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WSJ: "Satellite imagery taken of Iran is raising concerns inside the United Nations' nuclear watchdog that Tehran has been 'cleansing' a military site that the agency believes may have been involved in nuclear-weapons development, according to Western officials briefed on the intelligence. The International Atomic Energy Agency twice tried to visit the site, called Parchin, last month to assess its suspicions that Iran has been conducting explosives tests there with the aim of developing atomic weapons. Tehran twice rejected the IAEA's requests. It denies developing nuclear weapons and says Parchin is purely a conventional military facility. In recent days, senior Iranian officials have said Tehran is now reassessing the IAEA's request to visit Parchin and is likely to allow a visit in the coming months. But the officials briefed on the satellite imagery said there is growing concern that Iran is attempting to remove any evidence linking Parchin to nuclear-weapons development, believed by some Western officials to be from Tehran's pre-2003 weapons program, by sanitizing the site." http://t.uani.com/zJzt12
WSJ: "Iran has dramatically increased executions over the past decade and abused the rights of students, women, journalists and religious minorities, according to a new United Nations report that spotlights Tehran's crackdown on domestic dissent as the country faces an international clampdown over its nuclear ambitions. The Islamic Republic shows 'a striking pattern of violations of fundamental human rights,' a U.N. special envoy concluded in a 36-page report on Iran that was released Wednesday. It cites an 'alarming increase' in executions, from fewer than 100 people in 2003 to more than 650 in 2011. More than 80% of the executions were related to drug trafficking, which the report argues isn't a serious crime under international law. It said at least 15 men and women face sentences of death by stoning on charges of adultery." http://t.uani.com/zKEj4Y
CNN: "Iran is not open about its nuclear program, but it should be, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Wednesday. 'Iran is not telling us everything. That is my impression. We are asking Iran to engage with us proactively, and Iran has a case to answer,' said Yukiya Amano, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Amano told CNN Senior International Correspondent Matthew Chance that Iran has declared a number of nuclear facilities to the IAEA, which has them under its safeguards. 'For these facilities and activities, I can tell that they are in peaceful purpose,' Amano said. 'But there are also, there may be other facilities which are not declared, and we have the indication or information that Iran has engaged in activities relevant to the development of nuclear explosive devices.'" http://t.uani.com/xwlMZ8
Nuclear Program
AFP: "The United States Wednesday rebuffed an Iranian warning that new nuclear talks would fail if they were used to exert pressure, demanding assurances Tehran was not building an atomic bomb. 'We will demand that Iran live up to its international obligations -- that it provide verifiable assurances it is not pursuing a nuclear weapon,' White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One. The warning came after Iranian parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani warned that the talks offered by the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany would fail if they were used to 'pressure' Tehran. Carney said the United States was 'clear-eyed' about its approach, given that Tehran declined to discuss its nuclear program in previous rounds of talks." http://t.uani.com/A7i85x
Reuters: "Israel has asked the United States for advanced 'bunker-buster' bombs and refueling planes that could improve its ability to attack Iran's underground nuclear sites, an Israeli official said on Thursday. 'Such a request was made' around the time of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington this week, the official said, confirming media reports. But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the issue, played down as 'unrealistic' reports that the United States would condition supplying the hardware on Israel promising not to attack Iran this year. Netanyahu told Obama at a White House meeting on Monday that Israel had not yet decided on military action against Iran, sources close to the talks said." http://t.uani.com/x8mtmL
AP: "Iran's state TV is reporting that the country's top leader has welcomed comments by President Barack Obama pushing diplomacy and not war as a solution to Tehran's nuclear ambition. The Thursday report quotes Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as praising a recent statement by the U.S. president saying he saw a 'window of opportunity' to use diplomacy to resolve the nuclear dispute. It is one of the rare cases in which Iran's top leader praised an American leader. However Khamenei said the West's sanctions on Iran would fail." http://t.uani.com/xkDszF
Sanctions
Bloomberg: "U.S. and European sanctions designed to pressure Iran over its nuclear program may be cutting the Persian Gulf nation's oil exports as vessels cancel trips to the country. Shipments have declined by 300,000 to 400,000 barrels a day because sanctions are preventing Iran from selling oil, Amrita Sen, an analyst at Barclays Capital in London, said today by e- mail. Half of the tankers booked to load at the country's largest terminal last month didn't complete the voyages, according to brokers, company officials and ship-tracking data. Ship owners are avoiding trade with Iran because U.S. financial sanctions are blocking payments and the main providers of cover against risks such as oil spills are subject to the European Union's ban on the purchase, transportation, financing and insurance of Iranian oil." http://t.uani.com/A2NgaU
WSJ: "Sanctions on Iran are affecting the country's ability to export oil more quickly than many expected, in large part because oil shippers leaving the country are having increasing difficulty insuring their vessels, a U.S. State Department official said Wednesday. Carlos Pascual, special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs at the State Department, said oil shippers are having difficulty getting their vessels insured even for voyages bound for countries not participating in sanctions. 'A process that many thought was going to be phased in over time has actually taken effect much more quickly, which is part of the pressure that we see on international oil markets right now,' Pascual told an audience at an energy conference sponsored by consultancy IHS CERA." http://t.uani.com/x4OCiC
LAT: "U.S. lawmakers are seeking additional economic sanctions to force Iran to negotiate limits on its nuclear program, which many countries fear is aimed at developing a nuclear bomb. Even as Iran prepares for new talks with world powers over its nuclear program, the new sanctions measure is to be introduced by Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), who want to further extend sanctions on foreign companies that do business with the Islamic Republic. Their measure would penalize international underwriters who insure or reinsure deals with Iran that are prohibited under U.S. law, including investments in the energy sector. The legislation would extend U.S. sanctions to all Iranian banks, and to foreign banks engaged in non-oil transactions with Iran. The law would require international financial clearinghouses that may have helped Iran to move its money to disclose whether they are managing any Iranian assets, or providing services to clients who hold Iranian assets. Disclosure would allow authorities to carry out asset freezes and other steps called for in sanctions regulations. The clearinghouses include Clearstream, Euroclear Group, and Depository Trust and Clearing Corp." http://t.uani.com/z7FHMA
Bloomberg: "U.S. lawmakers are targeting global insurers as they seek to expand sanctions aimed at crippling Iran's economy and forcing its leaders to make concessions involving the country's disputed nuclear program. Proposed legislation by Representative Brad Sherman, a California Democrat, and Senator Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican, would penalize underwriters that insure or reinsure any deals with Iran prohibited under U.S. law, including oil and gas investments or insurance for companies or banks that are subject to U.S. sanctions... The measure would mostly affect Asia-Pacific or Russian underwriters because European insurance companies have scaled back or eliminated coverage of Iran-related deals. The European Union banned insurance and reinsurance to Iranian entities or their agents in 2010. U.S. insurance companies are banned from underwriting Iran-related business unless they get a special license from the U.S. government." http://t.uani.com/wZXC6i
Bloomberg: "Mitsubishi Corp. (8058), Japan's biggest trading company, is among crude oil buyers waiting for the government to decide whether the Asian country needs to cut imports from Iran. Mitsubishi buys Iranian crude and condensate, a light oil produced during natural-gas extraction, to supply Japanese refiners, Shunsuke Nanami, a spokesman in Tokyo, said in a phone interview yesterday. The company is waiting for an official decision on how to proceed with supply contracts amid international sanctions against the Islamic Republic, he said." http://t.uani.com/ycz3en
AFP: "Washington on Wednesday named a general in Iran's elite al-Quds force as a key figure in trafficking heroin from Afghanistan. The US Treasury designated Gen. Gholamreza Baghbani, who runs the Revolutionary Guards' Quds force office in Zahedan near the Afghan-Pakistan border, as a narcotics 'kingpin' for facilitating Afghan drug runners to move opiates into and through Iran. In return, the smugglers helped move weapons for the Taliban from Iran 'on behalf of Baghbani,' the Treasury said in a statement... He was the first Iranian to be officially named as a 'specially designated narcotics trafficker' under the US 'Kingpin Act', which allows the Treasury to prohibit any US citizens or entities from engaging in commercial or financial transactions with the named individual." http://t.uani.com/yN2Rkw
Foreign Affairs
CNN: "Iran will not be able to use alliances with Latin America to wield significant influence on security in the West, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday. 'We have the full capacity to make sure that does not happen,' Biden told CNN en Español. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited four Latin American countries in a five-day tour earlier this year, searching for support there amid growing global sanctions targeting his nation's nuclear program... 'People talk about Hezbollah. They talk about Iranian support for weapons and the rest. I guarantee you, Iran will not be able to pose a hemispheric threat to the United States,' he said." http://t.uani.com/yVANNy
Opinion & Analysis
Mark Dubowitz & Jonathan Schanzer in WSJ: "In his speech before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington on Sunday, President Barack Obama once again promised that the United States would not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. Sanctions are a key element of the president's strategy to neutralize the Iranian threat. But the Iranian regime continues to find new ways to circumvent U.S. strictures, moving billions of dollars through the global financial system. This has afforded Tehran more time and space to advance its dangerous program. Mr. Obama must urgently close the loopholes, and only blanket action against all Iranian banks and foreign financial institutions with Iranian business will do the trick. Republican Sen. Mark Kirk and Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman are advancing legislation in the next few days to hone in on the problem areas and try to make American sanctions more airtight. The new bill will represent the latest in a series of encouraging steps on this front in recent months. In December, Mr. Obama signed new sanctions into law against the Central Bank of Iran. The measure has squeezed the Iranian economy, encumbered oil exports and led to an acute crisis of confidence in the rial, Iran's currency, the value of which fell by half between December 2011 and January 2012 alone. In February, the U.S. Congress followed up with a bill targeting the global financial gateway known as Swift, a Belgium-based secure financial messaging system for international financial transactions that Iranian banks and financial entities used more than two million times in 2010. These transactions, The Wall Street Journal reported, amounted to $35 billion in trade with Europe alone. The congressional bill is part of a new Iran sanctions legislation package that the U.S. Senate is expected to pass in the next several weeks. Facing this scrutiny, Swift is now expected to expel the Central Bank of Iran and other Iranian institutions sanctioned by the EU. In a statement last month, Swift noted that the decision 'reflects the extraordinary and highly exceptional circumstances of significant multi-lateral international support for the intensification of sanctions against Iran.' But even if Swift takes action, big loopholes remain. In the past, Iran may have used the powerful Luxembourg-based financial services company Clearstream to move its money. Clearstream facilitates international securities trades for over 2,000 institutional customers in more than 100 countries. In 2008, the U.S. Treasury provided information that led to the freezing of more than $2 billion in Iranian central-bank securities held by Citibank in the name of Clearstream." http://t.uani.com/zXqiqb
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