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AP: "Iran's foreign minister on Saturday confirmed claims by an exiled Iranian opposition group that a factory west of Tehran is manufacturing centrifuge parts, but said the facility was no secret and that many other factories in the counrty were making components for Iran's nuclear program."
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AFP: "Iran has hanged a man in a prison in southwestern city of Ahvaz who was convicted of drug trafficking, the ISNA news agency reported on Monday. The man, identified only as Karim Kh. was executed on Saturday, the report said without giving other details. The latest hanging brings to 93 the number of executions reported in Iran so far in 2011, according to an AFP count based on media reports. The authorities say 80% of those executed have been drug traffickers. Iran media reported 179 hangings last year. In 2009, Iran executed 388 people, according to international human rights groups, making it second only to China in the number of people it put to death." http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hfdiftcab&t=dxonnhfab.0.b7aknhfab.hfdiftcab.30860&ts=S0608&p=http%3A%2F%2Ft.uani.com%2Ff71I6C
Reuters: Iran's economy minister said on Monday a dispute with India over payments for Iranian crude oil had been resolved, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. In a wide-ranging news conference, when asked about the dispute, Shamseddin Hosseini said: 'About the payment for oil bought from Iran by India, a problem was created for a bank by the German central bank, which has been solved by negotiations with Indian and German officials.' http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hfdiftcab&t=dxonnhfab.0.c7aknhfab.hfdiftcab.30860&ts=S0608&p=http%3A%2F%2Ft.uani.com%2Ff4nlk9
Nuclear Program & Sanctions Dow Jones: "Eni SpA (E), Italy's biggest oil and natural gas company, said it paid $888 million to the National Iranian Oil Company for crude last year and purchased a further $1.1 billion of Iranian oil from others in the same period. Eni's refining and marketing division bought 1.6 million metric tons of oil from the Iranian state-owned company last year compared with 980,000 tons worth a total of $419 million in 2009, it said in a filing this week to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission." http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hfdiftcab&t=dxonnhfab.0.d7aknhfab.hfdiftcab.30860&ts=S0608&p=http%3A%2F%2Ft.uani.com%2FgIdPbD
AFP: "Israeli defence officials ruled out a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities as early as 2005, US diplomatic cables leaked to whistleblower site WikiLeaks show, an Israeli newspaper said Sunday. The documents given to the Haaretz newspaper by WikiLeaks detail conversations between US diplomats and Israeli defence officials, which suggested the Jewish state did not plan to target Iran's controversial nuclear programme. One December 2005 cable said Israeli officials had indicated there was 'no chance of a military attack being carried out on Iran,' Haaretz reported. Another telegram a month later, detailing talks between a US congressman and the then deputy chief of Israel's Atomic Energy Commission, Ariel Levite, offered a stronger suggestion that Israel considered a strike on Iran's facilities unfeasible. Levite 'said that most Israeli officials do not believe a military solution is possible,' Haaretz quoted the telegram as saying.'They believe Iran has learned from Israel's attack on Iraq's Osirak reactor (in 1981) and has dispersed the components of its nuclear programme throughout Iran, with some elements in places that Israel does not know about.'" http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hfdiftcab&t=dxonnhfab.0.e7aknhfab.hfdiftcab.30860&ts=S0608&p=http%3A%2F%2Ft.uani.com%2FhF1sFm
Dow Jones: "Essar Oil Ltd. (500134.BY) plans to source more heavy-quality crude from Iran as it expands its refinery in the western Indian state of Gujarat, Managing Director Naresh Nayyar said Monday. 'Post expansion we will be able to process a much heavier crude diet. Iran fortunately is also producing certain very heavy crude,' Nayyar told reporters at a conference call to announce company's quarterly results. 'Our focus will be to increase the quantity of such type of crude and reduce quantity of crude of lighter category.'" http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hfdiftcab&t=dxonnhfab.0.f7aknhfab.hfdiftcab.30860&ts=S0608&p=http%3A%2F%2Ft.uani.com%2Ff752X7
Jerusalem Post: "Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Monday that Iran's nuclear program has accelerated recently as it appears Iran feels less international pressure, Israel Radio reported." http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hfdiftcab&t=dxonnhfab.0.g7aknhfab.hfdiftcab.30860&ts=S0608&p=http%3A%2F%2Ft.uani.com%2FgXTYr2 Commerce Washington Post: "A large explosion at Iran's main energy pipeline hub Friday was caused by sabotage, an influential member of Parliament said Sunday. The blast, which sent balls of fire into the air outside the Shiite religious center of Qom, targeted three major gas pipelines. The explosion comes amid an increase in mysterious blasts, assassinations and other incidents in the Islamic Republic, including a similar blast Feb. 11 that temporarily halted north-south gas transportation in the country. All pipelines are now back in operation, officials say. Parviz Sorouri, a member of the National Security Commission, called for increased protection of Iran's oil and gas pipelines. He also announced a meeting of key ministries to safeguard the Islamic Republic's energy transportation systems." http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hfdiftcab&t=dxonnhfab.0.h7aknhfab.hfdiftcab.30860&ts=S0608&p=http%3A%2F%2Ft.uani.com%2FhN7RAf
AFP: "Iran plans to slash four zeros from its national currency in 'one to two years', seeking parity between its rial and the US dollar, Central Bank Governor Mahmoud Bahmani has said. 'The new rial (...) will be equal in value to one (US) dollar,' the official IRNA news agency quoted Bahmani as saying late Sunday. He added the plan would take "one to two years" to be implemented. Bahmani did not indicate whether the authorities would try to maintain a fixed parity between the greenback and the Iranian currency following the planned reform." http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hfdiftcab&t=dxonnhfab.0.i7aknhfab.hfdiftcab.30860&ts=S0608&p=http%3A%2F%2Ft.uani.com%2FdUgX9Q
Reuters: "The oil market is not facing a shortage of supply despite high prices which have been pushed up by the Arab world crisis, Iran's OPEC governor was quoted by SHANA news agency on Monday as saying. 'At the moment there is no shortage of oil supply in the market,' Mohammad Ali Khatibi told Oil Ministry's website SHANA." http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hfdiftcab&t=dxonnhfab.0.j7aknhfab.hfdiftcab.30860&ts=S0608&p=http%3A%2F%2Ft.uani.com%2Ffboy15
Domestic Politics
Reuters: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed his chief of staff on Saturday, the official IRNA news agency reported, sidelining a controversial figure who is seen as a possible future presidential contender. Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaie, a target for Ahmadinejad's detractors within the conservative ruling elite, has survived many calls to be sacked and had enjoyed the confidence of the president, to whom he is related by the marriage of their children." http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hfdiftcab&t=dxonnhfab.0.k7aknhfab.hfdiftcab.30860&ts=S0608&p=http%3A%2F%2Ft.uani.com%2FhXuVSp
Foreign Affairs
Wall Street Journal: "The U.S. State Department and Iraq's government came under pressure from Congress Saturday over an Iraqi military attack on the camp of a controversial Iranian resistance movement that appears to have killed dozens. The movement, the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, known as the MEK, said Saturday the death toll from the clash had risen to 33, after two of the wounded died. The group said about 325 others had been wounded, 170 by gunshot wounds. Those claims could not been independently verified. The clash prompted U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was visiting Iraq, to call on Baghdad to exercise restraint Friday, but on Saturday Congress was demanding a stronger response." http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hfdiftcab&t=dxonnhfab.0.l7aknhfab.hfdiftcab.30860&ts=S0608&p=http%3A%2F%2Ft.uani.com%2FfjhZE7
CNN: "Iran expelled three Kuwaiti diplomats last week in retaliation for Kuwait's expulsion of three Iranian diplomats a week ago, Iran's official Press TV reported Sunday. Kuwait claimed the expelled Iranians were linked to a spy network operating out of the Iranian embassy in Kuwait City, with the alleged network aimed at gathering information about U.S. military facilities in Kuwait, Press TV reported. Iranian officials denied their diplomats were involved in spying, suggesting it was a U.S. plot intended to gain support for 'the current crackdown on popular movements in the region,' Press TV said." http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hfdiftcab&t=dxonnhfab.0.m7aknhfab.hfdiftcab.30860&ts=S0608&p=http%3A%2F%2Ft.uani.com%2FgwhxCs
Opinion & Analysis
Juliette Kayyem in The Boston Globe: "Iran's Shia hand is seen as a guiding force throughout the Arab uprisings, but especially in the protests against King Khalifa of Bahrain, a Sunni Muslim who leads a country with a Shia Muslim majority. The February violence instigated by the monarch's bloodshed, his trigger-happy edicts, and his failure to live up to promises of reform caused great fear throughout the Gulf that Bahrain would fall to a Shia revolution." http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hfdiftcab&t=dxonnhfab.0.n7aknhfab.hfdiftcab.30860&ts=S0608&p=http%3A%2F%2Ft.uani.com%2FeDi12f
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