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NYT: "A week before nuclear talks resume with outside powers, a senior Iranian official was quoted on Wednesday as saying that time was running out for negotiations on some parts of his country's nuclear program because of Tehran's enhanced ability to enrich and manufacture atomic fuel. It was not clear whether the remarks were intended as an overture - or as a maneuver to raise the stakes - before the negotiations restart. The official, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, referred in particular to an abortive agreement dating to October 2009 providing for Iran to ship nuclear material abroad in return for nuclear fuel rods for a research reactor in Teheran. The energy agency is the United Nations' nuclear supervisory body. 'Time is moving against the negotiating side,' Mr. Soltanieh said, referring to the group of countries - the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China - that, along with the European Union, are set to resume talks with Iranian negotiators in Istanbul on Jan. 21 following inconclusive negotiations in Geneva in December. 'It should use the chance at the earliest.' 'After the installation of the first fuel rods, produced by Iran, in the core of the Tehran research reactor, Iran's Parliament will probably never allow the government to negotiate dispatching uranium to Turkey or other countries,' Mr. Soltanieh said." http://nyti.ms/fUnpcX
WSJ: "Oil & Natural Gas Corp Ltd. expects further delays in signing a deal with Iran's state-run Petropars Ltd. to develop phase 12 of the South Pars gas field as U.S. sanctions on Iran are making it hard to secure funding, a senior company official said Wednesday. 'We are still negotiating with Petropars. We have to spend money on the project without violating U.S. sanctions, which isn't easy,' the official told reporters on the sidelines of an industry event. The South Pars gas field, owned jointly by Iran and Qatar, is the world's largest gas reservoir and contains about half of Iran's gas resources. Iran wants to boost its natural gas output and exports while India is looking for secure fuel supplies to sustain its rapidly growing economy. Despite its robust cash reserves, ONGC is seeking loans for the phase 12 development project, which is likely to cost about $7.5 billion." http://on.wsj.com/fvG48b
WSJ: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday pressed for tougher international sanctions against Iran's nuclear program, amid upbeat assessments by senior U.S. and Israeli officials about efforts to significantly slow Iran's bid to build a nuclear weapon. 'Those sanctions have not yet achieved their objective,' Mr. Netanyahu said at his annual news conference with foreign journalists at a Jerusalem hotel. He said the sanctions imposed on Iran need to be 'materially strengthened' and 'followed by a credible military option' led by the U.S. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a visit to the United Arab Emirates on Monday that the international campaign against Iran was working thanks to material shortages and technical problems. Israel's outgoing intelligence chief, Meir Dagan, said on Thursday, his last day in office, that Iran couldn't build a nuclear device until 2015, a dramatic scaling back of previous Israeli estimations." http://on.wsj.com/epFqU6
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
CNN: "Iran is planning to launch a new satellite into orbit by the end of March, according to the country's semi-official Fars News Agency. Wednesday's announcement for the planned launch of the Fajr -- or 'Dawn' -- satellite follows a recent statement by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on strengthening the country's space-based presence. The satellite 'will be launched into space from an Iranian launch-pad and will have an Iranian exchange station and control station,' Ahmadinejad said, according to Fars." http://bit.ly/gAAeaK
Reuters: "Ajerbaijan will more than double gas supplies to Iran to 1 billion cubic metres per year under a five-year deal signed on Wednesday, Azeri state energy firm SOCAR said. SOCAR said it signed the deal with the National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC), and that volumes would increase from 1 bcm in the first year." http://bit.ly/ecQ7Lb
Human Rights
Reuters: "Prominent Brazilian author Paulo Coelho said on Monday that the sale of his books had been banned in Iran and he appealed to his country's government to intervene. Coelho, one of the world's best-selling writers, published on his blog a message from his editor in Iran informing him of the Iranian government's decision to ban his books. 'I strongly hope this misunderstanding will be solved during the week. And I strongly count on the Brazilian government to support me, my books, for the sake of all the values we cherish,' Coelho wrote on the blog." http://bit.ly/hMeDHR
AP: "Iran has arrested about 70 Christians since Christmas in a crackdown that demonstrates the limits of religious tolerance by Islamic leaders who often boast they provide room for other faiths. The latest raids have targeted grass-roots Christian groups Iran describes as 'hard-liners' who pose a threat to the Islamic state. Authorities increasingly view them with suspicions that range from trying to convert Muslims to being possible footholds for foreign influence. Christian activists claim their Iranian brethren are being persecuted simply for worshipping outside officially sanctioned mainstream churches." http://wapo.st/eLQtK0
Domestic Politics
AP: "Iran's opposition leader on Wednesday denounced the country's ruling system for being 'totalitarian' like the old Nazi and Soviet regimes, with lying to its people being its defining characteristic. Mir Hossein Mousavi statement comes as reaction to a stepped up campaign by the ruling system to discredit opposition leaders, calling them traitors that would ultimately be prosecuted. 'They are resorting to methods (against the opposition) used in totalitarian regimes like Stalin in the Soviet era or (former dictator Nicolae) Ceausescu in Romania,' Mousavi said in a statement posted on his website." http://wapo.st/gKMzdj
Foreign Affairs
Reuters: "Iran warned neighboring countries not to help its arch-foe Israel, one day after announcing it had rounded up a spy ring linked to Israel which it said had assassinated an Iranian nuclear scientist. Israel has not ruled out military strikes on the Islamic Republic if diplomatic efforts fail to stop Tehran trying to build nuclear weapons. Iran has vowed to retaliate with missile strikes on Israel and U.S. targets in the Gulf. 'Our neighbors and the regional countries that have ties with the Zionist regime should know that any assistance given to this regime would be viewed as a threat to Iran,' Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi told a rare news conference on Tuesday." http://reut.rs/gtwWqL
Opinion & Analysis
Shirin Ebadi in WSJ: "This week Iran's judicial authorities sentenced my friend Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer, to 11 years in prison. Her case has attracted only modest attention in the West, but it is the latest example of Iran's unrelenting crackdown on dissent. It deserves greater notice. Nasrin belongs to a younger generation of Iranian human rights defenders who are being systematically bullied by the state into abandoning their work. The government has forced many into exile abroad, while meting out harsh prison sentences to others, like Nasrin, in order to intimidate the remaining few. The court imprisoned Nasrin-and barred her from practicing law or leaving the country for 20 years-after finding her guilty of 'acting against national security' and of 'propaganda against the regime.' Iran's government routinely levels these charges against lawyers, journalists, nongovernmental organization workers and others whose work it finds troublesome. Nasrin's only crime has been her passionate defense of Iran's most legally vulnerable citizens: juvenile offenders facing the death penalty, human rights campaigners, and prisoners of conscience... Recent years have shown that the Iranian authorities will continue trying to chip away at the determination of Iran's brave young lawyers. This week's sentence only confirmed the point. As for Nasrin, I know she will stand firm and continue down the challenging path she has chosen." http://on.wsj.com/hT8nif
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