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NYT: "Attacks by insurgents using what American analysts say are advanced Iranian weapons have dropped significantly over the last few weeks, senior American military officials said Monday, citing a two-track campaign of allied raids on Iranian-backed militants and official Iraqi protests to Tehran. Powerful roadside bombs that can puncture armored vehicles and lethal rockets fired at American military positions have caused a noticeable increase in violence this summer, including the highest number of American combat fatalities in three years. Top American officials say Iran is supplying the weapons in order to claim credit for driving out the withdrawing American forces. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the military and diplomatic offensive for the first time on Monday, as he arrived in Iraq for consultations with commanders and to press the Iraqi government for a quick decision on whether it would request an enduring American military commitment beyond the end of the year. He said the rise in attacks had prompted the United States to urge the Iraqi leadership to take 'steps that we felt needed to be taken to address this significant uptick of violence, particularly the violence supported by Iran.'" http://t.uani.com/rozEGi
Bloomberg: "Iran has received $100 million in payments from an Indian refiner through Union Bank of India Ltd. and Istanbul-based Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS (HALKB), the Press Trust of India reported, citing unidentified sources. Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL) deposited an equivalent of $100 million in a rupee account in the New Delhi branch of Union Bank, which routed an equivalent amount of euros to the Turkish state-owned bank, according to the report. Halkbank, as the Turkish lender is called, transferred the money to the account of National Iranian Oil Co., PTI said. Other refiners such as Essar Oil Ltd. and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. will also make payments through the banks, the report said. Several refiners in India, seeking to end an impasse over payments for Iranian crude, have opened accounts with state- owned Union Bank of India Ltd. to route money through a lender in Turkey, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said on July 29." http://t.uani.com/qmqPzn
DPA: "A top Russian official will visit Iran this month to discuss Tehran's nuclear programmes, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Tuesday. Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev will travel to Tehran on August 15 to meet both his Iranian counterpart Saeid Jalili and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mehmanparast said that talks on Iran's nuclear programmes would be on the agenda. The visit is expected to be an effort by the Russian side to persuade Iran to resume nuclear talks with world powers on the basis of a new Russian proposal. During a visit to Washington, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov proposed a gradual easing of sanctions against Iran in return for every positive move made by Iran in the nuclear dispute. Tehran has welcomed the Russian proposal as a sign of goodwill but not yet agreed to it." http://t.uani.com/qPN2sf
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
Der Spiegel: "'Israel is not responding,' Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said earlier this week when asked if his country had been involved in the latest slaying of an Iranian nuclear scientist. It didn't exactly sound like a denial, and the smile on his face suggested Israel isn't too bothered by suspicions that it is responsible for a series of murders of physicists involved in the controversial Iranian nuclear program. There is little doubt in the shadowy world of intelligence agencies that Israel is behind the assassination of Darioush Rezaei. 'That was the first serious action taken by the new Mossad chief Tamir Pardo,' an Israeli intelligence source told Spiegel Online. On July 23, Rezaei became the latest victim in a mysterious series of attacks over the past 20 months which has seen the virtual decimation of the Islamic republic's elite physicists. The 35-year-old died after being shot in the throat in front of his daughter's kindergarten in east Tehran. The Iranian press has reported that the two alleged perpetrators in the attack escaped on a motorcycle." http://t.uani.com/ogR6sM
Domestic Politics
AFP: "Iranian forces have killed three Kurdish rebels, including a Turkish national, they say were behind the bombing of a pipeline carrying Iranian gas to Turkey, media reports said on Monday. 'After Friday's explosion, law enforcement and security forces mobilised and this morning three people behind the blast were killed and four wounded,' the ISNA news agency quoted the governor of the city of Maku as saying. 'The head of the terrorist group, a Turkish national named Jamil, and two others were killed,' Hamid Ahmadian told ISNA. An 'informed source' told a state television website the rebels were members of PJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan), an armed Iranian-Kurdish separatist group linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey. Friday's explosion near the Bazargan border crossing, in Iran's West Azarbaijan province, damaged the gas pipeline and disrupted deliveries of Iranian gas for 24 hours." http://t.uani.com/ozg2ZP
Opinion & Analysis
WashPost Editorial Board: "Two years ago, American hikers Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, both 29, were arrested by Iranian officials along the Iraqi border. They have been jailed ever since in Iran's notorious Evin Prison. Bauer's fiancee, Sarah Shourd, who had accompanied them and was also arrested, was released on bail more than a year later. According to lawyers for the still-detained men, a verdict in their trial could come within a week. It is time for Iran to let them go. The expected court decision comes after two years in which Mr. Bauer and Mr. Fattal were denied due process or a fair hearing on espionage charges. Much of that time they were not charged with any crime and had no access to counsel. Masoud Shafiei, who is now the Americans' lead attorney, has said he hopes their release is imminent and could coincide with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a time when many pardons are typically issued. Promises of leniency by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the case have not been borne out. Ms. Shourd languished in solitary confinement for some 14 months before her release. For all three, charges should have been brought within four months, according to Iranian law, and they should have had the right to direct and private contact with an attorney. They did not. In two court hearings since the hikers' arrests, Iranian prosecutors have presented no evidence that Mr. Bauer, a freelance journalist and photographer, and Mr. Fattal, an environmentalist, have ever had involvement in espionage or intelligence activities. That's because they haven't." http://t.uani.com/nPUDyR
Avi Jorisch in NYT: "Last week, the Treasury Department accused the Iranian government of aiding Al Qaeda and blacklisted six Qaeda operatives for funneling money through Iran. Although Treasury's announcement, coupled with existing sanctions, has put some pressure on Tehran, much more can be done. Indeed, the White House should take action in its own backyard. In February, the Obama administration embarked on a real estate project that directly impacts Iran's interests in the United States. The State Department began refurbishing Iran's Washington embassy on Massachusetts Avenue, 31 years after the last Iranian diplomat set foot in it. While the government has thus far respected and protected Iran's property rights and permitted Iranian officials an unparalleled level of freedom, Washington should now seize outright all Iranian assets in the United States and bar as many Iranian officials as possible from our soil. Tehran remains the legal owner of several buildings in Washington, although the United States government has taken them over. The State Department has become the legal guardian of the embassy and three residences, renting them out and using the proceeds to maintain them. In November 1979, Iranians took over the American Embassy in Tehran, leading to a 444-day hostage crisis. For decades, the building has served as a school for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, a group Washington labels a terrorist organization, and to this day, Iran does not recognize Washington as the property's legal owner. Likewise, the contrast between the freedom of movement Iranian officials enjoy in the United States and the restrictions on American officials' travel to Iran is stark. Iran has a diplomatic mission at the United Nations and a fully staffed interests section housed in the Pakistani embassy in Washington; Iranian officials come to Washington to attend International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings; and Iranian officials receive visas to attend engagements of prominent international organizations in the United States. The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has come to New York several times during his presidency to attend United Nations meetings, from which he cannot be barred. And each time, American taxpayers have been left to foot the bill for his large security detail. No American president has traveled to Tehran since 1977 and American government officials rarely travel there in an official capacity. If American officials were welcome in Tehran they would need significant security coverage and the Iranian government could not be counted on to provide or pay for it. As the United States implements robust sanctions against Iran around the globe, we must also take action within our own borders. The government should seize all of Iran's properties in the United States and rent the space to liberal Iranian opposition groups. This would send a clear signal to Iran's government and its citizens that America supports reformers who seek a democratic future in Iran." http://t.uani.com/pcUYW0
Emanuele Ottolenghi in WSJ: "In the ongoing clash between Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, analysts persist in trying to determine who's the more moderate: the Holocaust-denying Ahmadinejad, or Khamenei, the patron of Tehran's murderous revolutionary guards? One camp claims that Ahmadinejad's apparent challenge to Iran's clerical leadership and his emphasis on nationalism reflect a new pragmatism. With ordinary Iranians resenting clerical rule, Ahmadinejad's collision course with the clerics and his aids' reported quiet talks with U.S. officials seem to signal that he wants to accommodate the West. Not so, retorts the other side: Clerics are more moderate, and if Khamenei loses his power struggle against Ahmadinejad, the result will be a hyper-nationalist military dictatorship. Such a regime might be less Islamic, but even more radical. This argument is bolstered by a recent Associated Press report, citing a leaked Western intelligence assessment, that claims that Ahmadinejad favors an openly confrontational nuclear policy. Khamenei, meanwhile, remains fearful of Western reprisals and prefers to keep Iran's nuclear-weapons program out of sight. The larger curiosity of this debate is that moderation, however we define it, is rarely the stick by which Iran's leaders should be measured. And indeed, the current apparent clash is nothing more than a spectacle. Khamenei, who has remained firmly in command of the Islamic Republic since he acceded to power in 1989, periodically puts on such shows largely to confuse Tehran's adversaries. Nothing illustrates this better than Iran's nuclear standoff with the rest of the world. Led by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, the international community has negotiated with Khamenei's Iran since its clandestine nuclear program was exposed in 2002. Tehran has responded with a cat-and-mouse game, which includes changing presidents and their political orientations as convenient. Iran has crossed every red line drawn by the Security Council and has ignored every ultimatum, without any consequence of note. Through all this, Iran has mostly managed to come on top. Sanctions were a setback, no doubt. But the time, effort, energy, and resources invested by America and its allies in getting the U.N. to approve them, to say nothing of their mixed results, are a testament to Iran's diplomatic acumen and proof that its strategy is working. As his nuclear scientists worked underground to master the secrets of the atom and his engineers developed ballistic missiles, Khamenei sent a parade of elected figures and emissaries to run circles around their Western interlocutors and deceive them that a compromise was in the cards. When Khamenei felt that moderation best served his nuclear ambitions, he allowed then-President Mohammad Khatami to travel the world and promote his 'dialogue of civilizations,' while the cleric Hassan Rowhani-dubbed internationally as 'moderate'-negotiated nuclear issues abroad. When ostensible moderation no longer served Khamenei's purposes, he endorsed Ahmadinejad and dumped Mr. Rowhani for the tough but worldly Ali Larijani." http://t.uani.com/oVLsEt
Barbara Slavin in FP: "Despite the alarmist headlines, no one should have been shocked by last week's U.S. Treasury Department designation of a Syrian based in Iran as a conduit for sending money and personnel to al Qaeda. Iran has had links to members of what became known as al Qaeda since the early 1990s, when both had a presence in Sudan. What many may not know is that the United States missed several opportunities to divide the two and gain custody of senior al Qaeda figures and relatives of Osama bin Laden. Al Qaeda, with its militant Sunni ideology that despises Shiites as worse than apostates, is hardly a natural ally for the world's only Shiite theocracy. Iranian officials indignantly denied the Treasury Department's allegations; one official, speaking on condition of anonymity, noted that Iran opposes al Qaeda adherents in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Iran's leaders, however, share al Qaeda's hatred of the United States and Israel, and both have a long history of grievances against the West. Their tactical ties were forged in Khartoum, when the Sudanese capital was a virtual resort for Islamist militants and agents of rogue states, including bin Laden; members of Hezbollah, Iran's Lebanese protégé; and Iran's Quds Force, the external arm of the Revolutionary Guards. According to the 9/11 Commission, in the 1990s the Iranians and al Qaeda reached an 'informal agreement to cooperate in providing support -- even if only training -- for actions carried out primarily against Israel and the United States. Not long afterward, senior al Qaeda operatives and trainers traveled to Iran to receive training in explosives.' Al Qaeda recruits also went to Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, where they 'showed particular interest in learning how to use truck bombs' from Hezbollah trainers, the report found. The commission goes on to say that eight of the 10 Arab 'muscle hijackers' who took control of the planes on 9/11 crossed Iran en route to Afghanistan between October 2000 and February 2001. The commission, however, 'found no evidence that Iran or Hezbollah was aware of the planning for what later became the 9/11 attack.'" http://t.uani.com/oxbfI2
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