Eye on Iran: Senators Want US to Reject Iran's Emissary to United Nations

Join UANI           Top Stories The Hill: "A number of senators are urging the Obama administration to deny a visa to the man Iran has picked as its new ambassador to the United Nations. The senators say Hamid Abutalebi, who was picked by Iranian president Hassan Rouhani as Iran's emissary in New York, has links to the group involved in the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) introduced legislation that would prevent a UN ambassador from entering the United States if that ambassador was a known terrorist. 'It is unconscionable that, in the name of international diplomatic protocol, the United States would be forced to host a foreign national who showed a brutal disregard for the status of our diplomats when they were stationed in his country,' Cruz said Tuesday, noting that the legislation is aimed at Abutalebi. Current law allows the president to deny a visa for a diplomat if the applicant has engaged in espionage and poses a national security threat to the country, Cruz said. The Texas senator said his bill would allow the president to block a visa application if the prospective diplomat either engaged in terrorism or espionage against the United States, or poses a threat to national security... Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) also told the newswire the United States should seriously consider denying him a visa. 'That really has got to be a serious question, as to whether or not the State Department gives ... a visa to him,' he said." http://t.uani.com/1gnNYoL Reuters: "A U.S. grand jury is probing whether Deutsche Boerse AG's Clearstream Banking SA unit took any steps to benefit Iran and its central bank, according to a court filing in a case that stems from the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut. The grand jury subpoena issued in New York seeks documents related to any property held or any services rendered by Clearstream for the benefit of Iran or its central bank, Bank Markazi. The grand jury is looking at possible violations of money laundering and Iran sanctions laws, according to the subpoena... The filing on Monday came as part of a lawsuit brought by family members of the victims of the Beirut bombing, who won a $2.7 billion judgment against Iran in 2007. The families have accused Iran of providing material support to Hezbollah, which carried out the attack, killing 241 U.S. servicemen. The lawsuit was filed in 2010 after the U.S. Treasury Department uncovered $1.8 billion in Iranian funds held at Citibank in New York, part of Citigroup Inc. The complaint named Iran and a number of banks, including Citi, Bank Markazi, Clearstream and Rome-based Banca UBAE, as defendants and sought to have the funds turned over to help satisfy the judgment. The other banks were alleged to have helped Iran hide its control of the accounts and transfer money out of the bank after it was ordered frozen." http://t.uani.com/QFn1s8 NYDN: "Terrorism victims are celebrating a concrete victory in their decades-long quest to hold Iran accountable for its role in the 9/11 attacks and other horrific incidents. They won the right last week to seize a $500 million Midtown office tower linked to Iran and are near a deal with the feds to distribute the assets of the property, lawyers said. 'This is about all the families,' said Fiona Havlish, whose husband, Donald Havlish, was killed in the World Trade Center on 9/11. 'There really is a light at the end of the tunnel.' The Iranian companies that own 650 Fifth Ave. must forfeit the building to the victims, who hold billions of dollars in judgments against Iran thanks to successful lawsuits over terrorism, Manhattan Federal Judge Katherine Forrest ruled Friday. The 9/11 victims staked claims to the 36-story tower at W. 52nd St. after Manhattan Federal Judge George Daniels, in a 2011 default judgment, said Iran was partly liable for 9/11 because it provided travel support to terrorists... Some 650 Fifth Ave. claimants had relatives killed in bomb attacks in Beirut in 1983. 'This is an important step toward justice,' said Lynne Derbyshire, who lost her brother, Marine Corps soldier Vincent Smith. 'This isn't about putting money in my hands. It's about taking something away from the Iranian government.' Forrest separately ruled in September that the U.S. could seize the tower based on money laundering and other violations by the owners. The U.S. now controls the building, said Dennis Pantazis, a lawyer for Havlish." http://t.uani.com/OdgIJZ        Nuclear Program & Negotiations USA Today: "Israel and the United States are now in broad agreement about the threat that Iran poses to the region and how to deal with it, the top U.S. military official said Tuesday. 'I think they are satisfied that we have the capability to use a military option if the Iranians choose to stray off the diplomatic path,' Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said of Israeli officials. 'I think they are satisfied we have the capability. I think they believe we will use it.' Acknowledging there were differences in the past, Dempsey said Israel and the United States are closer now in their assessment of the threat Iran poses and America's willingness to act. Dempsey made the remarks after wrapping up a two-day visit to Israel, where he met with military and government officials... 'Our clocks are more harmonized than they were two years ago,' Dempsey said. 'They just wanted to know that we are maintaining and continuing to refine our military options,' he said." http://t.uani.com/PitwQu Sanctions Enforcement & Impact NYT: "Deutsche Börse said on Wednesday that its Clearstream unit was the subject of a criminal investigation into potential violations of United States money laundering laws and sanctions against Iran. The German stock exchange said the unit was cooperating with an investigation by the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. 'The investigation is in a very early stage and our U.S. counsels are currently analyzing the situation,' Clearstream said in a statement on Wednesday. 'Investigation is a search process in a criminal proceeding. It is not a prosecution. Clearstream is currently not subject to prosecution.'" http://t.uani.com/1dR3L4Z Human Rights NYT: "The doctor for the terminally ill father of Amir Hekmati, the 30-year-old former Marine imprisoned in Iran, has written to the Iranian judicial authorities asking them to release Mr. Hekmati on compassionate grounds so he can return home, according to a copy of the letter shared by the family on Tuesday. The letter said the father, Ali Hekmati, a professor of microbiology at Mott Community College in Flint, Mich., with a history of diabetes and strokes and an inoperable brain tumor, had been admitted to a Michigan hospital on March 25 after suffering an acute stroke. 'It is unclear,' it said, 'how much time that Dr. Hekmati has to live with his multiple medical co-morbidities and his terminal brain cancer.' Members of the Hekmati family, Americans of Iranian descent, shared the letter as part of their increasingly assertive effort to secure the release of Amir Hekmati, who has been incarcerated in Iran since shortly after he traveled there in August 2011 to visit relatives. The Iranian authorities initially accused him of spying for the C.I.A., and he was sentenced to death." http://t.uani.com/1myLF7I Domestic Politics Al-Monitor: "Rahian-e Noor (the Path of Light) is the name given by military organizations, such as Sepah and Basij, to tours that throughout the year take visitors to areas that were once the heart of the battle during the Iran-Iraq war. Critics of these tours however, say that the tours are meant to indoctrinate and are upset that a shocking number of traffic accident fatalities have occurred en route to these sites, so much so that the tours have earned the nickname, Rahian-e Goor (the Path of the Grave)... Several people who have either been on the Rahian-e Noor tours or have sent family members say that there is a heavy ideological and educational aspect to these trips that is not even related to the Iran-Iraq war. The tours include ideological classes in which the students are exposed to anti-sedition and anti-Green Movement propaganda, the movement that started after the 2009 contested elections. Students are told that the Islamic Republic is being threatened by a velvet revolution and that the United States is trying to start a soft war to overthrow the Iranian government." http://t.uani.com/1pPPMw9 Foreign Affairs Bloomberg: "Armed men on a skiff fired shots at an oil tanker passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important trade route for crude shipments. Unidentified attackers fired twice with an assault rifle at the Aframax tanker Album at about 2:15 p.m. local time yesterday, said Abdul Shahid Khashan, acting security officer at the vessel's owner Arab Marine Petroleum Transport Co. The attackers, who appeared to be fishermen, probably weren't seeking to hijack the Album, which evaded the attack, he said. A second tanker, the Stena Supreme, was approached by two skiffs in a separate incident yesterday, Lt. Commander David Benham, a spokesman for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's Allied Maritime Command, said today. U.S. and European military authorities are investigating, he said... Two green-colored skiffs carrying three to four armed people in military clothing came to within 150 meters of the Stena Supreme before turning toward the Iranian coast, according to Ullman and the NATO center. Another vessel took evasive action outside the strait for about 25 minutes after two smaller craft approached it, according to the center's website. One of the smaller ships was seen carrying a ladder, the center said." http://t.uani.com/Piwrsu Opinion & Analysis Robert Einhorn in Brookings: "After a dozen-year standoff between Iran and the international community over the Iranian nuclear program, negotiations are underway between representatives of Iran, on the one hand, and the P5+1 countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia and China) and the European Union, on the other, on a comprehensive agreement aimed at ensuring that an Iranian nuclear program declared to be devoted to peaceful purposes will not be turned into a program for producing nuclear weapons. However, key differences exist on the requirements of an acceptable deal, not just among negotiators at the table but also among key players outside the negotiations. Israeli officials and a number of members of Congress are demanding the elimination of key elements of Iran's nuclear program, and the Obama administration and its supporters counter that several of those demands are neither achievable nor necessary for a sound agreement. In a new Brookings Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Series paper, Preventing a Nuclear-Armed Iran: Requirements for a Comprehensive Nuclear Agreement, Robert Einhorn explores the difficult issues facing negotiators as they prepare for their next round of talks, scheduled for the week of April 7, 2014. In addition to analyzing Iran's intentions toward nuclear weapons and discussing the principal issues in the negotiations, he outlines the key requirements for an acceptable comprehensive agreement that would prevent Iran from having a rapid nuclear breakout capability and deter a future Iranian decision to build nuclear weapons." http://t.uani.com/1fsoISj 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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