Eye on Iran: Iran Cuts Sensitive Nuclear Stockpile, Key Plant Delayed: IAEA

Join UANI           Top Stories Reuters: "Iran has acted to cut its most sensitive nuclear stockpile by nearly 75 percent in implementing a landmark pact with world powers, but a planned facility it will need to fulfill the six-month deal has been delayed, a U.N. report showed on Thursday... The IAEA update showed that Iran had - as stipulated by the November 24 agreement with the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia - diluted half of its higher-grade enriched uranium reserve to a fissile content less prone to bomb proliferation. One of the payments from Japan, of $450 million on April 15, was contingent on Iran meeting this target... Together, Iran has in the last three months either diluted or fed into the conversion process a total of almost 155 kg (340 pounds) of its higher-grade uranium gas, which amounted to 209 kg when the deal took effect... The IAEA report also pointed to a new delay in Iran's construction of a facility that is designed to turn low-enriched uranium gas (LEU) into oxide powder that is not suitable for further processing into highly-enriched bomb-grade uranium. Iran told the IAEA last month that the plant would be commissioned on April 9 and that operations would start once that had been completed. But Thursday's IAEA update said the commissioning had been delayed, without giving any reason... The delay means that Iran's LEU stockpile - which it agreed to limit under the November 24 agreement - is almost certainly continuing to increase for the time being since its production of the material has not stopped, unlike that of the 20 percent uranium gas." http://t.uani.com/1m9LQcE WSJ: "Russian President Vladimir Putin has belittled the threat of more American sanctions over the crisis in Ukraine. But Iranian officials and businessmen are privately warning the Kremlin not to be so dismissive. Government technocrats and bankers in Tehran, during interviews over the past week, voiced astonishment over just how much damage the U.S-led sanctions campaign on Iran has had on their economy over the past three years. Many said they had initially believed that a large oil-producing country like Iran - or Russia for that matter - would largely be immune to Western financial penalties. They said they didn't believe European countries would back up Washington's economic threats, due to the energy supplies and corporate profits they stood to lose. These Iranians said they had been mistaken, and that Russia should be worried. 'The U.S. sanctions are vicious because they largely just targeted our banks,' said a senior Iranian banker. 'The Americans essentially forced businesses to choose between doing business in dollars or dealing with Iran. That's a no-brainer for most.'" http://t.uani.com/1l7fEqJ Reuters: "Japan made two more payments to Iran for crude imports that were scheduled under an interim nuclear deal, two sources with knowledge of the transactions said, in return for Tehran's moves to reign in its disputed nuclear programme. Iran's central bank had received the payments from Japan, one source said. A second source confirmed Japan had made the transfers. The payments totalled $1 billion, with one instalment of $550 million due on April 10 and the remainder on April 15, according to a schedule for the transfers on a U.S. Treasury fact sheet. Japan's finance ministry and central bank have declined to comment on the payments. The fourth and fifth payments mean Iran has received $2.55 billion in frozen oil funds, with all but one payment coming from Japan. South Korea made the other payment." http://t.uani.com/1hYbgCf        Nuclear Program & Negotiations Fox News: "The former head of Iran's nuclear program is laying out in detail how the U.S. and other intelligence agencies allegedly carried out a constant campaign of sabotage against his country. According to Fereydoon Abbasi, who spoke to an Iranian newspaper, the U.S. would prevent companies from sending equipment to Iran -- but would then put that kind of equipment on the black market, having ensured it would actually damage Iranian operations. He claims the U.S. would find out, via the U.N. nuclear agency, what parts Iran was trying to get and from whom, and plant everything from viruses to explosives on the equipment. 'They would pressure that country or company not to transfer the parts or equipment to Iran, or would allow them to do so [only] after sabotaging [the parts],' he told the Iranian daily Khorasan. 'For instance, if it was an electronic system, they would infect it with a virus, or plant explosives in it, or even alter the type of components, in order to paralyze [Iran's] system.' The interview was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI. 'They opened the channels that they personally control, in order to provide Iran with equipment that would also benefit them,' Abbasi reportedly said. Abbasi claimed this is how the U.S. got the Stuxnet virus into Iran. 'They planted it in equipment that Iran purchased,' he said." http://t.uani.com/1ndNYQR Sanctions Relief Hurriyet: "Turkey and Iran have started to work on a scheme aimed at lifting non-tariff obstacles and easing bureaucracy to further facilitate trade between the two parties, the Turkish development minister has said. Turkish Development Minister Cevdet Yılmaz further asserted the ultimate goal is creating a free trade agreement between two neighbors. 'We must conduct trade with the whole world, but trading with neighbors should be priority,' Yılmaz said addressing businessmen and bureaucrats at the Turkish-Iranian Business forum yesterday... 'When we came to power in 2002, Turkey's trade with Iran was only $1.2 billion. It reached its highest level of $22 billion in 2012. Unfortunately, it retreated slightly to $14.6 billion last year. Embargos against Iran, which we think are unjust, have had great influence on that,' he said. Gas has been the top trade item between the countries." http://t.uani.com/Qgxb1Q Business Standard (India): "Iran is likely to supply gas at USD 3 per mmbtu for India's proposed urea and ammonia plant to be set up in the Persian Gulf nation. Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF) and Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilisers & Chemicals (GNFC) have been jointly working on this project. The project will also include an Iranian firm. The project is proposed to set up at a petrochemicals hub at Chahbahar, Iran, using natural gas as feedstock with an estimated investment of about Rs 7,000 crore. 'Talks are at an advanced stage and there have been indications from the Iranian authorities for supplying gas at USD 3 per mmbtu,' sources said. As per the proposal, the Iraninan government will assure supply of gas at fixed rate and India will lift the total quantity of soil nutrients produced at the proposed plant. Work on the project has expedite following the lifting of sanctions on Iran by the US in November last year." http://t.uani.com/1lbqyaH Sanctions Enforcement & Impact Reuters: "India's imports of Iranian crude tumbled about a fifth in the fiscal year ended in March, despite a surge of shipments in recent months that came after a deal easing sanctions on Tehran... India, the world's fourth-biggest oil consumer and Tehran's top client after China, imported around 358,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the first quarter, up nearly 43 percent from a year ago, according to tanker arrival data obtained from trade sources and compiled by Thomson Reuters Oil Analytics. Even with the surge over the January-March quarter, India's oil purchases in the year to March 31 dropped 16.5 percent to 222,000 bpd, the tanker data showed... Last month, India's shipments from Iran rose 45.6 percent from February to about 387,000 bpd, or more than twice the intake in March 2013, the tanker arrival data showed. The tanker arrival data was confirmed by a senior government official who said Indian refiners had loaded 10.7 million tonnes, or 214,000 bpd, of Iranian oil in 2013/14, down about 18.6 percent from the previous year. Arrival and loading data differ as a voyage from Iran to India normally takes seven to eight days." http://t.uani.com/1m9Nqel Human Rights Guardian: "When he felt the noose around his neck, Balal must have thought he was about to take his last breath. Minutes earlier, crowds had watched as guards pushed him towards the gallows for what was meant to be yet another public execution in the Islamic republic of Iran. Seven years ago Balal, who is in his 20s, stabbed 18-year-old Abdollah Hosseinzadeh during a street brawl in the small town of Royan, in the northern province of Mazandaran. In a literal application of qisas, the sharia law of retribution, the victim's family were to participate in Balal's punishment by pushing the chair on which he stood. But what happened next marked a rarity in public executions in Iran, which puts more people to death than any other country apart from China. The victim's mother approached, slapped the convict in the face and then decided to forgive her son's killer. The victim's father removed the noose and Balal's life was spared." http://t.uani.com/1mgygSg Domestic Politics RFE/RL: "Former Iranian presidential candidate and nuclear negotiator Said Jalili surfaced this week at a Tehran technical university to lecture students on the benefits of nuclear power. But video of the event shows that the hard-liner's message was drowned out by opposition-minded students. Billed by Amirkabir University as a 'nuclear celebration,' the event was headlined by speakers Jalili and the former chairman of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Fereydun Abbasi.  Basiji students filled the front rows, waiting for their chance to raise posters and banners critical of the softer approach Tehran has taken in international nuclear negotiations under new President Hassan Rohani and his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif. But pandemonium broke loose when students in the back disrupted the event by calling for much more openness at home and abroad. RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports that the students sang songs and shouted slogans as Jalili tried to address the students, and chanted messages of support for the release of opposition leaders Mir Hussain Musavi and Mehdi Karrubi, who have been under house arrest since 2011." http://t.uani.com/1qOtnSg Foreign Affairs AFP: "Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will travel to Russia next week for a meeting of the countries that border the Caspian Sea, the official IRNA news agency reported. 'Mr Zarif will arrive in Russia on Tuesday,' for the gathering of the Caspian Sea littoral states, Iran's ambassador to Russia, Mehdi Sanaei, wrote on his Facebook page. Since the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union, the nations that border the Caspian (Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan) have failed to agree on the sea's legal status. Sanaei also said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani would visit Russia in September for a meeting of the heads of the Caspian sea countries." http://t.uani.com/Qgumh9 Indian Express: "India's dream of connecting to Afghanistan via Iran could soon move a step closer to reality if New Delhi, Tehran and Kabul sign off on a draft memorandum of understanding on transit trade that has been finalised recently. Since Pakistan denies India overland access to Afghanistan, Delhi has long sought an alternative through Iran. The idea first came up when Iranian President Mohammad Khatami came to Delhi in January 2003 to participate in the Republic Day celebrations. India then agreed to participate in the development of Chabahar on Iran's Makran coast as the future entrepôt for trade with Afghanistan and Central Asia." http://t.uani.com/1jN3DCX 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. For more information please email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons.  UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.