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Top Stories
NYT:
"As Iran starts a critical round of talks over its nuclear program,
its negotiating team may be less interested in reaching a comprehensive
settlement than in buying time and establishing the legitimacy of its
enrichment program, Iranian officials and analysts said. That is because
though Iran finds itself under increased financial pressure from
tightening sanctions, officials here argue that their fundamental
approach has essentially worked. In continually pushing forward the
nuclear activities - increasing enrichment and building a bunker mountain
enrichment facility - Iran has in effect forced the West to accept a
program it insists is for peaceful purposes. Iranians say their carefully
crafted policy has helped move the goal posts in their favor by making
enrichment a reality that the West has been unable to stop - and may now
be willing, however grudgingly, to accept." http://t.uani.com/K1KZ7n
Reuters:
"Iran gave an upbeat assessment on Tuesday of talks with the U.N.
nuclear watchdog about its atomic activity but diplomats voiced doubt
inspectors would gain access to a military site where they believe tests
of use in making atomic bombs were carried out. The discussions tested
Iran's readiness to address U.N. inspectors' concerns over suspected
military dimensions to its nuclear work ahead of diplomatic negotiations
on the program's future in Baghdad next week between Tehran and six world
powers. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) aimed at the May
14-15 meeting in Vienna to secure agreement on access to Iranian sites,
documents and officials involved in suspected research that could be put
to producing nuclear explosives. 'We had good talks. Everything is (on
the) right track. The environment is very constructive,' Ali Asghar
Soltanieh told reporters as he entered an Iranian diplomatic mission to
continue the meeting with the Vienna-based IAEA." http://t.uani.com/KjE49d
JPost:
"A former White House Iran adviser said Monday that for Tehran to
prove its seriousness in new talks over its nuclear program, it must take
a step that 'stops the clock' on its uranium enrichment. Dennis Ross, who
served as a senior adviser on Iran until late last year, said that Iran
would need to agree to steps such as a 'significant shipout' of its piles
of enriched uranium. He specified that it must include not only the
currently discussed 20 percent enriched uranium, but also significant
amounts of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium as well. He stressed,
though, that he didn't expect a breakthrough at the next round of talks
on May 23 in Baghdad, adding, 'I don't think we should set ourselves up
for that being the standard.'" http://t.uani.com/JFJFIm
Nuclear
Program & Sanctions
WSJ: "U.S. efforts to cajole India
into substantially reducing crude oil imports from Iran appear to be
bearing fruit, with the junior oil minister R.P.N. Singh telling the
upper house of Parliament Tuesday that refiners are targeting an 11%
overall reduction in crude imports from the Islamic Republic this fiscal
year. India, which relies on Iran for about a tenth of its crude imports,
has found its access to Iranian oil complicated by insurance and bank
settlement obstacles set up by the West in an effort to block Iran's
sales networks. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a
visit to New Delhi earlier this month that she was encouraged by the
steps taken by India to cut Iranian imports, even as she pressed the
South Asian country to make further cuts to support international efforts
to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions." http://t.uani.com/Je1dPe
Reuters:
"India pledged to continue cutting oil imports from Iran over time
but gave no specific target or time-frame for such reductions in talks
with U.S. special envoy Carlos Pascual on Tuesday, a source familiar with
the discussions said. Pascual, who has been pressing Iran's clients to
cut their imports to avoid tighter sanctions, met foreign ministry officials
and discussed a waiver from the new measures, which are due to come into
effect at the end of June. 'We will continue to keep discussing it (the
waiver),' the source said, on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the talks." http://t.uani.com/KjEv3p
Reuters:
"The United States is not impressed with India's efforts to cut its
oil imports from Iran, a top U.S. diplomat said on Tuesday, throwing into
doubt whether New Delhi would be given a waiver from U.S. financial
sanctions before a June deadline. As a major buyer of Iranian crude,
India is crucial to U.S. efforts to squeeze Iran's economy until it
agrees to curb its nuclear program, which the United States and other
Western nations suspect is a cover to build atomic weapons... Washington
has held up Japan as an example, saying it had cut imports despite having
suffered an earthquake and tsunami that crippled its Fukushima nuclear
reactor. Japan cut 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. India's crude oil imports from Iran
declined by about 34 percent in April compared with March, tanker
discharge data showed last week." http://t.uani.com/KqY0JV
Reuters:
"Turkey's cut its crude oil imports from Iran steeply in April from
unusually high levels in March but its purchases were still close to last
year's average, meaning Ankara has yet to slash buying to the extent
sought by Washington, data from shipping sources showed. Turkey said on
March 30 that it would cut imports of oil from Iran by 20 percent from
last year's quantities, ceding to U.S. pressure to reduce purchases.
Turkey's state refining company Tupras took around 5.3 million barrels of
Iranian crude in April, or around 177,000 barrels per day (bpd),
according to shipping agency data from its two import terminals
Tutunciftlik and Aliaga." http://t.uani.com/JjZLsm
Bloomberg:
"South Korea asked the European Union to extend an exemption for
certain insurance contracts on tankers carrying Iranian crude after July
1, when sanctions start to prohibit the coverage. The governments of
South Korea and Japan are in talks with the EU on the insurance rules for
transporting Iranian oil, the Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy said
in an e-mailed statement today. The 27-nation EU in March agreed on a
three- month exemption for third-party liability insurance and
environmental-liability insurance." http://t.uani.com/JQo696
Human Rights
ABC:
"For the first time the parents of an American who could face the
death penalty in Iran for alleged espionage have gone before a camera in
stirring video to speak about their young son and the suffering they've
endured since the arrest of the 'typical American boy.' 'Everywhere I go
I see him. His face is in front of me everywhere,' Behnaz Hekmati, mother
of arrested Amir Hekmati, says as tears stream down her face in the new
video posted on FreeAmir.org. 'I miss him so much. I miss him so much...
[But] I keep myself strong because I know my boy needs me. I need to help
him.' Amir Hekmati, an Arizona-born ex-U.S. Marine, was arrested in
August 2011 while his family said he was on his first trip ever to Iran
to see his grandmother." http://t.uani.com/JQpqc9
NYT:
"With lyrics that tread on ultrasensitive topics and an album cover
that shows the dome of a mosque in the shape of a woman's breast, Shanin
Najafi is an international rapper who elicits an intense reaction here.
But Mr. Najafi's latest song, 'Naghi,' named after a Shiite saint, has
prompted a particular uproar. Opponents of Mr. Najafi are using a recent
fatwa by a leading cleric, Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi-Golpayegani, which
labels all those insulting the 10th Shiite imam, Ali al-Hadi al-Naqi,
also known as Imam Naghi, as apostates. An Islamist Web site then offered
a $100,000 bounty to anyone who kills Mr. Najafi, who was born in Iran,
raps in Persian but lives in Germany." http://t.uani.com/L6IYLX
AP:
"Iran has hanged a man who was sentenced to death for the 2010
killing of a nuclear physicist, state TV reported Tuesday. Majid Jamali
Fashi, who had been accused of being an agent of the Israeli spy agency,
Mossad, was hanged in Tehran on Tuesday morning, the broadcast said...
Jamali Fashi, 24, was tried and convicted last August, and subsequently
sentenced to death in Mohammadi's killing. His lawyer appealed the
verdict but Iran's Supreme Court upheld the execution order issued by a
lower court, paving the way for the hanging." http://t.uani.com/K1M4Mj
Domestic
Politics
FT:
"A close ally of Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad has criticised the Islamic
regime's nuclear talks with world powers in a sign of the president's
rising frustration at being sidelined in the negotiations. Although Mr
Ahmadi-Nejad has never been a decision maker in the nuclear controversy -
a file closely guarded by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader - he
has sought to give himself a direct role in past negotiations. But the
revived nuclear talks, which started in Istanbul and are set to resume in
Baghdad on May 23, come at a time of intense power struggle between the
country's two top figures, a battle that has undermined Mr Ahmadi-Nejad's
standing. Ali Akbar Javanfekr, one of the president's closest allies and
his unofficial spokesman, on Monday criticised Iran's current approach to
the nuclear talks." http://t.uani.com/Kr2qR9
Foreign Affairs
WSJ:
"The Obama administration is moving to remove an Iranian opposition
group from the State Department's terrorism list, say officials briefed
on the talks, in an action that could further poison Washington's
relations with Tehran at a time of renewed diplomatic efforts to curtail
Iran's nuclear program. The exile organization, the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or
MeK, was originally named as a terrorist entity 15 years ago for its
alleged role in assassinating U.S. citizens in the years before the 1979
Islamic revolution in Iran and for allying with Iraqi strongman Saddam
Hussein against Tehran. The MeK has engaged in an aggressive legal and
lobbying campaign in Washington over the past two years to win its
removal from the State Department's list. The terrorism designation,
which has been in place since 1997, freezes the MeK's assets inside the
U.S. and prevents the exile group from fundraising." http://t.uani.com/JjYtxD
Opinion &
Analysis
UANI Advisory
Board Member Henry Sokolski in NRO: "It was reported
last week that, in anticipation of the May 23 multilateral nuclear talks
with Iran in Baghdad, President Obama had already conceded that Iran can
continue to enrich uranium so long as it does so at levels no higher than
5 percent - i.e., not weapons grade. This concession, leaked to the major
news outlets but analyzed by none, gives self-defeating a bad name. It
would not only make it easier for Tehran to break out and make nuclear
weapons whenever it wants, but it would give Iran's neighbors every
reason to demand similar nuclear-fuel-making 'rights.' With any luck,
Iran will reject this offer. Meanwhile, Congress, which is already toying
with legislation to tighten our nuclear-nonproliferation policies, should
get busy. Is the president's position really all that bad? His defenders
insist that his 5 percent solution is simply pragmatic. U.N. Security
Council Resolution 1737 demanded that Tehran cease making nuclear fuel.
But demanding total suspension flies in the face of Iran's 'inalienable'
right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) to make nuclear
fuel for peaceful purposes. They also point out that Obama is firm in
demanding that Iran open up selected military sites to inspection, close
down its heavily fortified enrichment site at Fordo, and send as much as
possible of the 20 percent enriched uranium it has produced so far to a
third country. Iran, they note, has already begun to balk at these
additional demands. The bottom line, in their view, is that the
president's proposed deal gives the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) the access it needs to prevent Iran from taking the last steps
toward making bombs, and that's all that matters. What's wrong with this
argument? First, there is no mention of nuclear-fuel making in the NPT's
text, much less an inalienable right to this activity. All that is
defended in the treaty is the right to develop and produce 'peaceful
nuclear energy.' Getting within weeks of acquiring a bomb by making
nuclear fuel - especially when doing so is uneconomical and is not
technically required in order to produce nuclear power - ought not to
qualify. Second, even though the IAEA claims it can safeguard nuclear-fuel
making against military diversion, it can't. This is hardly news. After
all, if the IAEA could safeguard nuclear-fuel making, there wouldn't be
much of a bone to pick with Iran. Maybe Tehran cheated in the past, but
if IAEA safeguards could prevent it from making a bomb now, all we'd have
to do is let the IAEA work its magic. Unfortunately, this is one nuclear
rabbit the IAEA can't pull out of its hat. Indeed, after failing over the
last two decades to account for scores of bombs' worth of weapons-useable
fuels at Japanese and British civilian nuclear plants, the IAEA clearly
can't reliably detect diversions from declared nuclear-fuel-making
facilities. As for detecting covert nuclear activities, Syria's covert
nuclear reactor, Iran's covert construction of its Natanz enrichment
plant - which went undetected for 18 years - and Iraq's covert nuclear
activities all suggest how unreliable IAEA nuclear inspections can be.
Third, if Iran accepts President Obama's offer, it will be free to amass
more centrifuges and enrich more material, making it easier for it to
break out and acquire even more nuclear weapons than otherwise would be
the case. As Greg Jones, the senior researcher at my Nonproliferation
Policy Education Center, has made clear in his latest report, trying to
restrict Iran to enriching at only 5 percent or lower is effectively no
restriction at all." http://t.uani.com/JgOnt5
Gerald Seib in
WSJ: "In the long and winding American quest to curb
Iran's nuclear program, the next month is the most critical period yet.
And there are three men to keep an eye on as it unfolds: President Barack
Obama, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Israeli Defense Minister
Ehud Barak. U.S. officials and their partners from other big world powers
meet Iranian negotiators in Baghdad on May 23. That meeting will show
whether the oft-discussed, never quite real, diplomatic track for
stopping Iran from developing the ability to make nuclear weapons
actually exists. The conditions for hopping on that diplomatic track have
never been better. Economic sanctions on Iran-particularly a growing
international ban on buying its oil-are biting, to the point that oil
tankers loaded with Iranian oil are loitering off its coast, with nowhere
to go because customers are melting away. And the oil embargo tightens
considerably when a European Union ban on Iranian oil purchases goes into
effect July 1. The U.S. and its world-power partners-China, Russia,
France, Britain and Germany-met with Iranian negotiators in mid-April for
the first negotiating session in more than a year. U.S. officials say
that meeting was the first time the Iranians engaged in a serious
conversation about their nuclear program, one free of bluster and
preconditions. That meeting set the stage for this month's encounter in
Baghdad, where a serious proposal from the world powers will be put on
the table, asking Iran for specific steps to show it is willing to pull
back its nuclear activity. The proposal won't take Iran by surprise;
quiet conversations are under way between Europeans and Iranians as the
meeting approaches, explaining in general what Tehran will be asked to
do. So if the Iranians show up and talk in Baghdad, it won't be because
they wonder what the world expects of them, but because they already know
in general and are willing to discuss the ideas. If the meeting comes off
successfully, U.S. officials think there will be, for the first time, an
actual diplomatic track under way. In other words, if serious diplomacy
is going to take root, this month is when it will have to happen. If not,
Israeli or American military action to stop Iran becomes much more
likely. What the U.S. and its partners seek from Iran at the May 23
meeting likely will be a variation on an idea floated before: Iran curbs
its enrichment program and gives up uranium it already has
enriched-depleting its stockpile of potential nuclear-weapons fuel-in
return for safe nuclear reactor fuel made elsewhere. Specifically, that
probably means a plan calling for Iran to ship out of the country the uranium
it already has enriched to 20% purity, and to stop enriching any more
uranium above the safer 5% level. That probably would mean stopping
enrichment at a sensitive nuclear facility near the holy city of Qom-the
one that most scares both U.S. and Israeli officials. In return, Iran
would get processed nuclear fuel from abroad, a sign the world accepts a
peaceful nuclear program for civilian power and medical research. And, of
course, there would be the prospect of easing sanctions." http://t.uani.com/J8RCIz
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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