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Top Stories
Bloomberg:
"Iran accused the United Nations nuclear inspectorate of spying,
vowed never to suspend uranium enrichment and cast doubt on whether a
deal allowing wider atomic inspections is possible. 'Iran will resist to
the end' and 'will not permit our national security to be jeopardized' by
International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors working for Western
intelligence agencies, the Persian Gulf nation's IAEA envoy, Ali Asghar
Soltanieh, said today at a press briefing in Vienna. 'Iran will never
suspend its enrichment activities,' he said... 'The agency, which is
supposed to be an international technical organization, is somehow
playing the role of an intelligence agency,' Soltanieh said." http://t.uani.com/LqjJSk
Reuters:
"Iran's top crude oil buyers in Asia have just weeks to come up with
ways to keep imports flowing without falling foul of the toughest Western
sanctions to date against Tehran's oil trade. Solutions have proved
elusive so far. A year ago, Iran was selling around two-thirds of its
crude exports, or roughly 1.45 million barrels per day, to China, Japan,
India and South Korea, securing vital flows of foreign exchange for a
government many Western nations accuse of running a secret nuclear
weapons program. Those imports have already dropped by about a fifth
after the European Union and the United States drew up fresh sanctions,
and they could drop further after the end of this month when those
financial restrictions come into force. South Korean refineries have already
given up, industry sources said. They will switch to other sources of
crude supply from July 1. China, India and Japan are scrambling to deal
with the biggest headache - an EU ban on insuring shipments of Iranian
crude from July 1 - and are considering sovereign guarantees... So far
this year, South Korea and India have imported 10 percent less Iranian
crude compared to a year ago, while Japan and China have taken around 30
percent less." http://t.uani.com/KhAPjr
Bloomberg:
"Iran's decision to convert a third of its higher-enriched uranium
into metal plates will make it more difficult for the Persian Gulf
country to assemble an atomic weapon if it decides to so,
nuclear-security analysts say. United Nations International Atomic Energy
Agency inspectors have verified that Iran converted about 33 percent of
its 20 percent-enriched uranium stockpile, according to two senior
international officials. Iran used about 49 kilograms (108 pounds) of the
145 kilogram stockpile to make fuel in the form of metal plates for the
Tehran Research Reactor, they said on condition of anonymity because of
the issue's sensitivity. 'There is some good news overlooked,' Robert
Kelley, a nuclear engineer and the IAEA's former top inspector for Iraq,
said today in an interview. 'This makes the material much less of a
danger for further enrichment, and once it has been irradiated it is of
even less concern.'" http://t.uani.com/KwLDPc
Nuclear
Program
Reuters: "A senior Iranian
official expressed hope on Wednesday that his country and the U.N.
nuclear watchdog would soon be able to seal a framework agreement to resume
a stalled investigation into Tehran's disputed atomic activities.
Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh spoke two days before he is due to meet
senior U.N. nuclear agency officials in Vienna in an attempt to finalize
the accord aimed at unblocking the agency's probe into suspected atomic
bomb research in the Islamic state." http://t.uani.com/JWnz6W
Reuters:
"If the world recognises Iran's 'nuclear rights', negotiations aimed
at easing a standoff with the West later this month could have a positive
outcome, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader was quoted as saying on
Tuesday. But Washington said Iran had to move first to make its nuclear
work compatible with international law and demanded it let U.N.
inspectors into a military site that the West believes has been used for
weapons-related nuclear research... 'We have long said we recognise
Iran's right as a signatory to the NPT to the peaceful use of nuclear
energy, but only after it comes into compliance with its international
nuclear obligations,' State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. 'What's
at issue here is the fact they have not come into compliance,' Toner told
reporters. 'If and when they come into compliance, at that point we'll
address the possible civil use of nuclear energy.'" http://t.uani.com/MERZN8
AP:
"A U.S. envoy challenged Iran on Tuesday to disprove suspicions it
had worked to develop nuclear arms by throwing open a military site to
U.N. inspection. He also urged Tehran to curb uranium enrichment, noting
that -- with further work -- the material it has already amassed would be
enough for use in several atomic bombs. Robert Wood spoke to the
35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency as it turned
its attention to Iran's nuclear program and concerns it could be turned
into making weapons -- a fear that has generated threats of military
action from both Israel and the United States if diplomacy fails to
persuade Tehran to compromise." http://t.uani.com/MERZN8
AFP:
"A mystery computer virus discovered last month and deployed in a
massive cyberattack chiefly against Iran sought to steal designs and PDF
files from its victims, a Russian firm said. Kaspersky Lab, one of the
world's biggest producers of anti-virus software, announced last month
the discovery of the Flame virus, which it described as the biggest and
most sophisticated malware ever seen. In the latest update on Kaspersky's
analysis of the virus, released late Monday, the firm's chief security
expert, Alexander Gostev, said the malware's creators had focussed on file
formats such as PDF and AutoCAD, a software for computer design and
drawing." http://t.uani.com/Nhec2V
WSJ:
"The FBI has opened an investigation into who disclosed information
about a classified U.S. cyberattack program aimed at Iran's nuclear
facilities, according to two people familiar with the probe. The
investigation follows publication last week of details of the
cyber-sabotage program, including the use of a computer worm called
Stuxnet, which Iran has acknowledged it found in its computers. The Central
Intelligence Agency ran the operation in conjunction with Idaho National
Laboratory, the Israeli government and other U.S. agencies, according to
people familiar with the efforts." http://t.uani.com/JWroZL
Sanctions
Reuters:
"Iran says it will make international complaints against 20 European
companies for failing to supply contracted equipment for its oil
refineries, Mehr news agency reported on Tuesday. The European Union
banned all EU companies from supplying equipment to Iran's oil or gas
industry in 2010, while other multinationals have ceased dealing with
Tehran to protect their interests in the United States. 'In the last few
months, some of these foreign companies and especially some of those
companies holding European licences under contract with Iran have not
adhered to their contractual obligations in the development of oil
refineries,' deputy oil minister Ali Reza Zeighami said... International
energy companies that had hoped to tap the country's vast gas reserves
have pulled out over the last few years, followed by European engineering
firms such as Technip, ABB, and Linde." http://t.uani.com/KFrYMd
AFP:
"South Africa's elite police wing has opened an investigation into
graft allegations in mobile giant MTN's securing of an operating licence
in Iran, a police spokesman said Tuesday. Turkish operator Turkcell in
March filed a $4.2-billion (3.4-billion-euro) lawsuit in Washington
alleging MTN had bribed Iranian officials and pressed Pretoria to offer
weapons and diplomatic support for its nuclear programme. 'We first did
an assessment to cast the strength of the allegations. After this we
decided to do a follow-up investigation,' said McIntosh Polela, spokesman
of the Hawks elite police unit, according to Sapa news agency... It has
came under fire for its Iranian operations from the influential US lobby
group United Against Nuclear Iran in January." http://t.uani.com/LzWlQO
FT:
"South African police have opened investigations into allegations of
corruption against MTN that relate to the emerging markets mobile phone
group's operations in Iran. The South African group has been under
pressure since Turkcell - Turkey's biggest mobile phone company - filed a
lawsuit in the US that contained a number of allegations against MTN...
The telecommunications group has also been the subject of a campaign by
an anti-Iran US lobby group [United Against Nuclear Iran]." http://t.uani.com/L2N2JM
Daily Telegraph:
"Jarrad Beddow, 43 the former sales manager of Remet UK, is alleged
to have played a 'leading role' in the shipment of cobalt aluminate to
the Islamic Republic via Slovakia. It is claimed he ignored warnings that
there was 'an unacceptable risk of diversion to WMD programmes.' Jurors
heard the company, based in Rochester, Kent, had been approached by an
Iranian engineering firm Mavadkarin in 2008. Mavadkarin, based in Tehran,
claimed that the cobalt aluminate would be used for casting gas turbine
blades. Remet applied for a licence to export the chemicals in the summer
of 2008 but was told it had been rejected in September." http://t.uani.com/MjqYIE
Foreign Affairs
NYT:
"The perennially tense relationship between Azerbaijan and Iran,
wary neighbors on the Caspian Sea, has deteriorated in recent weeks amid
deep unease in Tehran over expanding military cooperation between
Azerbaijan and Israel. A vital border crossing here has been shut for
days at a time, stranding long lines of trucks. Not far away, Iranian
warships maneuver in the Caspian Sea. Last week, a senior aide to Iran's
supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was refused entry at the airport
in Baku, the Azerbaijani capital. Ambassadors on each side have returned
home... In March, in perhaps the gravest sign of the strains, authorities
in Azerbaijan arrested 22 people they said were part of an Iranian-backed
plot to kill American and Israeli diplomats and attack other targets in
Baku, though the allegations are as yet unproved." http://t.uani.com/MjfjcU
Reuters:
"Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday Iran's nuclear programme has increased
threats to the Gulf region and urged Tehran to cooperate with world
powers to defuse tension after talks last month failed to achieve a
breakthrough. Western nations and Gulf Arab states suspect that the
Islamic Republic's nuclear energy programme is a camouflaged attempt to
develop the means to produce nuclear weapons. Iran says it is enriching
uranium only for civilian purposes. 'For sure the Iranian nuclear
programme has escalated the threat level in the region... So it is
dangerous...,' Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told
reporters in the Red Sea city of Jeddah after a Gulf Cooperation Council
meeting. 'We hope Iran, with all kinds of threats coming from it, changes
its policy to protect a region that is Iran's (as well). I can not
imagine Iran becoming the reason for the destruction of this region
because it will be the biggest loser.'" http://t.uani.com/JWpokc
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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
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email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com
United Against Nuclear
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commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a
regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons. UANI is an
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