Top Stories
Reuters:
"Iran, Syria and North Korea on Friday prevented the adoption of the
first international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global
conventional arms trade, complaining that it was flawed and failed to ban
weapons sales to rebel groups. To get around the blockade, British U.N.
Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant sent the draft treaty to Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon and asked him on behalf of Mexico, Australia and a number of
others to put it to a swift vote in the General Assembly. U.N. diplomats
said the 193-nation General Assembly could put the draft treaty to a vote
as early as Tuesday... 'The world has been held hostage by three states,'
said Anna Macdonald, an arms control expert at humanitarian agency Oxfam.
'We have known all along that the consensus process was deeply flawed and
today we see it is actually dysfunctional.' 'Countries such as Iran,
Syria and DPRK (North Korea) should not be allowed to dictate to the rest
of the world how the sale of weapons should be regulated,' she added. The
point of an arms trade treaty is to set standards for all cross-border
transfers of conventional weapons. It would also create binding
requirements for states to review all cross-border arms contracts to
ensure arms will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism or
violations of humanitarian law." http://t.uani.com/16m6fjK
LAT:
"Ten years after the U.S.-led invasion to oust Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein, the geopolitical winner of the war appears to be their common
enemy: Iran. American military forces are long gone, and Iraqi officials
say Washington's political influence in Baghdad is now virtually
nonexistent. Hussein is dead. But Iran has become an indispensable broker
among Baghdad's new Shiite elite, and its influence continues to grow.
The signs are evident in the prominence of pro-Iran militias on the
streets, at public celebrations and in the faces of some of those now in
the halls of power, men such as Abu Mehdi Mohandis, an Iraqi with a long
history of anti-American activity and deep ties to Iran. During the
occupation, U.S. officials accused Mohandis of arranging a supply of
Iranian-made bombs to be used against U.S. troops. But now Iraqi
officials say Mohandis speaks for Iran here, and Prime Minister Nouri
Maliki recently entrusted him with a sensitive domestic political
mission." http://t.uani.com/XgLIg4
Daily Telegraph:
"Alarm bells are ringing at a lofty diplomatic level over Grant
Thornton's continued business dealings in Iran through correspondent firm
Rymand & Co. Mark Wallace, a former US ambassador to the United
Nations, has written to Grant Thornton global chiefs Edward Nusbaum and
Stephen Chipman to question the 'financial and reputational harm' of the
accountant's Iranian affiliation. 'As you know,' writes Wallace on behalf
of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), 'the international community is
... increasingly alarmed by Iran's refusal to alleviate concerns that it
may be pursuing nuclear weapons. As one of the world's leading
professional networks, Grant Thornton's ongoing business activities in
Iran raise serious questions and concerns.' So will Grant Thornton follow
KPMG, PwC and Ernst & Young's lead in cutting their Iranian ties? 'We
are investigating the matter and will respond to [UANI] directly,' said a
spokesman. By UANI's deadline on Monday, Diary hopes." http://t.uani.com/Zsr8DK
Sanctions
Economia:
"US-based United Against Nuclear Iran is targeting UK mid-tier firms
that have representation in Iran. It says they are undermining global
economic sanctions by working in Iran through their correspondent firms.
The not-for-profit, non-partisan, advocacy group has written to the CEOs
of Grant Thornton and RSM International and their counterparts in the US
expressing concern about their 'apparent business dealings' with the
country. In the letters, former US ambassador to the United Nations and
founder of UANI Mark Wallace stresses the increasing alarm with which
Iran's nuclear development and its refusal to alleviate fears that it may
be pursuing nuclear weapons is viewed. In RSM's case, he points out that
the 2010 client list of its Iranian correspondent firm, Dayarayan
Auditing and Financial Services Firm, included Iranian government bodies,
energy firms and foreign companies... Grant Thornton's letter points out
that its Iranian correspondent firm, Rymand & Co, looks after major
clients including public manufacturing firms, government organisations
and agencies, as well as foreign companies with a presence in Iran. Both
firms are warned that their Iranian interests could adversely impact the
business and income of their US practices." http://t.uani.com/10fNCdI
The Hindu:
"Notwithstanding the tightening of sanctions by US and European
Union (EU), India does not intend to halt imports of crude oil from Iran.
Instead the government is working on a scheme to insure oil import
shipments from the Islamic nation to maintain smooth supply of energy
supplies and also expand trade in other commodities. The Petroleum and
Natural Gas Minister, Veerappa Moily had earlier this week stated that
India had no intentions to put a halt to imports from Iran. Officials in
the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry said that although imports from
Iran had witnessed a dip as compared to last year, there is no move to
completely phase out such crude oil imports. The Petroleum Ministry, the
Shipping Ministry and the Finance Ministry are holding consultations on
establishing a special fund that would insure oil imports from Iran. It
is learnt that the state-run national insurance companies, the Petroleum
Ministry and the Oil Industry Development Board (OIDB) are working on a
plan for the new fund to ensure that Indian oil companies continue to get
safe shipments of crude oil from Iran. State-run Mangalore Refinery and
Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) is one of the biggest importers of oil from
Iran." http://t.uani.com/11WGLa8
Syrian Uprising
CSM:
"As the mish-mash of rebel forces capture more ground, more regime
military bases and hardware, and key civilian targets, few analysts
predict that Assad's regime will survive in its current form, or that
Syria's longstanding ruler will be alive when it is over. Even Iran,
despite its unbending public support for Assad, appears to be preparing
for a post-Assad world. 'Iran so far was successful; without Iran's money
and strategic help, Assad would have fallen much earlier,' says Mehdi
Khalaji, an Iran specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East
Policy. 'But in terms of policy, they have a Plan B.... So even if Assad
falls, to some extent Iran would be able to protect its interests.' That
plan may hinge on a pro-regime militia Iran helped to create called Jaysh
al-Shabi. The militia could protect Syria's Alawites - the Shiite Muslim
offshoot to which Assad and much of his regime belong - if they are
relegated to only a portion of the country in northwest Syria, along the
coast to the border with Lebanon." http://t.uani.com/10ZcEA8
Reuters:
"Iran, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, accused
Qatar on Friday of 'intensifying the bloodshed' in Syria and criticized
it for enabling an opposition bloc to open its first embassy in Doha. Syrian
opposition leader Moaz Alkhatib, whose group is recognized by the Arab
League as the sole representative for Syria, opened the embassy in Qatar
on Wednesday. 'It is in Qatar's interest to stop making hasty actions and
intensifying the bloodshed in Syria,' Iran's state news agency IRNA
quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian as saying." http://t.uani.com/10mX8LN
Opinion &
Analysis
Simon Tisdall in
The Guardian: "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in jovial
mood when he met the Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, and a
300-strong delegation at the Iranian border town of Chabahar earlier this
month. The two men were attending a ceremony to launch construction, on
the Pakistani side, of a new pipeline that will funnel natural gas from
Iran's South Pars field in the Gulf to energy-starved Pakistani
businesses, car drivers and consumers from the end of 2014. For the
smiling Ahmadinejad, the £5bn pipeline serves several key purposes. It
will produce hard currency for Iran's hard-pressed economy. It goes some
way to mitigating historical suspicions that have separated Shia Iran and
predominantly Sunni Muslim Pakistan. It boosts Tehran's regional
influence. But more than that, the pipeline will help break the sanctions
stranglehold on Iran's energy sector imposed by the US and western allies
concerned about Tehran's nuclear-related activities. 'I'm confident that
no foreign element will be able to affect our historic and brotherly
relations,' the Iranian president said. The pipeline was a symbol of the two
countries' independence from 'those who only aim to humiliate us, and
break us apart, and dominate us ... With natural gas, you cannot make
atomic bombs. That's why they should have no excuse to oppose this
pipeline.' The revival of the much-delayed project, and the timing of the
high-profile joint ceremony attended by diplomats from Arab states,
appears, in part at least, to be the product of canny calculations by
Zardari ahead of Pakistan's national elections on 11 May. The Pakistani
president, whose own five-year term ends in September, wants to be seen
to be doing something about chronic energy shortages that bring daily
power cuts and caused a nationwide blackout last month. But by courting
Ahmadinejad, Zardari was also sending a pointed signal to the US
government. Pakistan's long-running, ambivalent relationship with its
principal financial backer and strategic ally has been more hate than
love in recent times. Strong anti-American feeling, outraged by the 2011
commando raid that found and killed Osama bin Laden on Pakistani
territory and by lethal Afghan border incidents involving Pakistani and
American troops, is being stoked on an almost weekly basis by US drone
attacks. US commentators describe the relationship as 'toxic'. In this
poisonous context, Zardari's move was seen as a deliberate attempt to
emphasise Islamabad's growing freedom of action as the American regional
presence declines with next year's withdrawal from Afghanistan. Anthony
Skinner, of the British-based Maplecroft risks consultancy, said: 'The
Pakistani government wants to show it is willing to take foreign policy
decisions that defy the US ... The pipeline not only caters to Pakistan's
energy needs but also lodged brownie points with the many critics of the
US among the electorate.' http://t.uani.com/ZssdLI
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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
Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the
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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
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