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Top Stories
NYT:
"When Iranian diplomats sit down in Geneva next Tuesday with the
United States and five other world powers for a new round of talks about
Iran's nuclear program, Congress will not have a seat at the table. But
that does not mean it will not have a voice. With a tough, new Iran
sanctions bill teed up in the Senate, following the overwhelming passage
of similar legislation by the House in July, lawmakers are poised to do
one of two things: They could tighten the screws on Iran's leaders in a
way that helps produce a nuclear deal. Or they could foul up delicate
diplomacy at a crucial moment. The Senate banking committee, under
pressure from Secretary of State John Kerry, agreed to put a brief pause
on its bill to avoid spoiling the first bargaining session in Geneva. But
the committee's chairman, Senator Tim Johnson, Democrat of South Dakota,
has told the Obama administration he plans to move forward with the bill
in coming weeks. That sets up the prospect of Congress voting for
draconian new sanctions against Iran just as the West is forming a
judgment about whether Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, is serious
about reaching an agreement that would ease concerns about Iran's nuclear
ambitions enough for the United States to lift existing sanctions... Some
administration officials are forthright in acknowledging the benefit of
Congress being the 'bad cop.' Even as she requested a delay in the Senate
bill, Wendy R. Sherman, the under secretary of state who is conducting
the negotiations, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that she
planned to invoke the specter of Congress with the Iranians." http://t.uani.com/16V7JpS
WSJ:
"Sasol Ltd. said Wednesday the company sold its Iran operations in
August for $238 million... 'As a result of this transaction, Sasol has no
on-going investment in Iran,' the company said at the time, to praise
from a U.S.-based pressure group. But Sasol didn't disclose the amount in
the announcement. In its annual report filed Wednesday with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission, Sasol said the 'total purchase price'
sale was for $238 million payable in several installments, the last of
which is due Nov. 20. It said elsewhere in the filing that it 'entered
into a definitive sale and share purchase agreement... for a purchase
consideration' of $365 million. Sasol flagged its Iran disclosure in an
IRANNOTICE, as required under sanctions law that went into effect earlier
this year." http://t.uani.com/184sT2G
Reuters:
"Iran is running for the vice chairmanship of the U.N. Disarmament
Commission, which the United States said on Thursday was unacceptable in
light of Tehran's many breaches of Security Council demands that it halt
its controversial atomic work. Several U.N. diplomats told Reuters that
Iran was running unopposed for one of two vice chair posts allotted to
the Asia-Pacific Group, one of five regional U.N. groups. Iran's U.N.
mission defended its candidacy for the post, saying Tehran has been a
'front-runner' on disarmament for years. Western diplomats said such U.N.
posts are largely symbolic, though Tehran uses them to try to improve its
reputation at the United Nations." http://t.uani.com/1hHOLSX
Nuclear
Program
Bloomberg: "While international
sanctions imposed over Iran's nuclear work have crippled its economy and
caused its currency to crash, they haven't slowed the country's steady
production of enriched uranium. The chart of the day shows that since UN
sanctions were first approved in December 2006, Iran has enriched more
than 9,700 kilograms (21,385 pounds) of uranium to 5 percent levels of
fissile material and 185 kilograms to 20 percent levels, according to
International Atomic Energy Agency data compiled by Bloomberg. That's
enough nuclear material to make 15 crude atomic weapons, based on
Bloomberg calculations using IAEA data. 'Obviously, the question of
enrichment is at the center of negotiations,' U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry told reporters yesterday in Kuala Lumpur. 'Iran knows what it
needs to do in order to have a peaceful nuclear program.'" http://t.uani.com/16Bdh6N
Bloomberg:
"A former associate of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said no
amount of sanctions will be able to spur the country to surrender its
nuclear program, even though restrictions have debilitated the economy.
Hossein Mousavian, a former spokesman for Rouhani when he was Iran's
nuclear negotiator, told a panel in Hamburg that even as sanctions have
affected the lives of ordinary Iranians, the country will never give up
its right to enrich uranium under the auspices of the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty. 'It's impossible,' Mousavian, who is a research
scholar at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and
International Affairs, told an audience today at the Koerber Foundation
in the northern German port city. 'It doesn't matter what kind of
sanctions you impose, Iran is not willing to forgo their rights under
international rules.'" http://t.uani.com/19tV6QW
AP:
"In an apparent message to Iran, the Israeli military said Thursday
it had carried out a 'special long-range flight exercise' and posted rare
footage of the drill online. The military said its squadrons practiced
refueling planes in midair this week and tested the air force's ability.
The accompanying footage shows a tanker plane refueling a fighter jet
midair, a key part of any long-range operation... Israeli military
officials said the drill took place over Greece, a key regional ally. The
military has done similar drills in the past but releasing the footage
appears aimed at sending a message to Iran before the talks that a viable
military options remains." http://t.uani.com/19EoAr8
Sanctions
Reuters:
"India has extended a three-month approval to Iranian underwriters
Kish P&I and Moallem Insurance Co for insuring ships and oil tankers
calling at Indian ports, two shipping sources familiar with the
development said. A delay in renewing the approval had disrupted oil and
container trade between Indian and Iran, with some ships stranded outside
ports in both countries. The new approval is valid until December 27,
said the sources, who had received a letter from the Directorate General
of Shipping. The previous approval had expired on September 27. 'This
will facilitate Iranian (oil) shipment,' said P.P. Upadhya, managing
director of Indian refiner Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemical Ltd.
India's intake of Iranian oil through August in 2013 was down over 40
percent on the year." http://t.uani.com/164Z8uN
Queens Tribune:
"Forest Hills residents listened to a discussion on United
States-Iran relations Monday night. The forum, called 'Halting Iran's
Nuclear Program,' focused on the future of Iran's nuclear program and
what could happen to it under the country's new president, Hassan
Rouhani. It was held by U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Flushing). The two main
speakers of the event were Ambassador Mark Wallace and David Ibsen.
Wallace is a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Ibsen is a
former official at the U.S State Department. Both are now members of
United Against Nuclear Iran, a non-profit organization that advocates
stopping that country's nuclear program. Wallace said that while U.S. and
Iran relations have eased since President Rouhani took office more than two
months ago, he still has not stopped its nuclear program, which was one
of the focal points of his campaign. He added if the two countries are
unable to strike a deal by his 101st day in office, the United States
should continue with the sanctions that have negatively affected Iran's
economy for years." http://t.uani.com/19tZIq2
Human
Rights
AFP:
"The European Parliament called on Tehran on Thursday to free an
American-Iranian pastor jailed for eight years for his role in
establishing underground churches in Iran. In a resolution, MEPs said
Saeed Abedini, a naturalised US citizen who converted from Islam to
Christianity, should be released 'without delay,' as should others held
for their religious beliefs. There were concerns that Abedini may have suffered
'physical and psychological violence' in prison, it said. In August, a
Tehran appeals court upheld the eight-year prison sentence against
Abedini, ignoring appeals, including from US Secretary of State John
Kerry, that he be freed." http://t.uani.com/19pgvbU
Guardian:
"Iran's revolutionary guards have announced the arrest of 'a network
of homosexuals and satanists' in the western city of Kermanshah, close to
the country's border with Iraq, prompting fresh alarm over the treatment
of gay people in the Islamic republic. The news website of the
revolutionary guards in Kermanshah province, home to the country's Kurd
ethnic minority, reported on Thursday that their elite forces had
dismantled what it claimed to be a network of homosexuals and
devil-worshippers. A number of foreign nationals, including Iraqis, were
also among those detained, the report said, adding that eight of the
group were married to each other. The group were picked up from one of
the city's ceremony halls, which they had rented for a birthday party.
The guards' webiste said they were dancing as the raid ensued. The
revolutionary guards claimed the group had been under surveillance for
some time but did not specify how many people were arrested." http://t.uani.com/16V9CDb
Toronto Star:
"After a five-and-a-half-year ordeal in an Iranian prison that
included abuse, solitary confinement, brutal interrogation and months on
death row, Hamid Ghassemi-Shall had only one word for his return to
Canada on Thursday. 'Freedom.' And he said, 'At last I can breathe in a
country that doesn't arrest people first, then collect the evidence
later.' At Pearson airport, the Iranian-born Toronto man had an emotional
reunion with his wife, Antonella Mega, who had campaigned tirelessly for
his release since he was arrested in May 2008 and charged with espionage.
They were met by dozens of cheering friends and supporters, who held up
'Welcome Hamid' signs and greeted him with hugs and tears... He was freed
on Sept. 23 from Tehran's grim Evin prison - where his brother Alborz
died in custody. The release, he said, followed more than a year of
uncertainty after the authorities acknowledged they had failed to find
any evidence against him, but continued to hold him behind bars." http://t.uani.com/19Eql7J
Domestic
Politics
AP:
"The administration of Iran's new President Hassan Rouhani has
cancelled an anti-Israeli conference as part of his outreach to the West
and efforts to map out a new diplomatic path for Iran. The annual event
was set up by Rouhani's predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and showcased
the former president's vitriolic anti-Israeli rhetoric and promoted his
anti-Israeli sentiments. When the conference was first held in 2005,
Ahmadinejad made his infamous remark that Israel should be 'wiped off the
map.' He later suggested that the Holocaust was a 'myth.' Iranian news
websites, including jahannews.com, said on Friday that the Foreign
Ministry scrapped the gathering in Tehran because it was seen as
undermining the government's policy of 'interaction with the outside
world.' ... Hard-liners accuse Rouhani of selling out on Iran's
ideological values. One of the organizers of the anti-Israeli conference,
dubbed New Horizon, said the cancellation was a 'disaster' and a 'big
mistake.' 'Cancellation of the anti-Zionist New Horizon festival is a
disaster. It was the most powerful anti-Zionist conference in Iran,'
website mashreghnews.ir quoted the organizer, Nader Talebzadeh, as
saying." http://t.uani.com/1hHN33V
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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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