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Trend:
"Iran announced that it has signed a final protocol with Russia on
building two new nuclear power plants. The Deputy Head of Iran's Atomic
Energy Organization , Behrouz Kamalvandi, said the protocol was signed
last month, Iranian IRIB news agency reported on April 22. He went on to
say that Iran is also negotiating with some European and Asian countries
on building new nuclear power plants without unveiling any further
details. The head of the AEOI, Ali Akbar Salehi, said on April 13 that
Iran has a contract with Russia which was signed in 1992 and it obligates
Moscow to build four other nuclear power plants for Tehran. Salehi said
Iran will start construction of its second nuclear plant this year. 'Two
years from now, we will start the construction operation of the third
plant,' he explained, adding that the country will continue building the
next one two years after that. Earlier this month, Russia's Rosatom State
Nuclear Energy Corporation said Tehran and Moscow were negotiating the
construction of a second unit at the Bushehr nuclear power plant." http://t.uani.com/QuEFyi
Trend:
"India's oil imports from Iran increased by 117.3 percent in March
compared to the same month of the last year and stood at 387,240 barrels
per day (bpd). Iranian shipments to India in the first quarter of this
year also rose about 42.9 percent from the same period in 2013, Reuters
reported based on trade sources on April 22. Iran exported averagely
358,000 bpd of crude oil to India during the first quarter of the current
year, while the figure was 250,600 bpd in the same period in 2013.
India's oil import from Iran also indicates a rise by 45.6 percent in
March compared to the February, the report said. India imported 266,000
bpd of Iranian oil in February." http://t.uani.com/1jCDtkD
Free Beacon:
"The United States has released $1 billion in cash assets to Iran in
April alone under the interim nuclear deal aimed at ratcheting back
Iran's nuclear program, according to the White House. The Obama
administration unfroze Iranian assets totaling $550 million on April 10
and another $450 million on April 15. The United States has now released
$2.55 billion to Iran since February, when the scheduled cash infusions
first began... While the White House maintains that Iran will receive
about $7 billion in economic relief under the interim accord, outside
experts calculate that with oil revenues and other business deals Iran
could pocket at least $20 billion over the next several months...
'Iran is on pace to receive at least three times the amount of sanctions
relief than the White House originally predicted,' according to Matan
Shamir, research director for the advocacy group United Against Nuclear
Iran (UANI). Iran has earned some $7.33 billion in extra profits from
crude oil exports from November through February of this year, according
to Shamir... Iran exported 1.61 billion barrels of crude oil in February
alone, resulting in about $2.71 billion in extra profits. 'The additional
oil revenues alone have already exceeded that $6 to $7 billion figure,'
said UANI's Shamir. 'Iran is now exporting more than twice the oil it was
exporting before the Geneva deal was signed, which translates to $7.33
billion in extra oil revenue for the regime through February.'" http://t.uani.com/1mzxnqy
Nuclear Program & Negotiations
Reuters: "Iran said on Monday it was drafting a comprehensive
account of its nuclear activities, but did not indicate whether this
would be made available to help the final diplomatic push to resolve a
decade-old dispute with the West over the programme. The move could meet
Western demands for greater transparency to address concerns that Iran
may have been trying to develop a nuclear weapons capability, but Behrouz
Kamalvandi, spokesman for Iran's atomic energy agency, made no mention of
this. 'There are various files on our atomic programme, but we're lacking
a comprehensive document, which we are writing now,' the official IRNA
news agency quoted Kamalvandi as saying. 'This is time-consuming, as we
need to coordinate with other government bodies, but we hope to have it
finished in eight months.' This timeframe would take the report past a
July 20 deadline for the conclusion of the talks between Iran and six
world powers - the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and
Russia." http://t.uani.com/1hkCUtc
Reuters: "President Hassan Rouhani's government confirmed rumors on
Monday it had reshuffled the leadership of Iran's atomic agency to
sideline nuclear experts opposed to talks on its atomic program with the
West... After long evading the sensitive issue, a spokesman for the
agency finally offered an answer on Monday. 'Only a limited number of
people were concerned and they were neither scientists nor were they
fired,' said Behruz Kamalvandi, a liaison between the nuclear agency and
national parliament." http://t.uani.com/1kWCBKt
Sanctions
Relief
Trend: "The latest statistics of Iran's customs administration
indicates that the country's non-oil trade volume has increased
significantly after president Hassan Rouhani took office in last August.
Iran's non-oil exports value increased by 0.5 percent during the last
Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20) and stood at $41.628 billion,
according to the country's customs administration's 'complete data' which
was made public on April 20. The report indicates that Iran's non-oil
exports' value during the first half of the last Iranian calendar year
was about $17.972 billion, some 14 percent less than the same period of
preceding year. However the figure stood at $23.656 billion during the
second half of the year, some $5.684 billion more than first half.
Commenting on the significant increase of exports during the second half
of last Iranian calendar year, the country's official IRNA news agency
called it a success for Rouhani's administration... Comparing the last
Iranian year's first and second six-month periods, indicates that the
trade of the country's sanctioned goods has risen during the Rouhani's
administration. For instance, Iran's condensate exports approximately
doubled during the second half of the last Iranian calendar year and
stood at $6.91 billion... Petrochemical exports which also share some 25
percent of Iran's total non-oil exports stood at $6.242 billion during
the second half of that last Iranian calendar year, some 140 percent more
than in the first half." http://t.uani.com/1hbCVUo
Human Rights
Fox News: "The American pastor imprisoned in Iran for his Christian
faith has sent an Easter message from his hospital bed to his family of
supporters across the globe, reminding them of the importance of faith.
Saeed Abedini, the 33-year-old Idaho resident who has served one year of
an eight-year prison term in Iran for practicing his Christian faith, has
passed the letter to family members who were permitted to visit him at
the Tehran hospital where he has been for more than five weeks, according
to his attorneys. The following letter was passed to Abedini's wife,
Naghmeh, who is at their Boise-area home with their two children." http://t.uani.com/1gOU56U
IHR: "A juvenile offender was hanged in the Vakilabad prison of
Mashhad (Northeastern Iran) on Sunday. He was convicted of a murder
committed when he was 16 year old. On Thursday three juvenile offenders
were hanged in the Bandar Abbas prison (Southern Iran). Iran Human Rights
(IHR) urges the international community to react to the juvenile
executions in Iran." http://t.uani.com/1hbDbmn
Al-Monitor: "Iran's penal authorities sought on Monday to discredit
reports of a violent clash last week inside the political detainee block
in Tehran's Evin Prison, calling them fabrications fomented by enemies of
the government. The head of the Iran Prisons Organization, Gholam Hossein
Esmaili, was quoted by the official news media as saying that the
incident in question, which a variety of news outlets said occurred on
Thursday, was nothing more than resistance to a routine and successful
inspection for contraband such as cellphones. Foreign-based
Persian-language satellite news channels and opposition websites, which
have wide audiences in Iran although they are officially banned, reported
that Evin security guards in Ward 350, backed by agents of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Corps and the Intelligence Ministry, had stormed the
cellblock in a violent clash that left more than 30 detainees injured,
some seriously." http://t.uani.com/1eZDEd0
Domestic
Politics
Reuters: "Iran will start cutting gasoline subsidies this week, an
official said on Monday, a move that will test President Hassan Rouhani's
public support as higher petrol prices add to inflation in a country
already squeezed by economic sanctions. The amount of the subsidy cut -
and the corresponding rise in fuel prices - has yet to be announced...
Rouhani says tackling inflation is a priority, and the rate has dropped
below 35 percent as his administration introduced more conservative
monetary and fiscal policies. But, temporarily at least, subsidy reform
could undo that." http://t.uani.com/1eZBCJT
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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