Top Stories
WSJ: "The U.S. Treasury Department announced the designation of 24 shipping companies affiliated with the Iranian state shipping line, known as IRISL, as well as two subordinates of Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization. Thursday's action is the latest against Iranian shipping lines, which are coming under increasing pressure from the U.S. as a courier for the country's nuclear program. 'IRISL is under tremendous financial pressure from international sanctions, and it is going to extreme lengths to obscure its network and the ownership of vessels,' said Stuart Levey, Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, in a statement. 'Today's designations expose the latest in a string of deceptive measures Iran is taking to continue its illicit conduct.' Many of the shipping entities designated Thursday operate out of Hong Kong." http://on.wsj.com/i0FeNJ AFP: "EU chief diplomat Catherine Ashton Thursday said the nuclear controversy with Iran would figure in global talks here next week despite Tehran's refusal, as Russia urged Iran to clear up 'grey areas.' 'I'm very clear that we are coming to discuss the nuclear issue and that is what we will do,' Ashton told reporters after meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. 'Our purpose in meeting is to now look for tangible credible ways to make a move forward...' she added. Ashton's spokeswoman earlier said non-nuclear issues were on the agenda at the last meeting between Iran and the United States, China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany in Geneva. Ashton, who represents the six powers in the nuclear talks, was in Istanbul to prepare for the January 21-22 meeting about which she appeared upbeat." http://bit.ly/gHV7mV AP: "A weekend tour of Iran's nuclear sites appears set to go ahead without Russia, China, the European Union or key allies Turkey and Brazil, blunting Tehran's attempts to gain support from major powers ahead of crucial talks on its atomic activities. On the eve of the visit, Iranian envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh said Friday that representatives of nonaligned nations, developing countries, the Arab League, Venezuela and Syria had accepted invitations to visit Iran's central Natanz enrichment facility and its still-unfinished heavy water reactor at Arak. 'This trip will offer the most transparency' regarding Iran's nuclear program, Soltanieh told The Associated Press, adding that the diplomats would be able to see 'everything they wanted.'" http://wapo.st/fK1YZ8 
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
Bloomberg: "China remains 'a major gap' in enforcing global sanctions on Iran, with lax oversight enabling front companies to purchase sensitive materials that can advance Iran's pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability, a leading expert on Iran's nuclear program said. 'China does not implement and enforce its trade controls or its sanctions laws adequately,' David Albright, a nuclear physicist who inspected Iran's nuclear facilities for the United Nations' atomic energy agency in the 1990s, said yesterday at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a Washington research institute. 'Over and over, Iran goes there to buy things,' including high-strength maraging steel, specialty vacuum pumps, Kevlar and carbon fiber used for machinery that produces enriched uranium, said Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington." http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hfdiftcab&et=1104245938995&s=30860&e=0013bZDp-pgHHjSPCOGex0BrmOl9E54LnLT-H6boManIVKNaETuJKhFxRKXhySwFX9OhWMHzVyi5QF_C_tlDO8QrUBs6K63Rq4UEmugv4HaTE3uKuiUnp28iA==
Reuters: "Japan's imports of Iranian crude averaged 332,000 barrels per day in April-November 2010, trade ministry data showed, down 16 percent from the 2009/10 average, as buyers cut their contracted volumes amid high prices and political pressure. Industry sources say Japanese buying will likely fall further from April, when the majority of the contracts are renewed every year, due to sanctions by the United States and United Nations over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme. The United States prohibits U.S. oil firms from buying Iran's oil, but the United Nations measures do not forbid the purchase of Iranian crude." http://reut.rs/dZBltT
AP: "Former Iranian hostage Barry Rosen touched down on an American tarmac 30 years ago and spilled into the arms of a wife and two young children lost to him during 444 days of captivity. Then came the exhilarating bus ride to West Point along a route lined with yellow ribbons and thousands of cheering people, waving and chanting, 'USA! USA!' Three decades after the famous release on Jan. 20, 1981, back to a country that had been on the edge of its seat since the crisis began, Rosen will be among the former hostages returning to the site of their emotional homecoming during a reunion hosted by the U.S. Military Academy. It'll be a chance to catch up with friends who share an intimate and harrowing bond - and to speak to cadets who had yet to be born." http://bit.ly/gsoEIu
AP: "A California man accused of trying to export military equipment to Iran has pleaded guilty in federal court in Delaware. Thirty-five-year-old Marc Knapp of Simi Valley pleaded guilty Thursday afternoon to two felony counts involving violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Arms Export Control Act." http://wapo.st/hDWCuO
Human Rights
LAT: "White may be making a comeback on the red carpet this award season, if Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis has anything to say about it. Haggis, the director of 'Crash,' and others are urging Hollywood stars to pin on white lapel ribbons to register their opposition to the Iranian government's treatment of acclaimed director Jafar Panahi ('Offside') and fellow filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, who were sentenced last month to six years in prison and banned from making movies for 20 years. Panahi was a supporter of the protest movement that sprang to life after the disputed 2009 reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He was arrested in March on charges of conspiring to make an unauthorized movie that chronicled the movement; Rasoulof was accused of collaborating with him." http://lat.ms/g29qwx Reuters: "Iran hanged on Thursday five people convicted of smuggling drugs, the official IRNA news agency reported. They were executed inside a prison in the western city of Khoramabad, according to the report. 'They had procured and distributed narcotics and they were hanged after another court had confirmed their sentences,' IRNA said. Human rights groups criticize Iran for maintaining one of the highest execution rates in the world." http://reut.rs/eNWIAv
Opinion & Analysis
Mac Margolis in Newsweek: "Over the years, Iran's theocracy has fearlessly thumbed its nose at Israel, the United States, and the United Nations. But now Tehran has taken its row with the West a disturbing degree further. This week the Iranian government reportedly banned all works by Paulo Coelho, the Brazilian mystic and author of international bestsellers such as The Alchemist, The Diary of a Magus, and Veronika Decides to Die. Authorities gave no reasons for their action nor did they even acknowledge the ban; in fact, Coelho himself blew the whistle in his blog, on a tip from his local publisher. And an Iranian foreign ministry official has been quoted by the Brazilian paper, Valor Econômico, denying that there was ever an official ban on Coelho's books, just a clampdown by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his publisher. But Coelho's legion of Iranian devotees would be forgiven for hiding their signed copies. The ostensibly independent Iran Book News Agency (IBNA) published a story about a gathering of literary critics in Tehran this Monday in which Coelho was skewered by several ranking Islamic scholars. Author Meghad Hakimi, who wrote an entire book on Coelho's oeuvre, alluded to his 'strong writing' that emphasizes 'drugs and magic.' The IBNA also told of growing 'concern' over 'the story of dark mysticism which is sealed in his works,' a theme that surfaced 'following World War II and [which is] backed by the Zionists, Christianity and the [Catholic] church.' Yet it doesn't take a magus to see through the Iranian critics' version. And the buzz among the international publishing commentariat is that what's really going on is an unspoken vendetta against Coelho for his having strayed beyond the written page during the Green Revolution of 2009." http://bit.ly/gdPeVi
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