|
|
Top Stories
Reuters:
"Iranian oil exports are falling further in June as more customers
in Europe and Asia stop or scale back purchases ahead of European Union
sanctions aimed at slowing Tehran's nuclear program. Crude exports from
Iran so far this month have dropped to between 1.2 million barrels per
day (bpd) and 1.3 million bpd, according to a firm that tracks oil
shipments and sources at oil companies. The latest decline, if confirmed,
indicates Iran may have lost as much as 1 million bpd of oil exports -
worth around $90 million a day - due to the threat of an EU ban starting
July 1 which also bars EU insurance firms from covering Iran's exports...
Iran's crude shipments in May were between 1.5 million bpd and 1.6
million bpd, according to the same sources, who declined to be identified
by name because they are not authorized to speak to the media... Last
year, Iranian crude exports were running at about 2 million-2.2 million
bpd with total production, including domestic consumption, at 3.5
million-3.6 million bpd." http://t.uani.com/PwOo1f
NYT:
"With high-stakes negotiations over Iran's nuclear program at an
impasse, the Obama administration is under mounting pressure to rethink a
diplomatic exercise that many argue is simply stringing along the rest of
the world. After two days of fruitless talks in Moscow, negotiators for
the United States and other major powers did not even schedule another
high-level meeting with Iran, committing only to a lower-level session in
July to go over the technical details of a proposal to suspend the
enrichment of uranium that Iran has already rejected in principle. Dennis
B. Ross, a former senior White House adviser on Iran, said he believed
the negotiations had become a trap, allowing Iran to continue enriching
nuclear fuel while the two sides fail to agree on even interim measures
to slow the Iranian program. The major powers, he said, should scrap the
step-by-step approach in favor of a comprehensive deal that would test
Iran's sincerity, but could also hasten a military confrontation." http://t.uani.com/KASmXt
AFP:
"Iran's uranium enrichment effort has picked up speed and Tehran
could produce enough fissile material needed for a nuclear weapon within
four months, experts told US lawmakers on Wednesday. The rate of Iran's
uranium enrichment has accelerated despite cyber sabotage from the
Stuxnet virus in 2009, the experts said. Based on the findings of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), 'it's clear that Iran could
produce a nuclear weapon very quickly should it wish to do so,' said
Stephen Rademaker of the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington. Iran has
produced 3,345 kilos of uranium enriched to 3.5 percent, according to the
IAEA, which if it was enriched further would provide enough uranium for
at least two atomic bombs, Rademaker told the House Armed Services
Committee. If the Iran leadership decided to go forward, 'it would take
them 35 to 106 days to actually have the fissile material for a weapon,'
he said." http://t.uani.com/LivQnt
Nuclear
Program
Reuters: "A U.S. security
institute published new satellite imagery on Wednesday which it said
appeared to show further activity, including removing earth, to clean up
an Iranian military site the U.N. nuclear watchdog wants to inspect.
Parchin, which Iran says is a conventional military complex, is at the
center of Western allegations that Iran has conducted experiments -
possibly a decade ago - that could help develop atom bombs. Iran denies
any such ambition. The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS)
published the latest satellite picture a day after Iran and six world
powers failed to make progress on their decade-old nuclear dispute during
two days of talks in Moscow." http://t.uani.com/PzVFgN
CBS:
"A nuclear armed Iran would start a regional arms race that would
destabilize the region, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. 'If Iran
has a nuclear weapon, I can absolutely bet on it and know I will win,
they will be in the market within hours. And that is going to create a
cascade of difficult challenges for us and for Israel and for all of our
friends and partners,' Clinton told Charlie Rose in a joint interview
conducted Wednesday with former Secretary of State James Baker. Baker
said he supported the administration's current efforts to prevent Iran
from getting a nuclear weapon but then bluntly said 'at the end of the
day, if we don't get it done the way the administration is working on it
now, which I totally agree with, then we ought to take them out.'" http://t.uani.com/Mlynvl
WSJ:
"Israel is unlikely to launch a strike on Iran as long as sanctions
on Tehran intensify and diplomatic efforts continue, despite the failure
of international talks in Moscow this week, Israeli officials and
security experts said. That puts Israeli leaders in a bind: While lack of
progress on diplomatic attempts to curb Iran's nuclear program bolsters
Israel's position that Tehran won't compromise, it needs to wait for
diplomacy and sanctions to be exhausted so it can better persuade others
to join it in taking tougher measures, analysts said. 'As long as the
international community is willing to continue, Israel won't say, Stop.
That's unthinkable,' an Israeli official said. 'If the negotiations don't
bring Iran to concessions, at least there will be a clear-cut case
showing that Iran does not want to cooperate.'" http://t.uani.com/MNclgS
Reuters:
"Israel responded on Wednesday to a lack of progress in talks aimed
at curbing Iran's nuclear program by demanding that the West impose
stiffer economic sanctions on Tehran and hinting anew that a military
option was still on the table. Six world powers and Iran failed to secure
a breakthrough at talks in Moscow this week, the third round under the
latest diplomatic initiative, and set no date for more political negotiations.
'It is time for the United States and Western powers to impose more
severe sanctions in the oil embargo and financial sectors in order to
stop Iran's nuclear development program,' Vice Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz
of the centrist Kadima party said in a written statement after talks in
Washington with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton." http://t.uani.com/LEXC8u
CSM:
"Even as the Pentagon draws down US troops in Afghanistan, it plans
to base a sizable contingent of forces in nearby Kuwait - with the clear
purpose of sending a signal to Iran. The signal - that the United States
plan to maintain a credible force in the region - comes at a vital time
for the US military, says Michael Singh, a former senior adviser for
Middle East affairs at the National Security Council. 'The Middle East is
very turbulent right now - it's hard to even imagine all of the different
types of conflicts that will challenge our interests,' adds Mr.
Singh." http://t.uani.com/NcSdpj
Reuters:
"The Iranian navy has announced plans to build more warships and
increase its presence in international waters at a time of growing
tension in the Middle East over Tehran's nuclear program. Navy commander
Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said the deployments would protect
Iranian cargo ships around the world, in particular in the Gulf of Aden
and the northern part of the Indian Ocean, according to state news agency
IRNA. The navy wanted to guard Iranian ships from Somali pirates, the
report said... The navy's deputy chief for technical affairs said the
force planned to build 10 more vessels, including destroyers and
missile-launching frigates, Press TV said." http://t.uani.com/MlvfQ6
Sanctions
Reuters:
"China is moving to cut its imports of Iranian oil, tracking earlier
efforts by countries such as India, Japan and South Korea which won them
exemptions from tough new U.S. sanctions, Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton said on Wednesday. The United States has already exempted a
number of major countries from the new sanctions, which it may impose
starting on June 28 as Washington's most ambitious measure yet to force
Iran to curtail its nuclear program by reducing its oil export sales.
China, which alone buys as much as a fifth of Iran's crude exports, has
not yet been granted a similar reprieve, but Clinton hinted on Wednesday
that one could be in the works. 'We've seen China slowly but surely take
actions,' Clinton said in an appearance with former U.S. Secretary of
State James Baker, detailing the U.S.-led effort to sanction Iran for its
nuclear program. 'I have to certify under American laws whether or not
countries are reducing their purchases of crude oil from Iran and I was
able to certify that India was, Japan was, South Korea was,' Clinton
said. 'And we think, based on the latest data, that China is also moving
in that direction,' Clinton said." http://t.uani.com/KW5xic
Reuters:
"China's crude imports from Iran recovered in May to offset a
first-quarter plunge in shipments to nearly half the annual average,
after the two nations resolved a wrangle over the terms of annual oil
sale contracts. Yet imports in the first five months fell a quarter from
a year ago, with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying China was
slowly but surely taking action to cut reliance on Iranian crude. Total
shipments for the year are expected to stay low as the country's top
buyer rejected Tehran's offer of discounted oil." http://t.uani.com/M96tBx
WSJ:
"India, after much delay and uncertainty, is ready to move ahead
with a rupee payment mechanism designed to bypass U.S sanctions on trade
with Tehran, a senior industry executive said Wednesday. Under the move,
Indian oil companies that import crude oil from Iran will deposit the
payments into rupee accounts held in UCO Bank, and these funds will be
used by Iran to pay for agricultural products and medicines from India.
'Around $550 million equivalent [in rupees] will be deposited into the
account as a first tranche' in the next couple of days, said Rafeeque
Ahmed, president of the Federation of Indian Export Organization. Despite
Iranian oil continuing to flow to India, the payments were held back
pending formal action on a budget proposal in March that promised tax
exemptions for such transactions. Under Indian law, rupee transactions
between two domestic entities require a general-service tax, but the
finance ministry had offered to treat the rupee payment mechanism
differently." http://t.uani.com/KOmKyF
Bloomberg:
"Iran's central bank needs a long- term policy to stabilize the
domestic foreign-currency market, Shargh reported, citing Omid Karimian,
a member of the parliament's economic committee. Recent fluctuations in
the value of the dollar to Iran's rial 'are a testimony to the lack of
solidity of our economy,' Karimian said, according to the Tehran-based
newspaper. Variations show the 'failure' of the central bank's policy, he
said, adding that the bank's role mustn't be only to inject dollars into
the economy. The dollar was sold for 18,300 rials on the open market
yesterday, up 270 rials from the day before, according to the
report." http://t.uani.com/LGKcxz
Bloomberg:
"Iran's imports of automobile parts decreased by 47.8 percent to
$254 million in the first two months of the current Iranian year compared
with the same period last year, Shargh reported, citing figures from the
country's customs authorities. Iran imported more than 21,100 tons of car
parts in the two months starting on March 20, the Tehran-based newspaper
said without giving a reason for the decline." http://t.uani.com/LkSA4n
Foreign Affairs
Fars News:
"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed out at the world
powers for their wrong policies, and reiterated his call for the
establishment of a new world order based on justice and friendship. 'The
widening North-South divide and various crises and worries, including
crises of family and identity, wars, occupations and revenge-seeking,
endless arms races and economic, moral and ethical crisis and the failure
to realize human principles are all the results of the current order and
system dominating the world,' Ahmadinejad said, addressing the Rio+20
Earth Summit in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday. 'We must cure such
old wounds in the human society by reforming the existing global state
and outlining a more transparent prospect for the future,' he
added." http://t.uani.com/MkmjHU
Opinion &
Analysis
Nicholas Kristof
in NYT: "One of the most pernicious
misunderstandings in the West about Iranians is that they are dour
religious fanatics. About half of Iranians are under the age of 25, and
Iran has done a solid job of raising their education levels. I was struck
on my 1,700-mile road trip across Iran by how many of them share American
values, seeking fun rather than fanaticism. They seem less interested in
the mosques than in amusement parks (which are ubiquitous in Iran).
'Young people don't really go to the mosques,' said a 23-year-old man in
eastern Iran, cheerfully exaggerating. 'We want more ways to have fun.'
He said he drinks - alcohol is illegal but everywhere - and, until recently,
used drugs. Iranian officials have suggested that perhaps 10 percent of
the population uses illegal drugs, traditionally opium and heroin but
increasingly methamphetamines as well. This man had joined the 2009
democracy protests, but then, he said, he was detained and beaten for
several days, losing a tooth in the process. That soured him on political
activism, and, like many others, he now just wants to go abroad. In the
northwest, that sense of hopelessness has led some young Iranians of
ethnic Turkish origin to favor seceding and joining Azerbaijan. In soccer
games in Tabriz, fans sometimes outrage the authorities by roaring
secessionist slogans. You wouldn't think a New Yorker could be made to
blush in Tehran, but I was taken aback by the hookup scene of one-night
stands: young men with flashy cars troll for women, chat them up and then
drive off with them. There is also prostitution, and Tehran's former
police chief was arrested in 2008 in a brothel together with six
prostitutes... In the 1970s, disgruntled young Iranians rebelled against
a corrupt secular regime by embracing an ascetic form of Islam. Now
they're rebelling against a corrupt religious regime by embracing
personal freedom - in some cases, even sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. They
often also look warmly on the United States, which is quite
dizzying." http://t.uani.com/Mw4rdH
Thomas Joscelyn in
The Weekly Standard: "Pakistani officials have
reportedly captured Naamen Meziche, an al Qaeda operative with an
extensive dossier. Meziche plays a significant role in an article ('Al
Qaeda's Network in Iran') that I co-authored with my colleague Benjamin
Weinthal earlier this year. Reading through the articles describing
Meziche's capture that have been published so far, at least two aspects
of his story are being either missed entirely or underreported in the
American press. First, Meziche was slated to take part in a 2010
Mumbai-style attack on Europe that was ordered by Osama bin Laden
himself. Meziche and his co-conspirators were recruited for this plot at
the same mosque that gave us the 9/11 Hamburg cell. Indeed, Meziche has
extensive ties to the original Hamburg cell... Second, the 2010
Mumbai-style plot has extensive ties to al Qaeda's Iran-based network.
And these ties came to light as a result, in part, of the trial of one of
Meziche's fellow al Qaeda operatives in Koblenz, Germany. According to
the Obama administration's Treasury Department, the Iran-based network is
headed by an al Qaeda leader named Yassin al Suri and operates as part of
a formerly 'secret' deal between the Iranian regime and al Qaeda. A $10
million reward has been offered for information leading to al Suri's
capture. Meziche and his co-conspirators utilized this Iran-based
network. In 2009, Meziche and one of his compatriots traveled from Vienna
to Tehran and then onto Zahedan - a known hub for al Qaeda activity in
eastern Iran, along the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan. Al
Suri has been based in Zahedan, as well as other Iranian cities, for
quite some time. Meziche moved to Iran at some point and he was being
sheltered there, along with other al Qaeda operatives, as of earlier this
year. The New York Times previously reported on this and I did as well.
The Iranians were, according intelligence sources cited by the Times,
keeping their options open with respect to Meziche. Referring to Meziche
and one his al Qaeda accomplices, an official said: 'These two have been
involved in al Qaeda external operations activities for some time now.'
Citing multiple intelligence sources, the Times added that 'Iran appears
to be harboring them in hopes that, when and if they leave, they will
cause trouble in the West.' Meziche was reportedly attempting to return
to Iran when he was captured inside Pakistan." http://t.uani.com/Mw3GBc
Ilan Berman in The
Weekly Standard: "On Wednesday, Iranian president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad touched down in Brazil for his first state visit to
the South American nation since 2009. The ostensible reason is to attend
the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development, a high-profile gathering
of more than 100 heads of state taking place in Rio de Janeiro. But high
on Ahmadinejad's priority list is an important bit of diplomacy:
reinvigorating the once-robust ties between Tehran and Brasilia. For
Iran, Brazil is a potential economic lifeline in the face of mounting
international pressure. Ahmadinejad has his work cut out for him. Several
years ago, when Ignacio Lula de Silva presided over the Brazilian
government, Brasilia ranked among Tehran's strongest partners in Latin
America. Over the past year-and-a-half, however, relations between the
two countries have cooled considerably, much to the chagrin of Iranian
officials. The turnaround is attributable to Lula's successor, Dilma
Rousseff, whose foreign policy is considerably less ideological than that
of her predecessor. A former women's rights activist who spent time in
prison, Rousseff has made a point of distancing Brazil from Iran since
taking office in January 2011, citing Iran's troubling human rights
record. Earlier this year she rebuffed Ahmadinejad when he wanted to make
a state visit, and it's unclear she will grant the Iranian president an
audience this time out either. Yet if these developments suggest that
Brazil is rethinking the prudence of partnership with Iran, the reality
is that trade ties between the two countries are still active. Indeed,
Brazil represents Iran's largest trading partner in the region. The
concern then is that in the future, the Rousseff government could well
find it advantageous to renew closer ties with Iran. Iran hopes to spur
just such a shift, and Ahmadinejad's Latin American tour has a great deal
to do with courting the Rousseff government. If Tehran can thaw
relations, then perhaps access to the Brazilian economy will help Iran
weather sanctions now being levied against it by the West for its nuclear
program. But Iran is also solidifying its presence in Brazil by other
means. For instance, along with its terrorist proxy Hezbollah, which
maintains a significant presence in the tri-border region where Brazil,
Paraguay and Argentina intersect, Iran is involved in various activities,
like drug smuggling and money laundering." http://t.uani.com/KPbnGQ
|
|
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