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Reuters: "Britain told Iran on Thursday it was happy to discuss its handling of street unrest after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused its police of "savage" aggression against demonstrators. Britain helped lead Western condemnation of Iran's crackdown on protests against Ahmadinejad's re-election in June 2009. He was quick on Wednesday to criticise the British police's "crushing attack" on unarmed citizens. In a letter to Iran's Foreign Ministry, Britain's top diplomat in Tehran said she hoped such openness would encourage Tehran to allow a U.N.-appointed investigator looking into alleged human rights violations in Iran to enter the country.'I would remind you that the UK has a standing invitation to all U.N. special rapporteurs and has facilitated the visits of a number of these rapporteurs to the UK in recent years,' British Charge d'Affaires Jane Marriott wrote, noting that Ahmadinejad had called for the United Nations to condemn Britain's action.'I urge the Iranian government to extend a similar courtesy to the dedicated U.N. special rapporteur for the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, to enable him to address the international community's grave concerns about ongoing human rights violations within Iran.'" http://t.uani.com/piIyyM
AP: "Tehran's municipal council has named a street after an American activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in 2003, local newspaper reported on Thursday. The report in Hamshahri, a daily affiliated with Tehran municipality, said the council decided to name the street Rachel Aliene Corrie. It said the street would be in central Tehran, but did not specify when the sign bearing the new name would be hung. Corrie, a pro-Palestinian activist from Washington state, was trying to prevent what she and other activists believed was an Israeli military push to demolish nearby Palestinian homes. She was 23 at the time of her death. Iran does not recognize Israel and supports the Palestinians. The decision marked the first time that an Iranian street has been named after a U.S. national since 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted pro-west Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi." http://t.uani.com/oFV6GX
FT: "A group of US-based Iran experts - including academics, former political prisoners and former officials - is writing to Hillary Clinton, secretary of state, to urge her not to remove an Iranian exile group from the US list of foreign terrorist organisations. The letter is an attempt to counter an aggressive lobbying campaign by supporters of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or People's Mujahideen of Iran, to be taken off the list a decade after it renounced violence. The experts contend that delisting the MEK would be a huge blow to the pro-democracy 'green movement' that formed in Iran during the 2009 presidential election, which Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad is widely viewed as having stolen. Months of protests followed but the movement has since lost its momentum. 'Removing the MEK from the foreign terrorist organisation list and misconstruing its lack of democratic bona fides and support inside Iran will have harmful consequences on the legitimate, indigenous Iranian opposition,' the 37 experts say in the letter. 'By attempting to claim credit for Iran's democracy movement, the MEK has aided the Iranian government's attempts to discredit the green movement and justify its crackdown on peaceful protesters by associating them with this widely detested group.'" http://t.uani.com/nmSOio
Commerce
Dow Jones: "A federal judge ruled Wednesday that a group of terrorism victims owed hundreds of millions of dollars from Iran can garnish funds that Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) owes to a state-owned Iranian telecommunications company. The Sprint payments to be seized are small: $613,000. But U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington said the ruling was 'a step in the right direction' for victims of the 1996 truck bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, which housed U.S. military personnel. The blast killed 19 American servicemen and wounded many others. Lamberth said he wanted to believe his ruling 'represents renewed hope for long-suffering victims of state-sponsored terrorism.' But the bleak reality, he said, was that the Sprint funds were an 'infinitesimal sum' dwarfed by the 'endless agony and suffering befalling these victims.' Lamberth ruled in 2009 that the victims and their families were entitled to nearly $600 million in damages from Iran. The judge found that senior Iranian officials planned and sponsored the bombing, working with Hezbollah to execute it. As part of their effort to collect on the judgment, the victims sought to garnish the money Sprint owed to the Telecommunication Infrastructure Company of Iran. Despite the U.S. economic sanctions against Iran, Sprint has a license that allows it to exchange long-distance traffic with the state-owned company. It owed the money for calls processed by the Iranian network." http://t.uani.com/oYBpIU
Foreign Affairs
Bloomberg: "The Syrian government must be supported, as a NATO attack on the country, which is cracking down on its dissidents, would further destabilize the Middle East, a senior member of the Iranian parliament said, Donya-e- Eqtesad reported. 'Throwing Syria in the jaws of a wolf called the U.S.' means 'one more disaster will be inflicted upon the Islamic world,' Alaeddin Boroujerdi, who heads the parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, said during a trip to Egypt this week, according to the Tehran-based newspaper. 'Another option is to help Syria to end its internal conflicts,' and the Syrian government's suggested reforms are 'noteworthy,' the newspaper cited Boroujerdi as saying. 'The Islamic world's interest is to try and maintain Syria firm, as a center for Palestinian resistance,' Boroujerdi said, according to Donya-e-Eqtesad." http://t.uani.com/nba7AC
Opinion & Analysis
Wall Street Journal: "It's not surprising that the Iranians would get wise to the loophole through which they can evade sanctions merely by naming the sanctioned officials to high government posts. More depressing is that the U.N. and EU would allow Iran to mock them after enacting sanctions with so much fanfare. As our friends at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies suggest, if the EU were serious it would close the travel loopholes. And if the U.S. were serious it would sanction any company that refuels the planes on which the Iranians travel abroad. Sanctions can play a helpful, if never decisive, role in increasing the costs to Iran for refusing to comply with U.N. resolutions and stop its nuclear programs. But there's no point in enacting sanctions if there is no serious intention of enforcing them. When the best the international community can do against Iran is a sanctions E-Z Pass, it's no wonder Iran's illicit nuclear programs are speeding ahead in broad daylight." http://t.uani.com/psvg2K
Rep. Ted Poe in The Hill: "The real question for the West is: How do you support a sudden change in the Middle East while at the same time making sure it does not fall in the hands of Islamic fundamentalists? One answer is to keep a close eye on Tehran. As long as Tehran does not have to focus on quashing a movement for democratic change in Iran by the Iranian people, the precarious prospect of Tehran fulfilling its policy of dominating the Arab World looms on the horizon. Stopping the evil tyrant in Iran does not entail empty verbal condemnations of his conduct, providing concessions or negotiations. It requires a heavy hand and the exertion of stronger pressure on Tehran. For the West, in general, that certainly includes firm steps to curtail Iran's nuclear program. There is a need for more sanctions on the regime, particularly regarding the purchase of its oil, to prevent it from attaining the means to finance and support its fundamentalist agenda. Actions, not words, will stop Iran. The United States must also recognize and support the freedom fighters in Iran who are faced with this oppressive dictatorship. Their drive for freedom is the only viable policy in the long run, one that will stop Tehran's drive to acquire nuclear weapons. Western nations should be much more vocal on the rights of Iranians and in condemning the grotesque human rights violations by the regime. The regime does not protect human life; they destroy anyone who dares to get in their way. Three political activists from the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), the primary opposition group, who were charged with playing a role in the popular 2009 uprisings, were hanged in March. Many more are on currently on death row. Finally, the United States must remove the MEK from its list of terror organizations." http://t.uani.com/rbIJqm
Lawrence J. Haas in The Kansas City Star: "Make no mistake: U.N. Security Council sanctions and additional U.S. and European pressures are hurting Iran. Tehran is having a harder time importing food and other key goods, its foreign investment is drying up, financial firms and shipping companies are turning down its business, and its central bank is running short of hard currency. What sanctions are not doing, however, is achieving their goal - to persuade Tehran to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Not only is Iran making more progress in its nuclear program, it's acting more boldly in its region, threatening U.S. interests while distributing weapons that are killing U.S. troops. Because neither current nor additional sanctions alone will deter Tehran, and because a nuclear Iran would be a disaster for the United States and the world, Washington must seriously consider a military option." http://t.uani.com/pDg0gl
Mohsen Milani in the Iran Primer: "There have been numerous public reports about support for the Taliban coming from Iran. There are reports that elements within the Revolutionary Guards may have transferred long-range rockets to the Taliban and provided training for the Taliban. In February 2011, British forces reportedly intercepted in Afghanistan a shipment of 48 122-mm rockets that they claimed had originated from Iran. Spokesmen of the Islamic Republic have consistently denied all these allegations. Such denials, even if we assume their validity, do not preclude the possibility that non-state actors within Iran may be used by the government to provide weapons or training to some factions within the Taliban organization. From a strategic perspective, the Iranian government looks at the Taliban as a useful enemy that is undermining the interests of its other enemy, namely the United States. Therefore, it should not be surprising at all if the Iranian government supports the Taliban or if it looks the other away as behind-the-scenes support is provided by Iran's non-state actors to the Taliban. Such support, however, appears to be very limited. The apparent goal is to empower the Taliban sufficiently to remain a major headache to the United States, but not to an extent that would allow them to seriously undermine the Karzai government or become the dominant force in all of Afghanistan." http://t.uani.com/r9orYo |
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