Top Stories
CNN: "The State Department called on the government of Iran Wednesday to investigate the death of a human rights activist this week, reportedly after security forces got into a confrontation with mourners at her father's funeral. Haleh Sahabi, an opposition activist and women's rights advocate, was arrested during Iran's 2009 post-election crackdown and was given a two-year jail sentence. She was allowed out of prison to attend the funeral of her father, noted Iranian dissident Ezatollah Sahabi. According to opposition websites, Sahabi was pushed to the ground during a scuffle between mourners and security forces and died of cardiac arrest. She was in her mid-50s. The opposition web site Kaleme said that security forces tried to interfere with the carrying of the body, confronting Sahabi and other mourners. She was clutching a photo of her father to her chest and fell when the security forces tried to take it from her, Kaleme reported. Another opposition site, Sahamnews, said one of the security forces punched her in the abdomen." http://t.uani.com/kItU0d
WSJ: "Iran's president came under new domestic pressure on two fronts with a rare, unified blow against him in parliament and the first significant opposition rally in months, a protest in response to the death of an activist in an assault by security forces Wednesday. In parliament Wednesday, lawmakers voted to refer President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the judiciary to rule on whether his move last month to name himself oil minister, after dismantling the ministry and sacking the minister, was legal. The events came as the opposition Green Movement tried to rally nationwide support for antigovernment protests on June 12, the anniversary of Mr. Ahmadinejad's re-election in 2009. That disputed vote sparked Iran's largest outbreak of political unrest in decades. About 1,000 protesters turned out for a rally Wednesday night after democracy activists said security forces, attacking the funeral of an opposition figure, killed his daughter." http://t.uani.com/lahffe
Daily Telegraph: "Ahmad Vahidi was invited to Bolivia by the country's Defence Ministry and attended a military ceremony in the city of Santa Cruz on Tuesday in the presence of Evo Morales, the Bolivian president. He is on an Interpol wanted list over the bomb attack in the Argentine capital 17 years ago that killed 85 people and injured up to 300, making it the country's worst terrorist attack. Argentina believes he planned the attack on the seven-storey Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AIMA) building and gave the final go ahead for the bombing. Alberto Nisman, the lead prosecutor investigating the attack, contacted Interpol's offices in Bolivia to demand Vahidi's arrest as soon as Argentina became aware that he was in South America. But Vahidi was travelling on a diplomatic passport granting him immunity from arrest and Bolivia instead told him that he must leave the country." http://t.uani.com/mMNCLJ
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
CNN: "Israel's former top intelligence official says the country does not have the ability to stop Iran's nuclear program and that a pre-emptive attack against the Islamic Republic would result in a regional war that would pose Israel with an 'impossible' challenge. 'We do not have the ability to stop Iran's nuclear program. In the best case scenario we can push it off a bit,' said former Mossad chief Meir Dagan in widely reported remarks to a Tel Aviv leadership conference Wednesday. 'It is important to know what the outcome of an attack on Iran would be, what would happen on the day after and what situation Israel would find itself in on the international stage,' Dagan said." http://t.uani.com/ld9Uei
Bloomberg: "World powers should offer to ease sanctions to gain Iran's cooperation in resolving the dispute over the country's nuclear program, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. Talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany have stalled since January and Russia believes incentives are needed to kick-start the process, Lavrov said yesterday in an interview in Moscow. 'We have to show to Iran that if it cooperates, if it answers satisfactorily the IAEA demands, then it should see the light at the end of the tunnel,' Lavrov said, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog." http://t.uani.com/jyPHsp
YnetNews: "Iranian money appears to be stronger than the Iranian threat, as dozens of Israeli companies have been holding secret trade relations with the Islamic Republic in recent years. Although the ties have been slightly limited in the past decade following Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's calls for Israel's destruction, trade between the two countries continues. The business relations are conducted through companies active in Turkey, Jordan and Dubai, which are registered in Europe and exposed to an American boycott. 'Despite what is seen on the ground, the secret relations with Iran total tens of millions of dollars a year,' says Yehoshua Meiri, chairman of the Israeli-Arab Friendship Association, which encourages the development of economic relations as an alternative to a peace process... Israeli exports to Iran focus on agricultural production means: Organic fertilizers, pierced irrigation pipes, hormones boosting milk productions and seeds. The Iranians sell the Israelis pistachio, cashew nuts and mainly marble - one of Iran's biggest industries. 'A lot of marble is brought in from Iran,' says Eran Siv, chairman of the Association of Renovation Contractors in Israel and a marble importer. 'The marble, which is very popular in Israel, is mined on Iran's mountains and brought to Israel through Turkey.'" http://t.uani.com/le6zVx
Commerce
Reuters: "Officials from major shareholders Korea Asset Management Corp and Woori Bank said earlier this week that they planned to tap reserve bidder Swedish electronics firm Electrolux AB to revive the $513 million stake sale after rejecting a request by Entekhab to cut the acquisition price by about 60 billion won ($55.6 million). The move is the latest twist in the prolonged sale process, which creditors-turned-shareholders had hoped to wrap up after a series of earlier failures. The unlisted Iranian group was picked as preferred bidder for Daewoo last year, beating Electrolux, but it has repeatedly failed to satisfy creditor demands for a detailed funding plan, resulting in several months of delays to the final agreement." http://t.uani.com/j7gJUn
Opinion & Analysis
Barbara Slavin in POLITICO: "Since the failure of a brief effort at engaging Iran, the Obama administration has pivoted to economic pressure, piling sanction after sanction on the Islamic Republic to try to persuade it to curb a program that could give it the capacity to make nuclear weapons. Last week, the U.S. penalized seven foreign companies for selling gasoline to Iran, on top of two targeted for dealings with Iran last year. All nine were sanctioned under the 2010 Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act, the most thorough and biting U.S. legislation against Iran since the 1979 revolution. Yet among the companies sanctioned, not a single one was Chinese despite the fact that China supplies about a third of Iran's imported gasoline, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington research and advocacy group. China is also Iran's biggest single trading partner and largest investor in the oil and gas sector on which the Iranian economy relies. An investigation by the Atlantic Council's Iran Task Force released Thursday concludes that the sanctions against Iran will not succeed as long as the price of oil remains high and China continues its extensive involvement in the Iranian economy, in particular its oil and gas industry. China voted for and is implementing four United Nations Security Council sanctions resolutions passed against Iran in recent years. But China has not followed the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia in imposing further measures that would have a real impact on Iranian decision makers. Under intense U.S. pressure, China has slightly scaled back its purchases of Iranian oil and slowed investment in the oil and gas industry to make it easier for the Obama administration to waive penalties against Chinese companies under CISADA. However, Beijing has made it clear that it will only go so far. Diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks show that China has warned the U.S. not to touch its energy companies or face unspecified but presumably dire consequences... If sanctions are to succeed, the U.S. must also persuade China to use its growing economic leverage over Iran to encourage it to accept a diplomatic solution. It is in China's best interest as a rising great power to show that it has the ability to broker such deals, and that domestic economic growth - and bogging down the U.S. military in the Middle East - are not Beijing's only preoccupations. Otherwise, Iran is likely to continue its nuclear march, and strains will grow between the world's two biggest and most influential economies." http://t.uani.com/lsAYQE
Mehdi Khalaji in Project Syndicate: "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has now made the mistake that all Iranian presidents make: he has challenged the authority of the country's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He is doomed to fail. The challenge posed by Ahmadinejad is such a predictable part of Iranian politics that it has come to be known as 'the president's symptom.' It emerges from a president's confidence that, as a popularly elected leader, he should not be constrained by the Supreme Leader's oversight. But the Islamic Republic's history is littered with its presidents' failed attempts to consolidate an independent power center. Ultimately, divine authority trumps political authority. This dual authority is embedded in the Islamic Republic's constitution, and inevitably tilts toward the divine, particularly in a president's second term. Ahmadinejad is not an exception to this rule. In fact, because he has pushed harder than his predecessors, his star is falling faster. Moreover, the controversial presidential election of June 2009, and the political crisis that ensued, irreparably damaged Ahmadinejad's democratic legitimacy. Khamenei was forced to use his authority to support the president, and has since repeatedly condemned the 'Green Movement' that opposed Ahmadinejad's re-election. As a result, Ahmadinejad has been the most costly president for Khamenei to date, because he forced the Supreme Leader to deplete his power in the face of a common enemy - a move that called into question his own judgment and tarnished his reputation. Ahmadinejad himself, however, has generally ignored the post-election crisis in his public statements, and evidently believed that Khamenei's post-election support meant that the Supreme Leader would remain passive in the face of encroachments on his traditional powers and prerogatives. Indeed, for the last two years, Ahmadinejad has repeatedly undermined parliament, and abruptly dismissed ministers tied to Khamenei, like Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi." http://t.uani.com/mJWPfz
Fredrik Dahl and Sylvia Westall in Reuters: "The U.N. atomic agency is voicing growing concern about possible military aspects of Iran's nuclear programme and Western envoys believe it may firm up its suspicions later this year, adding to pressure on Tehran. An independent assessment by the International Atomic Energy Agency on whether Iran has carried out nuclear weapons research could lend weight to any renewed sanctions push by Western powers who suspect it is seeking the means to build such arms. IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano 'makes clear that more information is coming in to him, that he and his inspectors are able to draw deeper and more substantive conclusions,' a senior diplomat said. 'It is very relevant to the debate on where we go next in terms of being able to further tighten the screws on Iran in the sanctions context,' the diplomat said. Iran, already under four rounds of U.N. sanctions over its nuclear programme, denies it is seeking the bomb and says its nuclear activities are solely aimed at power generation, medicine and agriculture. It has repeatedly refused to halt uranium enrichment, which can have civilian or military uses. Amano has taken a blunter approach than his predecessor, Mohamed ElBaradei, saying in his first report on Iran in 201 0 he feared it may be working to develop a nuclear-armed missile. The Japanese agency chief repeated that view in a quarterly Iran report issued last week, saying he had new information about possible undisclosed nuclear-related activities. He wrote to the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation urging him to help answer the IAEA's queries and grant inspectors prompt access to officials, sites and equipment. Diplomats said the May 6 letter was a signal to Tehran to cooperate or face a possible assessment by the IAEA on the likelihood it had carried out military-related nuclear work, based on the evidence available to the U.N. body... Asked how the IAEA may approach Iran, the diplomat said the agency may state it 'has enough information and subjected it to a sufficient depth of analysis to say it looks highly probable there was work going on to introduce military application'. Another Western envoy painted a similar picture, suggesting the IAEA may present a fuller assessment on possible military aspects to Iran's nuclear programme in a report later this year." http://t.uani.com/mvI0A6
Ulf Laessing and Jason Benham in Reuters: "Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia is using its political clout and financial power to draw regional allies into a united front against perceived threats from Iran and popular discontent with Arab autocrats. Saudi rulers, alarmed by shifts in U.S. policy in response to the toppling of long-time ally Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and protests roiling Bahrain, Oman and Yemen in the kingdom's own Gulf backyard, are vigorously pushing back. 'Saudi Arabia is using its excess budget wealth to silence the revolutions or shape their outcomes,' said London-based Saudi researcher and author Madawi al-Rasheed. Riyadh has pledged $4 billion in aid to Egypt, throwing a lifeline to new rulers struggling with the economic impact of the anti-Mubarak unrest. It was also instrumental in a $20 billion handout to Bahrain and Oman for job-creating projects. Saudi Arabia shares U.S. fears that Iran wants nuclear arms and has struggled to adjust to rising Iranian regional influence since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq produced a Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad. It also worries about popular unrest. 'The kingdom is very concerned about the revolutionary wave. They don't want the waves to reach the shores of the Gulf,' said Saudi political analyst Khalid al-Dakhil. The Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), grouping six Sunni-ruled oil producers, is considering letting Jordan and Morocco join, adding two more monarchies to a bloc that includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The invitation to the two non-oil countries was motivated by defense needs, not economic logic, analysts say. The GCC, which sent troops to Bahrain in March to help quell protests by majority Shi'ites there, wants extra muscle to counter perceived military and security threats from Iran." http://t.uani.com/lkG3rm
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