|
|
Top Stories
Bloomberg:
"Members of Congress from both parties urged Obama administration
officials to impose greater economic pressure to curtail Iran's nuclear
ambitions and punish its human-rights violations. Senator Robert
Menendez, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and sponsor of
several Iran sanctions laws, cited estimates that the global oil market
has enough supply to let the U.S. press Iran's remaining oil buyers to
radically curtail their purchases without causing a surge in gasoline
prices. 'Oil markets are now and predicted to be loose for the coming
year' and 'it would seem that this is the time to press our allies to
further reduce crude purchase from Iran,' Menendez, a New Jersey
Democrat, told a committee hearing yesterday on preventing Iran from
acquiring a nuclear weapon. The International Energy Agency said the
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' spare crude oil production
capacity will increase 25 percent in the next two years as rising U.S.
shale output crimps demand for OPEC's supplies... In the Senate, Menendez
expressed concern that Iran may be using its automotive industry to
produce dual-use items for its nuclear program, and suggested the auto
sector might be targeted for penalties, as well. Menendez also questioned
whether the administration is doing enough to enforce its own
prohibitions on Iran's gold trade issued last summer." http://t.uani.com/16knMfS
WSJ:
"U.S. economic sanctions on Iran are likely changing the thinking of
its leadership toward its nuclear program, administration officials told
a Senate foreign relations panel Wednesday. 'We do believe that the
imposition of sanctions and pain that is being put on the Iranian regime
is having an effect--perhaps not enough of an effect to change the
calculus of the supreme leader, but it's on its way potentially to doing
so,' said the State Department's under secretary for political affairs,
Wendy Sherman, at a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
that focused on U.S. policy in Iran. Ms. Sherman said she did not believe
the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has made the strategic
decision to 'deal on their nuclear program,' but rather the country's
posturing and statements are projections of power and an assertion of
their authority." http://t.uani.com/YM5FKc
TradeWinds:
"Victor Restis is poised to pop up on the US government's radar
following accusations of illicit dealings with Iran, sources said
Tuesday. If the US Treasury Department and other agencies that monitor
compliance with sanctions aimed at Tehran haven't launched a probe
already observers say it's only a matter of time. This is because United
Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI), an advocacy group that has accused the
tycoon of helping to orchestrate an alliance between Iran's oil ministry
and a Greek bank where he served as chairman, has strong ties with
Washington. Sources tell TradeWinds that UANI shares the findings of its
investigations with several branches of the US government, which may not
come as a surprise as many of the organisation's board members are career
politicians... If the US were to investigate the allegations against
Restis the probe would likely focus on a letter in which Dimitris Cambis,
who recently landed on the US Treasury Department's blacklist, solicited
a partnership between First Business Bank (FBB) of Greece and Iran's oil
ministry." http://t.uani.com/103S3aJ
Nuclear Program
Reuters:
"The United Nations' nuclear agency failed to persuade Iran on
Wednesday to let it resume an investigation into suspected atomic bomb
research, leaving the high-stakes diplomacy in deadlock. With Iran
focused on a presidential election next month, expectations had been low
for the meeting between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA), which has been trying for more than a year to reopen an inquiry
into 'possible military dimensions' of Tehran's nuclear work. 'We had
intensive discussions today but did not finalize the structured approach
document that has been under negotiation for a year and a half now,' IAEA
Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts said after the eight-hour
meeting, referring to a long-sought framework deal for the
investigation." http://t.uani.com/19yaIji
Reuters:
"Iran is prepared to pursue nuclear diplomacy with world powers
before or after next month's presidential election in the Islamic
Republic, its chief negotiator said on Thursday. Saeed Jalili, who is
also a candidate in the presidential race, was speaking after talks on
the nuclear dispute with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine
Ashton. 'We are ready to continue our talks with the (six powers)
whenever they are ready, before or after the presidential election in
Iran... Talks will take place soon,' Jalili told a news conference in
Istanbul, without giving a date... Jalili also reiterated that Iran would
never abandon its right to enrich uranium. Major powers want Tehran to
suspend its enrichment activities to reassure the world that it is not
seeking nuclear weapons. Iran denies having any such goal. 'Even after
the elections in Iran, the people of Iran will not allow their right to
enrichment to be taken away,' he said, adding that international
sanctions on Iran should be lifted." http://t.uani.com/14sjSNc
Sanctions
Reuters:
"The United States is working to block sales of gold to Iranians in
order to undermine their currency the rial and to step up pressure on
Tehran over its nuclear program, officials said on Wednesday. From July
1, the US will ban sales of gold by anyone to either the Iranian government
or to Iranian citizens, a senior US Treasury official said. Washington
has warned Iran's neighbors Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, key
regional centers of the gold trade, to stop gold sales to Iran, said
David Cohen, treasury under-secretary for terrorism and financial
intelligence. 'We have been very clear with the governments of Turkey and
the UAE and elsewhere, as well as the private sector that is involved in
the gold trade, that as of July 1 all must stop, not just trade to the
government,' he said." http://t.uani.com/1472YEc
WSJ:
"CISADA. NDAA. TRA. IFCA. The flow of U.S. sanctions (and acronyms)
has continued unhindered since 2010. These programs have increasingly cut
Iran out of the global financial system, while simultaneously producing a
mountain of compliance work for companies and banks that do business in
the U.S. The testimony Wednesday of a top Treasury Department official
indicates that more is still to come. David Cohen, the under secretary
for terrorism and financial intelligence, told the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee Wednesday that the Obama administration was planning
further action against Iran... According to Cohen, the Treasury
Department plans to focus increasingly on Iran's use of non-bank
financial institutions, such as exchange houses and money services
businesses. The department will also actively investigate any sale of
gold to Iran (private sales included) to pressure Iran's currency, Cohen
said. Finally, Cohen said the department will continue to target those
who purchase or acquire Iran's petrochemical exports, as well as the
financial institutions that facilitate such transactions." http://t.uani.com/1478eI7
Reuters:
"The United States blacklisted two Dubai-based trading companies on
Wednesday, accusing them of helping Iran evade financial sanctions and
effectively cutting them off from the U.S. financial system. The move
against Al Hilal Exchange and Al Fida International General Trading is
the latest in a series of sanctions Washington has imposed to pressure
Tehran to curb its atomic program... In a statement, the U.S. Treasury
said the two firms had provided financial services to Iran's Bank Mellat,
a bank that has itself been blacklisted - or 'designated' in U.S.
government jargon - for involvement in the Iranian nuclear program. 'They
have been used by Iran in an attempt to maintain access to foreign
currency exchange,' the Treasury Department said in a statement. The
Treasury's action bars U.S. individuals and companies from dealing with
the two firms, effectively cutting them off from the U.S. financial
system, and requires the freezing of any assets they may have under U.S.
jurisdiction." http://t.uani.com/16BQuIs
The Hill:
"Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) will introduce legislation Wednesday
calling for increased drilling on U.S. federal lands to displace Iranian
oil on the world market, according to a copy of the bill obtained by The
Hill. The bill requires the president to establish enough 'Iranian Oil
Replacement Zones' on federal lands to produce 1.25 million barrels of
oil per day - approximately the amount Iran exports every day. An Inhofe
aide told The Hill that would divert oil the U.S. imports from Saudi
Arabia and elsewhere to nations that still buy Iranian crude, such as
China, India and Japan. The goal is to give President Obama wiggle room
to enforce full sanctions on Iranian oil by ending waivers awarded to
some nations." http://t.uani.com/YM6PFM
Human Rights
Campaign for Human
Rights in Iran: "The international community should
immediately institute a travel ban and asset freeze against Mohammad
Baqer Qalibaf, the current mayor of Tehran and a contender in the
upcoming presidential election, due to his extensive role in gross human
rights violations, the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today. The
Campaign has obtained a secretly recorded two-hour audio file of Qalibaf
in which he details his prominent and direct role in repressing and
carrying out violence against student protesters in July 1999, July 2003,
and in the 2009 post-election protests. 'Qalibaf has exposed himself as a
violent and cruel individual, taking pride in being a leading force for
repression throughout the years in his various official capacities. Under
his administration, given his own admissions in this tape, he will
certainly continue, if not worsen, Iran's already dismal human rights
record,' said Hadi Ghaemi, the Campaign's executive director." http://t.uani.com/1475jiF
AFP:
"US officials Wednesday slammed a campaign of 'unrelenting
repression' ahead of Iran's presidential elections, and said the outcome
would be very hard to predict amid a secret vetting process. The future
direction the next Iranian leadership will take in ongoing talks with
world powers about the Islamic republic's suspect nuclear program was
also difficult to predict, top US administration officials told US
lawmakers. 'There are probably some candidates who would be perceived by
us as more interested in looking at the nuclear negotiations in a more
positive vein,' under secretary of state Wendy Sherman said. 'However the
nuclear file is held by the supreme leader and no one else, and he is the
final decision maker regarding the nuclear file.'" http://t.uani.com/12xxff2
Domestic
Politics
WashPost:
"Conservatives aligned with Iran's supreme leader may enjoy his
support, but their inability to rally behind a single candidate could
hurt their chances of replacing outgoing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as
president. With less than a month remaining before the June 14 election,
no clear front-runner has emerged among a bloc of nearly a dozen
conservative candidates, causing concern among allies who fear a loss of
the power they have amassed over the years to rivals they say will move
Iran away from clerical rule. The final list of candidates will not be
known until May 23 after the Guardian Council, a powerful body tasked
with vetting candidates, completes its process. But the aspirants include
at least two prominent hopefuls - the mayor of Tehran and a longtime
foreign minister - from among a conservative grouping that had pledged to
join forces around a single standard-bearer. They also include a third
prominent conservative, Saeed Jalili, Iran's top nuclear
negotiator." http://t.uani.com/12dGnnh
AP:
"A member of Iran's constitutional watchdog says women cannot be
presidential candidates, effectively killing the longshot bids by about
30 women seeking to run in the June 14 election. Even before Thursday's
comments by Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, chances for a woman candidate in
Iran's presidential election were considered nearly impossible. Iran's
constitution uses a word denoting only a male president. The semiofficial
Mehr news agency quotes Yazdi as saying the 'law does not approve' of a
woman in Iran's highest elected office and that this is 'not allowed.'"
http://t.uani.com/10tOKwD
Foreign Affairs
AFP:
"Call it peace through fighting, but wrestlers from the United
States, Iran and Russia provided New York with an unusual vision of
international harmony when they took to the mat. The top-level sportsmen,
grappling in an ornate side hall of Grand Central Station in Manhattan,
met as part of a campaign to persuade the International Olympic Committee
to go back on its shock decision to scrap wrestling after the 2016 Rio de
Janeiro Games. By setting up the 'Rumble on the Rails' in Grand Central's
Vanderbilt Hall at rush hour, organizers hoped to demonstrate that the
sport, written off by Olympic leaders as too obscure, belongs right in
the middle of things. But there was a broader message from the
three-nation bout: wrestling's strong men can also show the world how to
get along." http://t.uani.com/12xyQkZ
Opinion &
Analysis
Meghan O'Sullivan
in Bloomberg: "So here's a suggestion that may sound
counterintuitive: A more aggressive U.S. response to proof of Assad's
chemical-weapons use may be more likely to defuse the prospects of a
regional conflict, in part by swaying Iran to rethink its nuclear
ambitions... Despite the preference of the Obama administration to deal
with every crisis in the Middle East independently, policy makers should
look at responding to Syria's alleged chemical-weapons use in a way that
positively affects the entire region. If they did, they might conclude
that limited, targeted air strikes against Syria could contribute to a
breakthrough on the Iranian nuclear front. I don't make this claim on the
familiar grounds that a failure by the U.S. to act after the president's
'red line' in Syria had been crossed would embolden Iran to speed ahead
on its nuclear program. That argument is overstated for two reasons.
First, Iran has watched American foreign policy long enough to know that
there is little consistency from theater to theater; the 'responsibility
to protect' doctrine was touted as motivating the Libyan intervention in
2011, yet it clearly has carried little weight in the context of Syria.
Second, Iran has already violated numerous red lines set out by the
international community, with little or no consequence. Iran's leaders
likely suspect the phrase has little meaning. A more compelling argument
is that the use of military force -- even of limited scope -- would cause
Iran to rethink one of its fundamental assumptions: That the U.S.,
chastened by its Iraq intervention, won't use military force in the
Middle East for any reason. From the Iranian perspective, this isn't a
crazy conclusion to have drawn. Obama has repeatedly spoken of how the
time of war has ended, of the need to nation-build at home, of how the
withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq was one of his legacy achievements,
and of the imperative to rebalance American attention and resources
toward Asia. The budget sequestration, a slow-growing economy, and
fatigue of the American people after a decade of wars reinforce this
conclusion, while the heavy reliance on the use of drones underscores
U.S. reluctance to risk American lives overseas. Air strikes against
Syrian targets, in challenging this Iranian assumption, could help
address the fundamental flaw in the current effort to curb Iran's nuclear
ambitions through diplomacy. In the current context, the threat of U.S.
military force isn't credible, no matter how many times Obama declares
that Iran won't be permitted to acquire a nuclear weapon. An Iran
unconcerned about U.S. military action has little incentive to come to a
diplomatic compromise, given its willingness and ability to withstand the
economic pain of sanctions. In forcing the Iranians to re-evaluate the
assumption that American threats of force are hollow, limited air strikes
on Syria in response to proven chemical weapons use could lead to a more
engaged and compliant Iran at the negotiating table. Ultimately, the use
of a little force in Syria now could save the U.S. and its allies from
having to use force on a much grander scale in Iran down the road." http://t.uani.com/13oCLhE
|
|
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.
|
|
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment