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Top Stories
Pew:
"While Americans say they want the U.S. to mind its own business and
focus on issues at home, they remain concerned about the international
security threats that face the nation in 2014, according to a recent
survey by the Pew Research Center.... Recent Obama administration efforts
to defuse the nuclear stand-off with Iran, which led to an agreement in
late November freezing parts of Iran's nuclear program, came at a time
when it was a major concern for Americans. Nearly seven-in-ten Americans
(68%) in the survey, which was conducted before the agreement was
reached, said that Iran's nuclear program was a major threat to the
well-being of the U.S., a sentiment that changed only modestly from
surveys in 2009 and 2005." http://t.uani.com/1dtaM8X
WSJ:
"U.S. officials believe members of Hezbollah, the militant group
backed by Iran, are smuggling advanced guided-missile systems into
Lebanon from Syria piece by piece to evade a secretive Israeli air
campaign designed to stop them... Iran wants to upgrade Hezbollah's
arsenal to deter future Israeli strikes-either on Lebanon or on Iran's
nuclear program, U.S. and Israeli officials say. In addition, these
officials said they believe the transfers were meant to induce Hezbollah
to commit to protect Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as well as supply
lines used by both his regime and Hezbollah... U.S. and Israeli officials
say the airstrikes have stopped shipments of ground-to-air SA-17
antiaircraft weapons and ground-to-ground Fateh-110 rockets to Hezbollah
locations in Lebanon. Some originated from Iran, others from Syria
itself. Nonetheless, as many as 12 antiship guided-missile systems may
now be in Hezbollah's possession inside Syria, according to U.S.
officials briefed on the intelligence... Current and former U.S.
officials say Iran's elite Quds Force has been directly overseeing the
shipments to Hezbollah warehouses in Syria. These officials say some of
the guided missiles would allow Hezbollah to defend its strongholds in
Lebanon, including Beirut, and attack Israeli planes and ground targets
from regime-controlled territory in Syria." http://t.uani.com/1cNdki8
LAT:
"Two deadly bombings in Beirut over the last week and the arrest of
a fugitive Saudi militant in the Nov. 19 attack on Iran's embassy in the
Lebanese capital reflect the escalating spillover of a proxy war in
Syria. Iranian Shiite Muslims and rival Sunnis in Saudi Arabia have been
battling for years for dominance in the Middle East. But the rivalry has
intensified since May, when the Lebanon-based and Iranian-backed
Hezbollah militia made clear it had intervened in Syria's civil war on
the side of the embattled Shiite-aligned government. And as Iran and the
United States have recently taken steps toward improving relations after 34
years of bitter animosity following Iran's Islamic Revolution, resentment
has emanated from the Saudi kingdom that has, like other Sunni-ruled
states in the Persian Gulf, been a longtime Washington ally." http://t.uani.com/191ZglA
Sanctions
Der Spiegel: "Rohani needs economic success stories. He has to sweep
aside the sanctions but, more importantly, move faster than inflation,
which is eating away at the already meager income earned by millions of
Iranians. The monthly minimum wage is only €140 ($190). Iranians are
suffering under the embargo, and they are not just holding the Americans
responsible for this. The price of gasoline has multiplied; milk and
cheese now cost three times as much as they did two years ago. But it
looks like the nuclear negotiations could spark an economic upswing in
Iran. Although none of the sanctions have been lifted, droves of Western
business people are already flocking to Tehran. Iran has the world's
fourth-largest known oil reserves, and the second-largest gas reserves.
Business deals worth billions of euros can be made here. Bernbeck has
finally arrived at the underground parking garage. He takes the elevator
to the seventh floor, which is the home of the German-Iranian Chamber of
Industry and Commerce. He lists the names of all the countries whose
business people have already been here - 'except for the Germans
again.'" http://t.uani.com/191Wbly
Terrorism
AFP: "Bahrain accused Iran's Revolutionary Guards Friday of
providing opposition militants with explosives training in order to carry
out attacks in the Gulf kingdom, announcing that it had arrested five
suspects.... Chief prosecutor Osama al-Oufi said the intelligence service
reported last month that 'Bahraini Ahmed Mahfuz Mussawi, currently living
in Iran, had planned terrorist bombing operations targeting institutions
and places vital to the sovereignty and security of the kingdom.' Quoted
by state news agency BNA, he added that five people had been arrested and
'admitted joining a group to carry out terrorist attacks... and travelled
to Iran to receive training in Revolutionary Guards camps and then
received sums of money.' On Monday, Bahraini authorities said they had
seized a boat smuggling explosives made in Iran and Syria into the
country." http://t.uani.com/1euTx5M
Syria Conflict
WSJ: "A car bomb ripped through a Hezbollah stronghold in a crowded
district of southern Beirut on Thursday, days after a blast in another
part of the Lebanese capital killed a politician who opposed the Shiite
political and militant group. Thursday's bombing, which killed five
people, drew warnings from officials across Lebanon's divided political
spectrum that the country was teetering on the edge of sectarian warfare,
threatening the kind of tit-for-tat killings that marked the country's
1975-90 civil war. Tensions and violence has surged in Lebanon as the
country has been pulled into the civil war in neighboring Syria over the
past three years. Three bombs have struck Beirut's southern
suburbs-knownbroadly as Dahyeh after the Arabic word for suburb-in the
past year, apparently targeting Hezbollah and its supporters. Hezbollah
has sent fighters to Syria to bolster regime troops in their fight
against mostly Sunni rebels, a role that became public and pronounced
this past summer. Since then, Sunni militant groups in Lebanon and the
region have vowed to strike Hezbollah at home in retaliation." http://t.uani.com/1dgpiNU
Human Rights
Al-Monitor: "In a rare admission and contradicting his own previous
statements, the former commander of a Basij base in Tehran admitted to
shooting at protesters during the June 16, 2009 protests in which seven
people were killed. While the commander in the interview with the
official Basij Press was not named, he said that his forces only shot at
the legs of protesters in order to prevent them from entering the base, a
situation so severe, he said, that it would have turned Iran into Syria
had the protesters been successful in taking the guns from the base... He
added that that the seven people killed that day were killed by the
'seditionists' and protesters who provoked people to attack the
base." http://t.uani.com/191YvJc
ICHRI: "In an interview with the International Campaign for Human
Rights in Iran, lawyer Farideh Gheirat said that the draft Citizenship
Rights Charter presented by Hassan Rouhani in November is almost exactly
like the Iranian Constitution in substance, just with different phrasing.
Gheirat added that there was no need to draft a new Charter that was as
general as the Constitution itself. 'The draft Citizenship Rights Charter
which has been put in the public domain for reaction is the same thing
Mr. Rouhani had spoken about before the election, and fortunately, he
delivered on his promise immediately. But, unfortunately, what we see in
the Charter is the same as what is [already] in the Islamic Republic of
Iran's Constitution in almost all its articles, and perhaps only in one
or two small areas, it may have added something to the Constitution. Of
course, in Iran no new legislation can be in contradiction to the
Constitution on principle, but taking the same [Constitution] and
introducing it as a Charter or a separate thing is questionable and it
appears to me that it was unnecessary,' Farideh Gheirat told the
Campaign." http://t.uani.com/1dtaajR
CNS: "In its annual report on people imprisoned for their faith
around the world, released this week, the Brussels-based organization
Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) named Iran as one of five countries
with the largest number of 'freedom of religion or belief prisoners.'
'Evangelical and Pentecostal churches are attracting an increasing number
of Muslims, and converts develop missionary activities among their former
co-religionists despite the harsh repression and the threat of imprisonment,'
says the report, which also recorded Baha'i adherents among those in
Iranian prisons. Of the more than 40 Iranian Christians listed in the
report as having been arrested or convicted during 2013, some faced
charges including 'conversion from Islam to Christianity, encouraging the
conversion to Christianity of other Muslims, and propaganda against the
regime by promoting Christianity as missionaries.' Other charges included
launching a Christian website, distributing Bibles, attending a house
church, and 'being in contact with foreign organizations.'" http://t.uani.com/1crcPWE
Foreign Affairs
AFP: "Iran's foreign minister is set to visit Turkey on Saturday in
the midst of a high-level corruption probe looking into illicit money
transfers to Tehran. Mohammad Javad Zarif's trip comes as Turkey seeks to
improve economic and political ties with its neighbour but with the
government in Ankara embroiled in a deep political crisis over the
corruption scandal. Dozens of people were arrested last month, including
allies of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accused of bribery over
construction projects and allegations of gold smuggling to Iran aimed at
dodging international sanctions." http://t.uani.com/JNPS96
AP: "The arrest of the Shiite cleric, Wathiq al-Batat, appeared to
be aimed at maintaining Sunni support. Interior Ministry spokesman Saad
Maan Ibrahim told the Associated Press that Mr. Batat was arrested in
Baghdad on Wednesday. He gave no further details. He has been wanted by
the government since last year. Mr. Batat formed the so-called Mukhtar
Army to protect Shiites from attacks by Sunni extremists. He claims to
have more than 1 million members, a number that hasn't been independently
verified. He took responsibility in November for firing six mortar shells
at a region of Saudi Arabia bordering Iraq and Kuwait, describing it as
retaliation for Saudi religious decrees that allegedly insult Shiites and
encourage killing them. He also claimed responsibility for attacks on a
camp hosting an Iranian opposition group. Mr. Batat was previously a
leader in Iraq's Hezbollah Brigades, which isn't related to the
better-known Lebanese Hezbollah. Hezbollah in Iraq is believed to be
funded and trained by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard and was among the
Shiite militias that targeted U.S. military bases months before their
December 2011 withdrawal." http://t.uani.com/1atDZMM
Opinion &
Analysis
Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran Ahmed
Shaheed: "Since 2011 I have made numerous requests to visit Iran to
investigate the situation of human rights personally, all of which have
been denied. My engagement with Iran has improved in other ways though,
most importantly through meeting with Iran's UN representative in Geneva.
I welcome such engagement and am hopeful to visit the country personally.
Yet, despite improved engagement and positive developments between Iran
and the international community, I continue to receive seriously
disturbing reports of human rights abuses inside the country. It is in
this context that I announced last week my fact-finding efforts in the
Iranian community in diaspora in Europe. After speaking this week with
dozens of victims of human rights abuses from Iran in Amsterdam, Berlin,
and Paris, I feel as strongly as ever that the international community
must continue to urgently shine a spotlight on human right issues in
Iran. The country's leadership has a rare opportunity to affect positive
change in the lives of all Iranians. Rhetoric on change must be supported
by concrete action or the opportunity will be missed. As an Iranian woman
in Berlin described, '[we are] cautiously optimistic, but worried Iran
will soon slide back into darkness.' I sense that many Iranians are
optimistic-albeit cautiously-that the new administration does wish to
improve the situation, and with enough support, will be able to do so in
time. But time is not unlimited, and given the recent arrests of netizens
for free expression, the alarming executions of Kurdish and Ahwazi
political prisoners, and the ongoing unacceptably high rate of executions
in general in the country, it is time for the Government to take concrete
action. I look forward to the development of the Citizen's Rights
Charter, however, in the absence of meaningful international pressure,
political momentum in this regard may quickly dissipate." http://t.uani.com/191ZLw5
Steven Ditto in WINEP: "Since the October start of nuclear talks in
Geneva, two distinct trends have marked the periphery: (1) a premature
push for political and economic outreach to the Iranian government by
European countries, particularly Italy; and (2) efforts by the Majlis to
regulate the content of a nuclear deal -- through legislation that could
upend the final accord if it fails to guarantee specific 'rights,'
including set levels of uranium enrichment, and safeguard the continued
construction and operation of key facilities including those at Fordow,
Natanz, and Arak. Most recently, this has been manifested in a January 2
report of the addition of two Majlis deputies (or parliamentarians) to
the negotiating team... As the nuclear negotiations move forward, the
P5+1 faces the central challenge of extracting Iranian concessions on its
nuclear program. For U.S. policymakers, this task requires ensuring
continued buy-in to the multilateral sanctions regime until a
comprehensive and lasting agreement is reached. Should Iran suspect
weakening Western resolve to maintain the sanctions, such as in Italy's
efforts to reinvigorate trade and investment with Iran before the
completion of a nuclear deal, then Tehran could feel a reduced urgency to
reach a comprehensive solution. By contrast, if such outreach to Iran is
made conditional on a full resolution of the nuclear impasse, then the
P5+1's leverage will be enhanced. Meanwhile, a contrast can be observed
between the Rouhani and Obama administrations' responses to developments
in their respective legislatures. Regarding the Iranian parliament's bill
mandating 60 percent enrichment should talks fail, the Rouhani administration
has not objected or even warned that such legislation could harm
negotiations. Indeed, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on
December 29, 'Whatever is passed in the parliament and becomes a law will
be binding for us.' Yet in response to bills in the U.S. Congress that
would impose harsher sanctions should the talks fail, the Obama
administration has expressed vigorous opposition. Lastly, a central theme
in Iran since the beginning of the Geneva talks has been the desire for
'dignity,' and respect for the 'progress and achievements' of Iranian
science and industry. This desire for dignity while pursuing rational
self-interest has been enshrined in the Iranian government's
three-pronged motto for the negotiations: 'dignity, wisdom, and expediency.'
As the nuclear talks continue, allowing the Iranians a tacit 'dignity
valve' will be an important prerequisite for their subsequent pursuit of
expediency and granting of concessions." http://t.uani.com/1euSTFu
Max Boot in Commentary: "There was nothing inevitable about this
division of Syria between Shiite and Sunni extremists, as I have been
arguing for some time. It came about because the Iranians went all-in and
the U.S. didn't. As the Journal notes: 'Through it all, U.S. intelligence
and military officers watched the evolution with alarm from the
sidelines, at least one step behind developments on the ground.' Thanks
to this American hesitancy and confusion, the article notes, quoting 'a
longtime American diplomat in the region,' it now looks 'like Messrs.
Assad, Nasrallah and Soleimani have won.' The flip side of a victory for
Assad and his patrons in Hezbollah and Tehran is that the U.S. has lost.
Obama's defeat in Syria hasn't been nearly as costly, at least so far, in
American blood or treasure as President Bush's temporary defeat in Iraq,
from 2003 to 2007-but it is likely to prove more enduring and more
damaging to American interests in the region because there is no 'surge'
on the horizon to save the day. In Syria the situation is likely to go from
grim to grimmer, and drag down fragile neighboring states, notably Iraq
and Lebanon, along with it into the vortex of sectarian
bloodletting." http://t.uani.com/1euSumr
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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