Thursday, February 21, 2013

Eye on Iran: Diplomats: Iran Starts Upgrade of Nuclear Site









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AP: "In a disheartening signal to world powers at upcoming Iran talks, Tehran has started installing high-tech machines at its main uranium enrichment site that are capable of accelerating production of reactor fuel and - with further upgrading - the core of nuclear warheads, diplomats said Wednesday. ... Diplomats told The Associated Press on Wednesday, however, that installation was now well on its way, with inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency seeing close to 100 or more machines mounted when they toured the site a few days ago. Depending on experts' estimates, the new-generation centrifuges can enrich uranium three to five times faster than Iran's present working model." http://t.uani.com/VMBfZy

WSJ: "Companies are scrambling to understand new provisions of sanctions law requiring disclosure of contracts, transactions and dealings with entities in Iran, lawyers say. Those provisions took effect Feb. 6 under Section 219 of the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act and cover U.S. and foreign companies that do business in the U.S. or are listed on U.S. stock exchanges. Companies must detail activities and contacts by any of their affiliates, which include not just units and subsidiaries but individuals such as board members and senior executives. The task can be daunting for multinational companies that must track dealings of not only subsidiaries in which they hold majority ownership, but ones in which they hold a minority stake. 'There are requirements in the laws for SEC disclosures, but the unfortunate thing is Congress doesn't appear to have consulted with [the Office of Foreign Assets Control] or the SEC before passing this legislation,' said Judith Lee, chairwoman of law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher's international trade and regulation compliance practice group." http://t.uani.com/VNQRMn

Reuters: "Hossein Ahmad, an Iranian who runs a jewelry shop in wealthy Dubai, marvels at the spending power he sees on show during his monthly trips to Tehran, a year after U.S. sanctions largely froze Iran out of the global banking system. Shops in the Iranian capital are crowded. Finding a seat at good restaurants can be difficult. And the ski resorts in the mountains north of Tehran continue to attract Tehran's glamorous and well-heeled. 'The economy has problems with the sanctions, yes. But it's still working,' he says. 'It isn't as bad as people outside the country think.' Sanctions are clearly having an impact; the country's oil revenue has been slashed and other trade disrupted; a weak currency has sent the prices of some imports soaring, destroying jobs as some factories using imported parts have folded. But they are not close to having the 'crippling' effect envisaged by Washington. The Iranian government has found ways to soften the impact, and Iran's economy is large and diverse enough to absorb a lot of punishment. So at talks next week with the world's major powers in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Iran seems unlikely to feel under overwhelming pressure to back down on its disputed nuclear program, which the West suspects is a cover to make weapons. 'The government had a long time to prepare for economic war,' said Mohammad Ali Shabani, an Iranian political analyst based in London. 'If you're talking about collapse, that is not happening.'" http://t.uani.com/XlYaca
MTN BannerSanctions 

Reuters: "The European Central Bank on Thursday defended its payments system after a newspaper reported that the U.S. Congress is preparing new Iran sanctions to target the ECB's system for settling cross-border payments. The proposed bill is aimed at pressing the ECB to do more to prevent Iranian companies and banks from using the Target2 payments system to conduct transactions involving euros, the Financial Times reported. The ECB said it complied with European Union sanctions against Iran. 'The ECB ensures that no illegitimate transactions are cleared in Target2,' a spokesman for the euro zone's central bank said. 'But any sanctions are EU sanctions and not an ECB competence.'" http://t.uani.com/ZtIMNG

FT: "The US Congress is preparing new Iran sanctions legislation that would target the European Central Bank's system for settling cross-border bank payments. The proposed bill is part of a package of measures designed to pressure the ECB to do more to prevent Iranian companies and banks from using the Target2 payments system to conduct transactions involving euros. The legislation, which could be introduced next week, is aimed at closing loopholes to earlier financial sanctions which the US Congress has imposed on Iran over the past 18 months to slow its nuclear programme. Previous sanctions have made it extremely hard for Iran to conduct cross-border oil business in US dollars, but have been less successful at closing off business in other currencies... The ECB said it already complied with EU sanctions against Iran. 'The ECB ensures that no illegitimate transactions are cleared in Target2,' the bank said. 'But any sanctions are EU sanctions and not an ECB competence.' Banks participating in Target2 must have at least one branch in the European Economic Area and are thus subject to EU laws, including EU regulations forbidding transactions with a range of Iranian companies, institutions and people." http://t.uani.com/YBQq3E

Nuclear Program

Reuters: "Major powers are ready to make 'a substantial and serious offer' to Iran during talks next week in return for concessions on its nuclear program, a Western diplomat said on Wednesday. He declined to give details of the offer - aimed at reviving efforts to reach a diplomatic solution to long-stalled talks over Iran's disputed nuclear work. 'We will take an offer with us which we believe to be a substantial and serious offer,' the diplomat said of talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan. 'This is an offer which we think has significant new elements in it.'" http://t.uani.com/VxudoQ

Reuters: "A U.N. nuclear watchdog report due this week is expected to show that growth of Iran's stockpile of higher-grade enriched uranium has slowed as it is using some of the material to make reactor fuel, diplomats said on Wednesday. If confirmed in the quarterly report, the development could help buy time for big power diplomacy to try and find a negotiated settlement to a decade-old dispute that has stirred fears of a new Middle East war. Six world powers and Iran are due to meet for the first time in eight months next week to try again to break the stalemate but analysts expect no major progress toward defusing suspicions of an Iranian quest for nuclear weapons capability. Israel, which has warned it might bomb Iran's nuclear sites as a last resort, last year gave a rough deadline of mid-2013 as the date by which Tehran could have enough higher-grade uranium to produce a single atomic bomb. But if Iran is converting some of that uranium to yield reactor fuel, thereby at least temporarily removing it from the stockpile that could be used for weapons if processed further, that may postpone the Israeli 'red line' for action." http://t.uani.com/VLXHBR

Terrorism

AFP:
"Nigerian secret police on Wednesday paraded a 50-year-old Islamic cleric and two accomplices who they alleged were spying on prominent individuals and targets in the west African nation for Iran. Abdullahi Mustapha Berende, presented as a leader of the Shiite sect in the central city of Ilorin, was arrested last December 'for his active involvement in espionage and terrorist activities,' state security service spokeswoman Marilyn Ogar said. Investigations revealed that Berende, accused of establishing a 'terrorist cell' in Nigeria's southwest, with a particular emphasis on Lagos, recruited the two other suspects for the task, Ogar said. Berende underwent his training in Iran and his Iranian sponsors requested him 'to identify and gather intelligence on public places and prominent hotels frequented by Americans and Israelis to facilitate attacks,' she said." http://t.uani.com/VMA1xa

Commerce 

AP:
"An Iranian newspaper says at least 500 Porsche cars have been imported by way of a Persian Gulf island that is also claimed by the United Arab Emirates. Thursday's report by the Javan daily quotes lawmaker Amir Khojasteh as saying it's unclear who the importer was or why the island of Abu Musa was used as the route to bring the vehicles into Iran. Khojasteh is demanding that Industry Minister Mahdi Ghazanfari elaborate on the case." http://t.uani.com/YDSg48

Reuters:
"Iran has agreed to help build an oil refinery for Pakistan and supply its energy-hungry neighbour with natural gas in a barter deal for food, Iranian media reported on Thursday. Officials from the two countries agreed on Wednesday that Iran would help Pakistan State Oil (PSO) build a refinery and accept wheat, meat and rice as payment for fuel produced, Fars news agency reported a Pakistani energy official as saying. Iran, which has huge reserves of gas but exports little due to sanctions, has also agreed to complete Pakistan's part of a long-planned gas pipeline and accept payment in food for gas supplied through it." http://t.uani.com/YdowLx

Human Rights

Reporters Without Borders: "Reporters Without Borders condemns the renewed crackdown on Iranian journalists, in which a wave of arrests in Tehran on and around the 'Black Sunday' of 27 January has been followed by interrogations and arrests of journalists in several provincial cities. At least 15 journalists and netizens - members of the Hana literary association and contributors to the monthlies Koshk and Varia and the bimonthly Najva - were summoned and interrogated for several hours by intelligence ministry officials in the southwestern city of Ilam on 17 February. According to the information obtained by Reporters Without Borders, around 10 journalists, netizens, political activists and civil society members have been summoned for questioning or arrested in other parts of the country. During interrogation, they were warned that undertaking any activities in connection with next June's presidential election would be met with reprisals. A total of 58 journalists and netizens are currently detained in Iran." http://t.uani.com/VLUodW

Opinion & Analysis


UANI Outreach Coordinator Bob Feferman in the Algemeiner: "As Americans, we can be proud that over the past several years, the U.S. government has instituted increasingly tougher sanctions on Iran.  Today, American companies, including their foreign subsidiaries, are prohibited from doing business in Iran with the exception of the sale of food and medicine. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of our foreign friends and allies. The truth is that with the exception of the European Union's boycott on Iranian oil, for much of the world it remains business as usual with Iran.  China, Russia, South Korea, and India might say the right things, but they simply aren't taking substantial action to curtail their commerce with Iran. And for many of the world's corporate actors, business with Iran has never been better. What can concerned Americans do? It is time to ask ourselves some tough questions, and take action. Are we aware that our taxpayer dollars fund government contracts with foreign companies doing business in Iran? Are we aware that manufacturers of the foreign cars we buy - like Nissan and Mazda - are actually producing cars in Iran?  Why are our pensions invested in foreign companies doing business in Iran that help to enrich the regime? These questions are very troubling given the facts about Iran. Iran is illegitimately ruled by a regime responsible for the murder of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and civilians in Israel. It is a regime responsible for assisting its close ally, Syria, in its brutal repression that has cost the lives of over 60,000 civilians. It is a regime guilty of the most egregious abuses of human rights including the rape, torture, and murder of political and religious dissidents. And it is a regime that continues to openly threaten genocide against Israel. If that is Iran without a nuclear weapon, imagine it with one. Where is the outrage? What happened to "Never Again"? As Americans, we cannot go to foreign countries and tell them who they can do business with. Yet we can tell them something else: If you, as a company, do business in Iran, you should not count on earning our hard-earned taxpayer dollars through government contracts.  If you produce or sell cars in Iran, we will not buy your cars. And if your company helps to enrich a regime that kills Americans and threatens the destruction of Israel, we will not invest in your company. The CEO of the advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), Ambassador Mark Wallace, said it most succinctly: 'We need to bring Iran to the point where it will have to choose between having the bomb or having a functioning economy.' Those of us at UANI regularly pressure companies to leave Iran, and advocate tougher sanctions against the regime. By visiting our website, Americans can take action, and inform the world's bad actors that their irresponsible corporate behavior must stop." http://t.uani.com/XA9Kz6

Patrick Clawson in FP: "But today, when it comes to Iran's endless nuclear impasse with the West, one might turn the phrase back on the Iranians: The problem, in a nutshell, is that Iran can't agree to a damn thing. Indeed, the slow pace of nuclear negotiations with Iran are only the beginning of the reasons to be discouraged about resolution of the standoff. More worrying is that political infighting in Tehran is so bad that Iran might not be able to bring itself to accept unilateral U.S. unconditional surrender were it to be offered. To be sure, eight months between negotiating sessions -- June 18-19, 2012 in Moscow, followed by the upcoming session slated for Feb. 26 in Almaty, Kazakhstan -- is bad news enough. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hit the nail on the head when he warned last week, 'We should not give much more time to the Iranians, and we should not waste time. We have seen what happened with [North Korea]. It ended up that they [were] secretly, quietly, without any obligations, without any pressure, making progress' on nuclear weapons. But the pace of talks is only the beginning of the problem. More important is the political meltdown among the Islamic Republic's leaders. Their problems should help put ours in perspective. Many Americans think Washington faces gridlock from hyperpartisan politics, though in fact Iran is an exception to that rule. Bills about Iran's nuclear program typically enjoy stunning levels of support -- 100 to 0 in the Senate in the December 2011 round of sanctions. In the November 2012 vote on another sanctions round, several senators were absent, so the vote was a cliffhanger 94 to 0. By contrast, Iranian leaders fight about everything, even where vital national security interests are at stake. In many respects, a divided Iran is nothing new. The Islamic Republic has from its beginning been characterized by sharp internal divisions. And that has long influenced debate about policy toward the United States. For at least 20 years, the rule in Iran has been: Whoever is out of power wants talks with the United States, which they know would be popular, while whoever is in power moves haltingly if at all toward talks. Several times, those on the outs became the ins and then quickly shifted position on relations with Washington. When Mohammad Khatami was running for president in 1997, he was all in favor of talks with the Great Satan, but then once in power, he did little if anything and refused to speak clearly on the issue. And so too with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: When he was riding high, he only had disdain for the United States, but as he got into trouble at home, he called for talks with Washington. But now, the situation is much worse than before. It used to be that once Khomeini's successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, spoke, that ended the debate, but no longer. Khamenei no longer enjoys the respect nor commands the power to stop the infighting. No matter how often or bluntly he rejects the idea of negotiations with the United States, other important officials -- most loudly and frequently, Ahmadinejad -- call for such talks... By their actions, Iranian leaders are giving the strong impression that they are so preoccupied by their internal differences that they cannot agree on, well, a damn thing. Disunity helps the enemy, Khamenei frequently says. But the world powers negotiating with Iran would be glad to see more unity in Tehran, because a more unified Iranian government would be better able to reach a deal and then implement it. That seems less and less likely. The time is rapidly approaching when the big powers, or at least the United States, need to set out a stark choice for Iran's leaders: Either accept a generous offer to resolve the nuclear impasse or be prepared for the consequences." http://t.uani.com/WSiXmo

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 Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons.  UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.

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