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NYT: "Iran unveiled underground silos on Monday that would make its missiles less vulnerable to attack, marking the country's latest show of force in the long standoff with the West over its nuclear program. State television broadcast images of an unspecified number of silos deep underground, saying they held medium- and long-range missiles ready to hit distant targets. Subterranean silos are considered harder to destroy than surface installations, and Iran hailed them as a defensive asset meant to thwart attackers. Col. Asghar Qelichkhani said the silos 'function as a swift-reaction unit.' State TV quoted him as saying that the missiles were permanently in the vertical position and 'ready to hit the predetermined targets.' The silos were presented as Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards began 10 days of military exercises." http://t.uani.com/juCvgF
Reuters: "Iran's Revolutionary Guards tested 14 missiles on Tuesday, the second day of war games intended as a show of strength toward the Islamic Republic's enemies Israel and the United States. The Iranian-made surface-to-surface missiles, with a maximum range of 2,000 km (1,250 miles), were fired simultaneously at a single target, the official IRNA news agency reported. Commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace division, emphasized Iran's preparedness to strike Israel and U.S. interests in the event of any attack on the Islamic Republic. 'The range of our missiles has been designed based on American bases in the region as well as the Zionist regime,' Hajizadeh told the semi-official Fars news agency." http://t.uani.com/kD2dgd
AFP: "Iran's first nuclear power plant is set to start up in early August, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday. 'The project has been completed and everything has been ironed out,' the state RIA Novosti news agency quoted Ryabkov as saying. 'If this happens in the first days of August, it will fully meet our forecasts and expectations. And if it happens a few days later, there is nothing terrible about that.' Iran says it needs the plant, which had been under construction from the 1970s before being completed by Russia, to meet growing demand for electricity. But the plant's construction has been strongly opposed by Israel amid fears that it forms a part of Iran's suspected nuclear weapons development programme." http://t.uani.com/kt9NGz
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
American Shipper: "The organization United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is asking shipping companies to stop doing business with Tidewater Middle East Co., which it says is Iran's major ports operator. The group said Thursday it applauded the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control for blacklisting Tidewater Middle East Co. and Iran Air by adding them to its 'specially designated national' list. OFAC said the list includes individuals and companies owned or controlled by, or acting for or on behalf of, targeted countries. It also lists individuals, groups and entities such as terrorists. Their assets are blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them. UANI repeated its call to companies around the world to stop doing business with Iran... 'In designating Tidewater and Iran Air weapons proliferators, the U.S. Treasury Department has highlighted Iran's common tactic of exploiting shipping and cargo carriers. The regime has a long history of falsifying cargo declarations and deceiving other nations in order to illegally import nuclear technology and ship weapons to terrorist groups,' said Mark D. Wallace, president of UANI." http://t.uani.com/ijMTMP
AFP: "The development of Iran's South Pars gas field in the Gulf has been delayed partly because of international sanctions, the spokesman for the Iranian parliament's energy commission said on Monday. The delay was 'partly due to giving the work to Chinese contractors,' since 'we cannot award the work to contractors from other nations due to international sanctions' on Iran, Emad Hosseini was quoted as telling the Fars news agency. 'Under our planning, we should have had 30 percent progress in the South Pars projects by now, but we are very far behind in the plans,' Hosseini said. Fars reported last week that the nine South Pars projects awarded in June 2010 to Iranian companies as part of a $21-billion contract progressed between only 13 percent and 23 percent in a contract that was due for completion in 35 months. 'If we continue like this, we will not finish on time,' Hosseini warned. Many of the projects were reassigned to Iranian firms following the pull-out of major Western firms including France's Total and the Anglo-Dutch Shell, after international sanctions against Iran's controversial nuclear programme were strengthened. 'We had no choice but to resort to Chinese contractors, but they seem to be unable to carry out projects and we will have to reconsider their participation,' Hosseini said." http://t.uani.com/iIbCQj
Reuters: "Iran plans to send a live monkey into space next month, the latest advance in a missile and space program which has alarmed Israel and its western allies that fear the Islamic Republic is seeking nuclear weapons. The official IRNA news agency on Monday quoted the head of Iran's Space Agency as saying five monkeys were undergoing tests before one is selected for the flight on board a Kavoshgar-5 rocket. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said last August that Iran planned to send a man into space by 2017. Western countries are concerned the long-range ballistic technology used to propel Iranian satellites into orbit could be used to launch atomic warheads. Tehran denies such suggestions and says its nuclear work is purely peaceful." http://t.uani.com/jrBBMX
FP: "Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) has lifted his hold on the nomination of David Cohen to be the top sanctions official at the Treasury Department following the administration's announcement of several targeted sanctions against Iran. Cohen, whose nomination to replace Stuart Levey as undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence had been stalled in the Senate, now could be confirmed as early as this week. Kirk, who had issued the hold late last month due to concerns over the administration's lack of enforcement of sanctions against Iran, released his hold late last week after Treasury designated Iranian companies such as Iran Air and Tidewater Middle East for sanctions under the Comprehensive Iran Sanction, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010 (CISADA)... One issue Kirk has been pushing in recent days concerns the huge contracts between the Defense Department and Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company (KGL), which may have ties to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), an entity long accused of operating a web of shell companies to evade sanctions, and three other Iranian companies already on the banned list of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). KGL was recently awarded a nearly $750 million contract by the U.S. Army and another $42 million sole-source contract by the Defense Logistics Agency. Kirk now wants to know if the U.S. military is indirectly putting money into Iranian government coffers." http://t.uani.com/lyFuDi
Human Rights
WashPost: "Two Iranian women's activists were arrested in Tehran, as a group of 18 political prisoners ended a nine-day hunger strike, an opposition Web site reported Monday. Documentary filmmaker Mahnaz Mohammadi, 34, was arrested in her house Sunday by intelligence agents, friends confirmed. Mohammadi, a women's rights activist, was previously arrested in 2009 for protesting the deaths of opposition demonstrators. Maryam Majd, 25, a photojournalist and women's rights campaigner, was arrested Friday and is being held in Tehran's Evin prison, according to the Kaleme Web site. Political prisoners started a series of hunger strikes this month following the death of women's rights activist Haleh Sahabi, opposition media have reported. According to opposition sources, Sahabi, 54, was beaten by security forces who broke up a June 1 funeral procession for her father, a renowned dissident. Authorities said she suffered a heart attack during the melee." http://t.uani.com/lmIyLQ
Domestic Politics
Reuters: "Iran's parliament summoned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for questioning, semi-official Mehr news agency said on Monday, raising tensions in a power struggle between factions in the Islamic Republic's ruling elite. Ahmadinejad -- facing parliamentary elections next year and a presidential race in 2013 -- must attend the assembly within a month, Mehr said, after 100 lawmakers signed a motion calling him in. Unless he can persuade parliament to withdraw the summons, Ahmadinejad will face questions over his delay in nominating a sports minister and in granting parliament-approved funding to the Tehran Metro, Mehr said. Both issues are the subject of long-running tussles between president and lawmakers and some members of parliament have suggested impeaching Ahmadinejad over what his critics in the house have called his 'demagogic' manner." http://t.uani.com/kJvGAo
Foreign Affairs
WSJ: "Amplifying criticism by oil producers of last week's release of oil from emergency stockpiles, Iran's Oil Minister Mohammad Aliabadi on Monday accused the International Energy Agency of violating 'principles' that limit when energy-consuming countries can tap reserves. Mr. Aliabadi's comments, which preceded a formal energy dialogue between OPEC and the European Union later Monday, underscored how the IEA's controversial emergency release is straining relations between producers and consumers. The remarks came amid new signs Monday that suggested OPEC member Saudi Arabia will continue to raise output and as the IEA disclosed new details about its emergency release of oil. Mr. Aliabadi, who is also OPEC president, said the IEA's move flouted the agency's commitment to respect market forces. His comments echoed other remarks in recent days by figures from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, who have said the IEA's move was aimed at lowering oil prices, not in responding to a true oil supply crisis. OPEC produces about one-third of the world's oil and meets regularly to try to influence oil prices. 'They, the IEA, have these principles. Why are they not abiding by those principles?' he said. 'Instead they are intervening in the market,' Mr. Aliabadi said. 'We believe that prices have to be set by markets.' An IEA spokesman Monday had no immediate comment on Mr. Aliabadi's remarks." http://t.uani.com/kQtRmF
Fox News: "The Geneva-based UN Watch has reportedly issued a call for UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon to distance the international organization from an 'anti-terrorism' conference in Iran that claims to have the backing of both Ban and the United Nations. Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, sent letters to Ban and US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice regarding the conference - 'International Conference on Global Fight Against Terrorism,' which took place this past weekend, the Jerusalem Post reports. Characterizing the conference as the 'height of cynicism,' Neuer cited Iran's prominent role in sponsoring and training terrorists from Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as aiding the Syrian regime in its efforts to suppress current demonstrations against it." http://t.uani.com/lLuluM
AFP: "Iran and Iraq have formed a joint committee with the Red Cross to shut down Camp Ashraf in Iraq which houses thousands of outlawed Iranian opponents, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said on Saturday. 'The camp will be shut down by the end of this year,' Talabani said on the sidelines of a counter-terrorism summit in Tehran, the official IRNA news agency reported. 'For this, a tripartite committee has been set up by Iraq, Iran and the International Red Cross to make decisions and follow up on necessary measures to shut down the camp of this terrorist group,' IRNA quoted him as saying." http://t.uani.com/jLYvWW
Opinion & Analysis
Mehdi Khalaji in WINEP: "On June 23, eight Bahraini Shiite activists were sentenced to life in prison -- the latest in a string of government efforts to suppress ongoing populist uprisings. In a statement Friday, Manama defended the sentences, claiming that the activists had been convicted of 'plotting to violently topple Bahrain's government' and 'passing sensitive information to a terrorist organization in a foreign country.' Yet even in the face of such sharp repression, Shiite Iran has been unable or unwilling to help its coreligionists in Bahrain. As a result, the crisis could lead to a significant decline in Iran's political influence with Shiite Arabs, while at the same time causing serious problems in Tehran's relations with Arab governments. Iran was quite content with the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt -- in fact, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and others presented them as part of a regional Islamic awakening inspired by Iran's 1979 revolution. For three decades before the Egyptian revolution, Tehran held no visible diplomatic relations with Cairo. Its relationship with Tunisia was not in great shape either, in part because Tunis feared that Tehran sought to use the country as a base for networking with African Islamists. When the tremors of change reached Syria, Iran's leaders leapt to compare the protests with the crisis that followed the 2009 Iranian presidential election. That is, they denied the genuine nature of the movement while accusing the United States and Israel of plotting against what they described as a legitimate and popular government. On the other hand, influential Iranians have issued a variety of inflammatory statements that have exacerbated the GCC's mistrust of Tehran. In 2009, for example, Ali Akbar Nateq Nuri -- head of the accountability bureau in the Supreme Leader's office and former speaker of the Majlis -- declared that Bahrain had been 'the fourteenth province of Iran until 1970.'" http://t.uani.com/iYHm7d
The Economist: "Good news from Iran is rare, and the IMF is seldom a font of happy tidings about anything. So when a mission from the Fund cheered the Islamic Republic's economy earlier this month, heaping praise on the policies of its ruthless government, eyebrows spiked upwards as in a comic scene in a Persian miniature. The shock was even sharper given that the IMF, whose biggest shareholder happens to be the Great Satan, America, is a pillar of global capitalism, a system that Iran's maverick president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, gleefully lambasts as evil. Yet the IMF's upbeat pronouncement, in a brief press release (a fuller report is forthcoming) following annual consultations in Tehran, has some justification. This is not because Iran's economy is performing brilliantly. Whereas other big oil exporters have boomed on the back of high prices, Iran has grown sluggishly, nudging upwards only last year to 3.5%. That is not enough to dent a rising unemployment rate, which is now close to 15%. The reason for the praise is Iran's exemplary execution of a task dear to the IMF's heart: structural reform. The Islamic Republic describes things differently. Speaking on the occasion of Nowruz, the Iranian new year in March, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared this to be the 'year of economic jihad'. Whatever its name, the sweeping reform of a ruinous, three-decade-old system of state subsidies that Iran began last December seems to be radically reshaping the country's economy for the better. Not only has it relieved the government of a huge financial burden. It has slashed local energy demand, reducing chronic pollution and leaving more oil for export. It has dramatically raised disposable incomes for the poorest without placing extra burdens on the rich, spreading social equity while boosting consumption and bolstering the banking system. In future, Iran's subsidy reform may even be seen as a model for top-down social change, not unlike successful schemes pioneered by Mexico and Brazil. But so far Iran's scheme carries no conditions. Until December, economists estimated the annual cost of subsidies on food, fuel and electricity at $60 billion-100 billion, a quarter of Iran's GDP and equal to or greater than the value of annual energy exports. Most of this burden was carried as an implicit subsidy to domestic energy consumers, with the price of diesel fuel, for example, set at the equivalent of two American cents a litre, and petrol selling for less than bottled water. The predictable results were soaring energy consumption, waste, smuggling, pollution, market distortion and inexorably rising bills for the state." http://t.uani.com/mrLEFW
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