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AP: "Iran has never been shy about claiming military advances such as missiles capable ohitting Israel or an attack drone dubbed the "ambassador of death." Its latest focus: The high seas. In the past week, Iran has announced the deployment of ship-based missiles that can target shorelines from international waters, and its naval commander said that Islamic Republic warships could someday be cruising near America's Atlantic seaboard. While many defense analysts believe such a mission is still far beyond Iran's naval reach, the current emphasis on maritime forces suggests a growing drive by Tehran to display power beyond the Gulf and the overwhelming presence right on its doorstep of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet. 'Iran simply doesn't have the ability to be a naval giant at this point,' said Theodore Karasik, a security expert at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis. 'That doesn't mean, however, Iran is not serious about trying to move in that direction.' Warships flying the Iranian flag already have been sent far beyond the Gulf." http://t.uani.com/poavxV
Video: UANI Communications Director Nathan Carleton on Fox News & Friends discussing Iran's naval threat. http://t.uani.com/oI0hBg
WSJ: "Iranian military leaders have rebuffed a plan championed by senior Obama administration officials to establish a military-to-military hot line between Washington and Tehran, increasing U.S. fears about the potential for clashes between American and Iranian planes and ships operating in the oil-rich Persian Gulf. The snubbing of the U.S. idea by Iranian naval and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commanders also appears to further undercut the political position of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Iranian leader made receptive comments about the potential hot line during a visit to New York last month to attend the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting. But U.S. and European officials believe Mr. Ahmadinejad is being increasingly marginalized in a power struggle with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other hard-liners in Tehran. Many of the president's top aides have been arrested in recent months." http://t.uani.com/quNA1L
DPA: "Iran threatened Tuesday that if other countries do not agree on a swap deal worked out with France and Brazil last year, it would expand its own production of nuclear fuel. The swap would see Iran's supply of 20 percent, or low-enriched, uranium exchanged for nuclear fuel rods from France. The medium-enriched rods are to be used to fuel a Tehran medical reactor. 'We will not only continue to do the enrichment by ourselves but also build a factory for manufacturing even the fuel rods by ourselves,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said. Mehmanparast added that Iran could halt its 20 percent enrichment if the swap was approved. 'As the 20 percent enrichment process is not even economical for us, we would be willing to halt this process and get the necessary fuel for the Tehran reactor from abroad,' the spokesman said. However, if a swap is not made, Iran would have no choice but to continue producing fuel for the Tehran reactor, which Iran has said is used solely for medical purposes, such as treating cancer patients." http://t.uani.com/p8j8Ja
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
AFP: "Iran's plans to send a live monkey into space have been postponed indefinitely, the country's top space official said, quoted on Monday by the state television website. 'One cannot give a set date for this project and as soon as our nation's scientists announce the readiness (of the project) it will be announced,' said Hamid Fazeli, head of Iran's Space Organisation said. Fazeli had said in mid-June that a Kavoshgar-5 rocket would be launched 'during the month of Mordad (July 23 to August 23) with a 285-kilogram capsule carrying a monkey to an altitude of 120 kilometres (74 miles).' He gave no reason on Monday for the postponement." http://t.uani.com/qrsHY4
Fox News: "U.S. intelligence officials suspect that Iran, after deadly attacks by proxy militia in Iraq, is laying low until U.S. troops leave Iraq at the end of the year. An Iranian militia on July 12 attempted to fire 41 Iranian-made rockets at a U.S. military post in eastern Iraq near the border with Iran. Seventeen of the 107 mm rockets were confiscated by U.S. and Iraqi forces before they could be launched, but the rest missed the U.S. base known as COS Garry Owen in Maysan province just north of Basra and instead hit the base for the Iraqi 10th Army division, killing several Iraqi women and children. U.S. defense officials familiar with the incident tell Fox News that in response an angry Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki issued a communiqué warning his Iranian counterparts that should such destabilizing operations continue he would be forced to ask U.S. forces to remain in Iraq past December 31, the current deadline for all U.S. forces to leave." http://t.uani.com/nw334e
Human Rights
Reuters: "Iran's Supreme court is likely to revoke the death sentence passed on a Christian pastor for apostasy, his lawyer said on Monday. Yousof Nadarkhani, 33, was arrested and sentenced to death in Iran's northern city of Rasht in 2009. An appeals court upheld his sentence last year after he refused to reconvert to Islam, his lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah told Reuters. 'I am optimistic that the Supreme Court in (the holy Shi'ite city of) Qom will drop the case altogether. I am 95 percent sure about it ... the court is on (next) Monday and I think that the court decision will come out next Monday,' Dadkhah said." http://t.uani.com/oYp8rC
AP: "A lawyer says an Iranian graduate student studying at the University of Texas has gone on trial in Tehran on charges of having "relations with a hostile country" and receiving 'illegitimate funds.' Saeed Khalili says his client, Omid Kokabee, pleaded not guilty to both charges at the opening session of his trial Tuesday. Iranian authorities arrested the 29-year-old Kokabee in February at the Tehran airport. He was studying optics in the physics department at the University of Texas." http://t.uani.com/rttR2e
Foreign Affairs
WSJ: "Belarus said on Monday it is close to securing a $400 million loan from Iran as the authoritarian Eastern European nation scrambles to line up financing from its few allies amid a deepening economic crisis. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund will visit the country starting Tuesday after rebuffing requests for a loan last month, although few observers expect an IMF deal anytime soon. Iran may lend the country $400 million, while Russia's biggest state-controlled bank may lend up $1 billion backed by shares in the Naftan oil refinery, officials from President Alexander Lukashenko's government said on Monday, according to the official state news agency." http://t.uani.com/piY45e
Opinion & Analysis
Mark Wallace in The Daily Caller: "Once again, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has come and gone. In what has become an annual ritual, Ahmadinejad recently flew to New York City, stayed at a luxurious Manhattan hotel, dined with U.S. professors and students, questioned both 9/11 and the Holocaust in a vile anti-American rant to the U.N., and conducted several 'interviews' with American journalists in which he never strayed from his usual script. Now that the dust has settled, it's worth asking whether things really have to be this way each year, with America's most notable city rolling out the red carpet for the leader of a regime notorious for threatening the U.S. and its allies, funding terrorists, killing our troops, and pursuing nuclear weapons. United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) did our best last month to let Ahmadinejad know that he is not welcome in New York. We led a boycott of the Warwick Hotel, which irresponsibly decided to host him, held protests there throughout the week, and placed billboards in Times Square and in Midtown's streets highlighting Iran's partnership with al Qaida, the very group that caused 9/11 ten years ago. The support we received was tremendous: pedestrians, drivers, policemen, and many others told us they couldn't agree with our cause more and couldn't believe that the Warwick chose to accommodate such a repugnant figure. Unfortunately, a few city leaders responded to New Yorkers' anger by explaining that because Manhattan houses the United Nations, which is good for the city and its economy, we simply have to 'grin and bear it' when it comes to hosting Ahmadinejad and other dictators. This is a sentiment UANI strongly opposes, and we hope it will not be repeated or accepted next year when Ahmadinejad attends his last UNGA. The truth is that while Ahmadinejad is entitled to travel to the U.N., attend events, and speak, the rest of the city is under absolutely no obligation to provide him the same treatment an international dignitary should receive. This starts with Manhattan's hotels, which are private businesses and should surely have some standard for who they accommodate and whose money they accept (Ku Klux Klan leaders, al Qaida terrorists?). Ahmadinejad can easily stay at his country's mission to the U.N., like many other world leaders do. There's no reason why a luxurious hotel should be hosting him, and in turn burdening the New York Police Department and the U.S. Secret Service (which are funded by taxpayers) for a week, like the Warwick did. American journalists are also under no obligation to attend his 'press conferences' and 'roundtables,' where he like clockwork spouts the same lines he does every year in an effort to glorify the terroristic regime he leads." http://t.uani.com/qA8hql
Avi Jorisch in The Jakarta Post: "Indonesian companies and financial institutions are poised to help Iran sidestep international sanctions by setting up a joint bank to facilitate billions of dollars of annual trade between the two countries. In addition, the Indonesian government is allowing its national satellite company to broadcast one of the world's most vitriolic television stations, al-Manar, which is owned by Hizbullah, a recognized terrorist organization sponsored financially and operationally by Iran. While the Indonesian government clearly feels it is in its interest to expand business relations with Iran, this would facilitate Iran's march toward nuclearization. Furthermore, by failing to take a strong stance against Iran and Hizbullah, and in particular, al-Manar, Indonesia is allowing a rogue regime and its proxy to proliferate terrorism and radicalize Muslims around the world, including in Indonesia. According to the international press, Jakarta and Tehran have been trying to find a way to conduct business for some time, as sanctions levied by the United States, Europe, and the United Nations have made it difficult for Iran to move its funds internationally. On Sept. 19, Indonesia's chargé d'affaires in Tehran, Aji Setiawan, announced plans by both countries to establish a private bank to facilitate trade and commerce. 'The trade exchange between Iran and Indonesia can [be] enhance[d] by removing the impediments,' Setiawan stated. A number of Indonesian officials have also called for an increase in the US$1.29 billion in trade between the two countries, which revolves mostly around the energy sector. In recent years, Iran and Indonesia have increased their bilateral trade in products including butane, propane, oil waxes, ethylene, petrochemical products, ammonium nitrate, paper and cardboard, pipes, synthetic yarn, and steel wire. Indonesia, which has numerous choices of trading partners, should seriously reconsider its relationship with Iran for several reasons. As its name suggests, the Islamic Republic of Iran endorses a radical form of religion that is at odds with the more moderate form of Islam prevalent in Indonesia. Iran was founded upon a strict interpretation of sharia, and it provides financial support to terrorist organizations around the globe. The ideology driving Iran and its proxies is not dissimilar to the belief system of the al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorists who perpetrated the heinous attacks in Jakarta in 2003 and 2009, killing hundreds of Muslims. In addition, Iran's human rights record is unspeakable. Iranian citizens, international organizations, activists, NGOs, and the UN have all criticized the Iranian regime, which regularly engages in torture, rape, and killing of civilians, dissidents, and political prisoners." http://t.uani.com/pytUnA
Fredrik Dahl in Reuters: "An Iranian attempt to revive a nuclear fuel deal that fell apart in 2009 has drawn skepticism from the United States, even though two Western think-tanks urged Washington and its allies to pursue the proposal. On the sidelines of last month's UN General Assembly meeting, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran would stop producing 20 percent enriched uranium if it was guaranteed fuel supplies from abroad for a Tehran medical research reactor. Signaling Western suspicion of Iran's motives in making such a proposal, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in Washington on Friday: "From our perspective, at the moment, this looks like a diversion from the real issues." The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) think-tank last week said Ahmadinejad's initiative was a rare chance to move forward in Iran's nuclear standoff with the West, which suspects Tehran is trying to make atomic bombs. 'For once it is strategically expedient for the United States and its allies to take Ahmadinejad at his word,' FAS's Ali Vaez and Charles Ferguson wrote in the New York Times. Providing Iran with the fuel would be a 'humanitarian gesture with strategic benefits: curtailing Iran's enrichment activities and potentially cutting the Gordian knot that has stalled the West's nuclear negotiations with Iran.' Diplomatic efforts to seek a negotiated outcome in the long-running dispute over Iran's nuclear program have been deadlocked since a fruitless meeting in Istanbul in January. Tehran now says it is prepared to resume the talks. Western diplomats are skeptical, but the six powers involved - the United States, China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany - may once again test Iran's readiness to engage on substance. Iran has come under tightening international sanctions over its refusal to suspend all its uranium enrichment activities, which can have both civilian and military purposes. Its move last year to refine uranium to a fissile purity of 20 percent alarmed the West as it took Tehran closer to 90 percent bomb-grade material. It had previously only enriched to the 3.5 percent level usually required to fuel power plants." http://t.uani.com/oTmdCN
Michael Rubin in Commentary: "About three weeks ago, the news broke in the Iranian press of an embezzlement scandal. Three billion dollars went missing from an Iranian bank, the largest single instance of embezzlement in a regime where graft is commonplace. Now, Mahmoud Reza Khavari, the managing director of Bank Melli, has reportedly fled to Canada. The Washington Post provides further context regarding the scope of the embezzlement, those involved, and how they link into other Iranian political scandals. What the Washington Post does not mention is that Bank Melli has been involved in the transfer of funds to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah through the Qods Force, as well as Iran's nuclear program. Bank Melli was among the Iranian financial institutions which the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned in 2007... Khavari's flight provides a potential windfall for Western intelligence analysts. Given his position, Khavari likely knows the ins-and-outs of Iranian terror finance. His testimony can provide smoking guns with regard to Qods Force head Qasem Suleimani and other senior Iranian officials. Canadian authorities should take their war on terrorism to the next level, and recognize that diplomatic posturing is not enough. They should use any pretext possible to detain Khavari, and offer him a stark choice: Reveal what he knows or be returned to an Islamic Republic which will be sure to kill him. Canada should not allow itself to become a safe haven for terror financiers." http://t.uani.com/qxY1y0
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