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Top Stories
NYT:
"Iran has resumed shipping military equipment to Syria over Iraqi
airspace in a new effort to bolster the embattled government of President
Bashar al-Assad of Syria, according to senior American officials. The
Obama administration pressed Iraq to shut down the air corridor that Iran
had been using earlier this year, raising the issue with Prime Minister
Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq. But as Syrian rebels gained ground and Mr.
Assad's government was rocked by a bombing that killed several high
officials, Iran doubled down in supporting the Syrian leader. The flights
started up again in July and, to the frustration of American officials,
have continued ever since. Military experts say that the flights have enabled
Iran to provide supplies to the Syrian government despite the efforts
Syrian rebels have made to seize several border crossings where Iranian
aid has been trucked in." http://t.uani.com/TmuFnK
AFP:
"Iran has 'problems' exporting its oil, President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad admitted on Tuesday, but he said his government was
determined to overcome that and other challenges posed by Western
economic sanctions. 'There are some problems in selling oil and we are
trying to manage it,' he said in an interview broadcast live on state
television. Ahmadinejad accused 'the enemy' of using 'psychological
warfare' against his country by imposing sanctions that have taken a toll
on the economy. His admission capped a recent change in tone from Iran's
top leaders, who for months had denied the sanctions were having an
effect... Ahmadinejad said the collective impact 'is like war.' The
sanctions are 'blocking off conduits... like the conduits of selling oil,
foreign exchange, our banks and the central bank,' the president said. He
said that 'we are working to bypass them day and night,' for instance by
telling 'an oil ship which route it takes.' But, he explained, 'most of
the time when an obstacle is created, it takes a long time to remove
it.'" http://t.uani.com/Rl7J3x
UPI:
"An activist group has called for a boycott of a New York hotel that
plans to provide luxury digs to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
this month. Ahmadinejad is booked to stay at the posh Warwick hotel on
Sixth Avenue when he comes to New York to address the United Nations the
last week of September, the New York Post reported Wednesday. Mark D.
Wallace of the group United Against Nuclear Iran said this will be the
second year in a row that Ahmadinejad has stayed at The Warwick New York.
'This is a true outrage, particularly considering that U.S. Secret
Service and NYPD will be responsible for securing the premises, at
taxpayer expense,' Wallace said." http://t.uani.com/TmAkdC
Video:
UANI's Hotels Campaign on Fox 5 News http://t.uani.com/RL8Lq1
Nuclear
Program
Reuters: "Iran makes no
distinction between U.S. and Israeli interests and will retaliate against
both countries if attacked, an Iranian military commander said on
Wednesday. The comments came after the White House denied an Israeli news
report that it was negotiating with Tehran to keep out of a future
Israel-Iran war and as U.S. President Barack Obama fends off accusations
from his election rival that he is too soft on Tehran. 'The Zionist
regime separated from America has no meaning, and we must not recognize Israel
as separate from America,' Ali Fadavi, naval commander in Iran's Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps, was quoted as saying by the Fars news
agency." http://t.uani.com/NMeh0F
CBS:
"Former CIA director Michael Hayden has told an Israeli newspaper
that the Jewish state is not capable of carrying out and sustaining
military action against Iran's nuclear sites without U.S. support, and
that there is still time before a decision on any such strike needs to be
made. 'I do not underestimate the Israeli talent, but geometry and
physics tell us that Iran's nuclear program would pose a difficult
challenge to any military,' Hayden told the widely-circulated Haaretz
daily in an interview published Tuesday, adding that, 'Israel's resources
are more limited than those of the U.S.' 'There is no absolute certainty
that all targets are known,' he told the paper, suggesting that Iran's
alleged efforts to conceal a nuclear weapons program may be outwitting
even the world's most advanced espionage agencies." http://t.uani.com/PItxak
Bloomberg:
"Iran will assume full control over the Bushehr atomic power station
Russia built at the end of December, Russian state nuclear company
Rosatom Corp. said. Russia will continue to help Iran operate the
country's first nuclear plant for three years because of a lack of
trained Iranian technicians, Rosatom said in a statement." http://t.uani.com/OaYxEm
Sanctions
Reuters:
"For the third month in a row, China has nominated full contract
volumes of Iranian crude for September, but refineries have begun to
complain about delays in oil deliveries posing a problem, trading sources
said. China, Iran's largest oil customer and top trading partner, is
expected to load about 15.5 million barrels of Iranian oil this month,
the third that it will be using the tankers of National Iranian Tanker
Co. (NITC) to carry home oil and get around a European Union insurance
ban that began in July. But the downside of relying only on NITC vessels
has started to show, with delays piling up as the transport volumes stretch
the capabilities of the Iranian firm's fleet." http://t.uani.com/OYTzZK
Reuters:
"Turkey's imports of Iranian crude oil jumped in August, risking
friction with the United States, after hitting a multi-year low in July,
as it used Iranian-owned tankers to avoid insurance hurdles, shipping
sources said. The United States gave several countries sanction waivers
after they cut imports prior to the imposition of the full embargo.
Turkey was granted a 180-day exception from sanctions from June 11 as a result
of an initial 20 percent cut. EU sanctions cover the region's marine
insurance sector, which dominates the industry, effectively cutting off
all usual avenues for tanker insurance. Turkish imports of Iranian crude
oil surpassed Turkey's 2011 average of 180,000 barrels per day (bpd) in
August. Around 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian crude oil were
discharged at the import terminals Aliaga and Tutunciflik for Turkey's
sole refiner Tupras, data from a shipping source and AIS Live ship
tracking on Reuters showed." http://t.uani.com/OTcNfX
Reuters:
"Benjamin Lawsky's surprise move against Standard Chartered in an
Iran sanctions case may have stunned the banking world, but it is
unlikely to expand the scope of a series of similar U.S. cases against European
banks that are still in the pipeline. Lawsky, the New York state bank
regulator, stunned the British bank, its shareholders and other U.S.
authorities when he moved ahead last month with his own case against
Standard Chartered, accused of hiding transactions involving Iran, which
is under U.S. trade and economic sanctions. By threatening to yank the
bank's New York license and basing the core of his allegations on a much
broader universe of transactions than usually covered in such cases,
Lawsky initially signaled there was a new playbook on how to bring
actions against banks for violating laws against doing business with
certain sanctioned countries." http://t.uani.com/OTcr93
Reuters:
"Iranian leaders hoping to lift morale at a time of rising prices,
food shortages and threats of attack from Israel are drawing on memories
of another era when people united against a common foe: Saddam Hussein's
Iraq. But whether the government can rekindle the passion that powered
Iran's huge war effort a generation ago remains an open question. The
1980-1988 conflict with Iraq, in which hundreds of thousands of Iranians
were killed, provides a ready comparison for officials looking to frame
Iran's present isolation over its disputed nuclear programme as an
unwarranted aggression." http://t.uani.com/OXljwb
FT:
"The tightening of US banking sanctions against Iran over its
nuclear programme has had an impact on all sectors of the economy. It is
increasingly hitting medical patients as deliveries of medicine and raw
material for Iranian pharmaceutical companies are either stopped or
delayed. The effect, say medical experts, is being felt by cancer
patients and those being treated for disorders such as haemophilia,
multiple sclerosis and thalassaemia, as well as transplant and kidney
dialysis patients, none of whom can afford interruptions or delays in
medical supplies... High quality global journalism requires investment.
Please share this article with others using The government of
Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad says international sanctions have had little impact
on the country and insists that its nuclear programme should continue. It
has launched a public relations campaign stressing how 97 per cent of
Iran's medicine is produced domestically - a clear attempt to prevent
panic that medical supplies could be at risk. However, Ahmad Ghavidel,
head of the Iranian Haemophilia Society, a non-governmental organisation
that assists about 8,000 patients, says access to medicine has become
increasingly limited." http://t.uani.com/TfRBqs
AP:
"The Afghan government has signed an agreement with Iran that gives
land-locked Afghanistan access to a key seaport in the neighboring
country. Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rasool and Iranian Foreign
Minister Ali Akbar Salehi inked the deal in Kabul on Wednesday. Rasool
told reporters that the agreement guarantees Afghanistan access to the
Iranian port of Chabahar on the Indian Ocean. Iran has been working to
develop Chabahar as a regional economic hub." http://t.uani.com/Q0r1zi
Bloomberg:
"Iran's inflation rate rose to 23.5 percent in the month that ended
on Aug. 20 from 22.9 percent the previous month, the central bank said
today on its website. While the central bank said in its report that
inflation will continue to increase, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said
in a televised interview late yesterday that 'the inflation growth rate
has declined this year. The inflation rate will decrease in the second
half of this year.'" http://t.uani.com/PItPhB
Opinion &
Analysis
Faraz Sanei in
CNN: "Around 5 a.m. last September 21, police
officers escorted Alireza Molla-Soltani to a public square in the city of
Karaj, 12 miles west of Tehran. It was dark, but a large crowd was
waiting there. The officers hoisted Molla-Soltani, who was blindfolded
with his hands cuffed behind his back, up on a stool. He slipped a few
times, but then managed to keep his balance. As the officers placed a
noose around his neck, he began to sob and beg for mercy. A couple of
minutes later, a crane slowly lifted Molla-Soltani by his neck. He was
pronounced dead several minutes later. Molla-Soltani was two months shy
of his 18th birthday. The judiciary sentenced Molla-Soltani to death for
the July 2011 murder of Ruhollah Dadashi, champion of Iran's 'strongest
man' competition. Molla-Soltani and his lawyers contended that he had
acted in self-defense. Alireza Rezvanmanesh, a spokesman for the
prosecutor's office, defended the execution, saying that Iranian law
allows execution of offenders sentenced to death as long as they have
reached 18 lunar years by the time they are put to death. He ignored the
fact that international law strictly prohibits the execution of anyone
who was under 18 when the offense was committed. Partly in response to
local and international pressures regarding Draconian laws such as those
that allow child executions, Iranian lawmakers proposed changes to the
country's penal code. In January, the Guardian Council, an unelected body
of 12 religious jurists who vet legislation to ensure its compatibility
with Iran's Constitution and Sharia law, approved the final text of an
amended penal code. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has not yet signed the
amended code into law, but he may do so at any time. Iranian lawmakers
and judiciary officials have cited the amendments as a serious attempt to
comply with Iran's international human rights obligations. Indeed, the
amended penal code abolishes the death penalty for certain categories of
crimes committed by child offenders, such as drug trafficking. But the
proposed revisions would still allow judges to sentence child offenders,
like Molla-Soltani, to death for other crimes. In 2011, at least 143
child offenders were on death row in Iranian prisons. The new code pegs
the age of criminal responsibility to the age of maturity under Sharia
law, which in Iranian jurisprudence is 9 for girls and 15 for boys. There
are numerous other problems with the new penal code. The proposed
amendments continue to mandate the death penalty for 'crimes' such as
consensual sexual conduct outside of marriage, drinking alcohol, and
apostasy (even though no law prohibits apostasy). Many other
objectionable provisions under the current penal code remain in the
amended version, including punishments, among them death, for alleged
violations of Iran's broadly-worded national security laws. These laws
are regularly used to try and convict political dissidents, including
peaceful dissidents, in revolutionary courts. In some cases, the proposed
amendments further weaken the rights of criminal defendants and allow judges
wide discretion to issue punishments, including death. In 2011, Iran
executed at least 600 people, second only to China." http://t.uani.com/Q40jDk
Reuel Marc Gerecht
in The Weekly Standard: "As the Islamic Revolution
has devoured its own, many Iranians have sought refuge in the West. After
the fraudulent 2009 presidential elections and the crackdown that
followed, the United States and Europe were flooded with Iranian
pro-democracy dissidents and even pro-regime types who fell afoul of
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's shrinking definition of 'loyal.' In this
latter category is the former ambassador and nuclear negotiator Seyed
Hossein Mousavian, who left Iran in 2009 and has since resided at
Princeton University. Mousavian is a compelling character: He reveals how
distant philosophically these Iranian exiles can be from their Western
hosts, and how poorly many Americans have understood their guests.
Mousavian's American and European admirers have been as naïve as he has
been deceitful. And his sojourn here hints at a larger truth about the
embrace of nonproliferation as a cause célèbre among many liberals,
including, probably, Barack Obama. Stopping the spread of nuclear weapons
is a driving passion for the American left-up until the point where it
requires the use of force. Mousavian would likely have languished in Ivy
League obscurity if he'd not recently published a 600-page atomic
apologia, The Iranian Nuclear Crisis: A Memoir. He has the standing to
write such a book. For years he has been the factotum of the fallen,
incomparably avaricious clerical powerhouse Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani.
Mousavian's jobs in the foreign ministry, his ambassadorship to Germany
between 1990 and 1997, and most important his position on Iran's National
Security Council from 1997 to 2005-all came from his ties to the
beardless, white-turbaned Rafsanjani, who was the most powerful man in
Iran when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini died in 1989. Personal ties in Iran
often mean a lot more than titles; offices are often created to match the
personal and private wielding of power. Iran has always been defined by
partibazi-the power that comes through connections. The Islamic
Revolution greatly expanded the number of winners and losers in this
never-ending contest, but did not alter partibazi's firm hold upon
politics, economics, and culture." http://t.uani.com/Rl41qH
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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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