Eye on Iran: U.S. Told Iran of Intent to Strike Islamic State in Syria

Join UANI           Top Stories Reuters: "The United States informed Iran in advance of its intention to strike Islamic State militants in Syria and assured Tehran that it would not target the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a senior Iranian official told Reuters. The communication, confirmed in part by a senior U.S. State Department official, may signal the estranged foes are inching toward a level of contacts rarely seen in over three decades since the 1979 Islamic revolution when a hostage crisis prompted Washington to sever ties with Tehran... 'Iran was concerned about Assad's position and his government being weakened in case of any action against IS (Islamic State) in Syria and brought this issue up in meetings with Americans,' the senior Iranian official said. 'This issue was first discussed in Geneva and then was discussed thoroughly in New York where Iran was assured that Assad and his government will not be targeted in case of any military action against Daesh (Islamic State) in Syria.' ... Iranian officials told Reuters privately that Iran already was cooperating with Washington in the fight against the jihadist rebels. 'This is an intelligence matter and I can assure you geopolitical and intelligence matters will not be shared with Americans ... but military and security issues are being shared to fight against IS (Islamic State),' a senior Iran security official said. Tehran's leadership has approved the 'idea of cooperation with the Americans,' he said, because it serves Iran's interests." http://t.uani.com/1ps6elp WSJ: "Airstrikes by the U.S. and a group of Arab allies against Islamic State targets in Syria are illegal and constitute an attack on the country, Hasan Rouhani, the president of Iran, said Tuesday. Mr. Rouhani said military action could only be justified if authorized by the United Nations Security Council or if the measures were conducted with the consent of the Syrian government. 'These bombings do not have any legal standing so we can interpret them as an attack,' he told journalists on the fringes of the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday morning. Mr. Rouhani condemned Islamic State and described them as 'barbarians,' but said Iran should lead any coalition in the fight against the group that has seized control of swaths of Syrian and Iraqi territory." http://t.uani.com/1vba2gL Reuters: "Iran dismissed on Tuesday as 'fabricated ambiguities' suspicions that it has carried out nuclear arms research, a day after it came under renewed Western pressure to help clear up U.N. watchdog concerns about its atomic energy program. Addressing an annual meeting of the 162-nation International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), senior official Behrouz Kamalvandi also said Iran was committed to trying to reach a negotiated solution to its decade-old nuclear dispute with the West. 'However, measures such as sanctions or double standard approaches certainly harm the negotiating process and cause further mistrust,' Kamalvandi, vice chairman of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said... Kamalvandi said Iran was fully cooperating with the IAEA and that this showed the Islamic Republic's 'goodwill and genuine efforts to clarify some fabricated ambiguities, if any, regarding its peaceful activities.'" http://t.uani.com/Y2i2o7     Nuclear Program & Negotiations Reuters: "If Iran and world powers reach a long-term nuclear deal that ends sanctions against Tehran, the agreement will open the door to deeper cooperation on regional peace and stability and the fight against terrorism, Iran's president said on Tuesday... 'Without a doubt, reaching a final nuclear deal will expand our cooperation, and we can cooperate in various fields including restoring regional peace and stability and fighting against terrorism,' he said through an interpreter... 'America cannot deny Iran's role in the fight against terrorism,' Rouhani said." http://t.uani.com/1uZ9NpQ Fars (Iran): "Supreme Leader's senior advisor Ali Akbar Velayati said Iran would never accept to decrease the number of its operating centrifuge machines. 'The Islamic Republic of Iran's stances are the direct opposite to this (proposal) and Iran will by no means accept what the Americans want to impose on this country outside the international regulations,' Velayati said after his meeting with Kuwaiti Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Jarallah in Tehran on Tuesday. He noted that the Iranian Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei) has also on different occasions declared Iran's stances in this regard, which are contrary to what the Americans are looking for. Velayati said that Iran has always announced that it is pursuing peaceful objectives in the nuclear field and it intends to use the energy for industrial purposes because this energy produces the minimum environmental pollution." http://t.uani.com/1spAXY1 Military Matters AFP: "Iran on Tuesday unveiled a new missile-equipped drone to boost its military arsenal, as part of events marking the end of its 1980-1988 war against Iraq. Iranian engineers working for the armed forces have 'built the drones to carry air defence missiles', deputy defence minister General Amir Hatami said, quoted by Fars news agency. 'The research, experimentation and testing phases have been completed,' he said. 'These new drones are capable of destroying different types of aircraft, including fighters, drones and helicopters,' he added, without giving technical specifications." http://t.uani.com/1yqONfF Sanctions Relief Reuters: "The European Union is quietly increasing the urgency of a plan to import natural gas from Iran, as relations with Tehran thaw while those with top gas supplier Russia grow chillier. Two 'ifs' - the removal of sanctions on Iran and the addition of some pipeline infrastructure - are not preventing EU planners preparing, a European Commission source involved in developing EU energy strategy told Reuters. 'Iran is far towards the top of our priorities for mid-term measures that will help reduce our reliance on Russian gas supplies,' the source said. 'Iran's gas could come to Europe quite easily and politically there is a clear rapprochement between Tehran and the West.' ... Iran, exploiting the reversal of old enmities caused by the upheaval of the Islamic State militants in the Middle East, is also keen to sell its gas. 'Iran can be a secure energy center for Europe,' its President Hassan Rouhani was quoted on Wednesday telling Austrian President Heinz Fischer in New York." http://t.uani.com/Y6zmsc Islamic State AP: "A senior Revolutionary Guard commander says a top Iranian general and 70 Iranian advisers were on the ground in Iraq this summer, helping Kurdish fighters defend the regional capital of Irbil against Islamic State militants. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who runs the Guard's aerospace division, says Gen. Ghasem Soleimani 'stood up to' the Islamic State group and was instrumental in preventing the fall of Irbil. Hajizadeh's remarks late Tuesday to Iranian state TV were Tehran's first confirmation of Iranian military presence and hands-on involvement in the struggle against the Islamic militant group." http://t.uani.com/1rn59AU Human Rights Daily Telegraph: "Up until now, Ghoncheh Ghavami, a law graduate of London university SOAS, has been detained for 87-days in Iran's notoriously tough Evin prison without charge or any idea of when she might be released. However, the family has now confirmed she has been charged for 'propaganda against the regime' - a crime, which if it goes to Tehran's infamous revolutionary court, carries a potential prison sentence of several years... Miss Ghavami has been held in Evin prison since June 30 and is now facing her 88th day in jail. She was detained after attending the sports match on June 20, which women had been previously banned from doing." http://t.uani.com/ZdaZdG WashPost: "The jailing of a Washington Post reporter without public charges in Iran is not evidence of a power struggle between moderate and conservative political forces, Iran's president said Tuesday. President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate, expressed optimism that the generally conservative Iranian judiciary would 'comport itself in a fair manner' in the case of reporter Jason Rezaian and his wife, Iranian journalist Yeganeh Salehi, who was also arrested. 'I do not believe this was something preprogrammed against my administration,' Rouhani said Tuesday." http://t.uani.com/1yqOJMU Opinion & Analysis UANI Advisory Board Member Olli Heinonen in Harvard's Iran Matters: "The P5+1 negotiations with Iran have resumed in New York for its final stretch to reach a comprehensive solution by the 24 November 2014 deadline. Those negotiations should include talks on Iran's ballistic missile capability. The UN Security Council Resolution 1929 requested, inter alia, that Iran shall not undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. The same resolution reaffirmed that Iran shall cooperate fully with the IAEA on all outstanding issues, particularly those which give rise to concerns about the possible military dimensions (PMD) of the Iranian nuclear program. This also included provision of IAEA access without delay to all sites, equipment, persons, and documents requested by the IAEA, and stressed the importance of ensuring that the IAEA have all necessary resources and authority for the fulfillment of its work in Iran. One of the questions raised with the PMD is the design of a re-entry vehicle for a ballistic missile. The IAEA report from November 2011 describes work - known as Project 111 - on engineering studies to examine how to integrate a new spherical payload into the existing payload chamber, which would be mounted in the re-entry vehicle of the Shahab-3 missile. The IAEA has assessed that the payload in question - with the size, fusing, arming, and firing mechanisms - is likely a nuclear device. In the light of these findings, it should be expected that resolving questions relating to the PMD issues that also include addressing verifiable limits to Iran's ballistic missile capabilities should form part of a comprehensive nuclear agreement. A defendable agreement that rolls-back Iran's clandestine nuclear infrastructure should also tackle Iran's nuclear weapon delivery systems. The agreement should seek to suspend Iran's ballistic missile related work and/or impose a moratorium on the testing of all ballistic missiles, with verifiable ends. Ignoring the strategic linkage between Iran's nuclear program and its missile program weakens any monitoring and verification system, undermines regional stability and security, and disregards both UN Security Council Resolution 1929 and the sanctions termination criteria as stipulated in U.S. law. It furthermore risks putting all the eggs to one basket - nuclear safeguards and monitoring - while effectively decoupling verification work from a more complex nuclear picture in Iran." http://t.uani.com/1Ch2oEQ UANI Advisory Board Member Irwin Cotler in HuffPost: "While Iranian President Rouhani pledged to usher in a new era of human rights for Iranians, the person held out as a 'moderate' has presided over a regime that continues to engage in massive repression. As nuclear negotiations continue, so does the systematic and widespread violation of human rights in Iran. While negotiations respecting Iran's nuclear weaponization program resume this week, they should neither overshadow nor sanitize the regime's ongoing abuses. What follows is an overview of some of the serious human rights violations in Iran that serve as a litmus test for the authenticity of Rouhani's commitment to human rights for the Iranian people." http://t.uani.com/Y6GpRR    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.