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Al-Monitor:
"Tehran University professor and prominent Iranian analyst Sadegh
Zibakalam has been given an 18-month prison sentence for questioning the
usefulness of the country's nuclear program. The nature of the judgment
leaves whether the analyst will serve his full sentence up to the
discretion of the judge. The case is seen by many as a warning about the
limits on criticism of the nuclear program. On his Facebook page,
Zibakalam, a political centrist, wrote, 'Just as you know, after the
Geneva agreement and the attacks on that agreement from the Concerned, I
wrote two open letters to [Kayhan editor] Hossein Shariatmadari and
[parliamentarian and 9 Dey editor] Hamid Rasaei. And in defending the
efforts of the administration in solving the nuclear issue, I presented this
question to them: What benefit and outcome for the progress, growth and
development of the country has the nuclear [program] had for the economy
of the country?' ... Zibakalam was officially convicted of propaganda
against the Islamic Republic of Iran, publishing lies to incite public
opinion and insulting judges and officials from the judiciary. He wrote
that he would appeal the decision." http://t.uani.com/1st2FmC
WSJ:
"Talks between Iran and six major powers inched forward this week,
with diplomats describing hints of progress Thursday but still citing
'important differences' on most key issues. Diplomats from the six powers
on Thursday described four days of negotiations in the Austrian capital
as intense, tough and serious. While there was no sign of any major
breakthrough in the talks, some officials pointed to positive signs.
Everyone is 'working with serious purpose' to reach a deal by July 20,
one Western diplomat said, adding that there was 'more clarity in seeing
how this could be done.' The discussions this week have been 'a lot more
real,' the person said. A second official from the six-power group-the
U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, China and Russia-said there is 'no
doubt' both sides want to reach a deal. But the official said this week was
'another really tough round.' 'Unsurprisingly...there are still a lot of
differences between the two sides, and they are important differences of
substance. Can they be bridged? In theory they can. Will they be? I don't
know,' the official said." http://t.uani.com/1nSzaph
NYT:
"Few experts believe the deal can be done in a month, and some do
not believe it can ever be done. After October, with two key negotiators,
Catherine Ashton of the European Union and William J. Burns of the United
States, scheduled to leave their jobs, and American midterm elections in
full swing, a deal will be almost impossible, said Ali Vaez of the
International Crisis Group. He said he believed August would be a
propitious time for bargaining, because Ramadan will be over and the
United States Congress in recess. Mark Fitzpatrick of the International
Institute for Strategic Studies said a deal is 'impossible by July 20,
and I'm not very optimistic at all that it can get done, period.' He
explained: 'I don't see any hint that Iran would accept the limits on its
nuclear program that it would have to accept to get a deal.' And no one
is sure, at the crunch, where Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, will come down. 'I suspect even Hassan Rouhani,' Iran's
president, 'doesn't know,' Mr. Fitzpatrick said. One European negotiator,
comparing Washington with Tehran, said that 'the mysteries of the
interagency process pale by comparison to the intermullah process.'"
http://t.uani.com/1qm1kK0
Sanctions Relief
Reuters:
"The United States denied on Friday that it had any agreement with
Sri Lanka to allow Colombo to import Iranian crude oil through third
parties, avoiding Western sanctions aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear
program. 'We categorically deny there was any agreement,' a spokesman at
the U.S. Embassy in Colombo told Reuters. Sri Lanka's Media Minister and
government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told reporters late on Thursday
that the island nation has been buying Iranian crude from various
countries via third parties, and avoiding sanctions - with the
understanding of the United States. 'For instance, Malaysia supplied what
happened to be Iranian oil. It's a very closed secret,' Rambukwella said
during a briefing on the expansion of Sri Lanka's shipping fleet. 'But we
have had some understanding with the U.S. as well.' ... 'Iran was
supplying to X place under a different name and from there to other
places. Wherever there are sanctions, third parties are involved,'
Rambukwella added." http://t.uani.com/1m3wdlT
Bloomberg:
"India spent the past five years cutting its Iranian oil imports to
comply with international sanctions. Now, Asia's second-largest energy
user needs the curbs to ease as fighting threatens its supply from Iraq.
Tougher U.S. sanctions on Iran meant India was obliged to halve purchases
from the Persian Gulf nation since 2009. Indian refiners, which get 85
percent of their crude from overseas, say they expect the restrictions to
soften. 'We may be exempted from cutting imports from Iran this year,'
P.P. Upadhya, managing director of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals
Ltd., the second-biggest Indian buyer of Iranian crude, said by phone on
June 18. 'We expect the U.S. will be softer on Iran as the conflict
deepens in Iraq.'" http://t.uani.com/1rfvAX0
Human Rights
RFE/RL:
"Several U.S. lawmakers criticized 'major' human rights abuses in
Iran including executions and state persecution of religious minorities
and homosexuals. The criticism was voiced in a June 19 Congressional
subcommittee hearing focused on 'Iran's Abysmal Human Rights Record'
under President Hassan Rohani, who came to power about a year ago. It
comes as Iran, the United States, and other major world powers are
engaged in talks aimed at finding a lasting deal to Iran's sensitive
nuclear work. 'Human rights cannot take a back seat in negotiations in
Iran,' said Congressman Ted Deutch (Democrat-Florida)." http://t.uani.com/1rfwoLh
Mashable:
"Iran has sentenced a group of tech bloggers to a combined 36 years
in prison for espionage and working with foreign media. A court sentenced
the group, who all worked for the tech gadgets site Narenji, to prison
terms ranging from 1.5 to 11 years, a source close to the bloggers told
Mashable. News of their sentencing was first reported by the local outlet
Sardabir News... The prosecutor of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of
Kerman was quoted as saying 11 people were arrested for 'cyber activity'
and 'content production for opposition media' and 'some of them' are now
in jail after confessing... Eight Narenji bloggers, along with another
eight cyber activists, were arrested by the Revolutionary Guards in early
December of last year, accused of working against the country's national
security and having ties with foreign 'enemy media.'" http://t.uani.com/1no1z3k
Guardian:
"Razieh Ebrahimi was forced to marry at the age of 14, became a
mother at 15, and killed her husband at 17. Now at 21, she is on Iran's
death row. Ebrahimi, who shot dead her husband while he was sleeping,
faces imminent execution, despite international laws prohibiting
execution for crimes committed by juveniles. Human Rights Watch, has
urged Iran's judiciary to halt the execution. Earlier this week,
Ebrahimi's lawyer also asked judges to consider a retrial, the
semi-official Mehr news agency reported... Shadi Sadr, a London-based
Iranian lawyer with the rights group Justice for Iran, told the Guardian
that the case against Razieh Ebrahimi - also known as Maryan - underlined
a hidden social and legal issue in Iran. 'Forced girl marriage in Iran is
a hidden social and legal issue,' she said." http://t.uani.com/1lGvK8Q
LAT:
"Iranian police have launched yet another campaign to confiscate
privately owned satellite dishes, used by many Iranians to watch foreign
television programs. Local news reports said police had launched
operations in areas of west and southwest Tehran aimed at hunting down
the illicit dishes, which are smuggled into the country and sold for the
equivalent of less than $200. The devices, especially popular in the
capital, provide viewers with a wide array of TV programs from abroad,
including political talk shows and dubbed Turkish soap operas popular
throughout the Middle East." http://t.uani.com/1ifHNel
Opinion &
Analysis
Rep. Doug Lamborn
in JPost: "Just a few weeks ago, I offered amendments
to the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act to make sure that a final
deal won't whitewash Iran's nuclear weapons program. My amendments also
make sure that those companies doing business with Iran won't do business
with our Department of Defense. In this spring of subterfuge, we are
seeing troubling signs that current negotiations may lead to a
nuclear-armed Iran, rather than prevent one. Troublingly, we have already
agreed in advance to the right of Iran to enrich uranium by forgetting a
dozen UN resolutions. This is the opposite of nonproliferation. Not a
single one of Iran's nearly 20,000 centrifuges - about half of them
producing uranium enriched to reactor fuel-grade level - have been
dismantled. And Iran's leaders are talking not of dismantling their
country's nuclear infrastructure, but of increasing it - to as many as
50,000 centrifuges. 'Our nuclear technology is not up for negotiation,'
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani recently declared. Moreover, Iran's
supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who described Western expectation
for his country to curb missile development as 'stupid and idiotic,'
called on Iran's Revolutionary Guards to 'mass produce' missiles. We in
Congress refuse to be blindsided by hopes of any such dangerous deal. We
welcome an agreement that brings Iran back into the family of peaceful
nations, but we will fight any emerging deal that will lead to a
nuclear-armed Iran. To this end, the amendment I offered stated that Iran
must stop uranium enrichment, production of weapons of mass destruction
and sponsorship of international terrorism before any final deal is made
between the US and Iran. And even as we speak out against the wave of
international trade delegations flocking to Iran since the interim accord
was reached last year, it appears we have our own accounting to do to
prevent Department of Defense contractors from doing business with Iran.
To redress this duplicity, another amendment I have authored and that is
now in the bill requires the Secretary of Defense to report to Congress
on DOD contractors that have done business with Iran. If companies want
to do business with the DOD, they need to think twice about doing
business with Iran." http://t.uani.com/1lF51ed
Ray Takeyh in
Foreign Affairs: "Back in 2009, during his heavily
promoted Cairo speech on American relations with the Muslim world, U.S.
President Barack Obama noted, in passing, that 'in the middle of the Cold
War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically
elected Iranian government.' Obama was referring to the 1953 coup that
toppled Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq and consolidated the
rule of the shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Obama would go on to remind his
audience that Iran had also committed its share of misdeeds against Americans.
But he clearly intended his allusion to Washington's role in the coup as
a concession -- a public acknowledgment that the United States shared
some of the blame for its long-simmering conflict with the Islamic
Republic. Yet there was a supreme irony to Obama's concession. The
history of the U.S. role in Iran's 1953 coup may be 'well known,' as the
president declared in his speech, but it is not well founded. On the
contrary, it rests heavily on two related myths: that machinations by the
CIA were the most important factor in Mosaddeq's downfall and that Iran's
brief democratic interlude was spoiled primarily by American and British
meddling. For decades, historians, journalists, and pundits have promoted
these myths, injecting them not just into the political discourse but
also into popular culture: most recently, Argo, a Hollywood thriller that
won the 2013 Academy Award for Best Picture, suggested that Iran's 1979
Islamic Revolution was a belated response to an injustice perpetrated by
the United States a quarter century earlier. That version of events has
also been promoted by Iran's theocratic leaders, who have exploited it to
stoke anti-Americanism and to obscure the fact that the clergy itself
played a major role in toppling Mosaddeq. In reality, the CIA's impact on
the events of 1953 was ultimately insignificant. Regardless of anything
the United States did or did not do, Mosaddeq was bound to fall and the
shah was bound to retain his throne and expand his power. Yet the
narrative of American culpability has become so entrenched that it now
shapes how many Americans understand the history of U.S.-Iranian
relations and influences how American leaders think about Iran. In
reaching out to the Islamic Republic, the United States has cast itself
as a sinner expiating its previous transgressions. This has allowed the
Iranian theocracy, which has abused history in a thousand ways, to claim
the moral high ground, giving it an unearned advantage over Washington
and the West, even in situations that have nothing to do with 1953 and in
which Iran's behavior is the sole cause of the conflict, such as the
negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program. All of this makes
developing a better and more accurate understanding of the real U.S. role
in Iran's past critically important. It's far more than a matter of
correcting the history books. Getting things right would help the United
States develop a less self-defeating approach to the Islamic Republic
today and would encourage Iranians -- especially the country's clerical
elite -- to claim ownership of their past." http://t.uani.com/UUlQHq
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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