Eye on Iran: Asian Buyers Take 29.4 pct More Iran Oil in July On-Year

Join UANI           Top Stories Reuters: "Iran's major Asian customers shipped in 29.4 percent more crude in July from a year earlier, with China, Tehran's biggest client, still accounting for most of the increase seen since Western sanctions were eased at the beginning of the year... Iran's biggest buyers - China, India, Japan and South Korea - together took in a seven-month low of 1.029 million bpd of the Islamic republic's crude last month, down 0.3 percent from a six-month low hit in the previous month, government and tanker-tracking data showed. For the first seven months of 2014, the four buyers' imports averaged 1.18 million bpd, up 25.9 percent from a year ago... China's imports from Tehran for the January-July period were at 617,670 bpd, up nearly 200,000 bpd and making up the main portion of this year's stronger Asian imports. For July, China's imports from Iran were up 40.6 percent at 558,865 bpd, marking its seventh straight month of year-on-year gains. India's imports in July jumped nearly six-fold to 210,300 bpd, reflecting drastic cuts made a year ago due to a lack of insurance for processing Iranian oil." http://t.uani.com/XYhIHQ IHR: "Iranian authorities continue the wave of execution. Since the beginning of August 2014 at least 84 people have been executed in different Iranian cities. Iran Human Rights once again urges the international community to condemn the arbitrary executions in Iran. According to the official Iranian sources 9 people have been executed in different Iranian prisons during the last few days. These executions are in addition to the two public executions which were reported on Sunday." http://t.uani.com/1n3clwA Guardian: "Rather than large, singular groups of digital spies, Iran has quietly built up a secret, disparate army of 'mercenaries', each separate from one another but with similar aims, according to the authors of the report, which will be published soon by Silicon Valley security company Norse. Months of research into Iranian networks uncovered at least 16,000 systems controlled by Iran outside of its borders, 2,000 of which were infected machines of businesses in the US, Israel and other nations of interest, claims Norse chief technology officer and co-founder Tommy Stiansen. Many of the Internet Protocol addresses (IPs) of those machines are hosting .ir websites - domains that are being used as platforms for attacks. In many cases, visitors to those sites are subsequently infected with malware - software designed specifically for surveillance and to siphon off valuable data from target organisations, according to the firm. These Iranian mercenaries were ostensibly hacking foreign businesses both for their own gain and for the benefit of their country, says Stiansen. 'Cybercrime is tied to the same people doing cyber warfare in Iran,' he adds. 'The groups are allowed to operate on financial crimes as well as state sponsored crimes... They don't have a military machine for their cyber warfare programme.'" http://t.uani.com/VVfveh   Nuclear Program & Negotiations Reuters: "Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tehran hoped to reach a "positive result" in talks with world powers on its nuclear programme ahead of a November deadline, thanks in part to support from Russia. 'In that short period of time that is left, we hope that we can reach a positive result,' said Zarif, speaking through a translator at a news conference on Friday with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. Iran and global powers are working to strike a comprehensive agreement by a Nov. 24 deadline, under which Iran would curb its nuclear activities in exchange for an easing of economic sanctions that have crippled its economy." http://t.uani.com/1rE6Dc0 Trend: "Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI), Ali Akbar Salehi said that having nuclear energy technology grants deterrence to Iran. 'It is also a symbol of being an independent and dynamic nation,' Salehi emphasized, Iran's Fars news agency reported Aug. 29. Salehi did not explain how peaceful nuclear technology gives deterrence to Iran. The U.S. and its Western allies suspect Iran of developing a nuclear weapon - something that Iran denies. 'We are no longer slaves of the arrogant powers,' Salehi said, adding 'the Islamic Republic acts based on its own policies.' The West has no choice but to cooperate with Iran, he stressed." http://t.uani.com/1ostIq4 Sanctions Relief WSJ: "Satellite companies Intelsat SA and Eutelsat Communications SA are trying to win back business with Iran's state-run broadcaster, after U.S. authorities allowed the companies to re-enter the country, WSJ reported. But human rights groups say Iran's broadcaster still televises forced confessions, creating a risk to the reputations of firms that beam the broadcasts. The easing of sanctions against Iran has presented companies with fresh opportunities to get in on the ground floor of a country that could open wide if negotiations between Iranian and Western leaders succeed. But those opportunities pose the risk of a tarnished corporate image from connection to a country that critics say still has abysmal human rights practices." http://t.uani.com/1qNw9oR Reuters: "Russia has agreed to develop an Iranian zinc deposit that is among the largest in the world in a deal involving an Iranian bank that faces international sanctions, the Russian business newspaper Kommersant reported on Tuesday. The agreement to develop the Mehdiabad zinc and lead deposit was reached at a trade meeting on Sept. 11 that brought Russia's Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko to Iran, Kommersant reported. Citing a source close to the talks, it said the project's cost was estimated at $1 billion-$1.2 billion. Shmatko's office did not immediately comment on the report. Kommersant said the deal, shepherded by powerful Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, calls for a joint venture linking state conglomerate Russian Technologies with Iran's Saderat Bank, which faces U.S. and U.N. sanctions." http://t.uani.com/1u4Q59X Human Rights ICHRI: "In an increasingly tense and prolonged stand-off between striking miners, the Bafgh Iron Ore Mines, and judicial officials, which originally began in May 2014 over plans to privatize the mine, a new round of strikes at the mines began on August 19 over the arrests of some of the strikers, reportedly involving some 5000 miners, according to ILNA, and drawing in the surrounding community in sit-ins protesting the arrests. The strike is unusual in its scope and duration, especially given the fact that nine of the strikers have been arrested and warrants for the arrest of 18 strikers have been issued, and in the citizen involvement in the matter, which has included the sit-ins at the Governor's Office by other miners, the families of the arrested, and citizens of the town of Bafgh, demanding the release of the arrested miners. Moreover, the mine company agreed to withdraw the charges against the striking miners, so that the arrested individuals could be released, but judicial officials have still refused to release them. Despite the fact that the Iranian constitution provides for peaceful protests by workers, strikers are routinely arrested and detained by the authorities in Iran, and labor activists are systematically persecuted and prosecuted." http://t.uani.com/1nJWQJW Opinion & Analysis Abdulrahman Al-Rashed in Asharq Al-Awsat: "'It is often forgotten that ever since the Iranian revolution, and the ousting of the Shah in 1979, there have been several occasions when the Iranians have been working, informally, with the Americans, though neither side found it convenient to draw attention to it. Whenever this has happened it has not been because of hypocrisy or double standards on either side. It has been because their national interests have coincided on specific issues, and cooperation has been an entirely logical consequence.' So said Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee at the British Parliament, in a recent article in the Daily Telegraph. Rifkind suggested that the US government should cooperate with Iran to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Iraq. It's an unrealistic suggestion, not because cooperation with Iran is forbidden, but because the value of this cooperation is equal to zero in the equation of the struggle with ISIS. Sir Malcolm, these are the basics of politics in this region: Muslims, like Christians of all different sects and doctrines, accuse each other of infidelity, and there's a long history of bloodshed and warfare between them. On the one hand, Iran is a state ruled by an extremist Shi'ite religious regime, and on the other hand, ISIS is an extremist Sunni organization in Iraq and Syria. So, how can Shi'ite Iran help America fight a Sunni insurgent group? It's like saying Britain, with a Protestant majority, must help fight a Catholic group or state during a sectarian dispute! The West could cooperate with Iran to curb the terrorist activities of the Lebanese group Hezbollah, since it is a Shi'ite organization. The West could also cooperate with the Iranian government of President Hassan Rouhani to pressure dictator Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to step down, since he is an ally of Iran and he belongs to a non-Sunni minority. The US could cooperate with Iran to ensure the handover of Sunni Al-Qaeda leaders who live in Iran and work from there-including infamous terrorist Saif Al-Adel-and those who are under the protection and care of the Iranian regime. These are areas where the West could try its luck cooperating with its rival Iran. However, I am confident the West would not achieve any success, considering the nature of the Iranian regime, which is similar to Al-Qaeda: the former is an extremist religious regime, just as the latter is an extremist religious group. Enlisting Iranian help to fight against groups such as ISIS and the Al-Nusra Front outside of Iran is doomed to failure. This is because these groups will not submit to Iran's authority; they don't follow its religious doctrine and consider Iran to be their enemy." http://t.uani.com/1osu7sA 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.