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Top Stories
AFP: "Iran's
supreme leader vowed Wednesday no retreat from Tehran's nuclear
'rights' in an anti-Israel diatribe that France said 'complicates'
crunch talks getting under way in Geneva. Predicting the demise of
'rabid dog' Israel, which Iran has accused of trying to 'torpedo' a
deal, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the powers must respect the Islamic
republic's 'red lines'. 'I insist on not retreating one step from the
rights of the Iranian nation,' Khamenei, 74, told militiamen of the
Basij force in a rare, live televised address. France said that his
comments -- he said Israel's leaders were 'not worthy to be called
human' -- are 'unacceptable and complicate negotiations' on Iran's
nuclear programme." http://t.uani.com/17Mslvx
NYT:
"In a meeting with Senate leaders on Tuesday, President Obama
failed to sway critics of his effort to sign an interim nuclear deal
with Iran. But in a modest concession, they agreed to hold off on a
vote to impose new sanctions on Iran until after talks in Geneva later
this week. After a two-hour session that reflected deep divisions
between the White House and Congress, a bipartisan group of the
Senate's top foreign policy and national security committees urged Mr.
Obama to reject any nuclear deal with Iran that did not include a tangible
rollback of its nuclear weapons program. But after the president
pleaded with them to hold off on new measures against Iran, several
senators signaled that they would not seek to amend a military funding
bill now under consideration with any provision including the
additional sanctions. That did not stop another group, led by Senator
Mark S. Kirk, Republican of Illinois, from going ahead and proposing
stricter sanctions, which would take aim at Iran's remaining oil sales,
as an amendment to the military bill. With the Senate going on
Thanksgiving recess on Friday, however, it will be at least two weeks
before any measure will come up for a vote. That gives the White House
some breathing room to reach a preliminary deal freezing Iran's nuclear
activities for six months, in return for modest sanctions relief."
http://t.uani.com/17Lj1xf
NYT:
"Senior officials from six world powers met Wednesday in Geneva in
a new bid to reach an agreement with Iran on its nuclear program
despite opposition from Israel, some members of the United States
Congress and Iranian hard-liners... The Geneva talks are a continuation
of an attempt two weeks ago to clinch a deal with Iran that would put a
brake on its nuclear program in return for limited relief of economic
sanctions. American officials say those terms are intended only as a
first step to a comprehensive agreement that would remove the risk of
Iran developing a nuclear weapon... The new round of negotiations,
tentatively scheduled to run until Friday, will reveal whether the
progress both sides said they made in those negotiations provided
sufficient momentum to achieve the breakthrough that eluded them
earlier this month. Catherine Ashton, the European Union's
foreign policy chief who is hosting the negotiations, began the talks
on Wednesday by meeting senior officials of the P5-plus-1: the five
permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - the United
States, France, Britain, Russia and China - plus Germany. Ms. Ashton
was to meet with the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammed Javad Zarif,
before a formal session with all parties later Wednesday or on
Thursday, Michael Mann, the European Union spokesman, said." http://t.uani.com/1jmrt5Q
 Nuclear Negotiations
WSJ: "President
Barack Obama, defending his overture to Iran, said Tuesday that the
hobbled Persian Gulf oil power would continue losing money even under a
temporary deal with international powers over its nuclear program
because the most punitive economic sanctions would remain in place. Mr.
Obama, speaking at The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council, rebutted
criticism of the talks by describing the web of economic restrictions
that would remain in place during any sort of interim agreement. 'The
oil sanctions, the banking sanctions, the financial services
sanctions-those are the ones that have really taken a big chunk out of
the Iranian economy,' he said. 'And all those sanctions and the
architecture for them don't go anywhere.' ... Mr. Obama said that
Iran's economy is severely strained, with oil production and sales down
by more than half, more than $100 billion in Iranian oil revenue
outside the country and beyond the government's reach and the currency
in decline. 'Because the oil and banking sanctions stay in place, they
will actually still be losing money even during this six-month period
relative to the amount of oil sales they had back in 2011,' he said.
Mr. Obama said he's unsure if an agreement will be reached this week
when negotiators resume talks in Geneva. 'I don't know if we'll be able
to close a deal this week or next week,' Mr. Obama said." http://t.uani.com/1b7Rjvo
Reuters:
"Senior U.S. lawmakers urged the Obama administration on Tuesday
to take a tougher line in negotiations with Iran over its nuclear
ambitions, saying Tehran should roll back its nuclear program before
economic sanctions are eased. Democratic Senators Charles Schumer,
Robert Menendez and Bob Casey, as well as Republicans John McCain,
Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins signed the letter to Secretary of
State John Kerry, released a day before a third round of talks in
Geneva between Iran and six world powers... The senators expressed
support for the negotiations, but urged against accepting any deal that
would roll back economic sanctions without also rolling back Iran's
progress toward a nuclear weapons capability. 'We feel strongly that
any easing of sanctions along the lines that the P5+1 is reportedly
considering should require Iran to roll back its nuclear program more
significantly than now envisioned,' the six senators said in the
letter. Separately, another six senators, all Republicans and including
Mitch McConnell, the party's leader in the Senate, said they had
introduced a new round of sanctions on Iran as an amendment to a defense
bill being considered in the Senate." http://t.uani.com/1b7QVwO
Reuters:
"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Russia on
Wednesday to appeal for tougher terms in a nuclear accord with Iran
after failing to convince the United States that world powers are
pursuing a bad deal... 'Our job is to try to sway the Russians, as we
have been doing with all the players,' said Deputy Israeli Foreign
Minister Ze'ev Elkin, who accompanied Netanyahu to Moscow. 'Russia is
not going to adopt Israeli positions wholesale. But any movement, even
small, in the Russian position can affect the negotiations,' Elkin told
Israel Radio." http://t.uani.com/1fhsNcO
AFP:
"President Hassan Rouhani in a telephone call with British Prime
Minister David Cameron stressed Tehran's firm right to pursue a
peaceful nuclear programme, Iranian media reported Wednesday. Cameron's
call on Tuesday to Rouhani, the first such high-level exchange in a
decade, came on the eve of a new round of talks in Geneva between world
powers and Iran on Tehran's nuclear programme. 'As Iran is determined
that its nuclear activities will remain peaceful, it will strongly
defend its nuclear rights,' the official IRNA news agency reported
Rouhani as telling Cameron. 'We will accept no discrimination on this
issue. The language of respect must replace that of threats and sanctions,'
he added." http://t.uani.com/17MsIWO
Sanctions
Reuters:
"Iran's growing reliance on burning oil products to make
electricity, due to its inability to extract more natural gas, has cost
tens of billions of dollars, the head of the National Iranian Gas Company
(NIGC) said on Tuesday. Iran sits on the world's largest known gas
reserves, according to estimates by BP but, while demand has surged, it
has made slow progress in developing them, largely because of Western
sanctions over its nuclear programme. Iran's use of oil
middle-distillates for power generation has risen from 8.4 billion
cubic metres (bcm) in 1996 to 22.3 bcm in 2012, and has already hit 30
bcm in the last seven months, NIGC director Hamidreza Araqi told the
Energy Ministry news website Shana. Araqi said the use of liquid fuels
rather than gas had in effect cost Iran $28 billion, but he did not
specify a time period or spell out how he had arrived at the
figure." http://t.uani.com/18PrtGp
Syria
Conflict
WashPost:
"The debris-strewn, bloodstained street outside the Iranian
Embassy in Beirut lay as mute testimony of another dark day in Lebanon
on Tuesday, when nearly two dozen people were killed in a double
suicide bombing, the latest in a string of sectarian attacks to blight
the country. The first bomber, on a motorcycle, struck at a checkpoint
just yards from the embassy in the Bir Hasan area of the capital,
according to security officials and the army. The blast drew residents
out onto the street and their balconies, exposing them to the more
powerful suicide car bombing that occurred minutes later. By
day's end, the death toll from the twin blasts stood at 23, with 147
people injured, according to the Health Ministry. Iran's state-run
Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) confirmed that the country's
cultural attache, Ibrahim Ansari, was among the dead. The long-running
Syrian civil war has inflamed sectarian tensions across the region, as
a largely Sunni insurgency backed by Saudi Arabia and Qatar battles to
oust President Bashar al-Assad, who has received support from Shiite
fighters from Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, an
Iranian ally." http://t.uani.com/HZ9wOY
Human Rights
RFE/RL:
"The UN General Assembly's human rights committee is criticizing
Iran for serious rights violations, including torture, frequent use of
the death penalty, and widespread restrictions on freedom of assembly
and expression. The committee passed a resolution on November 19 in New
York urging Iran's new government, led by President Hassan Rohani, to
address the ongoing human rights violations. The resolution was adopted
by a vote of 83-36 with 62 abstentions. The resolution was sponsored by
Canada, which broke diplomatic relations with Iran in September 2012.
Iran's UN Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee accused Canada of brushing off
'Iran's enormous advancement' and presenting a resolution 'devoid of
facts.' The 193-member General Assembly is expected to give final
approval to the resolution next month." http://t.uani.com/18nIafT
Reuters:
"Afghans fleeing fighting at home and seeking refuge in
neighbouring Iran face increasing persecution by the Iranian
government, Human Rights Watch said in a report on Wednesday. The
report, 'Unwelcome Guests', details a growth in arbitrary arrests,
detentions, beatings and harassment of more than a million Afghans as
Iran faces its own economic problems worsened by international
sanctions. The New York-based rights group cited unidentified Afghan
officials accusing Iran of using deportations as a form of political
blackmail against the Afghan state, which already struggles to provide
for citizens living within its borders. 'In recent years conditions
have worsened and pressures increased for nearly all Afghans in Iran,'
the rights group said. 'They face higher barriers to humanitarian aid
and social services, arbitrary arrest and detention, and have little
recourse when abused by government or private actors.'" http://t.uani.com/1c1TD3C
AP:
"An Idaho pastor who is being detained in a notorious prison in
Iran has been allowed to visit members of his family, a development
that human rights groups attribute to international pressure calling
for his release. The American Center for Law & Justice said the
visit granted Monday to Christian pastor Saeed Abedini was the first since
his transfer to Rajai Shahr prison more than two weeks ago. Jordan
Sekulow, executive director of ACLJ, said it's also the first time
anyone outside the prison has been able to gauge his health since the
transfer. Abedini's situation remains dire, Sekulow said. The
33-year-old pastor, who is of Iranian origin but had been living with
his wife and children in Boise, Idaho, is being held in the lockup's
violent criminal ward and is sharing a 10-by-10 cell with five other
prisoners." http://t.uani.com/1jmpej1
Domestic
Politics
Reuters:
"Iran's state news agency dismissed a series of reports by Reuters
about a multi-billion dollar organisation controlled by Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei as 'disinformation' intended to undermine public trust in
the Islamic Republic's institutions. Last week, Reuters published a
three-part series entitled Assets of the Ayatollah (www.reuters.com/investigates/iran/)
detailing how the organisation, called Setad Ejraiye Farmane Hazrate
Emam, has become one of the most powerful institutions in Iran through
the systematic seizure and sale of thousands of properties belonging to
ordinary Iranians. Setad's total worth is difficult to pinpoint because
of the secrecy of its accounts. But its holdings of real estate,
corporate stakes in a variety of industries and other assets total
about $95 billion, Reuters has calculated. Through Setad, Khamenei has
at his disposal financial resources whose value rivals the holdings of
the shah, the Western-backed monarch who was overthrown in 1979. In an
editorial, state news agency IRNA said the aim of the series was to
tarnish the image of the institutions and undermine 'the pillars of the
Islamic Revolution.'" http://t.uani.com/1aRadk3
Foreign
Affairs
Reuters:
"Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday
Tehran wanted friendly ties with all countries, including the United
States, on the day Iran begins a new round of talks with world powers
on its disputed nuclear program. 'We want to have friendly relations
with all nations, even the United States,' he told an audience of Basij
militiamen. 'We are not hostile to the American nation. They are like
other nations in the world,' he said. 'Death to America,' the
militiamen chanted in response." http://t.uani.com/1atjfHY
Opinion
& Analysis
Claudia Rosett in WSJ:
"U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry emerged from the latest round
of Iran nuclear talks in Geneva earlier this month to say that
negotiators are 'clearly further down the road in understanding what
the remaining challenges are.' Yet with talks due to resume Wednesday,
Mr. Kerry and his team have yet to address one of the biggest
challenges: the example set by North Korea, which over the past two
decades has shown the world-Iran, not least-how a rogue state can
exploit over-eager western diplomacy to haggle and cheat its way to the
nuclear bomb. Since 1994, North Korea has cut a series of nuclear
freeze deals, collecting security guarantees, diplomatic concessions
and material benefits along the way. North Korea has cheated and reneged
on every deal. Today, the Kim regime has uranium enrichment facilities,
has restarted (again) its plutonium-producing nuclear reactor at
Yongbyon, has conducted a series of increasingly successful long-range
missile tests, and has carried out three nuclear tests, in 2006, 2009
and 2013. Recent commercial satellite imagery of North Korea's
Punggye-ri underground nuclear test site shows two freshly dug tunnel
entrances and continuing excavation, according to a recent report from
the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced
International Studies. If past activity is any guide, these signs augur
the next nuclear test. To understand the scale of Korean nuclear
perfidy, one needs to trace the history of the three grand bargains
struck in 1994, 2005 and 2007, not to mention a spate of lesser deals.
Under the 1994 Agreed Framework reached under former President Bill
Clinton, North Korea agreed to freeze and ultimately dismantle its
nuclear weapons program, including its main reactor at Yongbyon. In
return, the U.S. would move toward normalizing relations with
Pyongyang, lead a consortium to finance and build two lightwater
reactors on North Korea's east coast, and, pending their completion,
provide North Korea with 500,000 tons annually of heavy fuel oil. The
idea, similar to the step-by-step approach the U.S. is now pursuing
with Iran, was that the deal would unfold in phases, each replete with
verification and rewards, leading to a more friendly and benign North
Korea. Instead, North Korea carried on with missile proliferation not
directly covered in the Agreed Framework." http://t.uani.com/1c1ZXYZ
Wisconsin
Project on Nuclear Arms Control: "In March, U.S.
President Barack Obama said that the use of chemical weapons in Syria
would be a 'game changer.' Earlier, in August 2012, he warned
that for the United States, the use of such weapons in Syria would
cross a red line and would lead to 'enormous consequences.' The August
21, 2013 sarin gas attack in a Damascus suburb - widely assessed to have
been carried out by the Assad regime - resulted in the threat of U.S.
missile strikes, then an effort to have the U.S. Congress endorse such
strikes, and then hurried diplomacy by Russia that produced a chemical
weapon disarmament plan. What does the U.S. response to the use of
unconventional weapons in a Middle Eastern conflict tell us about
present U.S. efforts to prevent another country - Iran - from
developing nuclear weapons? What lessons might Iran, and U.S.
allies, draw from the Syrian example? These questions were addressed at
a private roundtable discussion hosted by the Wisconsin Project on
Nuclear Arms Control on October 28, 2013 - about one week before a new
round of nuclear talks among the P5+1 countries and Iran began on
November 7. The panelists were Joseph DeThomas, who served most
recently as an advisor in the Office of the Secretary of State's Senior
Advisor for Nonproliferation and Arms Control, David Kay, a Senior
Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, and Michael Singh,
Managing Director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The
panelists concluded that the U.S. response in Syria provides important
insights into the situation in Iran. The likelihood that the
United States will use force in Iran during the remainder of the Obama
administration, and the credibility of that threat, have both decreased
following the Syria episode. U.S. leadership and credibility in
the region have also been damaged. Congress remains more likely
to support the use of force in Iran than it did in Syria, though the
overall appetite for military action, in Congress and among the public,
has decreased. As in Syria, the panelists found that a
third party - most likely Russia or China - could play a role in
brokering a negotiated solution with Iran. The panelists also
agreed that such a solution may be more likely with Iran at present,
though there was a difference of opinion as to the reasons for
this. While Iran's new president is anxious to deliver on a
campaign promise of sanctions relief, the panelists were uncertain as
to whether this would be enough to motivate Iran to accept sufficient
restrictions on its nuclear work. Following is the moderators' summary
of the discussion. The findings are a composite of the panelists'
individual views. No finding should be attributed to any single
panelist, or be seen as a statement of policy of any government." http://t.uani.com/1atm4Jl
Stuart Appelbaum
& Benjamin Weinthal in NYDN: "The expectation
that the election of new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani would curtail
persecution of minorities has proved a bitter disappointment for his
country's struggling gay community. Sadly, human rights under the
so-called 'moderate' Rouhani presidency is a case where past is
prologue. Rouhani has not openly expressed anti-gay rhetoric like his
predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said while visiting New York, 'In
Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country.' Still, the
situation for gays in Iran has not improved under the new leadership.
'Nothing essential has changed. The structure is still the same. It's a
play, a comic and ugly performance. They're relying on the naivete of
people to be able to succeed,' said the openly gay Iranian poet Payam
Feili about Rouhani's policies. Rouhani made an election promise to end
bias and move away from the hostile domestic climate fostered by
Ahmadenijad against minorities and political opponents. But Iran's LGBT
community considers these sweeping verbal gestures empty rhetoric
because Rouhani's track record says otherwise. Just shy of 100 days in
office Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corp arrested 'a network of
homosexuals' in the city of Kermanshah near Iraq's border. Militia
forces stormed a ceremony hall and seized some 80 people." http://t.uani.com/19ElG64
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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