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Stories
AP:
"Iran's parliament is planning to summon President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad to be questioned over the country's plummeting currency,
state radio reported Sunday. It will be the second grilling of the
increasingly embattled leader in less than a year. The report said that
77 lawmakers signed a petition on Saturday claiming that Ahmadinejad's
administration has been reluctant to regulate the currency market. By law
the president has one month to answer the summons. The Iranian rial has
plummeted in value against hard currencies over the past year, with the
slide accelerating over the past month. Iranian politicians blame the
drop on Western-led sanctions targeting the country's suspect nuclear
program but also on alleged mismanagement by the government of
Ahmadinejad, who has fallen out with conservatives who once backed him.
On Saturday the rial traded at 31,000 rials to the dollar. It was about
11,000 in mid-2011. In early October it jumped to more than 36,000 rials
from around 27,000 over a week. Signatories said the summons of the
president came after Central Bank Governor Mahmoud Bahmani refused to
appear in the parliament to answer their questions on the market." http://t.uani.com/UtXdJA
Guardian:
"Iran's state media has denied reports that Tehran had suspended the
enrichment of uranium at 20% in a goodwill gesture ahead of talks with
the world's major powers. 'Twenty percent uranium enrichment activities
continue as before and no change has happened,' the semi-official Fars
news agency quoted an unnamed source as saying on Sunday. On Saturday night,
Iranian MP Mohammad Hassan Asafari was misquoted by opposition websites
and the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya as saying that Tehran had already stopped
20% enrichment. Asafari had only signalled in his comments to Iran's Isna
news agency that Iran would be ready to temporarily stop enrichment to
20% if sanctions were lifted. Asafari on Sunday stepped forward to
clarify. 'The 20% enrichment has not been and will not be halted in
Iran,' he insisted, according to the website of the state's
English-language television, Press TV." http://t.uani.com/SI0Qy5
AP:
"Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards inaugurated a new naval base
on Sunday to reinforce Tehran's authority over three Persian Gulf islands
also claimed by the neighboring United Arab Emirates, Iranian state TV
reported. The base near the Iranian mainland's southern port of Bandar-e
Lengeh some 1,100 kilometers (700 miles) south of Tehran is the Guards'
fifth in the Gulf. The Guards' navy chief Gen. Ali Fadavi said missile
and marine units have been deployed there. It lies north of the
Iranian-controlled islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb that
dominate the approach to the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway
through which about one-fifth of the world's oil supply passes... Iran
took control of the Persian Gulf islands in 1971, after British forces
left the region. Since 1992, the UAE has repeatedly claimed the islands
and last month at the U.N. General Assembly, it said Iran's 'occupation'
violates international law." http://t.uani.com/PQt0Zk
Nuclear
Program
NYT:
"An Israeli news channel reported Sunday night that Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak asked the Israeli
military in 2010 to prepare for an imminent attack on the Iranian nuclear
program, but that their efforts were blocked by concerns over whether the
military could do so and whether the men had the authority to give such
an order. The report, by the respected investigative journalist Ilana
Dayan, came in the form of a promotional preview for an hourlong
documentary about Israel's decision-making process regarding Iran, which
is scheduled to be broadcast Monday night. Ms. Dayan said on the
channel's evening newscast on Sunday that Mr. Netanyahu, in a meeting
with a small circle of top ministers, turned to Gabi Ashkenazi, the head
of the Israeli Defense Forces at the time, and told him to 'set the
systems for P-plus,' a term meaning that an operation would start
soon." http://t.uani.com/RLm4rp
AP:
"Iran's media is reporting the country has produced a
domestically-made drone capable of hovering in midair. The Sunday report
by several newspapers including the conservative Resalat says an advanced
vertical take-off and landing or VTOL drone will be displayed in
February. Resalat quoted Abbas Jam, who is director of the project, as
saying that the drone can also fly in silence. Earlier in October Iran
said it obtained images of sensitive Israeli bases taken by a drone that
was launched by Lebanon's Hezbollah movement that month and downed by
Israel... Iran frequently claims breakthroughs in military technology and
other achievements. Most are impossible to independently confirm." http://t.uani.com/RJkDK2
Sanctions
Bloomberg: "Iran sold more than
800,000 tons of fuel oil and 50,000 tons of gasoil to vessels navigating
in the Persian Gulf in the first half of the Iranian year started March
20, Fars reported, citing an energy official. National Iranian Oil
Products Distribution Co. sold on average 4 to 6 million liters of fuel
oil per day, Managing Director Jalil Salari was cited as saying in the
state-run news agency's report. The quality of Iran's fuel oil and its
strategic position can help ensure NIOPDC's success in bunkering, said
Salari who did not elaborate on the company's revenue from this activity.
The company is engaged in bunkering activity in the Persian Gulf and the
Oman Sea, the report said." http://t.uani.com/Utrb0m
Daily Telegraph:
"HSBC is set to face a final bill for fines as high as $1.5bn
(£937m) for the 'shameful and embarrassing' US money-laundering scandal
that has engulfed Britain's biggest bank. The lender is tomorrow expected
to spell out the full financial damage caused by the crisis, which
erupted earlier this year. The bank stands accused of leaving America's
financial system exposed to Mexican drug cartels and rogue nations such
as Iran and Sudan, by failing to enforce US anti money- laundering laws."
http://t.uani.com/VNL6Ig
Radio Zamaneh:
"Russia has taken over broadcasting the Islamic Republic's satellite
programs after the European company Eutelset stopped dealing with the
Iranian government due to the EU sanctions against Iran. The Asre Emrooz
website reported on Sunday that 19 Iranian satellite channels will be
broadcast globally by Russian satellites. The report adds that 11 Iranian
state radio channels will also be broadcast in 30 different languages.
Eutelset stopped broadcasting 19 Islamic Republic networks from its
Hotbird satellite starting October 15." http://t.uani.com/RB0dq0
Human Rights
Iran Human Rights:
"According to a report published by the Melli-Mazhabi website, four
women have been stoned to death during the past days in Iran. Security
agents from the Iranian Judiciary reportedly transferred the bodies of
the four women to the Tehran forensic medicine department. Reliable
sources in contact with the Melli-Mazhabi website said the women had
additional wounds on their bodies other than the one's caused by stoning.
The charges in the case files include 'engaging in immoral (sexual)
relationship(s)' and 'drug abuse'. The sources that Iran Human Rights
(IHR) has been in contact with say: 'There is no doubt that the women
have died as a result of stoning...and that the stoning has been carried
out by the Iranian judiciary.' IHR has urged the United Nations to
conduct an urgent investigation on the stoning of the four women." http://t.uani.com/Qi1aoM
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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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