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Reuters: "A Chinese telecommunications equipment company has sold Iran's largest telecom firm a powerful surveillance system capable of monitoring landline, mobile and internet communications, interviews and contract documents show. The system was part of a 98.6 million euro ($130.6 million) contract for networking equipment supplied by Shenzhen, China-based ZTE Corp to the Telecommunication Co of Iran (TCI), according to the documents. Government-controlled TCI has a near monopoly on Iran's landline telephone services and much of Iran's internet traffic is required to flow through its network. The ZTE-TCI deal, signed in December 2010, illustrates how despite tightening global sanctions, Iran still manages to obtain sophisticated technology, including systems that can be used to crack down on dissidents... The ZTE-TCI documents also disclose a backdoor way Iran apparently obtains U.S. technology despite a longtime American ban on non-humanitarian sales to Iran - by purchasing them through a Chinese company. ZTE's 907-page 'Packing List,' dated July 24, 2011, includes hardware and software products from some of America's best-known tech companies, including Microsoft Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co, Oracle Corp, Cisco Systems Inc, Dell Inc, Juniper Networks Inc and Symantec Corp." http://t.uani.com/GMxRVg
AP: "Authorities have interviewed at least 13 people since 2005 with ties to Iran's government who were seen taking pictures of New York City landmarks, a senior New York Police Department official said Wednesday. Police consider these instances to be pre-operational surveillance, bolstering their concerns that Iran or its proxy terrorist group could be prepared to strike inside the United States, if provoked by escalating tensions between the two countries. Mitchell Silber, the NYPD's director of intelligence analysis, told Congress that New York's international significance as a terror target and its large Jewish population make the city a likely place for Iran and Hezbollah to strike. Silber testified before the House Homeland Security about the potential threat. Much of what Silber said echoed his previous statements on the potential threat, but he offered new details Wednesday about past activities in New York." http://t.uani.com/GFvotz
Reuters: "The United States and Britain accused Iran at the United Nations on Wednesday of shipping weapons to Syria that are being used by the Syrian government against their own people. U.S., British and French diplomats voiced alarm over reports from governments that Iran has been violating U.N. sanctions and is illegally supplying weapons to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government for its bloody year-long crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. The accusation was made during a U.N. Security Council briefing on the reported sanctions violations by Tehran. 'We are alarmed that a majority of the violations ... involved illicit transfers of arms and related material from Iran to Syria, where the Assad regime is using them to violently repress the Syrian people,' U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations, Rosemary DiCarlo, told the council." http://t.uani.com/GFx2eW
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
AP: "Israel and the US disagree on what would be a realistic timetable for stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, Israel's defense minister said Thursday, but stopped short of threatening unilateral Israeli action. Ehud Barak reiterated concerns that Iran is trying to make its suspected nuclear weapons program immune from attack before taking a decision on assembling atomic bombs. Israel 'cannot afford' to wait in such a situation, Barak told Israel Radio. However, several more months can be given to allow sanctions and negotiations to work, he said. During this period, it would become clear 'if the Iranians intend or don't intent to stop their nuclear weapons program.' In the interview, Barak argued that superior U.S. military capabilities and America's position as a world power lead to its different stance on the subject of Iranian nuclear threats." http://t.uani.com/GFR6jG
WSJ: "India showed no signs of trying to reduce oil purchases from Iran on Thursday, saying instead that it is in discussions with Tehran to ensure an uninterrupted supply of crude oil and to better manage settlement of payments. 'The government is studying the impact on India of the problems that have arisen due to imposition of sanctions against Iran,' Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna said in a written reply to questions in the upper house of parliament. This comes just two days after the U.S. State Department said 12 countries-including India and China-risk facing financial penalties this year because of their continued purchases of Iranian oil." http://t.uani.com/GLGoHM
Reuters: "Below is a list of the 12 countries that buy Iranian oil and could be subject to U.S. sanctions unless they significantly cut purchases, a U.S. State Department official said on Wednesday. The department released the number of countries - but not their names - on Tuesday after saying the United States would grant exemptions to the sanctions to Japan and 10 European Union nations that have cut shipments of Iranian oil... The State Department official gave the following list of the 12 countries that remain potentially subject to sanctions. The group includes China and India, the top two importers of Iran's crude, and South Korea, the fourth-largest buyer." http://t.uani.com/GMJAko
Reuters: "South Korea cut imports of Iranian crude in the first two months of 2012 and Taiwan plans to halt its purchases from July as the two join the growing list of countries reducing imports under pressure from the United States... South Korea's refiners were cutting imports to ensure the government could petition the U.S. for a sanctions waiver, a source at South Korea's economy ministry said on Thursday. 'South Korea is cooperating at a fundamental level with the U.S. regarding Iranian crude oil imports,' the source said. 'I think refiners are making efforts to help South Korea receive an exemption from the United States.'" http://t.uani.com/GFuUmF
Reuters: "South Africa has suspended almost all its oil imports from Iran and intends to abide by a U.S. request to make significant cuts in its Iranian supplies, a senior diplomat said on Thursday. '(To my knowledge), no Iranian oil is flowing into our country,' deputy foreign minister Ebrahim Ebrahim told a news conference. 'If there is any, it is very little.' South Africa is on a State Department list of 12 countries that buy Iranian oil and could have been subject to U.S. sanctions had it not significantly cut purchases. Iran is South Africa's leading crude supplier, accounting for about 29 percent of oil imports to Africa's biggest economy, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration." http://t.uani.com/GGU0yI
Dow Jones: "The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requested details from Priceline.com Inc. (PCLN) about the online travel agent's activities in Iran, Syria, Sudan and Cuba, according to a filing with the regulator. In a response letter, Priceline General Counsel Peter J. Millones said that the company wasn't aware of any Cuban business and that its activities with residents of Iran, Syria and Sudan are relatively insignificant and don't violate U.S. laws or regulations." http://t.uani.com/GFzbqO
Opinion & Analysis
Mustafa Akyol in Foreign Affairs: "In a speech last August, Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi, who was Iran's chief justice from 1999 to 2009 and is now a member of the Guardian Council, argued that 'arrogant Western powers are afraid of regional countries' relations with [Iran].' He went on to assert that, in their fear, those same powers were backing 'innovative models of Islam, such as liberal Islam in Turkey,' in order to 'replace the true Islam' as practiced by Iran. Leaving aside his conspiratorial tone, recent developments in the Middle East have somewhat confirmed Shahroudi's concerns. The Arab Spring has heightened the ideological tension between Ankara and Tehran, and Turkey's model seems to be winning. Last spring, Iran often claimed that the Arab revolutions were akin to the Iranian one decades before and would usher in similar governments. Yet in Tunisia and Egypt, for the first time, leading figures in mainstream Islamist parties have won elections by explicitly appealing to the 'the Turkish model' rather than to an Iranian-style theocracy. What's more, in December 2011, the Palestinian movement Hamas salted the wound when a spokesman announced the organization's shift toward 'a policy of nonviolent resistance,' which reflected its decision to distance itself from Syria and Iran and to move closer to Egypt, Turkey, and Qatar. The clash between Turkey and Iran has been more than just rhetorical. Tehran has been Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's biggest supporter, whereas Ankara has come to condemn the regime's 'barbarism' and put its weight behind the opposition, hosting the Syrian National Council and the Free Syrian Army, the rebel government and army in exile. In Iraq, Iran is a patron of the Shias; Turkey is, at least in the eyes of many in the Middle East, the political and economic benefactor of the Sunnis and the Kurds. And the two countries have had tensions over the missile shield that NATO deployed in Turkey in September 2011. The Turkish government insists that the missile shield was not developed as a protection against Iran. Nevertheless, in December, an Iranian political official warned that his country would attack Turkey if the United States or Israel attacked Iran... Yet the realities of the region challenge Turkey's mix of pragmatism and ecumenical idealism. First, for now, the country has not been able to bridge the gap between Iran and the West on the nuclear issue. Second, despite its attempts to avoid being perceived as a Sunni power, it has failed to build lasting ties with Shia in the region, who look up to Tehran rather than Ankara. In Iraq, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite and an ally of Iran, repeatedly spoke against 'Turkish interference' in the politics of Baghdad. And in Syria, where Assad's Alawi regime is violently oppressing a Sunni majority, the dichotomy became even clearer: Turkey stands on the side of the opposition, whose dominant component is the Sunni community, including the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood... So, the Iranians seem right to be concerned about 'liberal Islam in Turkey' and its appeal in the region. To be sure, Iran's own destiny is a matter that Turkey cannot affect. However, the Islamic Republic's regional influence, which sprang from its image as an Islamic hero in a world of Western puppets, is now overshadowed by that of AKP-led Turkey. And for all those who wish to see a more peaceful, democratic, and free Middle East, this should be good news." http://t.uani.com/GGdggV
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