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Top Stories
AFP: "US
President Barack Obama pledged Tuesday to test the sincerity of signs
that new Iranian President Hassan Rowhani may be ready for a newly
productive nuclear dialogue with the West. Days after revealing he and
Rowhani had swapped letters, Obama however said that Iran would have to
demonstrate its own seriousness by agreeing not to 'weaponize nuclear
power.' 'There is an opportunity here for diplomacy,' Obama said in an
interview with the Spanish language television network Telemundo. 'I
hope the Iranians take advantage of it. There are indications that
Rowhani, the new president, is somebody who is looking to open dialogue
with the West and with the United States -- in a way that we haven't
seen in the past. And so we should test it,' Obama said." http://t.uani.com/19dAF8s
Bloomberg:
"Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says he's not
opposed to 'correct diplomatic moves' with nations that are Iran's
adversaries. The comments by the country's highest authority, made at a
meeting with Revolutionary Guards commanders today, may signal
Khamenei's approval for President Hassan Rohani to engage with world
powers when he attends the United Nations General Assembly later this
month. 'I agree with flexibility because this move in certain
circumstances is positive and necessary but it needs to rely on one
condition,' Khamenei said, according to his website. 'Understanding the
opposing party's nature and goal' are essential, he said. 'A wrestler
may exercise flexibility for a tactical reason but he won't forget who
his rival is and what his goal is,' Khamenei was quoted as
saying." http://t.uani.com/14ix3Cz
Reuters:
"The U.S. Congress could soon pass a bill to further squeeze
Iran's oil exports - and its nuclear program - but new sanctions may
fail to cut the country's crude sales much more than existing ones
already have. The Senate Banking Committee this month is expected to
begin debating its version of a package of sanctions that easily passed
in the House of Representatives in late July. The House bill would cut
Iran's exports to global customers by an additional 1 million barrels
per day in a year, on top of U.S. and European Union sanctions that
have about halved Tehran's oil sales since 2011. The U.S. government
believes Iran's nuclear program will soon have the ability to develop
weapons and that further reducing the country's oil sales could shut
the program down by starving it of funding. Deeper cuts in Iran's oil
sales, if accomplished, could worsen the damage Western sanctions have
already done to Iran's economy, which suffered a loss of about $26
billion in petroleum revenue in 2012 from a total of $95 billion in
2011; soaring inflation; and a devaluation of its currency, the
rial." http://t.uani.com/1gycIvh
Nuclear
Program
Reuters:
"An Iranian official said on Wednesday that he saw an 'opening' in
Iran's nuclear dispute with the West, a news agency reported, in the
latest signal that Tehran expects fresh movement to break a decade-old
deadlock... Iran and world powers have been engaged in negotiations
which have so far failed to resolve the dispute. The head of Iran's
Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, said he expected there
could be a breakthrough in the talks by the end of the current Iranian
calendar year, 1392, which ends in March 2014. 'This year, in the
coming months, we will witness openings in this issue...We expect that
in the coming months we will see the start of the process of exiting
the nuclear issue,' Salehi said, according to the Mehr news
agency." http://t.uani.com/1gygpkw
Sanctions
NYDN:
"The feds have the right to seize a 36-story midtown office tower
worth an estimated $500 million to $700 million because its owners have
used the building's rent rolls to funnel money to Iran, a judge ruled
Monday. Prosecutors told the Daily News they believe the stunning move
to be 'the largest real property forfeiture' in U.S. history. They
intend to hand over the bulk of any proceeds derived from the
forfeiture to relatives of people who died in Iran-aided terror
attacks, including 9/11 and the 1993 bombing of Marine Corps barracks
in Beirut. The decision by Manhattan Federal Judge Katherine Forrest is
subject to a potential appeal. But if the forfeiture moves forward
soon, the timing could hardly be better, an expert told The News."
http://t.uani.com/188sUlT
Trend:
"While the US is likely to try to slow down Iran's reintegration
into Swift, Swift is a European based organization subject to European
law, Senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University's S. Rajaratnam
School of International Studies, James M. Dorsey told Trend. The expert
was commenting on the recent news on Iranian Tose-e Saderat (Exports
Development) Bank's announcement, as it plans to start talks with EU to
re-establish its connection with SWIFT, as soon as EU court upholds its
initial ruling for the removal of sanctions against the Bank.
'Ultimately, the U.S. will have to comply. Individual banks will
however retain the right not to do business with Iran as will their
account holders,' Dorsey underscored. Managing-Director of Iran's Tose-e
Saderat Bank, Bahman Vakili said on Sept. 16 that his bank will start
talks with EU bank officials to reestablish the SWIFT link between the
two sides." http://t.uani.com/1gyhw3Y
Terrorism
AP:
"A Thai court on Wednesday convicted a Lebanese man with alleged
links to Hezbollah militants for illegal possession of bomb-making
materials that he was storing in a warehouse outside Bangkok. Atris
Hussein, who also holds Swedish nationality, was arrested Jan 12, 2012,
at Bangkok's main airport after a tip-off from Israeli police, who
claimed he was going to stage a terrorist attack in Thailand. After
being questioned, Hussein led police to a warehouse with hundreds of
boxes containing more than 2,800 kilograms (6,200 pounds) of liquid
ammonium nitrate and 8,800 pounds (4,000 kilograms) of urea fertilizer,
both of which can be used to make explosives... Police testified that
they had received a tip-off from Israeli authorities that Hussein had
suspected links to pro-Iranian Hezbollah militants and was preparing to
stage a terrorist attack at a key location in Thailand." http://t.uani.com/15CwfcJ
National Post:
"A judge has frozen more than a dozen Canadian bank accounts
linked to the government of Iran at the request of victims trying to
collect damages from the Islamic republic over its sponsorship of
Middle East terror groups. The list of Iran's accounts and other state
assets in Canada was disclosed last week by the Department of Foreign
Affairs in an effort to help victims hold Tehran responsible for financing,
training and arming Hezbollah and Hamas. The five-page decision by
Justice David Brown of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ordered
banks to lock down the 14 Royal Bank, Scotiabank, CIBC and BMO accounts
named by Foreign Affairs, which contain at least $2.6-million. Banks
were given until Friday to disclose the names of the account holders
and their contact information to lawyers representing the victims. On
Sept. 30, the lawyers are scheduled to return to court to ask for a
default judgment against Iran." http://t.uani.com/18b0JRs
Human Rights
NYT:
"Relatives of Amir Hekmati, a former Marine imprisoned in Iran for
more than two years on spying charges, asked the United States
ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday to press for his release
when Iran's presidential delegation visits the General Assembly next
week. Representative Daniel T. Kildee, the Michigan Democrat who
represents the family's district, sent a letter to Ambassador Samantha
Power asking that she 'explore all available opportunities' with
colleagues from countries that have diplomatic relations with Iran to
seek Mr. Hekmati's return on humanitarian grounds. The United States
and Iran severed diplomatic ties more than three decades ago after the
Islamic Revolution. The General Assembly meeting, which will be
attended by Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, represented what Mr.
Kildee called 'a particularly auspicious opportunity.' Mr. Hekmati, 30,
an American of Iranian descent from Flint, Mich., was arrested in Iran
in August 2011, during what his family has said was an innocuous visit
to his grandmother. He was charged with espionage and sentenced to
death." http://t.uani.com/1aKATGa
Opinion
& Analysis
UANI Advisory Board Member Matthias
Kuentzel in Algemeiner: "I rarely attend
trials, but this one is special. On July 24, 2013, the main hearing in
the case of German businessman Rudolf M. and Iranian-Germans Gholamali
K., Kianzad K., and Hamid Kh. opened at Hamburg's Higher Regional
Court. The defendants are charged with exporting 92 German-produced
specialized valves for use in Iran's Arak plutonium reactor and
arranging the shipment of 856 nuclear-usable valves from India to Iran
in 2010 and 2011. The reasons why the UN Security Council has ordered
Iran to halt the construction of the Arak reactor are compelling. If
this nuclear plant comes online in 2014, as the Iranians anticipate, it
could produce enough weapons-grade plutonium for two bombs a year. The
smuggling of nuclear valves from Germany is therefore of exceptional
significance and tops the latest UN list of reported alleged violations
of the sanction regime against Iran. Recently, an important detail of
this smuggling operation was revealed on the German public television
current affairs program, Fakt: 'German officials clearly (knew) about
this illegal trade since 2009 and did nothing about it for years.' How
so? Did such an explosive shipment really take place before the very
eyes of the German security services? Wishing to learn more, I
installed myself in the empty public auditorium of the Hamburg Palace
of Justice, where, on August 2, Stefan M., from the Cologne branch of
the Customs Criminological Office (CCO) was called to the witness
stand. He testified that the name of Hossein Tanideh, a senior agent for
the Iranian nuclear program, had been known to the CCO since 2009.
While introducing himself in Germany as a refinery manager, Tanideh was
in fact the organizer of the transport of the valves to Iran via front
companies in Turkey and Azerbaijan. He is currently on remand in
Istanbul. In 2009, the U.S. began to issue alerts about Tanideh... For
Tehran, what we refer to as nuclear smuggling is a component of
government policy. The Iranian regime views the sanctions as a
machination of the Great and Little Satans, the USA and Israel, and
violating them as a part of an economic jihad. 'The easiest way to
evade the sanctions,' we learn from a recent study by the Iranian
Parliament, is for 'a person or company to change the name and address
of the affected company.' We have to therefore assume that the Iranian
embassy in Berlin directs and coordinates the nuclear smuggling, and
that it also greases official palms. There are plenty of examples from
the recent past that provide food for thought." http://t.uani.com/1gyiFZk
Lee Smith in Tablet:
"President Barack Obama thinks that the deal with Russia over
Syria's chemical weapons was possible only because of his credible
threat of force. The way he sees it, Iran's gotten the message, too. As
the president told George Stephanopoulos over the weekend, 'My
suspicion is that the Iranians recognize they shouldn't draw a lesson
that we haven't struck [Syria], to think we won't strike Iran.'
However, the essential feature of a credible threat of force is to have
previously employed actual force against the adversary you're
threatening. Shortly before Obama announced he would seek congressional
authorization for the use of military force against Syria, the White
House briefed House and Senate staffers on the possible ramifications
of U.S. action. Perhaps unintentionally, the briefings seemed only to
have dampened congressional appetite for attacking Iran's man in
Damascus. 'They showed them Iran retaliation scenarios,' a senior
official at a Washington, D.C.-based pro-Israel organization told me.
'They highlighted the fact that Hezbollah has a global reach. The
staffers left those briefings with the blood drained from their faces.'
Iran and its allies have proven their willingness to use force against
America-as witnessed by the April 1983 bombing of the American Embassy
in Beirut; the October 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut;
the 1998 bombing of Khobar Towers, which housed U.S. servicemen in
Saudi Arabia; and Iran's war against American troops in Iraq, which
lasted until Obama's 2011 withdrawal. And those are just the operations
that the Iranians pulled off. Iran has also launched plenty of other
operations against the United States and its allies that are no less
menacing, even though they failed. In the last few years, Iran and
Hezbollah have plotted attacks in, among other places, Thailand, India,
Kenya, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. A recent bombing in Bulgaria
and a terror plot in Cyprus sent the clear message that Iran has also
resumed operations in Europe after many years of avoiding violence on
the continent. It is easy to frame some of Iran's recent terror plots
as evidence that they are the gang who couldn't shoot straight. For
every operation that, say, kills five Israeli tourists in a Bulgarian
resort town, there are a dozen botched plots, like the operation in
Thailand where an Iranian agent blew off his own legs with a hand
grenade. But from another perspective, it doesn't matter that the vast
majority of Iranian projects come up empty, like the plan to
assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States, which might also
have killed hundreds of Americans in the nation's capital if it had
succeeded. Taken together, what these operations show is an obvious,
and alarming, inclination to employ violence against America-even in
the absence of any direct American military action against Iran.
Carried out by second-string operatives, yet backed by arms of the
Iranian government and the global terror infrastructure it has put in
place, these attempts are generally interpreted by policymakers as
warning shots-a reminder of what will happen if America really gets the
Iranians mad." http://t.uani.com/1gygOnj
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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
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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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