|
|
|
Join UANI
Top Stories
AFP:
"US President Barack Obama on Wednesday urged Iran to seize the
'historic opportunity' of reaching a deal with world powers on its
contested nuclear program in a speech at the United Nations. 'America is
pursuing a diplomatic resolution to the Iranian nuclear issue, as part of
our commitment to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and pursue the peace
and security of a world without them,' he told the General Assembly.
'This can only happen if Iran takes this historic opportunity,' Obama
added. 'My message to Iran's leaders and people is simple: do not let
this opportunity pass. We can reach a solution that meets your energy
needs while assuring the world that your program is peaceful.'" http://t.uani.com/1uJnRl5
Reuters:
"Israel said on Wednesday that Iran has used its Parchin military
base as the site for secret tests of technology that could be used only
for detonating a nuclear weapon... A statement from Intelligence Minister
Yuval Steinitz, issued a day before Iranian President Hassan Rouhani -
the architect of Tehran's nuclear diplomacy - was to address the U.N.
General Assembly, said the implosion tests at Parchin involved neutron
sources that would include nuclear material. Israel, his statement said,
based its information on 'highly reliable information', without
elaborating. It gave no specific dates for such testing, saying only that
it occurred after what it called the 2000-2001 construction of a nuclear
weaponisation test site at Parchin. An annex to an International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) report in 2011, which included information received
from member countries, indicated that Iran may have conducted such
alleged experiments but did not specify where they had taken place. 'It
is important to emphasise that these kinds of tests can have no dual use
explanation, since the only possible purpose of such internal neutron
sources is to ignite the nuclear chain reaction in nuclear weapons,' the
Israeli statement said." http://t.uani.com/1rnWo9v
Al-Monitor:
"Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke to an elite group of former
US cabinet members and senior officials at an off-the-record dinner the
night of Sept. 23. Among the guests were three former US national
security advisers, Sandy Berger, Brent Scowcroft and Steve Hadley; former
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; former US special envoy to
Afghanistan James Dobbins; and scholar Vali Nasr, sources at the dinner
told Al-Monitor... Rouhani told the audience, in answer to a question,
that he would like to reach a nuclear deal by October, so that the
complicated technical details could be worked out by the Nov. 24 extended
deadline that Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security
Council plus Germany (P5+1) have set for themselves, the dinner attendee
said... Despite discussion of different possible compromise formulas by
the P5+1 and Iran in New York, no real progress or breakthrough has been
made in overcoming the central obstacle to a nuclear deal: the size of
Iran's enrichment capacity in a final deal, a former senior US official,
speaking not for attribution, told Al-Monitor Sept. 24. The Iranians had
floated what he called 'cosmetic' solutions to essentially 'repackage'
the plan, keeping Iran's enrichment capacity at the level at which it is
currently operating, about 9,000 IR-1 centrifuges, which is not
acceptable to the United States or the P5+1, the former official said...
Among the ideas the Iranians had discussed, according to interlocutors,
was that Iran could feed less gas into its centrifuges to reduce its
enrichment capacity. But the move is apparently quickly reversible, and
depending on how one calculates the enrichment capacity of a centrifuge,
could according to Iranian calculations entail Iran keeping the 9,000
centrifuges it is currently operating." http://t.uani.com/ZewLhl
UN General Assembly
NYT:
"President Hassan Rouhani of Iran offered some insight Wednesday
into what he would say Thursday in his speech at the United Nations
General Assembly, telling an audience of foreign policy intellectuals
that he welcomed the West's new alarm over the Islamic State militant
group, disagreed that bombing Syria was the answer, and reminded the
world that Iran was the first to help its neighbor Iraq when Islamic State
fighters invaded three months ago. In a speech sponsored by the New
America Foundation at the New York Hilton in Midtown Manhattan, Mr.
Rouhani also asserted that Iran had shown great flexibility toward
resolving its protracted nuclear dispute with the six world powers with
whom it was negotiating, and that he hoped the parties could complete an
agreement by their November deadline... Mr. Rouhani said, as others in
his administration have, that the genesis of the Islamic State was a
result of foreign meddling - meaning Arab and Western meddling - in the
three-and-a-half-year-old insurgency in Syria, in which Iran supports the
government of President Bashar al-Assad." http://t.uani.com/1vi1jta
Guardian:
"The British prime minister, David Cameron, met the Iranian
president, Hassan Rouhani, in New York on Wednesday in what marks a
milestone in the long-strained relations between London and Tehran. The
meeting - as the two leaders attended the UN general assembly - was the
first encounter between an Iranian president and a British prime minister
since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Iranian reporters in Rouhani's UN
entourage tweeted pictures of the smiling Iranian cleric shaking hands
with Cameron in front of the two countries' flags. 'A little bit of
history made,' the prime minister was overheard telling one of his aides,
according to a tweet by a British reporter , as the meeting ended." http://t.uani.com/1vi1OmT
Syria Conflict
Al-Monitor:
"Iranian President Hassan Rouhani put forward his prescription for
defeating the group that calls itself the Islamic State (IS), saying that
local Iraqi and Syrian central government forces must be in the lead and
that the United States was creating a new 'terrorist group' by training
and equipping members of the Free Syrian Army... He specifically
criticized the Obama administration for announcing that it would offer
more training and arms to Syrian rebels to confront IS, which Rouhani
referred to by its Arabic initials, Daesh. 'The American authorities have
announced they wish to train another terrorist group to send them to
Syria to fight,' Rouhani said. Asked by moderator Fareed Zakaria if he
meant the Free Syrian Army, Rouhani said, 'Call it what you like. ... We
must put the burden on the shoulder of the Syrian people, not make
decisions for them and announce it to them.'" http://t.uani.com/1yskEwy
WSJ:
"The leader of Syria's political opposition urged the U.S. to
exclude Iran from a growing international coalition fighting Islamic
State militants, arguing in an interview that Tehran has fueled the
violence in Syria by providing arms to President Bashar al-Assad and
deploying soldiers and military advisers. Hadi al-Bahra, president of the
Syrian Opposition Coalition, called for Iranian security forces to
immediately withdraw from Syria as an important part of the broader
military and diplomatic effort aimed at stabilizing the Arab country.
'There is a role for [the Iranians] to play. And this role is to agree to
the full withdrawal of their forces, advisers from inside Syria, back to
Iran. Stop being a partner in killing the Syrian people,' Mr. Bahra said
in an interview at a Manhattan hotel. 'After doing that, then you can
start thinking of them as an agent for peace.'" http://t.uani.com/1rlSLjd
Human Rights
NYT:
"But Mr. Rouhani and his entourage encountered an unscripted moment
on Wednesday near the end of a speech at the Hilton in Midtown Manhattan,
when two people in the audience suddenly held aloft photographs of
political prisoners in Iran. Political dissent is an issue that has
nagged at Mr. Rouhani since he was elected last year, partly because he
had pledged to ease the restrictive practices of his predecessor. One
photograph showed the leaders of Iran's dissident Green movement, who
have been under house arrest for years. Another photograph showed a
British-Iranian woman who had supported Mr. Rouhani's election and moved
to Tehran from London in hope that the country would be more tolerant.
The woman, Ghoncheh Ghavani, 25, a lawyer, was arrested after trying to attend
a men's volleyball match in June, and she has been incarcerated since.
Women are forbidden from attending such sporting events in Iran. 'She is
in solitary!' one of the protesters, a friend of Ms. Ghavani who later
identified himself as Ali Abdi, an Iranian-born student at Yale, yelled
in Farsi and English as Mr. Rouhani and his aides exited the room. 'All
of us are very worried!' Mr. Abdi told reporters who had come to hear Mr.
Rouhani that 'many of us who voted for him expected him to be more serious.'"
http://t.uani.com/1DywvJe
IHR:
"A high ranking Iranian Judiciary official confirmed today execution
of Mr. Mohsen Amir Aslani (37) in Rajaishahr prison of Karaj this
morning. Gholamhossein Esmaeili, the Judiciary official, told Mizannews
that Mohsen Amir Aslani was executed convicted of rape. He denied that
Mr. Aslani's death sentence was related to his other charges. Base on the
information Iran Human Rights (IHR) has access to Mr. Amir Aslani had in
March 2007 been charged with among others heresy, insulting Prophet
Jonah and immoral acts." http://t.uani.com/1refXlW
WashPost:
"Iran's president would not promise Wednesday to intervene in or to
speed up the legal case against a Washington Post reporter who has been
detained in that country for more than two months. Hassan Rouhani did not
reveal what charges reporter Jason Rezaian may face or give any details
about his detention. Rezaian and his wife, Iranian journalist Yeganeh
Salehi, were arrested in Tehran on July 22." http://t.uani.com/1n0jfIH
Opinion &
Analysis
UANI's David
Ibsen, Gabriel Pedreira & Brian Stewart in Algemeiner:
"In his inaugural speech before the United Nations General Assembly
(UNGA) last year, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani launched his 'The
World Against Violence and Extremism' (WAVE) initiative ostensibly to
promote 'tolerance over violence, progress over bloodletting, justice
over discrimination, prosperity over poverty, and freedom over
despotism.' An Iranian-sponsored UN resolution in support of WAVE soon
followed, and Rouhani and his foreign policy team have promoted WAVE
throughout the year as an example of his supposedly more 'moderate'
Iranian regime. At the time, too many were insufficiently skeptical of
Rouhani's WAVE rhetoric of peace, justice and tolerance considering
Iran's record of fomenting violence, extremism and repression. Many of
the very states forced by UN protocol to sit through Rouhani's cynical
call for moderation have in fact been victimized by extreme Iranian
regime policies over the past 35 years. Now, following a year in office,
Rouhani's words have proven hollow. The Iranian regime's violent
oppression of Iranian citizens, sponsorship of terrorist groups and
sectarian militias, support for the brutal Assad regime in Syria, and
refusal to roll back its illicit nuclear program has continued. Indeed,
since his last appearance in New York, Iranian partners and proxies
across the region, including in Syria and Gaza, have engaged in extreme
action directly resulting in tremendous turmoil and thousands of violent
deaths. Not surprisingly, the promise of domestic moderation under
Rouhani has also proven empty. In its annual report to the General
Assembly on human rights in Iran released just this month, the UN
declared that regime clampdowns on human rights and freedom of speech
have not lessened under Rouhani's tenure while legalized discrimination
against ethnic and religious minorities persists. For example, members of
the Baha'i community remain barred from access to higher education and
government employment. And according to the UN, executions in Iran have
actually risen under Rouhani, with between 624 and 727 executions in the
last year. The UN must not allow nations like Iran to come to UNGA and
lecture the world on how to conduct itself. The UN was founded on
universal principles of human rights and human dignity, principles for
which the Iranian regime has scant regard. The Iranian theocracy under
President Rouhani has an established record of persecuting women,
political dissidents and religious minorities. This is not a record in
line with the principles of justice and tolerance. Rouhani's rhetoric is
also telling of how little regard Iran's leaders have for the UNGA and
its members. Apparently Rouhani and his speechwriters expect the
collective memory of Iranian regime misdeeds and mendacity on the world
stage to be immediately forgiven in response to cursory 'charm
offensives' (who can forget the overwrought reaction to Rouhani's
supposed Happy Rosh Hashanah tweet), and the coining of disingenuous
acronyms. This cannot be the case. Members of the UNGA must speak
candidly about the hypocrisy of the Iranian regime." http://t.uani.com/1peAJw2
Amb. Adam Ereli in
WSJ: "Iran's President Hasan Rouhani is scheduled to
speak at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday. Last year he
attended this global gathering of heads of state to great fanfare. He had
just replaced Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in office, and the world held out great
hope that a reform-minded moderate leader for the Islamic Republic meant
that the country's aspirations to be a nuclear power and its sponsorship
of terrorism might soon be a thing of the past. In his General Assembly
speech on Sept. 24, 2013, Mr. Rouhani pledged 'to open a new horizon in
which peace will prevail over war, tolerance over violence, progress over
bloodletting, justice over discrimination, prosperity over poverty and
freedom over despotism.' One year on, how have these promises fared?
Peace over war? Hamas in Gaza rained hundreds of Iranian-supplied
missiles on Israel in a seven-week campaign to terrorize civilians. In
Syria, Iran's infusion of cash, weapons, military advisers and its
Hezbollah-backed militias have kept Bashar Assad in power and over the
past year produced tens of thousands more casualties. Tolerance over
violence? At Iran's behest, Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led government in
Iraq systematically arrested, tortured and murdered members of that
country's Sunni minority, not to mention the deadly attacks on Iranian
dissidents, which killed five dozen, 52 of them execution-style. Iraq's
armed forces and intelligence services were systematically purged of
Sunnis. These deliberately repressive policies paved the way for the
stunning political and military conquests in Iraq by Islamic State
terrorists. Progress over bloodletting? The one arguable bright spot in
Iran's relations with the civilized world has been its willingness to
negotiate over its nuclear program. Yet with a November deadline looming,
there are few if any signs of progress toward an agreement. Iran has kept
enriching uranium 235 to reactor grade levels, thus accomplishing nearly
70% of the enrichment necessary to reach weapons-grade levels. Iran's
weaponization research and ballistic-missile development are not limited
in any respect and proceed apace. In violation of its obligations, Iran
has blocked or severely limited access by inspectors of the International
Atomic Energy Agency to key nuclear facilities. In its latest report, on
Sept. 5, the IAEA wrote that it is unable 'to conclude that all nuclear
material in Iran is in peaceful activities.' More troubling are
statements by Iran's leadership. On July 7 Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
said that Iran needs to 'significantly increase' its number of
centrifuges. In April this year he told a group of Iranian scientists:
'None of the country's nuclear achievements can be stopped.' ... Freedom
over despotism? Since taking office, Mr. Rouhani's government has
executed 1,000 Iranians, according to human-rights monitors inside Iran
and ranks first in the world in per capita executions, which included
hundreds of women, youths, ethnic minorities and dissidents. The State
Department documented Iran's dismal record of respect for human rights in
its 2014 report on human-rights practices. Delegates to the U.N. General
Assembly might want to keep Mr. Rouhani's dismal record in mind when he
mounts the podium on Thursday, no doubt offering fresh promises of Iran's
peaceful and just intentions. It is time that the international community
held his government to account and insisted that words be matched by
deeds. Absent that, we must be clear-eyed and under no illusion about the
regime with which we are dealing." http://t.uani.com/1oiW7QC
Daily Star
Editorial: "Conditions in Yemen have long been ripe
for seeing dramatic political developments: poverty, a regional
secessionist movement, an Al-Qaeda-led insurgency, a struggle to move
beyond the era of former strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, and the fact that
weapons outnumber Yemenis. But this week's takeover by the Shiite Houthi
movement, backed by Iran, cannot be isolated from the fortunes of the
Islamic Republic elsewhere in the region, particularly with its allies in
Syria and Iraq. Prior to the Houthi takeover, Iranian officials and their
allies were predicting that Tehran's client would be able to seize power
in the tense, impoverished country at the entrance to the Red Sea. The
imposition of an 'agreement' on the Yemeni president by force can't be
sugarcoated; a coup d'etat was carried out, and the rise of one tribe at
the expense of another, which doesn't bode well for Yemen's future."
http://t.uani.com/1n0p1dj
|
|
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.
|
|
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment