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Top Stories
NYT: "A
series of powerful explosions rocked the outskirts of Damascus early
Sunday morning, which Syrian state television said was the result of
Israeli missile attacks on a Syrian military installation. If true, it
would be the second Israeli airstrike in Syria in two days and the third
this year. The airstrike that Israeli warplanes carried out in Syria
overnight on Thursday was directed at a shipment of advanced
surface-to-surface missiles from Iran that Israel believed was intended
for Hezbollah, American officials said Saturday. That strike was aimed at
disrupting the arms pipeline that runs from Syria to Hezbollah, the
militant Lebanese organization, and it highlighted the mounting stakes
for Hezbollah and Israel as Syria becomes more chaotic. Iran and Hezbollah
have both backed President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war, now
in its third year. But as fighting in Syria escalates, they also have a
powerful interest in expediting the delivery of advanced weapons to
Hezbollah in case Mr. Assad loses his grip on power and Syria ceases to
be an effective channel for funneling weapons from Iran. The missiles
that were the target of the Israeli raid had been shipped from Iran and
were being stored in a warehouse at Damascus International Airport when
they were struck, according to an American official." http://t.uani.com/119GvZZ
Azer News: "The
withdrawal of international accounting firms from Iran will have an
enormous impact on the country's foreign trade. Expert in economics
Mehrad Emadi said that such a move will affect large industrial and
commercial companies that are still present in the Iranian market. The
international companies Grant Thornton, RSM and Crowe Horwath have
recently announced that they are pulling out of Iran, creating further
difficulties for foreign companies still operating in the country...
Emadi told Trend news agency that a large number of foreign companies
were working in the Iranian market by linking their activities with the
services of international accounting firms that made up legal documents
for them, conducted reports on revenues and expenditures, as well as
prepared the annual accounts. 'Large companies in Iran can make use of
international accounting firms for preparation of the annual balance
sheets, but it can result in huge financial cost,' he said. He said that
in the future withdrawal of the international accounting firms from Iran
will have an enormous impact on the country's foreign trade, which is
currently suffering from international sanctions." http://t.uani.com/118d8am
Azer News: "If
Iran doesn't curb its nuclear program, it will soon turn into place where
international commerce becomes impossible, said Nathan Carleton,
spokesperson for United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), a nonpartisan
advocacy group that pressures international companies to cease dealings
with Tehran. He was commenting on the recent exit of international
accounting companies from Iran. Several days ago, international companies
Grant Thornton, RSM, and Crowe Horwath announced that they were ending
their business in Iran. ... 'We were very proud to work with Grant
Thornton on this issue. Grant Thornton made it clear to us that it wants
to do the right thing, and its CEO, Ed Nusbaum, personally managed the
exit,' Carleton said. Carleton said further that Iran is a risky place to
do business, due to sanctions, corruption, and economic mismanagement by
the regime.'It is common that an entity doing business in Iran loses
money, or is unable to repatriate its money out of the country,' he said.
'We are seeing more and more business entities realize that Iran is not a
financially good market to be in, and taking their business elsewhere.'
He also said that there still are accounting companies working in Iran.
'According to our research, there are some mid-size accounting firms
still in Iran, such as Nexia, Moore Stephens, HLB, AGN, IAPA,' Carleton
said." http://t.uani.com/18MGTLg
Syria Uprising
NYT: "The
twin airstrikes in Damascus on Friday and Sunday attributed to Israel
appear to be more about Jerusalem's broad, mostly covert battle with Iran
and Hezbollah than about the bloody civil war raging in Syria. Despite
intensifying concern over the future of Syria, Israeli political and
military leaders steadfastly maintain that they have no interest in
entangling themselves in their neighbor's conflict. But the airstrikes on
military warehouses and other military installations underscore their
determination to prevent advanced weapons from falling into the hands of
Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia allied with Iran. The increased
frequency and intensity of the attacks also demonstrates Israel's desire
to take advantage of the chaotic situation, security experts say, as well
as its calculation that Syria, Hezbollah and Iran are too preoccupied and
weakened by the raging conflict in Syria to retaliate strongly against
even a brazen escalation." http://t.uani.com/16aUShw
AP:
"Israel rushed to beef up its rocket defenses on its northern border
Sunday to shield against possible retaliation after carrying out two
airstrikes in Syria over 48 hours - an unprecedented escalation of
Israeli involvement in the Syrian civil war. Syria and its patron Iran
hinted at possible retribution, though the rhetoric in official
statements appeared relatively muted. Despite new concerns about a
regional war, Israeli officials signaled they will keep trying to block
what they see as an effort by Iran to send sophisticated weapons to
Lebanon's Hezbollah militia ahead of a possible collapse of Syrian
President Bashar Assad's regime... Iran condemned the airstrikes, and a
senior official hinted at possible retribution from Hezbollah. Gen.
Masoud Jazayeri, assistant to the Iranian chief of staff, told Iran's
state-run Arabic-language Al-Alam TV that Tehran 'will not allow the
enemy (Israel) to harm the security of the region.' He added that 'the
resistance will retaliate to the Israeli aggression against Syria.'
'Resistance' is a term used for Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas,
another anti-Israel militant group supported by Iran." http://t.uani.com/YoSsXN
AFP:
"Iran is ready to help 'train' the Syrian army if Damascus seeks
such assistance, the commander of the Islamic republic's army ground
forces, General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, was quoted as saying on Sunday.
'As a Muslim nation, we back Syria, and if there is need for training we
will provide them with the training, but won't have any active
involvement in the operations,' he said in remarks reported by the
official IRNA news agency. 'The Syrian army has accumulated experience
during years of conflict with the Zionist regime (Israel) and is able to
defend itself and doesn't need foreign assistance,' he added." http://t.uani.com/13jtdqM
Terrorism
AP:
"Prosecutors are seeking a 25-year prison sentence for a Texas man
who admits he plotted to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United
States, saying he deserves the maximum in part because he didn't care if
an explosive he sought to put in a Washington restaurant killed a lot of
people. In papers filed late Thursday in U.S. District Court in
Manhattan, the government called the plot Manssor Arbabsiar planned to
carry out with members of the Iranian military an 'extremely serious crime.'
Arbabsiar, 57, pleaded guilty in October to two conspiracy charges and a
murder-for-hire count. The U.S. citizen has an Iranian passport and lived
in Corpus Christi, Texas, working in real estate and automobile sales
since moving to the United States in 1977. Sentencing is scheduled for
Monday." http://t.uani.com/YoRGKo
AFP: "A court in Azerbaijan
on Friday sentenced three people to lengthy jail terms for plotting a
'terrorist' attack during the Eurovision Song Contest hosted by the
country last year. 'The court for serious crimes has sentenced three
citizens of Azerbaijan to prison sentences from 11 to 12 years for
attempting to blow up the Israeli embassy on the eve of the Eurovision
Song Contest in Baku,' court documents said... The ministry said at the
time that the group had links with neighbouring Iran and was planning
attacks on the concert hall where Eurovision was held, as well as on
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, police buildings, hotels used by
foreigners, mosques and other religious sites in the Caucasus
state." http://t.uani.com/10i3BHe
Human Rights
NYT:
"A former Marine incarcerated in Iran for nearly two years on
suspicions that he was an American spy has been granted monthly
visitations by an uncle in Tehran since March and has been permitted to
send letters to his family for the first time, according to his sister,
who interpreted the eased conditions as possible signs that Iran
eventually could release him. But the prisoner, Amir Hekmati, a
29-year-old American citizen of Iranian descent, has been denied repeated
requests for a meeting with his court-appointed Iranian lawyer, said the
sister, Sarah Hekmati. In a telephone interview, she said Mr. Hekmati and
the family still did not know the precise charges he was facing, if any,
more than a year after Iran's highest court annulled a death penalty
conviction against him and ordered a new trial." http://t.uani.com/ZzDZFN
Domestic
Politics
Newsweek:
"Almost a year after the United States and the European Union
imposed unprecedentedly harsh sanctions against Iran to prevent it from
developing nuclear weapons, the country is not only surviving, it is
thriving. At least that's the spin from Iran's Finance Minister Seyyed
Shamseddin Hosseini. 'Iran's economy is becoming more lively and
energetic,' said Hosseini in an interview. Sanctions, which target oil
exports and the country's ability to use international banking for trade,
have cut Iran's oil sales in half and badly hurt the country's currency
and ability to trade internationally. But Iran does seem to be adapting,
even if this comes at the expense of private industry. The influential
Revolutionary Guards, the alternative military close to the regime, is
gobbling up industries and profiting from smuggling as sanctions weaken
the economy, analysts say. Iran has also adapted to the oil sanctions by
substituting other exports, such as saffron and pistachios, to earn
foreign exchange." http://t.uani.com/13Yp4YR
AP:
"For eight years, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has played the
role of global provocateur-in-chief: questioning the Holocaust, saying
Israel should be erased from the map and painting U.N resolutions as
worthless. His provocative style grated inside Iran as well - angering
the country's supreme leader to the point of warning the presidency could
be abolished... Comments from the presumed front-runners lean toward less
bombast and more diplomacy. They are apparently backed by a leadership
that wants to rehabilitate Iran's renegade image and possibly stabilize
relations with the West. The result however may be more a new tone rather
than sweeping policy change." http://t.uani.com/12aaQmv
Reuters:
"Iran's foreign minister said he believed the detention of a former
diplomat linked to the country's reformists was caused by a
'misunderstanding' and defended the man's record, Iranian media reported.
Bagher Asadi, who was a senior diplomat at Iran's U.N. mission in New
York before becoming a director at the secretariat of the D8 group of
developing nations in Istanbul, was arrested mid-March in the Iranian
capital, sources told Reuters this week. It was not clear where Asadi was
being held, who arrested the 61-year-old diplomat or on what grounds, the
sources said." http://t.uani.com/13XyEv2
Opinion
& Analysis
James Zogby in the
Detroit Free Press: "Policy discussions here in the
U.S. about Iran and its nuclear program most often focus exclusively on
Israeli concerns. But Americans and Israelis are not the only ones
unnerved by Iran's role in the Middle East. Recently, I conducted
extensive polling in the Arab and Muslim world and the results have
important implications for the future of U.S. policy toward this vital
region. In a new eBook, 'Looking at Iran: Iran's Rise and Fall in Public
Opinion,' I explore the way that perceptions of Iran in 17 Arab countries
and three non-Arab Muslim countries have been reshaped by the events of
the last few years. While we annually measure overall Arab attitudes
toward Iran, the last time we conducted an in-depth examination of Arab
views of the Islamic Republic was in 2006. Back then, the region was a
vastly different place. Iran's favorable ratings were more than 75% in
most countries surveyed. Now, however, the numbers tell a much different
story. Iran enjoys majority support in only one Arab country (Lebanon),
and its favorable ratings have plummeted in countries like Saudi Arabia,
the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. How can we explain this precipitous
decline, and what lessons should American policymakers take from it? ...
So, what does all this mean for American policy? The good news is that
Arab distrust of Iran's role in the region extends to its nuclear
program. Clear majorities in most Arab countries believe Iran is trying
to build a nuclear weapon and oppose the Iranian nuclear program.
However, opposition to military action remains quite high. Given this
knowledge, American officials should combine pressure with efforts to
engage Iran, coordinating with Arab and European allies while rejecting
calls from Israel and certain quarters of the U.S. for military action to
halt Iran's nuclear development. ... Above all, our polling provides one
vital insight. When Iran is viewed as defiantly standing up to Western
overreach, it gains influence in the Arab world. However, when the Islamic
Republic is evaluated on its own behavior, Arab publics turn against it.
The best thing we can do is continue along our current course of allowing
the Iranians to wear out their welcome." http://t.uani.com/127PlUJ
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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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