Eye on Iran: Iran Boosts Military Support in Syria to Bolster Assad

Join UANI          Top Stories Reuters: "As Syria's war nears the start of its fourth year, Iran has stepped up support on the ground for President Bashar al-Assad, providing elite teams to gather intelligence and train troops, sources with knowledge of military movements say. This further backing from Tehran, along with deliveries of munitions and equipment from Moscow, is helping to keep Assad in power at a time when neither his own forces nor opposition fighters have a decisive edge on the battlefield. Assad's forces have failed to capitalize fully on advances they made last summer with the help of Iran, his major backer in the region, and the Hezbollah fighters that Tehran backs and which have provided important battlefield support for Assad. But the Syrian leader has drawn comfort from the withdrawal of the threat of U.S. bombing raids following a deal under which he has agreed to give up his chemical weapons. Shi'te Iran has already spent billions of dollars propping up Assad in what has turned into a sectarian proxy war with Sunni Arab states. And while the presence of Iranian military personnel in Syria is not new, military experts believe Tehran has in recent months sent in more specialists to enable Assad to outlast his enemies at home and abroad. Analysts believe this renewed support means Assad felt no need to make concessions at currently deadlocked peace talks in Geneva." http://t.uani.com/1fmHwCf Reuters: "Iran's top two oil customers China and India have boosted imports in January, taking in close to the total volume the Islamic republic is permitted to sell to all buyers following the recent easing of sanctions. The jumps indicate the OPEC member's total sales in January to its four biggest buyers topped the 1 million barrels per day (bpd) level at which world powers want to keep shipments capped to maintain pressure on Iran to abandon its nuclear programme... China, Iran's largest oil client, imported 564,536 bpd of the crude last month, up 82 percent versus the same month last year, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Friday. That jump - partly linked to data distortions as companies tend to book cargoes in advance of the week-long holiday that began on Jan. 31 this year - brought imports back to levels before Western sanctions were applied more than two years ago. The January imports from Iran were 11.2 percent higher than December's 507,707 bpd. For 2014, China may buy more Iranian oil as state-run trader Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp is negotiating a new condensate contract, Reuters has reported... Adding in South Korean imports in January of about 65,000 bpd, Asian buys from Iran have already topped 1 million bpd, with Japan's data not due for another week... 'On an operational level - shipping, payments, insurance and other logistics - it has become easier for these countries to import Iranian crude following the recent easing of sanctions,' FGE Singapore's Yap said." http://t.uani.com/1cxyPnx AFP: "Iran is sticking to a six-month nuclear freeze agreed under a November interim deal with world powers, the UN atomic agency said in a new report Thursday, a month after the agreement came into force. The International Atomic Energy Agency update said that uranium enrichment to medium levels -- the main concern to the international community - 'is no longer taking place', as agreed in the deal. The IAEA also said that a proportion of Iran's medium-enriched uranium stockpile, as set out in the November deal, which took effect on January 20, 'is being downblended and the remainder is being converted to uranium oxide'. Enrichment to low purities however 'continues at a rate of production similar to that indicated' in the last report from November, meaning that its stockpile of this material rose in the last three months." http://t.uani.com/1gnSllj     Sanctions Relief Reuters: "India's oil imports from Iran more than doubled in January from a month earlier, with one state refiner returning from a three-month break as a buyer after sanctions on Tehran were eased due to the interim deal on its nuclear programme. Yet, the jump may not signify a sudden flood of Iran's oil to the market as clients bump up imports. India was able to take more of the crude because it earlier cut its buys the most among Tehran's top clients and more than what was needed under the Western sanctions aimed at Iran's disputed nuclear ambitions. India's oil purchase from Iran in January surged to 412,000 barrels per day (bpd), up from 189,100 bpd in December and 44 percent higher than a year ago, data compiled by Reuters showed. January shipments from Iran were the highest since February 2012, shortly after new toughened sanctions from the United States and Europe went into effect, the data also showed. Iran was also India's second biggest supplier for a month for the first time since March 2012, the data showed... State-run Indian Oil Corp, the country's biggest refiner took Iranian oil in January after not getting oil from Tehran the previous three months, shipping in about 3 million barrels, the data showed." http://t.uani.com/1da845c Human Rights HuffPost: "A German crane manufacturer has denied selling its wares to Iran, which were subsequently used in public hangings. Human rights groups have lambasted construction company Atlas in recent weeks after pictures appeared on the Internet purportedly showing executions using the company's products. Advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) called on chairman Fil Filipov to end the supply of cranes to the Middle Eastern state, however Filipov told the Washington Beacon on Thursday, 'We do not ship any cranes to this country,' adding that he had 'no idea' how the products ended up in Tehran. Filipov said via email: 'We are not the police ... we make over 2,000 cranes per year and do not know who imports cranes where ... Atlas does not sell cranes to this country!' 'Sure we have an issue,' he added, 'cranes are made to be used in construction ... what do you suggest Atlas can do? No one has given out any serial numbers so we can check where was the crane sold to?' In 2013, the Iranian state killed 529 people with the rate continuing under President Hassan Rouhani at around two every day." http://t.uani.com/1eduYZ1 AFP: "Iranian authorities on Thursday banned a newly launched reformist daily and arrested its managing director over an article seen as insulting to Islamic law, official sources said. 'Aseman newspaper has been banned for publishing an article that insults Islam's sacred beliefs and articles against Islamic regulations,' the office of Tehran's prosecutor said on its website. 'In an article run by the newspaper on Tuesday, it called qesas inhumane,' it added in reference to the Islamic law of vengeance. The statement said Aseman's managing director, Abbas Bozorgmehr, also faced prosecution. The official IRNA news agency reported later that Bozorgmehr was arrested and transferred to Evin prison, adding bail was set at three billion rials ($100,000)." http://t.uani.com/1fFeDNQ Al-Monitor: "Last year, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, published his second report criticizing the Baha'is' conditions in Iran. Soon after, in an interview with IRIB Channel 2, Mohammad Javad Larijani, secretary-general of the Iranian Judiciary's High Council for Human Rights, said, 'As far as we are concerned, Baha'ism is not a religion. It is a cult and cults are illegal everywhere in the world. The United States and France have laws against cults. Cultism is a crime. Why is it that they are constantly talking about minorities and ethnic groups? This is a conspiracy; they are using this issue to cover their own terrorist activities.' However, Larijani himself had said, about a year before his TV interview, 'No Iranian citizen has been arrested for being a Baha'i. Baha'is have citizenship rights in Iran just like all the other Iranians. However, again, similar to other Iranian citizens, if a Baha'i commits a crime, he will be held responsible for his actions.' An Iranian journalist working on social issues told Al-Monitor that Larijani's statements are contradictory, given that cases involving attacks on Baha'is are not pursued. 'If the Baha'is have the same rights as all the other Iranian citizens,' she said, 'then how is it that the judiciary and the law enforcement forces have yet to say a single word about this murder case and how it is progressing?'" http://t.uani.com/1cxAr0i ICHRI: "The Iranian Judiciary must rescind the execution sentence of Rouhollah Tavana for trumped-up charges of 'insulting the Prophet,' and stop issuing death sentences for ever-expanding categories of crimes, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today. Mashhad Intelligence agents arrested Rouhollah Tavana, 34, at his home in Mashhad in October 2011. According to a court ruling the Campaign reviewed, Intelligence agents confiscated a private video recording of Tavana on his personal computer, in which while under the influence of alcohol he allegedly uttered a phrase the judge interpreted as insulting the Prophet of Islam, a crime under Iranian law. However, the same law explicitly notes that insulting the Prophet is not a crime punishable by death if the person is drunk. 'It is mind-boggling that in the 21st century, the Iranian Judiciary wants to hang a young man for uttering a random phrase during a video he shot of himself and kept it private. This is an unbelievable act of inquisition at its worst,' said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the Campaign... Since Hassan Rouhani's election as president in 2013, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of executions in Iran. On February 19 alone, Iran carried out 12 executions in the cities of Kerman, Qazvin, Rasht, Shiraz, Roudbar, and Sowme'eh Sara. Some of these executions were carried out in public." http://t.uani.com/1jkfSGI Domestic Politics Bloomberg: "Away from the glare of the nuclear talks between Iran and world powers, President Hassan Rouhani has endured a series of setbacks and retreats on his domestic agenda. This week, Rouhani lost a key foreign policy adviser, for the offense of wearing a tie at Davos, and saw the judiciary, which is controlled by hardliners, shut down a reformist newspaper that had supported his government. Following Rouhani's election victory last June, many Iranians expressed hopes he would allow greater political and cultural freedoms. While his government has won limited sanctions relief as part of November's interim nuclear deal, he has had little success on the domestic front. 'Rouhani may have won the majority of the vote, but the public's say in running the country is still very limited,' said Alireza Nader, senior analyst at Rand Corp." http://t.uani.com/1p10QsG Al-Monitor: "In an open letter, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has endorsed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's 'resistance economy' plan. The 24-point plan was presented yesterday on Khamenei's website. The term 'resistance economy' was originally announced in the summer of 2010. It is designed to make Iran less vulnerable to international sanctions by relying less on crude-oil exports by increasing domestic production and knowledge-based exports. The plan was developed with the advisement of the Expediency Council, which is headed by Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani. Rouhani wrote that the various institutions under the administration are now 'bound to clear actions' and that they would work with the other branches of government to carry out these economic policies." http://t.uani.com/1fFdLc2 Foreign Affairs AFP: "Britain and Iran on Thursday officially resumed diplomatic relations which were severed by London after students stormed its Tehran embassy in November 2011. 'The UK has agreed with Iran that from today bilateral relations will be conducted directly through non-resident charge d'affaires and officials,' a Foreign Office spokesman told AFP. Britain had ordered the closure of Iran's embassy in London after shuttering its own in Tehran when hundreds of Islamist students stormed the compound. The students -- protesting against Western sanctions over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme -- ransacked the building as well as the ambassador's residence in north Tehran. Since then, the Swedish embassy in Tehran has represented Britain's interests there, while the Omani embassy in London has done the same for Iran. The Foreign Office spokesman said: 'We will no longer have formal protecting power arrangements in place. This is the next stage of the step-by-step process of taking forward our bilateral relationship with Iran.' As regards reopening Britain's embassy in Tehran, he said no decision had been taken. 'We have made it clear that the issue of compensation (for the damage caused) needs to be addressed,' the spokesman said." http://t.uani.com/1gRdPta Mehr (Iran): "Ali Larijani, who was speaking in the sidelines of the 9th Meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and in third session of Palestine's Permanent Committee with Parliament speakers, told that during Shah, Iran had close ties with Israel, but after the Revolution the situation changed for the more relations with Muslims. 'The west is working to save the Zionist regime as a malign tumor, while the regime has been weaker than ever now,' said Larijani to the meeting." http://t.uani.com/OiFr0v Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. 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