Top Stories
WSJ: "The U.S. imposed sanctions Thursday on the Iranian state airline and a ports operator for allegedly helping the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps move weapons to Tehran's allies around the Middle East. The sanctions are the latest American bid to use economic pressure to try to weaken the Tehran regime, the main U.S. nemesis in the region. Top administration officials said Thursday's action was targeted specifically at the Revolutionary Guard, an elite unit of Iran's security forces they said is Tehran's domestic enforcer, plays a major role in proliferation activity, supports terrorism in the region, and commits human-rights abuses at home. The U.S. Treasury targeted Tidewater Middle East Co., a port operator it says is owned by the Guard, and Iran Air, a carrier used by the Guard and Iranian military. Sanctions were also levied on an Iranian official, Behnam Shahriyari, for allegedly helping to provide weapons to Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based militant group... Tidewater Middle East has operations at seven Iranian ports, including the country's biggest shipping-container facility. "The Iranian Government has repeatedly used Tidewater-managed ports to export arms or related materiel" in violation of United Nations resolutions, Treasury said. Shipping firms that knowingly do business with Tidewater Middle East could be barred from dealing with U.S. financial institutions, which Treasury officials said could put pressure on an important part of Iran's trade infrastructure. Treasury officials said they weren't sure if Tidewater had any assets in the U.S. that could be frozen. They also said the sanctions wouldn't affect Iran's oil trade, which bypasses Tidewater-controlled ports." http://t.uani.com/ijoP3d
AFP: "Western nations on Thursday accused Iran of carrying out 'alarming' breaches of UN nuclear sanctions, often with Syria's aid. The United States, France and Britain also stepped up demands for the publication of a UN Security Council expert report on Iran sanctions which is being blocked by Russia. The experts' report contains 'troubling findings' about sanctions violations, said US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice. The experts set out a 'complete and alarming' picture of Iran's violations, said French deputy UN ambassador Martin Briens, who highlighted three new cases of trading in arms and related technology reported since March. No details of the case were made public at Thursday's Security Council meeting on the Iran sanctions regime... Iran's breaches involve nuclear and ballistic weapons and all other categories of sanctions passed, Briens told the meeting. 'They involve increasingly complex methods: the use of front companies, assumed names, using multiple financial intermediaries and currency exchange offices, physically hiding things, false statements and forgery,' the French envoy said. Syria is implicated in nearly all the violations and is itself refusing to cooperate with the panel of experts, Briens said. According to a copy of the blocked report seen by AFP, six of the nine arms transfer violations reported involved Syria." http://t.uani.com/jbKUHb
Reuters: "The U.N. nuclear chief said on Friday he would consider accepting an invitation to visit Iran but stressed it would have to yield concrete results, urging Tehran to address suspicions of military-linked atom activity. Yukiya Amano, director general of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said he had agreed in a meeting with Iran's atomic energy head Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani this week that the two sides needed to talk. But he said they remained far apart on substantive issues related to Iran's cooperation with the IAEA and Tehran's refusal to heed U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding it suspend sensitive nuclear work. Amano, who has taken a blunter approach towards the Islamic state than his predecessor Mohamed ElBaradei, met with Abbasi-Davani on the sidelines of a week-long, international nuclear safety meeting in the Austrian capital." http://t.uani.com/jg38Qm
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
Reuters: "International trading house Vitol will resume Caspian oil swaps with Iran after a year-long suspension of operations, industry and trade sources said on Thursday. 'Vitol is resuming Iranian swaps. I think there there's really good money in it,' a Mediterranean trader told Reuters. Vitol has already signed a swap agreement with National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) but the swap operations, under which Vitol supplies Iran with Caspian oil in exchange for Iranian crude volumes for loading on the Persian Gulf, will most likely start up again toward the end of the year, another source close to the deal said." http://t.uani.com/jLs9vJ
AFP: "US authorities Thursday charged firms in France and the United Arab Emirates for conspiring to export components for attack helicopters and fighter jets to Iran without a license. The Justice Department said that among the individuals and five corporate entities charged were Aerotechnic, based in Pinsaguel, France, its president Philippe Sanchez and sales manager Luc Teuly. They remain fugitives. 'The indictment alleges that they were involved in the financing of such illegal arms deals and that they helped purchase and route US military components they received from the United States to Iran in violation of the Iran embargo and various US export laws and fraud laws,' the Justice Department said in a statement. Officials said two defendants based in the UAE have also been indicted: Aletra General Trading, a company in Dubai doing business as 'Erman & Sultan Trading Co;' and Syed Amir Ahmed Najfi, an Iranian national and purchaser for Aletra. Najfi remains a fugitive." http://t.uani.com/kEPnkr
Human Rights
Guardian: "Prison guards in Iran are giving condoms to criminals and encouraging them to systematically rape young opposition activists locked up with them, according to accounts from inside the country's jail system. A series of dramatic letters written by prisoners and families of imprisoned activists allege that authorities are intentionally facilitating mass rape and using it as a form of punishment. Mehdi Mahmoudian, an outspoken member of Iran's Participation Front, a reformist political party, is among those prisoners who have succeeded in smuggling out letters revealing the extent of rape inside some of the most notorious prisons." http://t.uani.com/kYVl4H
AFP: "The European Union piled pressure on the Syrian regime on Friday, warning that its legitimacy was undermined by a brutal crackdown and imposing sanctions on three of its Iranian military allies... The text also welcomes the adoption of new sanctions against Syria, adding three commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard along with four Syrians and four businesses to a list of people hit by an assets freeze and EU travel ban." http://t.uani.com/keqJBU
Domestic Politics
NYT: "A close ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has been arrested, Iranian news agencies reported Thursday, a development that suggested the power struggle between the president and the country's highest religious leader is deepening. Fars, a semiofficial state news agency, did not specify the reason for the arrest of the Ahmadinejad ally, Mohammed Sharif Malekzadeh, who resigned as deputy foreign minister this week, but a report by Mehr, another semiofficial agency, pointed to allegations of financial misdeeds. Mr. Malekzadeh is believed to be the most senior Ahmadinejad associate to be arrested - and one of the first to have his arrest reported in Iran's press - as the rift between the president and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the nation's spiritual leader and highest authority, has worsened." http://t.uani.com/lE2AJY
WashPost: "In Iran, newspapers stay away from politically sensitive topics, more and more Web sites are being blocked and anti-government protests have been declared illegal. But the popular cinema is going strong, and, in recent weeks, the screenings of two locally made films at theaters across the capital have become a popularity contest of sorts between supporters of the government and the grass-roots opposition movement. One movie, directed by a controversial backer of the regime, ridicules opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The other shows how complicated life has become for Tehran's vast middle class, many of whom support the opposition movement. 'Ekhrajijha 3,' or 'Outcasts 3,' with about $6 million in ticket sales, is a political comedy that follows a group of war veterans, some of whom are trying to convert their fame into political capital by running for president. Two of the most power hungry candidates lie, cheat and organize illegal, late-night parties to win the hearts of the nation's young people, who are demanding change. The film does not mention any of the real candidates in Iran's 2009 elections. But opposition activists say that it is no coincidence that the two most opportunistic characters resemble the official image the government is trying to portray of presidential challengers Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi." http://t.uani.com/iEIXhj
Foreign Affairs
AP: "President Hamid Karzai is increasingly isolated and has surrounded himself with an inner circle of advisers who are urging him to move closer to Iran and Pakistan as the U.S. draws down its role in Afghanistan, several friends and aides tell The Associated Press. Their advice is echoed in Karzai's anti-West rhetoric, which has heightened both in his public speeches and in private. He met recently with Iran's defense minister, and constantly cautions against trusting the U.S. to have Afghanistan's best interests at heart... Inside Afghanistan's presidential palace, Iran, Pakistan and China are most often referred to as reliable allies, according to Karzai's friends and advisers. Last year, Karzai openly acknowledged taking 'bags' of money from Iran to finance his administration." http://t.uani.com/iIIWug
Opinion & Analysis
Roger Noriega in Fox News: "The Obama administration's recent announcement of targeted sanctions against Venezuela's state-owned oil company for illicit dealings with Iran is a hopeful sign that the executive branch is heeding warnings about Hugo Chávez's reckless support for Iran's strategy to sustain its illegal nuclear program and to sow terrorism on the U.S. doorstep. If U.S. authorities are really getting serious about confronting this threat they should focus attention on Conviasa, Chávez's government-run airline that ferries terrorists and weapons to our own neighborhood. There is much to investigate. It is widely-known that Conviasa operates regular flights between Caracas, Teheran, and Damascus. The flight to Iran was inaugurated in 2004, and a stop in Beirut will be added soon. That a South American airline would choose such destinations for routine service may seem peculiar, but it is a logical part of Chávez's anti-American campaign and provocative alliances with Iran, Syria, Libya, and a host of Middle Eastern terrorist groups. We can only guess who and what are aboard these flights, because passengers and cargo remain in the shadows. Upon arrival in Caracas, according to eye-witnesses, passengers are not subject to immigration controls, and many pass through VIP facilities used by Chavez and visiting dignitaries. Cargo is routinely handled by employees of the Iranian embassy and is not subject to customs inspection. Citing Western intelligence reports, La Stampa of Italy reports that the bulk of the passengers are made up of intelligence officials and military officers. It also said the flights are designed to move sensitive military matériel between Venezuela, Iran, and Syria, such as components for missile systems and spare parts for U.S.-made aircraft. What we do know about several Conviasa passengers is very troubling, indeed... It is clear that the Conviasa flight is a critical tool for Iran and Venezuela and their allies among terrorists and drug traffickers. And the administration has the authority to act now to pre-empt this growing menace. Under Executive Order 13324, either the Departments of State or Treasury can designate Conviasa as an entity supporting terrorism through its services to suspect individuals." http://t.uani.com/iRHE9l
Vali Nasr in FP: "While much of the Middle East is in the throes of a historic struggle for democracy, Iran's main political fissure pits the clerical establishment against muscular, nationalist upstarts who seek to usurp power. And in this contest between Iran's elite factions, the world should be rooting for the clergy. The primary players in this battle are President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The two forged an ideological alliance in 2005 and worked closely to crush the 'Green Movement' after the disputed 2009 election. They are now engaged in a public spat over the spoils of power and, more importantly, over the proper interpretation of the Shiite fundamentalist ideology that inspired the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The contest spilled dramatically into public view in April over Ahmadinejad's ultimately unsuccessful attempts to dismiss Iran's intelligence minister, and again this week with the forced resignation and arrest of the deputy foreign minister, an ally of the president's chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei... Ahmadinejad arrived on the scene in 2005 promising to breathe new life into the dying revolution by combining religious fundamentalism with Iranian nationalism and economic populism. This formula -- the same one Khomeini had used to dominate the revolution in 1979 -- proved to be a clever political strategy that won him the presidency. But the promise of unending revolution came crashing down in the 2009 election, when reformists mounted a winning election campaign and then brought millions into the streets to protest the fraudulent results. What Ahmadinejad preached posed a direct threat to the supreme position of clergy in the Islamic Republic. The president and his circle of advisors are of the view that, because of the Islamic Revolution and his defeat of the reformist challenge, Iran is now a genuinely Islamic state, and the state should take over the role of the clergy. This only confirms the singular importance of the Islamic Revolution to Shiite history and theology. If, as Khomeini claimed, the Islamic Republic is the embodiment of a just and sacred government, Shiites no longer need the clergy as the anchor of their faith. Holiness rests in the state and not the guardians of the state. The idea appeals to the muscular nationalism and Bonapartist ambitions of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which believes that military might, rather than clerical leadership, sustain Iran against domestic and foreign enemies... Yet any victory the clergy could win against this new upstart will only be a Pyrrhic one. Ahmadinejad is a threat to clerical supremacy, but without him, Khomeinism is even more vulnerable to reformist challengers. The alternative would be a right-wing ideological state -- nationalist, fundamentalist, populist, and ruled by militarism, something akin to the Japan of the 1930s. And that cannot last. In this contest between Iran's elite factions, the world should be rooting for the clergy -- their victory will bring about the quickest end to the Islamic Republic." http://t.uani.com/m4M8OG
David Albright & Andrea Stricker in ISIS: "On June 21, Iran's atomic energy chief, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, in a speech to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conference on nuclear safety in Vienna, held to review safety standards in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, indicated that Iran is in no hurry to join the international Convention on Nuclear Safety. Abbasi-Davani said that Iran has started the process of ratifying the pact, but that it would first need to consider whether or not it conflicts with its rights. Iran is the sole country with a significant nuclear power program that has not signed the 1994 convention. Such resistance is troubling given the operational problems at the Bushehr nuclear power plant and the fact that, despite Russian assistance, Iran is new to the process of implementing regulations governing the safe operation of nuclear power plants. Iran has thus far resisted calls by the IAEA and the international community that it ratify the convention. At the IAEA meeting, Abbasi-Davani instead took the opportunity to dismiss concerns about its safety standards and criticize IAEA Director General Amano for focusing on Iran's compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) at the expense of global nuclear safety. Iran is widely reported to have risked safety at the Bushehr reactor in its attempt to speed up the project and save costs. The Bushehr nuclear plant has encountered numerous delays in start-up and has not yet begun to produce electricity. Iran now claims that Bushehr will begin producing electricity in August 2011. The plant first reached criticality in May after numerous delays stretching back years. In February 2011, a broken water pump caused small metallic pieces to infiltrate the reactor cooling system, leading technicians to unload the fuel rods to prevent damage to the fuel assemblies. In October 2010, a leak in the spent fuel pond caused significant flooding at the plant, according to Russian workers, but then-head of Iran's atomic energy agency Ali Akbar Salehi, told the media the leak was insignificant. There have also been serious concerns about the presence of condensation in the reactor cooling system, which can be destructive... Iran should not delay making necessary improvements in nuclear safety or conflate its safety shortcomings with its refusal to cooperate with the IAEA on resolving a range of questions about its nuclear weapon-related activities. The Iranian regime has a responsibility to its citizens and neighbors to safely operate the Bushehr reactor. In the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, given Iran's history of earthquakes, its newcomer status to nuclear power, and legitimate concerns about its regulations and equipment, Iran should immediately sign and ratify the safety convention, grant independence to its regulatory authority, implement all the recommendations of the IAEA safety team, and subject its safety standards to rigorous independent peer review. Iran has time to institute these reforms before it assumes responsibility for the reactor's operations. Initially, Russia will run the reactor, and Iran will take over after one year when Russia's guaranteed period of assistance ends. Iran must make a priority of avoiding another catastrophic accident, particularly one caused by avoidable shortcomings already experienced and corrected by other nations." http://t.uani.com/jBDsvO
ISIS: "On June 23, according to The Associated Press, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Iranian state television, 'If we do want to make a bomb, we are not afraid of anybody.' Agence France Presse quoted him as saying, 'If we want to make a bomb we are not afraid of anyone and we are not afraid to announce it, no one can do a damn thing.' He added, 'We do not want to.' Such statements may be more of Iran's defiance to the international community's calls on it to bring transparency to its nuclear program. However, could his statement be a new effort by Iran to lay the groundwork for an official policy of nuclear ambiguity? Ahmadinejad's statement reflects Iran's apparent on-going effort to develop all the components of a nuclear weapons program that would give it the option to quickly break out if the decision were made to do so. Iran has continued to shun United Nations resolutions calling on it to suspend enrichment, and has instead defiantly expanded and entrenched its enrichment program. Iran recently announced plans to move 20 percent enrichment to its fortified enrichment plant under a mountain near Qom, where the enrichment hall is below 90 meters of rock. Iran has also consistently brushed aside concerns and requests by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it answer questions about its past work on weaponization and missile delivery systems. During his comments on Thursday, Ahmadinejad called the IAEA's safeguards reports on Iran 'scrap paper,' and the agency 'a bunch of puppets.' With this new announcement, Iran's leaders may be laying the initial groundwork for a future policy of nuclear ambiguity, which they may hope will offer a certain amount of power, prestige, and deterrence against enemies. Additional announcements by Iranian leaders about its nuclear weapon capabilities bear close scrutiny." http://t.uani.com/m3EaZK
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