Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Eye on Iran: Iran Says It Is Converting Uranium, Easing Bomb Fears








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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
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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 IsmaĆ«l 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

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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