Monday, July 7, 2014

Eye on Iran: Diplomats: Iran Nuke Talks Make Little Progress








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AP: "Talks over Iran's nuclear program are making little headway, with Tehran resisting U.S.-led efforts to crimp activities that could be turned toward making weapons, diplomats said Monday. As negotiations move closer to a July 20 target date for a deal, both sides are trying to plug holes in a sketchy draft agreement. Five days into the latest round of talks between Iran and six global powers, two diplomats told The Associated Press that there is still a disagreement on the constraints Iran is ready to accept in exchange for a full end to sanctions stifling its economy. The diplomats demanded anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the confidential negotiations. The biggest hurdle remains uranium enrichment, a process that can make reactor fuel or the core of a nuclear weapon depending on the grade of material produced." http://t.uani.com/TNFoLZ

Reuters: "Iran has reduced demands for the size of its future nuclear enrichment program in talks with world powers although Western governments are urging Tehran to compromise further, Western diplomats said on Thursday. The diplomats, who spoke to Reuters at the start of a two- week round of negotiations between Iran and the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, said it would still be hard to clinch a deal by the self-imposed July 20 deadline... 'Iran has reduced the number of centrifuges it wants but the number is still unacceptably high,' a Western diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity and without further detail... On Wednesday, a senior Iranian official told Reuters Tehran has refused to back down from its demand to maintain 50,000 operational centrifuges, a figure Western officials say is too high for a strictly civilian nuclear energy program... 'Iran needs at least 50,000 centrifuges and not 49,999,' the Iranian official said. 'The other party is talking about a few thousands and this is unacceptable for Iran.'" http://t.uani.com/1pUlVIG

Reuters: "A year ago, the president of Iran's chamber of commerce could go more than a month without hosting a foreign business delegation, due to their fears of violating economic sanctions. These days, Gholam Hossein Shafei greets trade missions from the Middle East, Asia and Latin America almost every day and travels to European capitals. 'We have a new environment domestically, and a new look from the outside,' the 63-year-old said from his expansive offices in central Tehran, which overlook the abandoned American Embassy. 'We have good interest now in our economy.' Firms including energy giants Total SA and Royal Dutch Shell PLC; car maker PSA Peugeot Citroën; and financial firms Deutsche Bank AG and Russia's Renaissance Capital Ltd. have participated in presentations about investment in Iran... Mr. Rouhani is pouring diplomats into European and Asian capitals to spread the message that Iran is open for business. Special focus is on rehabilitating Iran's oil industry, which had a steep decline in production and exports over the past decade due to a drop in investment and a European embargo on oil exports. In recent months, senior executives from European energy giants Total of France, Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell and Italy's ENI SpA have met with Iran's Oil Ministry to discuss their potential return if sanctions are lifted, according to the ministry and companies. All had major oil-extraction operations in Iran prior to the sanctions and have expressed interest in resurrecting them. Spain's Repsol SA and Norway's Statoil ASA have met Iranian oil officials in recent months to explore the possibility of returning to the country, according to people familiar with the meetings... Iran's largest auto maker, Iran Khodro Industrial Group, has restarted partnership talks with international car makers including Renault SA and Peugeot, one of its key former joint-venture partners, which pulled out of Iran in 2012... Officials at Peugeot and Renault confirmed their discussions with Iran Khodro about restarting their partnership if the sanctions are lifted... Since the start of the year, Société Générale SA, BNP Paribas and Barclays PLC have received permission to conduct limited transactions in Iran, according to records The Wall Street Journal obtained from the U.S. Treasury Department through a Freedom of Information Act request." http://t.uani.com/1xgBvhI
   
Nuclear Program & Negotiations

Reuters: "Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took to YouTube on Wednesday to deliver a message that Iran was ready to take steps to ensure its nuclear programme remains peaceful but would not 'kneel in submission' to do a deal with major powers. In the video, Zarif said a nuclear deal would make history, and Iran was 'willing to take concrete measures to guarantee that our nuclear programme will always remain peaceful'. But he added: 'To those who continue to believe that sanctions brought Iran to the negotiating table, I can only say that pressure has been tried for the past eight years, in fact for the past 35 years. It didn't bring the Iranian people to kneel in submission. And it will not now, nor in the future.' British Foreign Secretary William Hague struck a similarly sober tone. 'We will not accept a deal at any price,' he said in a statement. 'A deal that does not provide sufficient assurances that Iran will not develop a nuclear weapon is not in the interests of the UK, the region or the international community.' ... Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Iranian media the fact that almost three weeks had been scheduled for final negotiations was 'a sign the two sides are serious about driving the talks to a conclusion'. 'We'll decide by the July 20 deadline, based on how the talks proceed, whether to extend the talks, take a pause, or even bother to continue. It is too soon to predict,' he said... Araqchi said that 'any limitation we submit to would be short-term and on a trial basis', ISNA news agency reported." http://t.uani.com/1jJE5og

Reuters: "The two sides are now seeking a final deal that would eventually lift all nuclear-related Iranian sanctions in exchange for steps from Tehran that would prevent it moving quickly to pursue nuclear weapons. People involved in the talks have said that extending the talks would likely require some renegotiation of the interim deal's terms. Iran is expected to seek additional sanctions relief, at least by demanding the release by Washington of an average $700 million a month in Iranian oil sales revenue frozen in foreign bank accounts. The six powers would likely demand something in return, which analysts say could be tighter constraints on Iran's nuclear research work or a reduction in Tehran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium." http://t.uani.com/1j8t4C2

Sanctions Relief

Reuters: "The man tasked with engineering the recovery of Iran's economy must do so from atop a central bank that is incapable of conducting financial transactions with most foreign governments and companies. Akbar Komijani is deputy governor of Bank Markazi, Iran's central bank, an institution the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned in 2012 for allegedly aiding Iran's nuclear program. Called out of academia last year by the newly elected President Hasan Rouhani, Mr. Komijani says he was shocked by the state of the government's finances, which had deteriorated dramatically during former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's tenure. 'The sanctions were a catalyzer that exposed many other problems in our economy,' said Mr. Komijani in an interview at Bank Markazi's gleaming Tehran office tower, which looks up at the snow-capped peaks of the Alborz Mountains. 'By July 2011, the sanctions really started to have an impact.'" http://t.uani.com/1vRuX6t

WSJ: "The European Union lost two new sanctions cases Thursday, with the bloc's second highest court overturning the EU's decisions to blacklist Iran's Sharif University of Technology and former Syrian Economy and Trade Minister Mohamad Nedal Alchaar. The decisions by the EU General Court are the latest defeats the bloc has suffered as it seeks to uphold dozens of decisions in recent years to impose asset freezes and travel bans on hundreds of individuals and companies in Iran and Syria." http://t.uani.com/1jYWtd3

AFP: "A US company has signed a preliminary agreement to invest $1.175 billion (864 million euros) in Iran, in a rare joint commercial project to turn rubbish and human waste into electricity. California-based World Eco Energy told AFP it plans to produce 250 megawatts daily by burning trash and by processing algae and salt and waste water into power. Iran will match the US investment, the company said. A company spokesman said the project, in the southwestern province of Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari, would create 600-700 jobs, 80 percent of which would go to locals. It is scheduled to start in September 2014 and is an early indication of the foreign business that may flow back to Iran if US, European and UN sanctions are lifted." http://t.uani.com/1n0e9VG

Iraq Crisis

WSJ: "Iran is pursuing a delicate strategy of supporting fellow Shiite Muslims and preserving its influence in neighboring Iraq-where the government is under siege by radical Sunni militants-without pushing the confrontation into outright sectarian warfare. For the second straight week, influential clerics, who are appointed by the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, used their Friday sermons to denounce the militant groups and support Iraq's government. But their speeches steered clear of explicitly encouraging individual Shiites to act against the Sunni insurgents. 'We are ready to help Iraq as they ask for help,' Ayatollah Mohammad Saeedi told thousands of Iranians gathered for Friday prayers in Qom, Iran's religious capital. The country has openly sent top military advisers to help the Iraqi government, and blamed a collection of foreign enemies from Saudi Arabia to Israel and the U.S. for the violence. It deployed at least three battalions of elite Revolutionary Guards units to Iraq, according to Iranian security officials-an action Iran's foreign ministry denied... Perhaps its biggest contribution, referred to only obliquely in Iranian media, has been helping Mr. Maliki's government overhaul Iraq's lackluster professional military. Iran has provided advisers and trainers of zealous and often battle-trained militias formed and largely controlled by hard-line Iraqi Shiite religious groups with close ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps." http://t.uani.com/1jgq4UG

WashPost: "State media reported Saturday that an Iranian military pilot was killed in Iraq, the first confirmation that Iranian forces are involved in the Iraqi government's battle to repel an offensive by al-Qaeda-inspired extremists. IRNA, Iran's official news agency, did not provide details of how or when the pilot was killed but said he died defending holy places in the Iraqi city of Samarra, which is home to an important Shiite pilgrimage site." http://t.uani.com/1rHhFfm

WSJ: "Iran's leadership is split over whether to continue its support for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, according to senior U.S. officials involved in Baghdad's political process." http://t.uani.com/1smU8Oa

Human Rights

Reuters: "Talks between Iran and six world powers aimed at clinching a deal on Iran's contested nuclear program should include human rights concerns, the U.N. human rights chief said on Thursday. U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said the United Nations was especially worried about executions in Iran, including the planned execution of a woman convicted of murdering her husband at the age of 17. 'These very many acts of execution stemming from trials that we feel are not fair or trials on spurious charges are all huge concerns,' she told journalists on the sidelines of a conference in Vienna. 'I do encourage that any talks with Iran fully cover the human rights situation. We do need a commitment on the part of Iran that they will protect the human rights of their citizens.'" http://t.uani.com/TNE77J

AFP: "Iranian journalist Marzieh Rasouli said Monday that she has been sentenced to two years in Tehran's notorious Evin prison and 50 lashes for publishing anti-regime propaganda. Rasouli, respected for her work as an arts and culture reporter for leading reformist media outlets, including the Shargh and Etemaad dailies, was detained in January 2012 as part of a crackdown. She was later freed on bail, but her incarceration - shortly before a parliamentary election - drew international condemnation led by the United States and France." http://t.uani.com/1n7M7wh

IHR: "A juvenile offender was executed in the prison of Tabriz (Northwestern Iran) in the month of June, according to unofficial sources... According to reports published by Iran Human Rights (IHR) at least 8 juvenile offenders have been executed in 2014 in Iran." http://t.uani.com/1m8GhdK

IranWire: "Iran's state broadcaster, known as Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, IRIB, has never been the country's most dignified institution. But even by its own standards, the network plunged into a fresh abyss of superstition and fear-mongering with a recent broadcast in which Valiollah Naghipourfar, a cleric and professor at Tehran University, discusses the use of jinns, or genies, in public life. 'Can jinns be put to use in intelligence gathering?' the presenter asks ingenuously, as though dragons can also serve as defense ministers and we've all entered the realm of the Hobbit. The cleric nods, as though speaking about a species of exotic elf: 'The Jew is very practiced in sorcery. Indeed most sorcerers are Jews.'" http://t.uani.com/1sn4uOc

Domestic Politics

WashPost: "Iran is headed for a water shortage of epic proportions, and little is being done to reverse a decades-long trend that has reduced the country's water supply to crisis levels. Changes in the global climate, a century of rampant development and heavy subsidies for water and other utilities are all contributing to a situation that is likely to get much worse. 'Our water usage is twice the world standard, and considering the situation in our country, we have to reduce this level,' Massoumeh Ebtekar, a vice president and the head of Iran's Department of Environment, said in a recent speech." http://t.uani.com/1sn0ZY3

Foreign Affairs

Bloomberg: "Iranian President Hassan Rouhani may name his American-educated chief of staff to be the country's next envoy to the United Nations, after the U.S. denied a visa to his previous choice. Rouhani is considering Mohammad Nahavandian, 60, who holds a Ph.D. in economics from George Washington University, for the position, according to two UN Security Council diplomats and one European diplomat, who asked not to be identified because they weren't authorized to comment. Nahavandian also has been cited as the likely nominee in Iranian media.  In April, the Obama administration denied a visa to Hamid Aboutalebi after Bloomberg News reported on his involvement with the militant group that seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Iran may fill the post after the conclusion of the current round of talks with world powers in Vienna over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program." http://t.uani.com/1xG3O9u

Opinion & Analysis

David Ignatius in WashPost: "With the sudden rise of the terrorist Islamic State , a little-noted aspect is that Gen. Qassem Suleimani, the supposed strategic genius of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, has blundered disastrously. By overreaching in Iraq and Syria and triggering a violent reaction, Iran now faces dangerous instability on its border for years to come. Most commentary on the Iraq situation has focused on U.S. errors and the potential dangers to U.S. interests, and there are plenty of both. But perhaps we can put aside our national myopia and look at what recent events mean for Iran, which shares a 900-mile border with Iraq and desperately wants political hegemony there. It's not a happy picture. 'Suleimani's orchestration of brutal military campaigns in both Syria and Iraq set the stage for the Sunni Arab response turning to extremism,' explains Derek Harvey, a longtime Iraq intelligence analyst who now teaches at the University of South Florida. Harvey lists some of Suleimani's mistakes: 'He missed opportunities for moderation while still protecting Iranian interests. His partnership with extremism in Syria resulted in the threat growing in Syria and rebounding to Iraq. His refusal to counsel some moderation and inclusion by [Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-]Maliki developed a fertile environment for [the Islamic State] and others to exploit.' Suleimani's reversals are significant because he has become something of a cult figure among those who follow the paramilitary Quds Force he directs. I have likened him in past columns to John le Carré's fabled spymaster, Karla. The New Yorker's Dexter Filkins chronicled what Arabs call Suleimani's 'khilib, or understated charisma,' in a memorable profile in September. Suleimani seemed a man who could run circles around rival commanders. Not anymore. Viewed from Iran's perspective, there was a catastrophic aspect to the Islamic State's declaration of a caliphate in northwestern Iraq and neighboring areas of Syria. Iran is now rushing to mobilize its Iraqi allies to stop the marauding Sunni insurgents from seizing Baghdad's airport. The Iranians, watching the collapse of the U.S.-trained Iraqi army, have turned to Shiite militias that are trained and run by Suleimani's operatives. But this reliance on sectarian militias only deepens the potential for violence; indeed, it's probably the polarizing response the Islamic State hoped to trigger." http://t.uani.com/1n0ivfz

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.

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