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WSJ: "The so-called resistance bloc of nations and Islamist movements, led by Iran and Syria, believes it is increasingly on the ascent as unrest seethes in the Middle East. United in its opposition to the U.S. and Israel, this coalition is seeing many of its chief regional adversaries weakened-particularly Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II. Tehran and Damascus have also been buoyed by last month's toppling of Beirut's pro-Western government at the hands of Hezbollah, the Lebanese political party and militia the two countries fund and arm. '[The unrest] proved that the global arrogance's era of domination and control of the region has come to an end,' Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Tehran's state television this week, using Iran's catch-phrase for the U.S. Regional analysts say the wave of political upheaval in the Mideast could still target the Iranian and Syrian governments themselves, which are among the world's most repressive. But they also acknowledge the attacks on America's key Arab allies are opening political space for the self-proclaimed resistance bloc to expand its influence." http://uani.com/gm2tKt
Reuters: "India has resolved a payments dispute with Iran over their multi-billion dollar oil business, an oil ministry source said, with New Delhi certifying each deal to try to ensure funds do not go to Iran's nuclear programme. With imports of 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) -- 12 percent of daily needs -- at stake, India has softened its stance and allowed its largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) to deal with the U.S. sanction-hit European-Iranian Trade Bank AG (EIH). The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in December payments to Iran could no longer be settled using a clearing system run by regional central banks, winning praise from Washington which said the move would cut funds it claims go to Iran's nuclear projects." http://uani.com/g8zReP
Economic Times: "Nine influential US Senators have urged Germany to stop Hamburg-based bank Europäisch-Iranische Handelsbank from routing funds that could be used to support Iran's nuclear programme, warning that all entities doing so will be debarred from the US financial system. EIH was sanctioned by the United States in September, 2010, for its facilitation of Iran's proliferation activities. Incidentally, the letter from the nine Senators was written to German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on February 1, before India's Finance Ministry announced its decision to pay Iran for Iranian crude oil through EIH in euros... 'EIH is one of Iran's few remaining access points to the European financial system,' said the letter signed by Senators Frank R Lautenberg, Mike Johanns, Barbara Boxer, Bob Casey, Scott Brown, Al Franken, Kirsten Gillibrand, Mark Kirk, Jon Kyl, Joe Lieberman and Jerry Moran." http://uani.com/dEbQFO
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
WSJ: "Japanese banks were considered to be jumping into Iran, stirring problems for the U.S. and parts of Europe as they intensified efforts to choke off Iran's financial system with economic sanctions, according to a 2008 U.S. embassy document recently released on WikiLeaks. While Japan's banks had long maintained that they only conducted a small and limited amount of business in Iran a discussion between U.S., French and U.K. officials in 2008 shows that the banks were viewed as increasing activity in the country. The contents suggest a view that Japanese banks went against pressure from Washington to curtail business in Iran. The U.S. and other Western powers hoped to sap Iran of foreign capital to force the country to halt its nuclear-development program." http://uani.com/gpfzyg
Reuters: "Iran should investigate claims that the Stuxnet computer virus has caused major harm to its first nuclear power station, a senior official said Friday after suggestions the plant could become a 'new Chernobyl.' The acting head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said reports of major damage to the Bushehr plant were a malicious campaign by countries hostile to Tehran's nuclear program, but that they should be looked into in any case. 'Many of these discussions raised in the media and world public opinion about the Stuxnet virus are an effort to create concern among the Iranian people and people of the region and delay the work of the nuclear power plant,' Mohammad Ahmadian told the ISNA news agency. 'Therefore it is necessary that experts in the field investigate to see how much truth there is in these discussions.'" http://uani.com/i27YDz
Reuters: "European Union states have agreed to waive a visa ban on Iran's foreign minister so he can attend a security conference in Germany this weekend, but Tehran has yet to reply to the invitation, an EU official said. The minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, is included in a list of Iranian officials barred from entering the European Union as part of sanctions imposed to curb Iran's nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at developing an atomic bomb... 'The Germans agreed that he could go to the Munich conference, so in agreement with the member states, he's been taken off the list, but we haven't heard if he's actually going or not,' an EU official said Thursday." http://uani.com/hBb7f6
Bloomberg: "Iran Aseman Airlines said it's in negotiations to buy six used Airbus SAS A320 jetliners from an undisclosed seller to renew its fleet and improve safety in a country where sanctions prohibit the purchase of new aircraft. The 150-seat planes will replace aging Fokker 100s, Ahmad Khalili, general director of support at the airline's technical department, said in an interview, adding that details are confidential because of the 'sensitivity' of the issue. 'It's not easy,' Khalili said at an aerospace industry show in Dubai. 'The Americans will not allow aircraft exports directly to Iran, so we always have to find ways around it.'" http://uani.com/fhdhBO
VOA: "U.S. representatives, along with their partners in the P5+1 group -- Britain, China, France, Russia, Germany and the EU -- met recently in Istanbul with Iranian diplomats. The purpose of the meeting, according to the P5+1, was to launch a practical process that would address core issues concerning Iran's nuclear program. The discussions, however, ended without an agreement. U.S. National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer called the talks 'disappointing'; Iran, he said, came to the meeting 'unwilling to engage': 'They set certain preconditions which were unacceptable. And what they saw in Istanbul is a P5 +1 that is unified and made very clear that it is Iran that needs to take the necessary steps to address the concerns of the international community. It is Iran that needs to demonstrate the peaceful purposes of its nuclear energy program, something that Iran has been unable to do. And it is Iran that is the only country that's an NPT [Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty] signatory that seems unable to cooperate with the IAEA and live by its international obligations.'" http://uani.com/h5r401
Human Rights
Reuters: "The Dutch government will do everything possible to determine whether a Dutch-Iranian woman who was executed in Iran was tortured, and to return her body to her family, the foreign minister told parliament on Thursday. The Netherlands froze diplomatic contacts with Iran after Zahra Bahrami, a 45-year-old woman with dual Dutch-Iranian citizenship, was hanged on Saturday for drug smuggling, a charge that her family says was fabricated after she was arrested for participating in anti-government protests in 2009. But according to postings on Iranian Internet blogs and news websites, Bahrami died when she was tortured during interrogation by the Iranian authorities." http://uani.com/fMoFgx
Foreign Affairs
Reuters: "Iran's supreme leader saluted on Friday what he termed an 'Islamic liberation movement' in the Arab world, and advised the people of Egypt and Tunisia to unite around their religion and against the West. In his first public comments on the popular uprisings in the region, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran's 1979 revolution, which deposed the U.S.-backed shah and established an Islamic Republic, could serve as a pattern for the Arab uprisings. 'The awakening of the Islamic Egyptian people is an Islamic liberation movement and I, in the name of the Iranian government, salute the Egyptian people and the Tunisian people,' Khamenei told worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran. Both Israel and the United States are concerned about the possibility of the Egyptian uprising taking on an Islamist ideology and would not like to see Iran's influence increase in the region as Arab states distance themselves from Washington." http://uani.com/eKzseI
Opinion & Analysis
Mark Fitzpatrick in IISS: "Claims about Iranian strategic-weapons programmes should not be made lightly. The Islamic Republic of Iran has a declared policy against nuclear, chemical and biological weapons that is expressed both in religious rulings and in its legal position as a party to the NPT, the Geneva Protocol, the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention. Claims that Iran has carried out activities in violation of its CWC and BWC obligations cannot be determined from the available public information and may have been exaggerated. In the nuclear field, however, Iran's systematic violations of NPT safeguards obligations and obstruction of IAEA investigations into allegations of nuclear-weapons-related work are well documented. Notwithstanding the civilian nuclear energy purpose of projects such as the Bushehr reactor, the totality of the evidence indicates beyond reasonable doubt that Iran also seeks a capability to produce nuclear weapons should its leaders choose to take this momentous step. This capability has been growing inexorably for 25 years, ever since work on uranium enrichment was initiated in the mid-1980s." http://uani.com/hnvI3Y
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