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ICHRI:
"Six young men and women, who were arrested and detained in Tehran
for making a video in which they danced to Pharrell Williams' hit song
'Happy,' should be immediately released, the International Campaign for
Human Rights in Iran said today. The youth were paraded on state TV on
May 20, 2014, where they were forced to express remorse for their
'guilty' act. 'If it is now a criminal act for youth to show their happiness
in Iran, then law enforcement, and the hardline centers of power they
represent, must really be running scared. This is exactly the kind of
moment when Rouhani must take a stand,' said Campaign Executive Director
Hadi Ghaemi. The video, set to the smash 2013 hit, went viral on YouTube,
where it was viewed well over a hundred thousand times before being
removed... The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), the
state-run broadcaster, televised the youths' 'confessions.' IRIB is a
central tool of repression in Iran." http://t.uani.com/1mXLB3c
Reuters:
"Iran should embrace the Internet rather than see it as a threat,
President Hassan Rouhani has said, in remarks that challenge hardliners
who have stepped up measures to censor the Web. Rouhani, a comparative
moderate elected last year, said trying to win the battle for public
influence by restricting the Internet was like bringing a wooden sword to
a gunfight. The weekend speech distances Rouhani from rival conservative
clerics, some close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who promote
censorship as a tool for protecting the 1979 Islamic revolution which
brought the Shi'ite Muslim clergy to power... 'We ought to see (the
Internet) as an opportunity. We must recognize our citizens' right to
connect to the World Wide Web,' said Rouhani according to the official
IRNA news agency. 'Why are we so shaky? Why have we cowered in a corner,
grabbing onto a shield and a wooden sword, lest we take a bullet in this
culture war?' he said in his weekend speech. 'Even if there is an
onslaught, which there is, the way to face it is via modern means, not
passive and cowardly methods.'" http://t.uani.com/1lEjFx2
Fox News:
"The American citizen being held in Iran for alleged crimes related
to his faith and work as a Christian pastor was yanked from a hospital
bed, beaten and taken back to one of the Islamic Republic's infamous
prisons, his family charges. Pastor Saeed Abedini had spent the past two
months in a hospital for injuries allegedly suffered at the hands of guards
and inmates in Iran's Evin and Rajai Shahr prisons when he was once again
beaten and hauled back to prison, according to family members who say
they witnessed the beating. 'This news is devastating to our family,' his
wife, Naghmeh Abedini, told FoxNews.com. 'This development also came as a
complete shock to all of us. Saeed's family, who was present at the
hospital when this occurred, witnessed the severe beatings that Saeed
received - at one point seeing him collapse before being taken away. We're
very concerned about his health.'" http://t.uani.com/1tjE28L
Nuclear Program & Negotiations
Reuters: "The U.N. nuclear watchdog sought in talks with Iran on
Tuesday to advance a long-stalled investigation into Tehran's atomic
activities, but it was not immediately clear whether any headway was
made. A spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed
the two sides met in Tehran, but said the IAEA was not planning to issue
a statement about the talks on Tuesday, leaving open the possibility one
might be made later. Diplomatic sources had said the Vienna-based U.N.
agency and Iran were expected to discuss IAEA requests for information
about detonators that can, among other things, be used to set off a
nuclear explosive device. It could have provided an opportunity for
progress on a key issue ahead of a quarterly IAEA report on Iran's nuclear
program, due this week, which will be debated by the U.N. agency's
35-nation governing board at a meeting in early June." http://t.uani.com/1npbIy9
National Journal: "Robert Menendez is making things easier for
Democrats stuck between showing support for Israel and backing the Obama
administration's negotiations with Iran. On Monday, the Democratic
chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee removed a pro-Israel
bill from the committee's agenda, Foreign Policy's John Hudson reports,
after a proposed amendment threatened to split Democrats' allegiances.
The bill, called the U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership Act, would
strengthen ties between the two countries in a number of arenas,
including military, trade, intelligence, and energy. But an amendment
from the committee's top Republican, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., gave
Menendez pause. Corker's amendment would force President Obama to present
any nuclear deal with Iran to Congress within three days of its
signature, a situation the White House is trying to avoid. Congress could
hold a 'vote of disapproval' and conduct hearings on the nuclear deal,
but its opinion would carry no legally binding weight." http://t.uani.com/SiMp7u
Sanctions
Relief
Bloomberg: "Foreign visitors to Iran are the most visible effect of
President Hassan Rouhani's drive to mend ties with the U.S. and Europe,
an influx that one his deputies said generated as much as $5 billion for
the sanctions-hit economy over the past year. For the first time since
the 1979 Islamic Revolution, international hotel chains are now plotting
a return, while European airlines are adding or restoring links with
Tehran. Between March 21 and April 20, the first month of the Iranian
year, 4,594 foreign tour groups visited Iran, more than double the number
that arrived in same period last year, said Morteza Rahmani-Movahed,
deputy of the government's Tourism and Heritage Organization. Iran wants
to remove or ease visa requirements for 12 countries to draw more
visitors, Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi has said... Saudi Arabia's
Rotana Group plans to open five-star hotels in Tehran and the Shiite
pilgrimage city of Mashhad. France's Accor SA was aiming to build a
hotel near Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport, according to Rahmani-Movahed,
though the Paris-based company said that was premature... Austrian
Airlines AG resumed direct flights to Tehran from Vienna in March.
Iranian officials have been in talks with the Italian government and
Alitalia SpA to increase the frequency on routes, the official Fars News
Agency reported on April 30, citing the deputy head of Iran's Civil
Aviation Organization." http://t.uani.com/1h80Dhs
Bloomberg: "China imported a record volume of Iranian oil last month
as its condensate demand increased and as the Persian Gulf nation sought
to boost crude exports. China, the world's second-largest oil consumer,
bought 3.29 million metric tons of Iranian supplies in April, or about
804,000 barrels a day, data from the General Administration of Customs in
Beijing showed today. That's almost 40 percent more than in March and the
most since Jan. 2004 when Bloomberg started compiling the data. Imports
averaged 1.79 million tons a month last year. Purchases have risen on an
estimated 4 million tons of annual incremental demand from a petrochemicals
producer in southern China and Iran's push to sell more oil, according to
ICIS-C1, a commodities researcher based in Shanghai. Dragon Aromatics in
Zhangzhou city started a long-term contract in June to buy Iranian
condensate, including from the South Pars field, to add to feedstock to
its naphtha cracking unit, Amy Sun, an ICIS-C1 analyst in Guangzhou, said
by phone today. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., Asia's biggest
refiner, and plants owned by China North Industries Group, a military
weapons manufacturer, are the country's leading buyers of Iranian crude,
according to Sun." http://t.uani.com/1oeOqwl
Reuters: "China's imports of Iranian crude in April more than
doubled from a year ago to a record near 800,000 barrels per day (bpd),
again pushing Asia's monthly intake from the OPEC member above what is
allowed under the temporary deal easing sanctions on Tehran. China's
imports, added to India's shipments of about 225,000 bpd in April and
South Korea's 135,000 bpd, put Asia's purchases of Iranian crude for last
month over the 1 million bpd limit - with Japan still to report its oil
import data later in May... China's crude imports from Iran in April rose
115.3 percent to 799,865 bpd, customs data showed on Wednesday,
accelerating a rise in its intake from the OPEC member after the November
nuclear deal that eased some sanctions on Tehran... China's oil arrivals
from Iran in the first four months of this year were at 618,170 bpd, up
54.5 percent from a year ago." http://t.uani.com/1i3OolW
Human Rights
HRW: "Iranian authorities should ensure that prison sentences
against 20 Baha'is unlawfully convicted of national security crimes are
overturned. Security and intelligence forces arrested the group of 20 in
July 2012. Authorities should also halt the Revolutionary Guard
bulldozing of an old Baha'i cemetery in Shiraz. The appellate court
ruling, issued on April 13, 2014, follows lower court convictions of the
group in 2013 on charges of 'propaganda against the state' and
'propaganda on behalf of groups or organizations acting against the
state.' Several defendants told Human Rights Watch that the convictions
followed prolonged periods of solitary confinement and interrogation by
Intelligence Ministry agents, who subjected detainees to physical and psychological
ill-treatment. 'These transparently political charges make it painfully
clear that authorities have targeted the Baha'is not for any crime but
because of their religious beliefs,' said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East
and North Africa director. 'It's hard to understand how members of the
judiciary can justify such religious intolerance.'" http://t.uani.com/1oRQqgB
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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