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Top Stories
Reuters:
"Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi on Monday called on the European
Union and United States to ban Iran from using U.S. and European
satellites to broadcast what she described as the Islamic Republic's
propaganda... 'We have to stop the government of Iran from being able to
use the satellites,' Ebadi said through an interpreter. 'This way we can
close down the propaganda microphones of the government.' She also said
that senior government officials, from deputy minister up, should face
travel bans and asset confiscations when they have funds deposited with
European and American banks... Ebadi, who has been living in exile in
Britain since 2009, expressed disappointment with Iran's new president,
Hassan Rouhani, widely seen as more moderate than his stridently
anti-Western predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. 'The motto of Mr Rouhani
was that he was going to change the conditions and this is why people
voted for him,' she said. 'Unfortunately that's not what happened.' ...
Ebadi said the number of executions in Iran since Rouhani's June election
was twice what it was a year ago, when Ahmadinejad was still in power.
Nearly all of the opposition activists in prison before he was elected
are still in prison and religious and ethnic minorities continue to be
persecuted, she added... 'Are you willing to shake hands with a
government that stones women? Are you going to trust a government that
executes its political opposition? Are you willing to compromise
standards of human rights, that you believe in, for your own security?'"
http://t.uani.com/1b8UayR
Reuters:
"U.N. nuclear agency chief Yukiya Amano is expected to visit Tehran
on November 11, Iranian state television said on Tuesday, a possible sign
of progress in a long-stalled investigation into suspected nuclear arms
research by Tehran... Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's atomic energy
organization, said he hoped the two sides would reach an agreement during
Amano's visit, state television said on its web site, without giving
details. There was no immediate comment from the IAEA, which wants access
to sites, officials and documents in Iran, including the Parchin military
base where it believes nuclear-related explosives tests might have taken
place, possibly a decade ago. The IAEA's discussions with Iran are separate
from broader negotiations between Tehran and six world powers that
resumed in Geneva last month and will continue there on November 7 and
8... If Amano's trip is confirmed, it would be his first visit to the
Iranian capital since May 2012. That time, he returned saying he expected
to sign a deal with Iran soon to unblock the agency's investigation, only
to see it fail to materialize." http://t.uani.com/1bVgnlC
AFP:
"Iran's President Hassan Rouhani is not 'optimistic' about ongoing
nuclear negotiations with world powers, the official IRNA news agency
reported Monday ahead of a new round of talks this week. 'The government
is not optimistic about the Westerners and the current negotiations,' he
was quoted as saying, echoing similar comments by supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Sunday. 'But it does not mean that we should not
have hope for removing the problems,' Rouhani said, referring to
international sanctions that have battered Iran's ailing economy. The
remarks came a day after Khamenei, who has final word on Iran's nuclear
drive, said he is not optimistic about the talks but supports them as
they are incapable of hurting the Islamic republic." http://t.uani.com/16CHAcN
 Nuclear
Program
AP: "The
United States and Saudi Arabia promised each other and the region Monday
that they would continue to work together, with Saudi Arabian Foreign
Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal saying 'our two friendly countries' are
busy dealing jointly with troublesome issues like Syria, Iran and the
Mideast peace process... On Iran, he said, 'The United States will not
allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon. That policy has not changed.' And
Kerry repeated that the United States will defend its Arab allies, even
as new talks with Iran begin this week in Geneva." http://t.uani.com/17JUZ3N
RWB:
"Reporters Without Borders supports the appeal launched by Nobel
peace laureate Shirin Ebadi's Center for Supporters of Human Rights for a
'national dialogue on nuclear energy' in Iran. The appeal has been signed
by around 100 well-known Iranian intellectuals, journalists and human
rights defenders. 'The issue of nuclear energy in Iran has always been
left to the government of the day, both before and after the revolution,
and for this reason is regarded as a political matter,' the appeal says.
"But it is not just a political issue. It also concerns the economy,
society and the environment and therefore affects all Iranian citizens.
The appeal adds: 'Iranians do not have enough information about the
advantages and disadvantages of nuclear energy for their country,
although it is a subject of national concern that directly influences
people's daily lives. It is why we are subjected to unprecedented
sanctions and why our country has been threatened with war.' Reporters
Without Borders said: 'Ever since the revelations about Iran's nuclear
activities at the start of the past decade, any coverage of this issue
has been banned by the many government bodies responsible for monitoring
and regulating the media.' ... 'Many journalists in different cities have
been threatened or arrested on spying charges over the years for
referring to nuclear energy issues,' Reporters Without Borders added.
'This censorship of nuclear coverage violates journalists' freedom to
inform and Iranians' right to be informed.'" http://t.uani.com/16CH6mU
Sanctions
Bloomberg:
"The combined carrying capacity of oil tankers leaving Iranian ports
last month dropped 22 percent from September, vessel-tracking data
compiled by Bloomberg show. The implied capacity of departing ships
declined to the equivalent of 1.02 million barrels a day from 1.30
million barrels, according to signals gathered by IHS Maritime, a
Coulsdon, England-based research company. The data may be incomplete
because not all ship transmissions are captured... The table below shows
estimated vessel capacities in millions of barrels a day, based on
signals from tankers that stopped at Iranian ports as well as movements
near the nation's terminals by its own tankers and Asian ships that
previously loaded Iranian cargoes since the European Union's embargo
began in July 2012." http://t.uani.com/1cMbQTs
Syria Conflict
BBC:
"A funeral has been held in south-eastern Iran for a Revolutionary
Guards commander who was reportedly killed by rebel forces in Syria. Brig
Gen Mohammad Jamali-Paqaleh was buried with full honours in Kerman. He
had volunteered to 'defend the Syrian people against terrorists' and
'protect the [Shia] holy shrine of Sayyida Zainab' outside Damascus, the
semi-official Mehr news agency said. Iran has denied sending combat
troops to support President Bashar al-Assad. On Monday, a Guards
spokesman insisted that its personnel were only in the country to
'provide advice and transfer its experience in the defence field'. Mehr
reported that Gen Jamali-Paqaleh was killed 'in the recent days', without
giving a specific date or location." http://t.uani.com/1a5cUl6
Human Rights
Fox News:
"The Iranian-American pastor being held in Iran has now been
transferred to a more dangerous prison where he faces life-threatening
conditions, according to his family and attorneys. When a member of Saeed
Abedini's family went to visit him at Evin Prison, a facility in Tehran
where he has been kept for over a year, he was told that the pastor had
been moved about an hour and a half away to Rajai Shahr Prison in the
town of Karaj. The family member then travelled to Rajai Shahr Prison and
was told that the pastor is being kept there, but is not permitted to
have any visitors, according to the American Center for Law and Justice,
the pastor's U.S.-based attorneys. According to inside sources, this new
prison in Karaj is an even more dangerous facility, where violent
prisoners, typically imprisoned for murder and rape, are held. Abedini,
33, an American citizen who lives in Boise, Idaho, with his wife and two
children, has been sentenced to eight years imprisonment, following his
arrest on a bus. His supporters say he has been beaten and tortured in
the prison, and that he was only in Iran to try to start a secular
orphanage." http://t.uani.com/17JVZoB
AFP:
"Several Iranian political prisoners have gone on hunger strike in
protest at being denied proper medical care in jail, international rights
groups said in a statement Monday. The International Federation for Human
Rights (FIDH), Defenders of Human Rights Centre (DRRC) and League for the
Defence of Human Rights in Iran (LDDHI) issued a joint statement
expressing alarm at the action by more than 80 inmates. Among them are human
rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani, who began a hunger strike in Tehran's
Evin prison on November 1 in protest at the authorities denying adequate
medical care to dozens of sick prisoners there, it said. 'Two days later,
about 80 prisoners also started a three-day strike in Rajaishahr prison,
near the city of Karaj, west of Tehran,' the statement said. The
hunger-strikers are denouncing security service 'interference' during
prisoner transfers to hospitals and the refusal of the authorities to
meet costly medical bills. 'Authorities seem to be seeking revenge
against prisoners of conscience for exercising their rights,' said FIDH
president Karim Lahidji." http://t.uani.com/HEb41n
Domestic
Politics
Bloomberg:
"Iran's government should legalize access to social-networking
websites, including Twitter and Facebook, Culture and Islamic Guidance
Minister Ali Jannati said. 'Not only Facebook, but other social networks
should be accessible and the illegal qualification should be removed,'
Jannati said, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
Iran currently blocks access to websites it considers politically
sensitive and to social-networking sites, which activists used in 2009 to
organize street protests after a disputed presidential vote... Jannati said
he doesn't control Internet bans, which are overseen by a 'filtering
committee' that's not under the direct supervision of his ministry. The
Culture Ministry has one representative on that committee, he added
without elaborating." http://t.uani.com/1b1Fjts
AP:
"An Iranian newspaper says more than 50 people were hospitalized in
a southern city where air pollution levels spiked this week. Tuesday's
report by the pro-reform Arman daily quotes the head of provincial health
department, Mohammad Hossein Sarmast, as saying that at least 5,000
people rushed to the city hospitals in Ahvaz seeking medical assistance
after pollution levels increased following lightning strikes and heavy
rains on Sunday. The paper also cites another health official, Mohammad
Alavi, as saying acid rain may have caused symptoms such as shortness of
breath among those admitted to hospitals." http://t.uani.com/HE9c8D
Opinion
& Analysis
Gerald Seib in WSJ: "U.S. officials
head to Geneva this week for a pivotal new round of discussions with Iran
over its nuclear program. So you can be sure some tricky talks lie just
ahead for the Obama administration. Tricky negotiations with the
Iranians, of course. But also tricky negotiations with Congress and with
Israel over the future of economic sanctions against the Iranian regime.
The administration and its partners among big world powers-Britain,
France, Russia, China and Germany-believe they are moving toward a two-phase
agreement with Iran designed to rein in its nuclear program before it
becomes capable of producing nuclear weapons. Under the first phase of
that deal, Iran would freeze elements of its nuclear program immediately
in return for what officials say would be 'modest' relief from some of
the broad and crippling sanctions the West put in place. And that's where
the rub comes in. That first phase, the U.S. and its partners believe,
would stop Iran's nuclear progress and buy time to negotiate a final,
broader agreement the world could live with permanently. The Obama
administration thinks this moment represents a rare but crucial
opportunity to begin taking advantage of two powerful forces that make a
deal possible. The first was the arrival of Iran's new president, Hasan
Rouhani, who appears to have taken on the specific missions of improving
Iran's economy and repairing relations with the West-tasks that involve,
by definition, reaching an understanding on Tehran's nuclear program. The
second force is the cumulative effect of international economic sanctions
on Iran's economy. Even Mr. Rouhani acknowledges that the sanctions are
hurting Iran deeply by reducing its ability to sell oil and shutting it
off from much of the international banking system. But if the success of
the sanctions regime has created the opportunity for a nuclear deal, that
success also has sown the seeds for the emerging dispute over the role of
sanctions in trying to close that deal. The U.S. and its big-power
partners believe it's wise to trade some limited sanctions relief now in
return for the first steps in slowing Iran's nuclear program. U.S.
officials insist that any sanctions relief offered now would be
limited-both in size and in time-and reversible if Iran doesn't cooperate
on a broad, permanent deal. That, they argue, would be a reasonable price
to pay for stopping Iran's nuclear clock before it further ticks down
toward the moment when Iran would have nuclear-weapons capability.
Moreover, the administration believes limited sanctions relief as part of
a two-stage deal would be the only way to preserve international support
for sanctions. Refusing to provide Iran some limited relief now, in
return for a freeze on some nuclear activities, would, U.S. officials
believe, prompt Iran to argue to the other world powers that the U.S. was
acting in bad faith and demonstrating lack of genuine interest in a deal.
And that, they believe, would cause international support for the
American-led sanctions infrastructure to begin crumbling. In other words,
the U.S. may need to give a little ground on sanctions in the first phase
in order to keep the whole sanctions system from eroding before a broader
deal is reached. But that's where the administration disagrees with
Israel and the country's supporters in Congress. Israel and these
congressional allies believe that even marginal concessions on sanctions,
rather than preserve the broader international commitment to keep up the
pressure, would prompt American allies to begin heading for the sanctions
exit. Many nations have participated in sanctions only under heavy
international pressure, this theory goes, and they would grab any sign of
wavering as a signal they are free to ease up. Moreover, this argument
goes, if sanctions are the only reason Iran has come this far in
negotiations, only more pressure will push it across the line to a real
deal. So at the same time the administration is talking of limited
sanctions relief, some in Congress actually are trying to move in the
opposite direction. The House in July passed a bill that would require
the administration to impose new restrictions and penalties on those who
do business with Iran, provisions designed to choke off even further
Iran's ability to sell oil. Sympathetic senators are preparing similar,
though somewhat less sweeping, legislation." http://t.uani.com/1hJYkU9
Claudia Rosett in
WSJ: "Bravo to the European Union, whose authorities
are seeking ways to maintain sanctions on Iran's national cargo fleet.
The EU's existing sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping
Lines were overturned in September by the EU General Court on grounds
that the European Council had not provided enough evidence linking IRISL
to Iran's nuclear program, which was the reason given for the EU's
blacklisting the shipping group in 2010. European governments are now
exploring new grounds for reimposing sanctions, such as IRISL's record of
arms smuggling... Diplomats would be wise to pay more attention to
IRISL's record than to the political sensitivities. While demanding its
day in court under European law, IRISL has racked up a history on a
variety of other fronts in which respect for law hardly figures.
When the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on IRISL and 123 of its ships in
2008, the broad reason Treasury gave in a press release was that IRISL
was 'providing logistical services to Iran's Ministry of Defense and
Armed Forces Logistics.' As an example, Treasury cited a case in 2007 in
which IRISL had allegedly transported 'a shipment of precursor chemicals
destined for use in Iran's missile program.' In the same 2008 press
release, Stuart Levey, then Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and
financial intelligence, said that 'Not only does IRISL facilitate the
transport of cargo for U.N. designated proliferators, it also falsifies
documents and uses deceptive schemes to shroud its involvement in illicit
commerce.' Mr. Levey also said that 'IRISL's actions are part of a
broader pattern of deception and fabrication that Iran uses to advance
its nuclear and missile programs.' As U.S. sanctions began to bite, IRISL
embarked on a series of maneuvers that Adam Szubin, the director of
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, described in 2011 as
'deception, fraud and dangerous activities on behalf of the Government of
Iran.' IRISL renamed and reflagged most of its vessels, according to Mr.
Szubin, and it shuffled nominal ownership of those ships among shell
companies spread around the globe, in places such as Hong Kong, Dubai,
Barbados and Malta, according to Treasury documents and shipping
registries. According to an Oct. 2, 2009, U.S. State Department cable
marked 'secret' and published by WikiLeaks, IRISL was officially
privatized in 2008, but the Iranian government 'probably still maintains
control of a significant number of shares.' The cable noted that, 'As a
result of its Iranian domestic and government connections, IRISL has long
been Iran's preferred maritime carrier for the import of materials for
its ballistic missile programs.' IRISL has also figured in Iran's illicit
export of weapons. In 2009, the U.N. Security Council's committee on Iran
sanctions reported three cases that year of Iranian arms smuggling aboard
ships. The U.N. report described all three cases as 'violations' of a
U.N. sanctions resolution passed in 2007 forbidding Iran to sell or
transfer abroad, directly or indirectly, 'any arms or related materiel.'
According to the U.N. committee, 'all three violations involved the
Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL).' ... For all of IRISL's
wiles, sanctions have had a visible effect on the group's usefulness to
the Iranian regime. IRISL ships in recent years have at considerable cost
registered under such flags of convenience as Bolivia's, Mongolia's,
Tuvalu's and Tanzania's. Due largely to the efforts of the U.S. Treasury,
they been kicked off all of them. Among the more than 120 vessels
currently blacklisted by Treasury as linked to IRISL, most are now
reflagged back to Iran. And while IRISL's fleet used to sail most of the
globe, ship-tracking databases show that IRISL's shipping routes are now
largely confined to the Middle East and Asia, with occasional runs to
Africa. None of this has succeeded in stopping Iran's nuclear program.
But any easing of EU sanctions on IRISL seems unlikely to help,
especially when Iran, for all its current charm offensive, has yet to
provide any concrete sign that it has kicked the arms-smuggling and
proliferation habit-or, for that matter, backed off from its role as the
world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. According to the Iranian
press, IRISL's managing director, Mohammad Hossein Dajmar, celebrated
September's EU court annulment of sanctions as a 'big success' that 'puts
the seal of approval on the rightfulness of IRISL and the baselessness of
the accusations.' If the EU's earlier accusations couldn't hold up in
court, there's every reason for EU authorities to dip into IRISL's long
record for some charges that just might." http://t.uani.com/1b3RGTZ
Jeffrey Goldberg
in Bloomberg: "In this latest phase of the Iran
drama, the differences between Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama
are mainly concealed from view, but we're now seeing some small fissures.
I've been curious to know what others in the Obama administration think
about Netanyahu's current stance (a stance he shares with many in the
U.S. Senate, by the way), so on a visit to the Pentagon late last week,
one of the first questions I put to the secretary of defense, Chuck
Hagel, was this: Is Netanyahu, in fact, using scare tactics in order to torpedo
Iran negotiations? 'I think Prime Minister Netanyahu is legitimately
concerned, as any prime minister of Israel has been, about the future
security needs of their country,' Hagel said. Netanyahu, he continued,
'has got a history of being very clear on where he is on this.' Hagel,
now in his ninth month leading the Pentagon, argued that Netanyahu's
threats of military action against Iranian nuclear sites, combined with
the pressure of sanctions, may have actually encouraged Iran to take
negotiations seriously. 'It's true that sanctions -- not just U.S.
sanctions but UN sanctions, multilateral sanctions -- have done
tremendous economic damage,' Hagel said. 'Even many of Iran's leaders
have acknowledged that. And I think that Iran is responding to the constant
pressure from Israel, knowing that Israel believes them to be an
existential threat. I think all of this, combined, probably brought the
Iranians to where we are today. Whether the Iranians will carry forth on
that, we'll see.' Hagel made sure to absolve Netanyahu of the charge that
he's intent on subverting the nuclear talks. 'I don't think he's
intentionally trying to derail negotiations,' he said." http://t.uani.com/HxNnHI
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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