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Top Stories
AP:
"Iranian negotiators on Thursday rejected proposals by six world
powers to curb Tehran's nuclear program, and demanded answers to their
own counteroffer meant to alleviate concerns about the Islamic Republic's
ability to build atomic weapons. The stance underscored the difficulties
facing the nuclear talks as both sides stake out their terms and agendas
for a second day in the Iraqi capital. Still, the negotiations did not
appear in danger of collapse. Envoys added extra hours to their meetings
as a sandstorm closed down the Baghdad airport. Proposals for another
round next month in Geneva also met with resistance from Iran, which is
pushing for a venue not considered supportive of Western sanctions. Talks
were expected to wrap up later Thursday. The open channels between Iran
and the six-nation bloc - the five permanent Security Council members
plus Germany - are seen as the most hopeful chances of outreach between
Washington and Tehran in years." http://t.uani.com/Kk1e0W
WashPost:
"A second day of talks between Iran and world powers began Thursday
amid fading hopes that these latest negotiations would help ease tensions
over Tehran's disputed nuclear program. Iran rejected a new package of
proposals put forward by the six nations, including the United States, on
Wednesday, but U.S. officials said the fact that the talks were being
extended into Thursday suggested there was still hope the effort could be
salvaged. The package contained what U.S. officials said were
confidence-building measures that Iran would need to take to show that
its nuclear program is not aimed at producing a weapon, including a
reduction in the degree to which the country is enriching uranium, from
20 percent to 5 percent. But there was no offer of immediate relief from
the biting economic sanctions that are hurting Iran's economy and,
notably, no proposal to reconsider a potentially crippling prohibition on
Iranian oil exports by the European Union that is to go into effect July
1, a top priority for Tehran." http://t.uani.com/KGhHLM
Reuters:
"Iran accused world powers on Thursday of creating 'a difficult
atmosphere' hindering talks on its atomic energy programme, signalling a
snag in diplomacy to ease a stand-off over fears of a covert Iranian
effort to develop nuclear bombs. The nub of the dispute was not
immediately clear as the high-stakes negotiations in pursuit of a
framework deal to stop a feared drift towards a new Middle East war went
into a second day in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. But Iran had served
notice that it wanted immediate relief from economic sanctions as part of
any deal to stop higher-grade uranium enrichment, a pathway to nuclear
arms, whereas Western powers insisted Tehran must first shut it down.
Iranian media close to Tehran's delegation said it was insisting on a
'principle of reciprocity' of concessions they said was promised by the
powers in preparatory talks in Istanbul last month but was not guiding
the Baghdad negotiations." http://t.uani.com/JfaCQL
Nuclear
Program
Reuters: "A U.N. watchdog
report is expected to show that Iran has installed more uranium
enrichment centrifuges at an underground site, potentially boosting
output capacity of nuclear work major powers want it to stop, Western
diplomatic sources say. Two sources said the Islamic state may have
placed in position nearly 350 machines since February - in addition to
the almost 700 centrifuges already operating at the Fordow facility - but
that they were not yet being used to refine uranium. If confirmed in the
next quarterly report on Iran's nuclear programme by the U.N.
International Atomic Energy Agency, tentatively expected on Friday, it is
likely to be seen as a sign of continued defiance by the Islamic state of
international demands to suspend such activity." http://t.uani.com/Mt7t2M
ABC:
"Iranian dissidents have long suspected that the country's Islamist
regime has used the cover of its not-so-covert war with Israel to crack
down on internal opponents, and that a leading Iranian nuclear scientist
whose death was blamed on Mossad might really have been killed by his own
government. Now a prominent opposition blogger based in London says that
discrepancies in the recent trial and execution of the 'Israeli spy'
officially charged with killing scientist Masoud Ali Mohammadi are yet
more evidence that Iranian intelligence agents may have been the real
assassins. Mohammadi, a nuclear physicist, died in January 2010 when a
motorcycle parked outside his house was detonated by remote control when
he walked past." http://t.uani.com/LiJCAz
FP:
"Don't expect any breakthroughs with Tehran at the six-power nuclear
talks beginning Wednesday in Baghdad, the Obama administration's former
top official for Iran Dennis Ross said Tuesday, despite a recent flurry
of reporting suggesting otherwise. 'I don't believe that we should be
looking at tomorrow as being a make-or-break meeting where if there isn't
an unmistakable breakthrough then the process isn't a real process,' Ross
said on a conference call. 'One doesn't need to see a breakthrough in
these talks. That's unrealistic at this point. The idea that you have a
breakthrough after only two rounds, I think, given everything going on,
is just not realistic.' There isn't unlimited time to strike a deal with
Iran, Ross cautioned. But in order for real progress to be made, he said,
the talks have to continue on a regular, predictable schedule." http://t.uani.com/JYI16h
CNN:
"When North Korea tried unsuccessfully to launch a rocket last month
supposedly to put a satellite in orbit, most of the international
community condemned the attempt as a dangerous provocation. Iran recently
announced its intention to make a similar attempt, but the chorus of
opposition this time seems to be a great deal quieter. Iran said it was
aiming to launch its fourth satellite into orbit this week -
coincidentally about the same time world powers were meeting in Baghdad
for talks on Iran's disputed nuclear program. And that, analysts say,
could be one reason for the lack of overt outrage." http://t.uani.com/LHKVyE
Sanctions
Reuters:
"South Africa is looking to source more oil from Nigeria, its deputy
president said on Wednesday, suggesting Pretoria is moving to cut crude
imports from Iran to avoid looming U.S. sanctions. Africa's biggest
economy imports a quarter of its crude from Iran, but has come under
Western pressure to cut the shipments as part of sanctions designed to
halt Tehran's suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons. After several months
of confusing and conflicting messages from the diplomatically non-aligned
Pretoria, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe gave the clearest sign yet
that South Africa is shopping around for alternative suppliers." http://t.uani.com/JpSw38
Economic Times:
"Indian refiner Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd plans to
cut its crude purchases from sanctions-hit Iran to 100,000 barrels per
day (bpd) in the current fiscal year, its managing director said on
Wednesday. That would be a reduction of about 19 per cent from its
imports in 2010/11 of 6.2 million tonnes or 124,000 bpd. 'We are
anticipating problem in supplies from Iran from July,' UK Basu added in
comments to reporters." http://t.uani.com/MJRznq
Human Rights
AFP:
"World leaders and politicians guilty of human rights abuses will be
banned from entering Britain for the 2012 London Olympics, the foreign
ministry said Wednesday. 'Entry will be refused where an individual's
presence at the Games or in the UK would not be conducive to the public
good,' Jeremy Browne, minister of state at the Foreign Office, told parliament
in a written statement. 'Where there is independent, reliable and
credible evidence that an individual has committed human rights abuses,
the individual will not normally be permitted to enter the UK.' The
announcement comes after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that
he was hoping to attend the London Olympics, which start on July 27, but
that British authorities were reluctant to allow him." http://t.uani.com/KGgCn4
AP:
"Iran's official news agency says protesters in front of the German
Embassy in Tehran are seeking return of an Iranian-born singer who went
into hiding after receiving death threats. Singer Shahin Najafi allegedly
insulted a Shiite Muslim saint. The Wednesday report by IRNA said the
protesters also demanded that Germany apologize for hosting the singer,
who has lived in Germany since 2005. They called the singer an
apostate." http://t.uani.com/JtItGY
Foreign Affairs
Reuters:
"With most foreign combat troops set to withdraw from Afghanistan by
2014, Iran is using the media in the war-ravaged nation to gain
influence, a worrying issue for Washington. Nearly a third of
Afghanistan's media is backed by Iran, either financially or through
providing content, Afghan officials and media groups say. 'What Iran
wants, what they are striving at, is a power base in Afghanistan that can
counter American influence,' said a senior government official, who like
others for this report, spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. 'They
are without a doubt doing this through supporting and funding our
media.'" http://t.uani.com/Kk3Njo
Opinion &
Analysis
Clifford May in
NRO: "It's no longer possible to pretend we don't
know the intentions of Iran's rulers. They are telling us - candidly,
clearly, and repeatedly. Most recently last Sunday: Addressing a
gathering in Tehran, Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, chief of staff of
the Iranian armed forces, vowed the 'full annihilation of the Zionist
regime of Israel to the end.' A few days earlier, José Maria Aznar,
former prime minister of Spain, during a presentation at the Jerusalem
Center for Public Affairs, a respected Israeli think tank, recalled a
'private discussion' in Tehran in October of 2000 with Supreme Leader Ali
Khamenei, who told him: 'Israel must be burned to the ground and made to
disappear from the face of the Earth.' Dore Gold, the former Israeli
ambassador to the U.N. who now heads the JCPA, wanted to be certain there
was no misunderstanding. He asked Aznar: Was Khamenei suggesting 'a
gradual historical process involving the collapse of the Zionist state,
or rather its physical-military termination?' 'He meant physical
termination through military force,' Aznar replied. Khamenei called
Israel 'an historical cancer' - an echo of Nazi rhetoric he has employed
on numerous occasions, the last time in public on February 3. Khamenei
also told Aznar that the goal of the Islamic Revolution of 1979 has
remained constant. It is to rid the world of two evils: Israel and the
United States. Eventually, there must be an 'open confrontation.' Khamenei
said it was his duty to ensure that Iran prevails. With this as context,
it is no longer possible to pretend that the acquisition of nuclear
weapons is not a priority for Khamenei. The notion that he is merely
making - as Reuters charmingly phrases it - 'a peaceful bid to generate
electricity,' or that he has not decided whether he wants nuclear weapons
(notwithstanding his fatwa declaring possession of nuclear weapons a
sin), or that he wants them only as a deterrent because he fears foreign
aggression, or that he favors diplomatic conflict resolution but requires
a series of 'confidence-building measures' - all that is wishful thinking
and self-delusion, if not blatant disinformation." http://t.uani.com/JzLcn5
Jonathan Tobin in
Commentary: "To their credit, Western negotiators at
the P5+1 talks in Baghdad did not completely fold before the negotiations
began. They presented a proposal that, while still granting legitimacy to
the Iranian nuclear program, did not remove existing sanctions or the threat
of an oil embargo in advance of Tehran's agreement to stop refining
weapons-grade uranium and to ship their stockpile out of the country. The
Iranian reaction to this mild offer was predictable. They claimed it was
not only unreasonable but that it violated what the Islamist regime says
was agreed to at the previous meeting in Istanbul. That means those who
feared the Baghdad meeting would lead to an unsatisfactory agreement that
could be represented as ending the crisis but by no means removing the Iranian
nuclear threat can exhale. But that does not mean the danger of an
Iranian diplomatic victory is averted. Quite the contrary, the Iranians
view their indignant refusal as just the start of the bargaining process
by which they will ultimately get what they want: the West's endorsement
of their right to a nuclear program and removal of sanctions. The
question here is whether the negotiators, led by European Union foreign
policy chief Catherine Ashton and backed up by political leaders such as
President Obama and French President Hollande, have the will to stick to
this position rather than being enticed into a bazaar-style barter in
which the Iranians are bound to win. If, as is reported, the West's
stance is just a preliminary bid, then we will soon know the
answer." http://t.uani.com/LiKt40
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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