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Top Stories
AP:
"Sen. John Kerry, President Barack Obama's nominee for secretary of
state, said Thursday that the United States will 'do what we must' to
prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon even as he signaled that
diplomacy remains a viable option with Tehran. Testifying at his
confirmation hearing, and with Senate approval a foregone conclusion,
Kerry addressed a range of concerns raised by members of the Foreign
Relations Committee, from his past outreach to Syrian President Bashar
Assad to GOP concerns about the nomination of Republican former Sen.
Chuck Hagel to be defense secretary. 'The president has made it
definitive - we will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a
nuclear weapon,' Kerry said in his opening statement. 'I repeat here
today: Our policy is not containment. It is prevention, and the clock is
ticking on our efforts to secure responsible compliance.'" http://t.uani.com/14d8Axm
Reuters:
"South Korean prosecutors have detained and charged a Korean
American with the illegal transfer of a staggering 1.09 trillion won
($1.02 billion) in Iranian money frozen in South Korea under
international sanctions, the lawyers said on Friday. The Seoul Central
District Prosecutors' Office said a 73-year-old man, identified only by
his family name, Chung, was suspected of making fraudulent transfers in
2011 from the Iranian central bank's won-denominated account at a South
Korean bank by using fake invoices for payment. Prosecutors marveled at
the scale of the withdrawals, indicating they believed there had to be
more than one person involved. The prosecutors' office said those
involved took advantage of a banking procedure that was now more tightly
supervised... The prosecutors' office and the Industrial Bank of Korea
(IBK) confirmed media reports that identified the state-owned lender as
the financial institution that held the Iranian central bank account. IBK
had received a payment order from the Iranian central bank, the bank and
prosecutors said. It believed the order to be authentic because Chung had
attached authorization from the Bank of Korea and a government agency
that tracks exports of goods to countries under international sanctions,
the prosecution said." http://t.uani.com/WqPMnX
Reuters:
"The U.N. nuclear watchdog signaled on Friday it would keep trying
to secure Iran's cooperation with a long-stalled investigation, but a
senior Iranian lawmaker suggested Tehran would only cooperate it if it
won sanctions relief in return. The comments by Alaeddin Boroujerdi, who
chairs parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, add
to Western suspicions that Iran may be using its talks with the U.N.
agency as a bargaining chip to win concessions from world powers.
'Lifting sanctions against Iran is a national right of ours ... If we are
supposed to have more cooperation with the Agency, Westerners should know
that this is a two-way road,' parliamentary news agency Icana quoted him
as saying. The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency has been trying
for a year to negotiate a framework agreement with Iran that would enable
the Vienna-based IAEA to resume its investigation into suspected nuclear
weapons research by the Islamic Republic." http://t.uani.com/WkNw4L
Nuclear Program
BBC:
"Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has warned that a
crisis involving a nuclear Iran is in the 'foreseeable future'. The Nobel
Peace laureate, 89, was speaking about prospects in the Middle East at
the World Economic Forum. He said nuclear proliferation in the region
triggered by an armed Iran would increase the chances of an atomic war -
'a turning point in human history'... 'There has emerged in the region,
the current and most urgent issue of nuclear proliferation. For 15 years,
the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) have
declared that a nuclear Iran is unacceptable, but it has been
approaching,' he said." http://t.uani.com/V3NOeF
NYT:
"Iran's political and military elite boasted last month that their
forces shot down an American intelligence-gathering drone, a remotely
piloted Navy vehicle called ScanEagle that they swiftly put on display
for the Iranian news media. Navy officials responded that no drones had
been shot down by enemy fire, although the Pentagon acknowledged that it
had lost a small number of ScanEagles, likely to engine malfunction, over
Afghanistan and in the Persian Gulf region. The drone that the Iranians
showcased appeared cobbled together after a crash - thus earning the
nickname 'FrankenEagle' across the Navy. Regardless, the loss was hardly
an intelligence coup for Iran, since ScanEagle carries only off-the-shelf
video equipment with less computing power than can be found in a
smartphone... Navy officers say that adding another layer of surveillance
aircraft to the American fleet also has a deterrent effect on Iran. 'The
fact that we are physically present with more and more intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance assets - the Iranians know we are out there
watching,' said one officer familiar with ScanEagle deployments. 'We are
flying in international airspace and over international waters. But these
assets give us ground truth on what everybody is doing in the
gulf.'" http://t.uani.com/Vn0MIi
Sanctions
Reuters:
"South Korea's Samsung Total Petrochemicals Co has revived a
contract to buy Iranian oil after a year's hiatus, as thin margins in
plastics make the cheap fuel from Iran hard to resist, people familiar
with the deal said on Friday... The deal is a rare example of a buyer
returning to the market for Iranian oil despite the obstacles arising
from sanctions and efforts by Western powers to stem the flow... The deal
may save Samsung Total as much as $6.7 million in costs, according to
Reuters calculations. 'The deal can be easily understood if you look at
Samsung Total's financial situation,' according to a government source in
Seoul with direct knowledge of the matter. The company is a joint venture
between South Korea's Samsung Group and French energy giant Total." http://t.uani.com/W6Xx53
Human Rights
Reuters:
"Two rights groups urged the Iranian judiciary on Thursday to quash
death sentences against five members of Iran's Arab minority and halt
their executions on grounds of torture and unfair legal proceedings.
London-based Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which is based
in New York, said in a statement the five had been sentenced last year on
terrorism-related charges because of their links to a banned cultural
institute that promoted their Arab heritage. Their death sentences were
upheld last week and they were transferred from Karoun prison in Ahvaz,
capital of the southwestern province of Khuzestan. Their families no
longer know where they are being held, the statement added." http://t.uani.com/WkMaH7
Fox News:
"Iranian jailers turned away the family of an American pastor on
trial Iran for his Christian family, telling them Saeed Abedini is not in
the infamous Tehran prison where he's been held for several months. The
development was the latest disappointment in a turbulent week for
supporters of Abedini, who is accused of undermining national security by
establishing a network of home-based churches in his native country. On
Monday, at the outset of his trial, state-run media said Abedini had been
granted bail, but family members said officials refused to accept the
payment or free him. 'The fact that his whereabouts are unknown to his
family and attorney is cause for concern,' said Jordan Sekulow, executive
director of American Center for Law and Justice, the organization
representing Abedini's U.S.-based family." http://t.uani.com/W6Yw5q
Guardian:
"Iran has been conducting a smear campaign designed to intimidate
Iranian journalists living in exile, including apparent death threats.
Cyber-activists linked to the Islamic republic have fabricated news,
duplicated Facebook accounts and spread false allegations of sexual
misconduct by exiled journalists, while harassment of family members back
in Iran has been stepped up by security officials. Staff at the BBC's
Persian service in London are among dozens of Iranian journalists who
have been subjected to what appears to be an operation sponsored by the
authorities and aimed at discrediting reporters in the eyes of the public
in Iran. It is not the first time the Iranian authorities have resorted
to such tactics, but Sadeq Saba, head of BBC Persian, said the number of
incidents and level of harassment has increased in the last few
weeks." http://t.uani.com/11WDoTs
Domestic
Politics
WashPost:
"A heated debate about who will be allowed to run in Iran's
presidential election has erupted five months before the vote, stoking
concerns about a repeat of the protests that followed the contested 2009
poll. At the heart of the controversy is whether the vote will be what
critics of Iran's electoral system call 'free' - that is, cast with a
ballot that includes candidates from all of Iran's various political
factions and not just so-called principalists, the conservatives who are
loyal to the Shiite Muslim clerical establishment that rules Iran. The
loudest calls for an open field of participants are coming from two former
presidents and the outgoing one, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They are trying to
ensure that their political allies are not barred from running by the
Guardian Council, the powerful committee of clerics and jurists that vets
the eligibility of potential candidates. Half of the 12-member council is
appointed by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and half by
parliament from among nominees who are also beholden to the supreme
leader." http://t.uani.com/14hLLI0
Opinion &
Analysis
UANI Advisory
Board Member Matthias Küntzel in the Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs:
"In December 1998, an Israeli delegation led by then-Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the Clinton White House and 'inquired
about the US government's possible support for an Israeli military
operation against Iranian facilities,' as Jack Caravelli, a witness of
the meeting, reports. President Bill Clinton refused. At the same time,
he drew a clear red line: A state that perpetrates terrorist attacks may
not obtain nuclear technology. In March 2012, yet another Israeli
delegation led by Prime Minister Netanyahu visited the White House and
asked whether the US government would be willing to support a military
strike on Iran. President Barack Obama refused. At the same time, he drew
his own clear red line: A state that perpetrates terrorist attacks might
gain the ability to build an atomic bomb but it must not produce it.
While in 1998 Netanyahu was satisfied with the result of his mission to
Washington, fourteen years later he was not. Tehran should have neither a
bomb nor bombmaking capability, he explained at the White House, and he
pressed the president to draw a red line at Iran's acquisition of nuclear
capability. But President Obama was adamant. According to government officials,
such policy 'would be too ambiguous and open to different
interpretations.' This controversy has received scant coverage in the
media, which preferred to speculate about the personal relations between
Netanyahu and Obama. During Israel's Operation Pillar of Defense in
November 2012, this disagreement remained beneath the surface. Now,
however, the Iran crisis will once again bring it to the fore-including
the American-Israeli strategic discord." http://t.uani.com/SM1Oet
Ray Takeyh in IHT:
"As diplomacy once more reclaims its place in U.S.-Iran relations, a
peculiar psychological barrier continues to bedevil prospects of a
settlement. The great powers are busy imposing sanctions on Iran that
they will amend only if Tehran dismantles key aspects of its nuclear
program. In the meantime, Iran is hesitant to make concessions, aware
that the expansion of its nuclear capability enhances its bargaining
power. In the search of negotiating advantage, neither side is willing to
part with what they consider to be their leverage. The best means of
breaking this vicious cycle is not to search for a grand deal, but a
limited one that breaches the wall of mistrust and potentially sets the
stage for further-reaching arms control measures. The basic U.S. strategy
has rested on the notion that increased economic penalties can produce a
reliable interlocutor prone to negotiating a viable agreement. The
intriguing aspect of this policy is that it is burdened by its own
partial success. The American sanctions policy has triumphed beyond the
anticipation of its many detractors, as Washington has convinced a large
segment of the international community to abjure Iranian commerce. And
yet, ironically, the more the sanctions policy succeeds, the more
reluctant the great powers become to exchange any of their gains for a
modest compromise. The Islamic Republic has been bedeviled by its own
accomplishments. It is the conviction of the clerical state that America
is not interested in its atomic program, but is cynically using Iran's nuclear
ambitions to foster regime change. By steadily increasing the size and
scope of its nuclear infrastructure, Tehran believes that it is in a
better position to extract concessions from the international community.
The clerics are trapped in their own achievement: The more their nuclear
program advances, the less inclined they are to concede its core
features. The danger of such unimpeded proliferation is that as Iran's
program crosses successive technological thresholds, a constituency is
emerging within the regime that argues that an Iran with a bomb maybe in
a better position to renegotiate its re-entry into the global economy.
The Iranian and American narratives do occasionally coincide on one
issue: Iran's production of 20 percent enriched uranium. The United
States has long identified Iran's higher-grade enrichment as its most
dangerous and destabilizing activity. On various occasions, the Islamic
Republic has seemingly been open to an agreement that addresses its
high-grade enrichment program. The Iranians' claim has always been that
they were compelled to move to higher levels of enrichment because the
international community had failed to provide them with sufficient fuel
for the operation of Tehran's medical research reactor. Whatever the merits
of Iran's assertions, it does establish the precedent for ceasing 20
percent enriched uranium production for a measure of sanctions relief.
The critics of an agreement that focuses solely on 20 percent enriched
uranium will correctly stress that cessation of such efforts would not
significantly curb Iran's nuclear trajectory. They will also argue,
reasonably, that an agreement will not undo Iran's mastery of complex
nuclear technologies. But the principal aim of such a bargain would be to
nudge the two sides away from their existing narratives. An accord -
however modest and tentative - may convince the Western powers that Iran
can indeed be an arms-control interlocutor." http://t.uani.com/WYEg2s
Houshang Asadi in
WSJ: "Only a few newspaper headlines become iconic,
a story in their own right. The headline 'Shah Raft'-'The Shah Has Left'
in Persian-is one of those. It was printed on the front page of Iran's
two main daily newspapers, Kayhan and Ettelaat, on Jan. 16, 1979, after
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi left Tehran for good. 'Shah Raft' captured the
victory of the revolution. It encapsulated history in the making. It ran
in bold Persian letters, in size 84 font, across the top of the page.
Over a million copies were printed. In Iranian journalism circles, the
headline has sparked years of debate: Who wrote it? Who picked it? How
did it come about? This month marks 34 years since 'Shah Raft' hit the
press... The two managing editors who oversaw the news that day
eventually coordinated for another historic headline: 'Imam Amad' ('The
Imam Has Come') for the return of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the
founding father of the revolution, from Paris. But the Islamic
Revolution, which vowed to root out brutal dictatorship and usher in an
era of justice and freedom, did not honor its promises. A systematic
attack on Kayhan began almost immediately after the shah's departure,
with demonstrations outside our office and threats made against us.
Within three months, nearly all of Kayhan's news staff, among the best in
the country, were fired. Rahman, the editor-in-chief, died while being
tortured in prison. Another editor, Gholamhussein Salehyar, was banned
from journalism and died alone at home, in isolation. And the rest? Most
of us who reported, wrote and documented 'Shah Raft' and 'Imam Amad'
became unemployed, exiled and nomadic. When a notorious interrogator was
appointed top editor at Kayhan a few years after the revolution, we
journalists became ice-cream sellers and shopkeepers. Many of us left the
country. I wish we had known when we printed 'Shah Raft' that an evil
force was lurking behind our newsroom door, ready to crush the promise of
change. Thirty-four years ago, neither I nor Rahman nor Gholam, nor
anyone in the newsroom that evening, could have foreseen what is
happening in Iran today. We expected freedom and got a religious
dictatorship instead. I can still see Rahman's hands drafting the iconic
headline. I can still hear Gholam's voice shouting orders to the
newsroom. I live for the day when the editors of Iranian newspapers
coordinate on another big, bold headline: 'The Dictatorship Is Gone.
Freedom Has Come. At Last.'" http://t.uani.com/UpZ4my
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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