Eye on Iran: EU Tells Defiant Iran It "Must" Suspend Atom Activity

For continuing coverage follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group.    Top Stories Reuters: "The European Union told Iran on Monday it must suspend uranium enrichment, a few days after the Islamic state ruled out doing just that, as Tehran and the West engaged in diplomatic shadow-boxing ahead of nuclear talks this month. The United States called on Iran to take 'urgent practical steps' to build confidence during negotiations with world powers on Tehran's nuclear program, which Washington and its allies suspect is a bid to develop an atomic bomb capability... 'A lot of people are talking the Baghdad talks up. We are also hopeful. But it is important to remain realistic,' one European diplomat said. 'This will be a start, not an end.'" http://t.uani.com/IYyXg8 FT: "Iran's automotive industry overcame international sanctions and a troubled domestic environment during the past 12 months, managing continued if slowed growth in what was a tough year for the country's economy. In the Persian calendar year that ended on March 19, car production exceeded 1.6m, up about 2.5 per cent from the previous year - one of the slowest for the industry since the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1986, analysts said... While growth slowed, the industry remains crucial to the domestic economy. The number of cars on Iran's streets have increased more than 70 per cent in the past decade, according to the country's traffic police. Economists say the double-digit demand growth for new vehicles cannot last forever, but producers counter that demand has not declined significantly in the country of 75m people. While production is still growing, the industry is struggling with domestic and foreign challenges, including intensified international sanctions... In March, General Motors said its French partner, PSA Peugeot Citroën, suspended shipments of vehicle components to an Iranian carmaker, in compliance with US laws governing trade with Iran. Peugeot supplied parts to Iran Khodro, the country's biggest carmaker. Iranian experts suspect parts may still be reaching the country via intermediaries in third countries." http://t.uani.com/IS2r1g NYT: "The United States on Monday injected a note of caution into the mood of optimism surrounding recently revived talks on Iran's contentious uranium enrichment program, calling on the Iranians to take 'urgent, practical steps' to prove their sincerity in complying with obligations on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons. The European Union was more direct, asking Iran to suspend the enrichment, a step that Iran has said it will never take... In a statement at the nonproliferation conference in Vienna, the United States representative, Robert A. Wood, said it had welcomed the resumption of the talks on April 14 in Istanbul between Iran and the so-called P5-plus-1 powers - the five permanent members of the Security Council, plus Germany. 'We seek a sustained process that produces concrete results,' Mr. Wood said, 'and call on Iran to take urgent, practical steps to build confidence and lead to compliance with all its international obligations. We will be guided in these efforts by the step-by-step approach and the principle of reciprocity.' Mr. Wood criticized Iran on the inspection issue, saying the United States was 'concerned that Iran has not agreed to the I.A.E.A. access to all relevant sites, documents and persons necessary to resolve questions about its nuclear program, including concerns about its possible military dimensions reported by the I.A.E.A. in November 2011.'" http://t.uani.com/Jdm7bN      Nuclear Program  & Sanctions  CBC: "Iran could build a nuclear bomb within months if it decides to weaponize its atomic enrichment program, according to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. In an interview with CBC's Power & Politics host Evan Solomon, Baird said he doesn't believe Iran has made that decision yet - but warned the country could move 'very quickly' once it does. 'When they're enriching uranium to 20 per cent, when they've got the volume of materials.... When you're putting all the ingredients in front of you, it obviously wouldn't take long to make the decision to do it,' he said. 'They're certainly moving to be able to be in that position, then they could certainly dash to the end which could be done in as few as nine or as many as 18 months.'" http://t.uani.com/KilbWg Reuters: "Iran is accepting renminbi for some of the crude oil it supplies to China, industry executives in Beijing and Kuwait and Dubai-based bankers said, partly as a consequence of US sanctions aimed at limiting Tehran's nuclear programme. Tehran is spending the currency, which is not freely convertible, on goods and services imported from China. Most of the oil that goes from Iran to China is handled by the Unipec trading arm of Sinopec, China's second-largest oil company, and through another trading company called Zhuhai Zhenrong, the oil industry executives said. The trade is worth as much as $20bn-$30bn annually according to industry estimates, but a share of it is in barter form. Zhuhai Zhenrong, for example, pays Iran for its oil by providing services such as drilling, these people add." http://t.uani.com/IAmQEo WSJ: "A U.S. special energy envoy, Carlos Pascual, will visit India next week to assess Indian oil refineries' capabilities to shift crude imports from Iran to other suppliers, an evaluation that will help determine what New Delhi needs to do to head off U.S. sanctions that come into effect next month. After a three-day India visit that included meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and several other top officials, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was encouraged by the steps India has already taken to reduce Iran imports. But she pressed Indian officials to do more, saying significant cutbacks would help international efforts to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions. 'I welcome the progress India is making to reduce its purchases from Iran and hope to see continuing progress,' Mrs. Clinton told reporters after meeting Tuesday with her Indian counterpart, S.M. Krishna. 'We believe that if the international community eases the pressure or wavers in our resolve, Iran will have less incentive to negotiate in good faith.'" http://t.uani.com/JPApOk AP: "Iranian media have reported that a South Korean U.N. nuclear inspector has been killed and another injured in a car crash in central Iran. The official news agency IRNA says the International Atomic Energy Agency inspector died when the car in which he was riding overturned around noon near a heavy water reactor being built in Khondab. The semiofficial news agency ISNA says another inspector from Slovakia was injured in the crash and taken to a hospital." http://t.uani.com/JPxq8J Human Rights CPJ: "China didn't make the cut for our 10 most censored countries. While the Chinese Communist Party's censorship apparatus is notorious, journalists and Internet users work hard to overcome the restrictions. Nations like Eritrea and North Korea lack that dynamism. But China is not off the hook. In fact, CPJ's report reads like a list of China's favorite allies. China loves these nations, judging by its state media reports on Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Burma, Belarus and more. And they love China back: Iranian Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs Ali Agha Mohammadi, announcing plans for Internet censorship in 2011, openly cited China's information controls as a model, according to Fast Company magazine... Two Chinese telecom giants have been accused of facilitating censorship in Iran, the fourth most-censored nation on CPJ's list. Huawei sold equipment allowing Iranian police to track cellphone users in 2009 during a crackdown on anti-government demonstrators, according to The Wall Street Journal... Reuters revealed a 2010 deal between Iran and China-based ZTE for surveillance apparatus, though ZTE said the equipment it provided was 'standard.'" http://t.uani.com/IMD1AZ   Domestic Politics Radio Farda: "Iran's Minister of Communications and Information technology, Reza Taghipour has sent a letter to the head of the country's Central Bank, Mahmud Bahmani, asking him to instruct banks to refrain from sending bank statements to e-mail addresses administered by foreign providers. In his letter, Taghipour says that banned foreign e-mail providers include Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail and MSN. The communications minister has called on banks to only accept national e-mail addresses from customers when they open accounts. Taghipour has requested that banks provide access to the Internet for customers to be able to create national e-mail accounts at their premises." http://t.uani.com/IVzXhN NYT: "About two months ago, when many Iranian families were stocking up on rice and meat to prepare for seemingly inevitable military conflict with the West over Iran's nuclear program, Ali Mesgaran, 35, decided to open a sandwich shop. Iran's national currency, the rial, had just lost nearly half of its value amid new international sanctions, and banks and exchange offices were spilling over with orders for gold and foreign currency from people hoping to protect family savings from soaring inflation... Now, after surprisingly positive talks last month between Iran and world powers over the country's nuclear program, fears of war have given way to cautious optimism among Iranian officials and analysts." http://t.uani.com/JZrvzT Foreign Affairs AFP: "Relations between Afghanistan and Iran have been strained by Kabul's strategic pact with the United States, officials said Tuesday, charging that Tehran has harassed Afghan diplomats in recent weeks. And in parliament, lawmakers warned Iran to end its 'interference' in Afghanistan's internal affairs over the Strategic Partnership Agreement signed last week by President Hamid Karzai and US President Barack Obama. Tehran's ambassador had urged some members of parliament not to vote for the deal, said Abdul Rahoof Ibrahimi, the speaker of the lower house, or Wolosi Jirga. Afghan diplomats in the Iranian capital Tehran have been 'constantly intimidated' since the deal with the United States was signed, a senior government official told AFP. 'They are being chased by Iranian security forces all over the place. Their movements have been restricted,' the official said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue." http://t.uani.com/KCgCJh 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.