| For continuing coverage follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group.
Top Stories
NYT: "Adding new pressures on Tehran over its disputed nuclear program, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said on Thursday he wanted to send a high-level mission to Iran to investigate a report by his agency that Iranian scientists had engaged in secret and possibly 'ongoing' efforts to construct a nuclear weapon. Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, was addressing the I.A.E.A.'s 35-member board of governors at the start of a closed, two-day meeting at its headquarters in Vienna. The gathering is trying to formulate a resolution reprimanding Iran and seeking greater clarity about its nuclear intentions while avoiding language that would prevent support from China and Russia - two nations that have frequently differed with the West over Iran. The Associated Press quoted diplomats as calling the resolution a compromise that would express 'serious concern' over Iran's defiance of the United Nations Security Council and the I.A.E.A. board." http://t.uani.com/vhXKoV
WSJ: "A new U.S. and European-led push to censure Iran before the United Nations nuclear agency for alleged efforts to develop atomic weapons is facing resistance from Russia, China and a bloc of developing countries, which threaten to dilute any international punishment. American and European officials on Wednesday said they believed they would reach an agreement with Beijing and Moscow on a resolution condemning Tehran's nuclear work, which will be presented to the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board of governors in Vienna on Thursday. But they said this statement won't refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council or lead to a fifth, more severe round of U.N.-backed sanctions against Tehran. The fallout, diplomats fear, could allow Iran to emerge largely unscathed after the release of an IAEA report last week that detailed extensive evidence that Iran has been developing the technologies used in producing nuclear bombs. 'The diplomacy has been very difficult on this,' said a Western official involved in the deliberations. 'We've had to balance the desire for tough action with the need to keep China and Russia on board.'" http://t.uani.com/unb0Vv
Bloomberg: "Iran sees Arab nations 'meddling' in Syria in order to replace President Bashar al-Assad with a government that is 'submissive' to Israel, according to an adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Syria is Iran's most important ally in the region, providing a transit route for arms going to the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. The U.S. and European nations have said that Iran is aiding Assad's crackdown even as Arab nations step up their criticism of the regime's attacks on protesters. Mohammad Javad Larijani, Iran' top human rights official, said he was 'quite aware' of the shift by the 22-nation Arab League against the Assad regime. Its criticism of Syria doesn't stem from a concern for human-rights violations, given that a 'good number' of those governments are guilty of similar abuses, he said. 'The issue is that they want to generate a government which is submissive to Israel,' he told reporters in New York. 'These are very dangerous events; we are against this kind of meddling in the situation,' he said. 'Our position is that all the hands should be cut off from this kind of interference.'" http://t.uani.com/tWN9Em
Nuclear Program & Sanctions LAT: "Rejecting reports in the Western media, Iran's military chief of staff reiterated Wednesday that the massive explosion that killed a top Iranian missile commander and 16 others was not the result of sabotage by Israel or the United States. The blast 'is not related to Israel or America,' Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi told reporters at a ceremony to commemorate those killed in Saturday's blast at a Revolutionary Guard depot west of the capital, Tehran, the official Fars News Agency reported. It was Tehran's latest denial of foreign mischief in the thundering explosion, which shook the capital, about 25 miles way. Among the 17 killed was Gen. Hassan Tehrani Moqaddam, an engineer who has been described as the chief of Iran's ballistic missile program, by some accounts trained in China and North Korea. Iranian officials have said the blast or blasts - some accounts indicated there was more than one explosion - occurred as munitions were being moved. While the investigation is ongoing, authorities have indicated that the cause was accidental." http://t.uani.com/vPNTKp
NYT: "The explosion last weekend in Iran that killed 17 members of the armed forces, including a founder of the country's missile program, occurred while researchers were working on weapons capable of delivering Israel a 'strong punch in the mouth' and disrupted their project by a few days, the Iranian military chief of staff said Wednesday. The remarks by the chief of staff, Hassan Firouzabadi, represented the first time that an Iranian official had offered any detail on the nature of the work at the military base where the explosion took place. The commander's remarks also went beyond earlier descriptions of the impact of the damage." http://t.uani.com/sYeWqh
AP: "Saudi Arabia is pressing for a U.N. resolution that would 'deplore' the alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States. A draft resolution circulated by the Saudis and discussed with U.N. members behind closed doors Wednesday afternoon calls on Iran to cooperate in bringing to justice those responsible for planning and attempting to execute the alleged assassination attempt... Javad Larijani, head of Iran's Human Rights Council, called the allegation of Iranian involvement in the plot 'laughable,' saying there is no evidence. 'The real plot is the American plot to destabilize the region, to create fear from Iran and to promote the military adventurism in the region,' he said, adding that the Saudis 'have fallen victim of this plot as well.' Larijani said Wednesday that the General Assembly should take into account U.S. intentions which hamper 'the security of the region and the world.' U.S. spokesman Mark Kornblau said Ambassador Susan Rice strongly supported the Saudi draft resolution and that the United States will co-sponsor it." http://t.uani.com/s9uEbv
CNN: "The military's newest and most powerful ground-penetrating bomb is not intended for Iran's underground nuclear and weapons facilities specifically, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday. 'The system's not aimed at any one country,' said Pentagon spokesman, Capt. John Kirby. 'It's to develop a capability we believe we need.' The new Massive Ordinance Penetrator, known as the MOP, is able to explode 200 feet underground and designed to destroy deeply buried and fortified targets such as the ones Iran is believed to have constructed to protect its nuclear research facilities. 'It gives us a far greater capability to reach and destroy an enemy's weapons of mass destructions that -- weapons of mass destruction that are located in well-protected underground facilities, without getting into specifics, to -- to a magnitude far greater than we have right now,' Kirby said at a Pentagon briefing. The Air Force has contracted from Boeing for 20 of the bunker-buster bombs." http://t.uani.com/tQnviW
Reuters: "Iran's biggest oil tanker operator NITC is in talks with French bank BNP Paribas over the repayment of hundreds of millions of dollars in loans using Iranian funds held in South Korea, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. NITC, a major transporter of Iran's crude exports to world markets in addition to other international business, lost its ship insurance cover from European providers earlier this year due to sanctions aimed at pressuring Iran to curb its work on nuclear enrichment... NITC, the leading player in Iran's main method of transport for international trade, has also faced calls to pay back bank loans. Major western banks normally require shipping customers to have western insurance for vessels as a condition of the loans." http://t.uani.com/tt7pBY Domestic Politics
WashPost: "Iranian newspapers say authorities are allowing water pipes back into tea houses, revoking a smoking ban in place since 2005 when it comes to a favorite Mideast pastime. The measure by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government is seen as an effort to win more supporters ahead of March parliamentary elections. Thursday's reports say the new regulation was approved by Cabinet on Wednesday. Tea houses may again offer water pipes to customers but the ban remains in place for other institutions, along with the general ban on smoking in restaurants, parks and other public places. Water pipes are known as ghalian in Farsi and have been popular in Iran for centuries." http://t.uani.com/uBJOdv
Opinion & Analysis
Reza Akbari & Geneive Abdo in CNN: "Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, one of the greatest failures of the country's leadership has been the inability to make a promised transition from a monarchy to republican rule. In fact, since Ayatollah Ali Khamenei began his tenure as Supreme Leader twenty-two years ago, he has centralized power further in his own hands, creating what can be called a clerical monarchy. Now, Khamenei may be completing the circle and entirely eliminating any notion of a 'republic' by turning Iran into a fully blown theocratic and authoritarian state. Last month, Khamenei made a short statement, which has sparked an intense debate. The 72-year-old Iranian leader hinted at the possibility of dissolving the post of president, one of only two institutions in which the populace has a say. During a visit to Kermanshah, a western Iranian province, Khamenei announced, 'In the country's current political system, there is a president who is directly elected by the people. This is a good and an effective method. However, if someday in the distant future, it is decided that the parliamentary system is a better way to elect the head of the executive branch, there is nothing wrong with changing the current mechanism.' So why has the Supreme Leader decided to suggest eliminating the position of the presidency in Iran? What does he have to gain from this dramatic political shift? The most obvious explanation is his determination not to repeat the disputed 2009 election and its aftermath. Elections in Iran historically have offered the population rare opportunities to express their grievances with the regime. The protests in 2009 and 2010, which drew millions of Iranians to the streets, not only seriously threatened Khamenei's ability to govern, but exposed his unpopularity. In recent years, beginning with the victorious election in 1997 of Mohammad Khatami to the presidency - an outcome conservatives and hardliners did not expect or want - the regime has faced a dilemma over whether the benefits of elections outweigh the costs. The presidential and parliamentary elections - the two polls in which a sizeable number of the electorate are allowed to participate - provide a façade that the country is somewhat of a republic, even though a body called the Guardian Council vets candidates long before voters ever get to the polls. But the 2009 election and its aftermath inspired a poplar rebellion unprecedented in Iran's post-revolutionary history. And now that uprisings have swept the Arab world, it is not surprising that Khamenei is so worried about public reaction to Iran's scheduled 2013 presidential poll that he prefers to eliminate it entirely." http://t.uani.com/rwAoSU |
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment