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AFP: "US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday denounced an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador on American soil as a 'dangerous escalation' by Tehran. As the United States began individual consultations with UN Security Council ambassadors -- a possible precursor to international condemnation or some other action -- Clinton reiterated that Iran must be 'held accountable.' The plot is 'a flagrant violation of international and US law and a dangerous escalation of the Iranian government's long-standing use of political violence and sponsorship of terrorism,' Clinton said. 'We call upon other nations to join us in condemning this threat to international peace and security,' the top US diplomat told journalists at a think-tank in Washington. 'Iran must be held accountable for its actions.' Clinton said the plot was 'directed by elements of the Iranian government,' and said this 'kind of reckless act undermines international norms and the international system.' The 'US has increased our sanctions on individuals within the Iranian government who are associated with this plot and Iran's support for terrorism,' she said." http://t.uani.com/nJNXHk
NYT: "The Obama administration on Wednesday sought to reconcile what it said was solid evidence of an Iranian plot to murder Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States with a wave of skepticism from some foreign leaders and outside experts. Senior American officials themselves were struggling to explain why the Quds Force, an elite international operations unit within Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, would orchestrate such a risky attack in so amateurish a manner. The White House spokesman, Jay Carney, would not go further than to say the plot 'clearly involved senior levels of the Quds Force.' But other American officials, armed with evidence such as bank transfers and intercepted telephone calls and with knowledge of how the covert unit operated in the past, said they believed that Iran's senior leaders were likely complicit in the plot. 'It would be our assessment that this kind of operation would have been discussed at the highest levels of the regime,' said a senior American official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the government's analysis. American officials offered no specific evidence linking the plot to Iran's most senior leaders. But they said it was inconceivable in Iran's hierarchy that the leader of the shadowy Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, was not directly involved, and that the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was not aware of such a plan." http://t.uani.com/reNBcz
NYT: "Despite issuing harsh calls for Tehran to be held to account, the Obama administration does not plan to shift its policy of pressure on the Iranian government after disrupting what officials said was a plot to assassinate a Saudi Arabian envoy in Washington, administration officials said on Wednesday. The combination of tough talk and cautious action underscores the administration's limited options toward a hostile government with which the United States has had little contact for more than three decades. While the United States has mounted an intense diplomatic effort with its allies and other countries to condemn Iran, it has limited its punitive measures to imposing sanctions on an Iranian airline and five senior officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who are accused of having links to the men accused in the plot... Whether the administration can do enough to satisfy a growing chorus of hawks on Capitol Hill is not clear. In an interview on Wednesday, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republican of Florida and chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called on the administration to be much tougher. 'There are a lot of steps that we can immediately take that would serve as a wake-up call to the international community,' said Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, adding that the United States should expel Iran's ambassador to the United Nations and shut down its interest section in Washington. She also suggested taking aim at Russian and Chinese companies and individuals that do business with Iran's energy industry." http://t.uani.com/oqX092
Terror Plot
Reuters: "U.S. officials said on Wednesday it was 'more than likely' that Iran's supreme leader and the head of its Quds force knew of the alleged plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington, but acknowledged the claim was based on analysis rather than hard evidence. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said it was quite possible that Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, did not know of the alleged plan to assassinate the ambassador, Adel al-Jubeir. Iran's supreme leader is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei." http://t.uani.com/owXJHa
AFP: "The United States on Wednesday sought UN Security Council support for action to hold Iran 'accountable' for an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington, diplomats said. France and Britain have already given strong backing to the US government. But the US administration will also be sending delegations to Beijing and Moscow to give details of the investigation, diplomats said. US ambassador Susan Rice, joined by the Saudi envoy to the UN, Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, held separate meetings with envoys on the 15 nation council, US officials and diplomats said. Representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Justice briefed envoys. The aim was to 'solicit their support in holding Iran accountable,' a US official said on condition of anonymity. Iran has strongly denied and condemned the allegations made by the US Justice Department. The United States has not yet decided whether it will seek Security Council action against Iran however, diplomats who attended the meetings said." http://t.uani.com/qFd1sW
Reuters: "An alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States may have violated a U.N. treaty protecting diplomats and could escalate the crisis to an international court. U.S. authorities have arrested Iranian-American Manssor Arbabsiar for the alleged plot and accused a second Iranian man, Gholam Shakuri, who is believed to be at large in Iran and a member of the country's elite Quds Force. If they were involved in a plot to kill Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir, that would likely violate the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons. The treaty, which Iran signed in 1978, would require Tehran to consider prosecuting Shakuri in its court system or extradite him to a requesting country, potentially the United States or Saudi Arabia, both longtime foes." http://t.uani.com/qaOgxp
BBC: "The US has imposed sanctions on an Iranian airline it says flew members of an elite force linked to an alleged plot to kill the Saudi envoy to the US. The US Treasury says Mahan Air ferried operatives from Iran's Quds Force and Hezbollah across the Middle East. Under the sanctions, the airline's US assets will be frozen and US firms barred from doing business with it. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meanwhile said the alleged plot was a 'dangerous escalation' by Iran. The sanctions were unveiled a day after the authorities announced they had foiled a conspiracy to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Adel Al-Jubeir, on US soil using explosives... Announcing the latest sanctions on Wednesday, Treasury official David Cohen said in a statement: 'Mahan Air's close co-ordination with the IRGC-QF [Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp-Quds Force] - secretly ferrying operatives, weapons and funds on its flights - reveals yet another facet of the IRGC's extensive infiltration of Iran's commercial sector to facilitate its support for terrorism.'" http://t.uani.com/nmzKUQ Nuclear Program & Sanctions
Reuters: "Britain said on Wednesday it is consulting with the United States and other countries about imposing further sanctions on Iran following U.S. allegations of an Iranian-linked plot to murder the Saudi ambassador to the United States. Britain was talking to the United States and others about 'further action' against Iran, a spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron said. 'We would support any measures that help hold Iran accountable for its actions,' he added." http://t.uani.com/njyxB9
LAT: "A top official in Iran's space program admitted that the country's attempt to launch a monkey into outer space ended in failure, according to reports. It is a blow to the Islamic republic's effort to launch a man into space by 2020. So far, the Iranian Space Agency has only been successful in launching a rat, turtles and worms beyond Earth's confines. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had announced his country's intention to send a monkey in space aboard its Kavoshgar-5 rocket this year but never revealed a date. So, news of the failed launch came as surprise to many space watchers. In an AFP report, Iranian Deputy Science Minister Mohammad Mehdinejad-Nouri is quoted as saying that the rocket was launched during Shahrivar, which is an Iranian calendar month that runs from Aug. 23 to Sept. 22. 'However, the launch was not publicized as all of its anticipated objectives were not accomplished,' he said. Since putting its first satellite into orbit in 2009, Iran has rebuffed accusations that its space program is for military capabilities, such as delivering a nuclear strike." http://t.uani.com/qY6lSZ
Foreign Affairs
Bloomberg: "Trade between Iran and South Korea surged to $10 billion in the first six months of 2011, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported, citing South Korea's ambassador in Tehran, Park Jae-Hyun. The Iran-South Korea trade was worth $12 billion in 2010, the South Korean diplomat said, according to IRNA." http://t.uani.com/riarvl
Opinion & Analysis
NYT Editorial Board: "Charges that Iranian officials ordered the assassination of Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States are chilling and bizarre. If true - and American officials insist they have strong evidence - this is only the latest reminder of why the United States and its allies must use all possible diplomatic and economic pressures to isolate Tehran and block its nuclear ambitions. American credibility following the war in Iraq is fragile, and Washington will have to fully disclose the evidence - and be very careful not to oversell it. While Tehran fiercely denied the allegations, it has a long history of assassinations and terrorist attacks and a particular animosity for its Saudi rivals. The Quds Force, the branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps that the Justice Department said was behind the conspiracy, is believed to have been responsible for the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia in 1996, in which 19 American servicemen died. This plot appears extraordinarily brazen - the first major Iranian attack on American soil - and almost laughably sloppy... The administration has begun sharing information with allies and pressing them to impose additional sanctions on Iran and particularly on organizations and businesses run by the Revolutionary Guards. The administration should also use this moment to press hard for a new round of sanctions at the United Nations. Five years after the Security Council ordered it to halt, Iran is still enriching uranium and clearly betting that the world will forget or acquiesce. This regime must not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon." http://t.uani.com/mPlPCw
Martin Indyk in FP: "While it may not be immediately obvious, there is an important connection between the two big Middle East stories that broke Tuesday, Oct. 11 -- the negotiated prisoner transfer agreement between Hamas and Israel for the release of Gilad Shalit and the arrest of Iranian Quds Force agent Manssor Arbabsiar -- a connection that demonstrates Iran's fading influence since the emergence of the Arab Spring. Seldom is the Iranian hand in terrorism revealed as clearly as it was Tuesday in the careful details provided by the U.S. Justice Department. The Iranian regime, operating through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), does its best to operate without fingerprints as it deploys terrorism as a tool of its own brand of statecraft. But here in phone transcripts and wire transfers is evidence that 'elements of the Iranian government' -- specifically senior officers of the IRGC's Quds Force -- were responsible for ordering and orchestrating a brazen terrorist assassination against the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, in a downtown Washington restaurant. The Iranian hand in Hamas's terrorist activity has also been revealed in the past, particularly in arms shipments bound for Gaza that were intercepted by the Israeli Navy. But Iran's role in Hamas's holding of Shalit has been less obvious and little remarked. The negotiations for his release have been tortuous and long-winded, mediated by German and Egyptian intelligence officials. At critical moments in the past, Iran intervened via Khaled Meshaal, Hamas's external leader, to scotch the deal. Tehran's motives were fairly obvious: The best way for Iran to spread its influence into the Arab heartland is to stoke the flames of conflict with Israel. Any prisoner swap deal between Hamas and Israel would take fuel off the fire. But Iran's influence over Hamas's external leadership has been slipping lately. Based in Damascus, Syria, Meshaal and his colleagues have found themselves in an awkward position as the Syrian awakening has raged around them. As kinsmen of the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood whose Syrian branch has become a target of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite thugs, they could not support the regime, even though their Iranian masters demanded they do so. Instead, as the going got tough, Meshaal got going, opening talks with the Egyptian interim military government about relocating from Damascus to Cairo (where, as a result of the revolution, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood had gained new influence). The price: reconciliation with Abu Mazen (Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas) and acquiescence in a prisoner swap deal with Israel... What can we conclude from the byzantine connections between Tuesday's two events? Contrary to the confident predictions that Iran would be the beneficiary of the Arab Spring, its efforts to spread its influence into the Arab heartland are now in trouble. It is losing its Hamas proxy to Egypt. Its Syrian ally is reeling. Turkey has turned against it. When the Iranian regime finds itself in a corner, it typically lashes out. Perhaps that explains why Arbabsiar's Iranian handlers told him to 'just do it quickly. It's late....'" http://t.uani.com/pFDkWb
Con Coughlin in The Daily Telegraph: "President Barack Obama has had yet another lucky escape. Having survived attempted terror attacks in Detroit, Chicago and Times Square, thanks to the vigilance of US counter-terrorism officials, America has thwarted a diabolical Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US and blow up the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington. Had the plot succeeded, in all probability America would today be at war with Iran, as the president would have had no alternative other than to launch retaliatory strikes against the Iranian regime. America has two aircraft carrier battle groups permanently stationed in the Gulf region for just such an eventuality, and US fighters could be dropping bombs on the Revolutionary Guards headquarters in Tehran within an hour of receiving the order from the White House to attack. Such drastic action is unlikely now that the plot, which was ordered by terrorists working for the Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds Force, has been uncovered, but it should serve as a wake-up call to President Obama as to where the real threat to American interests in the Middle East lies. For much of his presidency Mr Obama has sought to pursue a policy of reconciliation with Iran, in the hope that the regime can be persuaded to renounce its illegal nuclear programme. And this is the thanks he gets - a plot to carry out terrorist attacks on the American mainland. The president should accept that Iran is a sworn enemy of the US - and act accordingly." http://t.uani.com/oohOdU
Jennifer Marshall in Heritage: "The world recognized an international symbol of the hunger for political freedom in the summer of 2009 when a young Iranian woman, Neda Agha-Soltan, was fatally shot during the Tehran uprising. Now, Iran's persecution of Yousef Nadarkhani, a young pastor sentenced to death for his Christian faith, is a chilling reminder that much of the world also yearns for religious liberty. Iranian authorities arrested Nadarkhani in his home town of Rasht on Oct. 13, 2009. Nadarkhani, in his early 30s and married with two small children, is the pastor of a house church. His offense? Questioning the Islamic teaching his children received in school and asserting the right of parents to bring up their children in their own religious beliefs. We know this much from an account by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Since Nadarkhani's arrest, though, his alleged crimes have escalated from unlawful protesting to unlawful 'apostasy' for converting from Islam to Christianity. The latter judgment was handed down in November 2010 and, after Nadarkhani appealed, reinforced by a recent verdict of the Iranian Supreme Court. In the days that followed, charges veered wildly from rumors of rape to spying for Israel. Then, the Iranian government denied having charged the pastor at all. The regime's increasingly erratic action in the case comes amid international protest at the highest levels. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States is 'deeply concerned' about the religious persecution perpetuated by the 'hypocritical' Iranian regime and will 'continue to call for a government that respects the human rights and freedom of all those living in Iran.' The White House said Nadarkhani 'has done nothing more than maintain his devout faith, which is a universal right for all people' and called upon Iranian authorities to release him. Tens of thousands have signed petitions in support of the pastor. The dramatic international outcry against the looming execution of Nadarkhani is a welcome sign of widespread commitment to religious liberty. But sadly, he is by no means alone in facing religious persecution-whether in Iran or in countries around the globe. Because these individuals often suffer and die for their faith unknown to the rest of the world, the Iranian regime's persecution of Nadarkhani is a witness we should heed on their behalf." http://t.uani.com/nyljzL |
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