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Top Stories
Reuters:
"Iran says it is ready to resume talks with the U.N. nuclear
watchdog two months after their last meeting ended in failure, but still
appears to be stonewalling a request for access to a key military site,
Western diplomats said on Thursday. Just days after Iran and six world
powers restarted negotiations in Istanbul, the Islamic Republic delivered
a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on holding new
discussions with the U.N. body as well. But Vienna-based diplomats said
it did not mention the IAEA's most pressing demand - that its inspectors
be allowed to visit the Parchin military site southeast of Tehran, where
the agency believes nuclear-relevant research may have taken place."
http://t.uani.com/HXTtQq
WT:
"When international talks about Iran's nuclear program reconvene
next month, a key test of progress will be whether U.N. inspectors get
access to a bus-sized metal chamber, where specialists suspect Iranians
might have tested a trigger for an atomic bomb. The chamber likely was
used to test a device called an 'implosion system,' which helps set off a
nuclear weapon, according to Paul Brannan of the Institute for Science
and International Security, a nonprofit nuclear-proliferation watchdog.
He said U.N. inspectors have requested access to the site at the Iranian
military complex at Parchin, a few miles southeast of Tehran. Allowing
them in would be a 'straightforward' way for Iran to demonstrate good
faith and to allay international concerns about a possible military
element to their nuclear program, he said." http://t.uani.com/HYk3Hh
Reuters:
"European Union member states may review in the next two months an
embargo on Iranian oil imports that is scheduled to take effect from
July, a senior EU official said on Friday. For now, the official said
there was no economic reason to change plans for the ban, which was
agreed in January as part of EU efforts to put pressure on Tehran over
its nuclear program. EU member states had agreed to review the embargo
plan as soon as this month because of concerns over its potential impact
on global crude oil prices and the difficulty countries such as Greece
face in finding alternative supplies. But they have now postponed that
review and will examine the issue during May or June instead. 'So far,
Greece has come back to us saying that for the time being they seem to be
able to handle the situation,' the official said, speaking on condition
of anonymity." http://t.uani.com/Jai58S
Nuclear
Program & Sanctions
WJW: "The Chicago City Council urged
the city's largest employee pension fund to divest from Iran. The council
unanimously approved a non-binding resolution this week that encouraged
the Municipal Employees Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago to divest from
companies doing business with Iran's energy sector. Divestment would be
gradual. If the fund follows through, Chicago would join New York City,
Washington and 11 other U.S. cities in divesting from businesses involved
in Iran. A number of states also have divested from Iran or are
considering legislation that would do so... In addition, Nathan Carleton,
communications director for United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI),
applauded the Chicago City Council's efforts, but called on the state
government of Illinois to follow suit with states, such as Florida, New
York, California, Indiana and Maryland in barring state contracts to
companies engaged in Iran's energy sector. 'We applaud the Council for
this responsible decision. Any company doing business in Iran today
should be totally ineligible from receiving U.S. tax dollars from any
source,' Carleton told WJW. 'We call on lawmakers in Springfield to join
other states and pass legislation that would bar all these companies from
receiving state contracts.'" http://t.uani.com/HXX1lF
AFP:
"US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta hosted Israeli counterpart Ehud
Barak Thursday in their second Pentagon meeting in as many months as
concern grows over Syrian unrest and Iran's nuclear ambitions. The
closed-door conversation focused on the 'US-Israel defense relationship
and mutual regional security defense interests,' including Iran, Syria
and effects of the Arab Spring on the region, the Pentagon said in a
statement... It was also less than a week after world powers resumed talks
with Iran on its disputed nuclear program. Iran claims it is solely for
peaceful purposes, but the United States, Israel and others suspect it
seeks an atomic bomb." http://t.uani.com/IbZG8J
Reuters:
"Japan's Cosmo Oil Co has renewed its annual oil purchase deal with
Iran and cut the volume to comply with U.S. sanctions against the Islamic
nation, trade sources said on Friday. A company spokesman declined to
comment. Cosmo's new contractual volume from April onwards remained
unclear. The company had already lowered its Iran crude imports to a
little below 30,000 bpd from about 40,000 bpd since January, and was set
to cut further from April, the sources said. Japan's top buyer of Iranian
crude, Showa Shell Sekiyu KK , has already renewed its deal, industry
sources have said. The contract renewal came after Iran agreed to include
a clause in contract terms that released Japanese buyers from any penalty
if international sanctions prevent them from taking delivery of Iranian
oil, sources said." http://t.uani.com/HWsuzo
Foreign Affairs
BBC:
"Brazil says it will seek an explanation from Iran after an Iranian
diplomat was accused of molesting underage girls at a swimming pool in
Brasilia. The Iranian official was questioned by police following
complaints from parents but released after invoking diplomatic immunity.
Iran's embassy denied the allegations, and said they were the result of a
'cultural misunderstanding'. Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota
called them 'very worrying'. The un-named Iranian diplomat was accused of
inappropriately touching girls between 9 and 15 years old at a pool in a
private club last weekend, Brazilian media reported." http://t.uani.com/HXy4Uf
AP:
"There would seem to be enough points of tension to keep Iran and
its Gulf Arab rivals fully occupied: Tehran's nuclear program,
accusations of Iranian meddling in Bahrain's uprising, Iranian threats to
block Gulf oil shipping lanes. But it's all been overshadowed by three
contested islands that Iran wants to turn into a tourist draw. For more
than a week, the political temperature has been rising since Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a surprise visit to the Gulf outpost
Abu Musa, the largest in the three-island cluster controlled by Iran but
also claimed by the United Arab Emirates. On Thursday, Iran's ground
forces commander spoke for the first time about the readiness to defend
the tiny islands between Iran and the UAE." http://t.uani.com/Ic2e6H
Opinion &
Analysis
Sonia Verma in
Globe & Mail: "Sanctions meant to weaken Iran as
it enters negotiations with world powers over its nuclear program are
choking smaller, legitimate companies, but in some cases allowing those
that feed the regime to continue to flourish. Today, the success of
sanctions rests largely on what happens in the glittering Gulf sheikdom
of Dubai, a lifeline for Iran that has long served as a lucrative haven
for legitimate Iranian businessmen but has also been a convenient base
for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The powerful branch of Iran's
military has transformed itself in recent years into a
multibillion-dollar business empire with a vast network of front
companies that use the United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is one, to
sidestep sanctions. Part of the reason why sanctions have been
historically difficult for the West to realize is that they rely on the
willingness of Tehran's trading hubs to enforce them. For years,
intermediary countries have been reluctant to part with billions of
dollars reaped in profit from trade with Iran. In Dubai, the sanctions
themselves have become tougher, and so has their enforcement. In the
process, the UAE has become a crucial front line in world efforts to
stymie Iran's nuclear ambitions. The West's crackdown on trade and
financial transactions is being most keenly felt among the Iranian
traders that call the UAE home, with hundreds of legitimate companies
that trade with Iran being forced to shut down and, in some cases, IRGC
companies being driven further underground. Authorities in the UAE have shut
down dozens of companies illegally trading with Iran. The United States
has also singled out specific Dubai-based banks, recently forcing Noor
Islamic Bank to cease channelling billions of dollars from Iranian oil
sales through its accounts. Despite these measures, some IRGC companies
have simply found new ways to circumvent sanctions. 'Business has never
been better,' said the finance manager of one Iranian company, controlled
by the IRGC, with a satellite office in the Dubai World Trade Centre. In
an extensive interview with The Globe And Mail, he detailed how his
company uses a front company in the Dubai Free Zone headed by an Iranian
with a Swiss passport to launder its financial transactions, which total
$1-billion a year. Shipments from Tehran are relabelled in Dubai to
suggest they originated from there. The company's shipments then proceed,
unhindered, to countries including Pakistan, India and China. The finance
manager, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the sanctions have
simply forced his company to 'get more creative with its accounting,'
funnelling money through parallel accounts at those Iranian banks, which
still operate in Dubai, for instance. The UAE has always been a vital
trading route for Iran, a crucial source for consumer and other
goods." http://t.uani.com/HV41za
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear
Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the
Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive
media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with
discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please
email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com
United Against Nuclear
Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a
commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a
regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons. UANI is an
issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own
interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of
nuclear weapons.
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