| For continuing coverage follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group.
Top Stories
AFP: "A grand jury in New York has indicted two Iranian men in an alleged plot to get Mexican gangsters to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington, court papers showed. The indictment was the next stage in the legal process after the initial complaint against Manssor Arbabsiar, who is in custody, and co-defendant Gholam Shakuri, who is at large. Iran has strongly denied any involvement in what the US says was a plot by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds force to kill the ambassador by hiring assassins from a Mexican drug cartel for $1.5 million. The federal prosecutor's office in Manhattan said that Arbabsiar would be arraigned in court on Monday, when he is expected to enter a plea. According to the indictment, he and Shakuri conspired to 'kill the Ambassador to the United States of Saudi Arabia, while the Ambassador was in the United States.' To set up the alleged hit, Arbabsiar allegedly arranged." http://t.uani.com/qHXTRC
Reuters: "Iran plans to soon start moving nuclear material to an underground site for the pursuit of sensitive atomic activities, diplomatic sources say, a move likely to add to Western fears about Tehran's intentions. They said a first batch of uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6) -- material which is fed into machines used to refine uranium -- would be transferred to the Fordow site near the holy city of Qom in preparation for launching enrichment work there. Enriched uranium can be used to fuel nuclear power plants, Iran's stated aim, or provide material for bombs if processed to a higher degree, which the West suspects is its ultimate goal. Iran's main enrichment plant is located near the central town of Natanz. But the country announced in June it would move its higher-grade activity to Fordow, a subterranean facility offering better protection against any military attacks. 'For the first time they will have nuclear material in Fordow,' one diplomatic source said. The step to bring a first cylinder of UF6 to a site is usually taken as part of the final preparatory work before starting production, the source said." http://t.uani.com/oIxdPh
WashPost: "A rapid succession of challenges directed at Iran in recent days has reignited a debate in Tehran over how to deal with the rest of the world. Iran's rulers, led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, continue to refuse any negotiations in which they would have to compromise. But an influential faction is now pushing for back-channel talks with the United States as a step toward lowering the tensions raised by U.S. allegations about an Iranian assassination plot. In urging that Iran do more to address foreign criticism, members of the group have also pointed to the rising international pressure over the Islamic republic's controversial nuclear program and to a new, highly critical United Nations report on human rights violations in the country... Among the former politicians and activists who have spoken out on the subject in recent days is former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who called Monday for more 'tact and management' in Iran's handling of controversial international issues." http://t.uani.com/o7TEqN
Terror Plot
AFP: "Iran's spy chief Thursday mocked US claims of a Tehran-sponsored assassination plot, saying the accusation reeked of 'stupidity' and detailed incredibly unprofessional tradecraft, the website of state-run television reported. Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi, who heads up Iran's espionage organisations, said the US allegations -- involving an Iranian-American used car salesman trying to contract Mexican gangsters to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington -- were 'too cheap to believe.' His point-by-point rebuttal of the US claims added to strenuous denials from other Iranian officials that Tehran had anything to do with the alleged plot. 'When you look at it from an intelligence standpoint, there are too many contradictions to believe that a government such as the United States could compile such a cheap claim and expect to it to be credible,' he said. 'The initial reaction to this claim by our intelligence officers was genuine surprise at the abundance of stupidity evident in this scenario,' he said." http://t.uani.com/nd5173 Nuclear Program & Sanctions
AP: "A Taiwanese man has been deported from the U.S. after serving prison time for illegally arranging shipments of parts to Iran that can have nuclear and military uses. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say Yi-Lan 'Kevin' Chen arrived in Taipei, Taiwan, on Wednesday. Chen spent almost two years in federal prison following his February 2010 arrest. Investigators say since 2007 Chen had put together at least 30 banned shipments to Iran. The parts included electrical connectors, detonators, small engines and seals that can be used for missiles and unmanned drones. Iran could also use some parts in its nuclear program." http://t.uani.com/o1qVjT
Human Rights
Radio Farda: "The UN report has accused Tehran of conducting more than 300 secret executions at a prison in the country's second-largest city without the knowledge, or presence, of the detainees' families or lawyers. The report, the first by the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, alleges that the executions took place at Vakilabad prison in the city of Mashhad in 2010... Ahmed Shaheed's report was officially released on October 17 but the diplomat -- who was not allowed access to Iran during his investigation -- called it an "interim" report. A final version will be presented next March, one year after Shaheed's appointment by the UN Human Rights Council. Shaheed had less than three months to prepare his report and said his findings are based on the accounts of hundreds of witnesses inside Iran, official documents, Internet research, and other verifiable data. Despite having to rely on second-hand information, he insists his findings are accurate." http://t.uani.com/rioGa7
Foreign Affairs
AP: "Turkey and Iran vowed Friday to collaborate in their fight against Kurdish rebels, as thousands of Turkish troops pressed ahead with an air and ground offensive against the militants in northern Iraq for a third day. The foreign ministers of Iran and Turkey announced plans to cooperate against rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and its Iranian wing, the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, or PJAK, during a joint news conference in Ankara. Both groups, labeled as terrorist organizations by the United States, have been fighting for Kurdish autonomy in their respective countries. 'Our joint determination to struggle against the PKK and the PJAK will continue in the strongest way,' Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said." http://t.uani.com/n710We
Opinion & Analysis
Ray Takeyh in IHT: "Iran's response to Washington's accusations that Tehran was involved in a bizarre assassination plot on U.S. soil discloses more about the Islamic Republic than its maladroit penchant toward violence. The reaction of Iran's opposition as well as its establishment figures suggests a more tenuous relationship between the Islamist regime and Iranian nationalism than generally thought. It has long been widely assumed that many Iranians, faced with foreign condemnation and escalating pressure, would rally around the flag. Yet they have not. The rupture between the regime and its people seems so fundamental that not even impudent accusations from abroad can be turned to the leadership's advantage. All this casts the regime's quest for nuclear weapons in a different light. The Islamic Republic desires the bomb not so much to revive nationalist élan but to sustain its power by coercing concessions from the international community. The reaction of Iran's elites to the latest accusations must distress the guardians of the revolution. In a pointed rebuke to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, former President Mohammad Khatami warned against conduct that could jeopardize Iran's security and territorial integrity. The prominent activist Abbas Abdi also declared that "even if this is a fabrication, we should not ignore the consequences." In an even more expansive indictment, Ali Younesi, a former minister of intelligence who is a respected national figure, warned that Iran 'must avoid policies that produce enemies and harsh rhetoric, for they do not serve our national interests.' The more muted popular reaction similarly suggests that the regime cannot rely on external enemies to burnish its tarnished national standing. The Islamic Republic's shaky relationship with Iran's sense of nationalism should not be surprising. The founder of the revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, bequeathed his adherents an ideology whose starkest result was to create a division between the oppressors and the oppressed. Iran was not merely a nation seeking independence and autonomy within the existing international order. The Islamic revolution was a struggle between good and evil, a battle for moral redemption and genuine emancipation from the tentacles of the West. Even during the Iran-Iraq war, clerical pronouncements and propaganda often presented the struggle as an assault on Islam and the Prophet's legacy by the profane forces of disbelief. In sum, the Islamic Republic has spent the last three decades seeking to sever its links with Iran's past." http://t.uani.com/qVnjEV
Meir Javedanfar in The Diplomat: "The message from Iran's most powerful man was clear: the post of president could be removed sometime in the future. If this happened, the parliamentary system could instead be used to elect officials holding executive power. 'There would be no problem in altering the current structure,' stated Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a speech in the city of Kermanshah on Sunday. What we have here is a tussle between Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over their respective legacies. And Khamenei is taking this matter so seriously that he's threatening to remove the very position of the presidency altogether. For now, this is only a threat. But it's one that can't be ignored, especially by Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad isn't eligible to run for president again when his term expires in June 2013, as Iran's Constitution is clear a president can run for only two consecutive terms. To ensure his legacy, then, Ahmadinejad seems to be backing his right hand man Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei as a presidential candidate. Ahmadinejad likely hopes that with Mashaei as president, he will be able to retain a powerful cabinet position - think an Iranian twist on what Vladimir Putin has done in Dmitry Medvedev's government. When Mashaei finishes his four year term, Ahmadinejad would then be able to use his likely high profile in Meshai's government as a platform to develop a renewed bid for the presidency. This concerns Khamenei, and rightly so. Mashaei is an extremely divisive figure. Many conservatives despise him. For some, it is because of reports that he married a former member of the opposition Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), which he was interrogating in the early 1980s, as well as reports that his brother was also member of the same organization. Others, though, are furious that he said publicly that the people of Iran have no problem with the people of Israel. Jealousy is another factor. Soon after Meshai's daughter married Ahmadinejad's son, his political career started to take off. From once being a virtually unknown politician, these days Mashaei is seen as Ahmadinejad's right hand man (some even speculate that it's Mashaei that holds the real power in the Ahmadinejad government)." http://t.uani.com/mOseef |
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment