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AP: "Syrian security forces kept up a deadly crackdown on dissent Thursday as the embattled regime faced surprising calls to end the violence from its closest ally, Iran, in a sign of growing alarm over the 6-month-old uprising. In a live interview in Tehran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Syrian President Bashar Assad should back away from his violent crackdown and talk to the opposition. 'There should be talks' between the Syrian government and its opponents, Ahmadinejad told Portuguese broadcaster Radiotelevisao Portuguesa late Wednesday, according to a simultaneous Portuguese translation of his comments. 'A military solution is never the right solution,' Ahmadinejad said. The comments came the same day that Syrian security forces unleashed one of the deadliest military assaults on the rebellious city of Homs, killing at least 20 people, activists said." http://t.uani.com/qsZ0pH
AFP: "Iran is taking advantage of chaos in Syria and Libya to boost efforts to build a nuclear weapon, a western envoy told the UN Security Council on Wednesday. With international attention focused on the Middle East uprisings 'Iran may believe it can profit from the situation,' France's UN representative told a Security Council meeting on UN sanctions against Iran. 'It is accelerating its efforts. It has increased the number of centrifuges and provocative statements. But we are not fooled by this,' deputy ambassador Martin Briens told the council, highlighting western demands for the tougher application of sanctions. 'Iran's military, nuclear and ballistic ambitions pose a growing threat,'said Briens. 'The alarming signals are accumulating.'" http://t.uani.com/pDxfLg
AP: "The United States, Britain, France and Germany are accusing Iran of violating U.N. sanctions prohibiting any launches using ballistic missile technology, as well as an arms embargo. U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said the four countries reported the ballistic missile violation to the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against Iran... Britain's U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said the violation occurred when Iran launched the Rasad 1 satellite in June, 'which is dependent on ballistic missile technology.'" http://t.uani.com/pRu1BY
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
AP: "Iran is warning Turkey against hosting NATO's missile defense system, saying such a move would escalate regional tensions. Foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast says Iran expects its neighbors not to pave way for policies that lead to 'complicated consequences.' Mehmanparast says Iran believes that having the missile defense system in Turkey would not serve regional stability. His remarks were reported by the official IRNA news agency on Thursday. Turkey has recently agreed to host an early warning radar as part of NATO's missile defense system aimed at countering ballistic missile threats from neighboring Iran. Washington hopes to have the radar deployed in Turkey by the end of the year." http://t.uani.com/n04gvY
AP: "Energy-hungry Pakistan says it will speed up efforts to build a gas pipeline from Iran despite U.S. opposition to the project. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Thursday that construction in Iran was almost complete and that he expected Pakistan to finish its section by 2014. Pakistan Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh said Pakistan was committed to the project and 'efforts would be made to accelerate its progress.' Pakistan is desperately short of energy, but the proposed pipeline with Iran could cause problems with the United States, which has warned it could violate sanctions imposed on Tehran over its alleged nuclear weapons program." http://t.uani.com/oqLlgO
Human Rights
AP: "The BBC says Iran has stepped up the jamming of its Farsi-language television service by interfering with the operation of a Eutelsat satellite. Jamming from within Iran has affected BBC Persian television since its launch in 2009, and the British broadcaster says that one of Eutelsat's high-power Hotbird satellites has been targeted since July. But the BBC now says that Iran has expanded its jamming to target the Paris-based company's W3A satellite, which covers Africa, Europe and parts of the Middle East. BBC foreign editor Jon Williams said in a message posted to Twitter that 'we call on Tehran authorities to stop these illegal acts.' Eutelsat did not immediately return a call seeking comment Wednesday. BBC Persian is still broadcasting on other satellites." http://t.uani.com/pDrJMD
Domestic Politics
Reuters: "Striking Iranian merchants have rejected a deal aimed at getting them to reopen their shops in Tehran's main market and end a standoff with the government, media reported on Wednesday. The traders -- a conservative and politically powerful group in Iran - went on strike six weeks ago, protesting against the imposition of a new 4-percent value added tax that they said would hurt business. The unrest in the bazaar comes at a sensitive time for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who is pushing through major economic reforms, chief among them the removal of subsidies which have held down the price of food and fuel for years. Government authorities tried to appease the traders by offering to give them longer to pay the tax, extending a deadline from three to six months, but the merchants rejected the concession, media reported." http://t.uani.com/psaqC0
AFP: "A number of cholera cases have been detected in Iran, Health Minister Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi said on Wednesday, blaming 'foreigners' and contaminated vegetables for the outbreak. 'In recent days, due to the illegal entry of foreigners in Iran, cholera appeared in parts of the country,' Ms Vahid Dastjerdi was quoted as saying by the government information website dolat.ir. 'The ministry investigating the issue found that these cases are linked to contaminated vegetables and the illegal entry of foreigners,' she said, urging people to 'thoroughly wash vegetables, use only tap water and do not buy food from street vendors.'" http://t.uani.com/oKPXJA
Reuters: "An Iranian oil refinery caught fire on Wednesday in southwestern part of the country, but firefighters quickly had the blaze under control, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, adding that four people were injured. 'The fire has been controlled and the reason for the fire is unknown but it is under investigation,' said Abdollah Kabi, a member of parliament's Energy committee." http://t.uani.com/p69Haf
Foreign Affairs
AFP: "Iranian shelling has killed the deputy military leader of The Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), a north Iraq-based Kurdish separatist group, it said in an online statement. 'Majid Kawian, known as Comrade Samkou, deputy commander general of the forces of eastern Kurdistan in the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, was killed ... in heavy Iranian shelling' on Saturday, said the statement posted on PJAK's website late on Tuesday. Kawian was born in 1982 in Iran and has been a member of PJAK since 1999, the statement said. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards had earlier said on their website Sapahnews that Kawian had been killed, citing the PJAK statement." http://t.uani.com/qMNxRI
AFP: "Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi met with his Cuban counterpart Jose Machado Ventura in Havana on Wednesday at the start of a two-day visit aimed at bolstering trade ties, local media reported. Rahimi -- who is accompanied by Iran's industry, energy and economy ministers -- is due to preside over broad economic cooperation talks on Thursday in the Cuban capital. Rahimi, who will visit Ecuador after his stay in Cuba, laid a floral wreath at the monument of Cuban national hero Jose Marti to start the day, with Cuban Vice Foreign Minister Marcos Rodriguez at his side. Cuba and Iran, which both figure on a US blacklist of alleged state sponsors of terrorism, have grown closer in recent years." http://t.uani.com/qOVRCs
Opinion & Analysis
Robert Tait in Radio Farda: "Iran has launched a fierce security clampdown in the country's Azeri and Kurdish regions amid fears of rising ethnic tensions on its northern borders. Reports from inside Iran say security forces clashed with demonstrators in the northwestern cities of Orumieh (aka Urmia) and Tabriz on September 3, with at least one account alleging that troops used live ammunition. Officials say 60 people were arrested in the latest protest. A live blog posted by the South Azerbaijan Student Movement reported that 13 people were taken to Orumieh's University Hospital suffering from bullet wounds. Four were said to be in critical condition. Videos posted on YouTube and purporting to have been shot in both cities showed the heavy presence of riot police and vast numbers of protesters chanting slogans. In one video, a member of the security forces is seen aiming what appears to be a gun at demonstrators. Other footage shows demonstrators running in panic against a backdrop of possible gunfire. It's impossible to verify the authenticity of the videos, most of which appeared to have been shot on mobile phones, or to establish where they were taken. However, the demonstrations followed displays of anger over a perceived lack of government action to save Lake Orumieh, Iran's largest lake, which has shrunk to less than half its previous surface area due to extensive dam-building and drought. Earlier rallies over the salt lake's plight reportedly occurred in Orumieh on August 27. Campaigners say the lake could disappear in a few years, leaving behind 10 billion tons of salt and displacing up to 14 million people." http://t.uani.com/pBV9YY
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