Top Stories
WSJ: "Iran's elite military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has transferred lethal new munitions to its allies in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent months, according to senior U.S. officials, in a bid to accelerate the U.S. withdrawals from these countries. The Revolutionary Guard has smuggled rocket-assisted exploding projectiles to its militia allies in Iraq, weapons that have already resulted in the deaths of American troops, defense officials said. They said Iranians have also given long-range rockets to the Taliban in Afghanistan, increasing the insurgents' ability to hit U.S. and other coalition positions from a safer distance. Such arms shipments would escalate the shadow competition for influence playing out between Tehran and Washington across the Middle East and North Africa, fueled by U.S. preparations to draw down forces from two wars and the political rebellions that are sweeping the region... 'I think we are likely to see these Iranian-backed groups continue to maintain high attack levels' as the exit date nears, Maj. Gen. James Buchanan, the U.S. military's top spokesman in Iraq, said in an interview. 'But they are not going to deter us from doing everything we can to help the Iraqi security forces.' In June, 15 U.S. servicemen died in Iraq, the highest monthly casualty figure there in more than two years." http://t.uani.com/kLYRnW
Fox News: "Danish shipping giant Maersk has decided to suspend business ties with several Iranian ports after the Obama administration blacklisted port operator Tidewater Middle East Co. The decision comes after a yearlong campaign by Iran watchdog United Against Nuclear Iran to pressure Maersk and one other firm -- Japanese construction company Komatsu -- to pull out of the country. The group claimed the firms were doing business with Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions restricting firms from knowingly investing in Iran's energy sector... United Against Nuclear Iran President Mark Wallace applauded the decision, while urging Maersk to 'completely end' business in Iran. 'There is little excuse for doing any business with the Iranian regime, particularly when it comes to a company like Maersk that receives more than $4 billion in contracts from the U.S. Department of Defense,' he said. 'Iran's regime has a long history of exploiting shipping companies in order to illegally import nuclear technology and arm terrorist groups. Companies that continue doing business in Iran are not 'victims' of Iran's deceit, they are complicit in Iran's strategy.'" http://t.uani.com/lQFUjU
AFP: "Iran is ready if threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz to ships linking the Gulf to international markets, Revolutionary Guards commander General Mohammad Ali Jafari told Mehr news agency Monday. 'In light of the strategic position of the Strait of Hormuz, this issue has never been taken off the agenda,' Jafari said, commenting on whether Tehran was still prepared to close down the shipping lane if threatened. 'We have not stopped there... we are seeking to use our defence capabilities in open waters,' Jafari added as forces under his command prepared to launch the naval phase of the 10-day Great Prophet-6 exercise, which lasts until Friday. Media reported the Guards will launch surface-to-sea missiles on Tuesday." http://t.uani.com/jo8wQN
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
AP: "Iran's latest war games have featured the predictable blaze of missile tests and an unexpected peek at underground launch silos. There's one bit of military showmanship, though, that ties it all together: Promoting the Made in Iran label. Boasting about homegrown defense technology is growing louder as Iran claims U.N. sanctions cannot blunt efforts to keep pace with America's Gulf allies - led by Saudi Arabia - that are awash in Pentagon weaponry and taking an increasingly tough line against Tehran. The 10-day military exercises - which wrap up Thursday - also fit into Iran's narrative of growing self-sufficiency on other fronts including equipment to create nuclear fuel and ambitions to join the club of space-exploring nations. There's little direct evidence about how much of Iran's military arsenal is now built at home. But many defense analysts note that Iranian engineers have had decades to copy and modify designs first obtained from abroad, including No-Dong missiles from North Korea and air defense batteries based on Russia's S-300 system and America's Hawk missiles purchased before the 1979 Islamic Revolution." http://t.uani.com/igPzXs
AP: "Iran's defense minister claimed Saturday that the country's missile progress shows that U.N. sanctions are ineffective and won't stop Tehran's defense programs. The statement by Gen. Ahmad Vahidi comes during 10 days of war games in Iran's latest show of military might and displays what Tehran claims is growing self-sufficiency in military and other technologies. Vahidi said Iran's missile program is 'indigenous' and has no reliance on foreign countries to meet its defense requirements. Iran is under four sets of U.N. sanctions over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a technology that can be used to produce nuclear fuel or atomic weapons. Last week, Iran unveiled underground missile silos for the first time, making Iran's arsenal less vulnerable to any possible attack." http://t.uani.com/loGw65
AFP: "Iran has 'seriously warned' India that it could halt crude supplies if New Delhi failed to pay overdue payments hampered by international sanctions against Tehran, the oil ministry said Sunday. 'We have seriously warned the Indian side of the possibility to halt oil exports if a solution is not found to clear its arrears,' Fars news agency quoted National Iranian Oil Company managing director Ahmad Ghalebani as saying. Iran's state-run company, however, said it was working to maintain its trade with India, which as its second largest client after China absorbs about 20 percent of its crude exports. These warnings 'do not mean supplies have been halted and we have no plans to stop exports to the Indian market,' said NIOC director of international affairs Mohsen Ghamsari. India has been struggling for six months to pay Tehran for the oil supplies, through various Asian and European banking channels -- Germany in particular -- which have been successively closed one after another." http://t.uani.com/mvkky5
Human Rights
AP: "Iran's hard-line judiciary has sentenced a prominent human rights lawyer to nine years in jail and barred him from working as an attorney for 10 years after he was convicted of seeking to overthrow the ruling system. Lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, a founder along with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi of the Center for the Defenders of Human Rights, was also banned from teaching at university for 10 years. The semiofficial ISNA news agency reported yesterday the lawyer has also been sentenced to pay the equivalent of $300 dollars for possessing a satellite TV receiver in his apartment. Dadkhah says he will appeal. The lawyer represented activists and opposition supporters arrested after the disputed 2009 presidential election." http://t.uani.com/j05vd8
AP: "The speaker of Germany's parliament is appealing to his Iranian counterpart to release an Iranian female sports journalist arrested a day before she planned to leave for the women's soccer World Cup in Germany. Norbert Lammert's office said Monday he wrote a letter to the president of Iran's parliament, Ali Larijani, denouncing photographer Maryam Majd's arrest 'not only as an attack on media freedom but also as a striking breach of internationally guaranteed freedom rights and human rights.' Lammert called on Larijani to shed light on what happened to Majd and urging him to support her swift release." http://t.uani.com/ij4E2Q
AFP: "Iran's supreme court has overturned a death sentence handed down to Yusef Nadarkhani, a Christian pastor accused of apostasy for having converted from Islam, his lawyer told AFP on Sunday. 'The supreme court has annuled the death sentence and sent the case back to the court in Rasht (his hometown), asking the accused to repent,' Mohammad Ali Dadkhah said. Nadarkhani, now 32, converted from Islam to Christianity at the age of 19 and became a pastor of a small evangelical community called the Church of Iran." http://t.uani.com/mJy8Fp
Foreign Affairs
Bloomberg: "Iran aims to increase trade with Japan by about 16 percent to some $14 billion this year, Press TV reported, citing Abbas Araghchi, the Persian Gulf country's ambassador to Japan. Trade between Iran and Japan reached $12 billion in 2010, the Iranian state-run news channel reported, citing remarks by Araghchi yesterday. Japan buys about 350 thousand barrels of Iranian oil per day, according to the Press TV, citing remarks earlier this year by Kinichi Kumano, Japan's Ambassador to Tehran." http://t.uani.com/jRuZwE
AFP: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hit out at Western governments on Monday for 'tearing apart' Sudan while rejecting the demands of separatists on their own soil, his website said. 'Enemies want to tear apart Sudan,' Ahmadinejad said in a speech in the southeastern port city of Chabahar ahead of south Sudan's proclamation of independence on Saturday. 'Those who are concerned about realising the rights of a group of Sudanese people and are seeking to declare the south as independent, how come they do not share this concern for the people of Spain's Basque Country, Northern Ireland, France's Corsica, or the southern states of America?' he asked. 'Why don't they hold referendums for them?'" http://t.uani.com/kzsALR
AFP: "The president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region has warned that ties with Tehran could suffer if Iran continues cross-border shelling against opponents, in a statement Sunday. 'We condemn the artillery fire against Iranian citizens in the border region of Kurdistan,' Massud Barzani said, in the statement posted on his office website. 'This action is unjustified and may affect relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the autonomous region of Kurdistan,' he warned. Iran's forces regularly shell the border regions of Iraqi Kurdistan, home to members of the separatist Iranian-Kurdish rebel group PJAK, or the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan. On Thursday Iranian forces shelled Haj Omran, a border crossing 70 kilometres (43 miles) northeast of the Kurdistan capital of Arbil." http://t.uani.com/l2PvHC
CNN: "Iran plans to prosecute 26 current and former American officials, an Iranian lawmaker said Sunday, potentially escalating a tit-for-tat dispute between the two countries. 'The American officials will be tried in Iranian courts in absentia before they are referred to the relevant international tribunals' if Iran's parliament approves the plan, Tehran member of parliament Esmaeel Kowsari said, according to Mashregh News. He did not name them, but Iran's government-backed Press TV said in May that parliament planned sanctions on Americans including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the current and former commanders of the Guantanamo Bay detention center. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator of Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, and Gen. Tommy Franks, who was head of U.S. Central Command during the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, are also on the list." http://t.uani.com/mj8r0H
AP: "Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman are expressing concern that Iran is aggressively extending its support for anti-democracy forces wherever they appear. In appearances on 'Fox News Sunday,' Graham, a Republican, says it is important for the United States to push back against Iran's assistance to the Taliban in Afghanistan, opponents of the government in Iraq and protesters battling the Syrian regime. Lieberman says Iran has the blood of hundreds of American soldiers on its hands and that legislation in Congress would impose additional economic sanctions on an Iranian government that has murdered its own people." http://t.uani.com/kxWHje
JPost: "Head of IDF Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi warned of Iranian intervention in Egyptian elections, speaking about the regime in a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting on Tuesday. 'Iraq is attempting to influence the political process in Egypt through efforts to connect with the Muslim Brotherhood,' Kochavi said. Kochavi also said that the Muslim Brotherhood is pressing for elections in Egypt to take place as soon as possible, because it is 'the only group that's ready for elections.' 'The international community is trying to delay the vote so more moderate groups can be better organized,' he explained." http://t.uani.com/m6zOHb
Opinion & Analysis
Frida Ghitis in The Miami Herald: "Of all the series of unexpected, transformative, events unfolding in the Middle East, one of the most astonishing dramas is transpiring in Iran, where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is about to lose power. No, the pro-democracy forces have not suddenly reawakened to overthrow Ahmadinejad and the ayatollahs. Instead, the same Shiite clerics who so forcefully supported the president against mass opposition protesters two years ago have now turned decisively and very publicly against Ahmadinejad. The political intrigue and high-level battles continue, but for practical purposes Ahmadinejad has already become a spent force. On the surface, this may sound like good news for the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of Iranians, who took to the streets in 2009, accusing the president and the Islamic Republic's ruling regime of stealing the presidential election. It may also sound like good news for the West after years of unsuccessfully pushing back against Iran's illegal nuclear program. Unfortunately, the still-raging battle between Ahmadinejad and the ayatollahs pits hardliners against harderliners. The advocates of true democratic reform are mere spectators in this bout, though they have reason to hope the contenders will bludgeon each other enough that the entire regime will ultimately collapse. In this battle between bad and worse, Ahmadinejad represents the lesser of two pernicious evils. And Ahmadinejad's enemies, who stand with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will surely win. In the immediate aftermath of the political clash, Iran will emerge a less open, less conciliatory nation, one that will not yield to the democratic aspirations of its people, much less to Western demands to an end of uranium enrichment. Still, the fractures at the top point to deep cracks in the regime that has tried to blend Islamic rule (Velayat-e-Faqih) with elements of democracy. Ahmadinejad stands as the supposed choice of the people. The ayatollahs, the 'signs of God,' have the last word in a dispute between the president, the supposed choice of the people, and the unelected Supreme Leader. The regime's pretense of democracy is peeling away." http://t.uani.com/jnp09N
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