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Reuters: "Iran has built up its naval forces in the Gulf and prepared boats that could be used in suicide attacks, but the U.S. Navy can prevent it from blocking the Strait of Hormuz, the commander of U.S. naval forces in the region said on Sunday. Iran has made a series of threats in recent weeks to disrupt shipping in the Gulf or strike U.S. forces in retaliation if its oil trade is shut down by sanctions, or if its disputed nuclear programme comes under attack. 'They have increased the number of submarines... they increased the number of fast attack craft,' Vice Admiral Mark Fox told reporters. 'Some of the small boats have been outfitted with a large warhead that could be used as a suicide explosive device. The Iranians have a large mine inventory.'" http://t.uani.com/zSvazn
Reuters: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday that the Islamic Republic, targeted by tougher Western sanctions, would soon announce advances in its nuclear program. He was speaking on the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed Shah. Tens of thousands of Iranians joined state-organized rallies to mark the occasion. 'In the coming days the world will witness Iran's announcement of its very important and very major nuclear achievements,' Ahmadinejad told a crowd at Tehran's Azadi (Freedom) Square in a speech relayed live on state television. Demonstrators carrying Iranian flags and pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei chanted 'Death to Israel' and 'Death to America.' Ismail Haniya, who heads the Islamist Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, also attended the ceremony." http://t.uani.com/wOAsrg
Bloomberg: "Sanctions on Iran are tightening after Overseas Shipholding Group, Frontline Ltd. and owners controlling more than 100 supertankers said they would stop loading cargoes from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' second-largest producer. OSG, based in New York, said Feb. 10 that the pool of 45 supertankers from seven owners in which its carriers trade will no longer go to Iran. Four OSG-owned ships, managed by Tankers International LLC, called at the country's biggest crude-export terminal in the past year, ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. Nova Tankers A/S and Frontline, with a combined 93 vessels, said Feb. 9 and 11 they won't ship Iranian crude. Previous efforts to curb Iran's oil income and stop it from developing nuclear weapons failed because the structure of the shipping industry means vessels are often managed by companies outside the U.S. or European Union. An EU embargo on Iranian oil agreed to Jan. 23 extended the ban to ship insurance. With about 95 percent of the tanker fleet insured under rules governed by European law, there are fewer vessels able to load in Iran. 'It's the insurance that's completed the ban on trading with Iran,' said Per Mansson, a shipbroker for 31 years and the managing director of Norocean Stockholm AB, which handles tanker charters. 'Last summer, many countries started to be a little bit tougher, but the insurance is the real trigger.'" http://t.uani.com/xY0Jdd
Nuclear Program & Sanctions Bloomberg: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's announcement that he will soon unveil a 'major' nuclear development may be part of a strategy he's employed since 2006 of promising breakthroughs and delivering incremental gains... Ahmadinejad, who was first elected in 2005, has repeatedly dangled the prospect of nuclear leaps to invigorate his followers and intimidate countries that he says threaten Iran. The president said in April 2006 that Iran had joined the 'nuclear club' of countries with nuclear technology. In January 2010, he promised to announce nuclear news 'so sweet' it would 'please all the Iranian people.'" http://t.uani.com/zcOBJa
Mail & Guardian: "Competing mobile operators MTN and Turkcell were silent this week on the latter's claims that MTN bribed its way into Iran six years ago. But circumstances surrounding MTN's audacious entry into Iran, and the South African government's concurrent diplomatic efforts there, provide a compelling context for the claims. MTN could also face increasing international pressure because the Iranian military owns one of MTN's two state-linked partners there, Iran Electronics Industries (IEI)... In September 2008, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control placed one of MTN's Irancell partners, IEI, on a list designed 'to combat the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.' This 'blocks the property of persons engaged in proliferation activities and their support networks.' The company allegedly manufactures electronic components for Iran's weapons systems. IEI, reportedly wholly owned by Iran's ministry of defence, was also sanctioned by the European Union in June 2008 as well as under the US Iran and Syria Non-proliferation Act in December 2006. MTN's other partner in Irancell, the Mostazafan Foundation of Islamic Revolution, is purportedly a charitable body designed to benefit veterans of the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s." http://t.uani.com/zOCpxF
WSJ: "French oil major Total SA stopped buying Iranian crude oil for its refineries and trading activities at the end of 2011, six months ahead of the effective implementation of a European embargo on Iran's oil, and has partly replaced it with oil from Saudi Arabia, Chief Financial Officer Patrick de la Chevardiere said Friday. Total's acknowledgment that it has substituted some Iranian crude oil with Saudi oil is the first such public comment by a major European oil company since the European Union decided last month to embargo Iranian oil. The company's previous Iranian crude-oil supply had been 'some heavy oil that was well suited for our French refineries,' and the substitution crude oil the group has found since it stopped buying from Iran is 'a bit more complicated to process,' Mr. de la Chevardiere said in an interview." http://t.uani.com/wPUEQl
Daily Telegraph: "Last week, the Tehran Times noted that the Iranian oil bourse will start trading oil in currencies other than the dollar from March 20. This long-planned move is part of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's vision of economic war with the west. 'The dispute over Iran's nuclear programme is nothing more than a convenient excuse for the US to use threats to protect the 'reserve currency' status of the dollar,' the newspaper, which calls itself the voice of the Islamic Revolution, said... Iran has the third-largest oil reserves in the world and pricing oil in currencies other than dollars is a provocative move aimed at Washington. If Iran switches to the non-dollar terms for its oil payments, there could be a new oil price that would be denominated in euro, yen or even the yuan or rupee." http://t.uani.com/xuDgkR
ABC: "Israel's prime minister has accused Iran of being behind a pair of car bombings against Israeli diplomatic targets in India and Georgia. Benjamin Netanyahu told a meeting of lawmakers from his Likud Party on Monday that he believed the Iranians were responsible for the attacks in New Delhi and Tbilisi. Two people were wounded in India and the bomb in Georgia was discovered before it went off. Netanyahu said Israel has thwarted other attacks in recent months in Azerbaijan, Thailand and elsewhere. 'In all those cases, the elements behind these attacks were Iran and its protege Hezbollah,' he said." http://t.uani.com/ADHjpF
NYT: "Ranjan Mathai, the Indian foreign secretary, made the rounds in Washington last week, describing India's relationship with the United States as one of growing comfort, depth and candor, if not perfect harmony. On that last point he could have been talking about the recent frictions between the two countries over Iran. India's determination to continue buying Iranian oil, despite sanctions and growing political pressure from the United States and Europe, has frustrated officials in Washington at a time when the forward momentum in the United States-India relationship has slowed, with differences over issues including civil nuclear cooperation, trade protectionism and military sales." http://t.uani.com/wClZPK
Human Rights
AFP: "Iran has further restricted access to the Internet and blocked popular email services for the past few days, in a move a top lawmaker said could 'cost the regime dearly,' media reports said on Sunday. Millions of Iranians have been unable to log onto their accounts on popular email websites such as Google's Gmail, Yahoo's Mail and Microsoft's Hotmail since Thursday without any official explanation, the Arman newspaper reported. But the Mehr news agency said the restrictions were not related only to email. 'It has been a while that Internet users have had difficulty accessing domestic and news websites as well as foreign search engines and email services,' it said on its website." http://t.uani.com/xp3Dw2
Reuters: "Iranian authorities will crack down this week on any public protest against the year-long house arrest of opposition leaders, Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, an official was quoted as saying on Sunday... The two leaders were placed under house arrest on February 14 last year after they urged their supporters to join a rally in support of popular uprisings across the Arab world. Tehran provincial governor Morteza Tamaddon said a call by reformists for a rally on Wednesday to mark the anniversary of the curbs imposed on Mousavi and Karoubi was a 'publicity stunt' by opponents of Iran's Islamic revolution." http://t.uani.com/zY1y4N
FT: "Iran has amended its penal code by removing all executions by stoning and ending the death penalty for juvenile offenders. Under the old penal code, stoning to death was one of the sentences applied for adultery. Iranian activists who campaigned against the practice said at least 99 men and women have been executed by stoning since 1980. Iran leads the world in the number of juveniles it executes, says Human Rights Watch, a US based pressure group. In its 2012 world report, the organisation said more than a hundred under-18s were believed to be on death row. Iran executed at least three minors in 2011. Iran's domestic media have reported that the guardian council, the constitutional watchdog which ensures the country's laws do not contradict sharia, or Islamic law, has given its approval to the reforms. The new law is expected to be enforced 'soon'." http://t.uani.com/xPDB8s
Foreign Affairs
Haaretz: "Iran has been helping Syria bypass the international sanctions imposed on it for massacring civilians, according to documents from the Syrian president's office obtained by Haaretz. The documents show that Iran has given the Syrian regime more than $1 billion, which would help it overcome the oil embargo and other moves including restrictions on flights and sanctions against the central bank. The documents were leaked following a cyber-attack by hackers known as Anonymous against the e-mail server of the Syrian president's office. Seventy-eight employees in President Bashar Assad's office had their e-mail hacked. One of these accounts belonged to the minister of presidential affairs, Mansour Azzam; it included two documents signed by him that dealt with relations between Syria and Iran." http://t.uani.com/wHPDD8
AFP: "Hamas 'will never recognise Israel,' Gaza prime minister, Ismail Haniya, said Saturday in a speech in Iran that is likely to complicate Palestinian efforts to form a unity government in the teeth of opposition from the Jewish state... Haniya's reiteration of Hamas's long-held stance was made on the occasion of Iran's commemoration of its 1979 Islamic revolution. The Gaza leader spoke to an estimated crowd of 30,000 from a stage alongside Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. 'The Iranian people are a partner in this victory,' Haniya said. 'God willing, we will met you along with other Palestinians in a free Palestine, in its capital Al-Quds,' he said." http://t.uani.com/A8hBQ2
Opinion & Analysis
Azadeh Moaveni in The Guardian: "Daily life in Iran has never been such a grind. In just the past month, the price of milk and yoghurt has jumped, foreign medicines have risen by a third and most brands of cigarettes cost about 20-50% more. Exporters nervous about getting paid are suspending shipments of tea, rice and cooking oil. Iran's middle class is feeling the squeeze; with the country's currency in a tailspin, holidays to favourite spots like Turkey and Thailand are no longer an option. As the prospect of further price increases looms, even moderate Iranians opposed to the government are growing resentful of the west. In the early days of his presidency, Barack Obama was bubbling over with messages for the Iranian people. In comparison, today's silence is deafening. The west has become so involved in its political brinkmanship with the mullahs that it has lost sight of how its actions play out internally in Iran. But public sentiment should not be ignored, as what unfolds in Iran will have as much to do with Iranians as it does with Iranian politicians. The west must outline that sanctions are not designed to target the people of Iran, but Iranian officials and the Revolutionary Guard elite who now control large swaths of the economy. Iranians need to hear that the west is applying sanctions as a means to avoid a worse confrontation, and that humanitarian goods like food and medicines are exempt. Because the majority of Iranians share the government's ambitions to nuclear power, which lay at the heart of these sanctions, the west should clarify how Iran can both pursue its legitimate aims and live up to its commitments to the International Atomic Energy Association. Iranians should be reminded that the government can take steps to extricate itself from this mess and, most importantly, that much awaits them should it choose to. Explaining why Iranians are not on a fast-track to Iraq's fate matters, especially as the west has made it clear that these sanctions are only the beginning. 'We're going to continue to see these kinds of knock-on effects as the pressure tightens, even though the focus is not at all on the people,' says a senior US official. 'And there's more coming through the pipeline. This pressure is meant to stave off the inclination to go to war, using the strongest possible non-military means to change Iran's behaviour.'" http://t.uani.com/yGjQeX
Daniel Klaidman, Eli Lake & Dan Ephron in The Daily Beast: "Well before he moved into the White House, Barack Obama began talking to Israel about Iran's nuclear program, and even then there was mistrust. He met in 2008 with several leading Israelis, including Benjamin Netanyahu-before Netanyahu was elected prime minister-and impressed everyone with his determination to stop Iran from going nuclear. Netanyahu liked much of what he heard, according to a source in his inner circle. What troubled him, however, was that Obama didn't talk specifically about Israel's security. Rather, he discussed Iran in the context of a broader non-proliferation policy. 'He showed much command of the issues, even though it was months before he got elected,' says the Netanyahu source. 'It was clear that he read and internalized things. But when he spoke about Iran and his opposition to the nuclearization of Iran ... the Israeli factor did not play prominently.' That discomfort has continued through a series of meetings and conversations since both men took office. On Jan. 12 of this year, Obama called Netanyahu to clarify again, in part, the national interest and policies of the United States in dealing with Iran's nuclear program. The message has been conveyed repeatedly, via many channels: the administration is asking for 'the time and the space for the sanctions to work,' says a senior administration official. 'Not only have we put in place the most robust economic sanctions ever, but we've just started to move on the energy sector.' Above all, the White House doesn't want Israel to start a war-not yet, anyway. For Obama, grappling with Iran policy is like playing a particularly high-stakes match of three-dimensional chess. The game requires the president to achieve several goals: keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of the mullahs, prevent the oil-based global economy from tipping into the abyss, and manage the wild card that is Israel. He would also like to get reelected this year. Achieving one goal can undermine another. Obama's advisers most concerned about the economy, for instance, have been at odds with allies in Congress most focused on preventing Iran from going nuclear. (It would take much less than an oil crisis to restoke panic about Greece and other feeble European economies.) Israel's national interests are not always in line with Washington's. And a messy war-or perceived weakness on Iran-could tip the election for the Republicans in November." http://t.uani.com/yQ4PVD
Alan Dershowitz in WSJ: "The Iranian government has now made crystal clear that it is at war not only with Israel and Zionism but with Jewish communities throughout the world. As Iran's Rafah news website-identified with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad-threatened last month, Iran plans to 'take the war beyond the borders of Iran, and beyond the borders of the region.' And last week an Iranian News Agency headline declared that 'Israeli people must be annihilated.' These and other recent threats have, according to news reports, led Israeli and American authorities to believe that Iran is preparing attacks against Israeli embassies and consulates world-wide, as well as against Jewish houses of prayer, schools, community centers, restaurants and other soft targets. If this were to happen, it would not be the first time that Iranian agents have bombed or attacked Israeli and Jewish targets in distant countries. Back in 1992, Iranian agents blew up the Israeli Embassy and a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killing and injuring hundreds of civilians, many of whom were children. The Argentine government conducted a thorough criminal investigation and indicted several Iranian officials, but those officials were well beyond the reach of Argentine legal authorities and remain at liberty. The U.S. government should deem any Iranian attack against Israeli or Jewish soft targets in America to be an armed military attack on the U.S.-to which the U.S. will retaliate militarily at a time and place of its choosing. Washington should not treat such an attack as the Argentine authorities did, merely as a criminal act. Under international law, an attack on an embassy is an attack both on the embassy's country and on the country in which the embassy is located. And under the charter of the United Nations, an attack against a nation's citizens on its territory is an act of armed aggression that justifies retaliatory military action. An attack on an American synagogue is no different than an attack on the World Trade Center or on American aviation. We correctly regarded those attacks as acts of war committed by al Qaeda and facilitated by the government of Afghanistan, and we responded militarily. All American citizens, regardless of their religious affiliation, are equally entitled to the protection of the American military." http://t.uani.com/AbSkPo |
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