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NYT: "Iran is moving its most critical nuclear fuel production to a heavily defended underground military facility outside the holy city of Qum, where it is less vulnerable to attack from the air and, the Iranians hope, the kind of cyberattack that crippled its nuclear program, according to intelligence officials. The head of Iran's atomic energy agency, Fereydoon Abbasi, spoke about the transfer in general terms on Monday to an official Iranian news service. He boasted that his country would produce the fuel in much larger quantities than it needs for a small research reactor in Tehran that produces medical isotopes. The fact that Iran is declaring that its production will exceed its needs has reinforced the suspicions of many American and European intelligence officials that Iran plans to use the fuel to build weapons or to train Iranian scientists to produce bomb-grade fuel. Describing the new facilities in an interview with the news service, the Islamic Republic News Agency, Mr. Abbasi, who narrowly survived an assassination attempt last year, said that a 2009 proposal for the West to supply Iran with new fuel for the small research reactor, in return for an end to Iranian production of the fuel, is dead." http://t.uani.com/nUEVGO
Reuters: "China has put the brakes on oil and gas investments in Iran, drawing ire from Tehran over a pullback that officials and executives said reflected Beijing's efforts to appease Washington and avoid U.S. sanctions on its big energy firms. The stakes are high for OPEC's second-largest producer, as China is one of the only powers on the international political stage capable of providing the billions of dollars of investment Tehran needs to maintain the capacity of its strategic oil sector. Four energy executives in Beijing described retreats and slowdowns of Chinese ventures in Iran in recent months, even as China has bought more crude from its Middle East partner, which leans on Beijing for backing and investment to counter sanctions over its disputed nuclear plans. The slowing of China's energy investments in Iran was prompted, at least partly, by Beijing's efforts since late 2010 to ease tension with the Obama administration and cut the risk of Chinese oil firms being hit by U.S. sanctions that Congress has vigorously backed, said officials... U.S. officials have literally come knocking at the doors of Chinese energy executives, one of the executives said. 'The Chinese are quietly taking credit with U.S. officials for being cooperative' on Iran, a senior U.S. Congressional aide who closely follows U.S.-China relations told Reuters. 'I really date it back to mid-to-late 2010, when they began to signal to us very clearly: We can't say it publicly, but you will notice that we're not proceeding with these new contracts,' said the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of diplomacy with China." http://t.uani.com/p5nP1R
Neon Tommy: "Finnish crane manufacturer Konecranes has terminated business dealings with Iranian companies, according to a statement by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), a non-profit group that launched a campaign in May to bring attention to the Iranian regime's grisly misuse of cranes. UANI publicly called on Konecranes 'to end its business in Iran' in August, citing the 'Iranian regimes abhorrent executions by hanging from construction cranes.' According to a UANI statement, the crane manufacturer informed the organization it would 'withdraw from the Iranian market' and that it is 'systematically refus[ing] all opportunities to sell new equipment and services to the country.' Konecranes' decision comes following two other crane manufacturers, Tadano and UNIC, which ended their business in Iran this summer following public calls from UANI." http://t.uani.com/rcvKto
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
AP: "Turkey has agreed to host an early warning radar as part of NATO's missile defense system aimed at countering ballistic missile threats from neighboring Iran, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Friday. A ministry statement emailed to journalists said discussions on NATO-member Turkey's contribution to the alliance missile defense shield had reached 'their final stages.' It did not say when or where the U.S. early warning radar would be stationed. NATO members agreed to an anti-missile system over Europe to protect against Iranian ballistic missiles at a summit in Lisbon last year. A compromise was reached with Turkey, which has cultivated close ties with its neighbor Iran and had threatened to block the deal if Iran is explicitly named as a threat." http://t.uani.com/pdtVD1
Reuters: "The U.N. nuclear agency has invited all its members, including Israel, Arab states and Iran, to attend rare talks later this year about the volatile Middle East and efforts to rid the world of atomic bombs, a document showed on Friday. While Israel and some Arab nations have indicated readiness to take part in the proposed forum in November, Iran said it saw no justification for such a meeting now. In its response to the invitation from Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran's envoy to the IAEA took a swipe at Tehran's arch-foe Israel, which is widely believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal." http://t.uani.com/qK7ySX
Human Rights
AFP: "Turkey and Iran have not done enough to protect civilians while carrying out strikes against Kurdish separatists in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, Human Rights Watch said on Friday. 'The evidence suggests that Turkey and Iran are not doing what they need to do to make sure their attacks have a minimum impact on civilians, and in the case of Iran, it is at least quite possibly deliberately targeting civilians,' Joe Stork, HRW's deputy Middle East director, said in a statement on Friday. 'Year after year, civilians in northern Iraq have suffered from these cross-border attacks, but the situation right now is dire,' Stork said. 'Iran and Turkey should do all they can to protect civilians and their property from harm, no matter what the reason for their attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan.'" http://t.uani.com/qxeh0e
Domestic Politics
AFP: "Iran's ex-parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi has not changed his views one iota while under house arrest, opposition website Sahamnews.net on Thursday reported the cleric's son Hossien as saying. 'He is in reasonable physical and mental condition, and during our meeting he talked about issues and insisted on sticking to his position,' Hossien Karroubi said after he saw his father on Wednesday. 'I am standing firm in my stances and have not backed down one iota,' he quoted his father as saying. 'Intelligence and security agents are familiar with my beliefs, and these past seven months they have not told me to write a public recantation or tried to talk to me into it,' Hossien quoting his father as saying." http://t.uani.com/pF1VNJ
Foreign Affairs
LAT: "In a sign that Syria's crackdown on dissent is fraying one of its few alliances in the region, an Iranian lawmaker said in an interview published Thursday that his nation should be supporting the protesters and not the Syrian regime. Ahmad Avaei, a member of the Iranian parliament's national security commission, said the fact that Syrian President Bashar Assad joined Iran in opposition to Israel and support for Lebanon's armed Hezbollah movement was no longer reason enough to continue backing Assad's government. 'The fact is that supporting the Syrian rulers at any cost was not right, as those who staged the protests were Muslims, and their protests were legitimate,' Avaei said in remarks quoted by the semiofficial Fars News Agency. 'Unfortunately, the Syrian leadership has realized too late the necessity of entering the reform process and should have done that much earlier to avoid the current crisis,' the lawmaker said." http://t.uani.com/n1rneV
Opinion & Analysis
Meir Javedanfar in The Diplomat: "Should there be a smooth transition to democracy, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is likely to try to establish relations with the new Syrian government - indeed he may even try to do so before Assad falls, in order to protect Iran's interests in Syria. And Khamenei may succeed, depending on whether the new authorities in Damascus are interested in relations with Tehran. But what if there is instead a civil war? After all, as prominent Middle East analyst Vali Nasr noted in a recent op-ed for the New York Times, in the Arab world, 'when dictatorships crack, budding democracies are more than likely to be greeted by violence and paralysis.' Clearly, chaos in Syria could have region-wide implications, and Iranian government officials have already started to warn the international community about the possibility of such a scenario unfolding. It's unclear how Iran would respond if this does transpire, but one thing seems certain - Iran is extremely unlikely to play the part of spectator. In fact, the opposite may very well end up being true, with Iran likely to back the Alawites by providing them with material and economic support. The Alawites are a subset of the Shiite sect of Islam, and Iran, the biggest Shiite country in the world, whose supreme leader sees himself as God's representative to all Shiites, would support them. But religious proximity isn't the only reason Iran would support the Alawites. To Iran's leaders, alliances are there to serve the regime's interests, meaning that if supporting fellow Shiites serves Iran's interests then Tehran will do so. But by the same token, if assisting Shiites undermines the regime's interests, Tehran isn't afraid to steer clear - one only has to look at the relative indifference Iran shows to the many hundreds of Shiites killed each year in Pakistan by Sunni extremists simply because it isn't in Iran's interests to fall out with the Pakistani government." http://t.uani.com/qAQhwo |
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