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LAT:
"Three months into intense international negotiations over Iran's
disputed nuclear development program, Tehran's team has surprised almost
everybody with its apparent eagerness for a deal... Yet President Hassan
Rouhani's government is moving away from the United States and its allies
on an issue that may be the most important of all... Put simply, the six
world powers want Iran to curtail enrichment of uranium to limit any
bomb-making potential. They want Tehran to cut its 19,000
uranium-enriching centrifuges to a few thousand. Tehran, however, is
insisting on vastly expanding capacity by adding thousands more
centrifuges for what it says is strictly civilian energy purposes. With
talks scheduled to resume this week in Vienna, the dispute looms as the
biggest threat to the comprehensive nuclear deal the two sides are trying
to complete by a July 20 deadline. Iran's demand to boost enrichment
capacity 'would be a show-stopper,' said Robert Einhorn, who was a member
of President Obama's inner circle of nuclear advisors until late last
year and is now with the Brookings Institution. 'There won't be an
agreement.' ... Gary Samore, Obama's nonproliferation advisor from 2009
to 2013, said he believes the Iranians are not bluffing, though they may
ease their demands later in negotiations. 'I think this is their real
position,' said Samore, executive director for research at the Harvard
Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs...
Samore said he doesn't expect the two sides to resolve these disputes and
complete the deal by mid-July. But he said they may make enough progress
to convince both Congress and hard-liners in Tehran that negotiations
should continue six more months, as the interim agreement allows." http://t.uani.com/1jahx4g
AFP:
"Iran will not accept 'nuclear apartheid' but is willing to offer
more transparency over its atomic activities, President Hassan Rouhani
said on Sunday ahead of new talks with world powers. Iran and the P5+1
group of nations will start hammering out a draft accord Tuesday aimed at
ending a decade-long stand-off over suspicions that the Islamic republic
is concealing military objectives. 'We have nothing to put on the table
and offer to them but transparency. That's it. Our nuclear technology is
not up for negotiation,' Rouhani, referring to the West, said in remarks
broadcast on state television. 'Iran will not retreat one step in the
field of nuclear technology... we will not accept nuclear apartheid,' he
said." http://t.uani.com/1guRb7g
Reuters:
"Iran's Supreme Leader described as 'stupid and idiotic' Western
expectations for his country to curb its missile development, striking a
defiant tone ahead of a fresh round of nuclear talks. Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei called on Iran's Revolutionary Guards to mass produce missiles
and said the nuclear negotiations were not the place to discuss Tehran's
defense program or to solve the problem of sanctions damaging the Iranian
economy. 'They expect us to limit our missile program while they
constantly threaten Iran with military action,' Khamenei was quoted as
telling the IRNA news agency while on a visit to an aeronautics fair held
by the Revolutionary Guards. 'So this is a stupid, idiotic expectation
... The revolutionary guards should definitely carry out their program
and not be satisfied with the present level. They should mass produce.
This is a main duty of all military officials.'" http://t.uani.com/1g1kDqw
Guardian:
"Iran and its close ally President Bashar al-Assad have won the war
in Syria, and the US-orchestrated campaign in support of the opposition's
attempt to topple the Syrian regime has failed, senior Iranian officials
have told the Guardian. In a series of interviews in Tehran, top figures
who shape Iranian foreign policy said the west's strategy in Syria had
merely encouraged radicals, caused chaos and ultimately backfired, with
government forces now on the front foot. 'We have won in Syria,' said
Alaeddin Borujerdi, chairman of the Iranian parliament's national
security and foreign policy committee and an influential government
insider. 'The regime will stay. The Americans have lost it.'" http://t.uani.com/1uU6kZi
Nuclear
Program & Negotiations
Reuters: "President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday he wanted Iran to
do a better job of explaining its nuclear program to prevent
'evil-minded' people misleading world opinion, two days before Tehran
resumes talks with world powers on its disputed atomic activity... 'If
one engages in a technological endeavor but is not doing good legal and
political work, then the enemy might come up with a fictional excuse to
cause trouble for you,' he said. The Islamic Republic's leaders normally
use the term 'the enemy' to refer to the United States and Israel. 'If
you don't have good public relations and are not able to communicate
well, then you might find other evil-minded people misleading world
public opinion,' Rouhani said. 'So our effort today is to even out our efforts
on multiple levels ... We don't want to retreat one step from our pursuit
of technology, but we want to take a step forward on the political
front.' ... Rouhani said Iran if it so chose could resume enrichment of
uranium gas to a fissile purity of 20 percent - its most sensitive
nuclear activity because it is a relatively short technical step away
from the level required for nuclear weapons. 'We wanted to tell the world
that our activities are moving in the right direction: If we say we can
enrich to 3.5 percent, we can do it. If necessary we will do (it to) 20
percent,' he said." http://t.uani.com/1mhlrb8
AP: "Iran's president said Sunday his country would not surrender
what it considers its right to nuclear development in upcoming talks with
world powers, but that it would be 'transparent' in negotiations over the
contested program... 'If the world seeks good relations with Iran, it
should choose the way of surrendering to Iran's rights, respecting the
Iranian nation and praising Iranian scientists,' Rouhani said in the
speech, which was aired live by state television. 'The Iranian nation has
never been after a weapon of mass destruction since it does not see it as
legitimate,' Rouhani said. 'We do not have anything on the table to
submit to others except transparency,' he added." http://t.uani.com/1jSbIqW
Reuters: "Iran's attempts to illicitly procure materials for its
disputed nuclear and missile programs appear to have slowed down as it
pursues talks on a long-term accord with world powers, a U.N. expert
panel said in a confidential report seen by Reuters. The U.N. Panel of
Experts, who monitor compliance with the Security Council's sanctions
regime on Iran, presented this conclusion cautiously, suggesting it was
also possible Tehran has simply learned to outsmart security and
intelligence services in its pursuit of sensitive components and
materials. The report cited 'a decrease in the number of detected
attempts by Iran to procure items for prohibited programs, and related
seizures, since mid-2013 ... It is possible that this decrease reflects
the new political environment in Iran and diplomatic progress towards a
comprehensive solution.' ... But, the report cautioned, 'this may be a
function of more sophisticated procurement strategies on the part of
Iran, which has developed methods of concealing procurement, while
expanding prohibited activities. Such methods can also be used by Iran to
procure and finance legitimate trade, which further complicates the
efforts of states to identify illicit procurement.' The report added that
Iran had 'also demonstrated a growing capability to produce key items
indigenously'. Among sensitive dual-use items Iran has pursued abroad
over the years have been aluminum, carbon fiber and special valves."
http://t.uani.com/1skE3XK
Reuters: "The U.N. nuclear watchdog plans talks with Iran on Monday
ahead of a May 15 deadline for the country to implement a series of
measures that could allay concern about its nuclear program that the West
fears may have military goals. News of the meeting came after diplomatic
sources told Reuters on Friday that the International Atomic Energy
Agency was seeking further clarification from Iran about one of those
steps, concerning information about detonators that can help set off a
nuclear device and Tehran is believed to have developed. Iran says it has
already implemented the seven steps agreed by the two sides - including
access to two uranium sites - but the sources suggested the IAEA still
wanted more information about the so-called Explosive Bridge Wire (EBW)
detonators. How Iran responds to questions about its development and need
of this type of equipment is seen as an important test of its willingness
to cooperate fully with an IAEA investigation into suspected atomic bomb
research by the country... IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor said in an email
on Sunday that the meeting would take place in Vienna but gave no
detail." http://t.uani.com/1g1hBm8
Guardian: "The Ukraine crisis has strengthened Iran's hand in its
nuclear talks and other dealings with the west by reminding European
countries and the Obama administration of its potential as a major
alternative energy supplier if Russia cannot be relied upon, officials
and analysts in Tehran say. But even as it attempts to play the Russia card,
the government of President Hassan Rouhani is simultaneously stressing
closer bilateral ties with Vladimir Putin's Kremlin as a means of
mitigating the impact of US, EU and UN economic sanctions, imposed in the
still-unresolved row over Iran's nuclear programme. 'The western
countries are imposing sanctions on Russia [after its annexation of
Crimea]. Now Russia is the bad guy,' said Amir Mohebbian, a government
adviser. 'This has made the situation better for Iran's nuclear
negotiators. Time is on our side. If we sit here long enough, it will all
come to Iran.' It was not for Iran to say who was right or wrong in
Ukraine, said Mohammad Marandi, an international relations expert at
Tehran University. 'But of course if Iran is no longer under sanctions, the
Europeans would have many more choices regarding energy. At the same
time, if the sanctions continue, Rouhani may move closer to Russia and
China.'" http://t.uani.com/1skJq9r
WSJ: "U.S. allies in Europe see an added bonus to a comprehensive
nuclear agreement being reached with Iran: a potential partner in the
energy war against Russian President Vladimir Putin... Western energy
companies are expressing growing interest in returning to Iran as a
result of the nuclear talks. And European countries, wary of Russia's
military moves into Ukraine, see renewed Iranian energy supplies as a way
to undercut Mr. Putin's ability to use oil and gas as a weapon against
the European Union and many former Soviet states. 'It would be good for
Iranian energy to flow back into Europe,' said Georgian Defense Minister
Irakli Alasania in an interview last week... 'The Russians don't want
Iranian gas going to Europe,' said an Iranian businessman who advises
President Hasan Rouhani's government on economic issues. 'The Iranians think
[the U.S. and Europe] should play that card.'" http://t.uani.com/1hHfXkR
Military
Matters
AFP: "Iran said on Sunday it has succeeded in copying a US drone it
captured in December 2011, with state television broadcasting images
apparently showing the replicated aircraft. Tehran captured the US RQ-170
Sentinel in 2011 while it was in its airspace, apparently on a mission to
spy on the country's nuclear sites, media in the United States reported.
'Our engineers succeeded in breaking the drone's secrets and copying
them. It will soon take a test flight,' an officer said in the
footage." http://t.uani.com/1ge3xGz
Human Rights
AP: "Iranian authorities have detained a reformist journalist on
security charges, the official news agency reported Sunday. IRNA quoted
the journalist's attorney, Giti Pourfazel, as saying that a court
Saturday charged Serajeddin Mirdamadi of plotting against Iran's ruling
clerics and ordered his temporary detention. Pourfazel said Mirdamadi
stood accused of spreading lies against the government earlier this year
but was freed on bail." http://t.uani.com/1guSwuP
Al-Monitor: "Prosecutor-General Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei said on
May 6 during a meeting of the High Council for Human Rights in Iran,
'Unfortunately, the high number of executions in this country is related
to drugs smuggling and the heavy penalties of this phenomenon. If within
the existing laws we can review it in a way that we help the intelligence
officials to punish the leaders of these smuggling networks, and for the
rest we reconsider [their punishment], the goals of the system can better
be realized with respect to drugs.' While there are many caveats to
Ejei's statement, it is noteworthy that a figure with his background
would make this suggestion publicly at this type of session." http://t.uani.com/1skIGB2
ICHRI: "Imprisoned student activist Maryam Shafipour has developed a
severe reaction from a medication incorrectly prescribed for her for
three months by prison doctors for a lymphatic condition. Prison authorities
have refused to allow her to see a specialist. An informed source who
wished to remain anonymous told the Campaign that Mehdi Khodabakhshi,
Supervising Assistant Prosecutor in Evin Prison, told Shafipour's family
that the refusal to allow proper treatment was in reprisal for the
publicity about Shafipour's detention. The error in the medication was
discovered when she showed the pills to doctors at Shohada Hospital in
Tajrish, northern Tehran, where she was being treated for a bleeding
stomach." http://t.uani.com/1jS3yPi
Domestic
Politics
Reuters: "Payment problems are disrupting commercial food cargoes to
Iran, with hundreds of thousands of tons of grain and sugar stuck in
transit, as Western banking sanctions complicate deals and trade financiers
scale back exposure... Several international trade sources, with
knowledge of deals that have been affected, told Reuters that ships
carrying cargoes of grain, including wheat and soybeans, as well as raw
sugar, have been stuck for several weeks outside Iranian cargo ports such
as Bandar Imam Khomeini and Bandar Abbas... A spokeswoman for U.S.
agribusiness company Archer Daniels Midland, which has supplied Iran,
said many international banks would not participate in transactions with
Iran 'for fear of being sanctioned or fined'. 'Another hindrance is
Iran's foreign currency controls,' she added. 'Ships arriving in Iran
with grain must frequently wait weeks for the Central Bank of Iran to
approve the release of funds to pay for the cargo.' ... A banking source
said: 'We should not rule out further bureaucratic delays in Iran to
manage their limited availability of hard currency until sanctions are
properly eased.'" http://t.uani.com/1jy2jp3
ICHRI: "A prominent member of the Iranian Parliament who sits on the
Press Oversight Committee has called on the Rouhani Administration to
stop what he believes is the wrongful process of newspaper closures. MP
Ali Motahhari was speaking a day after the major daily Ghanoon was shut
down by the Tehran Prosecutor's Office on charges of publishing a 'false'
report about the release of a former Revolutionary Guards commander from
detention. This is the fifth newspaper closed by the Judiciary since the
election of Hassan Rouhani, a responsibility previously carried out by the
Press Oversight Committee. The Judiciary's direct intervention in
limiting the press is a part of a wider approach by the hardliners to
bypass the Press Oversight Committee and control the press and social
networking tools, and block fulfillment of pledges Rouhani made during
his campaign to safeguard freedom of expression in Iran. In the case of a
recent order to block the popular social networking tool, WhatsApp,
however, President Rouhani pushed back against the Judiciary and took the
highly unusual step of lifting the ban on the social media network. In an
interview with the ISNA state news agency, MP Motahhari reminded the
President and the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance that the legal
authority in charge of judging the actions of newspapers is the Press
Oversight Committee." http://t.uani.com/1lnjetV
WashPost: "On the western outskirts of this city, in an industrial
neighborhood of factories and dusty half-constructed lots, a metal-walled
building houses women with a secret. They are female drug addicts, a
growing class of people with a habit so taboo in this traditional Islamic
society that some Iranians believe they deserve death. But the modest
facility here, a substance-abuse rehabilitation center for women, is one
sign that attitudes are slowly changing as Iran begins to confront an
uncomfortable problem that long went ignored... At a conference on drugs
in the city of Urmia this month, one government official blamed foreign
meddling. 'The addiction of women to drugs is a trick by our enemies to
attack Islamic values of Iranian families,' Razieh Khodadoust, the
director general of the State Welfare Organization of Iran in the West
Azerbaijan province, said at the conference. 'The enemies of the Islamic
republic are planning extensively to spread drugs among Iranian women and
they are investing heavily in this project.'" http://t.uani.com/RAnbAL
Foreign Affairs
AFP: "Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met Iran's president
Sunday at the start of a visit during which talks are likely to include
border security and a stalled gas pipeline deal. Sharif and President
Hassan Rouhani met briefly for lunch, and will hold more in-depth talks
on 'bilateral issues and the expansion of economic cooperation,' the
official IRNA news agency reported. During his two-day visit Sharif, who
is accompanied by senior advisers, is also expected to meet supreme
leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's ultimate authority, media reported.
As he met Sharif, Rouhani said Iran was ready to develop 'road and
railway networks between the two countries... as well as electric grids'
in order to bolster economic ties, IRNA said." http://t.uani.com/1lbMh0m
Opinion &
Analysis
UANI Advisory Board Member Irwin Cotler in JPost: "Despite Iranian
President Hassan Rouhani's repeated calls for 'moderation' and 'respect
for human rights in his country,' executions in Iran continue at an
alarming rate. According to organizations such as the Iran Human Rights
Documentation Center and Iran Human Rights, both of which track execution
- and extrapolating from their data - there have been over 250 executions
carried out in the first four months 2014. Indeed, there were 10
executions reported in the first five days of May alone. Ironically
enough, it was Mohammad-Javad Larijani - head of the Iranian judiciary's
Human Rights Council - who unwittingly highlighted these heinous crimes
by declaring that the international community should be 'grateful' to
Iran for the 'great service to humanity' that it provides in carrying out
these executions. However, Larijani lamented that 'instead of celebrating
Iran, international organizations see the increased number of executions
caused by Iran's assertive confrontation with drugs as a vehicle for
human rights attacks on the Islamic Republic of Iran.' But the horrific
reality of executions in Iran deserves international condemnation - not
celebration - while Larijani's absurd defense of his country's record is
in blatant contravention of international law, and even Iranian law.
First, Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
rights - to which Iran is a States Party - provides that a 'sentence of
death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes.' Christof Heyns,
the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions,
has affirmed that executions for drug-related offenses - which Larijani
seeks to justify and even celebrate - do not meet the threshold of 'most
serious crimes' to which the death penalty might be lawfully applied.
Moreover, a not insignificant number of the 687 people executed in 2013 -
the largest number executed in a single year since the early Nineties -
were convicted of other than drug-related offenses. Second, for example,
the revised Islamic Penal Code of 2013 continues to impose the death penalty
for a litany of other crimes that do not meet the 'most serious crimes'
standard under international law, including not only drug-trafficking but
also sexual relations outside marriage, 'apostasy,' and other vaguely
worded political crimes such as 'enmity against God.' Finally, death
sentences in Iran are frequently carried out following legal proceedings
that do not meet basic fair trial standards under international law,
including the use of forced confessions, the denial of a fair hearing, or
the denial of any hearing at all. Accordingly, it is not surprising that
the most recent US State Department Annual Human Rights Report for Iran
documents some of the 'most egregious atrocities in recent memory' in
2013... Rouhani's talk of freedom and reconciliation is a welcome change
from former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's frequently incendiary
rhetoric and incitement. It is the responsibility of the international
community to ensure that Rouhani's actions reflect his words - a far cry
from the tragic human rights reality of the Iranian people. As Mahmood
Amiry-Moghaddam of IHR put it: 'It is a paradox that the relations
between Iran and the international community are improving while the
number of the executions in Iran increases.'" http://t.uani.com/1olNFnu
Robert Einhorn in The National Interest: "But on several other
critical issues, the EU/P5+1 and Iran remain far apart. Nowhere is the
gap greater than on the size and composition of the uranium enrichment
program that Iran would be allowed to possess under the comprehensive
agreement. To lengthen the time it would take Iran to break out of an
agreement and produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a single nuclear
weapon, the EU/P5+1 would like to see a major reduction in the number of
Iranian centrifuges and the amount of enriched uranium stockpiled in
Iran. Tehran says it wants to expand its current enrichment capacity
substantially. In a recent press interview, Salehi said that, in addition
to the roughly 19,000 centrifuges currently installed, Iran will need to
build an additional 30,000 in order to produce fuel for the Bushehr power
reactor, which Iran bought from Russia and for which the Russians are
currently supplying the enriched fuel. Moreover, Salehi asserted that
Iran would need to produce fuel for 'other Bushehrs in the works,' and
suggested that fueling such power reactors would require the Natanz
enrichment facility to operate with 50,000 centrifuges that are fifteen
times more efficient than Iran's first-generation centrifuges that are now
operating. An enrichment capacity that large-indeed, an enrichment
capacity greater than a few thousand first-generation centrifuges-would
give Iran an unacceptably rapid breakout capability. If Tehran's position
at the negotiating table is a reflection of Salehi's public remarks, it
is a show-stopper, and Iran must know that. Iran doesn't need a large
enrichment capacity in the near or medium term to pursue a technically
sound, sensibly paced, and successful civil nuclear-energy program. It
can achieve its civil nuclear goals with a much more limited capability
consistent with the requirements of a deal acceptable to the EU/P5+1.
Under the kind of agreement that may be negotiable, Iran could have
sufficient enrichment capability to fuel the few research reactors it
plans to build to produce medical isotopes, test fuel assemblies, and
conduct nuclear research. To meet its electricity-generation needs, it
could continue to buy nuclear power reactors and enriched uranium to fuel
those reactors from Russia and possibly other foreign vendors. And it
could benefit from collaboration with the P5+1 and other advanced nuclear
energy countries in the design, construction, and fueling of modern
research and power reactors. If Iran is serious about having an advanced
civil nuclear program in the long run, it makes little sense either to
operate large numbers of obsolete first-generation centrifuges or to
compete with much more experienced and lower-cost foreign enrichment
operations in an effort to provide fuel for its power reactors (which
require many times more fuel and enrichment capacity than research
reactors). A wiser strategy is to use a relatively small number of its
current centrifuges to meet near-term research-reactor requirements, rely
on more cost-effective foreign suppliers to address the much greater
enriched-uranium needs of its power reactors (as countries like Japan
do), and make progress toward a more advanced civil nuclear program in
the future through domestic research and development and collaboration
with Russia and the West." http://t.uani.com/1g1muvK
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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