Top Stories AP: "Iran has expanded its ties in Latin American beyond its close relationship with Venezuela, a top U.S. commander said Tuesday as he described a troubling development that the United States is watching closely. Gen. Douglas Fraser, the head of the U.S. Southern Command, said Iran has nearly doubled the number of embassies in the region, from six in 2005 to 10 in 2010 while also building cultural centers in 17 countries. Last year, Iran also has hosted heads of state from three countries - Bolivia, Guyana and Venezuela. 'Iran continues expanding regional ties to support its own diplomatic goal of reducing the impact of international sanctions connected with its nuclear program,' Fraser told the Senate Armed Services Committee. Washington fears that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. Fraser described a close relationship between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad." http://t.uani.com/h4uHQO AP: "Inside a Kuwaiti palace, military brass hosted senior NATO envoys to discuss closer ties and possible joint naval maneuvers. At the same time in Tehran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was belittling the Western-allied Gulf states for casting Iran as a regional menace. The contrasting events this week highlight much more than the Gulf's well-known tensions between Iran's regional ambitions and the close Gulf Arab bonds with Washington and other Western allies... The immediate message is that the Mideast upheavals have thrust the Gulf Arab rulers into self-preservation mode. But nearly all their key decisions also are shaped by long-range concerns about Iranian influence.Now, a growing confidence and unity on how to confront Iran may be among the main policy shifts within the Gulf states after years of letting Washington take the lead, experts say... It was on display Sunday when the Gulf's main political bloc took a hard swipe at Iran. The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council said it was 'deeply worried about continuing Iranian meddling' - a jab that spans several countries." http://t.uani.com/dLu318 AP: "Iranian clerics have denounced Iran's regional rival Saudi Arabia for putting down anti-government protests in the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain... On Wednesday, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami told clerics in the holy city of Qom that Bahraini protesters should keep resisting the monarchy. Others denounced Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa as a degraded ruler without legitimacy and called Saudi Arabia an occupier. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad earlier this week demanded that Saudi Arabia pull its troops out of Bahrain." http://t.uani.com/fmKf5E
Nuclear Program & Sanctions Bloomberg: "Delays to the start of Iran's first nuclear power plant, Bushehr, are being reviewed by parliament's energy committee and discussed with the country's Atomic Energy Organization officials, Arman reported, citing the committee's head, Hamid-Reza Katouzian. The removal in late February of fuel rods from the Russian- built Bushehr reactor may delay the start of the nuclear plant's electricity generation by up to one year, Katouzian had earlier said, according to the newspaper. Russia does not seem to have the will to cooperate with Iran on the start of the reactor, he said, according to Arman." http://t.uani.com/fg867T Commerce AP: "Iran's OPEC governor on Tuesday dismissed the possibility of the producer bloc holding an emergency meeting, arguing that the surge in oil prices was linked to factors over which the group had no control. The U.S. benchmark crude futures contract was trading at around $108 per barrel, while its London-based Brent futures counterpart was at about $120 per barrel... Mohammad Ali Khatibi, Iran's OPEC governor, said the recent price spike was related to the unrest, not market fundamentals, and that 'any increase in such concerns will boost the prices, since oil price depends on the security of energy supply.'" http://t.uani.com/dSQyrq Bloomberg: "Mohsen Qamsari was appointed as the National Iranian Oil Co.'s new international affairs director, Shana, the Oil Ministry's official news website reported. Qamsari will replace Ali Asghar Arshi, Shana said, citing a statement by the company's managing director Ahmad Qalebani. The report did not give the reason behind the change. Qamsari also serves as acting managing director for the National Iranian Gas Export Co., Shana said." http://t.uani.com/eNlcgg Domestic Politics Reuters: "Iran has arrested members of a rebel group in Kurdistan province, the official IRNA news agency reported Tuesday, after several attacks on security forces in the restive border province in recent days. IRNA quoted an unidentified informed source as saying 'about eight' Salafis -- Sunni Muslim followers of an ultra-conservative brand of Islam -- had been arrested in a house near the city of Sanandaj, some 80 km (50 miles) from the Iraqi border. 'Many weapons and explosives have been seized from this house,' the source said. Six members of Iran's security forces have been killed and eight others wounded in two attacks in Kurdistan in the last two weeks, according to media reports." http://t.uani.com/i1sAJV Bloomberg: "Iran is calling on public workers to agree to a transfer out of Tehran, as part of an effort to decrease the capital's population, Donya-e-Eqtesad said, citing the city governor's deputy for planning, Nematollah Torki. Volunteers may start signing up from May 22 and they will benefit from incentives offered to those who have already relocated from Tehran, Torki said, according to the newspaper. Some 10,000 volunteers were transferred last year to other provinces, he said." http://t.uani.com/hofZR8 Bloomberg: "Iran banned investors from trading on foreign exchanges in a move the Central Bank said was aimed at protecting Iranians from the risk of 'fraud.' 'The activities of individuals or legal entities who introduce themselves as being active in foreign exchanges and encourage Iranians throughout the country to invest with the claim of earning huge profits is illegal,' Iran's Securities and Exchange Organisation said on its news website. 'There are no legal foreign traders active in our country and no entity holds a permit for activities in foreign exchanges.' Iran, entangled in a conflict with Western countries over its nuclear program, is under international sanctions which restrict financial transactions with the country. This had led Iranian private investors to seek the help of intermediaries for trading on foreign exchanges." http://t.uani.com/hPhJOC Foreign Affairs Bloomberg: "Iran sees the turmoil in the Arab world playing to its benefit, with new governments likely to emulate the Islamic Republic's independence from the U.S. and other Western powers, Iran's envoy to the United Nations said. 'The geo-political picture of the region is changing in favor of Iran,' Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee said in an interview yesterday in his New York office. 'The movement in the region is against the old system of dictatorship kinds of governments, having rulers that follow the wishes of the big powers in the world.' The unrest that has shaken or toppled governments from Tunisia to Bahrain will create a 'different power structure,' Khazaee said. 'You will have a different Egypt. You will have a different Libya. You have a different Tunisia.'" http://t.uani.com/f8yJWi AFP: "Iran is pressing Italy over a satellite, Mesbah-1, built by an Italian company in 2005 but never delivered to Tehran, a top Iranian space official said Tuesday. 'Iran now has rockets capable of launching Mesbah-1, but unfortunately Italy is using various pretexts such as (UN) resolutions and sanctions for not giving us the satellite,' space agency head Hamid Fazeli was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying. 'We have started consultations (with the Italian authorities) to recover' the satellite, he said without offering details. Mesbah-1, built by Carlo Gavazzi Space SpA, should have been launched by Russia in 2005, but never was for reasons which remain unclear." http://t.uani.com/htjcJY Opinion & Analysis Amir Taheri in the NYPost: "On Sunday, Malta released the last of five Iranian ships it had seized on a tip from the German police. Maltese authorities said the vessels were carrying 'unauthorized cargo,' a euphemism for weapons, in violation of four UN Security Council resolutions. It was just the latest event in a string that suggests the current leaders in Iran have decided to answer the 'Arab Spring' of democratic revolutions with a renewed drive to foment Islamic revolution abroad. Almost at the same time as the ships were released, the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheik Abdullah bin Zayed, accused Iran of 'conspiring to destabilize the Gulf states' by smuggling guns and saboteurs. The sheik was especially concerned about reports that agitators from Lebanon have been smuggled into Bahrain via Iran with the goal of attacking troops and police officers from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait. Last week, Kuwait leveled similar accusations against the Islamic Republic and expelled three senior Iranian diplomats. According to Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheik Muhammad al-Sabah, the three were involved in a 'ring of espionage and sabotage.' And last week, Turkey seized 'a substantial cargo of weapons' that Iran was sending to Syria, presumably for transshipment to the Lebanese branch of Hezbollah. Last month, Israel seized the ship Victoria in the Mediterranean to stop a cargo of weapons destined for the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza... Not surprisingly, Tehran denies that it has ever tried to smuggle arms to any groups and describes the cases above as 'misunderstandings.' Ala al-Din Borujerdi, chairman of the Islamic parliament's foreign-affairs committee, recently accused the Gulf Arab states of trying to 'foment tension and create misunderstanding.' While Iran regards 'exporting revolution' as a 'sacred duty,' he said, it would not intervene in the domestic affairs of any country. In 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini declared exporting the Islamic revolution to be 'the primary goal' of his new Islamic Republic. Since then, the issue has been a major topic of ideological debate within the Khomeinist establishment." http://t.uani.com/f0pxdm Charles McDermid in TIME: "Pilots winging over raging Libyan battlefields in Mirage and F-16 fighter jets. A convoy of troops and tanks rumbling to the aid of an embattled partner. Defiant words for a regional bully bent on meddling in domestic affairs. These are just some of the hallmarks of the new-look Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) - the bloc of six Arab nations that is shedding its image as a somnolent, oil-rich cartel and propelling itself forward in the role of hands-on military campaigner in the uprisings that are reshaping the region. It has already intervened - mainly with member Saudi Arabia's troops - in the rebellion in GCC compatriot Bahrain. This is the GCC 2.0 and the world, and most especially Iran, is watching. The unprecedented show of force has so far boosted pan-Arab pride, brought accolades from Western allies and reinforced a bulwark against ever expanding Iranian influence. 'This level of involvement just sets an incredible precedent,' says John L. Esposito, professor of religion and Islamic studies at Georgetown University and author of The Future of Islam. 'These governments usually use diplomacy or write a check. Now, [the GCC member states] have taken the opportunity to step out front in other countries on issues that are domestically driven.' It began with the GCC's deployment in March of some 1,500 Saudi-led security forces and armored vehicles - part of the Peninsula Shield force. The move helped put down a mostly Shi'ite revolt on the streets of Manama. It was a controversial gambit by a group mainly composed of Sunni monarchies, one that was denounced by Shi'ite-ruled Iran and Iraq (Baghdad is the current head of the Arab League). On BBC Arabic on March 26, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned that the GCC intervention risked setting off a regionwide sectarian war. 'It's potentially very important. It's certainly a crossroads, a potential flash point between Sunni and Shia. This engages a lot of people's interests - Saudi, Iraq and Iran. The demonstrations and the ferocity of the response caught everyone by surprise - and so has the GCC reaction,' says Kenneth Pollack, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and former staff member of the U.S. National Security Council... But in terms of what the experts consider the greatest potential conflict in the region - the rivalry between the Gulf states and Tehran - the GCC's gloves really came off on Sunday. Following a late-night meeting of foreign ministers in Riyadh, the GCC blasted Iran's 'flagrant interference' in the region and blamed Iran for actively destabilizing and 'violating the sovereignty' of their countries." http://t.uani.com/i9GAyj |
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