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NYT:
"Iranians are as obsessed as Americans these days with the
black-clad gangs roaming Iraq and Syria and killing Shiites and other
'infidels' in the name of Sunni Islam. At the supermarket, in a shared
taxi or at a family gathering, conversations often turn to the mysterious
group, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and how it came to be. And
for most Iranians, the answer is obvious: the United States... ISIS,
Iranian leaders have been saying for a long time, is made-in-the-U.S.A.,
a tool of terror intended by the world's superpower to divide and conquer
the energy-rich Middle East and to counter the growing influence of Iran
in the region... Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has often
said that he believes ISIS was created by the United States as a way to
regain a foothold in Iraq and to fight President Bashar al-Assad of
Syria, an ally of Iran. 'We have evidence, we know,' he told an audience
of clerics last week, without elaborating. Ayatollah Khamenei reminded
them that Al Qaeda - a creation of the Central Intelligence Agency, Iran
has said - and the Taliban were, in the eyes of Iranian intelligence,
devised by the West as a counterweight to Iran. 'There is no doubt that
these movements are created by Western powers and their regional agents,'
Mr. Khamenei has insisted." http://t.uani.com/1whaSbC
Reuters:
"Iran said world powers should abandon their 'illogical demands'
over its nuclear program, ahead of talks on Thursday to try to bridge
wide differences in positions and end the decade-old dispute by late
November. Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, one of Iran's chief
negotiators, was speaking before a meeting in Vienna with senior
officials from the three European members of the group of six world
powers involved in the negotiations with Tehran. The talks between Iran
and Britain, France and Germany take place less than a week after Iran
and the United States held a bilateral meeting in Geneva. It was not
clear when the Vienna talks would begin... 'The talks can yield results
if the other party shows goodwill and abandons some of its illogical
demands,' Araqchi was quoted as saying in Vienna by Iran's Fars news
agency. 'We hope to reach further understanding through bilateral
meetings which will help advancement of the talks in New York.'" http://t.uani.com/1uxt4xz
IHS Janes:
"Iran's Khalij Fars anti-ship ballistic missile (AShBM) - a weapon
that could shift the military balance in the Gulf region - is being
delivered to operational units, according to the US Department of
Defense's annual report to Congress on the Islamic Republic's military
capabilities. 'Tehran is quietly fielding increasingly lethal symmetric
and asymmetric weapon systems, including more advanced naval mines, small
but capable submarines, coastal defence cruise missile batteries, attack
craft, and anti-ship ballistic missiles,' the report's declassified
executive summary said. This is the first corroboration of Iranian claims
that the AShBM is in service. US officials declined to comment further on
the report, which was submitted to Congress in January." http://t.uani.com/1nNSiCU
Sanctions Relief
Reuters:
"A substantial increase in Iranian oil storage capacity will give
the sanctions-hit country more flexibility to export crude, the
International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday. The United States and
the European Union have imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic over
its nuclear programme, preventing it from reaching production capacity.
Limited storage capacity has forced it to keep crude on National Iranian
Tanker Co (NITC)-controlled tankers at sea. However, a recent build-up in
storage that saw four 1-million-barrel tanks being constructed at the
country's primary crude export terminal on Kharg Island took the total
capacity to 28 million barrels, compared with just 7 million barrels
around the turn of the millennium, the IEA said. 'The expansion of
land-based storage increases the flexibility of the Iranian supply chain,
which could see floating storage volumes fall further over coming
months,' the IEA, the West's energy watchdog, said in its monthly Oil
Market Report. '(This) will free up NITC tankers for deliveries if
required.'" http://t.uani.com/1srYuFD
AFP:
"Russia and Iran, both targeted by international sanctions squeezing
their economies, set the stage Wednesday for a strategic partnership
aimed at vastly expanding trade and investment. The two countries signed
a number of protocols intended to increase bilateral trade tenfold in the
next two years from the current figure of $1.5 billion (1.2 billion
euros). At the same time, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said
the two countries would also pursue investment projects worth 70 billion
euros. Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh, who had welcomed on Tuesday a
sizeable Russian delegation, said 'there is no restriction on developing
trade relations' between the two sides... Not surprisingly, the most
important investment projects involve energy, which would include the
creation of a power network linking the two countries, for which Iran is
desperate for investment. Russia would build 10 new conventional
electrical power plants, as well as four more nuclear power plants to add
to an existing one. Eventually, Iran aims to have 20 such installations,
each producing 1,000 megawatts." http://t.uani.com/1qJkDz7
Iraq Crisis
Reuters:
"Iran said on Thursday the emerging international coalition to
battle Islamic State militants was 'shrouded in serious ambiguities',
Iranian state television reported. Islamic State fighters have seized
major Iraqi cities and towns bordering Iran and Tehran has expressed
concern about their rapid advance and the upsurge in violence. 'The
so-called international coalition to fight the ISIL group ... is shrouded
in serious ambiguities and there are severe misgivings about its
determination to sincerely fight the root causes of terrorism,' Foreign
Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham was quoted by state TV as
saying." http://t.uani.com/1qJhnne
Human Rights
ICHRI:
"A young woman's detention in solitary confinement continues after
her June 30, 2014 arrest, following her earlier arrest and release
outside a Tehran sports stadium when she tried to attend a volleyball
game. Ghoncheh Ghavami's lawyer, Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaee, told the
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that he is unaware of his
client's charges despite the fact that Ghavami has been in solitary
confinement at Evin Prison for more than two months and her 'temporary
detention' orders have been extended twice. Ghoncheh Ghavami, 25, who
holds dual citizenship from Iran and the United Kingdom, is a law
graduate from SOAS, University of London." http://t.uani.com/1xO2DZ6
ICHRI:
"Three imprisoned Baha'is have been refused early release and
furlough to visit their small children unless they recant their faith and
pledge not to teach at the Baha'i university, a relative told the
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Afagh Khosravi-Zand,
whose two sons and a daughter-in-law have been jailed for teaching at the
Baha'i Institute for Higher Education, said, 'I have written to
authorities many times but I have received no reply. Kamran [Rahimian]
and Faran [Hessami] have a five-year-old son and Kayvan [Rahimian] has a
14-year-old daughter and, unfortunately, he also lost his wife to cancer
before he was arrested. These kids are living with me now. But I cannot
do enough for a girl who's going through puberty and a small
child.'" http://t.uani.com/1pSKqzi
IHR:
"Two men were hanged in public in the city of Hamedan (Western Iran)
early Wednesday morning September 10, reported the Iranian state media.
According to the state run Iranian news agency Fars, the two men were
convcted of 'Moharebeh' (war against God) and Corruption on earth.
Disruption of order, creating fear among the people and attempt to rape
are among the charges the men were convicted of, said the report." http://t.uani.com/1uJV5RF
Domestic
Politics
Al-Monitor:
"The water crisis in Iran, where several important rivers and lakes
have dried up, has become so serious that in certain areas of the
country, citizens have been demonstrating and protesting to express their
concern. From the early hours of the morning on Sept. 8, thousands of
residents of Esfahan and the smaller cities and villages nearby
demonstrated near Zayanderood River, holding placards, protesting the
drying up of Zayanderood and officials not paying proper attention to
this issue." http://t.uani.com/1lXTuZ3
Al-Monitor:
"Iran's Culture Ministry, which had announced that it planned to
shut down news websites operating without a license, is now accused of
targeting only conservative sites critical of the Hassan Rouhani administration
while allowing Reformist news sites and those supportive of the
administration to continue to operate without a license." http://t.uani.com/1uopPJF
Opinion &
Analysis
Robert Caruso in
HuffPost: "A viable policy in Iraq must achieve
clear and achievable goals and allow America to stand down as the Iraqi
people stand up. Because of the lack of a Status of Forces Agreement
between Iraq and the United States, the U.S. Armed Forces have been
treading a legal tightrope as they balance what's needed to bomb ISIL, or
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant with the political situation.
All of this is being done in line with international law. So why is the
US working with Iran's Qods Force, a designated terrorist organization?
Besides being completely illegal, working with Iran's paramilitary arm is
not strategically sound. Qods commits unspeakable atrocities, kills women
and children, and has been implicated in backing sectarian death squads
in Syria, Lebanon, and even Afghanistan. IRGC-QF, as it's known in
military and intelligence circles, is also singularly responsible for
using the deadliest explosives and even assassinations against the U.S.
military and American diplomats. The military gains of both Iran's
proxies and ISIL should be blunted to curb the sectarian bloodshed
outside Irbil sure to follow. The international coalition Secretary Kerry
and President Obama cobbled together, acting in concert with the United
States, should take more aggressive actions to prevent advances by Shi'a
militia. The primary objective in Iraq should be to secure Irbil, pull
back all American diplomatic and military presence to behind Iraqi
Kurdistan's borders, and pit ISIL and Iran against each other. Iran's
Shi'a militia proxies effectively control Baghdad and exercise
significant control on Iraqi military operations. They should be allowed
to fight ISIL to the last man. Some proponents of working with Iran
invoke the plight of the Kurdish and Yazidi people in Northern Iraq.
Ironically enough, Iran has also already begun subversive efforts to
destabilize Kurdistan. University of Maryland researcher Phillip Smyth,
who follows Shi'a Islamist movements, has tracked Iranian activities in
Iraq for years and recently stated Iran views the current crisis as
'their moment' in Iraq. It was curious, then, when commentators floated
the idea the US had 'only one potential strategic partner left: Iran.'
Iran is not a viable partner, and has repeatedly expressed its desire to
carve a so-called 'Shia crescent' out of the existing Middle East. The
world can no longer allow the Iraqi military and police to function as an
extension of Iran's military, especially while the outcome of nuclear
negotiations with Tehran remain tenuous. Failure to arrest Iran's
momentum in Iraq could lead to Iran having not one but three large
standing armies and nuclear weapons." http://t.uani.com/1tBDpXj
Hanin Ghaddar in
NOW Lebanon: "Hezbollah hasn't been well for a long
time, due mostly to the draining effect the organization's operation in
Syria has had. But recently, things seem to have gotten better, and the
Party of God is enjoying some small victories thanks to the rise of the
Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and its threat to Lebanon. A few
months into the Syrian revolution, Bashar Assad and Iran decided that the
best way to survive would be to adopt a narrative where they become the
good guys, so to speak. Both Hezbollah and Assad suddenly changed their
rhetoric from 'death to America' to 'death to terrorists,' and as the US
and other Western powers ignored Assad's atrocities and the eventual rise
of ISIS, Iran and Assad became the only local actors fighting terrorism
in the region. Of course, the real fighters against ISIS were the Free
Syrian Army, but Iran and Assad made it seem as if they themselves were
the victims of all the infighting in Syria. Now, they think, is the time
to reap the rewards of this narrative. US President Obama finally decided
to take action against the imminent ISIS threat, and now over 40 nations
are ready to join a US-led coalition against the group in Iraq, and
eventually in Syria. But two things need to be addressed before any
action is taken: First, why is it so vital that Iran join the anti-ISIS
camp, even indirectly? Because it's their only ticket to salvation, and
the only way out of the shithole they've dug for themselves. Iran needs
to preserve its interests in Syria or the Shiite Islamic State won't be
able to export the revolution - and the weapons it needs - which would be
its undoing. The stretch of land from Latakia, through Homs, Damascus and
Qalamoun, all the way through Lebanon's Bekaa and Naqoura, has to stay
under the control of the Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah - there is no
other option for them in this. If the US is going to strike ISIS in
Syria, this is a crucial point. Refusing to ally with Iran or accept them
as part of the coalition is not enough. Turning a blind eye on Iran's
hegemony in the region will not only complicate matters for the Syrian
opposition and their regional allies, it will also prolong the war and
expand it into Lebanon and back to Iraq." http://t.uani.com/1uor7Ep
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