Eye on Iran: United Against Nuclear Iran a Counterproductive Group: Iran Official

For continuing coverage follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group.    Top Stories Press TV: "A spokesman for the Iranian UN mission in New York Alireza Miryousefi says Tehran considers the activities of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) group 'counterproductive' and contrary to the US announced policy to diplomatically interact with Iran. Former American diplomats founded the privately financed advocacy group, UANI, in the United States which seeks to prevent Iran from pursuing its nuclear energy program. The organization uses pressuring companies to stop doing business with Iran as a means to halt the Iranian nuclear energy program. In a statement, Miryousefi noted that the UANI founders have 'worked within or were close to the US government.' He added that Iran regarded the group as 'counterproductive and contrary to the policy announced by the new administration [of President Barack Obama] in early 2009, which purportedly sought to diplomatically interact with Iran.'" http://t.uani.com/1a58Ov7 AP: "Iran's president-elect believes it's possible to strike a deal that would allow the Islamic Republic to keep enriching uranium while assuring the West it will not produce a nuclear weapon. Hasan Rowhani also said his government would look for a win-win deal to resolve disputes with the United States, following three decades of estrangement between the two nations. His remarks came in an interview recorded four months ago and rerun on Iranian state TV on Friday. The broadcast appeared to be intended to underline his pledge to follow a 'path of moderation' and pursue greater openness over Iran's nuclear program... 'We should reach a point where the West feels that continuing the sanctions would not be to their benefit and that there is a better solution,' Rowhani said." http://t.uani.com/189OdoS AP: "Traders in Iran say the country's currency has briefly reached its strongest level in nearly 10 months, reflecting hopes that Iran's newly elected president might ease tensions with the West. Iran's rial was exchanged around 29,000 for $1 Sunday, compared to more than 36,000 before the June 14 election of Hasan Rowhani. The rial had not dipped below 30,000 since late September. Later Sunday it rose to about 31,000. The rial has lost more than two-thirds of its value against the U.S. dollar since late 2011, partly because of sanctions over Iran's nuclear program." http://t.uani.com/14ScCvW   Sanctions WSJ: "The Georgian government froze approximately 150 bank accounts tied to Iranian businesses and individuals in order to comply with United Nations sanctions aimed at curbing Tehran's nuclear program, officials in Tbilisi said. Justice Minister Tea Tsulukiani announced the freezing of the Iranian bank accounts at a Friday news conference, in response to questions about a front-page article in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that documented a sharp increase of investment by Iranians in Georgia over the past two years. Georgian government officials said the accounts were frozen before Thursday. U.S. and European officials have voiced growing concerns that Iran is seeking to use Georgia and its financial system to evade mounting international sanctions that are aimed at denying Tehran the ability to produce atomic weapons. Iran says its program is strictly for peaceful purposes. Sanctioned Iranian energy companies and firms tied to Iran's elite military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, are among the firms that have sought to do business in Georgia, according to Iranian and Georgian officials." http://t.uani.com/11zzyPN Reuters: "South Korea has pledged to the United States that it will cut imports of Iranian crude by 15 percent in the next six months to secure its next waiver to U.S. sanctions targeting Iran's nuclear program, two sources told Reuters... South Korea's government has instructed refiners to make the import cuts, the two sources familiar with the plan said, after meetings between U.S. and South Korean officials. 'The refiners have been unofficially told (by the government) to reduce imports in the next six months by 15 percent compared to the previous six months,' said one of the sources... The cut would leave South Korean refiners importing just under 126,000 barrels per day (bpd) over the six months to November, according to Reuters calculation based on data from state-run Korea National Oil Corp. Imports from Iran to South Korea for December to May stood at 148,016 bpd, down 20 percent from a year ago." http://t.uani.com/11VQDyJ AFP: "The Iranian rial has strengthened by more than 15 percent against the dollar since the victory of moderate Hassan Rowhani who was elected president more than a week ago, reports said on Sunday. The Iranian currency was trading at under 30,000 to the dollar on Sunday morning compared to 35,000 a week ago, media and dealers said... 'Many Iranians had bought dollars and were stashing them at home but now they are selling because they fear that the perspective of a dialogue with the United States and a more subtle diplomacy on the nuclear front could strengthen the rial,' a currency dealer told AFP on condition of anonymity." http://t.uani.com/10Na2ba Syrian Civil War AFP: "Iran has denounced a decision by Western and Arab countries to send weapons to Syrian rebels fighting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, the official IRNA news agency reported Sunday. 'Those who support sending weapons to Syria are responsible for the massacre of innocents and for the insecurity in the region,' the agency cited Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian as saying. At a conference in Doha on Saturday, the main foreign backers of Syrian rebels battling Assad's troops said they would provide 'urgently all the necessary materiel and equipment' to the opposition." http://t.uani.com/12dpjAd Human Rights Iran Human Rights: "After a two-week hiatus due to the Presidential election, Iranian authorities have begun to execute again. Four prisoners, including one woman, were hanged in Shahr-e-Kord (western Iran) on June 20. According to the state official newspaper Kayhan, the prisoners were identified as Mohammad Ebdali, Vahid Fayooj, Golafrooz Fayooj (woman), and Ghobad Fayooj. The four prisoners were convicted of purchasing, possessing, and trafficking 4,534 grams of heroin, said the report. Three of the prisoners were hanged in Shahr-e-Kord Prison while Ghobad Fayooj was hanged in public in the 'Mahdiyeh' area of Shahr-e-Kord. The public executions were carried out under heavy security. Prisoners were elevated by using a crane and then hanged. It typically takes several minutes for the execution to be carried out when using the crane method." http://t.uani.com/11Is2yy Opinion & Analysis The Economist: "Even if Mr Rohani wanted to do the kind of deal that would be acceptable to the West (and there is nothing in his past to suggest that he might), the guiding hand behind Iran's nuclear policy will remain that of the supreme leader, whose introspective, suspicious view of the world outside Iran has not changed. The die is already cast: nothing is likely to stop Iran getting the bomb if and when it decides it wants one. The last set of talks between the P5+1 and Iran, the fifth of the current round of negotiations, were in early April and ended on a downbeat note. They followed a proposal in February to allow a modest easing of sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Iran's uranium-enrichment programme and more comprehensive inspections by the IAEA. Intended as a prelude to a more far-reaching deal, the offer represented a slight softening of the six powers' position, by allowing Iran to keep a small amount of uranium enriched to 20% (for use in a reactor to make medical isotopes) and calling only for the suspension of enrichment at Fordow, a plant buried deep within a mountain, rather than its closure. Iran's negotiator, Saeed Jalili (an unsuccessful presidential candidate close to Mr Khamenei), replied that he wanted a suspension of all sanctions in exchange for only a temporary halt to 20% uranium enrichment, an impossible demand. Mr Rohani's election means the next round of negotiations will be conducted in a better atmosphere. But to what end? The answer is that the process serves a purpose for everybody. For Iran, the continuation of talks is a means of getting some easing of sanctions in exchange for concessions that will have little impact on its nuclear programme. For America and its allies, the absence of progress up to now has kept the international community lined up behind sanctions. Both sides, preferring to avoid a military confrontation, have an interest in demonstrating that the diplomatic path to a solution has not yet reached a dead-end. Yet the inconvenient truth is that while the talks seem destined to continue, Iran is close to what is known as 'critical capability'-the point at which it could make a dash to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for one or more bombs before the IAEA or Western intelligence agencies would even know it had done so. Despite the severe economic pain that the tightening of sanctions has inflicted on Iran's people and their evident desire for change, Iran's strategic calculus has not shifted. The nuclear programme is worth almost any sacrifice because it guarantees the regime's survival against external threats, as America's differing policies towards Libya and North Korea illustrate. How close is Iran to critical capability? British and American intelligence sources think it is about a year away from having enough fissile material to make a bomb and further still from mastering the technologies to make a nuclear warhead small enough to fit onto one of its Shabab-3 ballistic missiles and carry out the tests needed to be confident that the system works. But two of the most respected independent analysts-David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector who is president of the Institute for Science and International Security and Greg Jones, a RAND Corporation researcher who writes on Iran for the Non-proliferation Policy Education Centre (NPEC)-believe that time is running out more quickly. Mr Albright thinks that by mid-2014 Iran will be able from a standing start to produce enough fissile material for a single bomb in one or two weeks. Mr Jones reckons that later this year Iran will be able to produce within about ten weeks enough weapons-grade uranium for a couple of nuclear weapons." http://t.uani.com/14kHu5N 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.