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Top Stories
Reuters: "The
Swedish firm Ericsson is working with Iran's largest mobile telecom
operator to expand its network and has promised to support another
Iranian mobile carrier until 2021, according to interviews and an
internal company document. The involvement of Ericsson, the world's
largest mobile network equipment maker, comes at a time when many
Western companies have stopped doing business in Iran because of
international sanctions or concerns about damage to their reputations.
While Ericsson argues in the internal document that telecommunications
are a 'basic humanitarian service,' Iranian human rights groups say
Iran's regime has used the country's mobile-phone networks to track and
monitor dissidents... Hallstan said Ericsson's promise to continue
supporting a second Iranian mobile operator, MTN Irancell, for many
years falls under a 2006 contract. MTN Irancell is Iran's second
largest mobile carrier. The sensitivity of Ericsson's work in Iran is
made clear in a letter written by an executive of the company. On January
19, an Ericsson vice president wrote to MTN Group, a South African
company that holds a 49 percent stake in MTN Irancell. In a letter
marked confidential, the executive stated that Ericsson undertakes 'to
not take actions that could unnecessarily bring any extra press
scrutiny and that could potentially destabilize the working
arrangements in Iran,' according to a copy reviewed by Reuters. The
letter confirmed that Ericsson intends to 'continue supporting the MTN
Irancell operation and future network expansions ... based on
Ericsson's existing supply contracts ... as long as it is feasibly
possible to do business in Iran.'" http://t.uani.com/SNmsWY
Reuters:
"Iran is enriching uranium at a constant pace and international
sanctions aimed at making Tehran suspend the activity are having no
visible impact, the U.N. nuclear watchdog chief said in unusually blunt
remarks on Tuesday. The point made by Yukiya Amano, director-general of
the International Atomic Energy Agency, reinforced the view of many analysts
that increased Western economic pressure on Iran has failed to make it
change its nuclear course. He spoke a day before senior officials from
six world powers were to meet in Brussels to weigh strategy towards
Iran amid signs of a renewed push to resolve the dispute diplomatically
after U.S. President Barack Obama's re-election... Asked whether
sanctions had produced any deterrent effect, Amano told reporters in
Paris: 'We are verifying the activities at the nuclear sites in Iran
and we do not see any effect. They are, for example, producing enriched
uranium up to 5 percent and 20 percent with a quite constant pace.'
Amano, whose inspectors regularly visit Iran's nuclear facilities,
added: 'It has not changed. We have observed that the progression of enrichment
has been constant. There has been a steady, gradual increase in the
amount.'" http://t.uani.com/T9o2mV
Reuters:
"Israel's assault on Gaza's rocket arsenals is aimed at countering
what it sees as a growing strategic threat posed by Iranian-supplied
missiles smuggled in through Egypt... The most powerful of these were
Iranian-designed Fajr-5s, with 75 km (46 miles) ranges and 175 kg (385
lb) warheads capable of reaching Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. At 6 meters (18
feet) in length, the Fajr-5s are hard to transport and conceal. The
Israelis say Iran has been manufacturing them for Hamas, which brings
them in through Sudan and the Egyptian Sinai, under whose desert
frontier with Gaza there is a network of smuggling tunnels." http://t.uani.com/UR3tLu
Nuclear
Program
AFP: "The
standoff on Iran's nuclear programme is worrying, the head of the UN
atomic watchdog said Monday, but stressed that work for a diplomatic
solution should continue. Yakio Amano's comments came as the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned that Tehran was on the
cusp of being able to triple output of nuclear material that, if
further treated, could be used in the core of a bomb. 'The situation is
worrying but it is important to continue to seek a diplomatic
solution,' Amano told reporters after talks with French President
Francois Hollande... Amano said the 'current situation is worrying but
the declared material and installation facilities are under the IAEA
safeguard and we can verify that they stay in a peaceful purpose. We
are going to have a high-level dialogue with Iran on the 13th of
December in Tehran. The way to solve this issue is by diplomatic means
and we will continue our efforts,' he said." http://t.uani.com/UeidWm
Sanctions
Trend:
"Iran's vehicle manufacturers are faced with both rising
production costs and lacking some details as to how to manufacture cars
after the giant international auto companies left Iran because of
sanctions aimed to curb the country's disputed nuclear programme. These
include Italian Fiat, German General Motors and its French partner PSA
Peugeot Citroen, South Korean Hyundai and the Japanese Toyota Motor
Corporation, etc... Mohammad Reza Najafi Manesh a board member of the
Iranian Auto Parts Manufacturers Association announced on Nov.18 that
Peugeot is keen to return to Iran, in which case it could receive
revenue from its exported production to Iran. Mohammad Bayatian a
member of Iranian Parliament's Industry Committee told ISNA on Nov.19
that if Peugeot returns to the Iranian market, the country's car output
would be increased once again. Peugeot has not confirmed its alleged
proposal to Iran officially, but regarding its increasingly financial
problems, this seems believable, because Iran was Peugeot's second
major market. PSA Peugeot Citroen Group, Europe's second biggest auto
company, left Iran in February 2012, because of problems in financial
transactions due to imposed sanctions on Iran's banking system. The
financial situation for Peugeot is also not favourable." http://t.uani.com/UcLGll
Terrorism
AFP:
"Israel's President Shimon Peres accused Iran of encouraging the
Palestinians to continue rocket attacks on Israel rather than
negotiating a ceasefire, saying 'they are out of their mind.' ... 'The
unpleasant one is the Iranians. They are trying again to encourage the
Hamas to continue the shooting, the bombing, they trying to send them
arms,' Peres said in interview on CNN. 'They are out of their mind,' he
said... In singling out Iran, Peres said, 'We are not going to make a
war with Iran. But we are trying to prevent the shipping of long range
missiles which Iran is sending to Hamas. But Iran is a problem, world
problem, not only from the point of view of building a nuclear danger,
but also from the point of being a center of world terror. They finance,
they train, they send arms, they urge, no responsibility, no moral
consideration,' Peres said." http://t.uani.com/Tdz8ua
AP:
"Iran says Palestinians in the Gaza Strip should be 'equipped' to
defend themselves against Israel. But Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin
Mehmanparast refused to comment on Israeli allegations that Iran is
already sending arms to Gaza, which has been under Israel's attack
since last week in retaliation for rockets fired by Hamas into
Israel... Iran is a major supporter of the militant groups such as
Islamic Jihad and Hamas, which controls Gaza." http://t.uani.com/SbPGjV
JPost:
"The deputy leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ziad Nakhleh, has
said that rockets fired by Hamas and the 'Palestinian resistance' at
Israeli towns and cities are of Iranian origin, Lebanon's el-Nashra
newspaper reported on Monday. Some of the weapons were manufactured
locally in an Iranian factory, Nakhleh said, adding that the rockets
Hamas has fired at Tel Aviv have a range of 'up to 80 kilometers.' ...
On Monday... Iran's Persian-language Fars News, which is closely
affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, published a
lengthy article examining the role of the Fajr family of artillery
rockets in Tehran's asymmetric warfare doctrine." http://t.uani.com/UeliG5
Long War
Journal: "The Treasury Department added a
Hezbollah leader who was in the US military's custody until late last
year to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists. Mussa Ali
Daqduq, the Hezbollah leader who was responsible for molding the
Iranian-backed Shia terror groups into potent fighting forces and who
also was involved in the murder of US soldiers, was released to Iraqi
custody in December 2011 and freed late last week... In 2005,
Hezbollah's leadership sent Daqduq to Iran to partner with Qods Force,
Iran's elite special operations group tasked with spreading the Iranian
theocracy to neighboring countries, on the training of Iraqi Shia
terror groups, the US military said in a briefing in July 2007 after
Daqduq's capture." http://t.uani.com/UcLXVF
Human Rights
Times of London:
Iran has increased the number of public executions and amputations it
carries out, taking advantage of the international focus on Gaza to
reduce prison overcrowding and to issue a warning before elections in
June. At least 81 people have been hanged in the past ten days.
There had been a lull during the summer for Ramadan and the Non-Aligned
Movement summit in Tehran. Iran often uses periods of unrest elsewhere
to accelerate the rate of executions, and the crisis in Gaza has
provided such a distraction. 'We have seen in the past that every time
the international community's attention is elsewhere we see a spike in
executions across Iran,' Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, from Iran Human
Rights, said. Human rights groups have verified almost 500 executions
across Iran this year, but they believe the true figure to be much
higher." http://t.uani.com/TO2MkY
Domestic
Politics
Reuters:
"Leading Iranian opposition figure Mehdi Karoubi, under house
arrest since 2011, was hospitalized briefly after showing symptoms
including weight loss, dizziness and nausea, his website said on
Tuesday. Karoubi, 75, and fellow reformist Mirhossein Mousavi ran for
election in June 2009 and became figureheads for Iranians who protested
against the vote they believed was rigged to bring back President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad... Hardliners have asked the judiciary to execute
the two opposition leaders, calling them 'seditionists' who aimed to
topple the clerical establishment. But authorities have chosen so far
to isolate rather than officially arrest them. 'Mr. Karoubi was
hospitalized for some hours in one of the hospitals belonging to the
security institutions,' his website Sahamnews said. 'This action by the
security institutions followed warning signs relating to Mr. Karoubi's
physical condition.'" http://t.uani.com/UR2Amd
Opinion &
Analysis
Gerald Seib in
WSJ: "The crisis in Gaza is a direct confrontation
between Israel and Hamas' Palestinian leadership, with a few other
players-Egypt, Turkey and the U.S.-hovering around the edges, trying to
arrange a cease-fire. But looming over the proceedings is another
significant power: Iran The Iranian factor rears its head in multiple
ways. Iran, most analysts believe, provided the longer-range rockets
that have set this round of hostilities apart from others. Those
rockets-likely versions of Iran's Fajr-5-have given Hamas, for the
first time, the ability to reach at least the outskirts of Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem. That has raised the stakes, to say nothing of the tensions
inside Israel. Hamas probably had relatively few of those longer-range
rockets at the outset-a small fraction of an overall stockpile that one
intelligence official estimates still includes about 8,000 rockets-and
that limited supply of longer-range rockets already may have been
either used up or destroyed by Israel. What's left behind are cruder
and shorter-range rockets, some of the homemade variety, analysts
believe. Still, the Hamas-Israel standoff has taken on a new character
as a result. But the Iranian relationship to the crisis doesn't stop
there. Israeli officials don't rule out the possibility that Iran's
leaders may have helped prompt Hamas to step up its firing of rockets
into Israel in recent weeks as a way to distract and tie down Israeli
forces on the country's western border. That, Iran might calculate,
could reduce the chances Israel would direct its military attention
eastward, toward Iran and an air strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.
The flip side of that possibility is intriguing as well. By opening the
way to a harsh Israeli reprisal in coming days, Hamas might simply be
giving Israel an excuse to take down much of the Hamas military
capability, at least for now. And that would weaken Hamas' ability to launch
any reprisal attacks on behalf of its Iranian allies later on, should
Israel choose to go after that Iranian nuclear sites. If that's the
case, Hamas might in the long run, and quite unintentionally, be
allowing Israel to reduce one worry as it contemplates action against
Iran." http://t.uani.com/TVPdT0
Alastair
Jamieson in NBC News: "It was an unguarded comment
that may have strayed close to the truth: Britain's Chief Rabbi
Jonathan Sacks said he believes tensions over Iran were behind the
Israel-Gaza violence. That remark - made in a radio studio when he
thought he was off the air - echoes a theory that Tehran's fingerprints
are all over the current escalation of violence. Realizing
that he was actually live on air, Sacks did not elaborate on his theory
but Western intelligence agencies and the Israeli Defense Force (IDF)
do agree that longer-range rockets being fired toward Tel Aviv are
Iranian-manufactured Fajr-5 missiles. The Fajr-5s are assembled locally
after being shipped from Iran via Egypt's Sinai region from where they
are smuggled into Gaza through tunnels, the IDF says on its own public
information site. Israel believes weapons travel via Sudan - a theory
underlined when it launched airstrikes on an apparent arms factory
there last month, killing two people. Two Palestinian militant groups -
Islamic Jihad and Hamas - have claimed to have fired Fajr-5s. Hamas
calls its rockets "Palestinian made" and does not acknowledge
receiving weapons from Iran, although it does refer to Iran as a 'supporter
of the resistance.' A senior Iranian lawmaker has denied supplying
Hamas with weapons. 'We deny having delivered the Fajr-5 to the
Palestinian resistance,' Allaeddine Boroujerdi, head of the Tehran
parliament's foreign affairs committee said on Saturday, according to
the Daily Star newspaper in Lebanon. He added that Hamas was
'perfectly capable of producing the arms it needs.' So who is telling
the truth? On Monday, the Wikileaks site reposted on Twitter a link to
a 2009 diplomatic cable, first leaked last year, detailing Israeli
intelligence on how Iran was supplying Hamas with long-range weapons
and how such artillery was being brought into Gaza. That viewpoint is
shared by retired General Barry McCaffrey, a security consultant and
NBC News analyst, who told MSNBC's Alex Witt: 'I think the
Iranians have manipulated particularly [Lebanon-based] Hezbollah but
also Hamas. They've equipped them with significant amounts of rocketry.
One of the unclassified figures was 120,000 rockets in either southern Lebanon
or Gaza in the range of Israel, so the Iranians are actively promoting
trouble in Syria and Lebanon and Gaza.' Jane Kinninmont, senior
research fellow at the British think tank Chatham House, told NBC News'
U.K. partner Channel 4 News there were some indications that shifting
allegiances might point to Iran's motives. 'In the background, for more
than a year, Qatar, Jordan and other Gulf states have been trying to
prise Hamas away from its recent alliance with Iran in return for
stronger support from the Arab world,' she said. 'Iran may be trying to
wreck this by dragging Hamas back into a military conflict where it
needs its Iranian rockets.' Supporting that theory, Iran's
semi-official Fars news agency on Sunday accused Qatar of helping in
the killing of Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari by planting spy
devices in Gaza. It alleged that the emir of Qatar, King Sheikh Hamad
bin Khalifa Al Thani, distributed watches and ballpoint pens among
Hamas leaders when he visited the area in October, and that those items
contained transmitters that emit signals to Israeli satellites." http://t.uani.com/SbREka
Barry Rosen in
Fox News: "Ben Affleck's recent film 'Argo,' which
is about the escape of six Americans who were serving in our embassy in
Teheran when radical supporters of Iran's emergent Islamic Republic
seized it in November 1979, is an engaging escape from reality. Of
course, that's fine for entertainment, which 'Argo' provides very ably
and generously. Daring CIA personnel smuggle the six understandably
fearful embassy staffers from Iran despite great odds. What a thrilling
victory for the good guys! But America lost in the real event, which
marked the beginning of modern terrorism. The biggest losers certainly
were and remain those who were kept prisoners until late January of
1981: 52 of us, together with our families. Not surprisingly, the
former hostages, who are alive these 33 years later, still suffer
symptoms of the physical, psychological and emotional pain of the 444
days... I will live the rest of my life as a permanent victim of
terrorism. The recent tragedy in Benghazi, where American ambassador
Chris Stevens and three others were murdered adds to the sad evidence
that more terrorism against American embassies and consulates is to be
expected. What to do about it? One of the steps taken after the 444
days spent in abject terror by us kidnapped and tortured diplomats was
the signing the 'Algiers Accords,' so called because they were brokered
by the Algerian Government, that resulted in our release from our long
nightmare. The Accords reinstated American banking and construction
interests by arbitrating their claims against Iran through the United
States Claims Tribunal. The industries were thus protected, but not the
hostages, who were banned from the systems of justice by the terms of
this agreement. But Congress has now acted and asked our government to
fulfill some of the 33-year-old promises made before we were released.
A bipartisan House Resolution (H.R.) 5796, the Justice the American Diplomats
Held Hostages in Tehran Act, is now under consideration. With 69
co-sponsors, it proposes establishment of a 'common fund to pay claims
to the Americans held hostage in Iran, and to members of their
families.' One of its attractive features is not asking the American
public to pay a penny of the compensation, which will come entirely
from the sanctions currently imposed on those criminal commercial
ventures that illegally do business with Iran. We hope its passage will
send a message to those who serve our country as diplomats that their
rights are worth protecting." http://t.uani.com/UR5Ldw
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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