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Reuters:
"Iran acknowledged on Tuesday that it was converting some of its
higher-grade enriched uranium into reactor fuel, a move that could help
to prevent a dispute with the West over its nuclear program hitting a
crisis in mid-2013. Conversion is one way for Iran to slow the growth in
its stockpile of material that could be used to make a bomb. That
stockpile is currently projected to reach a level intolerable to Israel
in mid-year, just as Iran's room for negotiation is being limited by a
presidential election in June. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin
Mehmanparast was asked at a weekly news conference about a Reuters report
that Iran has converted small amounts of its 20-percent enriched uranium
into reactor fuel. 'This work is being done and all its reports have been
sent to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in a complete
manner,' he was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA. It was
Iran's first acknowledgment that it had apparently resumed converting
into fuel small amounts of uranium enriched to a concentration of 20
percent fissile material." http://t.uani.com/Z7xMFJ
Reuters:
"The United States on Monday announced new sanctions on a Chinese
businessman and several companies for selling to Iran items banned under
U.S. laws aimed at curbing that country's missile program. A notice
published on the Federal Register website marks at least the third time
since 2006 that Li Fangwei, also known as Karl Lee, has faced U.S.
penalties for supplying material and support to Iran's missile development.
The notice said Li and a firm called Dalian Sunny Industries 'have
engaged in missile technology proliferation activities that require the
imposition of missile sanctions' under the U.S. Arms Control Act and the
Export Administration Act. A separate sanction notice listed Li, Dalian
Sunny, and three other Chinese firms, including Poly Technologies
Incorporated, as being sanctioned for violations of the Iran, North
Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act. The other two Chinese firms, BST
Technology and Trade Company and China Precision Machinery Import and
Export Corporation (CPMIEC), were on a list that also included companies
from Belarus, Iran, Sudan, Syria and Venezuela." http://t.uani.com/12IN1FU
Baltimore Jewish
Life: ""Yesterday, on a sunny, yet cold and
blustery day, Baltimoreans delivered a strong message to the automotive
industry: 'Stop Doing Business in Iran!' The assembly was held outside of
the Baltimore Convention Center, the home of the 2013 Motor Trend
International Car Show. The car show features the latest model
vehicles of leading auto manufacturers, many of whom continue to do
business in Iran. In particular, Nissan, Renault and Peugeot all
manufacture and sell vehicles in Iran through arrangements with Iranian
manufacturer Khodro, and Volkswagen, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, and Mazda all
have offices or sales agents in Iran. The auto sector supports the
Iranian regime as a massive source of revenue and as a means of accessing
advanced foreign technologies and products for its military and security
forces. Auto-manufacturing represents the regime's second-most lucrative
industry after oil and gas, and is a central component of Iran's
industrial sector. The Iranian auto industry is directly dominated
by the Iranian regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran's
leading military organization and the key instrument used to suppress
Iran's internal pro-democracy movement... Addressing the assembly were
David Ibsen, executive director of United Against a Nuclear Iran; Sarah
Stern, founder and president of the Endowment for Middle East Truth; and
Ken Timmerman, executive director of the Foundation for Democracy in
Iran." http://t.uani.com/VdrD7f
Nuclear Program
AP:
"Iran's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday raised prospects that Tehran may
allow inspectors from the U.N. nuclear agency to visit a military site
where the country is suspected of conducting nuclear-related experiments.
A ministry spokesman said the upcoming talks with a delegation from the
International Atomic Energy Agency could lead to a visit to the site - if
a 'deal' was struck with the Iranian side. The IAEA inspectors are due
for talks in Tehran on Wednesday in hopes of restarting a probe into the
country's disputed nuclear program, which the West fears masks ambitions
to obtain a nuclear weapon." http://t.uani.com/158U3Dp
Reuters:
"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that new
centrifuges Iran was installing for its uranium enrichment program could
cut by a third the time needed to create a nuclear bomb... 'Iran's ...
nuclear weapons program continues unabated ... I drew a line at the U.N.
last time I was there,' Netanyahu said. 'They haven't crossed that line
but what they are doing is to shorten the time that it will take them to
cross that line and the way they are (doing it) is by putting in new,
faster centrifuges that cut the time by one third.' In a speech to the
U.N. General Assembly in September, Netanyahu gave a rough deadline of
summer 2013 as the date by which Iran could have enough highly enriched
material to produce a single nuclear bomb. He said on Monday that world
powers must put more pressure on Tehran 'for the interests of peace and
security'. 'You have to upgrade the sanctions and they have to know that
if the sanctions and diplomacy fail, they will face a credible military
threat. That's essential. Nothing else will do the job, and it's getting
closer,' he said." http://t.uani.com/Vdjpfm
Reuters:
"Iran said on Tuesday that all the world's nuclear weapons should be
destroyed, shortly after North Korea said it had conducted its third
nuclear test in defiance of United Nations resolutions. 'We think we need
to come to a point where no country will have any nuclear weapons,'
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told a weekly news
conference when asked about the test. 'All weapons of mass destruction
and nuclear arms need to be destroyed.' Mehmanparast added that all
countries should be able to use nuclear technology for peaceful
purposes." http://t.uani.com/XGdjmt
Sanctions
Business Day:
"Sasol's headline earnings per share for the six months ended
December were expected to rise by up to 5% compared with the previous
comparable period, the company said in a trading update on Friday. But
earnings per share were expected to fall 10%-20% because of an impairment
of its share in Arya Sasol Polymers in Iran, from which it was trying to
divest. During the period, the investment was impaired by R1.97bn based
on Sasol's assessment of the fair value of the asset. Sasol said this
took into account the 'uncertainty' associated with the Iranian operating
environment, which was reeling under US and European Union sanctions. It
also said it may recognise further losses relating to the foreign
currency translation reserve of about $100m once it finally divested from
Arya. 'There may be further potential impairments linked to the fair
value of the asset as a result of a deteriorating Iranian environment and
the accounting requirement to continue recognising operating profits,
which might not be recuperated through the divestiture,' it said." http://t.uani.com/Y6DlNP
Daily News Egypt:
"According to the Syrian Economic Task Force (SETF), ships belonging
to Iranian oil companies under different flags frequently traverse
through the Suez Canal shipping oil and sometimes weapons between Syria
and Iran. SETF sanctions monitoring project officer Ismaël Darwish said
the oil traversing through the Suez Canal is a lifeline for Syrian
president Basher Al-Assad and his continued oppression of the Syrian
people. At least two ships have been identified as belonging to the
Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and the National Iranian
Tanker Company (NITC). The ships' names and flags have been
frequently changed over the past two years, and the SETF believe these
ships often lack the proper certification to dock in ports and traverse
the Suez Canal. According to the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) rules of
navigation, the captain of a ship must be able to provide certificates of
registry and classification, which includes environmental certifications
provided by companies registered with the International Association of
Classification Societies. Failure to present these certificates should
prevent access to the canal." http://t.uani.com/X23h0J
Human Rights
Reuters:
"Iran's Jafar Panahi has defied a 20-year ban on filmmaking to
secretly co-direct 'Closed Curtain', a multi-layered portrayal of how
restrictions on his work and movement have brought on depression and even
thoughts of suicide. The movie, in competition at the Berlin film
festival, has its premiere on Tuesday, but Panahi was not expected on the
red carpet despite festival organizers saying the German government had
requested he be allowed to travel... In 2010 he was banned from making
films for 20 years and sentenced to six years in prison for 'propaganda
against the system', although he is now under house arrest." http://t.uani.com/XyqqUN
Domestic
Politics
Reuters:
"Iranian authorities held and questioned two daughters of detained
opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi and the son of fellow opposition
figure Mehdi Karoubi for several hours on Monday, opposition websites
reported. Mousavi and Karoubi stood as reformist candidates in
presidential elections in 2009 and became figureheads of the huge 'Green
movement' street protests that followed over allegations of vote-rigging.
The two leading opposition figures, who were placed under house arrest
along with Mousavi's wife Zahra Rahnavard almost exactly two years ago,
are effectively barred from any role in a new election due this June.
Security officials went to the residences of their grown-up children on
Monday, confiscated property, took them in for questioning and later
released them, said opposition websites." http://t.uani.com/XGcNov
Opinion &
Analysis
Michael Oren in
WSJ: "A bomb explodes in Burgas, Bulgaria, leaving
five Israeli tourists and a local driver dead. Mysteriously marked
ammunition kills countless Africans in civil wars. Conspirators plot to
blow up a crowded cafe and an embassy in Washington, D.C. A popular prime
minister is assassinated, and a despised dictator stays in power by
massacring his people by the tens of thousands. Apart from their
ruthlessness, these events might appear unrelated. And yet the dots are
inextricably linked. The connection is Iran. In 25 cities across five
continents, community centers, consulates, army barracks and houses of
worship have been targeted for destruction. Thousands have been killed.
The perpetrators are agents of Hezbollah and the Quds Force, sometimes
operating separately and occasionally in unison. All take their orders
from Tehran. Hezbollah's relationship with Tehran is 'a partnership
arrangement with Iran as the senior partner,' says America's director of
national intelligence, James Clapper. The Lebanon-based terror group
provides the foot soldiers necessary for realizing Iran's vision of a
global Islamic empire. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah says his
organization was founded to forge 'a greater Islamic republic governed by
the Master of Time [the Mahdi] and his rightful deputy, the jurisprudent
Imam of Iran.' With funding, training and weapons from Iran, Hezbollah
terrorists have killed European peacekeepers, foreign diplomats and
thousands of Lebanese, among them Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. They have
hijacked American, French and Kuwaiti airliners and kidnapped and
executed officials from several countries. They are collaborating in
Bashar Assad's slaughter of opposition forces in Syria today.
Second only to al Qaeda, Hezbollah has murdered more Americans-at least
266-than any other terrorist group. The United States designated
Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in 1997, though the European Union
has yet to do so. Above all, Hezbollah strives to kill Jews. It has fired
thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians and tried to assassinate
Israeli diplomats in at least six countries. Its early 1990s bombing of a
Jewish community center and the Israeli Embassy in Argentina killed 115.
The attack in Burgas occurred last July, and this month the Bulgarian
government completed a thorough inquiry into who was behind it:
Hezbollah. 'The finding is clear and unequivocal,' said John Kerry in one
of his first pronouncements as U.S. secretary of state. 'We strongly urge
other governments around the world-and particularly our partners in
Europe-to take immediate action and to crack down on Hezbollah.' Then
there is the Quds Force, the elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Corps, which takes orders directly from Iranian Supreme Leader Ali
Khamanei. The U.S. has repeatedly accused the Quds Force of helping
insurgents kill American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and of supplying
weapons to terrorists in Yemen, Sudan and Syria. In 2007, Quds Force
operatives tried to blow up two Israeli jetliners in Kenya and kill
Israel's ambassador in Nairobi. Hezbollah and the Quds Force also traffic
in drugs, ammunition and even cigarettes. Such illicit activities might
seem disparate but they, too, are connected to terror and to Tehran...
Iran and its proxies have already dotted the world with murderous acts.
They need only nuclear weapons to complete the horrific picture." http://t.uani.com/Yo6mVS
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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
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