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Top Stories
ICHRI: "The
Iranian Judiciary should immediately halt its new wave of repression of
the media and civil society and stop its numerous rushed executions, the
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today. In the past
three days alone, the Judiciary has banned the reformist daily Bahar,
sentenced the prominent actress Pegah Ahangarani to 18 months in prison,
and put to death 18 individuals who are ethnic minorities. 'President
Rouhani has an immense responsibility to uphold his promises to protect
citizenship rights and use all means at his disposal to stop this latest
onslaught against civil and human rights,' said Hadi Ghaemi, the
Campaign's executive director... 'President Rouhani has a mandate in the
votes of millions of Iranians who propelled him to office to pursue the
changes he promised. Now is the time for President Rouhani to show his
willingness and determination to defend the rights of the people by
condemning such gross human rights violations. His silence is a tacit
approval of these violations,' Ghaemi said." http://t.uani.com/19Pjw74
FT:
"Iran plans to persuade international companies to invest in its
oilfields by offering them more lucrative contracts as part of efforts to
repair its battered economy and improve the Islamic Republic's relations
with the western world... In a rare interview, Mehdi Hosseini, an adviser
to the oil minister, said the current system of 'buyback' contracts -
which do not allow foreign companies to book reserves or take equity
stakes in Iranian projects - would be scrapped. Mr Hosseini said the
government was developing a 'win-win' form of contract so leading
companies 'whether American or European' could benefit. Details are
expected to be revealed in London next March, he said, as part of an
effort to attract at least $100bn in investment over the next three
years. The overhaul would mark a big step for a regime that has
traditionally been hostile to any form of foreign ownership of its vast
oil and gas wealth... 'Iran has a long history of aggressive resource nationalism,
and I doubt that will change,' said Robin West, senior adviser to IHS
Energy, a consultancy. 'They have always had very aggressive fiscal terms
and always tried to shift the investment risk to operators while keeping
the lion's share of revenue.' But he said the country's mature reserves
required heavy investment from western majors and, to coax them in,
Tehran would have to offer 'extremely attractive terms.' 'If they do,
it'll be a real break with the past,' he said." http://t.uani.com/1covkS9
Reuters:
"The U.N. nuclear watchdog and Iran held productive talks this week
on how to advance a long-blocked inquiry into Iranian atomic activities
and agreed to meet again in Tehran on Nov. 11, the two sides said in a
rare joint statement on Tuesday... The IAEA and Iran 'had a very
productive meeting on past and present issues,' Tero Varjoranta, the
agency's deputy director general in charge of nuclear inspections, told
reporters at the end of the two-day meeting in Vienna." http://t.uani.com/1aQJYL1
 Nuclear
Program
Reuters: "Iran's
new proposal to U.N. inspectors is practical and meant to 'solve the
issue', an Iranian envoy said before a second day of talks on Tuesday, a
hint Tehran may cooperate more with an inquiry into suspected nuclear
arms research in the country. A series of meetings since early 2012 have
yielded no deal that would give the International Atomic Energy Agency
access to sites, files and officials relevant to its investigation...
Reza Najafi, Iran's new ambassador to the IAEA, made the comment late on
Monday to an Iranian news agency after he and other Iranian officials met
with senior IAEA experts at the agency's Vienna headquarters... Deputy
Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in Vienna on Monday that he had put
forward proposals to IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano and pledged a
'new approach' in dealings with the U.N. agency. But he gave no details.
'Our proposal is practical and intended to solve the issue between Iran
and the agency,' Najafi told the ISNA news agency, adding that Iranian
and IAEA experts had 'entered into substantive discussions in these
negotiations.'" http://t.uani.com/19PiHeu
Bloomberg:
"U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that failing to pursue
diplomacy on Iran's disputed nuclear program would be irresponsible and
urged Congress to become more involved in efforts to halt the spread of
nuclear weapons... 'Iran is so crucial in the health of the whole
nonproliferation regime and policy, it's kind of the centerpiece,' said
Robert Einhorn, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a
Washington policy group... 'Iran is so crucial in the health of the whole
nonproliferation regime and policy, it's kind of the centerpiece,' said
Robert Einhorn, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a
Washington policy group... Abandoning the diplomatic process now under
way with Iran 'would be the height of irresponsibility,' Kerry said last
night. Even so, he said, 'no deal is better than a bad deal.'" http://t.uani.com/1dIa0qt
Free Beacon:
"Iran has passed the 'point of no return' in its nuclear weapons
program and could soon have the ability to enrich enough missile-grade
uranium to build a bomb in just two weeks, the former deputy director
general of the International Atomic Energy Agency told reporters on
Monday. Olli Heinonen, who served at the IAEA for 27 years until 2010,
said the advanced centrifuges that Iran recently began installing in its
enrichment facilities will 'radically reduce the so-called breakout time'
for the regime to quickly produce enough weapons-grade uranium to build a
nuclear weapon. Iran announced in January it would install 3,000 IR-2
centrifuges in its Natanz facility. These produce a four to five times
greater output than the older model, according to the Institute for
Science and International Security. A recent ISIS report estimated Iran
could achieve breakout in one month, based on its current capabilities.
This highlights the advancements Iran has made in its program since last
year, when ISIS estimated it could produce the necessary amount of
weapons-grade uranium in two to four months. Heinonen said this window
could shrink further. 'I believe that if certain arrangements are done,
[the breakout time] can even go down to two weeks,' said Heinonen. If
Iran continues to install new centrifuges at its current rate, Heinonen
said the time estimates would be shortened significantly by next
summer." http://t.uani.com/1dIjG4c
Times of Israel:
"Iran will not suspend its uranium enrichment nor will it stop the
custom of chanting 'death to America' in public gatherings, a senior
Iranian politician said. Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the foreign
policy and national security committee in the Iranian parliament, told
members of the engineers' association that uranium enrichment is a
"red line" in nuclear negotiations, adding that the suspension
of enrichment in the past by Iran's reformist government will never
repeat itself. 'The gloom that surrounded the nuclear facilities at the
time is over,' Boroujerdi was quoted by Iran's Arabic-language news
channel Al-Alam as saying Saturday. 'Today Iran can take new decisions.'
... In his speech, the Iranian official also referred to reports that the
traditional chant 'death to America' will no longer be used, saying the
opposite was true; and the slogan will be used even more than
before." http://t.uani.com/1g9jTyl
Sanctions
Bloomberg:
"Deutsche Boerse AG said the fine its Clearstream unit faces from
U.S. government allegations that it violated sanctions against Iran may
be half the previously disclosed amount. The penalty totals $169 million,
or only $152 million if the Frankfurt-based company settles with the U.S.
Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, Deutsche Boerse
said in a statement yesterday. In January, Deutsche Boerse said it might
have to pay $340 million. The Treasury investigation, which Deutsche
Boerse said has concluded, centered on securities transfers within the
Clearstream system in 2008, following the company's decision in 2007 to
close Iranian customers' accounts. The company started talks on a deal
with the U.S. Treasury in 2008, the Frankfurt-based exchange said earlier
this year." http://t.uani.com/1cgDVCc
Reuters:
"India's crude imports from Iran fell 40 percent in the first nine
months of this year as some refiners cut purchases from the sanctions-hit
nation while waiting for New Delhi to back local insurers covering plants
processing the oil. European reinsurers, due to Western measures
targeting Iran's disputed nuclear programme, have added a clause in
contracts with Indian refiners that could mean claims arising during the
processing of Iranian oil would not be met. New Delhi has decided to set
up a sovereign fund to back local insurers covering such refineries,
hoping to boost imports paid for in rupees to ease its current account deficit.
But the fund has yet to start and this could lead to import cuts larger
than the goal of about 15 percent. Despite a near doubling of Iran oil
shipments from August as one refiner stepped up purchases, the
year-to-date volumes are still down sharply from a year ago. India's
imports of Iranian oil have fallen to 194,000 barrels per day (bpd) for
January-September, down from 324,000 bpd in the same period last year,
trade data made available to Reuters shows. September barrels from Iran
rose to 296,100 bpd from 151,000 bpd in August, partly due to Indian Oil
Corp taking 2 million barrels of oil from Tehran, the data showed...
Refiner Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd was the biggest
importer of Iranian oil in September, replacing Essar Oil by shipping in
133,000 bpd, the data showed." http://t.uani.com/1dI4vYI
Syria Conflict
The National:
"Iran provides military support to President Bashar Al Assad by way
of regular clandestine flights between Tehran and Damascus, according to
a Syrian official with knowledge of air traffic between the two capitals.
Up to three supply flights occur each week between the two cities, none
of them appearing on public timetables, said the official, who has access
to certain details of air traffic in and out of Damascus International
Airport. The flights typically take place at night, with no weekly
schedule set in advance. 'There are private flights every week, sometimes
three a week, and they are controlled by an Iranian officer in Damascus,'
the Syrian official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of
the sensitive nature of the information. 'Everyone must follow this
[Iranian] man's orders. We have been told he is the second most important
man in Syria and that we are to do as he says without question,' said the
official, who continues to support the Assad regime and work for the
Syrian government in Damascus. The identity of the Iranian officer is not
publicly known. 'We have not been told openly, but we know the flights
are being organised by the [Iranian] Revolutionary Guard,' he said."
http://t.uani.com/1f1woZz
Human Rights
AFP:
"The International Federation for Human Rights on Tuesday condemned
Iran's execution of 16 convicts to avenge a deadly border attack, saying
nothing has changed under the country's moderate new president. 'The
retaliatory execution of 16 Baluchi prisoners on Saturday, in revenge for
the deplorable killing of 14 border guards, is in total breach of
international law,' the FIDH said. 'The latest executions are even more
shocking as these Baluchi prisoners were not even connected to the
insurgents' attack,' said Karim Lahidji, the FIDH president. 'This
further vindicates our assertion that the situation of human rights has
not changed in Iran since the taking of office of Hassan Rouhani' as the
Islamic republic's president in August, he added." http://t.uani.com/1gXSwsc
Amnesty:
"Two death row prisoners from Iran's Kurdish minority are at
imminent risk of being executed after the Iranian authorities carried out
20 death sentences over the weekend, Amnesty International warned
today. 'This surge in executions shows that behind words and
promises, the Iranian authorities continue to rely on state-sponsored
killing, sparking fears that Zaniar Moradi and Loghman Moradi, two Kurdish
minority prisoners on death row, could be next,' said Hassiba Hadj
Sahraoui, Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director at Amnesty
International... Among those executed over the weekend was Habibollah
Golparipour, another Kurdish minority political prisoner for whom Amnesty
International has campaigned. On the morning of 25 October, he was
transferred from solitary confinement in Oroumieh Prison, West Azerbaijan
Province, north-west of Iran, to an unknown location and executed the
same evening. His family was not notified beforehand After his execution,
the Iranian authorities have reportedly refused to hand over his body to
his family adding to their distress. Habibollah Golparipour was sentenced
to death in a five-minute trial in March 2010." http://t.uani.com/17qcF6v
AFP:
"An Iranian court has sentenced filmmaker and actress Pegah
Ahangarani to 18 months in prison, her mother told ISNA news agency
Monday, apparently for her social activities, political comments and
interviews with foreign media. 'She has been sentenced to 18 months in
the trial court,' Manijeh Hekmat, who is also a director, told ISNA
without giving further details. Ahangarani, 29, was arrested in her flat
in July 2011 and was released on bail later that month. Currently, she is
not in detention, as an appeals court must confirm the sentence before it
is applied under the Iranian system... Hekmat said that her daughter has
been prevented from leaving Iran for nearly three years." http://t.uani.com/17VB1PP
RFE/RL:
Iran's reformist 'Bahar' daily has become the first publication to be
banned since President Hassan Rohani came to office in August. The
closure was imposed by Iran's state press watchdog over publication of an
article that critics say undermined Islamic principles. The controversial
article was an opinion piece that questioned the Shi'ite belief that the
Prophet Muhammad had appointed his son-in-law, Imam Ali, as his
successor. Culture Minister Ali Jannati claimed the article distorted the
history of Islam and created religious divisions... The move against
'Bahar' is, for some, a discouraging sign and a reminder of threats
against press freedom in the Islamic republic, which has been branded by
rights groups as one of the biggest jailers of journalists in the Middle
East." http://t.uani.com/1abO4fT
Foreign Affairs
AFP:
"Japan's foreign minister said Tuesday he would visit Iran next
month, in the latest sign of Tehran's rapidly thawing relationship with
the Western world. Fumio Kishida said he plans a three-day trip from
November 9, the day after Iranian negotiators wrap up talks with world
powers in Geneva over the country's nuclear programme. Tokyo, which is
heavily dependent on Middle Eastern oil, has maintained friendly
relations with Tehran through its years of ostracism, keeping up a
diplomatic two-way that many developed countries cut off decades
ago." http://t.uani.com/1f1vpc3
Opinion
& Analysis
Dennis Ross, Eric Edelman & Michael Makovsky in LAT: "This
month in Geneva, at the first negotiations over its nuclear program since
the election of President Hassan Rouhani, Iran took an unprecedented
step: It negotiated. For the first time, Tehran presented an actual
vision of the endgame for the talks with six world powers, and how to get
there. However, contrary to expectations, it offered no concessions,
leaving serious questions about Iranian purposes. With another round of
talks scheduled for next week, U.S. negotiators would do well to follow
principles that signify the core interests at stake. The most pressing
national security threat facing the United States remains preventing a
nuclear-capable Iran. The preferred way to achieve that objective is
through a diplomatic agreement. But diplomacy can only be that - a means
to an end. As Secretary of State John F. Kerry has said, a 'bad deal is
worse than no deal.' A deal struck for its own sake would still allow for
a nuclear Iran; undermine the legitimacy of any subsequent U.S. attempts
or, much more likely, Israeli attempts to arrest Iran's progress by
military action; discredit and compromise U.S. credibility; and weaken,
if not destroy, the decades-old international nonproliferation regime.
Therefore, the United States should only pursue an agreement within
certain parameters, to ensure the deal actually furthers the interests of
the U.S. and its allies. As we explain in a new JINSA Gemunder Center
report, there are six such principles that should guide the negotiations
with Iran. First, Iran must resolve outstanding international concerns.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly complained that
Iran has not been forthcoming about its nuclear activities. Indeed, the
IAEA in 2011 expressed its 'deep and increasing concern about the unresolved
issues regarding the Iranian nuclear program, including those which need
to be clarified to exclude the existence of possible military
dimensions.' Iran must quickly address all outstanding IAEA concerns as
part of any deal... Third, deny Iran nuclear weapons capability. The main
concern about Iran's nuclear program is that it is on the verge of
producing enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear device. An
acceptable deal must not just freeze but tangibly roll back its ability
to do so. This will require limits on size and enrichment level of its
uranium stockpile, number and type of operating and installed
centrifuges, design of enrichment facilities and possible plutonium
production at the Arak heavy-water reactor. Fourth, impose a strict
inspections regime. Just because Iran agrees to a deal does not mean it
will stick to it. It has tried to build each of its current enrichment
facilities covertly. To prevent it from attempting to do so again,
negotiators should require Iran to agree to more rigorous monitoring of
its nuclear program. Fifth, negotiate from a position of strength. Too
often, Iran has used negotiations to extract concessions, undermine
international resolve and play for time. In the few instances it has
compromised, it has been because of the threat of force. The success of
these talks will hinge on Iran understanding that there will be very real
and damaging consequences if negotiations fail. This will require at
least these U.S. actions: Intensify sanctions and incentivize other
countries to do the same, issue more forceful and credible statements
that all options are on the table, initiate new military deployments and
make clear the support for Israeli military action if conducted." http://t.uani.com/1amtGP4
Michael Weiss in
FP: "It's hardly a secret that the Iranian regime
views the current grinding war in Syria as more of a domestic than a
foreign-policy concern. Its elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds
Force has been training and financing a host of Shiite and Alawite sectarian
militias in Syria to fight a war that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's
conventional military and traditional paramilitary proxies have been
unable to win on their own. Without the direct military intervention of
Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Qusayr and Homs this year, those territories
would still be under rebel control. Not for nothing has Mehdi Taeb, a
confidant of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, famously described
Syria as Iran's '35th province,' the loss of which would spell the fall
of the Islamic Republic. But now documentary evidence has come to light
showing that Iran -- which had previously been helping the regime in
Damascus sell and ship its own sanctioned oil to international buyers --
is shipping light crude into Syria under terms that practically amount to
pro bono petroleum imports. Simply put, the Iranian regime is giving its
natural resources away at a time when its own people are starving thanks
to debilitating international sanctions on its nuclear program. A packet
of documents Foreign Policy obtained last week indicates that Iran has
been 'selling' shipments totaling around 4 million barrels of light crude
oil over the last year to Syria at a 10 percent discount, at least since
May of this year, when global oil prices were around $98 per barrel. The
discounted cost borne by the Assad regime -- about $88 per barrel, not
including transport fees -- appears to be paid out of a long-term $3.6
billion line of credit for energy imports that Tehran issued Damascus a
few months ago to help it counteract the economic impacts of a
devastating nearly three-year civil war. In reality, however, Assad may
never be able to repay this loan -- not that the Iranians likely even
expect him to, given that they view his survival as inextricable from their
own. This means that not only are the Iranians selling Assad oil at a
bargain, but they're floating him the money to buy it at that reduced
rate... A letter dated May 12, 2013, signed by S. Moradinasab, managing
director of Sahand Naft Iran Ltd., a trading services company affiliated
with Iran's oil ministry, and addressed to Mohammad Alrobeh, the
president of Sytrol, Syria's state-owned oil firm (which has been
sanctioned by the United States and the European Union), confirms the 10
percent discount as having been certified by the 'latest resolution in
the Special Economic Plan Committee.' This blandly named committee, says
David Patrikarakos, author of Nuclear Iran: The Birth of an Atomic State,
is one of many set up by the Islamic Republic 'for managing certain
aspects of the economy and, in some cases, allocating funds to particular
projects.' Patrikarakos notes that this one is clearly linked to the
crisis in Syria. Additionally, the packet of documents includes a
contract, dated May 31, 2013, certifying the sale of over a million
barrels of Iranian light crude to Syria, which was delivered to the port
of Banias "during April 2013" via the Camellia, an oil tanker
owned by a company with a registered address at offices belonging to the
National Iranian Tanker Co. (NITC) in Tehran, the largest tanker company
in the Middle East and a subsidiary of the now-privatized National
Iranian Oil Co. The contract stipulates that the purchase would either be
transacted directly between the Central Bank of Iran and the Central Bank
of Syria or 'by the credit line which has been allocated by Iranian
government to Syria.' ... 'I can't see Assad repaying this loan anytime
soon,' Patrikarakos told me. 'He may not even be around in another year
or two to do so.' But a freebie oil deal to the Syrian regime may have
dire populist consequences back in Iran. There's growing perception among
the Iranian people that its clerical government is squandering crucial
funds on foreign adventurism rather than on domestic exigencies. Parvaneh
Vahidmanesh, an Iranian human rights activist based in Washington, thinks
the mullahs' behavior is disgraceful. In an email to me, she wrote: 'The
Iranian government has money to support the Assad regime, to provide it
with almost free oil, but it has no money to support its own population
at a time when people in the capital city can't afford to buy meat and
when schools in poor districts are burning down because of cheap, faulty
heating systems. Why is the money of Iranian children being used for guns
and bombs in Syria?' Patrikarakos believes such opinions are widespread
in Iran. 'The Iranians are suffering badly from sanctions and they're
wasting money -- money they don't have -- giving it to Hezbollah and
Assad,' he says. 'Floating Syria's energy sector is politically stupid,
too, because the greater threat to the mullahs is their own population
more than the fall of Assad.'" http://t.uani.com/1abMXNo
David Michel in
The Iran Primer: "Iran faces growing environmental
challenges that are now more perilous to the country's long-term
stability than either foreign adversaries or domestic political
struggles. More than two-thirds of the country's land-up to 118 million
hectares-is rapidly turning into desert, Iran's Foreign Range and
Watershed Management Organization reported in mid-2013. 'The main problem
that threatens us [and is] more dangerous than Israel, America or
political fighting... is that the Iranian plateau is becoming
uninhabitable,' presidential adviser Issa Kalantari warned in the newspaper
Ghanoon. 'If this situation is not reformed, in 30 years Iran will be a
ghost town.' He described an alarming future of desiccated lakes and
depleted groundwater, potentially driving millions of Iranians from their
homes. Iran now ranks 114 of 132 countries evaluated on 22 environmental
indicators, including water resources, air pollution, biodiversity and
climate change, according to the 2012 Environmental Performance Index
compiled by Yale and Columbia Universities... The damage - from water
stress, desertification and pollution--could impose debilitating burdens
long-term. The annual cost of Iran's environmental degradation already
amounts to a whopping 5 percent to 10 percent of GDP, according to the
World Bank. In contrast, tough U.S. and international sanctions
shrunk Iran's GDP by some 1.4 percent in 2012, according to the U.S.
Government Accountability Office. Over time, valuable resources will be
further depleted, productivity diminished, and public health damaged.
Mismanagement has contributed to Iran's environmental problems. Its
cities lose one-third of their water supplies in leaky pipes. Irrigation
is also highly inefficient; more than half of Iran's renewable water used
in agriculture is lost. Surmounting Iran's environmental challenges will require
serious reorientation of policies and resources. The cost of new
technologies, conservation practices and other measures to meet projected
water needs in 2050 could top $3 billion a year, experts say. Iran has
recently taken important steps in the right direction. Subsidy reforms
initiated in 2010 will gradually require consumers to absorb the actual
costs of water supplies, enhancing the incentives to be efficient.
Revenues saved from cutting back energy subsidies are intended to support
initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. But the
subsidy reforms stalled after phase one. They were also not designed or
intended to deal with environmental challenges. Iran's looming
environmental crisis will require a comprehensive green revolution in
national policy-making." http://t.uani.com/1dlEXOh
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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
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email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com
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