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Reuters: "The U.N. nuclear chief said on Wednesday that he planned to meet with Iran's foreign minister next week and that he was 'quite concerned' over plans by Tehran to triple uranium production capacity. Yukiya Amano, director general of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told Reuters in the Colombian capital, Bogota, that he planned to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi next week, but had no firm details. 'The most important message for Iran is that they need to fully implement the safeguard agreement and other relevant obligations. Further cooperation is needed to restore the confidence of the international community,' he said. 'We are quite concerned about that,' Amano said, confirming that the IAEA had received a 'very simple' letter from Iran about the plans. Iran announced last month it would shift its production of higher-grade uranium to an underground bunker and triple output capacity in a defiant move that further fueled Western unease about Tehran's intentions." http://t.uani.com/nXL3UC
Fox News: "Improvised rocket assisted munitions made in Tehran, favored by the Iranian trained Shia militias in Iraq, are placed on the back of flatbed trucks. Their target: U.S. military personnel and their bases in Iraq as the remaining U.S. forces prepare to leave the nation by the end of December. Fifteen Americans were killed in June, the deadliest month for U.S. personnel serving in Iraq in more than two years. And some say Iranian influence is showing up more and more in attacks on troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. 'You can clearly see what they are doing in Iraq,' Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said of Iran in an interview with Fox News. 'They are supplying Shia militias in Iraq and trying to disrupt our operations there and claiming that we were driven out.' Graham added that the threat is growing and has become a focal point of U.S. leadership in Iraq. 'Our military commanders in Iraq are very worried about Iranian influence growing in Iraq,' he said. Today in Baghdad Iraq's Prime Minister welcomed Iran's vice president and 170 Iranian companies who came to lobby for lucrative business contracts." http://t.uani.com/pxkUjv
AP: "Iraq's prime minister told a senior Iranian envoy Wednesday that their economic bonds can expand in all directions as Baghdad signaled deepening ties with its anti-American neighbor despite worries from Washington and Arab allies. The growing ties between Baghdad's Shiite-led government and Shiite powerhouse Iran highlight one of the region's major political shifts after the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, whose Sunni-dominated regime fought an eight-year war with Tehran in the 1980s... Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Iranian First Vice President Mohammed Reza Rahimi signed six agreements to bolster shared economic, health, technology and culture interests. Rahimi was in Baghdad on the first of a three-day visit to meet with business leaders and, in part, press Iraq to invest in Iran's health and energy markets... Just across the river from Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, Iranian businessmen representing around 170 companies met with Iraqi officials during a two-day conference to boost economic relations. Catalogues and brochures of the Iranian companies were put on tables in the lobby of the Sheraton Hotel, where the conference took place." http://t.uani.com/nw32st
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
JoongAng: "In February, Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors - both affiliates of Hyundai Motor Group - stopped shipping automobiles to Iran after the companies came under pressure from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), an American lobby group, for not complying with U.S. sanctions. In April, they reversed track, saying it 'wasn't right' that they continue to withhold their products from Iranians. It was the first time that the Korean company decided to stop exports due to political pressure from a third party or country... Hyundai exported 22,000 vehicles to Iran last year. Since most of them were mid- to large-size sedans and sports utility vehicles, the value was equivalent to exporting about 50,000 small cars. This year, 1,560 units shipped in January, none in February and March, 930 units in April, 1,800 in May and 2,000 units last month. Exports in the second half of the year are expected to hit over 2,000 units per month. This year's figures are expected to increase by about 10 percent compared with last year, even with the two-month ban. And weighing the pros and cons of stopping and not stopping exports to Iran, the company ultimately decided to do both: in response to pressure from the U.S. civic group, it decided to block exports to Iran for two months. 'This was the first time that we stopped exports due to political factors from a third country - in this case, the U.S. sanctions against Iran,' said a Hyundai Motor Group official. However, two months was all Hyundai was willing to do, because of how lucrative the market is for the automaker." http://t.uani.com/niEObP
Reuters: "Sanctions on Iran are aimed at hampering its nuclear program, but ordinary people both rich and poor are getting caught in their tightening net...But Iranian authorities dismiss sanctions as ineffective and useless and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president since 2005, has remained defiant. Some Iranians back his tough stance but many worry about international isolation, economic stagnation and the unrest that a possible spread of the 'Arab Spring' uprisings into the country might bring. 'We do not want another revolution... I am tired of our leaders' fights over gaining more power... I am tired of the growing economic pressure,' said retired teacher Reza Akbari, 68... Many conservatives who backed Ahmadinejad's disputed 2009 re-election are nevertheless blaming sanctions on his harsh anti-Western rhetoric and also criticize his economic policies." http://t.uani.com/pxBITh
Reuters: "Whether for wedding gifts or as a way to squirrel away savings, Iranians have a long history of buying gold coins, widely available from dealers in high street shops and bazaars. But recently, what was a steady demand has become a gold rush... The Iranian gold rush was mainly driven by fears about the domestic economy, particularly the risk of soaring inflation and a wobbly currency, he said. In addition to concerns about a global double-dip recession, the economy has been hit by sanctions as the United States leads global pressure on Tehran over a nuclear program many states say is aimed at building atomic weapons, a charge Iran denies. 'The reasons that people are drawn to these safe assets -- gold coins and hard currency -- are firstly a limited choice of investment opportunities, and secondly a fear from the weakness of the national currency,' said an economist who asked not to be named. 'These are results of more potential economic instability in the country.'" http://t.uani.com/onAVye
The Atlantic: "Just when Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was beginning to sound somewhat sane, he goes and says something like this: 'We don't need to build (atomic) bombs,' he told a crowd at a ceremony inaugurating a new dam in Western Iran. 'Bombs are for retarded people.' The Adam Sandler-esque soundbite comes from a report by Iran's semi-official FARS news agency, which doesn't give any sort of explanation for Ahmadinejad's befuddling connection between the mentally handicapped and weapons of mass destruction." http://t.uani.com/nxNDZE
Commerce
FT: "Pakistan is to become a key buyer of Iranian natural gas at a time when relations with Washington are at their most strained in recent years. Work on extending the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline will begin in the next six months and is set to be complete by 2014, according to Asim Hussain, the Pakistani natural resources minister. Some 1,100 km of the 2,700 km pipeline has already been completed on the Iranian side of the border, stretching from the South Pars field to the frontier with Pakistan. The energy crisis in Pakistan has given way to a gas shortfall of 2.5 billion cubic feet, but Iranian sources predict that the pipeline will be able to deliver more than 740 million cubic feet of gas per year. If so, this will make up 30% of Pakistan's current gas deficit. The Iran-Pakistan pipeline was originally conceived as a trilateral design that would extend to India, leading it to be dubbed the 'Peace Pipeline'. But India withdrew from negotiations last year in the wake of U.S opposition to the plans." http://t.uani.com/pCl7b7
Human Rights
Guardian: "Human rights activists have raised serious concerns about a lawyer who fell foul of Iran's Islamic regime for highlighting the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. On the first anniversary of the international uproar that forced Iran to temporarily halt the punishment of Mohammadi Ashtiani, campaigners said they had fears for her lawyer, Houtan Kian, who remains incommunicado in prison nine months after he was arrested and has been reportedly tortured. Kian was arrested last October with Mohammadi Ashtiani's son, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, and two German journalists who were interviewing them without the government's permission in the western city of Tabriz. A few weeks before his arrest, Kian had complained that his house had been raided by security forces and his files confiscated." http://t.uani.com/p5pZc3
Radio Farda: "The United States has expressed dismay over reports an Iranian may face the death penalty over his religious beliefs. Youcef Nadarkhani could become the first Iranian put to death for apostasy since 1990 if he refuses to recant his Christian faith. In a statement, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, 'while Iran's leaders hypocritically claim to promote tolerance, they continue to detain, imprison, harass and abuse those who simply wish to worship the faith of their choosing.' The fate of the 32-year-old Nadarkhani remains unclear. His lawyer told AFP on July 3 that Iran's Supreme Court had overturned the death sentence against Nadarkhani." http://t.uani.com/nHeBNu
Domestic Politics
Reuters: "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday plans to segregate male and female students at Iranian universities must be halted, drawing another battle line in his ongoing tussle with traditionalist rivals. As part of a wider drive to assert Islamic values at Iran's colleges, the minister in charge of higher education has said male and female students must be taught separately when classes begin again in September. But in a message on his website, Ahmadinejad said the policy must be stopped. 'It has been heard that in some universities, classes and disciplines are being segregated without considering the coincidences,' he said on the website dolat.ir. 'Urgent action is required to prevent these superficial and non-scholarly actions.' Ahmadinejad's opposition to sex segregation will further alienate his conservative and religious critics who have becoming increasingly outspoken against him and his circle of advisers they say belong to a 'deviant current' that puts secular nationalism ahead of Islam, posing a potential threat to Iran's clerical rule." http://t.uani.com/q5UBxO
Opinion & Analysis
Trudy Rubin in The Philadelphia Inquirer: "As the United States moves toward withdrawing its last 46,000 troops from that country by the end of 2011, Iraq has become a black hole. It is the place Americans want to forget and the media hardly cover. No wonder. Although violence is way down since the mid-2000s, there's been a resurgence of car bombs and sectarian killings. The Iraqi government barely functions, and the country ranks nearly at the bottom of the Transparency International corruption index (175th out of 178, just above Afghanistan). Who wants to remember a war fought for reasons proven wrong, a war for which the Bush administration quit Afghanistan and turned victory there into near-defeat? Who wants to recall a war that cost the lives of nearly 5,000 U.S. troops and more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians - while boosting Iran's influence in the region and slashing ours? And yet, that expanding Iranian influence should grab our attention. Unchecked, it will reverse Iraq's slim democratic gains and restoke Iraq's sectarian violence, while threatening our broader interests in the region. Is this how we want our misguided Iraq venture to end? As the United States leaves, Tehran is expanding its sway over Baghdad, beyond the normal influence of a neighbor that shares a long border. Iran is sending a clear message to Washington that it intends to exert primacy in Baghdad. June was the bloodiest month for the U.S. military since 2008, and U.S. officials blame the 15 troop deaths on Shiite insurgents who obtained deadly weapons from Iranian sources. Moreover, Tehran appears to have Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in a headlock. Once a politician who showed independence from Tehran, the unpopular Maliki has become dependent on an Iranian-backed Shiite group led by the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who spends most of his time in the Iranian city of Qom. Even more disturbing is the decision by Maliki and his Dawa Party to submit to the religious authority of Grand Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahroudi, a hard-line Iranian cleric, rather than to Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. Shahroudi endorses the Iranian system of rule by a supreme cleric, while Sistani draws a line between mosque and state... Americans forget, or never knew, what terrible suffering this war inflicted on Iraqis - in a war that also badly wounded us. To have paid these costs just to hand Iraq over to Iran's clerics would not just threaten our security. It would be obscene. We must remember Iraq's history as we decide what to do next." http://t.uani.com/pynEE1
The National Editorial Board: "Convinced that conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had stolen the presidential election of 2009, tens of thousands of Iranians protested in the streets that summer - and were ruthlessly stifled. The 'Green Revolution' vanished from view, and even the example of the Arab Spring revived only a faint echo of public protest in tightly controlled Iran. Increasingly, however, discord within Iran's elite is bringing new hope to those among Iran's 78 million people who hope for more responsive rulers. Green shoots may soon begin to rise toward the light through the widening cracks in the regime. Everyone at the top in Iran is politically and religiously conservative, but the ruling class in this 'theocratic republic' is far from monolithic. News reports focus on infighting between Mr Ahmadinejad and his team, on one hand, and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his acolytes on the other. As his title suggests, Ayatollah Khamenei appears to be winning, and the president's influence is shrinking. The struggle might seem arcane to outsiders: some presidential aides were even accused of using sorcery. It would be wrong however to overlook the role of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, arguably the most potent force in the country and not obviously subordinate to anyone. Combining military and intelligence roles with a strong presence throughout the economy, the Guard is a state within a state, with members and former members - including Mr Ahmadinejad - in high places throughout the government. Now a report in The Times of London suggests that Mr Amadinejad has sent a public warning to the Guard, long known for black market exploits, by complaining in a speech about 'our own smuggling brothers'. For the president, this approach is courageous, foolhardy or desperate - perhaps all three. But all of this is a signal that change is coming." http://t.uani.com/qDn8rL
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