Top Stories AFP: "The United States on Tuesday added a Belarussian oil company to its blacklist of firms accused of flouting sanctions imposed on Iran for failing to rein in its suspect nuclear program. Belarusneft allegedly signed a $500 million dollar contract in 2007 with the Iranian firm NaftIran Intertrade to develop the Jofeir oil field. NaftIran was slapped in September 2010 with US sanctions as part of a UN embargo imposed on Tehran in June 2010. The blacklisting of Belarusneft means the firm will be barred from doing business on the American market, a State Department statement said. According to the US State Department, the global sanctions have hit Iran's capability to invest in oil and gas production. 'Iran's ability to attract new investment to develop its oil and natural gas resources, and to produce or import refined petroleum products, has been severely limited,' the State Department said in a statement. Cutting the Islamic republic's income from oil and gas revenue is one of the main thrusts of the US strategy to stop Iran from investing in its nuclear energy program." http://t.uani.com/hTLjjy AFP: "Bahrain's Shiite opposition leader on Wednesday urged Shiite Iran to keep out of the Arab country's internal affairs, after government charges that Tehran had orchestrated month-long protests. 'We urge Iran not to meddle in Bahraini internal affairs,' Sheikh Ali Salman told a press conference, also demanding a withdrawal of Saudi-led Gulf troops which rolled into the kingdom in mid-March to help quash the protests." http://t.uani.com/hrJe9s Radio Farda: "The jailed Iranian blogger Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki is in grave condition in Tehran's Evin prison, his father has told RFE/RL's Radio Farda. Ahmad Ronaghi-Maleki told Radio Farda on March 29 that his son suffers from kidney problems and needs to undergo surgery immediately. Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki, 24, was arrested in December 2009 in the crackdown following mass protests against that summer's disputed presidential election. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges that include spreading propaganda against the regime and cooperating with an Iran-based group that works to counter Internet filtering. Ronaghi-Maleki has denied all the charges brought against him, his father said." http://t.uani.com/f0IanN
Nuclear Program & Sanctions Reuters: "A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday backed Iran in a dispute with Americans who demand that Persian antiquities in two Chicago museums be used to pay damages for victims of a 1997 suicide bombing in Israel. The decision by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a lower court ruling allowing the U.S. plaintiffs to search for any and all Iranian assets in the United States to pay a $71.5 million judgment against Iran. The case grew out of a September 1997 triple suicide bombing at a Jerusalem pedestrian mall that killed five people and injured 200. Two members of the Islamist group Hamas were convicted. The lawsuit filed by five groups of Americans who were either seriously wounded or relatives of the injured argued Iran bore responsibility because it provided training and support to Hamas for attacks." http://t.uani.com/ep7j4V Foreign Affairs Bloomberg: "Egypt is ready to 'open a new page' with Iran, with which it hasn't had full diplomatic relations since 1979, Foreign Minister Nabil el-Arabi said, according to the state-run Middle East News Agency. 'The Egyptian government doesn't consider Iran to be an enemy state,' MENA cited el-Arabi as saying. 'We're opening a new page with all countries, including Iran.' Restoring full diplomatic ties depends on the Iranian side, he said, according to MENA. Egypt has accused Iran in the past of using proxy groups such as the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement to increase its influence in the Middle East. The two countries haven't had full diplomatic relations since 1979, when former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat gave refuge to the deposed Iranian shah, Reza Pahlavi." http://t.uani.com/dJaCtz Politico: "With democratic revolutions shaking the Middle East, a Democratic think tank, the Progressive Policy Institute, and the pro-democracy group Freedom House are launching a new task force aimed at shifting American policy on its central regional foe, Iran, toward a more aggressive focus on democracy. The new 'Iran Strategy Task Force' is subtitled 'Beyond Sanctions' and its members include former Holbrooke aide Ray Takeyh and Brookings' Ken Pollack, people associated with the group said. It's co-chaired by Freedom House's Andrew Apostolou and PPI's Josh Block. 'PPI believes a more democratic world is a safer world. The United States has failed to apply that principle to Iran, even as popular movements for freedom spread throughout the Middle East. It's time for a new approach,' PPI President Will Marshall said in an emailed statement. 'The dominant issues in the Middle East are democracy and freedom. The Iran regime thinks that it can escape demands for change,' said Apostolou. 'The United States, and its allies, therefore need a strategy that will help Iranians attain the human rights they so richly deserve.'" http://t.uani.com/hb23K8 Opinion & Analysis Abbas Milani in TNR: "For 42 years, the world did business with Muammar Qaddafi, even as it knew about the brutality he was inflicting on his own people. Too often, there was no outrage in the West about Qaddafi's crimes. Now, if the same pattern is not to be repeated in Iran, one must ask: Where is the outrage about that country's endemic brutality and its kleptocratic theocracy? Specifically, where is the outrage about the fact that the four leading figures of the Green Movement-Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karubi, as well as their equally defiant wives, Zahra Rahnavard and Fateme Karubi-have been under arrest now for six weeks? While military intervention in Iran is not an option as it was in Libya, it would still be helpful and morally justified if the world didn't forget about the serious crimes that are taking place there on a daily basis-and if American leaders showed more consistent outrage about the plight of the Iranian people. Over the course of three decades, the Islamic Republic has unleashed a reign of terror on Iran, arresting tens of thousands, executing several thousand, and forcing some three million Iranians-including hundreds of journalists, writers, dissidents, scientists, physicians, scholars, and entrepreneurs-into forced exile. In 1988 alone, according to numerous credible reports, on direct order of Ayatollah Khomeini, close to 4,000 prisoners, serving time on earlier charges, were summarily executed in what was clearly a crime against humanity. If one adds up all the bloodshed and violence in Iran since 1979, there is hardly a regime in the Middle East, including Syria's and Libya's, that has shed as much blood and caused as much heartbreak to keep its despotic hold on power. The ruling regime in Iran-effectively at this point a partnership between Ayatollah Khamenei and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-is literally and metaphorically getting away with murder. Yet, in recent weeks, even as Tehran has put Green Movement leaders under house arrest and cracked down on protesters, developments around the world have helped it to escape scrutiny. There have been occasional exceptions to this pattern-such as a strong March 21 Persian New Year message from President Obama, in which he made clear that he stands with the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people-but, for the most part, the revolt in Egypt, the war in Libya, and the devastating earthquake in Japan have pushed Iran off the front pages. Moreover, the ill-advised Saudi incursion into Bahrain has provided the Iranian regime with an occasion to grandstand about siding with the democratic aspirations of the people there. Despite these 'fortunate' turns of events, the regime continues to suffer from internal rifts." http://t.uani.com/hkwrBK Josh Frydenberg in The Australian: "US President Barack Obama made a landmark speech in Cairo in mid-2009 entitled A New Beginning. Reaching out to the Islamic world, he said to the student audience 'the question now is not what Iran is against, but rather what future it wants to build'. With a seismic shift in the political plates of the Middle East under way, the answer to this question has become abundantly clear. Under the dual leadership of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran and its proxies have been actively supporting subversive movements in the region with the ultimate goal of bringing down governing pro-Western regimes. It is for Iran a historic opportunity. By hijacking legitimate expressions of democracy and self-determination, Iran's inimical objective is to simultaneously undermine US influence and entrench Islamic goals. This is the future Middle East Iran wants to build. In the words of Khamenei, this 'widespread awakening of nations' needs to be supported wherever it can be found. 'We don't distinguish between Gaza, Palestine, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen. It is not an issue of Shi'ites and Sunnis - it is the protest of a nation against oppression,' he has said. In nearly every regional capital where there is domestic unrest, the malign influence of Iran can be found. In Bahrain, King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa has accused Iran of fomenting trouble among the majority Shia population. And in Yemen, the Speaker of the parliament, Yehi Ali ali-Rai, accused Tehran of funding and arming Shia rebels in its north. It is a view shared by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who recently told a Senate appropriations committee, 'We know they (Iran) are reaching out to the opposition in Bahrain. We know the Iranians are very much involved in the opposition movements in Yemen.' ... Whether it is economic, political or military pressure, Iran is determined to deploy every weapon to destabilise legitimate democratic movements and undermine the coalition of Western interests in the Middle East. It is a tactic that is having its desired effect. Unless there is urgent and co-ordinated international action to strengthen genuine reformers and exert pressure on pro-Western autocrats to reform, Iran's pernicious influence will rapidly grow. The longer Iran is left unchecked, the worse the situation in the region will become." http://t.uani.com/h4zn5V Tulin Daloglu in Huffpo: "Both Turkey and Iran play vital roles in bringing peace to their immediate neighborhoods -- and ideally, they'd also have a relationship with the West. Yet the crisis in Syria has put each of them in a difficult position... If Assad calculates that the West is tied up and decides to turn on his own people, it will only boost hatred toward his regime and aggravate the threat of a full-scale civil war. But Iran is the wild card in this Arab Awakening -- and Syria is the one country that can lessen Iran's influence in the region. But the international community may have already played its card in Libya, limiting its options for ending the Assad regime. As long as Assad remains in power, Iran's position in the region will only become stronger. If and when the Syrian leadership changes, it won't be a zero-sum game in its relationship with Iran and other radicals of the region. But the level of intimacy between Damascus and Tehran will change, and that will have huge implications for organizations like Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad. Although the Arab League represents majority Sunni leadership and fears Iran's growing influence, they have different interests. For example, Lebanese Sunni leader Saad Hariri might be the first to celebrate the end of the Assad era. He was recently forced out of his position as prime minister because he did not want to give up the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which investigated his father's assassination six years ago. The tribunal is expected to hold Assad's government and Hezbollah responsible of Rafik Hariri's death. When the Syrian leader steps down, the Tribunal will have more freedom to make the announcement. Yet Hariri also played Turkey against Iran when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a show with Hezbollah at the Israeli-Lebanon border... Building up Turkey's 'Sunni' identity is merely a ploy to draw Turkey and Iran into a fight. The Erdogan government's 'zero problem with neighbors policy' was unrealistic at best, but now Turkey must not intervene in Syria's domestic affairs... It will be a real problem if Assad's regime survives the threat to its power, and if Turkey continues to do business with them -- as usual. It will paint Turkey as moving even closer to the Iran-Syria-Hamas-Hezbollah leadership, which only stands for anti-American, anti-Western and anti-Israeli. On the other hand, it's also clear that Assad's era is nearing an end." http://t.uani.com/hLANVB |
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