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HuffPo: "After writing Jennifer Lopez an open letter, asking her to renounce her endorsement relationship with Fiat -- a company accused of supporting Iran's ballistic missile transportation -- United Against Nuclear Iran has now released a parody video, further vocalizing the singer's involvement with the company. The video, given exclusively to The Huffington Post, shows Lopez's Fiat commercial spot, in which she is driving through her born-and-raised Bronx, spliced with images of violence at the hands of the Iranian regime. Mirroring the smooth-talking Lopez in her joy ride spot, the parody features a similar voice-over with a very different sentiment. 'They hired me to convince Americans to buy their cars,' the video expounds. 'I wish Fiat had told me they also sell to Iran. Fiat sells cars, trucks, and other equipment on the streets of Iran... I would never want that on my block, but Fiat does pay me millions.'" http://t.uani.com/wDT7Ks
AFP: "US President Barack Obama said US-led sanctions had reduced Iran's economy to a 'shambles,' in a robust defense of his policy towards Tehran following sharp Republican attacks. Obama had previously been reticent in responding to Republican campaign attacks over his efforts to deter Iran's nuclear program, but addressed the issue at a fundraising event in New York, a center of the US Jewish community. He said he had mobilized the world and built an 'unprecedented' sanctions regime targeting Iran to state 'unequivocally that we're not going to tolerate a nuclear weapon in the hands of this Iranian regime.' 'We've been able to organize folks like China and Russia that previously would have never gone along with something like this,' Obama said, referring to the support for sanctions of fellow UN Security Council permanent members. 'And it's been so effective that even the Iranians have had to acknowledge that their economy is in a shambles.'" http://t.uani.com/wdbEeQ
Reuters: "Senators on Thursday warned Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner not to weaken a new law aimed at thwarting Iran's nuclear ambitions by allowing countries to use different criteria to escape financial sanctions. The Treasury is grappling with how to implement the law that prohibits countries and their institutions from dealing with Iran's central bank, the main conduit for Tehran's oil revenues. How the Obama administration defines whether a country has 'significantly reduced' its crude oil purchases from Iran will determine whether that country will be cut off from the U.S. financial system." http://t.uani.com/xRQ0ao
Nuclear Program & Sanctions Reuters: "French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday that time was running out to avoid a military intervention in Iran and he appealed to China and Russia to support new sanctions to force Tehran to negotiate over its uranium enrichment program. France has led international efforts for tougher measures to increase pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear program since talks between Tehran and six world powers -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany -- stalled. Western nations have voiced mounting concern that Israel could launch a preemptive attack against Tehran, deepening instability in an already volatile region. 'Time is running out. France will do everything to avoid a military intervention,' Sarkozy told French ambassadors gathered in Paris. 'A military intervention will not solve the problem, but it will unleash war and chaos in the Middle East.'" http://t.uani.com/ykqfFi
Bloomberg: "The European Union is discussing whether to impose sanctions on Bank Tejarat, the last major Iranian bank financing large-volume trade in Europe, according to EU diplomats and sanctions specialists close to the negotiations. The move may complicate tens of billions of dollars in annual trade with Europe and monetary transactions by EU diplomatic missions in Tehran, they said. A European diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations are private, said some EU officials have objected to an asset freeze because Bank Tejarat is used by EU countries with diplomatic missions in Tehran. If the bank is subject to sanctions, EU embassies and their staffs would have to carry cash and pay for transactions in euros, said the official, who had been briefed by his foreign ministry." http://t.uani.com/wQfcVK
Reuters: "EU foreign ministers are expected to agree on an oil embargo against Iran and a freeze on the assets of its central bank at a meeting scheduled for Monday, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said. France has led calls for the new sanctions to press Iran to halt its nuclear program as talks between Iran and six world powers - the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - have reached stalemate. 'On Monday, at the EU foreign ministers meeting we will be able to come to an agreement on a sanctions package in these two areas,' Juppe told reporters on Thursday after meeting his Australian counterpart Kevin Rudd." http://t.uani.com/wirAbN
WSJ: "China signed billions of dollars in deals with key U.S. allies during its premier's visit to the Persian Gulf, forging ahead with long-term efforts to rely less on its traditional oil suppliers, including Iran-even as it publicly brushes aside U.S. and European pressure to cut its Iranian imports... China has in the past few years seen the risks of relying too much on any one country or region for oil, which has prompted it to reach out to emerging suppliers in Africa and Latin America, which along with smaller Mideast exporters are making up more and more of China's total crude imports. These concerns have intensified as Iran-its No. 3 outside supplier after Saudi Arabia and Angola-comes under increasing pressure from the West just as the spread of Arab Spring uprisings threatens to further disrupt supply across the region." http://t.uani.com/w5clXS
Reuters: "Turkish refiner Tupras plans to cut its dependence on imports of Iranian oil and will meet Saudi Arabian authorities this month, industry sources familiar with the company's strategy said on Thursday, as Western powers crack down on Iran's oil sales. Turkey imports more than 30 percent of its daily consumption from Iran and has so far given no indication that it will comply with a planned European Union import embargo on Iranian crude. But one of the sources said that Iranian threats to shut down the world's most important oil export route, the Strait of Hormuz, had helped push Turkish oil officials to try to reduce the country's heavy dependence on Iran's oil." http://t.uani.com/zpCi78
Reuters: "Japanese Trade Minister Yukio Edano said on Friday that government officials told visiting U.S. counterparts that Japan's imports of Iranian crude oil are on the decline and the trend will continue. U.S. Treasury and State Department officials held meetings with Japanese officials in Tokyo this week to explain a U.S. law imposing sanctions on countries that trade with Iran to curb its ability to build a nuclear weapon. Like other Asian buyers of Iranian oil, Japan is under pressure to cut imports from the world's fifth-largest crude exporter to secure a waiver from the sanctions. Edano said Japanese officials told U.S. counterparts that the country's imports of Iranian crude have fallen by about 40 percent in the past five years, a fact that Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda pointed out at a news conference last week." http://t.uani.com/xFumMU
Wired: "Tensions between the U.S. and Iran are at a high point, as the Islamic Republic threatens to close off a vital waterway and two U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups sit in the seas off the Iranian coast. But across the Persian Gulf, the U.S. has a previously unacknowledged weapon in reserve: a new special operations team. Danger Room has confirmed with the U.S. Special Operations Command that a new elite commando team is operating in the region. The primary, day-to-day mission of the team, known as Joint Special Operations Task Force-Gulf Cooperation Council, is to mentor military units belonging to the U.S.' oil-rich Arab allies, who collectively are known as the Gulf Cooperation Council. Those Arab states consider Iran to be their primary foreign threat. The task force provides 'highly trained personnel that excel in uncertain environments,' Maj. Rob Bockholt, a spokesman for special-operations forces in the Mideast, tells Danger Room, and 'seeks to confront irregular threats.' The U.S. military has not previously acknowledged the existence of the team, known as JSOTF-GCC for short." http://t.uani.com/AvqXWr
Human Rights
AFP: "Iran's Supreme Court has reinstated a death sentence against an Iranian resident of Canada who had been accused of running a pornographic website, a lawyer working on the case said Thursday. The death sentence meted out to Saeed Malekpour was reinstated by the court, after it had reportedly been annulled in June, said Shadi Sadr, a lawyer with the advocacy group Justice for Iran, citing the accused's sister. 'I talked to his sister two days ago and she told me that according to one of the branches of the Supreme Court the death penalty was confirmed. It could be executed at any time from now on,' Sadr said by phone from Britain." http://t.uani.com/zbbVZ7
Foreign Affairs
NYT: "For the third time in less than a month, an American naval vessel came to the aid of Iranian mariners near the Persian Gulf, providing food and water to the crew of a sinking fishing dhow in the central Arabian Sea, the Navy said Thursday... The Navy said in its latest statement that the crew of the destroyer Dewey, part of the Fifth Fleet, had discovered the disabled Iranian vessel, Al Mamsoor, on Wednesday, tethered to a second dhow, with a third also in the area. All but one of the crew members had already abandoned the stricken dhow, which had been taking on water for three days, and boarded those nearby, the Navy said. 'Once we talked with their captain, it was clear that they needed food and water,' said Lt. j.g. Jason Dawson, who led the search and seizure team from the Dewey, part of a naval group led by the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis." http://t.uani.com/yDn97D
Opinion & Analysis
NYDN Editorial Board: "When it comes to containing the dire threat of a nuclear Iran, the civilized world can afford to spare no effort. With the Legislature's unanimous passage of the Iran Divestment Act of 2012 - and Gov. Cuomo's speedy signature - the State of New York has played its necessary part. The act, co-sponsored by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, bars state and local governments from doing business with companies that engage in commerce with Iran's energy sector. The unassailable goal: making damn sure that none of New York's tax dollars wind up fueling, even indirectly, Tehran's reckless quest for nuclear weapons. This is a radical Islamist regime that harbors, trains and finances terrorists. That ruthlessly squashes peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations with violence, imprisonment and torture. That spews hatred at the U.S. and deadly threats at Israel. That is threatening to wreak havoc with the world economy by having its navy close the Strait of Hormuz to shipping. New York will identify companies that play footsie with the mullahs - and bar them from contracts with any state or local agency. California and Florida have taken similar steps, and hopefully other states will follow suit. In the same helpful vein, Controller Tom DiNapoli previously yanked pension fund investments from companies linked to Iran, including Russia's Gazprom and Lukoil, Japan's Inpex and India's ONGC. All of which bolsters a tightening web of sanctions against Iran as imposed by Washington, the UN, the European Union and other countries rightly determined to keep nukes out of the hands of the world's biggest state sponsor of terrorism." http://t.uani.com/yyQYtN
Nicholas Burns in The Boston Globe: "What to do about an increasingly truculent and threatening Iran is now the most important foreign policy challenge of 2012. Republican presidential candidates are all over the strategic map. Rick Santorum wants the United States and Israel to bomb. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich accuse President Obama of weakness, but it isn't clear that they would act much differently. Ron Paul opposes force against Iran because 'they don't threaten our national security.' A more sophisticated plan would be to stick with the strategy that two unlikely partners - Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush - have tried since 2005: punish and isolate Iran with ever tougher sanctions while leaving the door open to negotiations and an eventual diplomatic solution. As an Iranian nuclear weapon is rightly unacceptable to the United States, both presidents left the threat of force on the table to concentrate the attention of mullahs in Tehran. This strategy is not by any means guaranteed to succeed. But it is beginning to gather greater support in key capitals and has quiet bipartisan support among many congressional leaders, keeping us, so far, out of another Mideast war. Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the Middle East and a pernicious troublemaker in Iraq and Afghanistan. That it wants to go nuclear is not contested seriously in any major world capital. As the Bush administration's undersecretary of state working to stop Iran's nuclear program, I didn't encounter a single international official, including from China and Russia, who disagreed that Iran's enrichment efforts and missile tests are designed for just one purpose - to achieve a nuclear weapons capacity. To complicate matters, Iran has recently threatened to shut down the strategic Strait of Hormuz to international shipping, raising the stakes in an already tense standoff between US and Iranian navies in the Persian Gulf. Proponents of a US or Israeli military strike have not made a credible case that it would resolve the problem. Military strikes cannot destroy every Iranian lab and kill every scientist involved with the program. At best, a major assault would delay Iran's program but not end the threat. It could also lead to a wider war. Obama would have to weigh the benefit of an attack against the probability that Iran, a foe much stronger than Saddam Hussein's Iraq ever was, would hit back. The more deliberate strategy pursued by Obama and Bush to convince Tehran to step away from the nuclear precipice is backed by our European allies, Russia, and China. These countries have made repeated offers to Iran to negotiate. Iran has refused to deal, believing, no doubt, that the US-led international coalition is weak and divided. That, in turn, has emboldened critics to charge sanctions can't work and that force is the only way to resolve the issue. But newly approved bipartisan sanctions may change that calculation. At the insistence of congressional leaders, Obama will now have the authority to target Iran's Central Bank and foreign firms that do business with it. Meanwhile, the European Union is on the verge of approving an equally powerful oil embargo. These will be, by far, the most lethal sanctions ever imposed on Iran. And just last week, the Obama team launched a major push to convince the three key Asian importers of Iranian energy - China, South Korea, and Japan - to join the sanctions effort. The president has also quietly continued Bush's program to accelerate US military support for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other Arab countries to contain Iran's growing military power. This promises to make Iran an international pariah and is the most serious US counterstrike in our long-running chess match against Iran's myopic supreme leader, Ali Khamenei." http://t.uani.com/zWkyMo |
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