Top Stories WSJ: "Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the U.S. has 'evidence' of Iranian meddling in Bahrain and other Middle Eastern countries hit by political turmoil. Mr. Gates didn't reveal what proof the U.S. has of alleged Iranian interference. But he said face-to-face discussions in Riyadh on Wednesday with Saudi King Abdullah centered in part on ways Iran has sought to take advantage of the recent political turbulence in the region. 'We already have evidence that the Iranians are trying to exploit the situation in Bahrain, and we also have evidence that they are talking about what they can do to try and create problems elsewhere as well,' Mr. Gates told reporters. U.S. officials have said previously they don't see Iran as being the cause of any of the popular revolts that have swept the region. But they have expressed concern that protracted political turmoil could benefit Tehran, whose Shiite Muslim religion makes it a natural ally of Shiite protesters against the Sunni rulers in Bahrain, in particular." http://t.uani.com/icVErj AP: "Outgoing Lebanese prime minister has slammed what he calls Iran's 'flagrant intervention' in internal Lebanese and Arab affairs. Saad Hariri says Iran is meddling in Lebanon, Bahrain and Kuwait and adds this is 'not acceptable anymore.' Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, spoke in Beirut on Thursday, delivering his harshest criticism yet of Shiite powerhouse Iran. Iran backs Hariri's rival, the Shiite militant Hezbollah group." http://t.uani.com/hHoXFN Reuters: "No solution has yet been found to a dispute over how India could pay for Iranian oil imports, a source at the State Bank of India said on Thursday and a finance ministry official said the two sides were still exploring options. Germany this week blocked an alternative route agreed by India and Iran using a bank based in the European country after a long-standing payment mechanism was scrapped by New Delhi in December under pressure from the United States. India's central bank said in December payments to Iran could no longer be settled using a clearing system run by regional central banks, winning praise from Washington, but putting at risk import of about 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil. Iran is India's second biggest oil supplier after Saudi Arabia. Iranian supplies to India have not yet been hit." http://t.uani.com/dQL0SD
Nuclear Program & Sanctions Haaretz: "Israel's nuclear program is endangering the entire Middle East, an Iranian official said on Wednesday, adding that Iran had been advocating a nuclear-free region since before 1979's Islamic Revolution. Speaking at the United Nation's Annual Conference of the Disarmament Commission, Iran's envoy to the UN Mohammad Khaza'ie was quoted by Iran's official IRNA news agency as saying that Israel's non-membership in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was destabilizing the region... Speaking last month on Iran's contentious nuclear program, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the world must make clear that Iran would face 'credible military action' if sanctions do not shut down Tehran's disputed nuclear program." http://t.uani.com/gN23HR Reuters: "India has stopped paying for oil imports from Iran via Germany, ending a payments route used after India's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), said last year a long standing mechanism, the Asian Clearing Union, could no longer be used. Payments by India to Iran were being routed through Iran controlled Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank (European-Iranian Trade Bank) in Germany but after discussions with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, India said it would use a different path in future. EIH is under U.S sanctions and the Washington has been insisting that Berlin stops facilitating payment by India to Iran with the German central bank, the Bundesbank. Here are some facts on the India-Iran payments problem." http://t.uani.com/eiQWE9 Foreign Affairs Radio Farda: "In an interview with RFE/RL, a top U.S. State Department official said the uprisings in the Middle East could have an impact on Iran, which experienced its own mass antigovernment protests in 2009. Michael Posner, the assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor, said Iran is currently experiencing 'a particularly grim moment,' with no sign of reform or 'relaxation' in its crackdown on activists. Posner said there is huge discontent and frustration among young Iranians. 'I believe that there is something to all of the change in the region having a ripple effect on Iran,' Posner says. 'There are clearly people watching their televisions and on the Internet seeing what's going on in Syria, in Egypt, in Tunisia, etc., and they're undoubtedly thinking our time has to come.' Posner also said the United States has been 'quietly' working with Iranian activists on issues surrounding Internet freedom, including training them in the use of antifiltering tools." http://t.uani.com/dYishX Opinion & Analysis Dariush Zahedi and Hamed Aleaziz in FP: "On Feb. 28, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boldly declared, 'Iran is among the few countries in the world where no one goes to bed hungry.' It's hardly the first grandiose claim the Iranian president has made about the state of the Iranian economy. He recently announced that unemployment would be eradicated in two years. And the president defiantly insisted last November that Iran's economy is booming, despite international sanctions. These sorts of hubristic pronouncements once made Ahmadinejad popular among his base of lower-working-class supporters, who benefited from government handouts. But these days, the president's exaggerations are running up against economic reality: For the average Iranian, times are tough. The country's economy is weak, unemployment has skyrocketed to 14.6 percent officially (real numbers are surely higher), and inflation is creeping up as the government cuts subsidies on energy, food, and other consumer goods. So stark is the contrast between the government line and reality that, for the first time, Ahmadinejad's perpetual optimism is losing -- rather than winning -- supporters. The president's claim about hunger in Iran went down particularly poorly with his base among the lower class. The next day, on March 1, when Ahmadinejad delivered a speech in the industrial city of Khorramabad, whose working-class population once warmly embraced him, he found the mood rather cold. A sign held up above the crowd read, 'We the workers of Parsilon [a factory] are hungry.' Another sign in the crowd read, 'Swear to God, we've come to a breaking point from all the discrimination and injustice.' Such workers have historically made up a significant portion of Ahmadinejad's base. Their loyalty cemented with generous government largesse, they mostly stayed on the side of the president after the contested June 2009 election, when thousands of protesters took to the streets to denounce the results. Those discontents called themselves the Green Movement, drawn primarily from the ranks of the middle class, intelligentsia, and students. The underclass, still loyal to the regime and Ahmadinejad, became known as the Blues, to underscore the fact that, to the extent that they had jobs, they were primarily engaged in blue-collar professions. Although the Greens and Blues were once split by socioeconomic and political lines, the parlous state of the economy is making the line between them less distinct: The Blues are going Green." http://t.uani.com/fnwZSJ Semira Nikou in Tehran Bureau: "Libya's rebellion has put Iran in an awkward position. Tehran has tried to balance support for the Libyan opposition, which it views as part of a region-wide 'Islamic awakening,' with rejection of the NATO-led military strikes. Iranian officials charged that the U.N.-endorsed military intervention on humanitarian grounds is hypocritical and part of a secret Western agenda. Tehran opposes any military intervention in the Middle East, even if in Iran's interest, because of the precedent it sets. Iran also opposed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, despite the fact Saddam Hussein was Iran's main adversary in the region. In his Nowruz (New Year) speech last month, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei charged that the United States and its allies were motivated by interest in Libyan oil. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that the coalition was pursuing a new form of colonialism. U.S. policy on Bahrain, where the ruling al-Khalifa family has forcefully crushed the predominantly Shia protest movement, has fueled Iran's anger. Unlike Libya, the United States has used quiet diplomacy to mediate with the Sunni monarchy. The U.S. Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain. Bahrain is a country of greater strategic importance to Iran than Libya, and the plight of its largely Shia population has been a sensitive issue inside Iran. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad complained of a 'double standard' during a telephone conversation with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Iran and Libya have maintained diplomatic relations since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Libya is one of the few Arab countries that supported Iran during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88), and both have denounced Israeli actions at the United Nations. Muammar Qaddafi congratulated Ahmadinejad on his victory after the disputed 2009 presidential elections. Libya has not been critical in Iran's foreign policy, although the two countries did take steps in recent years to extend bilateral ties. Iran's foreign minister visited Tripoli in 2010 to discuss economic ties, including joint oil and gas projects. The one constant tension between Iran and Libya has been the mysterious disappearance of Lebanese Shia leader Musa al-Sadr, who was born in Iran. In 1978, al-Sadr disappeared during an official visit to Libya, which created tensions in relations between Tehran and Tripoli. Al-Sadr's niece is married to former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. In March 2011, al-Sadr's family speculated that the religious leader might still be alive and imprisoned in Libya, a claim that played a central role in Tehran's denunciation of Qaddafi's recent crackdown on the opposition." http://t.uani.com/haKuOg |
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