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Top Stories
WSJ:
"President Barack Obama argued the U.S. case before world leaders
for resolving the Middle East's deepest conflicts, but pushback from Iran
dimmed hopes that had been building for a rapid leap forward. Iranian
President Hasan Rouhani's decision against meeting Mr. Obama-or even
exchanging a handshake-at the U.N. General Assembly in New York on
Tuesday soured what American and European officials had hoped would mark
an advancement in efforts to wind down tensions. Mr. Rouhani followed
that rebuff with an address to the U.N. in which he aired his hopes for
reconciliation while holding firm on Iran's right to enrich uranium and
criticizing some aspects of American foreign policy, including economic
sanctions on Tehran." http://t.uani.com/18WaE1s
NYT:
"In what may have been the most widely awaited speech at the United
Nations, Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, preached tolerance and
understanding on Tuesday, decried as a form of violence the Western sanctions
imposed on his country and said nuclear weapons had no place in its
future... But the Iranian leader also asserted that the 'shortsighted
interests of warmongering pressure groups' in the United States had
resulted in an inconsistent American message on the nuclear dispute and
other issues... The sanctions, he said, are 'violent, pure and simple.'
... Pro-Israel lawmakers and interest groups criticized Mr. Rouhani's
speech as lacking specifics and echoing the themes Mr. Ahmadinejad had
espoused. 'Those who expected a dramatic departure are disappointed,'
said Gary Samore, the president of United Against Nuclear Iran, a New
York-based group that has advocated for strong sanctions against the
country. 'This address was surprisingly similar to what we are used to
hearing from Iran, both in tone and substance.'" http://t.uani.com/1fm137F
LAT:
"President Obama and Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, signaled
Tuesday that they intend to pursue intense diplomacy to overcome Iran's
nuclear standoff with the West, yet their speeches here underscored the
gulf that threatens any deal... Yet Rouhani did not make gestures to
Western sensibilities that many diplomats had expected in such a
high-profile setting. He condemned the United States for imposing
punishing economic sanctions on Iran, for using missile-firing drone
aircraft against 'innocent people' and for threatening military action
against Iran... [UANI President] Gary Samore, a former Obama advisor who
now heads a group that urges tough sanctions on Tehran, said the speech
was 'far more contentious than many were expecting, particularly in
leading with Iran's typical bill of particulars against the United States
and the West, minimized only by not referring to the U.S. and Israel by
name.'" http://t.uani.com/170dEqT
Nuclear
Program
WSJ:
"Iran's new President Hasan Rouhani pledged on Tuesday that his
government will remove 'all reasonable concerns' about Tehran's nuclear
program, but insisted that the West recognize Iran's right to enrich
uranium. In his first major appearance on the world stage, Mr. Rouhani
sought to reinforce an image as a moderate voice, saying he was ready to
engage in 'time-bound and results-oriented' nuclear talks and would look
to improve ties with the U.S. However diplomats said Mr. Rouhani's
half-hour speech to the United Nations General Assembly offered no major
breakthrough. Although he spoke just a few hours after President Barack
Obama, the two didn't meet." http://t.uani.com/1708QBW
FP:
"But not everyone was swayed by the Iranian diplomatic gambit. Gary
Samore, an expert on nuclear weapons proliferation at Harvard
University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, said
that while he supports U.S. diplomatic engagement with Iran, he warns
that people shouldn't get their hopes up too high. 'Nobody is fooled by
the charm offense; everybody understands the supreme leader is seeking
nuclear weapons,' he said. 'No matter how many times Rouhani smiles
doesn't change the basic objective of the program.' Samore said that Iran
has been forced into reopening nuclear negotiations in a bid to seek
relief from crippling U.S., European, and U.N. sanctions. But he is
skeptical that Iran will be prepared to pay the price to secure serious
relief from sanctions. 'The price tag is going to be very steep; they
will need to accept physical limits on their enrichment capacity and
stockpiling,' he said. 'I haven't seen any indication that they are
willing to sacrifice that part of the program, which has taken 10 years
to build up.'" http://t.uani.com/1eGQNFO
Reuters:
"The United States and Iran have set the stage for what could become
their most serious contacts in a generation, but direct talks on the
Iranian nuclear program are likely to be slow, difficult and fragile.
Years of sporadic negotiations between Tehran and world powers have
failed to yield a deal for curbs on Iran's nuclear program in return for
relief from stiff international sanctions. The talks are due to resume on
Thursday, attended by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif against a backdrop of rare
conciliatory gestures between the United States and Iran." http://t.uani.com/14GNIzG
Reuters:
"After balking at President Barack Obama's plan to attack Syria, the
U.S. Congress is also stirring in opposition to his latest foreign policy
goal: an effort to improve relations with Iran. Congress imposed
sanctions that are damaging the Iranian economy and, according to U.S.
officials, are responsible for a moderate tone from Iran's new
leadership, which will restart talks this week over its nuclear program.
U.S. lawmakers have the power to lift sanctions if they think Tehran is
making concessions and scaling back its nuclear ambitions, but many
Republicans and some of Obama's fellow Democrats are skeptical about a charm
offensive by new President Hassan Rouhani. 'We need to approach the
current diplomatic initiative with eyes wide open, and we must not allow
Iran to use negotiations as a tool of delay and deception,' Republican
Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Kelly Ayotte said in a
statement... 'Congress has no stake in giving Iran the benefit of the
doubt, period. And until they see something quite dramatic on the part of
the Iranians, they won't,' said Aaron David Miller, a former senior State
Department official now at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington."
http://t.uani.com/1fm1RJB
Reuters:
"French President Francois Hollande became the first Western leader
to meet new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday after warning
that Paris expects 'concrete gestures' by Iran to show it will give up a
military nuclear program. France has been a strong advocate of sanctions
to pressure Iran over its nuclear program but has been cautious in its
statements since Rouhani, a relative moderate, was elected. Hollande, who
exchanged handshakes with Rouhani at the United Nations - the first
between leaders of the two countries since 2005 - told the U.N. General
Assembly that while he was encouraged by the words of the new Iranian
government, he now wanted acts to follow. 'France expects of Iran
concrete gestures which will show that this country renounces its
military nuclear program even if it clearly has the right to pursue its
civilian program,' Hollande said in an address before meeting with
Rouhani." http://t.uani.com/16z98vt
Reuters:
"Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, expressed hope on Tuesday
that U.S. President Barack Obama would not be swayed by 'warmongering
pressure groups' at home in dealing with the Iranian nuclear dispute and
called for a consistent voice from Washington on the issue. Speaking to
the United Nations General Assembly hours after Obama addressed the
annual gathering of world leaders, Rouhani said he was prepared to engage
in 'time-bound and results-oriented' nuclear talks and did not seek to
increase tensions with the United States. 'I listened carefully to the
statement made by President Obama today at the General Assembly,' he
said. 'Commensurate with the political will of the leadership in the
United States and hoping that they will refrain from following the
short-sighted interest of warmongering pressure groups, we can arrive at
a framework to manage our differences.'" http://t.uani.com/1bFEY1h
Reuters:
"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's U.N. address was 'cynical' and Tehran
was stalling for time in order to develop nuclear arms. 'It was a cynical
speech full of hypocrisy,' Netanyahu said in a statement after Rouhani
addressed the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations
General Assembly. 'It had no practical suggestion to stop Iran's military
nuclear program and no commitment to fulfill U.N. Security Council
decisions. That exactly is the Iranian plan, to talk and buy time in
order to advance Iran's capability to obtain nuclear weapons.'" http://t.uani.com/15t3HEg
Rasmussen:
"The new president of Iran has signaled that he is looking for a
less hostile relationship with the United States, although most U.S.
voters still think that country is unlikely to halt its nuclear
development efforts. But voters are even more opposed to U.S. military
action against Iran. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone
survey finds that just 25% of Likely U.S. Voters think it is at least
somewhat likely that Iran will slow or stop its nuclear program in the
next year in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.
Sixty-six percent (66%) consider this unlikely. This includes four
percent (4%) who say Iran is Very Likely to slow or stop its nuclear
efforts in exchange for the lifting of sanctions and 23% who think it is
Not At All Likely." http://t.uani.com/18Z4sQc
Human Rights
IHR:
"According to reliable sources in Iran six prisoners were hanged in
Rajai Shahr Prison of Karaj (west of Tehran) this morning... According to
the reports published by Iran Human Rights (IHR) at least 54 prisoners
among them 4 women and one juvenile offender have been hanged in the
month of September. 39 of the executions have been reported by the
official Iranian sources. Iran Human Rights strongly condemns the wave of
executions in Iran and urges the international community to react." http://t.uani.com/16IfucV
IHR:
"Four prisoners were hanged in the prison of Kerman (southeastern
Iran) today Tuesday September 24, reported the state run Iranian news
agencies." http://t.uani.com/182h4Jo
Opinion &
Analysis
WashPost
Editorial: "Iran has steadily built its capacity to
enrich uranium through a decade of negotiations and escalating sanctions.
Mr. Rouhani, a longtime and fiercely loyal follower of supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has yet to offer any indication of what, if any,
deviations the regime may be prepared to make from its previous refusal
to limit that activity, accept more intrusive international inspections
or answer U.N. inspectors' questions about suspected work on warheads and
missiles. On the contrary: During his election campaign this year, Mr.
Rouhani boasted that, as the regime's nuclear negotiator a decade ago, he
had managed to head off sanctions even as the program moved forward. His
pitch to Iranians was that a different approach to the West, eschewing
the confrontational, Holocaust-denying antics of former president Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, might win relief from sanctions while preserving Iran's
interests. In that sense, Mr. Obama's assertion that 'President
Rouhani received from the Iranian people a mandate to pursue a more
moderate course' struck us as misguided. Mr. Rouhani was in New York on
Tuesday not because democracy triumphed in Iran but because Iran's real leader
decided to give the soft-sell strategy a try. It's possible that the
regime could offer concessions, such as partial limits on enrichment or a
reduction of its growing stockpile of enriched uranium; such steps, after
all, were once proposed by Mr. Ahmadinejad. But a genuine renunciation of
the capacity to build a weapon, and the acceptance of international
controls that would enforce that commitment, looks far-fetched. A small
accord with Iran - a reduction of nuclear capacity in exchange for a partial
lifting of sanctions - would be preferable to unchecked development by
Tehran that provokes U.S. or Israeli military action. The Obama
administration has aimed at such a deal since 2009 - and has responded to
Tehran's intransigence by sweetening its offers. The danger is that, in
the fevered atmosphere generated by Mr. Rouhani's skillful public
diplomacy, the United States and its allies will be induced into further,
unwarranted concessions - or deluded into believing that a 'grand
bargain' is possible with Iran. Better to swiftly demand that Mr. Rouhani
make clear his bottom line - and prick the bubble he has been
inflating." http://t.uani.com/182kDiF
WSJ Editorial:
"As diplomatic humiliations go, Hassan Rouhani's refusal to accept
President Obama's offer of an informal 'encounter' and historic photo-op
at Tuesday's meeting of the U.N. General Assembly may not be the most
consequential. But it is among the most telling. This isn't the first
time an Iranian president has left his U.S. counterpart cooling his heels
at Turtle Bay. In 2000, Bill Clinton sought a meeting at a U.N. luncheon
with then-Iranian president Mohammed Khatami, another reputed moderate,
who also declined the opportunity of an American handshake. Back then,
the explanation for Mr. Khatami's refusal was that internal Iranian
politics would not have allowed it. On Tuesday, a senior Obama
Administration official peddled a similar line after the Rouhani snub,
telling reporters that Iranians 'have an internal dynamic that they have
to manage.' That's one way of putting it. Another way is that Iran's
ruling clerics and Revolutionary Guard Corps remain ideologically
incapable of reconciling themselves to the Great Satan. This shouldn't
surprise anyone who reviews the 34-year-history of Iranian rebuffs to
American diplomatic overtures, which makes the U.S. embarrassment on
Tuesday all the more acute. For days before the U.N. conclave, White
House aides had broadcast the President's desire to shake Mr. Rouhani's
hand. By Monday, the press was overflowing with leaked accounts of where
and how it would happen. Having thus turned down the lights and turned up
the mood music, it made the snub that followed especially potent. What
the Administration is trying to spin as a function of complex Iranian
politics was, in blunt fact, an expression of lordly contempt for what
Iranian leaders consider to be an overeager suitor from an unworthy
nation. The contempt showed even more strongly in Mr. Rouhani's speech.
That came a few hours after Mr. Obama's morning speech, in which the
American promised Iran that 'we are not seeking regime change, and we
respect the right of the Iranian people to access peaceful nuclear
energy.' To that olive branch, Mr. Rouhani responded by denouncing
international sanctions as 'violence, pure and simple,' warning against
the influence of 'warmongering pressure groups' (no mystery as to who he
has in mind there), and offering 'time-bound' negotiations to resolve the
nuclear issue. As Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren has pointed
out, the offer that talks should be 'time-bound' makes no sense if Iran
is sincere about never developing nuclear weapons. But Iran's record over
three decades is that it is not sincere." http://t.uani.com/16If6uZ
Bloomberg
Editorial: "It was a shame but not all that
surprising today when the awaited encounter between U.S. President Barack
Obama and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rohani didn't happen at the
United Nations. It seems Obama offered to shake Rohani's hand, but the
invitation was declined. The last time leaders of the two countries met
was 36 years ago -- during the reign of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. He'd
been installed in a U.S.-backed coup against a democratically elected
leader, only to be overthrown in 1979 by Islamic revolutionaries who held
52 Americans hostage for 444 days. In other words, there's a lot of
history here -- the kind that makes opening a new chapter of less hostile
relations difficult. Over the years, what each country wants from the
other hasn't much changed. The Iranians want to be treated with respect,
and the Americans want Iran to behave respectably, especially when it
comes to Iran's nuclear program. The Iranians say this program exists
only to produce electricity and pursue medical research. They say they've
no intention of building nuclear weapons and have a right to nuclear
technology, including uranium enrichment. As a relatively prosperous and
scientifically advanced country, they say, Iran shouldn't be forced to
rely on others for part of the nuclear fuel cycle: It's a matter of
national pride. Fine, so long as Iran meets its obligations under the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and submits its nuclear installations to
inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency. As we've argued
before, the U.S. should relieve Iranian anxieties by stating that it can
live with a limited Iranian enrichment capacity. That would go a step
beyond Obama's statement to the UN today that Iran has the right to
civilian nuclear power. At the same time, if the Iranians want to be
believed when they say their program is innocuous, they would do well to
stop insisting, as Rohani has in recent days including in his own speech
to the UN, that Iran has never sought nuclear weapons." http://t.uani.com/1bFFa0C
UANI Advisory
Board Member Irwin Cotler in HuffPost: "In both his
pre-election pronouncements and post-election promises, Iranian President
Hassan Rouhani has spoken encouragingly of 'moderation,' 'reform' and
upholding 'the rights of the people...in a free Iran.' Indeed, in the run-up
to his speech Tuesday to the UN General Assembly, Rouhani has engaged in
what this week's Economist characterized as a 'remarkable' and
'unprecedented' charm offensive, including the release of political
prisoners. Yet, this charm offensive is belied by ongoing human rights
violations as documented by Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur
on Human Rights in Iran. His report describes these violations as
'widespread, systemic and systematic,' characterization that he recently
reaffirmed in his discussions with me. What follows is a human rights
index -- an inventory of serious human rights abuses and the
corresponding actions required -- to turn Iran from a republic of fear to
what Rouhani himself called a free Iran. Indeed, the queries below serve
as a litmus test for the authenticity of Rouhani's commitment to justice
and human rights." http://t.uani.com/182kgVm
Reza Aslan &
Michael Brooks in WashPost: "But if President
Rouhani is truly serious about repairing Iran's image in the world and
living up to his promises for greater rights, he must address the
proverbial third rail in Iranian politics: the horrific human rights
abuses aimed at Iran's small yet historic Baha'i community. The Baha'i
faith teaches that all of the world's religions are the result of an
unbroken line of divine messengers sent by God to different peoples at
different times. The Baha'i believe that the prophet Baha'u'llah, who
founded the faith in the 19th century, is merely the most recent in this
prophetic chain and that his revelation is universal. This belief,
coupled with the fact that the Baha'i began as an offshoot of Shiah
Islam, has opened the faithful to horrific attacks from conservative
Muslims - and Shiah, in particular - who deem the religion to be nothing
more than a heretical form of Islam. Persecution of Iran's Baha'is did
not begin with the Islamic Republic, of course. Due to their professional
training and educational backgrounds, Baha'is were well-represented in
Iran's professional classes throughout the 20th century, but they have
always lacked social and political security. The Shahs of Iran regularly
allowed for campaigns of public violence and abuse targeting the Baha'i
faithful, either as a way of assuaging conservative parts of the Shia
religious establishment or because the faith's universalist ethos
contradicted the Shahs' attempts at fostering a firm sense of Iranian
nationalism. However, the repression of Iran's Baha'i community reached
fever pitch with the creation of the Islamic Republic in 1979. Iran's
constitution recognizes the religious legitimacy of Zoroastrians,
Christians, and Jews, but not the Baha'i. Although there are only an
estimated 300,000 Baha'i left in Iran, they face a long list of judicial,
religious, economic and social abuses. Baha'is are regularly imprisoned
and even executed for practicing their faith. Baha'i owned businesses and
factories are routinely closed down and taken over by government
authorities as part of what human rights advocates say is an attempt to
destroy the community's economic life. Baha'i students are not
allowed to attend university in Iran, and crimes against the Baha'i are
rarely punished. Although some Shiite clerics have issued fatwas urging
respect for the human rights of Baha'is and recognition of their faith,
and the leaders of Iran's reformist Green movement have made attempts to
bring the human rights of Baha'is within the broader umbrella of
political and social reforms they are advocating, the situation for
Iran's Baha'i community has only worsened in recent years. In fact,
Iran's current supreme leader, Ayatollah Khameni, has issued a fatwa
calling the Baha'i apostates from Islam. This situation cannot be allowed
to continue. As Iran's present leadership attempts to make bold moves,
both domestically and globally, to normalize Iran's relations with the
world and reform the Islamic Republic within, the foundational rights of
the Baha'i community will be the most powerful test of how genuinely
committed he is to truly expanding human rights and social openness in
Iran." http://t.uani.com/1fm58Zw
Jeffrey Goldberg
in Bloomberg: "Iranian President Hassan Rohani --
who this week is attempting to charm the pants off the United Nations,
President Barack Obama, world Jewry and Charlie Rose -- may succeed in convincing
many people that the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
doesn't actually want to gain control of a nuclear arsenal. Why Rohani
would assert this is obvious: The sanctions that the U.S. is imposing on
Iran are doing real economic damage. A crippled economy threatens the
interests of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and thus the regime's
stability. We know that the regime isn't popular among many segments of
the Iranian population -- witness the brutal crackdown on large-scale protests
in 2009 -- and that it must make at least some of its citizens happy if
it is to survive in the long term. Rohani hopes to convince the world
that Iran's nuclear intentions are peaceful and that his country is a
rational, thoughtful player on the global stage and, therefore, please
give us access once again to the international banking system. Here are
some reasons to doubt the sincerity of Iran's protestations." http://t.uani.com/1aogpCe
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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
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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
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