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Top Stories
Reuters:
"Western sanctions drove Iran's crude exports to the lowest in
decades in May, according to industry sources and tanker-tracking data,
even before Washington toughens measures aimed at squeezing oil sales
further. Crude shipments dropped to 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) last
month, the data from sources showed, about a third of Iran's oil exports
before the current round of sanctions. U.S. and European sanctions aimed
at pressuring Tehran over its suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons have
already more than halved Iran's shipments - costing Iran billions of
dollars in revenue since the start of 2012. And Washington is now seeking
to cut shipments to less than 500,000 bpd through tighter
sanctions." http://t.uani.com/13l81kv
AP:
"Several countries monitoring Iran's nuclear program have picked up
information that the country's only power-producing nuclear reactor was
damaged by one or more of several recent earthquakes, with long cracks
appearing in at least one section of the structure, two diplomats said Tuesday...
Its Bushehr nuclear plant is not considered a proliferation threat. But
some nations are concerned about how safe it is. Iran has refused to join
an international nuclear safety convention and persistent technical
problems have shut the plant for lengthy periods since it started up in
September 2011 after years of construction delays... But Iran insists the
plant is technically sound and built to withstand all but the largest
earthquakes unscathed. Officials in Tehran reassured the international community
after the quakes struck in April and early May that the facility was
undamaged. The diplomats referred to recent restricted information
gathered from the site in questioning that assertion. They told The
Associated Press that one concrete section of the structure developed
cracks several meters long as a result of the quakes on April 9 and April
16." http://t.uani.com/15Ivugf
BBC:
"Tens of thousands have attended the funeral of a senior dissident
cleric, in what became Iran's biggest anti-government protest for years.
Ayatollah Jalaluddin Taheri died at the age of 87 on Sunday in Isfahan.
He was a vocal opponent of the hardliners in power in Iran and had
resigned from his post in protest. Mourners at the funeral chanted
slogans against the government and Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, describing him as a dictator. Protesters also called for the
release of all political prisoners, including the two top leaders of the
reformist green movement who are under house arrest in Tehran. Ayatollah
Taheri was a pro-reformist Friday prayer leader in Isfahan, one of the
largest cities in Iran. It is the biggest such protest in Iran in the
past few years, and interestingly the police did not intervene, says
Kasra Naji of BBC Persian." http://t.uani.com/19IsHX8
Nuclear Program
Reuters:
"The United States said on Wednesday it was 'deeply troubled' by
Iran's plans to start a reactor in 2014 that could yield nuclear bomb
material while failing to give U.N. inspectors necessary design
information about the plant. The comments by a U.S. envoy to a board
meeting of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
highlighted deepening Western concern about the heavy water reactor which
Iran is building near the town of Arak... Iran says the Arak plant will
make isotopes for medical and agricultural use. But analysts say this
type of facility can also produce plutonium for weapons if the spent fuel
is reprocessed - something Iran says it has no intention of doing. Tasked
with ensuring that nuclear material is not diverted for military
purposes, the IAEA says Iran must urgently give it design data about
Arak, warning that it would otherwise restrict its ability to monitor the
site effectively. 'We are deeply troubled that Iran claims that the IR-40
heavy water reactor at Arak could be commissioned as soon as early 2014,
but still refuses to provide the requisite design information for the
reactor,' Joseph Macmanus, the U.S. ambassador to the IAEA, told the
35-nation Board of Governors... To signal big power unity on Iran, China
and Russia joined four Western powers in pressing Iran at the IAEA
meeting to cooperate with a stalled investigation by the U.N. nuclear
agency into suspected atomic weapons research by Tehran. In a joint
statement, the six powers said they were 'deeply concerned.'" http://t.uani.com/ZOuHLq
Sanctions
NYT:
"The United States on Tuesday blacklisted what it described as a
global network of front companies controlled by Iran's top leaders,
accusing them of hiding assets and generating billions of dollars' worth
of revenue to help Tehran evade sanctions over its disputed nuclear
program. The action, by the Treasury Department, was one of the broadest
in the American-led effort to isolate and pressure Iran economically and
came as Congress is moving toward enacting even harsher penalties on
Iran. It was the fourth time in a week that the Obama administration had
escalated the sanctions and the first time it accused Iran's supreme
leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of directing an effort to bypass them.
'Even as economic conditions in Iran deteriorate, senior Iranian leaders
profit from a shadowy network of off-the-books front companies,' David S.
Cohen, the Treasury under secretary who oversees the sanctions effort,
said in a statement. The Treasury identified 37 companies, including
enterprises in Germany, South Africa, Croatia and the United Arab
Emirates, that it said operated as a labyrinth of 'ostensibly private
businesses' directed by the Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order, run by
Ayatollah Khamenei." http://t.uani.com/11kvS0h
WashPost:
"The workers at a gas tank factory in Dinslaken, Germany, had
questioned the strange goings-on at their company ever since its
Iran-linked owners bought it a decade ago. On Tuesday, they got an
answer. The U.S. Treasury Department announced that MCS International,
along with companies in Croatia, Dubai and elsewhere, had been part of a
global network of 37 businesses designed to funnel profits and materials
to the Iranian government and to evade sanctions targeting the country's
nuclear program... MCS ended production at the end of March after years
of unprofitability. Workers said their managers appeared uninterested in
the business side of the company and instead focused on using technology
from the plant to create a similar factory in Iran. Nuclear experts say
the high-strength carbon fiber used at MCS to make lightweight
high-pressure tanks is also useful for building precision centrifuges and
missiles." http://t.uani.com/18Oeo1C
Reuters:
"U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is likely to renew waivers on
Iran oil sanctions for India, China and several other countries as soon
as Wednesday, in exchange for their reducing purchases of crude from the
Islamic Republic, two government sources said. The 180-day exceptions to
the oil sanctions would be the third round since President Barack Obama
signed the bill in late 2011. The Obama administration issued waivers on
the sanctions to Japan and 10 European Union countries in March. The oil
sanctions are one of the main tools Washington has for its strategy of
trying to choke off funding to Tehran's nuclear program." http://t.uani.com/15AV9Xt
June 14
Elections
Daily Telegraph:
"Iran has witnessed a rare show of political dissent in the run-up
to next week's presidential election after mourners chanted anti-regime
slogans at the mass funeral of a dissident cleric, according to amateur
video footage. Chants of 'death to the dictator' and 'dictator, dictator,
may your sleep be disturbed' were heard on videos of the funeral
procession in Isfahan, Iran's second city, following the death of Ayatollah
Jalaluddin Taheri, who died on Sunday, aged 87. The footage - whose
authenticity cannot be verified - also contained chants in support of Mir
Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, presidential candidates in the
country's fraud-tainted 2009 election, who have been under house arrest
for more than two years. Marchers were heard on one video chanting:
'Mousavi and Karroubi must be released.' There were no reported arrests
or clashes between mourners and security forces, a possible sign that the
authorities are wary of disturbances before the June 14 poll." http://t.uani.com/17oxTQE
Reuters:
"With 10 days until Iran's presidential election, voters have been
able watch the candidates in debate, but many remain unenthused,
believing the result will depend not on those on the platform but on
powerful men in the background. The Revolutionary Guards, a military
force over 100,000 strong which also controls swathes of Iran's economy,
is widely assumed to have fixed the vote last time around, silenced those
who protested and to be preparing to anoint a favored candidate this
year, having already narrowed down the field. The successor to President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who steps down after a second term, will remain
subordinate to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. And many see the
hand of the Guards, the muscle of the Islamic Republic's clerical rulers,
in steering victory toward one of several conservative loyalists -while
stifling the kind of protests that followed the 2009 vote." http://t.uani.com/12snHpt
WashPost:
"In Iran's first 2013 presidential debate Friday, candidate and
Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf looked poised and prepared. While
the other seven candidates seemed flustered by the format, which some of
them called 'insulting,' Ghalibaf regularly consulted a tablet that
appeared to be an Apple iPad and spoke with certainty to the cameras.
'The first thing that my government will do is to stabilize the currency.
The second is to change the method of distribution of services and
goods,' Ghalibaf said, referring to some of the most pressing problems of
Iran's battered economy. 'Today we need the trust of our people. My
government will achieve this in six months.' If polls are any guide - and
in Iran, they are far from reliable - Ghalibaf might have reason to exude
confidence. Less than two weeks before Iranians vote , several online
surveys conducted by Iranian news Web sites place the technocrat as a top
contender in the field of eight conservative candidates vying to replace
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This week, 150 members out of 290 in
Iran's parliament signed a letter officially endorsing him." http://t.uani.com/138J3TI
Domestic
Politics
FT:
"With this month's presidential election less than two weeks away,
the windows of the ironware shops in Tehran's Grand Bazaar should be
pasted thickly with campaign posters. Instead, however, many of the shop
windows are featuring simple A4 sheets of paper with typed announcements
of their closure or sale, testimony to a quiet revolt now under way by the
city's influential bazaaris, the shopkeepers and small business owners
who have long formed the core of its business community. The immediate
reason for the revolt is a move by the government of Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad
to increase taxes on the bazaaris as part of an attempt to plug the gap
left by Iran's falling oil revenues. The government increased taxes by 30
per cent last Iranian year and it has unveiled plans to raise them by
another 38 per cent this year. The result, the bazaaris say, is that it
now makes more sense to shut up shop than continue doing business and
anticipate a visit from the tax man... The tax rises have been the result
of Iran's changing realities. Iranian governments have usually enjoyed
easy income from oil sales and adopted a relaxed attitude toward tax
collection. But the combination of US financial sanctions and an EU ban
on Iranian oil imports has caused the government to put more focus on
collecting taxes." http://t.uani.com/18VtFAj
Human Rights
Fox News:
"The wife of an American pastor imprisoned in Iran for his Christian
beliefs delivered an impassioned plea to foreign diplomats gathered in
Geneva, begging them to press the Islamic republic to free her husband.
Naghmeh Abedini, whose husband Saeed Abedini is serving an eight-year
sentence in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, told members of the United
Nations Human Rights Council to join her 'in crying out against his
persecution.' 'My husband, a U.S. citizen and loving father of our two
young children, has been held in Iran's brutal Evin Prison because of his
faith -- without a voice to fight for his freedom,' she said in testimony
Tuesday morning. 'I must, therefore, be his voice.'" http://t.uani.com/19IqRW7
Opinion &
Analysis
UANI CEO Amb. Mark
Wallace in The Daily Caller: "In the coming days,
Iran will hold its so-called presidential election to replace the
outgoing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It will no doubt be a fraudulent and
undemocratic process, resulting in one of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's
hand-picked loyalists assuming the post. And while there is little that
can be done at this point to affect the already-rigged election's
outcome, at least one high-profile American corporation - Facebook - can
take a stand for political freedom and free speech by carrying out the
responsible action of disassociating itself from Khamenei. Khamenei and
the Iranian regime are currently using Facebook as a platform to spread
hateful propaganda, even while blocking Iranian citizens' access to the
site. The Supreme Leader of Iran and social networking might seem like an
odd fit, particularly given that the regime has attacked Facebook as 'the
West's weapon in its soft war against Iran.' Nonetheless, for many months
the regime has been operating a page for Khamenei, in open defiance of
Facebook's terms of use, which bar threatening speech and graphic
gratuitous images. For example, as Americans were celebrating Memorial
Day last month, Khamenei's page featured the post: 'Those objecting [to
the] Iran election Mechanism bear stigma of shame about #Guantanamo,
having their #Drones over civilians plus a full support for criminal
Zionists.' The words were strategically posted alongside a photo collage
of bodies of dead children, a mushroom cloud, and President Obama
greeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Such online activity
is not only offensive, but highly hypocritical, as Khamenei and his
cohorts have gone to great lengths to block Facebook for the Iranian
public and punish users that circumvent the regime's invasive online
filtering system. Following the disputed June 2009 presidential elections
in Iran - when tens of thousands of Iranians used Facebook to voice their
dissatisfaction and organize rallies in protest - the regime established
its 'FATA' cyber-police unit, to 'take on anti-revolutionary and
dissident groups who used Internet-based social networks in 2009.' Now,
Iranians risk arrest, torture, and death for using Facebook, particularly
when such use is determined to be political or 'un-Islamic.' For example,
in May 2011, Baha'i activist Houshang Fanian was sentenced to an
additional year of prison for 'disseminating anti-state propaganda on
Facebook,' while Iranian authorities imprisoned a man in 2012 for the
Facebook activities of his son, who was studying abroad in the Netherlands.
In the most notorious case, FATA tortured Iranian blogger Sattar Beheshti
to death in November 2012 for criticizing the Iranian government on
Facebook. On May 20, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) wrote to Facebook
CEO Mark Zuckerberg to call his attention to this matter. We requested
that Facebook 'take immediate action to suspend the Facebook account of
Ayatollah Khamenei ahead of the June 14, 2013 presidential elections,'
noting that 'Facebook is illegal to Iranians and its usage has led to the
unjust imprisonment, torture, and death of many activists.' Many have
subsequently joined UANI's 'Kick Khamenei off Facebook' petition page and
reported Khamenei's page to Facebook for violating the site's prohibition
on 'hate speech' and 'violent or hateful behavior.' Unfortunately,
Facebook has not yet taken the responsible action of deactivating
Khamenei's account. In fact, the company has not responded at all,
despite numerous inquiries from UANI supporters and other parties." http://t.uani.com/18OhuCW
Vali Nasr in
Bloomberg: "Syria's uprising offered the possibility
of a strategic defeat of Iran. In this scenario, Iran would be weakened
by the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime, its single Arab ally and a
vital link to Lebanon's Hezbollah militia. Isolated, Iran would become
more vulnerable to international pressure to limit its nuclear program.
And as Iran's regional influence faded, those of its rivals -- U.S.
allies Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia -- would expand. Instead, events in
Syria are spinning in Iran's favor. Assad's regime is winning ground, the
war has made Iran more comfortable in its nuclear pursuits, and Iran's
gains have embarrassed U.S. allies that support the Syrian uprising.
What's more, Iran has strengthened its relationship with Russia, which
may prove to be the most important strategic consequence of the Syrian
conflict, should the U.S. continue to sit it out. Part of the U.S.
calculation in declining to intervene has been the assumption that Assad
would inevitably fall. The U.S., apparently, did not consider the
implications of leaving the door open to a comeback by Assad... Part of
the U.S. calculation in declining to intervene has been the assumption
that Assad would inevitably fall. The U.S., apparently, did not consider
the implications of leaving the door open to a comeback by Assad... The
U.S. may be content to leave the Middle East and its troubles behind, but
that feeling will be short-lived if the legacy of its Syria policy is a
region dominated by an aggressive Russian-Iranian axis." http://t.uani.com/15IynO7
Dennis Ross in
Foreign Affairs: "The exclusion of Rafsanjani allows
the Supreme Leader to avoid the uncertainty of an election in which the
Iranian public again becomes energized. Clearly, the Supreme Leader
wanted to avoid the kind of excitement that Rafsanjani would have stirred
up had he continued making public statements, as he has over the last two
years, about Iran's need to fix the economy and reduce Iran's isolation
internationally (a theme he has emphasized in recent years). But the
exclusion of Rafsanjani from the election is also an important signal to
anyone concerned about Iran's nuclear program. If the Supreme Leader had
been interested in doing a deal with the West on the Iranian nuclear
program, he would have wanted Rafsanjani to be president. I say that not
because Rafsanjani would have been capable of initiating a deal on his
own -- any deal he might strike would still have to be acceptable to the
Supreme Leader -- but because if the Supreme Leader were interested in an
agreement, he would probably want to create an image of broad
acceptability of it in advance. Rather than having only his fingerprints
on it, he would want to widen the circle of decision-making to share the
responsibility. And he would set the stage by having someone like
Rafsanjani lead a group that would make the case for reaching an
understanding. Rafsanjani's pedigree as Khomeini associate and former
president, with ties to the Revolutionary Guard and to the elite more
generally, would all argue for him to play this role. Rafsanjani's
exclusion is not the only signal that spells trouble for a nuclear deal.
Of the eight remaining approved candidates, there are four who are close
to the Supreme Leader and might have credibility negotiating: Ali Akbar
Velayati, a foreign policy adviser to Khamenei; Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf,
the Mayor of Tehran and a former commander in the Revolutionary Guards;
Hassan Rowhani, a cleric and former Iranian negotiator with the Europeans
on the Iranian nuclear program; and Saeed Jalili, Khamenei's current
representative in the nuclear talks with the P5 plus 1 -- the five
permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany. While any of
these candidates could in theory win the election, the fact that the
Iranian media is lavishing attention on Jalili certainly suggests that he
is Khamenei's preference, even though he has the thinnest credentials of
the lot. If Jalili does end up becoming the Iranian president, it will be
hard to avoid the conclusion that the Supreme Leader has little interest
in reaching an understanding with the United States on the Iranian
nuclear program. Jalili, by all accounts, has consistently approached the
talks with ideological fervor, complete commitment to the Supreme
Leader's guidance, and readiness to talk forever without results. His
campaign now is built around the theme of resistance -- so much so that
he speaks not just of resistance to the 'arrogant powers' internationally
and by implication on the nuclear issue but also of building a
'resistance economy.' The latter slogan may not reassure the Iranian
public, but it is music to the ears of Ali Khamenei. Should Jalili become
Iran's next president -- and his slavish devotion to the Supreme Leader
makes him the ideal candidate for Khamenei -- we won't have to guess
about Khamenei's intentions in nuclear negotiations. He will be telling
us." http://t.uani.com/18OfISp
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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
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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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