Top Stories
Reuters: "Iran is preparing to install centrifuges for higher-grade uranium enrichment in an underground bunker, diplomatic sources say, a development that is likely to add to Western worries about Tehran's atomic aims. Preparatory work is under way at the Fordow facility, tucked deep inside a mountain to protect it against any attacks, and machines used to refine uranium could soon be moved to the site near the clerical city of Qom, the sources said. The Islamic Republic said in June it would shift production of uranium enriched to 20 percent purity to Fordow from its main Natanz plant this year and triple output capacity, in a defiant response to charges that it is trying to make atomic bombs. Tehran only disclosed the existence of Fordow two years ago after Western intelligence detected it and said it was evidence of covert nuclear activities. The facility has yet to start operating. 'They are preparing (for the centrifuges to be installed) in Fordow,' one diplomatic source said... Carrying out the process in Fordow could provide greater protection for Iran's uranium-purifying centrifuges against any U.S. and Israeli air strikes... The Institute for Science and International Security, a U.S.-based thinktank, has said the Fordow plant could, a year after its implementation, enable Iran 'to more quickly break out and produce enough weapon-grade uranium for a nuclear weapon, if it chose to do so.'" http://t.uani.com/qTZNAy
AFP: "Iran on Tuesday signaled it wanted closer cooperation with the UN atomic watchdog but said the Vienna-based agency must agree to 'explicit' guidelines on how to proceed to solve a nuclear row. 'Experts from both sides have to sit together and work out a mechanism to see how we can proceed,' Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said after talks with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Yukiya Amano. But the 'IAEA should come out and say that the first stage has been over' and that six outstanding issues have been answered. 'And it should be said in a very explicit way,' he added speaking at IAEA headquarters in the Austrian capital. Iran and the IAEA agreed in 2007 on a roadmap for Tehran to answer outstanding concerns about its contested nuclear programme. The Security Council has demanded, with both resolutions and sanctions, that Iran stop uranium enrichment, which produces fuel for civilian power reactors but can also make the raw material for atom bombs. In its latest report the IAEA reiterated demands that Tehran clarify its position before the watchdog wraps up its probe into the Iranian nuclear programme. The UN agency did not immediately react to Salehi's statement." http://t.uani.com/ruDvev
Reuters: "There was no sign of movement in the deadlock between Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog over Tehran's atomic activities Tuesday despite an upbeat assessment by the Islamic state's foreign minister. Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said he held 'very fruitful' discussions with Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and they had agreed to explore ways to help resolve outstanding issues. He said experts will seek to create a 'new mechanism' to improve cooperation between the U.N. body and Tehran, which is facing intensifying Western sanctions pressure. But the IAEA gave a different picture, saying in a brief statement that Amano had 'reiterated the agency's position on the issues where Iran is not meeting its obligations.' The IAEA has voiced growing concern in the past year about suspicions that Iran may be seeking to develop a nuclear-armed missile. The U.N. agency has repeatedly called on Tehran to engage with it to help ease such concerns." http://t.uani.com/pXlSiQ
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
Haaretz: "Iran launched two long-range missiles into the Indian Ocean in February, Iranian news agencies reported yesterday, quoting as their source the commander of the Aerospace Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. The commander, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, said that if Iran is attacked, it can retaliate by targeting American aircraft carriers in the region, which he described as 'moving targets.' Hajizadeh said the launch test included firing two missiles from the Semnan province in the north of the country. He said American spy planes were operating in the area, but 'curiously didn't report that.' Iran has claimed for some time that it has rockets with a range of 2,000 km. but a statement on their actual launch for such a distance is unusual, as is the choice of direction − toward the Indian Ocean. Israeli missiles expert Uzi Rubin told Haaretz that launching a missile into the ocean at such a distance shows the Iranians' ability to chart the course of the missiles and pinpoint the landing location. He said this was a breakthrough that would allow the Iranians to go on increasing the range of their missiles, if they so desire." http://t.uani.com/q8tzcP
Commerce
AP: "Iran has established an international exchange for crude oil in a free trade zone on the Persian Gulf island of Kish. During a ceremony marking the launch, Ali Salehabadi, who oversees Iran's exchanges, said the market would supply crude in the Middle East. He invited international traders to participate. Iran ranks second in output among OPEC countries and controls about 5 percent of the global oil supply. It has sought to wield its oil resources as a bargaining tool in its standoff with the West over its nuclear program. Iran planned the crude market in 2005 and established an exchange for other oil products in 2008." http://t.uani.com/qzRY4j
UPI: "India and China are driving the momentum in the crude oil market, prompting Iran to focus its efforts on those countries, an energy official said. Mohsen Ghamsari, a director at the National Iranian Oil Co., described India and China as driving forces in world energy markets. 'So we should allocate a larger portion of our exports to the two countries, while preserving the Asian and European markets,' he was quoted by Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency as saying. China, however, has taken on less crude in recent months adding to speculation that global economic recovery is slowing. The Independent, a London newspaper, reported this week that Chinese oil imports for June were 11.5 percent less than the same time last year. Ghamsari said New Delhi was getting 400,000 barrels of crude oil from Iran per day. Both sides, however, have faced payment issues because of economic sanctions imposed on Iran." http://t.uani.com/n5Gi7z
Human Rights
JPost: "Iran does not claim to have a spotless human rights record, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Tuesday after criticism from his Austrian counterpart. Michael Spindelegger said he had called on Iran to release two women's rights activists and had asked about three American hikers set to go on trial later this month. Salehi, who was in Vienna for talks with the UN nuclear watchdog chief, said Iran was determined to improve its human rights situation. 'No country in the world can claim to have a spotless human rights record, a perfect situation. We do not claim that everything is perfect in our country,' he said in comments translated into German from Farsi." http://t.uani.com/rhB8ag
Guardian: "Iran has stepped up online censorship by upgrading the filtering system that enables the Islamic regime to block access to thousands of websites it deems inappropriate for Iranian users. The move comes one month after the United States announced plans to launch new services facilitating internet access and mobile phone communications in countries with tight controls on freedom of speech, a decision that infuriated Tehran's regime and prompted harsh reactions from several Iranian officials. The upgrade had at first appeared as a relaxation of the censorship machine. Iran's online community said on Monday that filtering was temporarily lifted for the entire country, giving users access to banned websites such as Twitter and Facebook. But hopes for an end to censorship were dashed when news agencies reported later in the day that the respite was due to the process of making the upgrade. Despite the filtering, many Iranians access blocked addresses with help from proxy websites or virtual private network (VPN) services. The upgrade is aimed at stopping users bypassing censorship." http://t.uani.com/oEG77a
AFP: "A woman sentenced to death by stoning in Iran is in 'perfect health' and has been allowed to attend her mother's funeral, a justice official told IRNA state news agency on Wednesday. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani 'is in prison in perfect health... and like all inmates enjoys her full rights as a prisoner,' IRNA quoted Malek Ajdar Sharifi, head of East Azarbaijan province's justice department, as saying. Sharifi added Mohammadi Ashtiani 'meets with her family members regularly in accordance with regulations and in recent days she was given leave to attend her mother's funeral.' The official did not elaborate on when and for how long Mohammadi Ashtiani was granted leave." http://t.uani.com/rjLAJM
Foreign Affairs
AP: "Iran's state TV says the country's defense minister has dismissed renewed U.S. claims that Tehran is arming Iraqi insurgents. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said during a visit to Iraq earlier this week that the U.S. is concerned about Iran's supplying of arms to Shiite groups in Iraq. Wednesday's report on Iran's state TV quoted the defense minister, Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, as saying Panetta's remarks were aimed at distracting public opinion. The report quoted him as saying that 'U.S. hegemony in the region has been smashed and the remark by Panetta is an indication of the political failure.'" http://t.uani.com/oG5kAB
AP: "Lawmakers from Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region on Tuesday accused Iran of building on Iraqi soil - the latest in an escalating border spat. The three-province Kurdish region in northern Iraq borders Iran. On Monday, a senior Iranian military official accused the president of the Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani, of providing bases to an Iranian Kurdish opposition group, PEJAK. Iran reserves the right to attack those bases on Iraqi soil, the official was quoted as saying. On Tuesday, 10 lawmakers from the Iraqi Kurdish parliament visited the village of Choman, about 10 kilometers from the Iranian border. They said they saw Iranian workers paving roads in an area that has been shelled repeatedly by Iranian artillery. They said the Iranians have been in Choman for the past two weeks. Previous Iranian attacks have killed sheep and birds that belonged to Kurdish farmers, the lawmakers said." http://t.uani.com/pD4k8N
Opinion & Analysis
WSJ Editorial Board: "New Pentagon chief Leon Panetta's maiden journey to America's conflict zones this week garnered attention for his alleged misstatements about the pace of the Afghan troop drawdown and the rationale for the Iraq war. We came away more concerned by his incomplete answers to Iran's designs on Iraq and America's future role there. Five months before a planned final withdrawal, Iran's proxies in Iraq are putting the squeeze on the U.S. and its allies. Three senior U.S. officials, including Mr. Panetta, say 'forensic proof' shows that Iran is funding, arming and training Shiite militias, among them remnants of pro-Iranian cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army. These groups are behind the recent escalation in violence. Fifteen GIs were killed in June, the highest monthly toll in three years, including nine in rocket attacks that carry a Tehran return address. A public diagnosis of Iran's role is clarifying, but the next step has to be a coherent response to this provocation. The U.S. needs to protect its troops as well as the nearly decade-long investment in a secure and democratic Iraq. The gains made since the success of the 2007 surge aren't in immediate danger, yet they're reversible. We doubt many of the troops in his audience in Iraq found reassuring Mr. Panetta's promise to 'push the Iraqis to take on the responsibility' and lead a crackdown on the Shiite militias. The U.S. has chosen not to go after the militias directly to shield the government of Nouri al-Maliki from the domestic political fallout of unilateral American military action. Such considerations are cold comfort to soldiers under attack. The U.S. has a legal and moral responsibility to respond. We ought to go after the militias in Iraq as well as their backers in Iran who've decided to make Iraq a proxy war. Iraqi domestic politics complicate American options. Mr. Maliki proved a brave and able leader during the hardest days of the 2007 surge, and he helped turn Iraq around. But his nationalist politics have boxed him in. Last year Mr. Maliki made political peace with the Sadr party, bringing them into his unwieldy coalition government. He won't fight Shiite militias with the same resolve he showed against Sunni extremists. More recently Mr. Maliki has banked his political future on a U.S. withdrawal, proclaiming last year that 'the last American soldier will leave' in December and that the decision 'is sealed.' Now Iraqi leaders quietly say they want some U.S. troops to stay beyond December, perhaps 10,000 or more, but they're too paralyzed by internal squabbling to put in the request. One can appreciate Mr. Panetta's frustration in saying, 'Dammit, make a decision.' America's continued troop presence can fill in security gaps and provide a stabilizing influence in Iraq and the region. The U.S. has kept troops in South Korea and Japan for six decades after the end of the wars there, and a similar presence in Iraq might be as salutary. But it should only do so as long as the troops can protect themselves and have a good partner in Baghdad. They can't be sitting ducks. As much as al Qaeda, Iran wants to rekindle sectarian tensions and undermine democratic politics in Iraq. Their model is Lebanon. The U.S. can help the Iraqis push back. The proposed multibillion dollar sale of up to two F-16 squadrons, which the Journal reported yesterday was back on track, is one step forward. A long-term security relationship with Iraq can best ensure that the sacrifices made in the last decade aren't squandered." http://t.uani.com/nL8raH
Daily Star Editorial Board: "Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said Tuesday that the peoples of the region should enjoy equal rights, security and dignity. More advice from Ahmadinejad: People deserve the right to vote, and the blessings of freedom and justice. Even more: The demands of the general public must be heeded, and not ignored. Ahmadinejad's words of wisdom, uttered during a meeting with a visiting Turkish official, have a lovely ring to them. It's a safe, general call, since no names are named; no country is embarrassed by being singled out. It's also the height of cynicism, or outright hypocrisy, for a senior Iranian official to offer advice on how to respond to the demands of the street. Two years ago, Ahmadinejad's government conducted a bloody crackdown against an uprising by Iran's own people, who were demanding, among other things, dignity, justice and free elections. Ahmadinejad also tackled the popular uprisings in the Arab world by using the same type of 'foreign conspiracy' rhetoric that has characterized the reaction of Arab authorities to the protests sweeping the region. Naturally, Ahmadinejad singled out Syria here, as a special target for an America bent on stirring up trouble and tension. But Ahmadinejad's remarks come at a time in which former President Ali Hashemi Rafsanjani is saying that Iran can negotiate on an equal footing with the United States; he justifies the policy of negotiations with Washington by citing an act by Ahmadinejad, namely his opening channels of negotiation with American officials. One piece of the Washington-Tehran negotiation process puzzle is located at the International Atomic Energy Association, where on Tuesday Iran's foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, said fruitful discussions were held with the head of the IAEA. Salehi put his positive spin on the meetings, while the IAEA official talked about Iran's failure to respect its international obligations. The Iranians can spin things all they want, but few are buying it. Domestically, Iran's treatment of its own Green Revolution gives it little right to comment on the 'Arab Spring.' In terms of foreign policy, Iran is meddling in Iraq, Bahrain, Syria and Lebanon, among other countries. Domestically, Ahmadinejad is engaged in a bitter, public feud with the ultra-conservative clergy. As if that weren't enough, the country is also suffering from international sanctions over its nuclear program. These are beginning to cause economic hardship and affecting the people's already-tenuous economic situation. Isn't it time for Iran to look inside, and solve its own host of internal problems? Shouldn't Iranian officials focus on solving their own conflicts with the IAEA and the international community? Iranian officials should live up to their own rhetoric: Reform at home, and no meddling abroad." http://t.uani.com/q3aafK
David Albright & Andrea Stricker in The Iran Primer: "The conflict over Iran's nuclear program appears to be getting worse. In June, Iran decided to relocate 20 percent enrichment at its fortified Fordow enrichment plant near Qom and install advanced centrifuges that would triple its enrichment output. These steps will make it easier for Iran to quickly break out to nuclear weapons. As British Foreign Secretary William Hague pointed out in a recent Guardian op-ed, moving enrichment to Fordow and tripling output makes little sense in terms of its civilian nuclear program, which Iran claims is the only purpose of its nuclear program. Iran's appointment of Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani as the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) has increased the crisis atmosphere. Abbasi-Davani is a physicist widely suspected of having background in Iran's nuclear weapon research programs. He has regularly been linked to Iran's efforts to actually craft a nuclear weapon, a process called weaponization. Abbasi-Davani was a key scientist in the Iranian covert nuclear weapons program headed by Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a strong supporter of Iran's nuclear weapons program, according to an expert close to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Abbasi-Davani personally directed work to calculate the yield of a nuclear weapon; he also worked on high energy neutron sources, the expert said. Iran's continued work on nuclear capable ballistic missiles and failure to announce these launches adds further to this growing list of suspicions. Iran's decision to move 20 percent enrichment to Fordow could be aimed at acclimatizing the international community to conditions that would make a breakout to nuclear weapons more feasible. By increasing the enrichment level and its stock of 20 percent low-enriched uranium, Iran could reach a so-called 'break out' capability that would enable it to make enough weapon-grade uranium for a nuclear weapon in a few months. Iran already has the knowledge to build a crude nuclear weapon, according to the IAEA. Iran is likely to continue to expand its enrichment capability until it needs less time to make the requisite amount of weapon-grade uranium for one explosive device. Once Iran reaches a certain capability, it could decide to take that step to make nuclear weapons. Having a device sufficient for testing may be all Iran wants. North Korea settled for that scenario, while it improved its ability to make deliverable nuclear weapons. Enrichment at Fordow also offers Iran the benefit of protection from air strikes, since the facility is located 90 meters underneath a mountain. If Iran were to restrict IAEA inspectors from having access to the plant, little could be done aside from bombing the facility's tunnel entrances or introducing ground troops, which could trigger a full-scale war. In the absence of a negotiated settlement, Iran appears to be steadily moving to a status as a virtual nuclear weapons state in which it could build nuclear weapons quickly and easily. Once it reaches this capability, what will the Iranian regime decide? Will the temptation be too great to resist? In order to bridge the gulf and prevent Iran's slow slide to nuclear weapons, the most viable option for the international community is an intensified dual track approach of both pressure and negotiations." http://t.uani.com/pQ0KP1
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