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CNN: "Americans see Iran as a bigger threat to the United States than North Korea, according to a new poll. The CNN/ORC International Poll released Wednesday showed 81% view Iran as a very serious or moderate threat to the U.S. Three quarters of Americans said North Korea represents a similar threat. The secretary of defense has said that Iran is viewed as a more significant threat because if it obtained nuclear weapons the country would destabilize the entire region. 'Iran is a country that is - does not behave according to international rules, is engaged in spreading terrorism, in destabilizing countries in that part of the world, and a country that operates on that basis becomes extremely dangerous if it obtains a nuclear weapon,' Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said last March at a press conference." http://t.uani.com/HVcgvP
AFP: "Turkey has intercepted a vessel in the Mediterranean suspected of carrying weapons and ammunition to Syria, a diplomatic source told AFP on Wednesday. 'We received information that the vessel has a cargo of arms and ammunition headed for Syria,' the source said on condition of anonymity, adding that Turkish authorities would search the vessel later in the day. The Antigua and Barbuda flagged 'Atlantic Cruiser' belongs to a German company, the source added. The German shipping firm denied allegations Monday that its vessel was carrying Iranian arms to Syria, violating EU sanctions against the Damascus regime. News weekly Der Spiegel reported at the weekend that the Atlantic Cruiser, owned by German company Bockstiegel but chartered by a Ukrainian firm, had been stopped on the high seas with Iranian weapons on board." http://t.uani.com/IoPEAq
HuffPo: "Porsche has joined Hyundai in its decision to cease selling cars in Iran, after a group called United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) asked both automakers to stop. A Porsche spokesman confirmed the company is no longer shipping to Iran. 'Consumers here have the power to force these companies out of Iran and tighten the screws on Tehran's regime,' said New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who had teamed up with UANI to launch Iran Watch List. 'Our message is clear: You can do business with the Iranian regime, or you can do business with the American consumer. But you can't do both.' ... More than $17 million worth of Porsche vehicles were imported into Iran in the first five months of 2011, according to UANI. Eleven other foreign automakers are still selling cars in Iran: Fiat, Isuzu, Kia, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault, Volvo, Suzuki and Toyota." http://t.uani.com/I8L1Lv
Nuclear Program & Sanctions Reuters: "Bolivia could strike 15 vessels linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines off its shipping register just weeks after IRISL found Bolivian replacements for their Maltese and Cypriot flags. IRISL, its many subsidiaries and their dozens of ships have drawn sanctions from the United States, United Nations and the European Union for their suspected role in transporting military equipment for Tehran. Merchant ships need a flag from national ship registries to gain access to most of the world's ports and many fly those of other countries - especially Panama, Liberia, the Bahamas, Malta and Cyprus - to avoid paying taxes in their home countries. Despite a 2010 U.N. resolution on dealing with Iranian government front companies, until recently Maltese flags still fluttered at the masts of 48 of 144 IRISL vessels identified by the EU, while Cypriot colors flew above 12." http://t.uani.com/IVVStV
AFP: "Foreign firms dealing with Iran's oil and gas sector admit that severe Western sanctions are taking their toll on business, despite Tehran talking up its ambitions at the opening of an international industry exhibition this week. The International Oil, Gas, Refining and Petrochemical Exhibition, held in northern Tehran, was three-quarters filled by Iranian companies working at every level of the industry, from the biggest to ones involved in peripheral activities such as instruments, quality inspections and oil barrel manufacturing. There were 315 foreign stands, down from the 496 present at last year's trade show. Some of the biggest foreign companies that had been major partners in the industry, such as the Anglo-Dutch group Shell and Italy's ENI, were not present. Others, such as the China Petroleum Technology and Development Corporation, the French-Iranian joint venture Beh Total and Norway's Statoil, did have stands -- but representatives there told AFP they had been instructed by their bosses to give no comments at all to journalists." http://t.uani.com/IAO6ST
FT: "At this week's annual exhibition for Iran's beleaguered oil and gas industry, the stands set aside for western companies have some noticeable vacancies. With even stalwarts of the long-suffering oil sector such as France's Total staying away for the first time this year, the gaps are being filled by business from Asia, eastern Europe and Iran itself. Like any oil exporter, the Islamic Republic needs access to international technology and investment to keep production growing. As western-led sanctions restrict that access, the energy industry is turning to other suppliers and backdoor channels as part of a wider national effort to minimise the devastating impact of international isolation on its economy... 'You can say the quality of Chinese products is poor, and I say that's right,' says Hatef Haeri, chief executive of ICG energy consultancy in Tehran. 'But that Chinese equipment is helping us continue work even if we have to change parts frequently.'" http://t.uani.com/HT0eO9
AP: "Iran's oil minister on Thursday raised the prospect of more cutoffs in oil sales to the European Union if the bloc failed to show some flexibility toward Iran ahead of a second round of nuclear talks next month... Ghasemi said that if sanctions imposed by the 27-nation bloc were not lifted by the next round of nuclear talks between Tehran and world powers, then 'we will surely cut oil to Europe.' 'We are hopeful that they will lift sanctions on Iran's oil,' said Ghasemi. 'What we have officially cut is crude export to Britain and France. The oil sale to other countries has continued.'" http://t.uani.com/HSdY0k
Reuters: "Japan will slash crude purchases from Iran in April, and European and Taiwanese customers will also take less, industry sources told Reuters on Wednesday, adding to signs Western sanctions are curbing sales from OPEC's second-largest producer. Japan is cutting volumes by almost 80 percent in April compared with the first two months of 2012. The cuts, amounting to 250,000 barrels per day, are the steepest yet by the four Asian nations that buy most of Iran's 2.2 million bpd of exports. In Europe, Iran's oil buyers are progressively cutting volumes in advance of a European Union ban on Iran crude from July 1 and have reduced their April purchases by 75,000 bpd, industry sources said on Wednesday... Taiwanese state-owned oil firm CPC Corp is also reducing imports from Iran, its chairman said on Wednesday. The company will follow the schedule of U.S. sanctions in deciding when to cut them completely." http://t.uani.com/I4RdVj
Bloomberg: "Japan's government may insure tankers carrying Iranian oil, joining China and India in responding to European sanctions blocking private providers. The Japanese transport ministry held discussions with the Japan Shipowners' Association about providing insurance, Akimitsu Ashida, chairman of the group representing the country's shipping companies, said at a conference in Tokyo today. India is considering sovereign guarantees, and Chinese government officials also met to discuss ways to prevent sanctions from disrupting Iranian shipments. All except 5 percent of the world's tankers won't be able to carry Iranian without losing cover against risks including collisions and oil spills because their insurers are affected by a European Union embargo that takes effect July 1." http://t.uani.com/HVO4tB
Human Rights
Guardian: "An influential Iranian cleric who is entitled to issue juristic rulings according to the Sharia law, has condemned western lawmakers involved in the decriminalisation of homosexuality, saying those politicians are lower than animals. Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, an Islamic scholar based in Iran's holy city of Qom, said in a speech among his followers that homosexuals are inferior to dogs and pigs, according to the news website Khabaronline. 'If a society commits a new sin, it will face a new punishment,' he said while interpreting Qur'anic verses about prophet Lot whose tribe Isalmic scholars say was punished by God for sodomy. 'Problems like Aids did not exist before.'" http://t.uani.com/Ji3fb0
Radio Farda: "Iran's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is apparently seeking domestic partners to help with its Internet-filtering efforts. According to a Request For Information (RFI), the ministry-affiliated Research Institute for Information and Communication Technology has called on Iranian companies to offer ideas and pilot projects for 'purifying' the Internet. The RFI, in Persian, was discovered by Washington-based Internet researcher Collin Anderson, who made it available to a few media outlets, including RFE/RL. The document was translated into English by Ars Technica." http://t.uani.com/HW3nkw
Foreign Affairs
AP: "Iran's ground forces commander warned that should diplomacy fail, the military is ready for action over a disputed Gulf island controlled by Iran but also claimed by the United Arab Emirates, state TV reported Thursday. Gen. Ahmad Reza Pourdastan said Iranian forces are capable of confronting any offender against Iran's sovereignty over the strategic Abu Musa island in the Persian Gulf. It was the first time an Iranian military commander commented on the issue since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week visited Abu Musa." http://t.uani.com/HKkrXd
WSJ: "An Iranian diplomat has been accused of fondling girls at a local swimming pool in Brazil's capital city, a case testing local perceptions of diplomatic immunity laws. Police detained the diplomat on Saturday at a swim club in Brasilia, where they found the man surrounded by a mob of irate parents, some seeking to thrash him and others pleading for calm until the authorities arrived, police officials said. Police didn't name the accused man, citing his diplomatic status. Police said the man denied wrongdoing. Witnesses said the diplomat had been pretending to swim around the pool in a 'duck-diving' manner, police said. While underwater, however, the diplomat surreptitiously fondled four girls between the ages of nine and 15 years, police said. Some of the girls began screaming and their parents confronted the man." http://t.uani.com/HV3Y3w
AP: "Members of a suspected terrorist group arrested this month in Azerbaijan had links to al-Qaida and some trained in neighboring Iran, officials said Thursday. Some of the 17 suspects had fought NATO-led troops in Afghanistan and others had undergone a two-month training course in Iran in preparation for waging a jihad, or Islamic holy war, in Azerbaijan, the National Security Ministry said in a statement... It also said that some of the suspects had spent two months in Iran for weapons training, but gave no further details. National Security Ministry spokesman Arif Babayev said Thursday that this group was unrelated to alleged Iranian agents arrested in February and March." http://t.uani.com/I4VkAR
Opinion & Analysis
Donald Kirk in CSM: "A dozen representatives of the company that manufactures Iran's missiles and satellites had ringside seats at North Korea's failed rocket launch last week, according to South Korean media. Analysts see their presence as the latest evidence of the relationship between Iran and North Korea's cooperation on missile and nuclear programs. 'North Korea and Iran are in close cooperation about long-range missiles,' says Baek Seung-joo, senior researcher at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. 'There is the high possibility they sell nuclear technology to each other. At least their people exchange information.' The relationship between officials and scientists in Tehran and Pyongyang - opposite poles of what then-President George W. Bush labeled an 'axis of evil' - dates back to the 1990s, when both countries were getting deeply involved in developing nuclear technology along with the missiles capable of carrying warheads to distant targets. The programs between the two countries diverge but share common goals that are essentially hostile toward the United States and its most important regional allies, Israel, South Korea, and Japan. The differences, say analysts here and in Washington may not be significant. North Korea already has nuclear warheads while Iran denies it plans to make them. Iran has launched satellites while North Korea claims to have done so but has not. North Korea has developed long-range missiles, including the one that failed last week, while Iran has focused on advanced versions of middle-range missiles capable of reaching Israel. 'Iran in most respects is a larger, more sophisticated country,' observes Greg Thielmann, formerly with the State Department and now senior fellow at the Arms Control Association in Washington. 'They have a lot more resources. The Iranians have conducted a lot of missile tests. North Korean testing is much less frequent.' Although generally behind Iran technically and scientifically, and suffering from far more severe economic problems, North Korea contributed to Iran's program by exporting its mid-range Nodong missiles, originally based on Soviet technology, more than 10 years ago. 'This was always a commercial relationship on the part of North Korea,' says Mr. Thielmann, former director of strategic, proliferation, and military affairs in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research. 'Iran wanted to adapt these missiles and make them their own,' adds Thielmann. In fact, Iranian scientists and engineers did just that, producing Shahab missiles capable of delivering warheads to targets in Israel. It was its interest in North Korean missiles that prompted Iran to send a large team to witness the launch of Unha-3, the long-range North Korean missile that failed last week. The word Unha means 'galaxy' and the number 3 indicates it's the third launch of the same missile. Earlier versions were test-fired in August 1998 and April 2009." http://t.uani.com/HKpcA6
Doyle McManus in LAT: "The Obama administration faces two dangers in its nuclear negotiations with Iran, which began in a burst of optimism last weekend after the two sides managed to get through a day and a half of talks without anyone walking out. One danger, of course, is that the talks could fail. The other is that they might succeed. Failed talks would lead to calls for airstrikes by the U.S. or Israel on Iran's nuclear installations. But even if the talks succeed - or, more precisely, if they succeed only part way - any agreement that comes out of them is certain to draw fire. If Iran comes to the next round in May offering to freeze its uranium enrichment in exchange for an easing of economic sanctions, the United States and its allies will have to reach agreement among themselves on how far they are willing to compromise with the mullahs in Tehran in hope of getting a broader agreement down the road. And the deal-making will come in the middle of a tough U.S. election campaign, in which Republican candidate Mitt Romney has already accused President Obama of 'weakness' where Iran is concerned. The United States, its European allies, Russia and China are asking Iran to halt its enrichment of uranium, to export the enriched uranium it has already made, to close the once-secret Fordow nuclear facility under a mountain near Qom and to give United Nations inspectors unfettered access to its sites. Iran, for its part, wants an end to the array of foreign economic sanctions that have finally begun to cripple its economy, beginning with a delay in a European embargo on purchases of Iranian oil that's scheduled to begin July 1. That's a big, ambitious list of goals on both sides, and coming to any agreement will take time and patience. The two chief negotiators, Saeed Jalili of Iran and Catherine Ashton of the European Union, have been repeating two phrases over and over: Any agreement will be 'step by step' and will be achieved on the basis of 'reciprocity,' meaning each side will have to give a little. The good news is that the Iranians appear more serious about making a deal than they have in the past. Yes, Jalili asked for an immediate suspension of new sanctions without anything in return; but when he was turned down, he returned to businesslike negotiations over the timetable and structure of the next round of talks. It was also a good sign, U.S. and European officials said, that Jalili's title this time was personal representative of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In earlier negotiations, Jalili represented President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which allowed Khamenei to walk away from the results, as he did in 2009. But the best sign of all may have been the ebullient way the Iranians spun the negotiations back home in Tehran." http://t.uani.com/IATbur |
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