Top Stories
Wall Street Journal: "Iran is secretly helping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad put down pro-democracy demonstrations, according to U.S. officials, who say Tehran is providing gear to suppress crowds and assistance blocking and monitoring protesters' use of the Internet, cellphones and text-messaging. At the same time, communications intercepted by U.S. spy agencies show Tehran is actively exploring ways to aid some Shiite hardliners in Bahrain and Yemen and destabilize longstanding U.S. allies there, say U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence. Such moves could challenge interests of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia and inflame sectarian tensions across the Middle East, they say. 'We believe that Iran is materially assisting the Syrian government in its efforts to suppress their own people,' said an Obama administration official." http://t.uani.com/endkvD
Washington Post: "The European Union on Thursday imposed travel bans and other sanctions against 32 Iranian police commanders, judges and prison wardens who, the bloc says, have committed human rights abuses. The list of sanctioned officials includes judge Abdolghassem Salavati, who sentenced several people to death after they allegedly participated in anti-government demonstrations following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed 2009 election victory. The new sanctions also include freezing of the individuals' assets in E.U. nations. The European Union earlier imposed similar sanctions against people with leading roles in Iran's nuclear program. Thursday's move is aimed at naming and shaming individual officials rather than implementing a new round of nationwide sanctions that could hurt the general population, E.U. politicians say. 'These European sanctions are an important step in holding individual human rights violators accountable in Iran,' said Marietje Schaake, a member of the E.U. parliament who led the push for the new sanctions. She said the step demonstrates that the bloc insists on 'differentiating between the population of Iran and those in power who oppress them.'" http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hfdiftcab&t=o8g5wifab.0.gdm6wifab.hfdiftcab.30860&ts=S0608&p=http%3A%2F%2Ft.uani.com%2Fij1YVd%2520 VOA: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he envisions the emergence of a 'new' Middle East, without the influence of the U.S., Israel and their allies. Iran's state-run media quotes the president as saying his country and regional nations are dissatisfied with what he called the 'colonialist and arrogant' plans of the U.S. and its partners. He commented on Wednesday during a visit to the southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province. He made the remarks after directly criticizing U.S. President Barack Obama's administration earlier this month for 'interference' in Mideast affairs." http://t.uani.com/flo6PQ
Domestic Politics LA Times: "Iranians take great pride in the natural bounty of their land, but farmers have been struggling to keep up cultivation since the government slashed energy subsidies late last year. Earlier this week, Ali Asgar Yousefnejad, a lawmaker from the Mazandaran province in northern Iran, spoke out against the soaring prices of electricity, fertilizers and fuel and their effect on farmers in his district. 'The farmers first change their rice paddies, which consume a lot of water, to orange grooves,' Yousefnejad told Babylon & Beyond. 'Then if the water needed for orange orchards or citrus fruits is too expensive, they convert to kiwi fruit and so on until they give up farming altogether and sell their agricultural land to the builders to build villas and destroy the forests.'" http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hfdiftcab&t=o8g5wifab.0.hdm6wifab.hfdiftcab.30860&ts=S0608&p=http%3A%2F%2Ft.uani.com%2FemiTZE%2520
Foreign Affairs New York Times: "Members of a blacklisted Iranian dissident group were joined by former U.S. officials on Wednesday in calling on the United States to protect them after a raid on their camp by Iraqi government forces last week that the dissidents say left 34 people dead and 318 people wounded. 'The massacre in Ashraf plainly puts into perspective the conclusion that the prudent and, in fact, the only solution is for the U.S. to reassume the camp's protection,' Maryam Rajavi, a leader of the dissidents, said at a news conference. Details of the incident at Camp Ashraf, which houses members of the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, remain somewhat obscure. Enough is known that officials from the United States and European Union, as well as human rights groups, have urged the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to show restraint." http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=hfdiftcab&t=o8g5wifab.0.jdm6wifab.hfdiftcab.30860&ts=S0608&p=http%3A%2F%2Ft.uani.com%2FgmMG6A%2520
Opinion & Analysis
Dr. Josef Olmert on Huffington Post: "The current Middle East mayhem is far from over. The situation is fluid in many countries, but one important interim conclusion is coming to the open, and it is positive: The Islamic Republic is not emerging victorious as the sectarian Sunni-Shiite schism seems to have a growing impact. This is bad news to the Ayatollahs in Tehran. Judging by their propaganda and that of their Hezbollah proxies in Lebanon and the Syrian regime, all can be easily explained with the usual charge: that the American-Zionist plot is in full force. Simple? Not any more, as we can learn from the events in Syria and Lebanon.... So, with all that happening, the Lebanese Sunnis are not done, the Shiites are not victorious and the Syrian regime is fighting for its very existence. Iran is not winning yet, perhaps not at all." http://t.uani.com/gDXfB6 Robert Tait on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: "Yet the portrayal of Iran as 'the biggest show in town' rankles some specialists, who believe it runs the risk of blinding policymakers to underlying currents in the region. Scott Lucas, head of the EA World View website and an Iran analyst at Birmingham University in Britain, describes it as a 'terrible approach.' 'The U.S. is applying a relatively old strategy of linking up with elites in the region to a new situation and I don't think they're really thinking through the consequences' argues Lucas, who says the approach is unsuited to an 'asymmetrical battle' that is being waged. 'The issue of political legitimacy is the one that people are pushing. It's not the U.S.-Iran contest, it's not even the question of economic factors and if you are seen in any way as basically not really being on board with that question of political legitimacy, if you are seen as in effect trying to impose this Iran question on top of it, I think it'll bite you on the backside.' The regime in Tehran has mirrored the tendency to view the Arab revolts in geostrategic terms, portraying them as rebellions, inspired by Iran's Islamic Revolution of 1979, against unpopular U.S.-backed governments. The difference, Lucas says, is that Iran's approach is driven by propaganda purposes stemming from a need to distract its own discontented population still smarting over Ahmadinejad's bitterly disputed reelection in 2009. The U.S. policy, by contrast, is being shaped by 'mistaken conceptions' about Iranian power that overlook the country's internal weakness." http://t.uani.com/hTYA6P Mehdi Khalaji on Real Clear World: "Like all populist autocratic regimes, Iranian leaders seek to portray themselves as the advocates of the downtrodden everywhere. However, the recent Arab uprisings highlight Iran's hypocrisy and inconsistency more than ever before. It seems that in the Islamic Republic only the authority of the ruling jurist is absolute; everything else is relative. For Iran, not only Islam but also Shi'ism is used as a tool to advance its ambitious agenda in the region, not more. Because Iran's influence in the region stems mainly from its soft power and propaganda, the possibility that its propaganda might be weakened by the emergence of new democratic regimes in the Middle East has placed it in a very difficult situation. If democratic forces prevail in Arab nations, Islamism will lose its main forum for advocating state rule by Islamic ideology. Anti-American and anti-Israel discourse would be replaced by more practical demands and expectations, as we have already witnessed in the course of demonstrations in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere. Iran would find little fertile ground for its old-fashioned propaganda that portrays itself as the leader of the anti-American world and the main patron of anti-Israel forces. Democratic systems would allow people to focus more on their personal lives, participate more fully in the shaping of their political future, and hold their ruling class more accountable for its actions, meaning that Iranian propaganda would no longer be needed in the struggle against rulers or their western allies. If the recent political movements in the Arab world lead to more free and liberal societies, this will promise the decline of Iranian influence in the region. For the current Iranian regime, democracy is no longer threatening only at home, but also abroad." http://t.uani.com/gEVfjz
|
|
Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons. UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment