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Top Stories
AP: "Tens
of thousands of demonstrators packed the streets Monday outside the
former U.S. Embassy in Tehran in the biggest anti-American rally in
years, a show of support for hard-line opponents of President Hassan
Rouhani's historic outreach to Washington. Such protests occur every year
outside the former embassy compound to mark the anniversary of the 1979
takeover following the Islamic Revolution. But the latest demonstration
is the largest in years after calls by groups such as the powerful
Revolutionary Guard for a major showing, including chants of 'death to
America' that some of Rouhani's backers have urged halted. The crowds
also send a message to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who
cautiously has backed Rouhani's overtures to the U.S. and efforts to end
the impasse with the West over Tehran's nuclear program. Opponents of
thawing relations with the U.S. say they will not back down, opening the
prospect of deeper internal rifts and tensions that could put pressure on
Khamenei to reconsider his backing of Rouhani's groundbreaking exchanges
with the U.S. ... Protesters also stomped on images of Obama and the U.S.
flag. Others carried well-known banners reading 'We trample America under
our feet' and 'The U.S. is the Great Satan.' One image showed Obama in a
wrestling uniform with Star of David earrings, symbolizing Israel." http://t.uani.com/1gmRBjS
AFP:
"Iran's supreme leader said Sunday he is not optimistic but supports
talks with world powers over his country's nuclear drive as the process is
incapable of hurting the Islamic republic. The remarks by the
all-powerful Ayatollah Ali Khamenei came ahead of a new round of
negotiations with the so-called P5+1 group of world powers in Geneva on
November 7 and 8. 'I am not optimistic about the negotiations but, with
the grace of God, we will not suffer losses either,' said Khamenei. 'I do
not think the negotiations will produce the results expected by Iran,' he
told a group of students at his residence, a day before the anniversary
of the takeover of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979... 'The Americans
smile and express a desire for negotiations; on the other hand, they
immediately say that all options are on the table,' he said. 'We should
not trust a smiling enemy,' Khamenei said, warning Iran's negotiating
team of hardened diplomats overseen by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad
Zarif... Khamenei was also critical of the close US alliance with the
Jewish state, whose existence the Islamic republic does not recognise.
'The Americans have the highest indulgence towards the Zionists and they
have to. But we do not share such indulgence,' he said. 'The Zionist
regime is an illegitimate and bastard regime,' he said." http://t.uani.com/1fetBMU
Times of Israel:
"The Iranian parliament on Sunday rang out with chants of 'Death to
America' after the vice speaker delivered an impassioned speech defending
the country's continued use of the expression ahead of the 34th
anniversary of the storming of the US Embassy in Tehran. Vice
Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Hossein Aboutorabifard commended the
November 4, 1979, attack on the US embassy as a symbol of 'resistance of
righteousness against falsehood,' Iran's Tasnim news agency reported. At
the conclusion of Aboutorabifard's speech to the parliament, MPs joined
in a collective chant of 'Death to America.' Not satisfied with one
legislative chorus of 'Death to America' chants, approximately 200 MPs -
over two-thirds of the assembly - said they would voice their strong
opposition to Washington by participating in a collective 'Death to the
US' shouting match on Monday, the anniversary of the storming of the US
Embassy in Tehran." http://t.uani.com/HqNNPB
 Nuclear
Program
NYT: "With
talks over Iran's nuclear program set to resume in Geneva this week, both
sides engaged in a bit of public diplomacy Sunday: Iran's supreme leader
moved to quiet hard-liners in his country by expressing support for his
negotiating team, while the chief American negotiator reiterated in an
Israeli television interview that 'no deal is better than a bad deal.'
The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds Iran's final word
on the nuclear talks, told a group of students here that he was not optimistic
the negotiations would succeed, but he also sent a negative message to
the conservative clerics and military commanders who in recent weeks have
attacked the diplomatic initiative. 'No one has the right to see our
negotiating team as compromisers,' Ayatollah Khamenei said, according to
a recounting published on his personal website. 'They are our own
children and children of the revolution. They have a difficult mission,
and no one has the right to weaken an official who is doing his job.' ...
In a lengthy interview with Channel 10 News in Israel that was broadcast
Sunday night, Wendy Sherman, who leads the United States delegation to
the nuclear talks, sought to reassure a skeptical ally of 'President
Obama's commitment that Iran not obtain a nuclear weapon.' Ms. Sherman
twice repeated Secretary of State John Kerry's statement that 'no deal is
better than a bad deal,' and said Mr. Kerry's recent criticism of people
using 'fear tactics' to derail the diplomatic initiative had not been
directed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as many Israelis
believed." http://t.uani.com/1czyLFs
Free Beacon:
"Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta cautioned the Obama
administration about engaging in endless negotiations with Iran, stating
that 'we may very well have to use military force' to stop Tehran's
pursuit of nuclear arms. Panetta, who also served as director of the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) until 2011, warned that Iranian nuclear
negotiators may not be able to even deliver on a deal and that, in the
end, military force may be the only tactic to stop Tehran's nuclear
pursuit. 'We must remain strong, we must remain consistent that they
[Iran] must never, never be able to develop a nuclear weapon, and that we
may very well have to use military force to back up our policy,' Panetta
said to applause Thursday evening during an address at the
Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) centennial meeting in New York City. While
it is worth negotiating with Iran for a time, these talks should not drag
on forever, Panetta said. 'I think we clearly should negotiate to
determine whether they're serious about dealing with their nuclear
capability,' he said. 'But we have to maintain a healthy
skepticism.'" http://t.uani.com/1aZ02Mk
AFP:
"The head of the UN atomic watchdog said Friday that Iran's new
leadership has indicated a willingness to address concerns regardless of
progress in parallel talks with world powers. The International Atomic
Energy Agency said this week that it held 'productive' talks with
President Hassan Rouhani's government, which come as Iran conducts
separate negotiations with the United States and five other nations over
its nuclear program. In a break with Iran's past statements, Yukiya
Amano, director general of the IAEA, said that Rouhani's team has not
tied cooperation with the Vienna-based agency to the political talks --
in which Tehran is seeking relief from crippling US-led sanctions. 'I can
tell you that after the coming of President Rouhani, we have had a number
of contacts with them.. but we haven't heard this linkage,' Amano said at
the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. Asked
whether this marked a significant change, Amano said: 'I think so. There
is some substance in the new proposal by Iran.'" http://t.uani.com/1b6JPn1
Sanctions
FT:
"There are very few places in the world that are entirely off limits
to the western oil majors, a group who will literally go anywhere in
search of crude. But Iran is the big exception. Thanks to US and EU
sanctions, Iran is, for Big Oil at least, beyond the pale. That may now
be about to change. The recent charm offensive by Iran's new president,
Hassan Rouhani, has raised hopes of a diplomatic rapprochement between
Tehran and Washington and an easing of sanctions. Iran has now gone further,
suggesting it could offer more lucrative contracts to foreign companies
prepared to invest in its oilfields. In an interview with the Financial
Times, Mehdi Hosseini, an adviser to the Iranian oil minister, said the
government was working on scrapping the current system of 'buybacks' - a
kind of deal that has proven one of the most problematic in the oil
industry - and replacing it with a new type of contract. It is part of a
push to attract at least $100bn of investment into Iran over the next three
years... But the majors are sceptical. So many things have to change
before they would even consider investing in Iran - not least an end to
sanctions. And even then, success is not assured. 'Oil companies have a
lot more opportunities now than they did even 10 years ago,' says a
senior executive at one of the majors. 'The world has changed - there is
Africa, Latin America, US shale. In that context, Iran's going to have to
offer much more competitive terms if it wants to attract companies like
ours.'" http://t.uani.com/1a2JgwB
AP:
"A report by an Iranian media website says China has agreed to
finance $20 billion in development projects in Iran using oil money not
transferred to the Islamic Republic because of international sanctions.
The tasnimnews website published a report Saturday quoting prominent
lawmaker Hasan Sobhaninia saying the deal was reached during talks
between Iran's parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani and Chinese leaders.
Larijani visited China this week and Sobhaninia accompanied the speaker.
Iran government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nowbakht said last week that
some $22 billion dollars of Iranian oil money is stuck in China because
of sanctions." http://t.uani.com/1bS6wwE
AFP:
"Iran's deputy oil minister, Ali Majedi, said Monday on that Pakistan
must finance a controversial pipeline that would enable it to buy gas
from the Islamic republic. Majedi's remarks come after Pakistan's Oil
Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi asked Iran to stump up $2 billion (1.45
billion euros) to finish the construction of the pipeline. The
$7.5-billion project launched in 2010 has drawn threats of US sanctions
and run into repeated problems, including major financing issues. 'We did
not make such a commitment to help Pakistan with $2 billion for the
construction of the pipeline,' Majedi said, quoted by Fars news agency.
He argued that based on initial agreements each side 'must bring its own
share' in financing the project, adding the 'Pakistanis need Iran's gas
and they should accelerate their work.' Construction on the Iranian side
of the border is almost complete, but Pakistan has run into repeated
problems financing the 780-kilometre (485 miles) section to be built on
its side." http://t.uani.com/1iHdnf7
Bloomberg:
"Iran will lead a club of the world's biggest natural gas exporters
as its own shipments abroad are hampered by U.S. and European Union
sanctions that force the country to burn off billions of dollars worth of
the fuel. Mohammad Hussein Adeli, a former central bank governor and
ambassador to Canada and the U.K., was elected to lead the Gas Exporting
Countries Forum, holders of 60 percent of the world's reserves, Iran's
Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told reporters at a meeting of the
group's 13 members in Tehran today... U.S. and EU trade sanctions over
Iran's nuclear program have cut the Persian nation's crude exports, its
largest revenue source, by half since 2011 and are stifling projects to
export some of its gas reserves, the world's largest. Iran is one of
three GECF members that are net importers as the group faces increased
competition from liquefied natural gas export projects from the U.S. to
Australia. 'Iran is essentially absent from the regional and global
markets,' Tom James, a Dubai-based managing director of Navitas Resources
Ltd., an energy and commodity markets adviser, said Oct. 30 by e-mail.
'Iran could easily aim for a 10 percent share of global gas trade.'"
http://t.uani.com/171mAth
AP:
"Iran's Oil Minister says Iraq has increased its crude oil exports
to compensate for a fall in Iranian exports as a result of sanctions over
Tehran's suspected nuclear program, calling the policy 'not friendly at
all.' Bijan Namdar Zanganeh is quoted by the semiofficial Mehr news
agency Saturday as saying that Iraq's oil policies are to Iran's detriment."
http://t.uani.com/1aYQTmY
Syria Conflict
Reuters:
"A commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards has been killed in Syria
after volunteering to defend a Shi'ite shrine in Damascus, the Iranian
Mehr news agency said on Monday. Commander Mohammad Jamalizadeh of the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the southeastern province of
Kerman was killed in the last few days by 'Wahhabi terrorists', the
agency said, giving no more details... Jamalizadeh was a veteran of the
1980-88 Iran-Iraq war and then served in anti-smuggling units. He did not
travel to Syria for the IRGC, but volunteered to defend the Sayyida
Zainab mosque in the southern suburbs of Damascus, Mehr said... Lebanon's
Iranian-backed Hezbollah group openly acknowledges its guerrillas are fighting
for Assad, but Tehran denies its troops have been engaged directly in
combat in Syria. 'As we have said many times before, Iran has no
battalions in Syria and only advisers are present to transfer their
defensive experience to the defenders of that country,' Sepah news agency
quoted General Ramazan Sharif, head of public relations for IRGC, as
saying on Monday." http://t.uani.com/17HI1n6
Deutsche Welle:
"But while proposals and demands about uranium enrichment levels,
sanctions relief, spot checks, and plutonium reprocessing are being
passed back and forth behind closed doors, one huge but unmentioned issue
is troubling both sides: the ongoing Syrian crisis. The horrific conflict
between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and a wide array of rebels is a
vastly more important issue for Iran that it is for the rest of the
world. For the world's major powers, the conflict is one of the worst
humanitarian disasters of the 21st century and a grave threat to
stability in the Middle East, but for Iran, the war in Syria goes even
deeper and represents a direct threat to its own power and internal
order. That much was made clear this week, when the magazine Foreign
Policy unearthed evidence that Tehran is doing far more than merely
training and financing Assad's militias. It is supplying the Syrian
regime with discount oil and free loans to pay for it - a major sacrifice
for a country under extreme economic pressure from international
sanctions." http://t.uani.com/1bS7A3U
NYT:
"Turkey and Iran, on opposing sides of the civil war in Syria,
signaled a thaw in relations on Friday, asserting that they shared
concerns about the rise in sectarianism there and could collaborate to
bring peace to their neighbor. The softening, reflected in the Iran
foreign minister's visit to Turkey, came as the international community
was working toward talks to end the Syrian conflict. Turkish officials
appeared to be trying to position themselves as a bridge between the West
and Iran on Syria, as Turkey has done on the Iranian nuclear issue. In an
afternoon meeting here between Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign
minister, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, Mr. Erdogan
made clear that he still believes that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria
must go. A senior Turkish official who spoke on the condition of
anonymity said that Turkey was willing to support a plan in which some
institutions of the Syrian state remained intact, and that Turkey was
pressuring Iran to abandon Mr. Assad." http://t.uani.com/1bS95Ps
Terrorism
Reuters: "A Bahraini court sentenced four Shi'ite Muslims to life
and six others to 15 years in jail on charges of setting up a militant
cell linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard that aimed at assassinating
public figures in the Gulf Arab kingdom. In February, Bahrain, a Western
ally which hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet, accused Iran's elite Revolutionary
Guard of setting up the 'terror' cell, which it said planned to attack
its airport and government buildings. Bahrain has accused Shi'ite power
Iran of fuelling unrest in the country since a 2011 uprising led by
majority Shi'ites demanding reforms and more share in running the kingdom
ruled by the Sunni Muslim al-Khalifa dynasty." http://t.uani.com/HBVV0g
Human Rights
AFP:
"Iran on Saturday arrested the head of reformist daily Bahar, Saeed
Pourazizi, for publishing an article seen by critics as questioning the
beliefs of Shia Islam, Fars news agency reported. 'Today he was summoned
to the prosecutor's office... He was arrested and transferred to Evin
prison,' in northern Tehran, his wife Masoumeh Shahriari told Fars.
Shahriari said the public prosecutor had 'lodged a complaint' against
Pourazizi, who was trying to negotiate being released on bail. 'We have
not been informed about the amount of money needed for the bail,' she
said. Iran's press watchdog banned Bahar last week because of an article
seen by many as questioning a core belief of Shia Islam." http://t.uani.com/1iHdKWS
Guardian:
"The shutdown of a reformist daily last week has led some Iranian
journalists to question how committed the administration of new president
Hassan Rouhani is to greater freedom for a long-fettered press. This past
Monday, Alaeddin Zohourian, chairman of the state media supervision
council, announced that the Bahar newspaper 'has been suspended and its
dossier has been referred to the judiciary for an inquest.' ... The
government's handling of the matter has evoked expressions of despair
among journalists and media activists who doubt the president's ability
to follow through on his pledges of greater press freedoms and other
civil liberties. 'It's truly ridiculous,' said one Bahar reporter.
'Instead of criticizing the suspension of a newspaper, Mr Rouhani's
government backed away. It is a shame that we are out of work and he talks
sweet to keep his base secure.'" http://t.uani.com/19u2Fr7
Domestic
Politics
AFP:
"Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said Saturday that 'Death to
America' will remain their slogan, regardless of signs of detente between
the Islamic republic and Washington. 'Death to America is the
manifestation of our nation's determination and resistance against the
dominance of oppressive and untrustworthy America,' it said on its
sepahnews.com website. 'The revolutionary hatred of Iranians will be
manifested nationwide with slogans of Death to America' on Monday, the
Guards said. November 4 is the 34th anniversary of the seizure of the US
embassy in Tehran, during which Islamist students captured and held 52 US
diplomats hostage for 444 days. The crisis triggered a cut in diplomatic
relations and led to decades of mutual hostility. 'American espionage
against governments and people in different countries is proof that
leaders of the White House can not be trusted,' the Guards said,
referring to a row between Europe and Washington over alleged US spying
on its allies." http://t.uani.com/1a2K98H
AP:
"Hard-liners in Iran have unveiled two new 'Death to America' songs
at the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, hoping to keep anger high ahead of
nuclear talks with Western powers. They performed the songs Saturday
ahead of a planned massive protest Monday to mark the anniversary of the
U.S. Embassy takeover in 1979." http://t.uani.com/HBYZJT
Opinion
& Analysis
Sen. Marco Rubio in Politico: "The
reviews are in, and they're surprisingly positive: Iran showed newfound
seriousness during a round of negotiations in Switzerland. President
Barack Obama described the meetings as 'a constructive beginning.' All
involved spoke approvingly of how the tone was different, how the
participants finally moved beyond pro forma speeches and how they were
able to have a conversation about their differences. Was this the
recently concluded talks with Iran in Geneva? No, it was actually four
years ago. That experience should help guide us as we once again tackle
the issue of Iran's nuclear weapons program. As for the latest round of
talks, the Obama administration has been quick to hail them as breaking
new ground. 'We had detailed technical discussions at a level we have not
had before,' a senior administration official told the press on Oct. 16
as the two-day meeting in Geneva came to an end. What the positive
atmospherics gloss over, however, is that the tortuous decadelong history
of U.S. and European diplomatic engagement with the country is littered
with Iranian feints and the promise of concessions that never occur. The
fall 2009 meeting in Geneva is instructive. At those talks, Iran actually
agreed in principle to take steps to transfer most of its stockpile of
enriched uranium out of the country. This time, despite the charm
offensive from President Hassan Rouhani, Iran's foreign minister appears
to have shown up empty-handed. In 2009, after the agreement in Geneva,
just as now, the Obama administration urged that new sanctions be put on
hold to allow time for diplomacy. But Iran's supposed concessions never
materialized, and by the time the Iranian negotiators made it back to
Tehran, the deal was doomed. In October 2009, Iran had around 8,600
centrifuges and just under 1,200 kilograms of uranium enriched to 3.5
percent. In the past four years, Iran has more than doubled its number of
centrifuges and now has a stockpile of uranium that is the equivalent of
several weapons worth if it is enriched to higher levels, according to
the Institute for Science and International Security. The last time we
were told to be cautiously optimistic, Iran barely had one weapon's worth
of enriched uranium. As a presidential candidate, Rouhani, who was not
involved in the 2009 talks, boasted of his skill at buying time for the
nuclear program to progress, even citing the number of centrifuges Iran
was able to install while his negotiations with the Europeans went
nowhere. This strategy has been successful thus far for Tehran. Our indulgence
of it has been disastrous. For the past 10 years, world powers have been
talking to Iran. Meanwhile, Iran has been creating facts on the ground by
building the elements of a nuclear weapons program and the long-range
missiles needed to deliver a nuclear warhead. Yet once again, the Obama
administration is asking Congress to hold off on additional sanctions to
give time for diplomacy to work. Tougher sanctions, we are warned, could
upset the delicate balance inside Iran and poison the well for a deal. I
disagree. Tough sanctions are exactly what has brought Iran to the table
now, and tightening sanctions as we engage diplomatically affords us the
opportunity to apply further pressure and force Iran's leaders to choose
between regime survival and a nuclear weapon." http://t.uani.com/1hHhTfG
Sara Sorcher in
The National Journal: "Chatter in Washington ahead
of next week's negotiations in Geneva between world powers and Iran
resembles a typical 'good cop, bad cop' routine: The Obama administration
floats possible economic relief for Tehran in exchange for verifiable
concessions on its nuclear program, while Congress saber-rattles against
any easing of sanctions, no matter how mild, and threatens to impose even
more. The tactic is most effective when mere threats from the bad cop let
the good cop win concessions. But in this particularly contentious era,
it seems unlikely Congress will readily go along with any agreement the
White House brokers that relaxes sanctions, short of complete
capitulation by Iran-which is not going to happen. Hawkish when it comes
to pressuring Iran, Congress does have options at its disposal to try to
torpedo a deal. But it's important to remember that the White House, as
the primary arbiter of foreign policy, has avenues to offer relief to the
Islamic Republic by going over the heads of lawmakers who might stand in
its way. 'It's pretty clear sanctions relief that would be offered to
Iran would have to be measures that would not require congressional
approval, [partly] because of the overriding hostility in the Congress to
Iran,' says former State Department nonproliferation chief Mark
Fitzpatrick, now at the London-based International Institute for
Strategic Studies. Many in Congress contend, as Israel does, that Tehran
should not be permitted to enrich any uranium; by contrast, the Obama
administration may be willing to contemplate a deal that allows Iran to
operate some type of enrichment program. With these fissures already
emerging, the administration must think about incentives for compromise
that it can promise Iran even if it's not sure Congress will sign on.
Here's how that could happen. For starters, virtually every sanctions
bill Congress has passed allows the administration to suspend the
measures, usually for four months, by certifying it's in America's
national security interest to do so. 'We believe we have a significant
amount of flexibility within those laws,' one senior administration
official says. One widely discussed proposal for sanctions relief
involves giving Iran easier access to its own money from oil sales, which
is currently locked up in escrow accounts in countries purchasing the
oil. Congress could not override this. Even more easily, President Obama
can unilaterally rescind or amend any executive order. Iran could be
interested in a lifting of the recent sanctions imposed by the executive
branch on those who do business with Iran's automotive industry, one of
that country's biggest employers. Another avenue is diplomacy. The
administration could work with the European Union to relax its sanctions.
The E.U. could reverse its ban on buying Iranian gas, and the
financial-transfer group SWIFT could allow Iranian banks back onto its
system. Washington could provide de facto relief by communicating that it
would not retaliate. A controversial option would be for the
administration to simply not enforce sanctions already on the books. It's
not an unprecedented step. The Clinton and Bush administrations did not
fully enforce the provisions of a raft of 1996 sanctions to punish firms
doing business with Iran and Libya. The State Department negotiated an
agreement with European representatives signaling it would not sanction
European firms, says Patrick Clawson, director of research at the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy. An unhappy Congress required a
report every six months on sanctions progress. 'Press reports would say
companies were investing in Iran; companies would say they're investing
in Iran; Iran would say they're investing in Iran. But [the State
Department] would say, 'We don't know if it's true.' ... Congressional
opposition to any Obama deal with Iran would take the form of legislation
to limit or take away altogether the president's ability to waive
sanctions, says Gary Samore, formerly Obama's White House coordinator for
arms control and weapons of mass destruction. But Obama's decision will
hold 'as long as the administration can summon enough support'-that is,
just over one-third of the House and Senate-'to prevent a veto-proof
bill.' If Congress takes no action, Samore adds, it will be 'implicit
acceptance' that the deal is good enough, despite any public bashing of
the administration's concessions." http://t.uani.com/1a2PUmL
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