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Top Stories
AFP:
"Iran has developed a second rocket-launching facility which will
likely be used to test ballistic missiles, a London-based defence
analysis group said Thursday. IHS Jane's said it had pinpointed the site
outside the city of Shahrud, around 350 kilometres (220 miles) east of
Tehran, near the Caspian Sea and the Turkmenistan border. By analysing
satellite imagery, Jane's said that construction began at the site
between May and September 2010 -- around the same time as the expansion
of Iran's existing launchpad in Semnan. Iran's missile programme, along
with its space projects, has been a mounting source of concern in the
West. Western governments fear Tehran is developing a ballistic
capability to enable it to launch atomic warheads which they suspect Iran
is seeking to develop under cover of its civil nuclear programme." http://t.uani.com/18ddbQX
Reuters:
"The presidency of moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani has opened a
window of opportunity in Iran's delicate nuclear diplomacy with the West
but Tehran-watchers say that window could close as each side waits for
the other to make the first move. Cautious optimism about talks between
Iran and six world powers due to restart in September is a stark contrast
to the gloom over on-off negotiations under eight years of previous
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad... But both the United States and Iran
appear to be waiting for the other side to make the first big concession,
which is likely to stall any breakthrough. Rouhani said on Tuesday Iran
retained the 'right' to enrich uranium, a position that has scuttled past
talks and is likely to be a sticking point again. World powers have
demanded Iran cease the enrichment of uranium up to 20 percent and U.N.
Security Council resolutions require Iran to suspend all enrichment. 'It
was always going to be unlikely that Iran would happily give up
enrichment - the Islamic Republic of Iran has painted itself into a
corner by elevating the issue to one of national resistance and pride,'
Esfandiary said." http://t.uani.com/19PIrJS
Financial Mail
(South Africa): "The year-long internal
investigation led by UK judge Lord Leonard Hoffmann dismissed allegations
brought by rival Turkcell that MTN had got its Iranian licence through
corrupt means. Turkcell has since dropped its US$4,2bn law suit but the
sudden departure of MTN finance chief Nazir Patel has brought the matter
to the fore again. According to the Sunday Times, his resignation relates
to attempts to get money out of the country. But despite the cloud
hanging over it, the Iranian operation has been a great investment for
the mobile operator. It contributes 10% of MTN's total revenue and the
company holds 47% of the Persian market. Cash flow problems brought on by
US sanctions against Iran regarding its nuclear programme, however, have
raised doubts about whether the group can afford to remain there. MTN
says it will stay as long as the SA government allows it to but that the
sanctions are making it difficult to move money in and out of the
country, or access debt facilities and buy equipment. US and European
Union financial institutions won't allow it. MTN stated in its 2012
annual report that it had cash of about R7bn on hand which it could not
transfer because of the sanctions imposed on Iran and Syria. The company
also stated that it was looking for 'acceptable channels that are
compliant with applicable sanctions for repatriation of these funds'...
This does not mean there's no chance of exiting Iran. 'There is a
possibility, if the status quo does not improve,' says Chireka. She says
the decision to leave would likely be driven by its inability to bring
cash back to SA. 'The problem is that's beyond its control. If it were an
operational issue, it could still do something about it.'" http://t.uani.com/1cMVB9V
Nuclear
Program
AFP:
"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that
Iran had expanded its sensitive enrichment of uranium despite the
election as president of moderate cleric Hassan Rowhani. 'Iran has not
stopped its nuclear programme, even after its presidential election' on
June 14, Netanyahu said in comments broadcast by public radio. 'At the
moment, they are using 7,000 new centrifuges, including 1,000 which are
of a newer type,' he said on a visit to southern Israel. 'The Iranian
president is trying to present a new image... but the nuclear programme's
progress continues.'" http://t.uani.com/15QDr65
Sanctions
Bloomberg: "NITC, Iran's biggest
tanker company, increased the capacity of its supertanker fleet by 23
percent this year amid sanctions related to the nation's nuclear program
that bar most of the world's ships from carrying Iranian crude, according
to IHS Maritime. The Tehran-based company added seven new very large
crude carriers, each able to transport 2 million barrels of oil,
according to data from the Coulsdon, England-based research company,
which provides information for the United Nations' shipping agency. NITC
has 37 supertankers and its entire fleet can hold about 86 million
barrels of oil, equal to 65 days of the nation's exports, IHS data show.
European Union sanctions that started in July 2012 prevent most
non-Iranian tankers from hauling the country's crude because almost all
ships are insured under the 28-nation bloc's laws." http://t.uani.com/17zwUZ4
Just-Auto:
"Iran Khodro (IKCO) says it is hopeful Iran's recent election of a
new President will allow more partners - as well as its old Renault and
Peugeot business allies - to have full operations in the country.
Crippling sanctions - to which the new President Hassan Rouhani made reference
in his first press conference yesterday (6 August) - have led Renault and
PSA to suspend operations in Iran - but IKCO remains optimistic the
situation can improve. 'There is a hopeful environment - everybody knows
this will be a new prospect - especially the car industry,' an IKCO
spokesman told just-auto from Tehran. 'We have seen some foreign partners
present in Iran, kind of suspended, but everybody here is very hopeful
the new government and new environment will be started.' ... 'It is a
pause for the moment - we don't produce any more but that does not mean
everything is definitively stopped,' a Renault spokesman told just-auto
from Paris. 'We are waiting overall with the election of the new
President.'" http://t.uani.com/13mbPjs
Reuters:
"Indian Oil Corp, the country's biggest refiner, aims to import 23.4
percent less oil from sanctions-hit Iran in the fiscal year to March 2014
compared with a year earlier, Indian oil minister M. Veerappa Moily said
on Tuesday. India's imports of Iranian crude more than halved in June
from a year earlier, dropping to 140,800 barrels a day (bpd), tanker data
obtained by Reuters showed this month... IOC imported 31,320 bpd or 1.566
million tonnes in the fiscal year ending March 31, and entered into a
term deal with Tehran to buy 24,000 bpd in this fiscal year, Moily told
lawmakers in a written reply. He said IOC imported about half of the
contracted volumes in April-June costing $429 million. IOC's imports from
Iran in the last fiscal year ended March were valued at $1.26 billion, of
which $653 million were paid in rupees and $415 million were settled in
euros, he said." http://t.uani.com/14861cC
Terrorism
AP:
"Malaysia police say they have arrested an Iranian man accused of
running a passport forging ring and believed to have ties with terrorist
and human trafficking groups. Federal police official Fuzi Harun says
Seyed Ramin Miraziz Paknejad and his wife were detained Saturday after a
two-week police surveillance. Fuzi says Paknejad, 45, was first detained
in Thailand last year on suspicion of providing fake passports to human
trafficking and drug rings, as well as terrorists plotting out bombings
in Bangkok. He says the Iranian jumped bail and fled to Malaysia in June
using a fake passport." http://t.uani.com/1beNAsO
Human Rights
HRW:
"Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, should immediately withdraw
his nomination of Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi for the post of justice
minister, Reporters Without Borders, the International Campaign for Human
Rights in Iran, and Human Rights Watch said today. Rouhani presented the
list of his nominees for cabinet posts to the Iranian parliament during
his inauguration ceremony on August 4, 2013... Rights groups have
implicated him in abuses that may constitute crimes against humanity,
including the executions of thousands of political dissidents in 1988 and
the assassinations of several prominent dissident intellectuals in 1998.
As justice minister he could play a role in influencing investigations
into human rights abuses... Human Rights Watch, in a 2005 report,
'Ministers of Murder,' documented Pour-Mohammadi's direct role in the
extrajudicial executions of thousands of political prisoners." http://t.uani.com/19dvZUG
AFP:
"The family of a US citizen imprisoned in Iran voiced hope Wednesday
for his release, saying that authorities were allowing him contact with
the outside world including his ill father. Amir Hekmati, a former US
Marine who was born in Arizona to Iranian parents, was arrested nearly
two years ago and initially sentenced to death on allegations of
espionage. His family and the US government denied the spying charges.
Relatives said that Hekmati, a dual citizen who recently turned 30, went
to Iran to visit his grandmother. Hekmati, whose death sentence was
overturned, spent 16 months in solitary confinement but has now been
allowed to meet family, receive books and write letters, his family
said." http://t.uani.com/15eH7br
Domestic
Politics
WSJ:
"Iran's new president, Hasan Rouhani, moved to significantly reduce
the presence of the country's elite military unit, the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps, in Tehran's next government-a trend U.S. and
European officials cautiously take as a hopeful sign for international
efforts to contain Iran's nuclear program. Mr. Rouhani's cabinet
appointments in recent days have marked a sharp reversal from a nearly
decadelong trend in which IRGC personnel increasingly have dominated many
branches of Iran's government, and their companies have taken over key
industries in the national economy... About half of outgoing President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's last 18-person cabinet consisted of IRGC personnel,
either active officers or recently retired ones. Estimates are that Mr.
Rouhani has selected three, according to Western officials and Iran experts."
http://t.uani.com/19dwGgI
Opinion &
Analysis
Sohrab Ahmari in
WSJ: "Hasan Rouhani's inauguration as Iran's
president has renewed the Obama administration's dreams of rapprochement
with Tehran. In a Sunday statement, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney
expressed hope that 'the new Iranian government will heed the will of the
voters by making choices that will lead to a better life for the Iranian
people.' Should the Islamic Republic choose to engage, Mr. Carney added,
'it will find a willing partner in the United States.' Mr. Rouhani has
already been "making choices" that the U.S. might want to take
into account before becoming a "willing partner" in dealing
with the regime. Consider the Iranian president's new cabinet, announced
on Sunday. His picks were generally hailed in the American media as
'reform minded or moderate technocrats', as 'more moderate', or as
bearers of 'an olive branch to the U.S.' But these men have long
histories in the Islamic Republic, and their statements are in the public
record for anyone willing and able to run Google searches in Persian...
How could it be that President Rouhani, whose election was greeted in the
West as the triumph of a reformer and the promise of positive change,
isn't quite as reasonable as he seems? His supporters might suggest that
he has matured from the days when, as the Iranian newspaper Etela'at
quoted him in May 1995, Mr. Rouhani told a group of pro-regime students
that 'the beautiful cry of Death to America unites our nation.'
Fast-forward to May 8, 2013, when Mr. Rouhani was campaigning for the
presidency. 'Saying Death to America is easy,' Mr. Rouhani said in a
speech in the city of Karaj, according to the state-run Mehr News Agency.
'We need to express Death to America with action. Saying it is easy.'
Saying that the new Iranian president is a moderate is easy. Finding
evidence of it is hard." http://t.uani.com/1euQXM2
Jamsheed Choksy in
YaleGlobal: "Iranians - frustrated by a flailing
economy, compounded by rigid policies of a theocratic government and
sanctions from the West that target the country's nuclear program -
expect reforms from President Hassan Rouhani. Iran confronts challenges
that, if left unaddressed, will bring severe consequences at home and
abroad, warns Jamsheed K. Choksy, professor of Iranian Studies at Indiana
University. Iran is a major host country for refugees after years of
conflict in neighboring Afghanistan and Iraq, but is a major source
country, too, as thousands of Iranians seek asylum. Economic stress takes
a toll on health and family life, with high rates of obesity and low
rates of marriage and fertility. Choksy explains that 'official and
religious pressure may only put more stress on women and lead to their
abjuring motherhood even further.' Past officials promised reforms, yet
hardline ayatollahs seem intent on pursuing a nuclear program, ignoring
discontent and continuing down a path of economic decline." http://t.uani.com/195zHfN
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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