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Top Stories
WSJ: "Iran
is sending commanders from its elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps
and hundreds of foot soldiers to Syria, according to current and former
members of the corps. The personnel moves come on top of what these
people say are Tehran's stepped-up efforts to aid the military of Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad with cash and arms. That would indicate that
regional capitals are being drawn deeper into Syria's conflict-and
undergird a growing perception among Mr. Assad's opponents that the
regime's military is increasingly strained. A commander of the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, appeared to offer Iran's first open
acknowledgment of its military involvement in Syria. 'Today we are
involved in fighting every aspect of a war, a military one in Syria and a
cultural one as well,' Gen. Salar Abnoush, commander of IRGC's Saheb
al-Amr unit, told volunteer trainees in a speech Monday." http://t.uani.com/RpU53t
Reuters:
"Iran said on Tuesday it has no plans to show its nuclear sites to
diplomats visiting Tehran for this week's Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)
summit, despite an earlier offer by a deputy foreign minister. Iranian
Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh hinted on Monday that
visiting NAM diplomats might be allowed to tour the Parchin military
base, which the U.N. nuclear watchdog says may have been used for
nuclear-related explosives trials. But Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin
Mehmanparast appeared to pour cold water on the idea. 'We have no
specific plans for a visit to Iran's nuclear installations by foreign
guests participating in the summit of NAM member countries,' state news
agency IRNA quoted him as saying." http://t.uani.com/NzQlHz
Reuters:
"French banks BNP Paribas (BNP) and Credit Agricole are conducting
internal inquiries into U.S. dollar payments to check whether they are
potentially in breach of American sanctions, the banks said on Monday.
Neither would confirm whether the inquiries concerned U.S. sanctions
against Iran, which have led to investigations at rival banks such as
UniCredit and RBS and have already cost Standard Chartered a hefty fine.
'We are conducting an internal review,' said a spokesman for BNP, citing
a disclosure from its 2011 annual report that said the probe concerned
'certain U.S. dollar payments involving countries, persons and entities
that could be subject to U.S. sanctions', adding that the bank had spoken
to American regulators." http://t.uani.com/QOaavn
Nuclear
Program
Reuters: "Any
Israeli attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities are unlikely to cause a
Fukushima-scale disaster unless a Russian-built reactor is destroyed,
experts say. They could, however, release toxic chemicals - rather than
high levels of radiation - causing local contamination affecting health
and the environment. That was also the case from U.S.-led strikes on
nuclear facilities in Iraq during the Gulf Wars. 'I doubt that the
radiation effects would be great,' said Hans Blix, a former head of U.N.
nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)... 'There
could be some chemical hazard (from an Israeli attack on Iran's uranium
refining plants) but I'd think it would be limited to any nearby
communities,' said Edwin Lyman, a nuclear expert at the Union of
Concerned Scientists in Washington." http://t.uani.com/U7YOGS
Sanctions
Reuters:
"The head of the International Energy Agency on Tuesday voiced her
strongest opposition yet to a release of emergency oil stocks, risking a
rift with the IEA's most influential member, the United States, over
strategic reserves policy. Maria van der Hoeven, the Dutch executive
director of the agency that represents 28 energy importing countries,
said higher oil prices alone did not justify a release and world oil
markets could cope with the loss of Iranian exports, hit hard by U.S. and
European sanctions against Tehran... 'The Iranian sanctions didn't come
out of the blue. The market has been adjusting relatively smoothly to
lower Iranian supplies over the last nine months,' she said." http://t.uani.com/NzRnn0
Economic Times:
"ONGC Videsh Ltd wants Iran to pay a higher return on the $ 5-6
billion it plans to invest in developing Persian Gulf gas field of
Farzad-B to make up for the risk involved in investing in US-sanctioned
country. US can impose sanctions on any firm investing more than USD 20
million in Iran's petroleum or natural gas sector. OVL has technology
licences from American companies, which may make them vulnerable to US
sanctions. Sources said OVL, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil and
Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), does not want to abandon Iran yet and to keep
Tehran engaged has proposed to take up development of the offshore gas
field if given a higher return on its investment." http://t.uani.com/U7X3JZ
The Nation
(Thailand): "Thailand has suggested barter trade to
avoid the United States' economic sanctions against Iran over its nuclear
ambitions. 'Trade between Thailand and Iran could not increase for a long
time because of the sanctions,' Foreign Minister Surapong Towichukchaikul
said in Tehran Tuesday. 'So we have to try other ways to boost our
economic relations.' Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi met with
Surapong and agreed with the idea, saying he would study the possibility
of opening barter trade with Thailand. Surapong said Thailand could
exchange rice for oil and gas. Iran demands more than a million tonnes of
rice annually while Thailand is seeking petroleum for domestic energy
consumption." http://t.uani.com/NTRgbO
Human Rights
Daily Telegraph:
"Iran has experienced a dramatic growth in under-age marriages that
has seen the number of girls being wed before the age of 10 double in the
space of a year, officially-compiled figures have revealed. The trend has
prompted child protection experts to warn of a surge in mental illness,
suicides, teenage runaways and girls turning to prostitution as the
nuptials frequently end in divorce. While both genders are affected,
statistics from the state-run civil registration organisation show the
phenomenon to be more prevalent among girls. Some families are said to be
marrying off their daughters to older men to pay off debts." http://t.uani.com/PoLKcP
Foreign
Affairs
WSJ:
"During his four-day trip to Tehran, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh will have to tread cautiously, as India tries to balance its
interests in Iran with U.S. pressure to isolate the country over its
nuclear program. Mr. Singh is heading to the Iranian capital on Tuesday
evening to attend the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, a Cold War
grouping of 120 nations aimed at promoting the interests of developing
countries. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, this has been the kind of
event that made few headlines. But with the Islamic Republic hosting this
year's summit - and presenting it as a diplomatic victory against the
West - the gathering has drawn unusual interest." http://t.uani.com/RpV97I
Reuters:
"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh walks a tightrope at the Non-Aligned
Movement (NAM) Summit in Iran this week. Not only is the summit being
hosted by a country facing the wrath of the West, it also faces a tough
challenge in the form of the Syrian crisis and its implications for the
Middle East. Despite the oil sanctions on Iran by the European Union and
the United States, India and Iran continue to do business, though it is
anything but usual. Before July 1, Iran was India's second biggest oil
supplier for five years. Then came the western sanctions aimed at
pressuring Tehran over its nuclear program and India found it
increasingly difficult to import crude for its burgeoning needs." http://t.uani.com/RjgADf
Opinion &
Analysis
NYT Editorial
Board: "Iran appears to have installed a few hundred
more centrifuges at its deep underground site known as Fordow, thus
enhancing its ability to produce uranium enriched to 20 percent, a purity
that can be converted relatively quickly to bomb-grade fuel. This is
unsettling news. But the Obama administration sensibly says 'there is
time and space' to keep working toward a diplomatic solution, despite
growing pressure for military action from Israel and its supporters.
Iran's continuing activity violates United Nations Security Council
demands to halt enrichment, but as one official said, it is 'not a
game-changer.' The disclosure about the centrifuges is in a report
expected soon from the International Atomic Energy Agency. Tehran's
nuclear ambitions are clearly dangerous to Israel and the region. But the
administration argues that Iran is not on the verge of producing a weapon
and that the United Nations inspectors will provide warning before it
gets to that point... It is disappointing that recently toughened
sanctions and several rounds of negotiations have not produced positive
results. If there is to be any chance of that, the world is going to have
to stay united in enforcing sanctions and isolating Iran. That is why
this week's meeting in Tehran of the Nonaligned Movement was a major
blow. Nations truly interested in peace should have boycotted the
meeting. Instead, 120 of them sent senior representatives, including
heads of state. Some of them, like the Persian Gulf states, no doubt
hedging their bets, are buying billions of dollars in new American
weapons because they fear a nuclear-armed Iran. Worst of all, Ban
Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, chose to participate even
though Iran has been thumbing its nose at Security Council resolutions
for nearly six years. The meeting gave Tehran the perfect propaganda
opportunity to play the victim and defend a nuclear program that is indefensible."
http://t.uani.com/PLy6U4
Warren Kozak in
WSJ: "For the past 67 years, the United States has
been criticized for being the only country to drop atomic bombs on
another sovereign nation. But while the anniversaries of Hiroshima (Aug.
6, 1945) and Nagasaki (Aug. 9, 1945) rarely pass without comment or
controversy, another crucial date is completely ignored: Aug. 29. Between
July 16, 1945, the day the U.S. tested the first atomic device in New
Mexico and realized that it actually worked, and Aug. 29, 1949-when the
Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb-the U.S. held a nuclear
monopoly. No country has ever held a greater strategic advantage over the
rest of the world-not Rome under Caesar, France under Napoleon, or
Germany under Hitler. Yet between 1945 and 1949, America's friends and
enemies lost very little sleep. Why not? Because the idea of the U.S.
using its great advantage to take over the world with nuclear bombs was
ludicrous to all but the most irrational minds... Similarly, in today's greatest
danger zone-the Middle East-it has been widely speculated that Israel has
had a nuclear monopoly over all of its sworn enemies for perhaps half a
century. In that same period, much larger Arab armies (the combined
militaries of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq, with help from the Saudis)
have threatened Israel's very existence in 1967 and again in 1973. That
doesn't include the continued terror attacks across Israel's borders
since the United Nations partitioned the territory in 1948, or the
missile attacks now coming from Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Southern
Lebanon. Israel's response, like that of the U.S., has always been a
strong defense with conventional weapons... So as the debate
continues this August on how to contain an Iran run by a totalitarian
theocracy, the world also notes that the regime in Tehran doesn't just
threaten its opponents but has repeatedly acted on those threats-taking
over embassies (1979-81), killing hundreds of American Marines in Lebanon
(1983) and Jews in Argentina (1992 and 1994), killing even more Americans
in Iraq and Afghanistan (2003 to the present), and killing its own
citizens who dared to protest a fraudulent presidential election (2009).
Iran's response to sanctions? It turns up the speed of its nuclear accelerators,
test-fires its rockets and raises the volume of its threats. The plain
truth is that people don't lose sleep over nuclear weapons in the hands
of rational actors. A British bomb? No one says boo. But people rightly
grow anxious when the irrational mind with greater and greater global
ambitions takes control of this deadly weaponry. And this anxiety
increases further when those irrational minds have proven time and again
their determination to create havoc. As the world heads toward some sort
of confrontation with an Iran bent on gaining the technology that can
destroy millions of lives instantly, it ponders what to do. Those who sit
by will be the loudest to criticize those who will act. They will also be
as relieved as everyone else when that threat disappears." http://t.uani.com/MXtsCs
Jeffrey Goldberg
in Bloomberg: "But what is happening here is
something virtually without precedent in our allegedly enlightened age: A
member-state of the United Nations, Iran, regularly threatens another
member- state, Israel, with annihilation. It's important to bear in mind
a fundamental asymmetry: Israel doesn't seek Iran's elimination. Iran
seeks Israel's. Regime apologists will note that Iranian leaders talk
about the elimination not of 'Israel' -- a word they generally refuse to
utter -- but of the 'Zionist regime,' which, to the naive and the
cynical, implies the replacement of one government with another. This is
a pernicious euphemism. Without the 'Zionist regime' -- which is to say,
the democratically elected government of Israel, its armed forces and
security services, and the courts and structures of state -- the Jews who
survived the onslaught that 'dismantled' their government would face
immediate dispossession, and perhaps much worse. Rosenbaum, an expert on
Hitlerian euphemism, told me that one difference between Nazi rhetoric
and that of the Iranian regime is that the Iranians' words are blunter,
especially when compared with pre-Kristallnacht Nazi language. Rosenbaum
notes, in particular, the Iranian reliance on epidemiological metaphor
when describing Israel: This year, the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei, said Israel is 'a true cancer tumor on this region that
should be cut off.' Which returns us to Rosenbaum's central question: Is
it obsessive for a group of people who not long ago saw a third of their
number slaughtered to worry when the leaders of Iran call Israel a
cancerous tumor? Or is it the natural and appropriate response of a
people who, conditioned by history, choose to err on the side of
caution?" http://t.uani.com/Oq00Bt
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com
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