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AFP: "The United States on Thursday slammed Iran over its plans to triple its uranium enrichment capacity in defiance of multiple UN sanctions. The move was 'the most recent brazen example of (Iran's) deepening non-compliance' with its international obligations, US envoy Glyn Davies told the 35-member board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency at a meeting here... Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, insisted that his country had no choice but to produce the nuclear fuel itself, because negotiations over a supply deal with the United States, France and Russia had not come to fruition and enriched uranium was not commercially available to Iran via the markets. 'We are in need of nuclear fuel for the Tehran research reactor' which makes radioisotopes for medical research and the treatment of cancer, Soltanieh said. 'Hundreds of patients are struggling with cancer (and) need radioisotopes. And if we can't get the fuel from supplier countries then we have to accelerate to produce the required fuel' ourselves, he told reporters on the sidelines of the IAEA board meeting. In his address to the closed-door assembly, US ambassador Davies noted that the expansion of the enrichment capacity meant Iran would be producing more 20-percent enriched uranium than it needs for its one and only research reactor. Furthermore, 'it also represents yet another chapter in the changing Iranian narrative regarding why this underground facility was built,' Davies said." http://t.uani.com/iMZsrt
Reuters: "Russia and China joined Western powers on Thursday in piling pressure on Iran to address fears about possible military aspects of its nuclear program a day after Tehran said its would ramp up its uranium enrichment. The United States, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China issued a statement at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) after Iran raised the stakes in the row by announcing it would accelerate sensitive nuclear work... Iran's representative hit back at a tense IAEA board meeting, vowing the Islamic state would resist Western pressure over a nuclear program it says has exclusively peaceful aims. Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh also launched a verbal attack on IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano and accused him of bias, highlighting increasingly strained relations between Tehran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog... But the six powers -- including Russia and China who have been less inclined to try to isolate Iran -- united to throw their weight behind Amano, who last month asked Tehran to provide access to sites and officials to help answer the agency's queries. Iran rebuffed the request. The six powers said Iran's 'consistent failure' to comply with obligations under U.N. resolutions to restrain nuclear activity and allow more effective IAEA inspections had 'deepened concerns' about its intentions. 'We call on Iran to cooperate fully with the agency,' a joint statement read out at the closed-door session said." http://t.uani.com/lnsT5C
WSJ: "An acrimonious OPEC meeting failed to produce an agreement to increase oil production despite tight supplies and rising prices, bringing to the fore long-simmering divisions between key cartel players Saudi Arabia and Iran and calling into question the group's ability to influence oil prices. Most OPEC members, including Saudi Arabia, regularly flout quotas, but the world's largest oil exporter has long cherished the OPEC quota system as an important lever over prices. But the Saudi group was blocked by six members, including Iran, who argued that demand for oil will remain soft due to weaknesses in the U.S. economy and other factors... The stalemate represents one of the most intense fractures in years within the 12-member cartel. The Saudi push to boost production was backed by Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which cited OPEC's own projections showing an increase in demand for the group's crude in the second half of this year. They were overruled by six members-Iran, Algeria, Angola, Venezuela, Ecuador and Libya." http://t.uani.com/koMONW
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
AFP: "The United States warned on Wednesday that Iran's decision to triple its capacity to purify uranium and to move the process to a secretive plant was 'provocative' and asked Tehran to reconsider. Iran earlier said it would transfer its operation to enrich uranium to 20 percent purity from its Natanz plant to the Fordo underground site near the holy city of Qom, and said it would triple production capacity. 'We are concerned with Iran's announced intention to continue expanding its enrichment program in violation of Iran's international obligations,' said National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor. This decision would involve Iran's stockpiling of even more near-20 percent enriched uranium without a credible use for this material in the near term. 'Provocative steps such as this do not build confidence in either Iran's interest in meaningful talks or Iran's nuclear intent. We urge Iran to reconsider this decision, to comply with its international obligations without further delay.'" http://t.uani.com/lsTLPI
AFP: "The European Union expressed concern here Wednesday over Iran's plans to triple its capacity to purify uranium, in defiance of multiple UN sanctions. In a statement to the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-board of governors, the current EU president Hungary said the 27-nation bloc 'notes with particular concern' Iran's announcement which would 'further exacerbate' Tehran's defiance of the UN Security Council... In its statement to the closed session of the IAEA board, the EU 'notes with grave concern the continued absence of progress in Iran's cooperation with IAEA.'" http://t.uani.com/mDFr3c
Human Rights
AFP: "A renowned blogger with Iranian and Canadian citizenship has lost an appeal against a 19-year jail term imposed after he visited Israel, a French magazine said Wednesday, citing his family. Hossein Derakhshan, a 35-year-old known as the father of the Iranian blogging movement, has been imprisoned in Iran since 2008 and was convicted last year of 'aiding enemy states and propaganda against the Islamic system.' He was best known for travelling to Israel in 2006, using his Canadian passport to get round Iran's ban on such visits, hoping to help change the views that Israelis and Iranians have of each other's countries. 'I've just had his family on the phone from Tehran,' his partner Sandrine Murcia told philosopher activist Bernard-Henri Levy's revue La Regle du Jeu. 'They're shattered. It's the Biggest ever sentence imposed on an Iranian journalist. There's no reason for Hossein to be in prison. This sentence is simply unacceptable,' the French woman said." http://t.uani.com/jEc2Eq
Guardian: "Hollywood stars including Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon are launching a campaign with Amnesty International calling for the release of the acclaimed Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi, who has been sentenced to six years in prison. Panahi, who angered the government by supporting Iran's opposition green movement, is also banned from directing and producing films for 20 years after being found guilty in December of making propaganda against the regime. Amnesty International said a group of campaigners would deliver to the UN in New York tens of thousands of signatures including from Penn, Sarandon, Martin Scorsese and Ridley Scott demanding Panahi's conviction be overturned. About 20,000 people have signed the petition, along with Iranians including film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, pop singer Googoosh, academics Hamid Dabashi and Azar Nafisi, and previously imprisoned journalists Roxana Saberi and Maziar Bahari. Campaigners intend to hold a rally in New York outside the UN offices attended by Oscar-winning film-maker Paul Haggis." http://t.uani.com/lNGy2V
Domestic Politics
AP: "The Iranian currency, the rial, was devalued by 11 percent on Wednesday as the government tries to liberalize its economy and curb imports. The official exchange rate was 10,570 rials per U.S. dollar on Tuesday, and on Wednesday the Central Bank announced it would be 11,750 to the dollar. The dollar sold for 12,250 rials in the open market. It was 70 rials against the dollar in 1979, the year an Islamic revolution toppled the pro-Western Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The semi-official Fars news agency said Wednesday's devaluation by the Central Bank was aimed at introducing a single exchange rate, rather than one official rate and one open market rate." http://t.uani.com/lb8Bwc
Opinion & Analysis
Julian Borger in The Guardian: "Any mention of an Iranian nuclear weapon is taboo in the Islamic Republic, which insists that its nuclear programme is entirely for peaceful, civil purposes. So it is remarkable, to say the least, that an article has appeared on the Gerdab website, run by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, anticipating the day after Iran's first test of a nuclear warhead... This strange, hypothetical, article, which first appeared on April 24, hammers home again and again the message that an Iranian nuclear test will not lead to disaster. On the contrary, life will go as before except that Iranians will feel better about themselves: 'The news commotion will not knock life in Iran off balance. Civil servants will punch in at work on time as always, while some will be late as always... The day after the Islamic Republic of Iran's first nuclear test will be an ordinary day for us Iranians but in the eyes of some of us there will be a new sparkle. A sparkle of national pride and strength.' ... Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-Israeli expert on the Tehran regime currently lecturing in Colombia, described the Gerdab article as 'unbelievable': 'I have never seen anything like this report. It's breaking a major taboo. For now we have to treat it as a one off. However if this report is followed by others similar to it, then it would signify a major change in the way Iran refers to its nuclear program. It would mean that Iran has decided to use the idea of a nuclear bomb as a deterrence against further sanctions and the possibility of a military attack by the West. It could also be a tool for the regime to boost its waning popularity at home. Such a change could prove to be very damaging in the short and long term, as it would be a significant boost for western efforts to isolate Iran and to consolidate the international consensus against the Islamic Republic and its nuclear program. Such isolation and deteriorating economic situation could be more damaging to the regime's top priority, which is its survival, than a military attack by the West.'" http://t.uani.com/kDbRuZ
David Albright, Paul Brannan, and Andrea Sticker: "On June 8, Iran's vice president and head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Fereydoun Abbasi, announced that Iran would install 164-machine cascades of advanced centrifuges at the previously hidden Fordow enrichment plant and triple its enrichment output of 19.75 percent low enriched uranium (LEU) by the end of the year. By moving its 19.75 percent LEU production to Fordow and tripling its output of 19.75 percent LEU, Iran positions itself to stockpile a large amount of 19.75 percent LEU more quickly in a facility better protected against military strikes. A year after starting, Iran would have enough 19.75 percent LEU to more quickly break out and produce enough weapon-grade uranium for a nuclear weapon, if it chose to do so. Iran's announcement indicates that as few as one centrifuge cascade of advanced centrifuges could produce the 19.75 percent LEU at Fordow. ISIS is interpreting that the threefold increase in this case refers to the greater enrichment output of the advanced centrifuges compared to the IR-1 centrifuges at Natanz. Based on its output at the pilot enrichment plant at Natanz, Iran's monthly output of this LEU would increase threefold to almost 12 kilograms per month. Iran has already produced about 60 kilograms of 19.75 percent LEU at its pilot plant at Natanz. With increased production, Iran could accumulate about 200 kilograms of LEU one year after starting the cascade at Fordow, assuming the cascade at Natanz stops producing this material, as Iran has indicated will happen. Two hundred kilograms of 19.75 percent LEU are enough material, if further enriched, to make sufficient weapon-grade uranium for one nuclear weapon. A calculation illustrates this result and provides reasonable timelines for producing enough weapon-grade uranium for a nuclear weapon at either a declared facility like Natanz or Fordow, or at a secret enrichment plant." http://t.uani.com/kxJpH0
Arthur Herman in the NYPost: "Barack Obama surely wants to be remembered as the president who got Osama bin Laden and passed the nation's first universal-health-care plan. Instead, history may well mark him down as the leader who let Iran get the bomb -- and so doomed the Middle East to a new Dark Age. Events in Egypt, Libya and Yemen have pushed Iran out of the headlines -- but RAND Corp. analyst Gregory Jones is on the case. Using the latest data from the International Atomic Energy Agency, he recently concluded that, if Iran's centrifuges continue to produce enriched uranium at current capacity, the regime will have 90 percent of the 20 kilograms it needs to produce a nuclear weapon within two months -- certainly by summer's end. Even if Jones' timeline is off, and it's actually six or eight months, we may be confronting a nuclear-armed Iran -- what everyone has feared but failed to prevent -- before Christmas. This will radically reshape the Middle East in directions we don't want, and need to prepare to prevent. It will surely accelerate the regional arms race, with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and even Jordan all scrambling to join the nuclear club. But the trouble won't stop there. For example, we can expect the tide of the Arab Spring to flow decisively toward Tehran as the new power center in the region, much as Eastern Europe did toward Adolf Hitler in the late 1930s. When the dictator emerged triumphant over the Western democracies at the Munich conference, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and even Poland jumped to join the Nazi bandwagon. Today, the new leadership in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and elsewhere are likely to see aligning with Tehran as their key to power (Turkey has already gone down this road); the Palestinian Authority and other non-state powers will also trim their sails to the new wind. Meanwhile, Iranian allies such as Syria and Lebanon's Hezbollah will gain confidence, and will look for ways to expand their own influence and power -- and their threats to Israel. And it will lessen the chances for democratic change in Iran. The regime will finally realize the goal it has been singlemindedly pursuing for decades, despite every US pressure and Western sanction -- bolstering the legitimacy of the the brutal, and corrupt police state Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and his cronies have created." http://t.uani.com/kHsz2e
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