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Stories
NYT:
"President Obama told an Israeli television station on Thursday that
his administration believed it would take Iran 'over a year or so' to
develop a nuclear weapon, and he vowed that the United States would do
whatever was necessary to prevent that from happening. Less than a week
before his first visit as president to Israel, Mr. Obama pledged to
continue diplomatic efforts, but he promised that the United States would
keep all options on the table to ensure that Iran did not become a
nuclear threat to its neighbors. 'Right now, we think it would take over
a year or so for Iran to actually develop a nuclear weapon, but obviously
we don't want to cut it too close,' Mr. Obama told the Israeli station,
Channel 2 TV. He said his message to Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli
prime minister, 'will be the same as before: 'If we can resolve it
diplomatically that is a more lasting solution.' 'But if not, I continue
to keep all options on the table,' he added. Mr. Obama's estimated
timeline contrasts with Mr. Netanyahu's stated belief that Israel and its
Western allies are likely to have to intervene by the spring or summer,
when, he says, Iran's scientists will have enriched enough uranium to
become a nuclear threat. Iran denies that its nuclear program has any
military aim." http://t.uani.com/XErrBM
Free Beacon:
"The Obama administration has granted Iran sanctions waivers to 11
countries, allowing them to import Tehran's heavily sanctioned crude oil
for another 180 days as they attempt to wean themselves off of the
product. Secretary of State John Kerry announced Wednesday that Japan and
10 European countries would be granted waivers, which permit them to
import low levels of Iranian crude oil and perform certain financial
transactions with Iran... 'These 11 countries have generally done a good
job cutting their imports of Iranian oil. Unfortunately, their helpful
actions are being cancelled out by some of the Asian buyers that will be
up for more waivers in June,' said Nathan Carleton, spokesperson for
United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), a nonpartisan advocacy group that
pressures international companies to cease dealings with Tehran. 'We hope
that the Obama administration will act decisively then, and only grant waivers
to nations that have cut their imports to zero, or that present a plan
showing that the level will be at zero by the end of 2013,' Carleton
said. 'Granting waivers-en-masse in June would be a major mistake, since
Asian oil demand is expected to rise in 2014, and make this process more
difficult.'" http://t.uani.com/ZqWnkF
Reuters:
"The United States slapped financial sanctions on Thursday on a
Greek businessman it says secretly operated a shipping network on behalf
of the Iranian government to get around international sanctions on the
country's sale of oil. 'Today, we are lifting the veil on an intricate
Iranian scheme that was designed to evade international oil sanctions,'
U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence
David Cohen said in a statement. The sanctions cited Dimitris Cambis and
a number of front companies for buying tankers on behalf of the National
Iranian Tanker Company, barred U.S. citizens from doing business with
them and froze any of their assets under U.S. jurisdiction. Cambis was
identified in a Reuters report last month that said Iran was using old
tankers to ship oil to China. Reuters reported that Cambis had bought
eight tankers last year, which were then used to transport Iranian crude.
Cambis denied trading with Iran or the involvement of his vessels in
loading Iranian oil." http://t.uani.com/YdBHhF
Nuclear Program
NYT: "An Iranian jet fighter pursued
an American surveillance drone over the Persian Gulf this week but ended
the chase after a radio warning from an American escort plane, Pentagon
officials said Thursday. The chase, which occurred Tuesday, followed a more
serious encounter in November, when Iranian warplanes fired on, but
missed, a Predator drone carrying out a similar classified surveillance
mission. Pentagon officials said that in both instances the drones were
in international airspace. Even so, the episodes illustrate the chance of
unintended hostilities arising from encounters between remotely piloted
surveillance craft and Iranian warplanes in the heavily militarized
Persian Gulf." http://t.uani.com/XcCOuG
Free Beacon:
"German prosecutors have accused Turkey of exporting to Iran nearly
1,000 items with 'nuclear applications,' according to German and Turkish
media reports. German prosecutors allege Iran has established multiple
'front companies' in Istanbul, according to Today's Zaman, an
English-language publication in Turkey. These illicit companies are
believed to have shipped nuclear-related material back to Iran. Kristen
Silverberg, a former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, said Iran has
a history of using front companies as a means to skirt sanctions. 'The
Iranian regime has a long practice of using front companies' to evade
sanctions and conduct illicit business affairs, Silverberg, who serves as
president of United Against Nuclear Iran, a non-partisan advocacy group,
told the Washington Free Beacon. Iran has 'really perfected the art of
sanctions evasion, and we've seen them do that in response to every round
[of sanctions], which is why it's so important for the U.S. and its
allies to identify the front companies and continue to sanction them and
any country abetting them,' Silverberg said." http://t.uani.com/15QAcs9
Sanctions
WSJ: "Iran was India's seventh-largest
supplier of crude oil for the first nine months of this financial year,
slipping from third position after U.S. and European sanctions against
Tehran forced India's refiners to cut their imports from the Persian Gulf
country. India usually doesn't make public the amount of crude it imports
from individual countries, but junior Oil Minister Panabaaka Lakshmi
provided the data as a written reply Friday to lawmakers who requested
the information in the lower house of Parliament. Iran supplied 9.7
million metric tons of crude to India in the nine-month period ended on
Dec. 31. While the government didn't provide comparative figures for the
April-December period of the last financial year, it said for the full
year ended March 31, 2012, Iran was India's third-largest supplier."
http://t.uani.com/Z3nYpI
Economist:
"A year ago his Peugeot 206 was bought for 130m rials (then worth
$10,500 at the official rate) at the factory gate of Iran Khodro, a
domestic car-assembler. Now the state-owned firm sells them for more than
twice as much, with dealers pushing the retail price up to 390m rials.
Cars are becoming more expensive because they are made with foreign parts
which keep on rising in price. Since Western governments imposed
sanctions on Iran in December 2011, the rial has dropped by more than 60%
against the dollar. Restrictions on Iran's banks make it even harder to
buy parts, choking off supplies. This has only encouraged people to buy
cars. They have become even less affordable for the poor. But
middle-class Iranians buy them as investments as cash savings lose value
because of inflation and the currency collapse. Iranians with government
links are making a mint. At the end of 2011, after a run on the currency,
officials fixed the exchange rate at 12,260 rials to the dollars to help
importers. Three months ago this was cut to 24,368 rials. But only
importers with government connections can get cheap dollars. They buy
cars across the Persian Gulf, then sell them at home at the unofficial
exchange rate of 37,000 rials." http://t.uani.com/10WLUCx
Human Rights
Fox News:
"The wife of the American pastor imprisoned in Iran for his
Christian faith is on her way to Washington, where she will press
lawmakers to fight for her husband's freedom. Naghmeh Abedini, whose
husband Saeed Abedini was sentenced to eight years in prison in his
homeland, will appear before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in
the House along with her U.S. based attorneys, Jay and Jordan Sekulow of
the American Center for Law and Justice. Their goal is to convince the
lawmakers to ratchet up pressure on Iran, either directly or through the
Obama administration, which they say has been too quiet on the matter.
'He has been in that brutal prison long enough. He hasn't broken any
laws. It's not just Saeed, there are many others. They are being
persecuted because of their beliefs, and I hope this hearing sheds light
on other cases as well,' said Naghmeh Abedini in an exclusive interview
with Fox News." http://t.uani.com/YvYIsu
Guardian:
"An Iranian official whose job is to protect human rights has
described homosexuality as an illness after a UN special rapporteur
expressed concerns about the systematic persecution of Iran's gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. 'In our society,
homosexuality is regarded as an illness and malady,' said Mohammad Javad
Larijani, secretary general of Iran's high council for human rights, a
judicial body in charge of defending the Islamic republic against
allegations of rights abuse. Larijani made his remarks on state
television in Tehran after Ahmed Shaheed, a former foreign affairs
minister of the Maldives, who is tasked by the UN with investigating
Iran's human rights record, published his latest report which warned
against widespread and systematic violations in the country." http://t.uani.com/10QnTcs
Reuters:
"Western powers are trying to sabotage Iran's presidential election
in June but the vote will go ahead and offer a fair choice between
reformists and conservatives, a senior Iranian official said on Thursday.
Journalists and others suspected of complicity in a plot to destabilize
the Islamic Republic have been arrested and will receive due process,
said Mohammad Javad Larijani, secretary-general of Iran's High Council
for Human Rights. 'The (Iranian) security people discovered that there is
a grouping connected to the secret services of a number of European
countries - I can name one of them which is Britain's secret service, and
they were creating a grouping to do sabotage in the structure of the
campaign,' Larijani told Reuters." http://t.uani.com/ZMZ9AP
Opinion &
Analysis
UANI CEO Amb. Mark
Wallace in WSJ: "At Bandar Abbas, Iran's largest
port, ships bearing the distinctive 'Evergreen' insignia dock and unload
their cargo. On the other side of the world, Evergreen vessels make their
scheduled calls at Los Angeles Harbor, the biggest container port in the
United States. This isn't unusual. Several of the world's leading
shipping lines routinely operate in Iranian ports-and then they continue
to do business in major ports across the U.S. This is contrary to the
spirit of U.S. and European Union sanctions, and it needs to be stopped.
The National Defense Authorization Act, signed by President Obama in
January, contains a provision that authorizes sanctions against any
person who knowingly supports activity benefiting port operators in Iran.
The main port operator in Iran, Tidewater Middle East Co., is already
blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury since it is controlled by Iran's Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps, which manages Tehran's nuclear and
ballistic-missile programs. Despite attempts to conceal its ownership,
Tidewater operates all of Iran's major ports-including the Shaheed Rajaee
Complex at Bandar Abbas, through which 90% of Iran's container traffic
passes. Ocean transportation is critical for the import of raw materials
required for Iran's nuclear program. Cutting off access to these raw
materials would hamper Tehran's nuclear drive. In addition to Evergreen
(based in Taiwan), the United Arab Shipping Company fleet, jointly owned
by six Persian Gulf states, makes calls at four Iranian ports: Asaluyeh,
Bandar Khomeini, Khorramshahr and Bandar Abbas. This information is
hardly secret. The websites of the United Arab Shipping Company (and
other shippers such as Yang Ming, based in Taiwan) openly list offices
run out of Tehran or Bandar Abbas. And despite its regular business with
Iranian port operators, the United Arab Shipping Company's vessels visit
the ports of Baltimore, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Norfolk and Savannah
(according to the company's website). These shipping companies support
the IRGC and the Tehran regime by using Tidewater-operated terminals and
paying port loading fees. America's port authorities should deny docking
privileges to shipping companies that continue to operate in Iran. All
shippers should be presented with a clear choice: Stop doing business in
Iran, or stop doing business with the U.S." http://t.uani.com/XcEiFo
James Zogby in
HuffPo: "Policy discussions here in the U.S. about
Iran and its nuclear program most often focus exclusively on Israeli
concerns. Ignored are Arab and Muslim attitudes, especially those of
Iran's Arab and non-Arab Muslim neighbors. It is known that several Arab
governments have problems with the Islamic Republic in Tehran, but what
of their publics? Over the past decade, we have been polling regional
attitudes toward Iran and its policies culminating at the end of 2012
with a survey of 20,000 citizens in 17 Arab countries and three non-Arab
Muslim countries (Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan). This 20 nation poll
covered a range of topics including: attitudes toward Iran, its people,
culture, and its nuclear program. Comparing our most recent findings
(compiled in my new eBook Looking at Iran: Iran's Rise and Fall in Public
Opinion) to the data from our earlier surveys in the region reveals
important and dramatic changes in Arab and Muslim attitudes toward Iran.
It also helps to identify factors that appear to serve as 'drivers'
behind these changes. For example, when we polled on many of these same
issues in 2006, Iran's favorable ratings in Arab and Muslim countries
were at their highest point. Back then, in most countries, Iran's
favorable ratings were in the 75 percent range (with Saudis giving Iran
an 85 percent rating). Six years later the tables have turned. Now Iran's
favorable ratings in these same countries have fallen to less than 25
percent (Saudi ratings have plummeted to 15 percent). What emerges from
our 2011 and 2012 polls is that the earlier favorable attitudes toward
Iran were not about Iran, per se. Instead they appear to be more a
reaction to Arab public opinion's fury at Israel's behavior and U.S.
policies in Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq, coupled with the perception
that Iran and its allies were standing firm in opposition to the
'machinations of the West.' What changed in 2012 is that the United
States has lowered its regional profile, while Iran is perceived to be
playing a divisive role in Iraq, Bahrain, Lebanon, and Syria... The same
is true of Arab and Muslim attitudes toward Iran's nuclear program. Back
in 2006, when Iran was seen as the bastion of resistance to the West,
their nuclear ambitions were supported and defended by majorities in most
countries. Our earlier polls show Arab and Muslim public opinion
supporting Iran's claim that the program was for peaceful purposes.
Whether peaceful or not, strong majorities in almost every country were
opposed to any international effort to impose sanctions or use military
means against the Islamic Republic. Today, there is virtually no support
for Iran's nuclear ambitions -- with majorities now believing that Tehran
has designs on producing a nuclear weapon. And sympathy for Iran has been
replaced by widespread support for sanctions to stop Iran should it
persist in advancing its nuclear program. Opposition to the use of
military force remains high, with strong majorities still against it. But
here too there has been a change, with some increase in the number of
those who now support the use of a military strike should Iran persist
with its nuclear program. The lesson is clear. When Iran was seen in the
Arab and Muslim Worlds through the prism of U.S. and Israeli practices,
it won. But when Iran is judged by its regional behavior and its domestic
repression, it loses support in Arab and Muslim public opinion." http://t.uani.com/XcGNri
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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
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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