Eye on Iran: Iran's Leader Says Obama Has Removed Military Option

Join UANI           Top Stories NYT: "Speaking from a stage decorated with a banner proclaiming 'America cannot do a damn thing,' Iran's supreme leader on Wednesday asserted that the Obama administration had taken the option of military intervention to resolve conflicts off the table. 'They realized that military attacks are as dangerous or even more dangerous for the assaulting country as they are for the country attacked,' the leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in an address to the country's political and military establishment. A 'military attack is not a priority for Americans now,' he concluded. 'They have renounced the idea of any military actions.' The remarks by Ayatollah Khamenei, a Shiite Muslim cleric who has the final say in the Islamic Republic's central policies, amounted to his first public reaction to President Obama's commencement speech last week at the United States Military Academy in West Point, in which he asserted that the United States had other ways of carrying out foreign policy besides military force. Having the best hammer, Mr. Obama said, does not mean that 'every problem is a nail.'" http://t.uani.com/1nS0wPl Reuters: "After years of tough sanctions over Iran's nuclear program, many in the country now say they want the government to make compromises that could satisfy world powers and allow a semblance of prosperity to return. Although many Iranians still fervently believe in their country's right to all aspects of a civilian nuclear program, including those regarded with suspicion in the West, they are increasingly tired of the high economic price... 'I love my country but I love my family more, and for years I have worked hard to cope with the rising prices,' said Ali Mirzai, a father of three in the northern city of Rasht. 'I am tired. My only hope now is (President Hassan) Rouhani. He is trying to improve the economy by resolving the nuclear issue. I believe in him and his policies.' Mirzai, like millions of Iranians who bore the brunt of the sanctions, voted last year for pragmatist Rouhani after he promised to improve the flagging economy in part by striking a deal with the outside world. Although there are no reliable opinion polls in Iran, Rouhani's large margin of victory on a platform of compromise, and anecdotal evidence gleaned from recent telephone interviews across the country suggest strong public appetite for a deal." http://t.uani.com/1ox6gtU WSJ: "The White House on Wednesday said global crude-oil supplies were sufficient to allow other nations to cut imports from Iran, though efforts to further curtail such sales were on hold while nuclear talks continue... The White House statement came in a statement required by Congress regarding the global supply of petroleum products from countries other than Iran... 'There currently appears to be sufficient supply of non-Iranian oil to permit foreign countries to reduce significantly their purchases of Iranian oil, taking into account current estimates of demand, increased production by countries other than Iran, inventories of crude oil and petroleum products, and available spare production capacity,' Mr. Carney said in the statement." http://t.uani.com/Sxl41d     Nuclear Program & Negotiations Al-Monitor: "Congressional action on Iran is heating up again as the July 20 deadline for a final nuclear deal between Iran and world powers fast approaches. The leaders of the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations Committees said June 4 they will hold hearings on Iran's compliance with its nuclear obligations ahead of the July 20 deadline. Meanwhile, activists on both sides of the issue are ramping up their outreach to Congress... Separately, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., announced a series of hearings on Iran's nuclear record and the Barack Obama administration's diplomatic outreach. The first hearing, scheduled for June 10, will be dedicated to 'verifying Iran's nuclear compliance.' ... The hearing comes amid growing signs that lawmakers are fast running out of patience and may seek to rekindle sanctions legislation that has been stalled in the Senate since December. The sanctions bill, sponsored by Menendez and Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., garnered its 60th supporter when Sen. John Walsh, D-Mont., signed on at the end of April." http://t.uani.com/ThuO0h Reuters: "Israel has condemned as unacceptably slow Iran's cooperation with a U.N. watchdog inquiry into suspected atomic bomb research and accused Tehran of providing 'false' explanations for its disputed activities... 'Iran continues to abuse what is termed as a 'step-by-step' approach to the resolution of outstanding issues,' Israeli Ambassador Merav Zafary-Odiz said, referring to a phased cooperation pact agreed in November between Iran and the IAEA. 'This pace of investigation is unacceptable ... Iran will continue to provide false explanations and to hide the true nature of its activities,' she said, without giving details." http://t.uani.com/1kN5cOs Sanctions Relief Al-Monitor: "On June 1, a trade delegation consisting of the ministers of agriculture and infrastructure, the heads of the chambers of commerce of the seven Emirates in the UAE and their accompanying business representatives visited Iran. This was the first high-level UAE trade delegation to Tehran after an eight-year absence. The UAE business delegates represent five sectors: oil and gas, banking, food industry, automotive traders and investment companies. The trip coincided with the official visit to Iran by the emir of Kuwait as well as the presence of a Qatari delegation in the southern port of Bushehr, all signs of improvement in the relations between Tehran and Iran's southern neighbors." http://t.uani.com/1kBBvo4 Foreign Affairs AFP: "Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is expected to visit Turkey on Monday, for the first time since he was elected last year, a Turkish official said. The Iranian leader is expected to meet Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara for talks on bilateral ties and the broader Middle East, the official told AFP on Thursday. 'The visit has been in the making for a while, and Rouhani is expected to be flanked by a crowded delegation of ministers,' according to the official speaking on condition of anonymity. Ankara and Tehran are trying to mend relations strained over the Syria conflict, with Iran supporting President Bashar al-Assad and Turkey backing the rebels seeking to oust him. In January, Erdogan visited Tehran where he said the two neighbouring countries aimed to more than double trade to $30 billion (22 billion euros) next year from $13.5 billion in 2013 despite strained relations." http://t.uani.com/1nS2bVa Opinion & Analysis Masih Alinejad in TIME: "After starting a Facebook page where women could post pictures of themselves without their hijab, the state launched a violent smear campaign against me. Last weekend, I was raped by three men in London. Under the influence of mind-altering drugs, I had removed items of clothing, and the men raped me in front of my son. That is what the Iran state TV reported in a short news segment about me. Iranian television, which is controlled by the hardliners, uses George Orwell's 1984 as an operating manual. Fact and fiction are blended to create a parallel universe at odds with reality as you and I know it. For the record, I was never assaulted or raped or took any mind-altering drugs. Why the smear campaign against me? I started a Facebook page, called My Stealthy Freedom, where I asked women about their desires to be without the veil. I was bombarded with selfies of women without their scarves. The page, which has racked up nearly 500,000 'likes' in five weeks, has sparked a debate on the country's 35-year-old law that forces women to wear head-covering and other forms of hijab. Faced with a tsunami of social media protest from women who object to the forced Islamic hijab rules, the authorities in Iran decided to smear the messenger. As an Iranian journalist, I'm used to hate mail and accusations of being on the payroll of Israel's Mossad or the Queen of England whenever I'm critical of my homeland's shortcomings. But I never expected to be the center of a news story. All freedoms in Iran are under cover-or, as we say, 'yavashaki,' or in a stealthy manner. Social media such as Facebook and Twitter are banned, but government officials like Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif are prolific users, and President Hassan Rouhani also has a social media presence... The authorities' reaction to My Stealthy Freedom has to be seen in a bigger context: whenever Iranians are given the choice, they opt to move forward and not back to the so-called golden age of Islam in the 7th Century. For too long the hardliners have kept our hair under the proverbial lock and key and fed our minds with fake and biased news about the outside world. Iranians want to have the right to choose what they wear, what music they listen to and not be lashed for having a relationship with a member of the opposite sex. When Iran qualified for the World Cup last June, there was a massive spontaneous street party across the country, where men and women mingled freely, with the police standing by helplessly." http://t.uani.com/1kBDhpa 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.