Top Stories
AP: "Tehran's chief prosecutor said Friday it was only a matter of time before opposition leaders are put on trial for the unrest following the disputed 2009 presidential election, the latest sign that Iranian authorities may make a potentially explosive escalation of their crackdown. Hundreds of opposition supporters have been arrested and tried in the fierce crackdown that crushed opposition protests in the wake of the election, which the opposition claimed hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won by fraud. So far, authorities have stopped short of trying to jail the reform movement's top leaders - Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims to have been the real victor in the election, fellow candidate Mahdi Karroubi and former President Mohammad Khatami - apparently out of concern it could spark a new wave of protests and fuel the opposition. But a series of recent public warnings by hard-liners that they could be tried may be a sign that Iran's Islamic clerical leadership believes the opposition has been sufficiently suppressed that their arrest would not bring a significant backlash. On Friday, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi told worshippers at Tehran University that the opposition leaders are criminals who sought to topple the ruling Islamic system through street protests." http://wapo.st/g66EPD
NYT: "Officials in India and Iran have been scrambling to keep the $11 billion in oil and gas trade between them going after India's central bank declared last week that a regional clearinghouse could no longer be used to settle payments for such transactions. The move, which was long sought by the United States as a way to tighten sanctions against Iran, makes it tougher for Indian companies to buy Iranian oil and natural gas because they can no longer use the Asian Clearing Union, which was set up by the United Nations in the 1970s to ease commerce between Asian countries by handling payments. The clearinghouse allowed Indian companies to pay Iranian companies via the two countries' central banks. But it also meant that the transactions were less transparent, making payments to companies linked to Iranian companies controlled by groups banned under the sanctions even more obscure. Central bankers from both countries were to meet on Friday, officials in India said, to try to resolve the impasse." http://nyti.ms/fpHJbE
JPost: "US and UK intelligence services are cooperating with the Mossad to sabotage Teheran's nuclear program in exchange for Israel agreeing not to launch a military strike on Iran, the French weekly Le Canard enchaîné reported on Thursday, quoting French intelligence sources. Acts of sabotage carried out in the past year in Iran were conducted by Israel with the help of the CIA and MI6, the sources said. The sabotage included, according to the report, the introduction of the Stuxnet computer virus into 30,000 computers in Iran's nuclear reactors and explosions in October in which 18 Iranian technicians were killed at a factory in the Zagros mountains that manufactured Shihab missiles." http://bit.ly/hKCqmZ
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
Reuters: "Iran's day-to-day business is being affected by tighter international, U.S. and European Union sanctions imposed in response to Western fears the country's nuclear activities are aimed at developing bombs. Tehran says it has no such aim. Following are details on firms that have been moving away from Iran in the last six months and on others still dealing with the country." http://reut.rs/hjS9Gt
JPost: "Iran smuggled into the Gaza Strip about 1,000 mortar shells, hundreds of shortrange rockets and a few dozen advanced anti-tank missiles over the past year, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) revealed on Thursday. In a report summing up 2010, the Shin Bet said that Iran continued to serve as Hamas's dominant supplier of weaponry throughout the past year, using smuggling routes in Sudan and Sinai. It was also instrumental in funding the training of Hamas operatives in Lebanon and Syria." http://bit.ly/fD6xME
Reuters: "Essar Oil (ESRO.BO) raised monthly imports from top supplier Iran by over a third in November and may have bought for the first time Lavan and Marum grade from the OPEC member, data from trade sources showed. The private firm, which operates the 280,000 barrels per day (bpd) Vadinar refinery in Gujarat, imported some 283,630 bpd oil in November versus 187,430 bpd in October and 263,520 bpd in November last year. Essar Oil along with some state refiners is hit by the recent Indian central bank move to stop guaranteeing payments under Asian Clearing Union for crude oil purchases from Iran." http://reut.rs/fYwsNH
WSJ: "India is moving to settle an issue over trade payments to Iran, the foreign ministry said Friday, adding that 'there is no question of India acting under pressure of any country.' Describing the matter as a 'technical issue,' the foreign ministry said 'efforts are being made to resolve the issue as soon as possible.' The issue cropped up late Monday when the Reserve Bank of India said it has asked banks to stop using the Asian Clearing Union mechanism to clear Iran trade payments, in a move seen as a sign of New Delhi's growing closeness to Washington. Cutting Iran trade off the ACU could increase costs and make trade cumbersome." http://on.wsj.com/hpl4k2
Domestic Politics
Reuters: "Iranian security forces have arrested seven members of al Qaeda in the northwest of the country, Iran's English-language Press TV reported on Thursday. The militants were arrested in the town of Sardasht, in West Azerbaijan province, near the border with Iraq, Press TV said, citing an 'informed source.' 'These people were identified a month ago and were subsequently detained by an order by judicial authorities,' Press TV quoted the source as saying. The report did not name the detainees and did not make clear when they were arrested. It added: 'The security forces also found a considerable number of books and documents related to Wahhabism and other misleading sects.' Wahhabism is the austere form of Sunni Islam practised in Saudi Arabia, a regional rival of Shi'ite Iran." http://reut.rs/ewge9F
WashPost: "For the past 30 years, state-approved television in Iran has consisted largely of Islamic prayers, lengthy Parliamentary sessions, melodramatic soap operas and talk shows in which mullahs expound on the depravities of the West and the righteousness of their own society. Iranians responded by jury-rigging satellite dishes to spice up their entertainment choices with offerings from abroad. 'Baywatch' was a longtime favorite. But lately, a couple of irreverent expats in Washington have captivated Iranians with a show that pokes fun at the absurdities of life in the Islamic republic. Operating out of Voice of America's Persian News Network, Kambiz Hosseini and Saman Arbabi have started a weekly program, 'Parazit,' that has drawn comparisons to Jon Stewart's 'The Daily Show' for its satiric take on Iran's news of the day. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a favorite target. 'His bloopers are fantastic,' said Arbabi, 37, as he and Hosseini, 35, cozied up to pints of Guinness in a District bar." http://wapo.st/gG4L9s
Opinion & Analysis
David Feith in WSJ: "Once known as the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, HSBC wants to be known today as 'the world's local bank.' To convey the message, it plasters airport jetways, city blocks and glossy magazines with colorful, pithy advertisements. From the looks of one such ad, though, HSBC might be more accurately considered 'Iran's useful idiot.' The ad features a photograph of a desert oasis. In the background are some electrical lines, and in the foreground a lone, robed figure stands behind an old-fashioned video camera. Beside the image is text: 'Only 4% of American films are made by women. In Iran it's 25%,' HSBC informs us. 'We find potential in the most unexpected places. Do you?' Just like that, the banking behemoth reveals the danger of bubble-gum corporate cosmopolitanism: Every now and then, you might suggest that a murderous theocracy is actually a progressive place. One wonders what Jafar Panahi would make of the suggestion that Iran's filmmaking environment compares favorably to America's. We can't know, however, because the acclaimed director and his colleague Mahmoud Rasoulof were just sentenced to six years in prison. There they'll join, among others, the filmmaker Mohammad Nourizad, who news reports say is on a hunger strike in Tehran's Evin Prison." http://on.wsj.com/hL6ubs
Reza Kahlili in Fox News: "On December 24, a research report from the South Korean Foreign Ministry Institute indicated that North Korea would carry out another nuclear bomb test after the beginning of the year. -- South Korean media reported earlier this month that the North was digging a tunnel in preparation for such a nuclear test. At the same time, reports from inside Iran indicate that a team of Iranian nuclear scientists have been sent to North Korea and that the two governments have agreed on a joint nuclear test in North Korea with a substantial financial reward for the Kim Jong-Il government. It is no secret that Iran and North Korea are collaborating in a ballistic missile program. The North Koreans provided Iran with the technology and know-how to build the Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile, which is a copy of the Nodong-1 missile. The Shahb- 3 missile has a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) covering all of the U.S. military bases in the Middle East and the entire country of Israel. Most alarming, recent WikiLeaks releases reveal that Iran obtained a cache of advanced missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads (based on a Russian design) from North Korea. Now, for the first time, Iran has the capability to target every capital in Western Europe. Not only are these two governments continuing to collaborate on the missile projects, they are also conspiring on Iran's nuclear bomb development. This relationship has not only led to sharing data on previous nuclear tests by North Korea, but played a part in Iran's capability to build the more advanced P2 centrifuges that produce 2.5 times more enriched uranium than the first generation P1 model." http://fxn.ws/eQRaEF
Jonathan Tobin in Commentary: "Israel's deputy prime minister, Moshe Ya'alon, caused something of a stir on Wednesday when he told Israel Radio that he believed Iran would be capable of creating a nuclear weapon within three years. But as alarming as that may sound, it seems that Ya'alon, the former IDF chief of staff who currently also serves as strategic affairs minister, was sounding a note of optimism, since he credited the delay to 'technological difficulties.' This is being widely interpreted as meaning the Israelis believe the Stuxnet virus has dealt the Iranian nuclear program a serious setback. On Fox News, John Bolton speculated that this statement may mean 'Stuxnet worked better than some of us thought.' While the former UN ambassador admitted that it was 'hard to know the truth' about the state of Iran's progress toward a nuclear capability, he said the one thing we do know about their program is 'that they are determined' to achieve it. Given that we know very little about Stuxnet or any other covert action undertaken by either the United States or Israel, it's difficult to assess the current level of danger of an Iranian breakthrough. It may be that Israel is trying to dampen speculation about an imminent IDF attack on Iranian targets, but it is not clear whether such an attack would be launched in the face of almost certain American opposition. While some may take comfort from Ya'alon's statement, it is not exactly encouraging to know that, in spite of all the difficulties they have encountered, Iran is likely to be in possession of a nuclear weapon by the end of 2013. Even if we believe that Stuxnet has been a success, all it has accomplished is to push off the day of reckoning, and not by all that much. We already know that diplomacy won't work; that serious sanctions are unlikely to ever gain international support; and, as we learned last week, that even the United States is not enforcing those sanctions against Iran that are already in place." http://bit.ly/hzixsc |
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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