Join UANI
Top Stories
CSM:
"Evidence that Hamas is firing more sophisticated weapons at
Israel - including longer-range rockets - than in past conflicts is
focusing a new light on Iran's role in arming the militant
organization. As Israel is contending with rockets launched from Hamas-controlled
Gaza that are reaching deeper into its territory, a classified United
Nations Security Council report concludes that a shipment of weapons
intercepted by Israel on a cargo boat in the Red Sea last March
originated in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. At the time, Iranian
officials denied any knowledge of the arms, which were found in 20
crates buried under bags of cement. Iran is barred from exporting
weaponry under an arms embargo approved by the Security Council in
2007... But one reason the arms shipment - and the Security Council
Sanctions Committee's report on it - are drawing interest now is that
under the bags of cement and among thousands of rounds of ammunition
were tucked several dozen M-302 rockets. It's the same longer-range,
larger-payload rocket that Israel reports has been fired from Gaza in
the current fighting." http://t.uani.com/1lWKBbd
WSJ:
"Foreign ministers from the six-power group negotiating a final
nuclear agreement with Iran will step into talks in Vienna this week in
an effort to break a stalemate and salvage a deal by a July 20
deadline. The decision to bring ministers into the talks comes a week
into what was supposed to be the final round of negotiations, with
western diplomats saying progress has been painfully slow. While no
official plans have been announced, three diplomats said foreign
ministers could arrive in Vienna as early as Friday. U.S. Secretary of
State John Kerry, who is currently in Asia, could come to Vienna over
the weekend, two officials said." http://t.uani.com/1jgpzcK
AP:
"A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that $1.75 billion for
terrorism-related judgments against Iran can be distributed to victims
of attacks, including a 1983 bombing that killed 241 Marines in
Lebanon. Washington lawyer Thomas Fortune Fay said the 2nd U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruling affects 1,300 individual cases
that were combined in New York. A three-judge panel rejected arguments
by attorneys for Bank Markazi, the central bank of Iran, which had argued
that turning over the money would conflict with U.S. obligations in a
1955 treaty signed with Iran. The 2nd Circuit said turning over the
assets was 'entirely consistent' with the terms of the treaty... Fay
said the decision was welcomed by several hundred families affected by
those killed or injured in the attack on the Marines barracks. He said
each family was likely to receive about $5 million after attorney fees
are subtracted once the appeals are completed." http://t.uani.com/1qZ0tBZ
Nuclear Program & Negotiations
Reuters:
"Iran said on Wednesday it had offered ways to address foreign
concerns over its underground Fordow uranium enrichment plant, hinting
at flexibility on a serious obstacle to a nuclear deal with big powers
as a self-imposed July 20 deadline nears. It was not immediately clear
whether the Iranian suggestions were far reaching enough to bridge the
gap over Fordow, one of a handful blocking progress toward a long-term
agreement that would improve stability in a Middle East riven by
conflicts... 'One proposal is changing the Fordow site into a research
and development and back-up site for Natanz,' said Ali Akbar Salehi,
head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization according to comments carried
by IRNA... Another idea, Salehi was quoted by IRNA as saying, was to
convert Fordow into a physics and space radiation laboratory offering
services to other countries." http://t.uani.com/1naH7Cp
Reuters:
"The six world powers negotiating with Iran over its nuclear
programme are 'completely united', an EU spokesman said on Wednesday, a
day after France suggested there were differences between Russia and
some of the others. The group of countries - the United States, Russia,
France, Germany, China and Britain - 'has been united and is still
united', Michael Mann, spokesman for European Union foreign policy
chief Catherine Ashton, told reporters. Ashton coordinates the talks on
behalf of the six states. Mann said they remained determined to try to
reach an agreement by a self-imposed July 20 deadline. Some diplomats
and experts say they believe the negotiations may have to be extended,
in view of persistently wide gaps in positions. 'We are working very
hard, we are working on drafting the text,' Mann said. 'But there are
still obvious, serious gaps to close and we are determined to work hard
to try and close those gaps.'" http://t.uani.com/1omh2kZ
Reuters:
"Significant differences remain between the six world powers and
Iran in negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program, British Foreign
Minister William Hague told an Austrian newspaper. In an interview
conducted by the Wiener Zeitung via email on Wednesday and published on
Thursday, Hague said a deal was far from certain but that all
possibilities should be exhausted in a final round of talks now taking
place in Vienna... 'Achieving an agreement is far from certain,' Hague
said. 'Significant differences remain ... which are yet to be bridged.
But I am convinced that the current negotiations are the best
opportunity we have had in years to resolve this issue.'" http://t.uani.com/1kHPt4q
Al-Monitor:
"'Actually, we are not planning to carry out all the enrichment
[we need for fuel] inside the country,' Salehi, the head of the Atomic
Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) and former Iranian foreign minister,
told Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) July 8. 'However, the
opposite sides [P5+1 member states] should know that if they do not
give us the fuel for power plants, then Iran has the capacity to
produce it.' The Iranian position on producing its own fuel for Bushehr
'makes no sense,' Jofi Joseph, former White House Iran
non-proliferation expert, told Al-Monitor July 9. 'It is a long
standing rule of thumb in the nuclear industry that a state that
designs and constructs a nuclear reactor also provides the fuel for
that reactor, largely because each individual nuclear reactor requires
unique specifications for the nuclear fuel supply.' 'Russia designed,
constructed, and to this day largely still operates the Bushehr
reactor; it would be odd if Russia did not supply the fuel for
Bushehr,' Joseph said. 'Which is why the Iranian position is so odd,
and leads to suspicions that it is just a fig leaf for demanding a
large enrichment capacity for other reasons.'" http://t.uani.com/1w5l2dC
Sanctions
Enforcement & Impact
Reuters:
"German lender Commerzbank AG is expected to pay between $600
million and $800 million to resolve investigations into its dealings
with Iran and other countries under U.S. sanctions, sources familiar
with the matter said. The penalty, previously reported to be more than
$500 million, includes a demand from New York's top banking regulator,
Benjamin Lawsky, for more than $300 million from the bank, the sources
said... Among the violations being investigated are Commerzbank's
transactions for the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, one of
the sources said. The state-sponsored shipping company was designated
for economic sanctions by the United States in 2008 for allegedly
supporting Iran's proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The
source said Commerzbank was alleged to have done business with the
company despite knowing that it was sanctioned." http://t.uani.com/1naHDjI
Bloomberg:
"BNP Paribas SA pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to
violating U.S. sanctions after agreeing last week to pay a record $8.97
billion to resolve state and federal probes that reached the highest
echelons of French and American diplomacy. BNP, France's largest bank,
admitted it violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act
and the Trading with the Enemy Act by processing almost $9 billion in
banned transactions from 2004 to 2012 involving Sudan, Iran and Cuba.
U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield in Manhattan, accepted the plea
entered today by Georges Dirani, the company's top lawyer. She set the
bank's sentencing for Oct. 3... Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew
Goldstein outlined the totality of the bank's crimes for the judge,
citing evidence including banking records, interviews with employees
and communications.'BNP engaged in a long-running conspiracy to violate
the U.S. embargoes against the Sudan, Iran and Cuba,' Goldstein
said." http://t.uani.com/1q1xVIo
Bloomberg:
"Fokker Services BV's $21 million settlement with the U.S. for
violating Iran sanctions was delayed by a federal judge who questioned
the deal's terms and whether the aerospace company had voluntarily
disclosed its wrongdoing. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon set a
hearing for July 24 for attorneys to address misgivings that include
the size of the penalty levied on Fokker, the lack of charges against
individuals and the scope of court oversight of the accord. Leon must
sign off on the deferred-prosecution agreement before it can take
effect. 'These are all components of the deal I have great concerns
about,' Leon said during a hearing yesterday in Washington. The judge
said he was also troubled by a report in Bloomberg News that raised
questions about whether Fokker voluntarily disclosed in 2010 that it
had sold aviation parts and services to Iranian clients, including the
military. The article cited three people who claimed the government
learned about the violations in 2008, two years before Fokker disclosed
them." http://t.uani.com/1jgrY7x
Human Rights
ICHRI:
"The prominent journalist Marzieh Rasouli was summoned to Evin
Prison on July 8, 2014, for the implementation of her sentence of 50
lashes and two years' imprisonment, she announced on Twitter, even
though Rasouli has not yet received confirmation of the initial
sentence from the appeals court. 'They quickly want to implement the
sentence,' she added on Twitter. Her case is one of many recently,
reflecting a current wave of arrests, prosecution under vague national
security grounds, and imprisonment of journalists in Iran... Meanwhile,
another journalist, Rayhaneh Tabatabaie, was summoned to Evin Prison on
June 21, 2014, to begin serving her six-month sentence at the facility's
Women's Ward, on charges related to publishing news about the
opposition Green Movement. In addition, a third female journalist, Saba
Azarpayk, working for the Etemad newspaper and the Tejarat-e Farda
weekly, was arrested on May 28, 2014, and has been held ever since in
IRGC's Ward 2-A at Evin Prison. The only information about her
situation, only surfaced on July 9 when her lawyer Mahmoud Alizadeh
Tabatabaie told the Iranian media Azarpeyk has been indicted under the
charges of 'propaganda against the state' and 'dissemination of
falsehoods.'" http://t.uani.com/1tr0osC
Opinion &
Analysis
Benjamin
Weinthal & Saba Farzan in NYDN: "As the world
powers meet with representatives of the Iranian regime in Vienna in an
effort to end its illicit nuclear program, the plight of struggling
Iranian women can shed light on what is happening inside the country.
We believe Tehran's severe marginalization of women cannot be decoupled
from the nuclear negotiations. A little over a year after Hassan
Rouhani was elected president, he has failed miserably in fulfilling
his pre-election and post-election promises to end widespread
discrimination against women. 'Women must enjoy equal opportunity,
equal protection and equal social rights,' he said in televised
comments marking Women's Day in Iran on April 20. Still, Rouhani has
taken no meaningful action to challenge, either in word or deed, his
boss Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's statement: 'One of the biggest
intellectual mistakes of the West about the issue of women is gender
equality.' Khamenei's views are not mere rhetoric; they have been
codified since 1979 in Iran's system of Sharia law. The Islamic
Revolution brought Iran back to the medieval ages with stoning, gender
apartheid and systematic oppression of the country's women. Fast
forward to the summer of 2014: Even under Rouhani - a self-described
moderate - the barbaric judicial machinery continues to grind. Iran is
slated to execute Razieh Ebrahimi, a child bride convicted of killing
her husband in response to his domestic violence. Ebrahimi was forced
to marry at the age of 14 and gave birth when she was merely 15. It is
also worth recalling the famous (or infamous) 2006 case of Sakineh
Mohammadi Ashtiani, who was sentenced to death by stoning for alleged
adultery. International public pressure forced the regime to stay her
execution. One could argue that Rouhani has no power over Iran's opaque
judiciary. Nevertheless, he has not moved beyond nebulous phrases about
women's equality even in the realm he does control. His lack of
forceful condemnations and advocacy of change in the country's
incorrigibly reactionary laws is a form of complicity. Sadly, there is
no shortage of repression of women in Iran. New educational
restrictions were imposed on women in 2010, barring female students
from access to certain social studies courses (women's studies and
human rights) because they are deemed to be 'incompatible with Islamic
teaching.' In the context of a divorce, women lose custody of their
children. There is no shared custody. The legal system forces women to
wear headscarves, depriving them of their freedom to choose. Sports
stadiums have long remained a no-go area for Iranian women. A telling
example in June: Iran barred women from viewing the country's national
volleyball team in Tehran's Azadi stadium. In the same month, Iran
prohibited mixed gender viewings in cinemas of World Cup soccer
matches. The growing frustration of Iranian women from all walks of
life with the stifling system has been on display over the last few months.
The 'Stealthy Freedoms' social media campaign shows women tossing off
their headscarves as an act of personal freedom. The arrest of women
who chose not to wear their headscarves during a viral YouTube video -
to the tune of Pharrell Williams' song 'Happy' - naturally prompted
justified international outrage." http://t.uani.com/1mjjcVS
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment