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WashPost: "The Obama administration said Thursday that Iran is helping al-Qaeda funnel cash and recruits into Pakistan for its international operations, the most serious U.S. allegation to date of Iranian aid to the terrorist group. Documents filed by the Treasury Department accuse Iran of facilitating an al-Qaeda-run support network that transfers large amounts of cash from Middle East donors to al-Qaeda's top leadership in Pakistan's tribal region. A Syrian national who directs the network has been allowed to operate in Iran since 2005, and senior Iranian officials know about money transfers and allow the movement of al-Qaeda foot soldiers through its territory, administration officials said. Although U.S. officials have repeatedly accused Iran of assisting al-Qaeda, links between the two have been difficult to prove. Al-Qaeda regards the Shiite denomination, the dominant branch of Islam in Iran, as heretical, and Iran has sought at times to crack down on the terrorist group, deporting some operatives and holding others under house arrest. U.S. officials asserted that the alleged network offered new evidence of Iranian support. 'By exposing Iran's secret deal with al-Qaeda, allowing it to funnel funds and operatives through its territory, we are illuminating yet another aspect of Iran's unmatched support for terrorism,' said David S. Cohen, the Treasury Department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence." http://t.uani.com/oG1WMZ
AP: "A man shot dead on a Tehran street by motorcycle-riding gunmen last weekend was a scientist involved in suspected Iranian attempts to make nuclear weapons and not a student as officially claimed, a foreign government official and a former U.N. nuclear inspector have told The Associated Press. The man was shot Saturday by a pair of gunmen firing from motorcycles in an attack similar to recent assassinations of two nuclear scientists that Iran blames on the United States and Israel. State-run media initially identified him as Darioush Rezaei, a physics professor and expert in neutron transport, but backtracked within hours, with officials subsequently naming him as Darioush Rezaeinejad, an electronics student. An official - from a member nation of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency - verified that the victim was named Darioush Rezaeinejad, but said he participated in developing high-voltage switches, a key component in setting off the explosions needed to trigger a nuclear warhead. An abstract seen by the AP and bearing the name Darioush Rezaeinejad as a co-author appears to back that claim." http://t.uani.com/q79vt8
AP: "Diplomats say Iran is lagging behind on plans to increase production of uranium enriched to a grade that can be turned quickly into the material used to arm nuclear warheads. They tell The Associated Press Friday that as of July 23 Tehran had not set up enriching equipment at a bunker planned for that purpose, and say Iran now plans to produce less of the higher-enriched uranium at the site than originally envisaged. Diplomats say only half of the approximately 1,000 centrifuges to be installed - instead of all - will churn out higher-enriched uranium. The rest will produce material that is more difficult to turn into warhead cores. Plans were to have the enriching centrifuges installed by the end of July." http://t.uani.com/nVLTiK
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
WSJ: "India expects to pay the first tranche of arrears to Iran for crude-oil purchases via Turkey, India Oil Minister Jaipal Reddy said Friday, as the two countries work toward resolving a seven-month-long payment impasse. Separately, two people familiar with the matter said India's largest buyer of Iranian crude--Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd.--has already made some payments. MRPL declined to comment... India's Business Standard reported earlier Friday that India is exploring routing payments through Turkey's Turkiye Halk Bankasi SA, or Halkbank... A senior executive with an Indian state-run refiner confirmed a payment system for Indian refiners had been arranged. 'There's a channel open now to make payments. We heard one refiner has made some payments. We will also make them, we haven't done so as yet,' said the executive, who didn't wish to be named." http://t.uani.com/n2Bc35
Reuters: "India's government will likely resolve a payment impasse with Tehran for buying Iranian crude by having Indian companies to open rupee accounts in Union Bank of India, local media in India reported on Thursday. Iranian officials will likely travel to India this weekend to discuss the deal, which would see Union bank make payments to Halk Bank in Turkey, the Business Standard online reported in an item with a New Delhi dateline. India and Iran have failed since December to find ways for New Delhi to pay for imports, after India's central bank stopped payments through the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) mechanism. There is no ban against buying Iranian crude, but sanctions have made financing trade with Iran tough." http://t.uani.com/nZFVsK Human Rights
AP: "The families of two Americans imprisoned in Iran for nearly two years say they're counting on a court hearing Sunday to end their ordeal at last. Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, both 29, are due for what Iranian authorities have said will be a final hearing in their protracted espionage case. It's scheduled two years to the day after they were arrested along with another American, Sarah Shourd, during a hike on the Iraq-Iran border. Shourd was released last September. Bauer's mother, Cindy Hickey of Pine City, Minn., said she'll be up all night praying." http://t.uani.com/qlKPUL
Domestic Politics
AFP: "A blast early Friday hit a pipeline carrying natural gas from Iran to Turkey, forcing a cut in supply, an Iranian oil official said. 'The export of gas to Turkey has been temporarily halted after an explosion struck the pipeline' in northwestern Iran, spokesman for National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Majid Boujarzadeh told the oil ministry's news agency SHANA. According to Boujarzadeh, the explosion occurred near the Bazargan border crossing, in Iran's West Azarbaijan province. He said an investigation had been launched into the cause of the blast." http://t.uani.com/o3rDYD
Foreign Affairs
AFP: "A 10-year-old Iraqi Kurd has been killed in shelling by Tehran's forces of Iranian Kurdish separatist bases in north Iraq, an official said on Friday. The boy was the third Iraqi to be killed in artillery bombardments as part of ongoing clashes between Iran and the rebel Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) which began two weeks ago. 'Mohammed Antar Zerrar, who is 10 years old, was killed on Thursday evening at around 7:00 pm (1600 GMT) by Iranian shelling of the village of Battas,' Maghdid Aref Ahmed, the mayor of the nearby border town of Haj Omran in Iraqi Kurdistan, told journalists. On Monday, two villagers in the town of Sidakan, also in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, were killed by Iranian shelling. Overall, since Iran launched an offensive against PJAK bases on July 16, three Iraqis have been killed and 11 wounded, officials have said. The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Monday the fighting has displaced hundreds of villagers in the border regions of northern Iraq." http://t.uani.com/q8nDoS
Opinion & Analysis
WSJ Editorial Board: "That there have long been links between al Qaeda and the government of Iran isn't exactly news. In 2003, the Washington Post reported on a 'decade-old relationship' between al Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahiri and Ahmad Vahidi, now Iran's minister of defense. In 2004, the 9/11 Commission wrote that 'there is strong evidence that Iran facilitated the transit of al Qaeda members into and out of Afghanistan before 9/11, and that some of these were future 9/11 hijackers.' Throughout the war in Iraq, there was extensive intelligence that Iran was supporting the Mesopotamian branch of al Qaeda, never mind that they were terrorizing the country's Shiite population. Yet it was only yesterday that the U.S. government formally acknowledged the connection between the world's most dangerous terrorist group and the leading state sponsor of terrorism. In a move by the Treasury Department, six members of a terrorist network based in Iran were sanctioned for serving as 'the core pipeline through which al Qaeda moves money, facilitators and operatives from across the Middle East to South Asia,' principally meaning Pakistan and Afghanistan. The leader of the group, Ezedin Abdul Aziz Khalil, is a Syrian who has been operating from Iran under an agreement signed in 2005. The sanctions will likely have little effect on the terror network, at least so long as its members remain in the Islamic Republic. But at least it ought to put to rest the idea that doctrinal differences all but forbid radical Sunnis to make common cause with radical Shiites. As in politics, terrorism can make strange bedfellows, especially when there's a shared hatred of the United States. The Obama Administration has come a long way since the days when it thought it could strike a 'grand bargain' with Iran's mullahs, and yesterday's move is another good step. Above all, it's a reminder of why a regime that has no qualms serving as al Qaeda's facilitator can on no account be permitted to build a nuclear bomb." http://t.uani.com/pbJ3OZ
Patrick Clawson in The Iran Primer: "The Treasury department sanctioned a prominent Iran-based al Qaeda facilitator and five other members of his network. How important is this new development? The Treasury Department is effectively accusing Iran of being an important link in al Qaeda's financing and recruitment. The designation states that this relationship dates back six years, to 2005. Both of those are new developments. The Obama administration describes the United States as being at war with al Qaeda. The U.S. statement that Iran is providing direct and important assistance to al Qaeda can only harden the U.S. attitude about the challenge from Iran. The Treasury designation of Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil states he 'is an Iran-based senior al-Qa'ida facilitator currently living and operating in Iran under an agreement between al-Qa'ida and the Iranian government. Iranian authorities maintain a relationship with Khalil and have permitted him to operate within Iran's borders since 2005.' Khalil is described in the designation as 'responsible for moving significant amounts of money via Iran for onward passage to al-Qa'ida's leadership in Afghanistan and Iraq. He has also facilitated the travel of extremist recruits for al-Qa'ida from the Gulf to Pakistan and Afghanistan via Iran.' | Does the Treasury's designation shed any new light on Iran's relationship with al Qaeda? There have long been credible reports of a relationship between Iran and al Qaeda, but those reports have been less explicit than the latest Treasury designation. Furthermore, the reports were about relations either before 2003 or dating from 2008, with Iran reportedly having kept a tight lid from 2003 to 2008 on al Qaeda members living in Iran. Indeed, there have been few if any reports of Iran permitting at any time movement of significant amounts of money or, post-9/11, the transit of al Qaeda recruits. One of the most notable earlier statements about the Iran-al Qaeda connection was the 9/11 Commission report which devoted an entire section of Chapter 7 to 'Assistance from Hizbollah and Iran to al-Qaeda.' That section concluded, 'In sum, there is strong evidence that Iran facilitated the transit of al-Qaeda members into and out of Afghanistan before 9/11, and that some of those were the future 9/11 hijackers.' The report also stated, 'After 9/11, Iran and Hizbollah wished to conceal any past evidence of cooperation with Sunni terrorists associated with al-Qaeda....We believe this topic requires further investigation by the U.S. government.'" http://t.uani.com/qROtph
Ilan Berman in Forbes: "For much of the past decade, conventional wisdom has held that Iran's dogged pursuit of a nuclear capability - carried out in spite of mounting pressure from the international community - will ultimately become a casus belli for Washington. Early on in his tenure, President George W. Bush even went so far as to declare that the U.S. 'will not tolerate' Iran arming itself with nuclear weapons, and to indicate that he was prepared to use force to prevent it. Despite its more dulcet diplomatic tones toward Iran, the administration of Barack Obama has grudgingly repeated much the same thing since taking office: that all options, including the use of force, remain on the table for dealing with Iran's nuclear ambitions. Still, some eight years into the international standoff over Iran's atomic program, it has become clear that a military option for dealing with an Iranian bomb, if not out of the question entirely, is an exceedingly remote possibility. That does not mean, however, that Tehran and Washington won't soon find themselves embroiled in a war. Indeed, Iran's escalating activity on the territory of its western neighbor, Iraq, could end up becoming the real catalyst for a U.S.-Iranian conflict. That was the message conveyed by General Martin Dempsey, the incoming Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at his July 26th confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. In recent weeks, numerous U.S. officials have warned that - after a lull in activity in recent years - Iran has begun ramping up its provision of weapons and training to Iraq's various Shi'a militias anew, seeking to shape the country's evolving political environment as America withdraws. These activities, according to the general, 'are intended to produce some kind of Beirut-like moment ... and then in so doing to send a message that they have expelled us from Iraq.' That Iran is engaged in an extensive irregular campaign on the territory of its western neighbor is hardly news... That the U.S. government is responding, however, certainly is. After all, Iran has been allowed to wage irregular warfare against the United States and its Coalition allies for years with virtual impunity. Policymakers in Washington and European capitals, fearful of a drift into even greater regional conflict, have chosen largely to ignore Iran's provocations and keep the peace with the Islamic Republic. And as a result, Iran's leaders have become convinced that their extensive interference in Iraq is by and large a cost-free exercise. But all this could soon change." http://t.uani.com/o4IMsQ
Abbas Milani in The National Interest: "In Tehran these days, the heat is on. It has become something of a customary summer spectacle that with the rise in temperature and the onset of summer regime thugs begin to more rigorously enforce compulsory laws on women's cover. In the words of one of the regime's most powerful and reactionary clerics, blood must be shed to force women to wear their Islamic head covers. A shocking hike in the number of violent rapes against women in Iran, with a few cases of gang rape, is slowly turning into an embarrassing national issue. Members of the Majlis have begun an investigation. While some clerics blame the women, claiming that the victims' 'loose' demeanor and 'open' dress brought this violence upon them, Iranian women's groups increasingly try to bring international attention to their plight. When, in the future, the history of the rise and fall of Iran's clerical regime is written, the women's fight for their rights will emerge as one of the most critical components of the democratic movement. It will be recognized that women were at the vanguard as the most persistent advocates of individual freedom. Though to a casual outside observer, a woman's fight for the right to show an inch or two of her hair might seem frivolous, it is a fact of history that sartorial freedom is invariably organically linked to the political liberties of a society. So summer heat has increased pressure on women. But the heat on Ahmadinejad, at fever pitch till a month ago, has subsided, at least for now. An uneasy peace seems to have emerged in the recently tempestuous face-off between the once-bombastic president and the increasingly authoritarian Khamenei. When threatened with impeachment by the Supreme Leader's allies in parliament, the press and the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Ahmadinejad, to the surprise of his detractors, did not go quietly into the night-he decided to fight fire with fire. He threatened to tell the truth about what is happening in the country; He talked of the tens of millions of dollars made each year from the illicit trade in American cigarettes, and how 'the brothers'-an unmistakable reference to the IRGC-have not been able to forgo the temptation to avail themselves of this source of income; He talked of these brothers operating many illegal ports of entry where, using the guise of national security, they bring in all manner of commodities at great profit. He even threatened to close down these entry points. The IRGC responded by angrily denying any involvement in illegal trade of any kind. Khamenei, though determined to trim Ahmadinajad's wings, was also worried that open factional feuds will embolden the opposition. He therefore encouraged everyone to fight out their differences behind closed doors. And as for the matter of the recalcitrant president, Khamenei, in the words of one of his cohorts, decided to 'fix (taamir) but keep Ahmadinejad.'" http://t.uani.com/nkythd
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