Top Stories
WSJ: "U.S. authorities disclosed charges and sanctions against operators of an alleged smuggling network that was accused of purchasing millions of dollars in equipment for Iran's nuclear and missile programs. U.S. and Turkish intelligence agencies have spent years probing what U.S. officials say are sanctions-busting front companies for Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization, which oversees that nation's missile program. The companies imported materials and equipment to Turkey from Europe and the U.S., taking advantage of more lenient export rules that apply to Turkey as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, according to U.S. officials. David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security, said Tuesday that the years-long probe showed 'the reach of Iran's illegal procurement networks,' which obtained materials and equipment from multiple U.S. companies and from sources in Italy, Hungary and elsewhere. The imports included specialized steel welding wire that has aerospace uses from a Nevada company, fiber-optic equipment from Pennsylvania, and high-grade alloys from a California manufacturer, according to an indictment filed by U.S. prosecutors. The U.S. companies weren't named in the indictment." http://uani.com/gfI9EC
AFP: "A Nigerian court on Tuesday set a new trial date for later this month for an alleged Iranian Revolutionary Guard member charged over an illegal arms shipment seized in October in the West African country. Azim Aghajani and Nigerian suspect Ali Abbas Jega pleaded not guilty to three counts related to the arms shipment at the federal high court in Lagos, a day after the case was transferred from Abuja. Judge Okechukwu Okeke adjourned the hearing to February 15 for 'an expeditious trial of the matter because of its international connotations.' The case has drawn international concern since the illegal arms shipment, which included rockets and grenades, could violate UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme." http://uani.com/hKiytj
Reuters: "Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA is sending two cargoes of gasoline to Iran, trade sources said on Monday, in a move that could help supply the Islamic Republic despite U.S.-led international sanctions. The cargoes are for February delivery, three trade sources told Reuters. PDVSA was not immediately available for comment. 'It is no surprise at all,' one trade source said. 'Venezuela, China -- countries like this, they don't care much about the sanctions,' he said. As a result of the sanctions, which came into effect in mid-2010, major oil companies have halted business with Iran, which is dependent on gasoline imports due to a lack of refining capacity." http://uani.com/giVrZo
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
Reuters: "Cyber attacks such as the Stuxnet computer worm could harm nuclear sites but Russia and Iran are paying 'enough attention' to prevent any possible accident at Iran's Bushehr reactor, the U.N. nuclear chief said on Tuesday.Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told Reuters the U.N. watchdog was watching developments and gathering information about Stuxnet with interest. Russia has urged NATO to investigate last year's Stuxnet attack on the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran, saying it could have triggered a disaster on the scale of the Chernobyl reactor explosion in Ukraine in 1986." http://uani.com/hoOnyX
Human Rights
AFP: "Iran has executed a man who claimed he was God, after he was found guilty of heresy and corruption, the official Fars news agency reported on Monday. Abdulreza Gharabat -- who was hanged last Wednesday in Ahvaz, southwest Iran -- was the 67th person to be executed since January 1, according to an AFP tally based on Iranian media reports. 'He had long claimed to be God and had succeeded in gathering around him young Arabs from Khuzestan province,' which has a large Arab minority, Fars reported. Given the current rate of around two a day, the number of hangings in Iran is set to exceed the 179 publicly announced in 2010." http://uani.com/gXYTIm
Domestic Politics
Radio Farda: "Iranian opposition leaders Mir Hossein Musavi and Mehdi Karrubi have called on officials to allow the opposition movement to hold street protests, saying that even in Egypt people are able to demonstrate. 'Today in Egypt - despite the tension and violence - protesters have been given permission to demonstrate to show which side has greater support. Therefore, we believe that if in Iran the opposition were given permission to demonstrate, it would become clear which side has a popular base and support.' The 'Kaleme' website quoted the two as speaking at a meeting on January 31." http://uani.com/g1pblk
Foreign Affairs
AP: "An Iraqi government official says Iran has handed over the remains of 38 Iraqi soldiers killed during the 1980s war between the two nations... The two nations signed an agreement in October 2008 to find tens of thousands of soldiers still missing after the eight-year war." http://uani.com/ezRRhd
AP: "The Afghan government says it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran to improve cross-border trade following last month's blockade of fuel trucks headed into Afghanistan. The Finance Ministry says the two countries have agreed to expand business, trade and the transit of goods over their common border. Also, customs officials will meet monthly to resolve any disputes and give one-month notice before changing any duties or regulations." http://uani.com/dSPHuo
Opinion & Analysis
Simon Tisdall in The Guardian: "Iranian officials and clerics are insisting Egypt's insurrection, and similar popular revolts across the Arab world, are inspired by Islamist political ideology and have their origin in the 1979 Iranian revolution that overthrew the late Shah. But opposition leaders and independent analysts take a very different view. They say the common rallying cause is democracy, not Islamism - and that the Tehran regime is increasingly fearful of an Egypt-style uprising there. After days of nervous hesitation, the Islamic Republic appeared today to have decided what line to take. A statement signed by 214 MPs pledged strong 'spiritual' support for Egyptians in opposing 'the tyranny of their rulers'. It also condemned "efforts by certain western countries [code for Britain and the US] as well as the Zionist regime [Israel] to exhaust the uprising and separate it from Islamic values". Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ordered a violent crackdown on Iran's pro-democracy protesters in 2009, claimed on his webpage to have predicted and personally encouraged Egypt's pro-democracy revolt. He offered no explanation for this apparent contradiction. President Hosni Mubarak's persecution of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's biggest Islamist party, and his collusion with the US and Israel, were his undoing, Khamenei suggested." http://uani.com/he3z85
Sayeh Hassan in The National Post: "In his recent article, former attorney general Irwin Cotler brings to light some of the shocking details around the recent step-up of executions and other serious human rights violations taking place in Iran. January alone saw at least 65 people executed. Amongst them were political dissidents Ali Saremi, Jafar Kazemi, Akbar Siadat and Hossein Khezri, courageous Iranians well known to dissident support groups abroad. While the Iranian Republic has been systematically carrying out executions of both political and non-political prisoners for the past 31 years, the dramatic escalation in recent months reminds us of the summer of 1988, when thousands of political prisoners were brutally murdered after three-minute show trials. The regime proved then it was a criminal dictatorship without regard for human rights, and it seems bent on reinforcing that fact once again, and with the same heinous tactics. I have been an activist for regime change in Iran for many years, and believe that Iran's surge in executions has a simple explanation - the regime feels threatened. Threatened because they feel vulnerable to a populist revolution. I believe they are correct in their assessment, and that the time is ripe for regime change." http://uani.com/erWNE2 |
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