have not dimmed either its bluster or its regional ambitions. Indeed, the Obama administration repeatedly said that the latest round of sanctions was intended to bring Iran to the negotiating table so a diplomatic solution could be found. But despite a potentially generous offer on the table from the West, offering economic and political benefits in exchange for a deal on uranium enrichment, Iran continues to show little inclination to bargain. Unless that dynamic changes, the options for President Obama could narrow to two very difficult choices--acceptance of Iran's nuclear program or a military attack on its nuclear facilities." http://wapo.st/ecaq1W

George Jahn in AP: "The collapse of another attempt at international outreach to Iran on Saturday has left world powers with few options except to wait - and hope that the bite of sanctions will persuade Tehran to reconsider its refusal to stop activities that could be harnessed to make nuclear weapons. But their patience could be tested. While the U.S. and others say that Iran already is suffering from the wide range of financial and trade sanctions, travel bans and other penalties imposed by the U.N., the U.S., the EU and others, the Islamic Republic shows no sign of bending. Uranium enrichment lies at the heart of the dispute. Low-enriched uranium - at around 3.5 percent - can be used to fuel a reactor to generate electricity, which Iran says is the intention of its program. But if uranium is further enriched to around 90 percent purity, it can be used to develop a nuclear warhead. Iran came to the Istanbul talks with six world powers Friday declaring it would not even consider freezing uranium enrichment - and left the negotiations Saturday repeating the same mantra. Throughout two days of hectic meetings, it stubbornly pushed demands it must have known were unacceptable to the six - a lifting of sanctions and acceptance of its enrichment program before any further discussion of its nuclear activities... Publicly, the U.S. and others nations concerned that Iran could turn its enrichment program toward making fissile warhead material say that troubles with enrichment have slowed that activity and left more time to persuade Iran to heed international concerns than thought just a year ago... Still there is no reason for complacency. In a study shared this week with The Associated Press, the Federation of American Scientists notes impressive improvements in the performance of the Iranian machines that enrich uranium. The centrifuges are still underperforming but FAS says Iran last year appears to have increased their efficiency by 60 percent, giving it the technical capacity to produce enough material for a simple nuclear warhead in five months." http://wapo.st/fJEZ97





















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



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