Eye on Iran: New Wave of Attacks Against Journalists as Repression Escalates

Join UANI           Top Stories Amnesty: "A sharp rise in arrests, prosecutions and imprisonment of independent journalists in Iran signals the authorities' utter determination to crush hopes for increased freedom heralded by the election of President Hassan Rouhani, said Amnesty International in a new briefing today. 'The way journalists are being treated puts everything journalism should stand for at risk in Iran. Anyone deemed critical of the authorities has been at increased risk of arrest and prosecution in recent months, creating an intense climate of fear where voicing any criticism has become a direct road to prison,' said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Programme Director at Amnesty International. 'The authorities' zero tolerance for anything other than state-sanctioned ideas and voices means that merely reporting the news can put people at risk of incarceration.'" http://t.uani.com/1rR7DFc Press TV (Iran): "A senior Iranian nuclear negotiator has dismissed allegations of Iran's consent to scale down its uranium enrichment program. 'Any agreement about Arak or Fordow [nuclear facilities] is denied. No agreement has so far been reached about the issues under discussion [with six world powers], including these two sites, and the differences still remain,' ISNA quoted Abbas Araqchi, who is also a deputy to the Iranian foreign minister, as saying. He was reacting to July 29 remarks by the US lead nuclear negotiator Wendy Sherman to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about 'tangible progress in key areas, including Fordow, Arak and IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) access.'" http://t.uani.com/1kq5IsF WSJ: "As negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program continue, the U.S. is encouraging some companies to go to Iran to give its leaders an incentive to stay at the bargaining table. But it could be a tough sell. Billions of dollars in fines have conditioned banks to see any Iran deal as toxic, sanctions experts say. Even the appearance of a connection to Iran could delay bank transactions for months or years, Risk & Compliance Journal found in a review of U.S. sanction licensing records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. And the holdups may make the deal not worth it. 'For the bank, the cost of doing due diligence and processing the licenses means it doesn't make economic sense,' said Erich Ferrari, a sanctions compliance attorney." http://t.uani.com/1kq5pOz     Sanctions Relief Trend: "A parliamentary delegation, headed by deputy Czech parliament speaker, is due to visit Tehran on August 3. The top Czech parliamentarians are scheduled to meet senior Iranian officials and exchange viewpoints on issues of mutual interest, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported on August 1. Trade turnover between Iran and Czech was $25.88 million during the 12-month period from March 21, 2013, according to the Iran's Customs administration. Iran's exports to Czech accounted for $4.4 million of the mentioned figure. Tehran also imported $21.48 million worth of goods from Prague in the mentioned period." http://t.uani.com/1ogy7w5 Human Rights WashPost: "An independent researcher has raised questions about whether a U.S.-based organization that sponsors training conferences in surveillance technology allowed the attendance of people from countries engaging in human rights abuses, in potential conflict with U.S. sanctions law. The researcher, Collin Anderson, determined that several Sudanese government entities and companies and an Internet service provider from Iran were listed as attendees of training conferences run by McLean, Va-based TeleStrategies Inc. in 2007, 2008 and 2012... The 2012 brochure also lists among the attendees a company called Shatel, which it identifies as attending from the United Arab Emirates. But there is no firm called Shatel in the UAE, according to Anderson and industry experts. Shatel is Iran's largest Internet service provider, according to its Web site and to Anderson, an expert on Iranian Internet infrastructure." http://t.uani.com/1u6KNer Daily Dot: "Iran, one of the world's biggest Internet censors, has begun blocking the Tor network. In the last week, the state-owned Telecommunications Company of Iran has effectively knocked off 75 percent of all Tor traffic in the country. Tor, an anonymity tool used by millions of people around the world for a wide variety of purposes, is a powerful and popular tool used in Iran used by political activists and citizens looking to get around the country's strict speech and press laws. Normally, as many as 40,000 Iranians are using Tor at any given moment. Today, that number has dropped to 10,000 and falling." http://t.uani.com/1ogyNBp Foreign Affairs RFE/RL: "A court in Baku has sentenced two Azerbaijani men to life in prison for spying for Iran. Hafiz Valiyev and Agamir Agamirov were officially found guilty of high treason on August 1 and sentenced the same day. Investigators say they have revealed that the two men collaborated with representatives of Iran's intelligence services. No more details have been made public as the trial was held behind closed doors. Azerbaijan has sentenced several of its citizens for spying for Iran since 2012. Tensions between Tehran and Baku escalated in 2012, after Azerbaijani authorities arrested a number of men with alleged links to Iran who were reportedly plotting attacks in Azerbaijan." http://t.uani.com/1kq5W2O Opinion & Analysis David Albright & Paulina Izewicz in ISIS: "On July 20, 2014, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed in its report on the implementation of the interim agreement, the Joint Plan of Action, that Iran had completed the down-blending and conversion into oxide of its near 20 percent low enriched uranium (LEU) hexafluoride stocks. As of April 14, Iran finished down-blending its near 20 percent enriched LEU hexafluoride stock, which amounted to a total of 104.56 kg. Since April 14, it blended down an additional 3.84 kg, which had previously been in storage cylinders in the form of residues. As of June 19, 2014, it had also fed 100 kg of the remaining near 20 percent LEU hexafluoride into the conversion process at its Fuel Plate Fabrication Plant at Esfahan. In its July 20, 2014 report, the IAEA also provided an accounting of an additional 0.7 kg of near 20 percent enriched LEU hexafluoride. A total of 0.6 kg were used by the IAEA as reference material for mass spectrometry, and were under IAEA seal. The IAEA has also taken an additional 0.1 kg in samples. Table 1 and Figure 1 detail the status of the near 20 percent LEU stocks at the end of the interim period under the Joint Plan of Action. As can be seen, Iran's oxide stock of near 20 percent LEU is large; in fact, it is sufficiently large that if it were reconverted into hexafluoride form, it could produce, if further enriched, enough weapon-grade uranium for a nuclear weapon. Since reconversion is straightforward and can be done in a matter of months, any long term agreement limiting Iran's nuclear program should reduce the size of this stock, via down-blending or shipment overseas, to below 100 kilograms." http://t.uani.com/1u6Mc4v Amir Taheri in Gatestone: "As the 5+1 group ends another round of negotiations with Iran, commentators assume that the four Western powers involved -- the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany -- are united in their determination to curtail Iranian nuclear ambitions. However, in this fascinating book, German scholar Matthias Küntzel argues that Germany's position on this issue may be closer to that of Russia rather than the United States -- with Germany acting as 'a shield for Iran against America,' as Germany's former Foreign Minister Joshcka Fischer described his country. The reason, according to Küntzel, is the 'special relationship' that Iran and Germany have built since 1871, when Germany emerged as a nation-state. Two years after Germany was put on the map as a new country, Nassereddin Shah of Iran arrived in Berlin for a state visit of unprecedented pomp. It is not hard to see why the two sides warmed up to each other. For over a century Iran had looked for a European power capable of counter-balancing the Russian and British empires that had nibbled at the edges of Iranian territory in pursuit of their colonial ambitions. In 1871, Germany looked like a good ally. As for Germans, they saw Iran as their sole potential ally in a Middle East dominated by Britain and Russia. The friendship was put to the test in the First World War, when Iran refused to join the anti-German axis and suffered as a consequence. With the advent of the Nazi regime, Küntzel shows, a new dimension was added to the Irano-German relationship: the myth of shared Aryan ancestry... In the 1930s, Alfred Rosenberg, one of Hitler's philosophers, published 'The Myth of the Twentieth Century', a book in which he claimed that the torch of Aryanism had passed from Iranians to Germans... In the past 50 years or so, the 'special relationship' between Iran and Germany has been highlighted in numerous ways. The first German industrial fair held in a foreign country after the Second World War was hosted by Tehran in 1960 with Economy Minister Ludwig Erhard leading a delegation of over 100 German businessmen. After that, all German Chancellors, starting with Konrad Adenauer, made a point of visiting Iran until the fall of the Shah. Even after the mullahs seized power, Germans pursued the special relationship through high-level visits, including that of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. The only time the German Federal parliament approved a law unanimously was when it enacted legislation to guarantee investments in Iran. Some critics claim that the Germans are attached to Iran for purely economic reasons. Küntzel shows this not to be the case. As the world's number-one exporter, Germany has little need of Iran, which represented less than half of one per cent of all German exports in 2013. Nor is Germany a major importer of oil or anything else from Iran. According to Küntzel, German leaders have at least two other reasons for helping Iran defy the United States." http://t.uani.com/XorEd5 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.