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Top Stories
Reuters: "President
Barack Obama and new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke by telephone
on Friday, the highest-level contact between the two countries in three
decades and a sign that they are serious about reaching a pact on
Tehran's nuclear program... The U.S. president had hoped to meet with the
relatively moderate Rouhani at the U.N. General Assembly in New York this
week, but the Iranian side decided an encounter was too complicated, in
what was seen by White House officials as an effort to avoid antagonizing
hardliners in Tehran. On Friday, however, the Iranians said Rouhani
expressed interest in a phone discussion before he left the United
States, according to a senior administration official. The White House
quickly arranged the call, which took place at 2:30 p.m. (1830 GMT) and
lasted about 15 minutes. A source close to Rouhani said the United States
had reached out after positive talks between Secretary of State John
Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif a day earlier.
Speaking to reporters, Obama said he and Rouhani had directed their teams
to work quickly toward an agreement on Iran's nuclear program. He said
this was a unique opportunity to make progress with Tehran over an issue
that has isolated it from the West. 'While there will surely be important
obstacles to moving forward and success is by no means guaranteed, I
believe we can reach a comprehensive solution,' Obama said at the White
House. 'The test will be meaningful, transparent, and verifiable actions,
which can also bring relief from the comprehensive international
sanctions that are currently in place' against Iran, Obama said." http://t.uani.com/1dRjXPB
Press
Release: Statement by UANI's Dr. Gary Samore & Ambassador Mark
D. Wallace Regarding President Obama's Telephone Call with President
Rouhani http://t.uani.com/1bNU8ld
Guardian: "The Iranian
president, Hassan Rouhani, was greeted by hardliners chanting 'death to
America' when he returned to Tehran following his historic telephone call
with the US president, Barack Obama. One protester threw a shoe at his
car - a gesture of deep insult in Islamic countries. It missed, but
others pelted his official car with eggs and stones, according to witness
reports on Twitter. About 100 hardline protesters were outnumbered by two
to three times as many Rouhani supporters at the airport, shouting 'thank
you Rouhani'. The president stood up through the sunroof to acknowledge
the crowds. Rouhani was returning from New York, where he attended the UN
general assembly." http://t.uani.com/18DHsu6
NYT:
"For Israel and Persian Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, President
Obama's telephone call with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran on Friday
was the geopolitical equivalent of discovering your best friend flirting
with your main rival. Though few nations have a greater interest in Mr.
Obama's promise to stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, his
overtures to Mr. Rouhani were greeted with alarm here and in other Middle
East capitals allied with the United States. They worry about Iran's
sincerity, and fear that Mr. Obama's desire for a diplomatic deal will
only buy Iran time to continue a march toward building a nuclear
weapon... Saudi Arabia and the other Sunni-dominated gulf countries share
a concern about a shift in the balance of power toward Iran's Shiite-led
government and its allies. For Israel, Iran remains the sponsor of global
terrorism and of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah and the Palestinian
militant group Hamas, both avowed enemies of Israel's existence." http://t.uani.com/15DMoR5
Video:
UANI President Dr. Gary Samore discusses Iran's nuclear program and
negotiations on "Meet The Press" http://t.uani.com/1he3sg6
Nuclear
Program
Reuters:
"Secretary of State John Kerry said a deal on Iran's nuclear weapons
program could be reached relatively quickly, and it would have the
potential to dramatically improve the relationship between the two
countries. Kerry said intensifying diplomatic efforts to resolve the
dispute over Iran's nuclear program could produce an agreement within the
three- to six-month time frame that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has
called for. 'It's possible to have a deal sooner than that depending on
how forthcoming and clear Iran is prepared to be,' Kerry said in an
interview aired on CBS's '60 Minutes' on Sunday. 'If it is a peaceful
program, and we can all see that - the whole world sees that - the
relationship with Iran can change dramatically for the better and it can
change fast,' he said." http://t.uani.com/15ELDSc
Times of Israel:
"Despite signals that Iran and the US were working towards a nuclear
deal, National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Sunday that sanctions
against the Islamic Republic would remain in place until the US and its
allies are satisfied Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons. 'Obviously, we
and others in the international community have every reason to be
skeptical of that and we need to test it, and any agreement must be fully
verifiable and enforceable,' said Rice in an interview with CNN's Fareed
Zakaria. She said it had been clear to Iran that it 'had to meet its
international obligations under Security Council resolutions and that the
sanctions would remain until those obligations were satisfied.' The
White House national security adviser and former ambassador to the UN
said the US wouldn't agree to let Iran enrich its own uranium. She said
US President Barack Obama made clear that Washington accepted Iran's
right to use enriched uranium for peaceful energy purposes - apparently
from supervised overseas sources - but not to enrich the material
itself." http://t.uani.com/167ZeoY
Reuters:
"Iran's foreign minister said on Sunday the country's right to
peaceful nuclear enrichment was not negotiable in talks with the United
States but it does not need to enrich uranium to military-grade levels.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran was willing to
open its nuclear facilities to international inspections but the United
States must end economic sanctions as part of any deal on Iran's nuclear
program... 'Negotiations are on the table to discuss various aspects of
Iran's enrichment program. Our right to enrich is non-negotiable,' Zarif
told ABC's 'This Week' program." http://t.uani.com/167RAe4
Reuters:
"France's foreign minister challenged Iran on Friday to address
concerns about its atomic program sooner than the one year it has
proposed, because of concern that Tehran could forge ahead with nuclear
production despite negotiations with major powers. 'The Iranian foreign
minister discussed the heart of the matter ... he spoke about taking a
year to move forward, but I reminded him that his president had spoken
about three to six months, and he said that he'd be pleased if things
could be done more quickly,' French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told
reporters in New York. 'I told him that we had to move quickly and that's
one of the issues that needs to be dealt with, because does nuclear
production continue during the negotiations?' Fabius added." http://t.uani.com/19OqVlp
Reuters:
"Iran and the U.N. nuclear agency held 'constructive' talks on
Friday and made plans to meet again in one month, adding to momentum for
a negotiated end to a standoff that could otherwise potentially flare
into war... Herman Nackaerts, IAEA deputy director general, said the discussions,
at Iran's diplomatic mission in Vienna, had been 'very constructive' but
gave no details. At the next meeting on October 28, Iran and the IAEA
would 'start substantial discussions on the way forward to resolve all
outstanding issues,' he said. That would be almost two weeks after Iran
meets the six world powers again, in Geneva on October 15-16, as part of
what European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called an
'ambitious timetable' to address Western concerns." http://t.uani.com/1fBCO5l
Sanctions
Reuters:
"Iran's top four crude buyers cut their purchases by 16 percent in
the first eight months of the year, with oil shipments set to remain
under pressure from sanctions, despite tentative signs of better
relations between Tehran and Washington. Western sanctions have forced
China, India, Japan and South Korea to reduce their reliance on Iranian
oil, more than halving the OPEC nation's exports since early 2012 and
costing it billions of dollars a month in lost revenue... The four major
Asian buyers between January and August imported 927,860 barrels per day
(bpd) of Iranian crude, down 16 percent from the same eight months in
2012, according to government statistics and oil tanker arrival
schedules. The four imported 865,650 bpd of Iranian oil in August, up nearly
a third from a year earlier, the data showed. The big monthly jump was
mostly due to South Korea not taking any Iranian crude in August 2012
because of EU restrictions on shipping insurance." http://t.uani.com/14XBums
Reuters:
"Behind Iran's overtures to Washington lie pent-up pressures for
change - from sanctions and internal dissent to regional turmoil - that
are shaping a rare chance to end decades of hostility... Mehrdad Emadi,
an economist at Betamatrix consultancy, said knock on effects of sanctions
on businesses included lack of investment and job losses. In the car and
related components sector, about a third of workers had lost jobs in an
industry that is Iran's largest after oil, he said... Iran might also
like to reduce the cost of its support of Assad. A top Lebanese security
official said Iran was paying $600-700 million a month towards the cost
of Hezbollah fighters in Syria. Those figures could not be
confirmed." http://t.uani.com/1eTTsfe
Reuters:
"Iran resumed payments on old loans to the World Bank, the bank said
on Friday, just as the country held the highest level conversation with
the United States in more than three decades. The poverty-fighting World
Bank, which did not provide a reason for the resumption of payments,
announced in July that Iran had not made any payments for more than half
a year, a possible sign of the strain on the sanctions-hit Iranian
economy. At the time, Iran denied that it had failed to make payments on
its loans, which now total $616 million, and blamed Western sanctions for
preventing an intermediary from forwarding funds to the global lender.
All of the payments are for old loans, as Iran has not had a World Bank
program since 2005. The Washington-based World Bank said it is in
compliance with all U.N. and international sanctions against Iran." http://t.uani.com/19hK0dq
WSJ:
"Pakistan will go ahead with a planned pipeline to pump gas from
neighboring Iran, it says. But the project risks upsetting the U.S. 'The
way it appears at this point, the pipeline would attract sanctions,' a
U.S. State Department official said Thursday, indicating that Pakistan
could be hit by the same embargoes that prevent trade between Iran and
much of the rest of the world... The Iran-Pakistan pipeline plan has been
on the table since the previous Pakistani government signed agreements
earlier this year. The pipe is already completed on the Iranian side, but
Pakistan needs to find $1.5 billion to build the rest." http://t.uani.com/1bkNfIJ
Reuters:
"If Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's dream of reaching a deal with
world powers on Tehran's nuclear program in six months comes true, Oman,
an important intermediary in the dispute, could be a big winner... But in
the weeks leading up to Rouhani's first foreign trip since he became
president in August, Omani officials have been visiting Tehran in a bid
to buy Iranian gas in the hope that some day sanctions on Iran will be
lifted and Oman can finally get the supplies it desperately needs over
the Strait of Hormuz... Price disagreements, Western sanctions that have
stunted Iranian energy projects and U.S. pressure on Oman to find other
suppliers have prevented any real progress with the pipeline project
since then. But Oman is ahead in a queue like that which formed at
Myanmar's door as sanctions against the southeast Asian state were
eased." http://t.uani.com/15EGSbl
Today's Zaman:
"As the Iranian economy struggles under economic sanctions, Iran is
using a broker in Dubai to invest in the transportation sector and thus
find alternative routes into world markets, an act which places Turkey in
a difficult position. A businessman of Iranian origin in Dubai has
started to invest in Turkey's transportation sector on behalf of another
Iranian businessman, Babak Zanjani, whose name is blacklisted by EU and
US sanctions. The broker from Dubai's investments could cause trouble for
Turkey, as a Turkey-based company is helping to defy the sanctions on
Iran. In an indication that Iranian investors are in contact with global
markets, a businessman from Dubai, Mahdi Shams, increased his investments
in the Turkish transportation sector by buying Onur Air, a private
Turkish airline company, for $250 million, and half of the shares of
Ulusoy-Varan, a land transportation business, for $100 million. After
buying seven of Onur Air's aircraft, Shams delivered them to Zanjani's
Iranian company, Qeshm Airlines... According to the reports of Turkish
dailies, Iran placed $7-8 billion in cash aside for investment in Turkey
and created a fund to buy companies that would then make direct
investments in Turkey. The fund, planned to be used in various areas of
the Turkish market, will be managed by Sami Alan, the former chief
executive officer of private airway company Atlasjet." http://t.uani.com/1aEjwpK
Human Rights
IHR:
"Several international news agencies published a report on the
latest statement by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani regarding the
release of several political prisoners in Iran... Iran Human Rights (IHR)
has issued the following response to Mr. Rouhani's statement: 'Mr.
Rouhani, don't empty the prisons by executing prisoners.' Recently, in a
meeting with the forum of the Asia Society and Council on Foreign
Relations, referring to the release of political prisoners, Iranian
President Hassan Rouhani was quoted as saying, 'We want to empty
prisons.' Welcoming the release of a number of political prisoners in
Iran, IHR urges the international community to pay closer attention to
the wave of executions in Iran. Since the Presidential election of June
14, 2013, at least 213 prisoners have been executed in Iran." http://t.uani.com/1eNwcQ2
Terrorism
Reuters:
"Iran has approved a deal with Argentina to investigate the 1994
bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center that courts in the
South American country accuse Tehran of sponsoring, Argentine official
state news service Telam said. Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman
met in New York on Saturday with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad
Zarif, who assured him Iran 'would honor all points of the agreement' to
shed light on the bombing that killed 85 people, Telam said. The two
countries will form investigative teams to meet in Geneva in November to
get on with the probe." http://t.uani.com/18D4iln
Cyber Warfare
WSJ:
"U.S. officials said Iran hacked unclassified Navy computers in
recent weeks in an escalation of Iranian cyberintrusions targeting the
U.S. military. The allegations, coming as the Obama administration ramps
up talks with Iran over its nuclear program, show the depth and
complexity of long-standing tensions between Washington and Tehran. The
U.S. officials said the attacks were carried out by hackers working for
Iran's government or by a group acting with the approval of Iranian
leaders. The most recent incident came in the week starting Sept. 15,
before a security upgrade, the officials said. Iranian officials didn't
respond to requests to comment. The allegations would mark one of the
most serious infiltrations of U.S. government computer systems by Iran.
Previously, Iranian-backed infiltration and surveillance efforts have
targeted U.S. banks and computer networks running energy companies,
current and former U.S. officials have said." http://t.uani.com/1hdAxci
Domestic
Politics
AP:
"Iran sought Sunday to calm hard-liners worried over groundbreaking
exchanges with Washington, saying a single phone conversation between the
American and Iranian presidents is not a sign that relations will be
quickly restored. The comments by Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi
appeared tailored to address Iranian factions, including the powerful
Revolutionary Guard, that have grown uneasy over fast-paced outreach last
week between the White House and President Hassan Rouhani, which was
capped by a 15-minute phone call with President Barack Obama. 'Definitely,
a history of high tensions between Tehran and Washington will not go back
to normal relations due to a phone call, meeting or negotiation,'
Araghchi was quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency as saying...
'We never trust America 100 percent,' said Araghchi. 'And, in the future,
we will remain on the same path. We will never trust them 100
percent.'" http://t.uani.com/17h7gvN
AFP:
"The commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said on Monday
that President Hasan Rouhani should have refused to take last week's
historic telephone call from US counterpart Barack Obama. 'The president
took a firm and appropriate position during his stay' in New York for the
United Nations General Assembly, General Mohammad Ali Jafari said in an
interview with the Tasnimnews.com website. 'But just as he refused to
meet Obama, he should also have refused to speak with him on the
telephone and should have waited for concrete action by the United
States.' It was the first public criticism by a senior Iranian official of
Friday's landmark first contact between leaders of the two countries
since the rupture of diplomatic relations in the aftermath of the 1979
Islamic revolution." http://t.uani.com/15Euuxp
LAT:
"The Sunday morning front pages in Iran told the story of how the
first tentative signs of a thaw in U.S.-Iranian relations are seen in the
Islamic republic... The daily newspaper Shargh (Orient), which is
considered aligned to reformist forces, ran a front-page photo of angry
students punching the air and beating the window of the car containing
President Hassan Rouhani on his return from the United States. 'The
extremists disturbed the welcome ceremony,' the newspaper wrote, clearly
disapprovingly. 'Their blow to negotiation.' But Kayhan, a newspaper that
serves as the mouthpiece of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
expressed deep skepticism about what Rouhani had accomplished in his
five-day trip to the United States." http://t.uani.com/1blcNpb
Free Beacon:
"The controversy over whether Iranian President Hassan Rowhani
actually acknowledged the Holocaust continued on Sunday, when the
president's top aide reiterated the Iranian stance that Rowhani never
used the term. 'Mr. Rowhani did not at all used the word Holocaust even a
single time all throughout his five day visit to New York that he was
posed to the reporters questions and when they talked about the incidents
in the World War II,' Presidential Adviser Mohammad Reza Sadeq told
Iran's state-run Fars News Agency. 'Mr. Rowhani never used the word Holocaust,'
Sadeq maintained. Rowhani was quoted as using the term in an interview
with CNN's Christiane Amanpour." http://t.uani.com/16D1ebf
Foreign Affairs
AP:
"Israel's Shin Bet domestic security service said Sunday it has
arrested a Belgian citizen of Iranian origin whom it claims was sent by
Iran to spy on Israel under the guise of a windows and roofing salesman,
an announcement that coincided with a trip by Israel's prime minister to
the U.S. aimed at casting doubt on Iran's recent overtures to the West.
The Shin Bet said the accused spy, identified as Belgian-Iranian
businessman Ali Mansouri, had admitted to interrogators that he was
recruited by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's elite Quds Force last year
and sent to Israel to set up business ties as a front for spying on
Israeli and Western targets. For his services, the Shin Bet said,
Mansouri's Iranian handlers promised him $1 million. The Shin Bet said
Mansouri entered Israel on Sept. 6 with a Belgian passport under the name
Alex Mans, and that they arrested him five days later at Israel's
international airport as he was to board a flight to Europe. He was found
with photos of sites throughout Israel 'that interest Iranian
intelligence,' including the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, the Shin Bet said."
http://t.uani.com/18izZ2K
AP:
"Iran's president is asking aviation authorities to study the
possibility of resuming direct flights between Iran and the United States
for the first time in more than three decades. Hassan Rouhani's request
reflects Iranian efforts to possibly build on the groundbreaking
exchanges with Washington that included a telephone chat last week
between the new Iranian president and President Barack Obama." http://t.uani.com/1bm2st4
Opinion &
Analysis
Senator Robert
Menendez & Senator Lindsey Graham in WashPost:
"The new face of Iran we anticipated seeing at the United Nations
last week sounded and looked quite similar to the old face of Iran we
have come to know. We expected a charm offensive. We readied ourselves
for a possible diplomatic breakthrough. But we were left underwhelmed.
For weeks now, we have followed the rhetoric originating from Iran. We
had been cautiously hopeful. As proponents of a series of bipartisan
bills legislating sanctions targeting Iran's oil and banking industries
and lawmakers who have worked with our European allies to isolate Iran
from international financial markets, we understand full well the result
of crippling sanctions. Iran expressed an interest in negotiations
because the economic pain levied on it by Congress and the international
community has become unbearable. This outreach was borne out of
necessity, not a sudden gesture of goodwill. For Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
to tell commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that Iran
would pursue a diplomatic course of 'heroic flexibility' was significant,
even a breakthrough. When Hassan Rouhani campaigned and resoundingly won
a presidential election on a platform of 'prudence and hope,' then penned
an op-ed in this paper headlined 'Time to engage; Iran's new approach to
the world' days before traveling to the U.N. General Assembly, we had
reason for guarded optimism. The sanctions efforts we support in
Congress, alongside the four U.N. Security Council resolutions
criticizing Iran's nuclear program and applying multilateral sanctions
against the regime, seek to impel Iran to walk itself back from the
nuclear precipice. We remain skeptical about Tehran's intentions. Iranian
leaders are skilled negotiators with expertise in delay tactics and
obfuscation. Yet to ignore the overtures coming from Iran during this
period of furious public diplomacy would have been imprudent, especially
when a peaceful resolution preventing Iran from achieving nuclear
capability is the outcome we all aspire to achieve. But what happens in
Tehran seems to stay in Tehran, and President Rouhani's charm offensive
didn't quite follow him to New York. Rouhani was betwixt and between,
reaching out to our world, but still shackled by his world. He spoke of
tolerance and responsibility during his General Assembly speech, while
listing grievances against the West and launching into a diatribe against
Israel - a familiar refrain we've heard before. Rouhani's inability to
reciprocate to President Obama's offer of a handshake at the United Nations
was weak, yet Rouhani accepted Obama's phone call on Friday. As Rouhani
returns home, diplomacy remains our hope and goal. But our resolve to
prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear weapons capability remains
unchanged... In the coming days, we will be outspoken in our support for
furthering sanctions against Iran, requiring countries to again reduce
their purchases of Iranian petroleum and imposing further prohibitions on
strategic sectors of the Iranian economy. We proceed with an open hand,
but there can be a deal only when Iran's actions align with its
rhetoric." http://t.uani.com/15DkzrV
David Sanger in
NYT: "During his travels through New York, President
Hassan Rouhani of Iran answered hundreds of questions, and even took a
historic call from President Obama as he left town. But to the American
diplomats and intelligence officials who will conduct negotiations with
Iran, the one question that really matters remained in the air,
unaddressed, as Mr. Rouhani flew home to the difficult politics of dealing
with Iran's military and its mullahs. At the heart of the 'significant
concerns' that Mr. Obama said the two countries would have to address is
whether Iran's divided leadership is really willing to dismantle vast
parts of the multibillion-dollar atomic infrastructure it has amassed
over the past decade as just part of the price for ridding the country of
the sanctions that have crippled daily life. In both Washington and
Tehran, the internal politics of getting to an accord may be as hard as
the negotiations that begin in Geneva in two weeks. The Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Corps and the thousands of scientists, engineers and
workers it has spread out across Iran will almost certainly face what
Gary Samore, Mr. Obama's former top nuclear adviser, recently termed
'sticker shock' at the price of easing the crippling sanctions imposed on
their country. On the list is dismantling a multibillion-dollar
heavy-water reactor nearing completion - a potential source of plutonium
- and halting production at, and ultimately destroying, a deep
underground site, called Fordo, designed to be immune from Israeli air
attack and American cyberattack... At the core of the case for wariness
is a word Mr. Rouhani kept repeating: 'transparency.' He was suggesting
that after years of dodging inspectors on many issues, and cooperating on
others, he was now prepared to let outsiders see enough to convince
themselves that Iran's intentions are peaceful. But when Mr. Rouhani was
Iran's nuclear negotiator a decade ago, the country had only 164
centrifuges, the machines that spin at supersonic speeds to enrich
uranium. That was essentially a science experiment, more worrisome than
dangerous. Today there are 18,000, enough to enable Iran, if it decided,
to race for a bomb, perhaps quickly enough to avoid detection.
Additionally, Iran's first heavy-water reactor (a potential source of
plutonium, another bomb fuel) is nearing completion in the desert. Israel
has told American officials it cannot allow this to go into operation.
Crucial questions - of not only which nuclear fuel production facilities
Iran will be permitted to maintain, but also what limits will be imposed
on their capabilities - are at the heart of what will make the
negotiation so difficult, American officials say and some Iranian
officials acknowledge. 'People have been telling them transparency is not
enough,' said Robert Einhorn, formerly one of the State Department's top
Iran nuclear strategists and now at the Brookings Institution. It would
not be enough 'to see a robust program where there is lots of I.A.E.A.
monitoring,' he said, referring to the United Nations' nuclear watchdog,
the International Atomic Energy Agency. 'The monitoring can be terminated
suddenly. And once you have a robust program, breakout is relatively
quick.' The Obama administration has seen what can happen when inspectors
are thrown out. North Korea appears to have just restarted a reactor that
was disabled in the last days of the Bush administration. So the issue is
not simply getting the Iranians to remove and destroy most of the 18,000
centrifuges; it is also about what kinds of centrifuges Iran would build
in the future. As Mr. Rouhani was on his Manhattan tour, Iran was
pressing ahead with installing a new generation of machines, now being deployed
after a huge investment, in the same plant that the United States and
Israel attacked from 2007 to 2010 with the most sophisticated cyberweapon
ever used by one state against another. The new machines are believed to
be four or five times more efficient than the aging, rickety models that
the United States attacked, meaning it would take less time to produce
bomb-grade material, should Iran elect to do so. The new heavy-water
reactor at Arak, nearing completion, adds urgency to any negotiations.
Israel has made it clear it will not tolerate the start-up of that plant,
and it has destroyed two similar plants - one in Iraq in 1981, another in
Syria in 2007 - before they were fueled. Attacking it after fueling,
experts say, invites creating a disaster as radioactive fuel is released
into the environment. And then comes the hardest question: whether, as
part of the deal, Iran will let international inspectors talk with the
man the C.I.A. and the West are most worried about, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
Considered by the West to be Iran's equivalent to J. Robert Oppenheimer,
the head of the Manhattan Project, which developed America's nuclear
weapons in the 1940s, Mr. Fakhrizadeh has been hidden away, partly to
avoid Israeli assassins. Inspectors have never gotten answers to
questions about documents that they say came out of his labs - and that
the Iranians say are fabrications. For Mr. Obama, the question will be
whether to look forward, hoping to stop the production of nuclear
material, or to insist on a detailed excavation of Iran's nuclear
past." http://t.uani.com/16MCjLv
Doyle McManus in
LAT: "How long does it take for a charm offensive to
wear thin? By the end of a long week of glad-handing at the United
Nations, even Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, was beginning to
sound a little tired of his hazy talking points. 'Global challenges
require collective responses,' he told foreign policy pundits in a hotel
ballroom on Thursday through an interpreter, his voice slightly hoarse
after too many meetings and interviews. 'We can turn the turbulent past
into a beacon lighting the path ahead.' Whatever that means. Rouhani's
main message to the U.S. and the rest of the world was undeniably
refreshing: Iran wants to work quickly and seriously to end the dangerous
confrontation over its nuclear programs. 'My government is prepared to
leave no stone unturned in seeking a mutually acceptable resolution,' he
promised. 'We are prepared to remove any ambiguity and answer any
reasonable question.' But when it came to specifics - what concrete steps
is Iran prepared to take to meet the rest of the world's concerns? -
Rouhani was just as vague as his predecessors. When pressed, he either
ducked the question or retreated to Iran's insistence that it has the
same right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes as any other country.
(He doesn't mention Iran's secret enrichment facilities.) Retaining the
right to enrich uranium is a pillar of Iran's foreign policy. In a
meeting with nuclear experts and former diplomats Wednesday, Rouhani was
more specific, saying Iran wants to enrich enough uranium to provide a
reliable fuel supply for at least one nuclear power reactor. But if Iran
insists on that, it will be a major sticking point in negotiations. 'That
would require tens of thousands more centrifuges than they have now,'
warned Gary Samore, a former Obama administration official who was in the
meeting. 'That wouldn't provide the assurance we need that they couldn't
move toward nuclear weapons.... I went in pretty skeptical, and my skepticism
was reinforced.' Of course, Rouhani didn't want to make concessions in
advance of real negotiations. But on other issues too the professorial
president bumped into the limits on the amount of charm his boss, Supreme
Leader Ali Khamenei, had authorized him to employ." http://t.uani.com/1bUV4V0
UANI Outreach
Director Bob Feferman in Algemeiner: "Of all the
pictures coming out of Syria over the past two years, one has especially
caught my attention. It is a picture of a young Syrian boy holding a sign
that says, 'Silence is a war crime. Save childhood in Syria.' For too
long, an indifferent world remained silent while it watched the war
crimes committed by the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad. And while that
silence has finally come to an end, the world must not ignore the role of
another actor in this tragedy - Iran. Sadly, the world has largely turned
a blind eye to the destructive role Iran has played in assisting the
brutal Assad regime in murdering more than 100,000 Syrian civilians. A
handful of reporters and scholars, however, have done excellent research
on the issue. For example, a May 2013 joint report by the American
Enterprise Institute, and the Institute for the Study of War found that:
'The Iranian security and intelligence services are advising and
assisting the Syrian military in order to preserve Bashar al-Assad's hold
on power. These efforts have evolved into an expeditionary training
mission using Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Ground Forces,
Quds Forces, intelligence services, and law enforcement forces.' The
report goes on to state that Iran "has provided support to Syria's
chemical weapons programs, including the deployment of Iranian
scientists, the supply of equipment and precursor chemicals and technical
training." The report further discusses the extensive role played by
Iran's proxy, Hezbollah. Hezbollah is the same group that the U.S.
Treasury Department in 2012 found to have 'provided training, advice and
extensive logistical support to the Government of Syria's increasingly
ruthless efforts to fight against the opposition...' In the September
30th edition of The New Yorker, Dexter Filkins provides an in-depth
profile of Major General Qassem Suleimani, the shadowy commander of the
elite Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and
describes the extent of Iranian involvement in Syria. Filkins writes,
'Suleimani began flying into Damascus frequently so that he could assume
personal control of the Iranian intervention. He's running the war
himself, an American defense official told me. In Damascus, he is said to
work out of a heavily fortified command post in a nondescript building,
where he has installed a multinational array of officers: the heads of
the Syrian military, a Hezbollah commander, and a coordinator of Iraqi
Shiite militias, which Suleimani mobilized and brought to the fight.' It
is important to recognize the linkage between Iran's support for Syria
and its own pursuit of nuclear weapons. It is indeed frightening to think
of a Iranian regime that already feels emboldened enough to prop up the
murderous regime of Bashar al-Assad. Now imagine Iran with nuclear
weapons... We must not look away any more. The Syrian boy in the picture
reminds us with his plea for help that 'Silence is a war crime.' That's
why UANI is asking citizens to end their silence, to become activists,
and to serve as a voice for the innocent victims of the war crimes of
Syria, Iran and Hezbollah." http://t.uani.com/16XpGhR
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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
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.
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