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AFP: "The United States retained Iran and its ally Syria as well as Sudan and Cuba on a list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism Thursday, after blacklisting the countries the previous year. In an annual report, the State Department said 'Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism in 2010,' citing 'financial, material and logistic support' for militant groups in the Middle East and Central Asia. It said Iran backed Palestinian groups Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, along with Lebanon's Hezbollah, the Taliban in Afghanistan and Iraqi Shiite Muslim militant groups. The State Department said its support for such groups 'had a direct impact on international efforts to promote peace, threatened economic stability in the Gulf, and undermined the growth of democracy.'" http://t.uani.com/qpNqMM
Reuters: "Sinopec Engineering Inc. (SEI), an arm of Sinopec Group, started up a unit this week in Iran's Arak refinery, offering a rare clue on the progress the state-run Chinese oil firm is making in the sanctions-hit country. SEI started a feedstock hydrotreating facility, part of a reforming unit, on Aug. 15, the company said on its website www.sei.com.cn. A reforming unit produces mostly gasoline, which Iran needs to import despite being OPEC's second-largest crude exporter because its dilapidated refining sector has for years lacked investment. The one-line post on the SEI website did not give further details. Iran aims to add 70,000 barrels per day of gasoline-making capacity around 2011/12 at the Arak refinery in the central Iranian province of Markazi, according to analysts and official estimates." http://t.uani.com/qLsHJ7
Christian Post: "Iran has seized 6,500 copies of the Bible in northwest Iran in what appears to be the latest crackdown by Iranian authorities against Christianity in the country. Few details are known about the seizure, however, Christian news agency, Mohabat News, reports that Dr. Majid Abhari, adviser to the social issues committee of the parliament in Iran stated, 'These missionaries with reliance on huge money and propaganda are trying to deviate our youth.' In a government interview with Mehr news agency, Abhari explained that the Bibles were taken because of governmental concerns that Christian missionaries mean to 'deceive' young Iranians with 'false propaganda.'" http://t.uani.com/na6e7p 
Foreign Affairs
UPI: "Iranian natural gas shipments through a pipeline to Turkey have resumed after deliveries were interrupted by Kurdish rebels, an Iranian official said. The separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, said it was responsible for an Aug. 11 attack on a natural gas pipeline in Turkey, it's second this month. Majid Boujarzadeh, a spokesman for the National Iranian Gas Co., said exports to Turkey resumed late Thursday, the Oil Ministry's Petroenergy Information Network reports." http://t.uani.com/n8TUhd
Opinion & Analysis
The Economist: "Mr Khamenei is in a bind. In recent months, at least a dozen associates of Mr Mashai have been arrested on suspicion of corruption or involvement in sinister dealings, but Mr Ahmadinejad has protected his chief of staff-who remains in his post, if less visible than before. Scores of parliamentarians now hope to impeach the president, but the supreme leader will probably not let them. It was he who put Mr Ahmadinejad in power, and the two men know each other's secrets from the 2009 election and its grisly aftermath. Far better, the ayatollah may judge, to ride out the two years that remain before Mr Ahmadinejad is constitutionally required to stand down. Yet for all the pressure he is under, Mr Ahmadinejad has assets of his own. A brilliant populist, he has showered enough attention and largesse on poor, pious Iranians to win a place in their hearts. Last winter's reform of ruinous price subsidies was a hot potato that only he dared to touch. As expected, inflation has risen (it is expected to peak at 22% early next year) but a new monthly dole has softened the blow for many people. Other extravagant promises (a plot of land for every family, for instance) are derided by economists, but lapped up by the credulous. Almost entirely reliant on oil receipts, unproductive and monopolistic, Iran's economy is not as strong as it should be. Entrepreneurship has been stymied by sanctions, while the Revolutionary Guard's commercial divisions take over ever larger bits of the economy in the absence of foreign investment. This is an unintended consequence of sanctions, which were in part crafted by America and its allies to hurt the Guard. On the country's periphery, revolts by minorities such as the (mostly Sunni) Kurds and Baluchis smoulder on. A dribble of assassinations of scientists associated with Iran's nuclear development (the most recent took place on July 23rd, though Iran denied that the victim was involved in the programme) serve to illustrate the determination of Iran's enemies to deny it the bomb. In such an environment, it is not surprising that existential angst in various forms, religious and secular, is now perceptible across Iranian society. Somewhere, between praying for the Mahdi and driving off a cliff, lies the great mass of today's Iranians." http://t.uani.com/onMgtw
John Hughes in Deseret News: "What would be the mother-of-all-nightmares for Barack Obama before next year's presidential election? A nuclear-armed Iran. President Obama has declared he will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapons capability. But his options are limited. A strike against Iran's nuclear installations? That would mean starting another war in the midst of the U.S. election campaign. Unlikely. Persuading Israel not to do the job? For Israel, a nuclear-armed Tehran is a potential death sentence. Reining Israel in is unlikely. Accepting the reality of an Iran with nuclear weapons, but warning Tehran against using them? Possible, but dangerously weak-looking for an American president up for re-election who promised not to let this happen. I hope someone in the White House is working on this. I hope Iran is not able to do it. Iran may have overcome the problem of the 'Stuxnet-worm,' planted, by probably you-know-who, to cause their centrifuges to run wild. Iranian nuclear scientists may have substantially accelerated their ability to produce a type of nuclear fuel enabling them to produce bomb-grade material in a hurry. William Hague, the British foreign minister, speculated recently that when enough 20 percent enriched uranium is accumulated, it would take 'only two or three months to convert this into weapons-grade material.' What better time for Iran to produce a nuclear weapon than the middle of the U.S. presidential campaign, when the American president is hobbled in his options? Could Iran be so foolishly provocative? Reason would say no. But can we count on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the mad hatter of Iranian politics, currently embroiled in a shoving match with Ayatollah Khamenei for power, to be rational?" http://t.uani.com/nzCzBb |
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