Eye on Iran: China Seeking Closer Military Ties With Iran

Join UANI           Top Stories Reuters: "China wants to have closer military ties with Iran, the Chinese defense minister told the visiting head of the Iranian navy on Thursday, state media reported, reaffirming diplomatic links despite controversy over Iran's nuclear plans. Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan told Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari that the two armed forces have seen 'good cooperation on mutual visits, personnel training and other fields in recent years', China's official Xinhua news agency reported. 'Exchanges between the two navies have been fruitful and their warships have paid successful visits to each other,' it cited Chang as saying. 'Chang ... stressed China is willing to work with Iran to further pragmatic cooperation and strengthen military-to-military ties.'" http://t.uani.com/1wr5Uss Reuters: "Boeing said on Wednesday it had sold aircraft-related goods to Iran Air in the third quarter, marking the first acknowledged dealings between U.S. aerospace companies and Iran since the 1979 U.S. hostage crisis.The Chicago-based aerospace and defense company said in a filing that it sold aircraft manuals, drawings, navigation charts and data to Iran Air to help improve the safety of Iran's civil aviation industry. The sales did not include spare parts for aircraft, which were thought to be likely since Iran Air's fleet of planes includes vintage Boeing and Airbus jetliners delivered as long ago as 1978. Boeing and General Electric (GE.N) said in April that they had received export licenses from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control allowing them to sell parts for commercial aircraft to Iran under a temporary sanctions relief deal that began in January." http://t.uani.com/1wmpVl1 Bloomberg: "A deal over Iran's nuclear program appears unlikely by a Nov. 24 deadline, meaning an extension of the interim agreement may be needed to press Iran for more concessions, the French ambassador to Washington said. Iran wants 'sanctions lifted immediately,' while negotiators for six international powers want an 'incremental and reversible suspension' of economic penalties, based on Iran's compliance with limits on its nuclear activities, Gerard Araud, who served as France's chief nuclear negotiator with Iran from 2006 to 2009, said yesterday at a Bloomberg Government breakfast in Washington". 'The Iranians are really negotiating,' he said. 'The problem is whether they are ready to pay the price for an agreement' and "for the moment, they are not." 'We are ready to accept a few thousands of centrifuges, more as a sort of face-saving' solution for Iran, 'to show that Iran has not given up enrichment,' he said. The Iranians' last proposal was 'to keep what they have right now,' about 19,000 declared centrifuges, half of which are currently operating, with the right to add more in the future for a theoretical industrial-scale energy program, a position Araud said is unacceptable to the international community. http://t.uani.com/1ypoqCU     Nuclear Program & Negotiations Reuters : "Iran's dependence on oil revenue is putting the Islamic Republic's economy at the mercy of major powers, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday. With oil losing a quarter of its value since June, President Hassan Rouhani's administration has been scrambling for alternative sources of income. Iran's budget is based on oil priced at around $100 a barrel while Brent crude is currently below $87. Hitting prices is abundant supply as well as concern that slowing economic growth in Europe and China will soften demand". http://t.uani.com/ZOMIdx The Hill: "Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said the public wouldn't 'tolerate' the administration's decision to bypass Congress on a nuclear deal with Iran.' The American people will not tolerate a president who wheels and deals with a radical regime behind their backs and dodges congressional oversight every chance he gets,' Cornyn said Wednesday. Cornyn's comments came after Secretary of State John Kerry said the administration has the authority to suspend sanctions on Iran without congressional approval. The United States, Iran and six other world powers have until Nov. 24 to reach a deal to diminish Iran's nuclear weapons capability. The Obama administration lifted some economic sanctions against Iran in order to get the country to the negotiation table, but lawmakers said the State Department is giving Iran too many concessions without enough in return." http://t.uani.com/1ypqPO0 The Hill: "Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that the administration has the authority to suspend sanctions on Iran without Congress, but that 'in the end' Congress would weigh in. 'On sanctions, what we've merely said to people is that - and we've said this in public testimony as well as in private conversations - that in the first instance, we would look to suspend sanctions, which the president can do, simply because that's the necessary way to proceed with respect to the negotiations themselves,' Kerry said at a press conference in Berlin." http://t.uani.com/1wf5Kb4 RFE: "Iran's intelligence minister has announced that the country's security services have arrested several suspected spies in the southern province of Bushehr where Iran's nuclear plant is located. Seyed Mahmud Alawi said on October 21 security forces 'who monitor the moves of the foreign intelligence services' have arrested 'some agents who intended to carry out surveillance and intelligence gathering for the foreigners in Bushehr province.' Iran has repeatedly cited signs of alleged foreign plots to sabotage its nuclear program. The West fears Iran's nuclear program could be put to developing an atomic bomb capability. Tehran says it is developing nuclear energy only for electricity and medical treatments". http://t.uani.com/1xd7wGB Trend: "Iran says that during the nuclear talks with P5+1 group, a "general and common agreement" has been reached, but there are still some disputes on details. The director general for political and international security affairs of Iran's Foreign Ministry Hamid Baeidinejad who has been discussing Iran's nuclear issue with the P5+1 group since Oct. 22 in Vienna, told IRNA that it is possible to reach a comprehensive agreement until Nov.23. Iran and P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council comprising of China, France, Russia, Britain, the US Plus Germany) sealed an interim deal in Geneva on November 24,2013 to pave the way for the full resolution of the West's decade-old dispute with Iran over the country's nuclear energy program. The Geneva deal took effect on January 20 and expired on July 20. However the two sides agreed to extend their talks for four months till Nov. 24 to reach a permanent deal on Iran's disputed nuclear program." http://t.uani.com/1D19kEC Human Rights NYT: "Thousands of Iranians took to the streets of the historic city of Isfahan on Wednesday to protest several acid attacks on women. The attacks had coincided with the passage of a law designed to protect those who correct people deemed to be acting in an 'un-Islamic' way. A local official said on Wednesday that 'eight to nine' women had been attacked over the past three weeks by men on motorcycles who splashed them with acid in Isfahan, one of Iran's largest urban centers and the country's chief tourist destination. Some of the women were blinded or disfigured.The protesters - more than 2,000, according to the semiofficial news agency Fars - gathered in front of the local judiciary office and shouted slogans against extremists whom the protesters likened to supporters of Islamic State militants. They also called for the city's Friday Prayer leader and the prosecutor to step down, witnesses said. Critics have long accused the Iranian authorities of playing down episodes that could embarrass leaders rather than investigating the cases". http://t.uani.com/12ijUvJ Reuters: "Iranian President Hassan Rouhani came out on Wednesday against a parliamentary bill to empower vigilantes who enforce Islamic morals, strongly re-asserting a moderate agenda that had taken a back seat since his election last year. The law, proposed by conservative lawmakers who dominate parliament, would provide legal protection to citizens who take it on themselves to enforce the Islamic dress code and other behavior prescribed under Iran's sharia law. It would bolster the work of vigilantes and in particular the Basiji, volunteer paramilitaries who often patrol streets, and stop cars to interrogate couples about their relationships, to the resentment of many Iranians". http://t.uani.com/1nAmC9k Financial Times: "Women are the latest target in an increasingly bitter power struggle between Hassan Rouhani, Iran's president, and his hardline opponents. Acid attacks on at least four women in the central city of Isfahan last week, allegedly because they were not following strict dress codes, are widely thought to be a part of a campaign by hardliners to 'propagate virtue and prevent vice'. The incident has sparked panic and anger among Iranian women. The sense of fear has been heightened by a new law being debated in parliament that would protect citizens who 'correct' women and men who do not abide by Islamic 'rules'". http://t.uani.com/1z0YBMw Foreign Affairs AFP: "Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday told Iraq's visiting premier that the Baghdad government is capable of defeating Islamic State jihadists without foreign troops being deployed. The military campaign against IS now encompasses US and other foreign air strikes in Iraq and neighbouring Syria, but more than four months after breaking into the country IS retains strongholds in the north and west while trying to seize other territory". http://t.uani.com/1zlZ4u0 AFP: "Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will visit Spain next week before heading to China for the fourth regional conference on Afghanistan, an official said Wednesday. The trip to Madrid is to expand bilateral ties, ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said at her weekly press briefing in Tehran, without confirming Zarif's day of departure. 'In his trip to China, the minister will attend the fourth regional conference on Afghanistan' to discuss ways to restore security, she added". http://t.uani.com/1wuKQU0 Al- Monitor: "In the past few months, as the Islamic State (IS) gained control over parts of Syria and Iraq and proclaimed a caliphate, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, has made it a priority for the Iranian government to attempt to reduce tensions between Shiites and Sunnis. In an Oct. 12 Eid al-Ghadeer sermon, Khamenei emphasized the importance of unity between Shiite and Sunni Muslims and the necessity of the two major branches of Islam to avoid conflict". http://t.uani.com/1xd5vtK Opinion & Analysis William Tobey in Foreign Policy: Facing a complex and difficult task in negotiating an agreement with Iran on the nuclear issue, the Obama administration is beginning to leak what many observers have long understood -- that it sees no point in trying to obtain Congressional approval for any nuclear deal with Iran. First, it is by no means clear that Iran's Supreme leader is willing to abandon any nuclear weapons ambitions.  Tehran's disclosures to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the 'possible military dimensions' of its program remain grudging, incomplete, and inaccurate -- not behavior indicative of a strategic decision to use nuclear energy solely for peaceful purposes in return for the easing of Iran's political and economic exile. In 2010, Harry Reid's Senate passed additional sanctions by a vote of 99-0, and the Republican-controlled House is even more suspicious of Iran's intent.  Seeking Congressional approval for a deal, but failing to get it would be an even more devastating blow to the credibility of American leadership than the Syria red line debacle". http://t.uani.com/1sTxm1B      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.