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RFE/RL:
"Nuclear experts from Iran and six world powers are due to start a
week of talks in New York aimed at reaching a permanent agreement that
limits Iran's nuclear program and eases Western concerns Tehran is trying
to produce nuclear weapons. The negotiators from Iran, Britain, China,
France, Germany, Russia, and the United States still need to resolve the
most difficult issues on a permanent agreement before a July 20 deadline
that was established under a temporary agreement in November... The talks
from May 5 to May 9 in New York are preparing for the next
ministerial-level negotiations in Vienna on May 13." http://t.uani.com/1muYgNf
Fox News:
"The Iranian regime has banned access to the WhatsApp messaging
site, a popular site for many to communicate both inside and outside the
country, stating that a Jewish 'American Zionist' owns the site. The
announcement came some two months after Facebook bought the company for a
stunning $19 billion, and a regime official connected the move directly
to the founder of Facebook. 'The reason for this is the assumption of
WhatsApp by the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is an American
Zionist,' Abdolsamad Khorramabadi, head of the country's Committee on
Internet Crimes, stated. One Iranian blogger told FoxNews.com the regime
in Tehran is terrified of the power of social media." http://t.uani.com/1ojjzy0
Fars (Iran):
"Senior Military Aide to the Iranian Supreme Leader Major General
Yahya Rahim Safavi said Iran's influence and clout has now stretched to
the Mediterranean coasts and its line of defense is now in Southern
Lebanon. 'Certainly, the US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and the European
countries' strategy to overthrow (Syrian President) Bashar Assad has
failed and this failure is a strategic failure for the western, Arab and
Zionist front and a great victory for the Islamic Republic of Iran,'
Safavi said, addressing a group of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps
(IRGC) veterans in the Central province of Isfahan on Saturday. He
underlined that Iran is now an influential power in Iraq, Syria and the
Mediterranean and by gaining victory in Syria, this is the third time
that the country has proved its regional power to the world. 'Our
frontmost line of defense is no more in Shalamcheh (in Southern Iran),
rather this line is now in Southern Lebanon ('s border) with Israel as
our strategic depth has now stretched to the Mediterranean coasts and
just to the North of Israel,' Safavi said, adding that the westerners are
concerned about the spread of Iran's influence and power from the Persian
Gulf to the Mediterranean." http://t.uani.com/1upGXyj
Nuclear Program & Negotiations
Reuters: "Iran has provided the U.N. nuclear watchdog with
information about detonators with possible military applications, under
an accord intended to allay concerns about Tehran's atomic activities, an
Iranian news agency said on Sunday. There was no immediate comment from
the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which for years has
been trying to investigate suspicions that Iran may have researched how
to make an atomic bomb... As part of the same cooperation pact, IAEA
inspectors are this week expected to visit Iran's Saghand uranium mine
and the Ardakan uranium milling facility. Refined uranium can have both
civilian and military nuclear uses. Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency
said on Sunday that the 'EBW report has already been submitted' to the
IAEA, as well as updated design information about the planned Arak
heavy-water research reactor, which was also among the seven steps. ISNA
added: 'The implementation of all seven steps agreed with IAEA will be
finalized this week.'" http://t.uani.com/1j29o0L
Reuters: "German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday negotiations
with Iran over its nuclear program have to be given a chance, but
sanctions could still be reinstated if needed. Merkel said Iran had to
comply with an agreement under which Tehran agreed to limit parts of its
nuclear work in return for the easing of some sanctions. 'If Iran does
not meet its obligations, or does not meet them adequately, we remain
ready to take back the current limited suspension of sanctions,' she said
at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event." http://t.uani.com/1nYq3Fa
Military
Matters
Reuters: "China wants deeper defense ties with Iran, Chinese Defense
Minister Chang Wanquan told his Iranian counterpart on Monday, according
to Chinese state media, as Beijing moves to cement already close ties
with a major oil supplier. Chang told Iranian Defense Minister Hossein
Dehqan the development of bilateral relations has 'remained positive and
steady, featuring frequent high-level exchanges and deepened political
mutual trust', the official Xinhua news agency said. Chang is 'confident
that the friendly relations between the two countries as well as the
armed forces will be reinforced' due to 'increased mutual visits and
personnel training cooperation between the armed forces', Xinhua added...
China has exported arms to Iran, and last month expressed anger after
Washington laid charges against a Chinese businessman accused of
allegedly procuring missile parts for Iran." http://t.uani.com/RkP0wK
Sanctions
Relief
AFP: "The boss of French carmaker Peugeot Citroen has held talks
with his Iranian joint venture partner to consider returning to the
country, the official IRNA news agency reported Monday. According to
IRNA, the 10-hour meeting between Peugeot Citroen chief executive Maxime
Picat and Hashem Yeke Zare, the boss of car manufacturer Iran Khodro, was
aimed at exploring 'new scope for cooperation'. 'Fulfilment of the
previous commitments, transferring the technical know-how, mutual
production of cars as well as selling Iran Khodro's vehicles through the
French exporting network were discussed and reviewed during the meeting,'
the report said. The meeting took place last week, a source close to the
talks told AFP." http://t.uani.com/1sb5ipv
AP: "A senior Iranian trade official says Tehran will almost triple
the number of commercial attaches in its embassies abroad to boost trade
ties. Miraboutaleb Badri, an official with the Trade Promotion
Organization of Iran, is quoted by Iranian newspapers on Monday as saying
the government is raising the number of commercial attaches abroad from
11 to 30. Badri says new trade attaches will also be dispatched to
Germany, Italy, Serbia, Spain and Switzerland." http://t.uani.com/1iPPyqt
Terrorism
NYT: "Smaller and less known internationally than the militant
Islamic Hamas faction that has ruled since 2007, Islamic Jihad and its
Al-Quds Brigades are having something of a renaissance. Last month the
group captured global headlines by firing a barrage of 100 rockets toward
Israel in less than an hour... Founded nearly a decade ahead of Hamas,
Islamic Jihad has long shunned electoral politics to focus on military
resistance to the Israeli occupation. Now, analysts say that because it
is backed by Iranian funds and free of any burden of governing, Islamic
Jihad has been able to assert itself as the main military expression of
Palestinian nationalism, while Hamas is partly blamed by a restive
population for rampant unemployment and daily shortfalls of fuel,
electricity and water." http://t.uani.com/1icXKzm
Human Rights
Al-Monitor: "After reports emerged that one of the Green Movement
leaders under house arrest had been checked into a hospital with heart
trouble, in separate statements, President Hassan Rouhani and his
spokesman defended the administration's efforts to address the situation
of the leaders in detention... In a television interview with Channel One
yesterday, Rouhani said, 'I have not forgotten anything. Thanks to God,
my memory has been and is still good. And I remember well what promises I
made and what I should do.' In the interview, which at times felt like
more of a presidential address to the people, Rouhani said, 'Some of the
issues related to domestic politics, unity and cohesion of factions take
time. We all have to help each other and the prepare the conditions. The
hastiness of some individuals makes the work harder.'" http://t.uani.com/1j2bm1i
Domestic
Politics
Guardian: "The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, is facing growing
criticism from a broad array of political hardliners and rightwing
opponents who say his government is being duped by the US in an
over-hasty attempt to clinch a nuclear deal with the west and end
economic sanctions. At a meeting at the former American embassy building
in central Tehran on Saturday, a newly formed group of MPs and rightwing
activists calling itself 'We're Worried' claimed Iran's negotiating team
was ignoring national interests in the nuclear talks, which resume on 13
May in Vienna. 'The whole nation believes the main intention of the
United States is to fully halt the Iranian nuclear programme,' said
Fatemeh Alia, a central committee member of the hardline Islamic
Revolution Resistance Front, previously allied to the former president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad." http://t.uani.com/1kEP2bH
Foreign Affairs
AFP: "Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will travel to Iran on
Sunday in a visit seen as an attempt to improve relations frayed by the
kidnapping of Iranian border guards. The conflict in Syria will also be
on the agenda, along with other regional issues. 'Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif will pay a two-day official visit to Iran from May 11 to 12,' a
foreign office official told AFP on Monday. He said Sharif would
hold talks with President Hassan Rouhani on May 11 and was also expected
to pay a call on spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei the following
day." http://t.uani.com/1lRt1Jk
Opinion &
Analysis
Nazanin Boniadi in CNN: "At first blush, the biography of Iranian
actress Pegah Ahangarani could read very much like my own. Ahangarani is
a working actress who supports social causes in her time away from set.
The difference? In October, Ahangarani was sentenced to 18 months in
prison for her peaceful activism. In this regard, she is just the latest
in a string of filmmakers and actors of Iranian cinema -- including
acclaimed filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof and actor Ramin
Parchami -- to be arrested or sentenced to lengthy prison terms in recent
years. Panahi and Rasoulof each were sentenced to prison -- the former
for six years and the latter for five -- and banned from filmmaking for
20 years, accused of making 'anti-regime propaganda.' Parchami, a
prominent actor, was sentenced to prison after he was arrested in
anti-government protests. Many more have been arrested and jailed. In my
role as a spokesperson for Amnesty International USA and as a supporter
of various charitable causes including Unlock Iran, a campaign to release
prisoners of conscience in Iran, I have never been faced with the threat
of intimidation or arrest. Indeed, I cannot even fathom that speaking out
for the most vulnerable in society and those locked up for peaceful
expression and activities would, in turn, be grounds for my own detention
and arrest by government authorities. A celebrated and hugely popular
actress in her native Iran, Ahangarani first landed on the radar of the
Iranian authorities for her open support of opposition figure Mir-Hossein
Mousavi, which led to her arrest in July 2009 in the aftermath of a
disputed presidential election in Iran. Another arrest in July 2011
followed, as well as a ban on her leaving the country. Now she has been
sentenced to 18 months in prison for 'acting against national security
and links to foreign media.' The idea that an actress -- mostly lauded
for her performances in more than a dozen films -- somehow represents a
threat to Iran's national security is laughable at best. But in
Ahangarani's case, far from anything humorous, the allegations have
actually resulted in the sober prospect of real prison time. Ironically,
Ahangarani's sentence was handed down just a month after the reopening of
the House of Cinema in Tehran, which had been unceremoniously ordered to
shut its doors during the tenure of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Although the reopening was welcomed by many as a delivery of one of the
promises that President Hassan Rouhani made on the campaign trail to
increase cultural freedoms for Iranians, the reality is that artists such
as Ahangarani, rapper Amir Tataloo and poets Mehdi Mousavi and Fatemeh
Ekhtesari -- who were arrested in December and later released -- continue
to come under fire for their peaceful exercise of creative expression.
And it's not only artists who languish in Iran's prisons. According to
Unlock Iran's reporting, at least 845 people are prisoners of conscience
in Iran, jailed for the peaceful exercise of their lifestyle, beliefs or
profession. The list of hundreds includes lawyers, students, bloggers,
journalists, labor union activists and political opponents." http://t.uani.com/1niCZmW
John Beck in VICE: "On this, World Press Freedom Day, the dubious
title of 'World's Most Prolific Jailer of Journalists' is in the process
of changing hands. Turkey, the country that claimed the title for two
years running, recently knocked itself out of the top spot by releasing
several detainees. (Though the government then apparently tried to fudge
just how many journalists remain imprisoned.) Iran, which currently has
about 35 members of the press behind bars, is poised to take over first
place - provided it can hold off some strong competition from China,
according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Iran has long
had a less-than-stellar record when it comes to press freedom. But when
President Hassan Rouhani - a self-described moderate - came to power last
year promising social reforms and a lift on the country's Twitter ban,
some Iranian journalists allowed themselves to feel slightly optimistic.
That optimism subsequently faded. In the past seven months, the country's
judiciary has shut down three reformist newspapers. The moderate Ebtekar
was closed last week for 'spreading lies' when it ran a story on the
sacking of Iran's prison chief. Aseman was closed in February for
publishing an article judged to be insulting to Islamic law, and Bahar
was closed last October for a story said to question the beliefs of
Shiites. The story about the prison chief that got Ebtekar shut down
actually addressed violence against imprisoned journalists - two weeks
ago, at least seven members of the press, along with dozens of other
people, were seriously beaten in Section 350 of Tehran's notorious Evin
prison, according to opposition media and human rights groups.
'Independent journalists are under constant summonses and threats,'
Morteza Kazemiana, an Iranian political journalist now living in France,
tells VICE News. Kazemiana has written for a number of independent and
reformist newspapers and was jailed by Iranian authorities on several
occasions. 'What is happening in Iran today is silence maintained through
undemocratic authoritarianism and suppression of the Iranian civil
society with guns, police, and military force.'" http://t.uani.com/RkT8gs
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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