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Top Stories
NYT:
"International nuclear inspectors will soon report that Iran has
installed hundreds of new centrifuges in recent months and may also be
speeding up production of nuclear fuel while negotiations with the United
States and its allies have ground to a near halt, according to diplomats
and experts briefed on the findings. Almost all of the new equipment is
being installed in a deep underground site on a military base near Qum
that is considered virtually invulnerable to military attack. It would
suggest that a boast by senior Iranian leaders late last month - that the
country had added upward of 1,000 new machines to its installation
despite Western sabotage - may be true. The report will also indicate,
according to the officials familiar with its contents, that Iran is
increasingly focused on enriching uranium to a level of 20 percent - a
purity that it says it needs for a specialty nuclear reactor that it
insists is used only for medical purposes, but that outside experts say
gets it most of the way to the level needed to produce a workable nuclear
bomb." http://t.uani.com/Q8Yd8M
AP:
"The U.N. nuclear agency is forming a special Iran team, drawing
together sleuths in weapons technology, intelligence analysis, radiation
and other fields of expertise as it seeks to add muscle to a probe of
suspicions that Tehran worked secretly on atomic arms, diplomats tell The
Associated Press. Creating a unit focused on only one country is an
unusual move for the International Atomic Energy Agency, reflecting the
priority the U.N. nuclear watchdog is attaching to Iran amid fears that
it is moving closer to the ability to make nuclear weapons. It also
indicates frustration by top agency officials over Iran's refusal to cooperate
with IAEA experts who are trying to follow up on suspicions that Tehran
was - or is - secretly working on an arms program." http://t.uani.com/O8UCEc
Reuters:
"The U.N. nuclear watchdog pressed Iran on Friday to address
suspicions about nuclear bomb research in the Islamic state, pursuing
diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute before any possible military
action by Israel or the United States. A flurry of bellicose rhetoric
from some Israeli politicians this month has ignited speculation that
Israel might hit Iran's nuclear sites before the U.S. presidential
election in November. Tensions went up another notch on the eve of
Friday's talks between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) when diplomatic sources said Iran had installed many more uranium
enrichment centrifuges at its Fordow underground site." http://t.uani.com/P2FxlB
Nuclear
Program & Sanctions
AFP: "Iran's
supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told the government Thursday to
adopt an 'economy of resistance' to confront crippling sanctions slapped
by the West on Tehran over its nuclear drive. 'The arrogant powers are
pulling their weight to force Iran to back down (on its stances) and the
government should invalidate these illusions by using the nation's full
potentials,' Khamenei said. He called for an 'economy of resistance' to
confront a slew of Western oil and financial sanctions, saying this 'is the
only way to pursue progress in the country.'" http://t.uani.com/OdRlW5
AP:
"A Tehran shoe factory is abandoned by its European leather
suppliers. Iranian cooking oil manufacturers are operating at nearly half
capacity because they can't get enough imported grains. In Tehran's
bazaar, many merchants refuse to sell Western goods purchased with
dollars because the downward spiral of Iran's currency has eaten their
profit. While Iran's mainstay oil exports remain the centerpiece of
Western sanctions -- intended to wring concessions over Iran's nuclear
program and ease Israeli threats of a military strike -- the Islamic
Republic hangs on as OPEC's third-largest exporter as it feeds the hungry
energy markets in China, India and across Asia." http://t.uani.com/PGA9Xb
Terrorism
AP:
"Turkey has said it is investigating whether another country,
possibly Iran, was involved in an explosion that killed nine people near
Syria earlier this week. The announcement reflects concern about
spillover from the war in Syria as well as increasing tension with Iran,
a regional power that supports Syrian President Bashar Assad." http://t.uani.com/P2JxSY
Human Rights
Iran Human Rights:
"Iran Human Rights (IHR) warns against the possibility of a new
execution wave in Iran in the coming weeks. Several reports from Iran
indicate that the Iranian authorities are planning to execute multiple
prisoners, among them some political prisoners and some convicted of
espionage. Most of the executions will most likely be carried out following
the 16th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit scheduled to take place in
Tehran from August 26-31. High-ranking officials from 40 NAM member
countries along with observer countries and international organizations
like the United Nations are expected to attend. IHR urges the
international community to pay special attention to Iran in the coming
weeks. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson for IHR, said today,
'There are several reports indicating that Iranian authorities have
scheduled executions for the coming weeks. We are deeply concerned about
these possible executions and urge the international community to react
before it is too late.' He added, 'We specifically ask the UN and leaders
of the countries attending the NAM summit to address the issue of the
death penalty in Iran.'" http://t.uani.com/PGyD7m
Radio Zamaneh: "Saham
News, a website linked to opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi, reports that
at least 40 people were arrested by security and military forces when an
attempt to take over the warehouses holding volunteer aid collections was
repelled. Reports indicate that the authorities have stressed that all
aid has to be surrendered to IRGC forces, which are responsible for the
distribution of relief in the disaster areas. The Kaleme opposition website,
linked to opposition leader MirHosein Mousavi, also reported an
eyewitness account that the arrests were carried out by '50 to 60
officials with 10 vans.'" http://t.uani.com/RiAhz4
UKPA:
"Iran's 'shameful' human rights record has been condemned by Foreign
Secretary William Hague. His comments follow the death sentences passed
on five members of the Ahwazi Arab community last month, weeks after the
secret execution of four others from the minority for 'enmity against
God'. Mr Hague warned Iran's actions would not go unchallenged by the
international community and said the abuses added to the regime's
isolation." http://t.uani.com/P7MgjD
Domestic
Politics
WSJ:
"Iran's opposition Green Movement leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, under
house arrest for 18 months, suffered a heart attack on Thursday and was
taken to a heart hospital, his official website reported. Mr. Mousavi
underwent a three-hour angiogram surgery for blocked arteries and was
recovering in the hospital's intensive care unit, reports said. Dozens of
intelligence agents swarmed the hospital floor, cordoning it off to
visitors and installing security cameras, according to the website,
Kalame. Security agents prevented medical staff working in the ward where
Mr. Mousavi was being treated from leaving the hospital when their shifts
ended, the site said. Family members, including Mr. Mousavi's two
daughters, weren't allowed to visit, Kalame said, and the location of the
hospital wasn't announced. Iran has been taking extraordinary security
precautions, meanwhile, ahead of the Nonaligned Movement conference to be
hosted in Tehran next week." http://t.uani.com/P7HHWF
RFE/RL:
"Who Is Behind Iran's 'Dangerous' Satellite Jamming? That's the
question people have been asking in the Islamic republic in recent days.
While officials have acknowledged that signal jamming is taking place,
and even warned of potentially negative consequences, no one in the
government has stepped up to assume responsibility. Earlier this week,
Iran's Minister of Communications and Information Technology Reza
Taghipour denied his department's involvement in jamming satellite
signals, and said the ministry was 'seriously' pursuing the case. 'It is
essential to trace and identify the source of jamming as the practice has
many negative consequences,' he said in an August 21 interview with the
Iranian parliament's Icana website." http://t.uani.com/Q907pZ
Foreign
Affairs
Reuters:
"Iran hopes to earn diplomatic kudos over the coming week as it
hosts a summit of 120 developing nations, but any jubilation could turn
sour over starkly different views on the bloody conflict in Syria. The
Islamic Republic's three-year tenure as head of the Non-Aligned Movement
(NAM), which starts on Sunday, is a chance for Tehran to elevate its
international standing as the United States seeks to cripple its economy
and isolate it diplomatically over its disputed nuclear program. Although
many analysts say the movement, set up in 1961 to counter big power
domination of international relations, has waned since the end of the
Cold War, the diplomatic spotlight will give Tehran an opportunity to
show Washington has failed to cut it off from the rest of the
world." http://t.uani.com/P2FSVr
Opinion &
Analysis
Charles
Krauthammer in WashPost: "Either Israel is engaged
in the most elaborate ruse since the Trojan horse or it is on the cusp of
a preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. What's alarming is not
just Iran's increasing store of enriched uranium or the growing
sophistication of its rocketry. It's also the increasingly menacing
annihilationist threats emanating from Iran's leaders. Israel's existence
is 'an insult to all humanity,' says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
'Anyone who loves freedom and justice must strive for the annihilation of
the Zionist regime.' Explains the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, Israel is 'a true cancer tumor on this region that should be
cut off.' Everyone wants to avoid military action, surely the Israelis
above all. They can expect a massive counterattack from Iran, 50,000
rockets launched from Lebanon, Islamic Jihad firing from Gaza, and
worldwide terror against Jewish and Israeli targets, as happened last
month in Bulgaria. Yet Israel will not sit idly by in the face of the
most virulent genocidal threats since Nazi Germany. The result then was 6
million murdered Jews. There are 6 million living in Israel today. Time
is short. Last-ditch negotiations in Istanbul, Baghdad and Moscow have
failed abjectly. The Iranians are contemptuously playing with the process.
The strategy is delay until they get the bomb. What to do? The sagest
advice comes from Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies. Cordesman is a hardheaded realist -
severely critical of the Bush administration's conduct of the Iraq war,
skeptical of the 'war on terror,' dismissive of the strategic importance
of Afghanistan, and a believer that 'multilateralism and soft power must
still be the rule and not the exception.' He may have found his exception.
'There are times when the best way to prevent war is to clearly
communicate that it is possible,' he argues. Today, the threat of a U.S.
attack is not taken seriously. Not by the region. Not by Iran. Not by the
Israelis, who therefore increasingly feel forced to act before Israel's
more limited munitions - far less powerful and effective than those in
the U.S. arsenal - can no longer penetrate Iran's ever-hardening
facilities. Cordesman therefore proposes threefold action." http://t.uani.com/Nq04QM
Maseh Zarif in
AEI: "Iran's nuclear weapons program poses a serious
threat to American national security interests. Iran has been working to
develop the key components of a nuclear weapons capability for decades -
covertly when it can and openly when exposed - in contravention of
nuclear nonproliferation pacts it has signed and international
obligations it is required to meet. The regime has waged an intensive
denial-and-deception campaign intended to facilitate the development of
critical technologies and infrastructure and, ultimately, the fulfillment
of its nuclear ambitions. Tehran's nuclear weapons pursuit has advanced
along three interrelated, parallel tracks: acquiring fissile material,
weaponization and bomb design, and delivery vehicle development. The acquisition
of fissile material is based at facilities near Esfahan, where Iran
converts yellowcake into uranium gas, and at Natanz and outside Qom,
where Iran enriches uranium gas toward levels required to produce bomb
fuel. Iran's nuclear organizations are also building the foundation for a
separate plutonium route for producing bomb fuel at Arak. These
facilities, originally built covertly, may be supplemented by additional
undeclared sites. The weaponization track of the program, a technically
complex step that is nonetheless considered to be less difficult than the
mastery of fissile material production, has most recently been associated
with a military facility based outside of Tehran at Parchin. Iran used
the Parchin facility to conduct nuclear weapons-related experiments,
according to information vetted by the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA). Many observers have tended to dismiss the weaponization program
on the grounds that Iran supposedly suspended it in 2003. Tehran's
consistent refusals to allow IAEA inspectors into the Parchin facility,
therefore, have received less attention than they merit. That
facility, which recent satellite imagery shows to have been extensively
reconfigured over the past few months, is of interest not only because of
the presumed weaponization facilities there, but because it is a central
and vital part of Iran's diverse and disturbing military industrial
program." http://t.uani.com/RJlBLN
Simon Henderson
& Olli Heinonen in WINEP: "At a time when the
possibility of military action against Iran's nuclear program is being
hotly debated, the need for a clear understanding of the issues and the
controversial science and technology behind them has never been more
acute. Toward that end, The Washington Institute and the Harvard Kennedy
School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs have
copublished an interactive online glossary of terms used in the
discussion about Iran, prepared by proliferation expert Simon Henderson
and Olli Heinonen, former deputy director-general of the International
Atomic Energy Agency. The new study comes out just when the IAEA is
distributing its latest report on Iran in advance of the September 10
Board of Governors meeting in Vienna. Covering the jargon and history
behind IAEA inspections, centrifuge enrichment, basic nuclear physics,
and early nuclear weapons development in Pakistan and the United States,
it provides an indispensable guide to an increasingly complex
problem." http://t.uani.com/O8UVic
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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
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