Eye on Iran: West Says Rifts Remain over Iran Nuke Pact

Join UANI           Top Stories AP: "Western diplomats cast doubt Thursday on an optimistic assessment by Iran's president, who said his country will likely meet a July target date for a nuclear deal with six world powers. Iran and six world powers met last week to start drafting a deal, but the talks broke without that work beginning. Neither side gave details of the differences. President Hassan Rouhani sought to inject optimism into the process on Thursday, telling reporters in Shanghai that a July deal remains 'very likely' - although he did not rule out that more time might be needed. But two Western diplomats told The Associated Press the two sides are not much closer than they were in February, at the start of the latest round of talks aimed at putting constraints on Tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. The diplomats spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the talks." http://t.uani.com/1jCOC7Q AP: "An Iranian court ordered that the photo-sharing app Instagram be blocked over privacy concerns, a semiofficial news agency reported Friday, the latest in a series of websites to be banned in the Islamic Republic. The agency said a court order, stemming from a private lawsuit, had been given to Iran's Ministry of Telecommunications to ban the site. However, users in the capital, Tehran, still could access the application around noon Friday. Some previous reports in Iran of websites and Internet applications being blocked never materialized. Officials with Instagram Inc. declined to comment Friday. However, Instagram's owner Facebook is already banned in the country, along with other social websites like Twitter and YouTube. That's despite senior government leaders like Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif being active on Twitter. There are even Instagram accounts in the names of moderate President Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. While top officials have unfettered access to social media, Iran's youth and technological-savvy citizens use proxy servers or other workarounds to bypass the controls." http://t.uani.com/1hgqrru Aviationist: "The IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), the branch of Iran's military whose role is to protect Tehran's Islamic system, have published on Twitter an interesting drawing showing how they imagine an attack to an enemy warship entering the Persian Gulf. The plan is use several different weapons systems in a coordinated attack opened by high speed boats, used to create a diversion. According to Good Morning Iran blog, that translated the text accompanying the rendering, the plan assumes that Iranian high speed boats, equipped with missiles and mines, and disguising themselves as normal fishing boats, would carry out an initial attack against the enemy ship. While facing the boats, the U.S. warship would be attacked by Iranian submarines, baked by IRIAF (Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force) warplanes, including some F-14 Tomcat jets with indigenous modifications (most probably providing some sort of air superiority in the vicinity), followed by ballistic missiles." http://t.uani.com/1k1pPG5         Nuclear Program & Negotiations Reuters: "A U.N. atomic watchdog report due on Friday is likely to confirm that Iran is curbing its nuclear activities as agreed with world powers in a landmark accord last year, diplomatic sources said. They said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would probably verify in a monthly update that Iran is living up to its part of the interim agreement struck in November, designed to buy time for talks on a long-term deal. The update 'will show continuing compliance,' one Western diplomat said on Thursday. The report is also expected to include information about Iran's agreement this week to address two issues in a long-stalled IAEA investigation into suspected atomic bomb research by Tehran, which denies any such work." http://t.uani.com/TBNfwW WSJ: "The Obama administration may reopen a bilateral negotiating channel with Iran in an effort to cinch an agreement by this summer that would place constraints on Tehran's ability to make nuclear weapons, according to U.S. and European officials involved in the diplomacy. The White House secretly used this bilateral track last year to reach an interim deal with Iran in November that froze parts of its nuclear activities in return for a temporary easing of Western economic sanctions. The stealth American team was led by Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Jake Sullivan, national security adviser for Vice President Joe Biden. Their meetings with Iranian negotiators clandestinely took place in Oman, New York and Geneva, without the knowledge of the U.S.'s closest Middle East allies including Israel and Saudi Arabia... 'I think, ultimately, we'll need to return to the bilateral track,' said a senior U.S. official, noting that any agreement in Vienna will likely boil down to the positions of Tehran and Washington. Iran is demanding the rollback of vast U.S. financial sanctions as part of the deal." http://t.uani.com/1gpcYT7 Sanctions Relief WSJ: "China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, is pushing to start a new phase in an Iranian oil-field development, a plan Iran says it is likely to approve, according to people familiar with the project. The push is part of a broader attempt by China and Iran to mend fences after the cancellation of a separate project. Chinese state-owned company Sinopec is taking steps to start development activities in the second phase of the Yadavaran oil field, which is set to start next year. Delegates from Sinopec are due to travel to Tehran next month to discuss the plans, according to two people familiar with the company's Iran operations. The topics will include ordering equipment such as pipes." http://t.uani.com/1pj19xT Human Rights IranWire: "'Thanks for thinking about us,' said Neda, one of the six Iranians arrested for posting a music video for Pharrell Williams's 'Happy' on YouTube. 'We're finally released after three days in prison,' she wrote on Instagram. 'We're waiting for the court date. Thanks a lot for caring about us.' 'My sister and her friends wanted to show the world that we still have moments of happiness, even though we face so many problems in Iran,' said Siavash Taravati, whose sister Reyhaneh was one of those arrested. 'They were only showing their happiness and were arrested for that,' he said. Siavash Taravati was the film's art director. Shortly after the six were released, they spoke of their appalling treatment while in prison. According to a source close to the group, police raided the home of artist and photographer Rayhaneh Taravati on Sunday, May 18th. The officers covered the peephole of the door so that their faces would be obscured, and Taravati opened the door. Armed officers streamed inside, bashing and damaging everything in sight, videotaping the whole time. Taravati's paintings and photographs were destroyed. They took the group to the Vozara police station, where they were not permitted to use toilet facilities. The group were transferred to solitary confinement on the second day. Police interrogated them extensively about the video and comments to foreign media, including this publication. During their detention the young women were forced to strip naked and perform squats in front of female police officers." http://t.uani.com/1p0a7CR Daily Telegraph: "A red carpet peck on the cheek by Leila Hatami, the Iranian actress at the Cannes Film Festival has been reported to the country's courts by activists who are seeking a public flogging as punishment for violating Islamic laws. Hizbullah Students, a group of university students with links to Iran's Revolutionary Guard yesterday filed a complaint with Iran's judiciary for the prosecution of the film star who starred in the Oscar-winning, A Separation. Miss Hatami was condemned by Islamic Republic officials for kissing Gilles Jacob, the President of Cannes Festival, while attending the event as a member of the jury... According to the Guards-run Tasnim news website, the Hizbullah Students organisation called for Hatami to be flogged for 'kissing a strange man'. The maximum sentence the offence can incur is 50 lashes." http://t.uani.com/1onR5nv Foreign Affairs Fars (Iran): "Speaking in an interview with China's CCTV television network on Wednesday night, President Rouhani said the Iranian people have suffered a lot as a result of the hostile policies of the US and expect White House politicians to abandon their past behavior of ignoring Iranians' interests. The Iranian chief executive said the Islamic Republic pursues its rights in the international arena and does not seek revenge for Washington's hostile moves against Iran. 'The US should take steps in the direction of respecting the rights of the Iranian nation and at the same time undertake to compensate for the losses inflicted on Iran,' Rouhani said. He underlined that the Iranian people have never had and will never have any problem with the American nation. 'If the US, in practice, abandons its hostile policy toward the Iranian nation and compensates for its past (antagonism), a new situation can be envisaged for the future of both nations,' Rouhani said." http://t.uani.com/SrMLst AP: "Iran's defense minister has invited his Russian counterpart to visit Tehran, saying it would send a 'clear message to the Americans.' Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu welcomed Iran's Hossein Dehqan to discuss closer cooperation and regional security, at a time when Russia's ties with the West have plummeted to the lowest level since the Cold War over the crisis in Ukraine. In the opening remarks at the start of their talks, carried by Russian news agencies, Dehqan criticized the U.S. and added that his visit marks a 'new level' in Russian-Iranian relations." http://t.uani.com/1p0aU6V 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. For more information please email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons.  UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.