|
|
Top Stories
NYT:
"An American advocacy group that has successfully pushed to isolate
Iran economically through sanctions and business boycotts opened a new
front in that effort on Tuesday, seeking to pressure the International
Monetary Fund to withdraw all its holdings in Iran's central bank or to
suspend Iranian membership. The advocacy group, United Against Nuclear
Iran, also castigated the fund's managing director, Christine Lagarde,
over what it called her inappropriate compliments for Iran's central
bank, known as Bank Markazi, and its governor, Mahmoud Bahmani, at the
meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington
last month. Ms. Lagarde had described the Iranian government's effort to
eliminate costly economic subsidies as a constructive step worthy of
emulation, and the compliments were widely reported in Iran's state-run
media. 'The I.M.F. should not be hosting Iranian delegations in the U.S.
and elsewhere, and Ms. Lagarde should stop lavishing praise on Iran and
Bank Markazi,' the chief executive of United Against Nuclear Iran, Mark
D. Wallace, said in a statement announcing its new effort." http://t.uani.com/K8UbLs
AFP:
"The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday rejected a call by a US
anti-Iran group for it to cut its relations with Tehran's central bank in
order to adhere to US and European sanctions. The IMF said its account
with Bank Markazi is simply related to Iran's membership in the IMF and
does not contravene sanctions placed on Tehran to pressure it not to
develop nuclear weapons. The advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran,
a group of US ex-diplomats and government officials, said that the IMF
needed to shut down its account with Bank Markazi, a specific target of
the sanctions, or suspend Iran's membership in the fund. It also
criticized the IMF managing director, Christine Lagarde, for meeting with
Bank Markazi's chief during the IMF's spring meeting last month in
Washington, and for allegedly 'lavishing praise on Iran and Bank
Markazi.'" http://t.uani.com/JAAuK4
WT:
"The U.S. military is discussing significant changes in its war
plans to adhere to President Obama's new strategic guidance that
downplays preparing for conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and
counts on allies to provide additional troops. War planning for Iran is
now the most pressing scenario, or what the Pentagon calls a contingency.
U.S. Central Command believes it can destroy or significantly degrade
Iran's conventional armed forces in about three weeks using air and sea
strikes, according to a defense source familiar with the discussions.
Such strikes are an option in a response to Tehran's striking U.S. and
international ships in the Persian Gulf and attempting to close the
strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which about one-fifth of the world's
oil is transported. The Pentagon now is conducting a step-by-step surge
of forces in the Gulf. It is maintaining two aircraft carriers in the
region and is increasing the number of mine-detection ships and helicopters.
Aviation Week reported the Air Force recently dispatched its premier
penetrating strike fighter, the F-22 Raptor, to a base in the United Arab
Emirates, across the Gulf from Iran." http://t.uani.com/IuWfcM
Nuclear
Program & Sanctions
Reuters: "Iran
said on Wednesday it was seeking an end to Western sanctions over its
arms program during talks with world powers and criticized France for
helping Israel, the only country in the Middle East widely believed to
have atomic weapons. An adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei said the talks in Baghdad on May 23 should lead to the lifting
of sanctions, according to Iranian media. The comments reflect increasing
emphasis in the Islamic Republic that an end to sanctions is vital to the
success of the talks. It was also the first time an influential political
figure explicitly said he expects progress on the issue. 'At the least,
our expectation is the lifting of sanctions,' Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel said
in answer to a question." http://t.uani.com/K1xdD2
Reuters:
"The Obama administration announced on Tuesday that it will target
foreigners who help Iran and Syria evade U.S. sanctions and bar them from
access to the U.S. banking system. The latest tightening of existing
sanctions, announced in the form of a White House executive order giving
the Treasury Department expanded authority, aims to stop foreign firms
from completing banned transactions with Syria or Iran. 'Whoever tries to
evade our sanctions does so at the expense of the people of Syria and
Iran and they will be held accountable,' said David Cohen, undersecretary
for terrorism and financial intelligence... No specific foreigner or
foreign-owned entity was named on Tuesday as a violator. The Treasury
official said the department would use the new authority to 'continue the
steady, methodical and unflinching application of our sanctions programs
against Iran and Syria.' Pressed to explain how the new powers differ
from existing sanctions rules, the official said Treasury will have 'a more
nimble and agile ability to go after persons who may be evading our
sanctions.' The department would be able to target foreigners who it now
has problems prosecuting because they are not based in the United
States." http://t.uani.com/IWOEp1
WSJ:
"India's top two importers of crude oil from Iran will reduce
shipments from the Persian Gulf nation by at least 15% this financial
year, the latest sign that New Delhi is playing ball with Washington's
efforts to shut-down Iran oil trade despite public pronouncement from
Indian officials that they will continue to buy from Tehran. The
government has asked state-owned Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals
Ltd. and Essar Oil Ltd., a private company, to cut their imports in the
year through March 2013 due to demands from the U.S., said two people
with direct knowledge of the matter. 'Definitely, there is a lot of
pressure from the U.S.,' one of the people said. A spokesman for India's
oil ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment." http://t.uani.com/IuiDVb
Terrorism
AFP:
"Egyptian security services foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate
the Saudi ambassador to Cairo several months ago, the legal advisor of
the kingdom's embassy said in local dailies on Tuesday. Egypt 'arrested
three Iranians planning to assassinate the ambassador, Ahmed Qattan,'
Al-Hayat quoted Sami Jamal as saying. 'Egyptian authorities informed
concerned parties at the Saudi foreign ministry of the details of the
plot, but the Saudi side opted to keep silent on the matter,' Jamal said.
The arrests were made three months ago. 'Everybody was concerned that
foreign parties would exploit demonstrations by some (Egyptians) outside
the embassy (in Cairo) to attack members of the mission,' Al-Sharq daily
quoted him as saying." http://t.uani.com/Kutnjk
Human Rights
Radio Farda:
"A leading journalism watchdog group has listed authorities in
Uzbekistan, Belarus, and Iran as among the world's leading media
censors... Robert Mahoney, CPJ's deputy director, said authorities in
Iran, unnerved by several years of rising public unrest, have imposed one
of the world's harshest Internet censorship regimes and jailed dozens of
journalists. 'Iran uses imprisonment of journalists to quash critical
news coverage,' Mahoney said. 'Reformist publications are often banned
and their staff sent to prison. Satellite broadcasts and millions of
websites are blocked. Sophisticated techniques are used to detect
interference with anticensorship software.'" http://t.uani.com/JPGnBA
Opinion &
Analysis
Robert Bernstein,
Irwin Cotler & Stuart Robinowitz in WSJ: "Many
of Iran's crimes are well-known to Americans and observers world-wide.
The Tehran regime wants to build a nuclear weapon despite being a
signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty; it supports the brutal
crackdown of Syria's Bashar al-Assad against his own people; it is the
leading state sponsor of terrorism, killing innocents from Argentina to
Lebanon, Afghanistan and beyond; and it is engaged in massive domestic
repression. Less recognized, however, is the legal significance of Iran's
genocidal anti-Semitic and anti-Israel rhetoric, which constitutes one of
the most serious crimes under international law. The United Nations'
Genocide Convention outlaws not only acts of genocide but 'incitement' to
genocide, an egregious offense whether or not genocide has yet occurred.
The convention's goal, of course, is to prevent genocide before it takes
place. Tragically, warnings of impending atrocities in Rwanda were
ignored by the international community. As a result, 800,000 innocent
civilians were slaughtered in a genocide that could have been prevented.
Iran has given the world ample warning. A website affiliated with Iranian
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei declared in February that Iran would be
justified in killing all Israeli Jews-which Tehran's long-range missiles
could accomplish in nine minutes, boasted the site. Khamenei, for his
part, has called Israel a 'cancerous tumor that must be removed' and
declared that there is 'justification to kill all the Jews and annihilate
Israel, and Iran must take the helm.' Also in February, Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hosted Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Tehran,
as billboards in the city declared that it is every Muslim's duty to
'wipe out' Israel. 'If all the Jews gathered in Israel, it would save us
the trouble of going after them world-wide,' Nasrallah has said. 'It is
an open war until the elimination of Israel and until the death of the
last Jew on the earth.' Iranian officials' threats are accompanied by
their denial of the Holocaust and regular characterization of Jews as
nonhuman or subhuman: 'bloodthirsty barbarians,' 'filthy bacteria,' 'wild
beasts,' 'cattle,' 'cancer,' 'filthiest criminals,' 'a blot,' 'a stain,'
'wild dogs' and the like. Similar slurs were made in Nazi Germany and
Rwanda. They are the precursors to genocide. Some argue that Tehran is
unlikely to act on its threats for fear of retaliation. But Iran claims
it could exterminate most of Israel's population in a matter of minutes,
so there would be little opportunity for retaliation. In any event, even
if Iran's radicals could be deterred, their incitement to genocide is
still illegal under international law. Those who incite genocide, and
those who defend them, often invoke the freedom of speech. But no
free-speech law condones threats of mass murder." http://t.uani.com/K8QK7B
Barbara Slavin
& Laura Rozen in Al-Monitor: "As Iran ponders
whether to accept curbs on its nuclear program, it worries less about the
possibility of foreign military attack than about the relentless
onslaught of economic sanctions that are squeezing its oil-based economy.
U.S. and European officials have said that only tangible progress in the
talks due to resume in Baghdad May 23 could convince them not to fully
implement measures this summer that will bar Iran from selling oil to
Europe and make it harder for Iran to receive payment from remaining
customers. But it is unclear whether Iran will get the degree of relief
it seeks in return for the kind of measures it is likely to embrace. Such
a mismatch could jeopardize already uncertain prospects for progress. If
Iran, for example, agrees to stop enriching uranium to 20 percent U-235 -
a concession Iran has been floating since last year - the most it might
get in return is a brief delay of the European oil embargo and a
moratorium on new punishment. Even that is not certain. It is possible
that Iran would only receive fuel for a reactor that makes medical
isotopes - resurrecting a confidence-building measure that foundered in
2009. 'They won't get dramatic relief,' predicts Clifford Kupchan, an
Iran expert at the Eurasia Group, a consulting firm. While the Barack
Obama administration says it follows a two-track approach to Iran that
combines diplomatic engagement with economic pressure, pressure has taken
precedence in recent years. Sanctions have been a major factor in
bringing Iran back to the table after a lapse of more than 15 months.
Although Iranians are practiced in circumventing economic restrictions,
it is facing an unprecedented 'downward spiral of negative economic
phenomena,' according to Bijan Khajehpour, a Vienna-based business
consultant. Over the past six months, the Iranian currency, the Rial, has
lost nearly half its value, plunging to 20,000 to the dollar before
recovering slightly after the April 14 nuclear talks in Istanbul.
Unemployment and inflation are both in double digits and rising. In
anticipation of the July 1 embargo, many European countries have already
stopped buying Iranian oil. Iran has been forced to sell crude largely
through barter to remaining customers in Asia and is storing millions of
barrels on tankers in the Persian Gulf. Not surprisingly at the Istanbul
talks, Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili implored European Union foreign
policy chief Catherine Ashton to delay the sanctions due to take effect
July 1." http://t.uani.com/KuuDTL
|
|
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.
|
|
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment