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AFP:
"Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reiterated on
Wednesday his country's "red lines" in negotiations with world
powers over its controversial nuclear programme due to resume next week
in Vienna... An infographic published on Khamenei's official website
outlined 11 points to be observed by negotiators before Iran will sign an
accord. One of the stipulations includes 'the absolute need for Iran's
uranium enrichment capacity to be 190,000 SWU (Separate Work Units)' --
close to 20 times its current processing ability. Iranian officials say
this is needed to produce fuel for its Bushehr reactor, which is being
provided by Russia until 2021. The US and other Western states, however,
want Iran to decrease its enrichment capability. 'Fordo, which cannot be
destroyed by the enemy, must be preserved,' the text on Khamenei's
website said, referring to the uranium enrichment site built under a
mountain 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Tehran. 'The work of nuclear
scientists should in no way be stopped or slowed,' the text said, adding
that Iran had the right to pursue nuclear 'research and
development.'" http://t.uani.com/ZS8nSW
Reuters:
"Iranian banks and firms will seek European investors willing to bet
on thawing ties with the outside world in London next week, hoping to
overcome caution or even outright hostility among Western governments and
pressure groups. The Oct. 15-16 conference, the largest gathering of
Iranian commercial officials in London for years, aims to attract capital
which the country badly needs due to its long isolation under
international sanctions... One U.S. pressure group, which backs tougher
sanctions against Tehran, has already criticised the London conference.
'The presence of European businesses at the Europe-Iran Forum directly contravenes
the efforts of the international community to maintain economic pressure
on the Iranian regime,' said United Against Nuclear Iran." http://t.uani.com/1BWpEFT
Al-Monitor:
"European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Iran's
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John
Kerry will meet in Vienna Oct. 14-15, with a looming deadline for a final
Iran nuclear deal less than two months away, European and Iranian
officials said Wednesday. US negotiators, including Deputy Secretary of
State Bill Burns, Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman and senior
adviser Jake Sullivan will meet with their Iranian counterparts in Vienna
Oct. 14, a day ahead of Kerry joining the Ashton-Zarif meeting, the State
Department said. The meetings come as there is a growing sense in the
Washington policy community and beyond that concluding a comprehensive
accord by the Nov. 24 deadline is unlikely. 'A full-fledged agreement by
Nov. 24 is no longer likely. But what is still achievable is a breakthrough
that could justify a few more weeks for hammering out the remaining
details,' Ali Vaez, senior Iran researcher at the International Crisis
Group, told Al-Monitor Oct. 8. 'My sense is that the gap [in positions]
is unbreakable,' Amos Yadlin, former Israeli military intelligence chief
who now heads Israel's Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS)
think tank, told Al-Monitor in an interview Oct. 7. 'Both sides want an
agreement, but the parameters are very far away.'" http://t.uani.com/1vQTQjX
Nuclear Program & Negotiations
Reuters:
"Talks between the U.N. nuclear watchdog and Iran this week appear
not to have substantively advanced an investigation into suspected atomic
bomb research by Tehran, potentially dimming chances for a broader deal
between the Iranians and big powers. Western officials say Iran must
improve cooperation with United Nations nuclear sleuths if it wants to
reach a settlement to a protracted dispute with six world powers over the
country's nuclear program and be rid of crippling financial sanctions.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement after the Oct.
7-8 meeting in Tehran that discussions would continue. But it did not
announce a date for the next round of talks focused on IAEA concerns that
Iran had initially been supposed to address by late August." http://t.uani.com/1w1jx0Y
Reuters:
"A United Nations atomic agency official recently denied entry into
Iran as part of a team investigating suspected bomb research is believed
to be an American nuclear weapons expert, diplomatic sources said. The
International Atomic Energy Agency last month said Iran denied a visa for
one member of an IAEA delegation that visited Tehran on Aug. 31 to try to
advance a long-running inquiry into what the U.N. agency calls the
possible military dimensions of the country's nuclear program. It was the
third time the person had been unable to obtain an entry permit, the
Vienna-based IAEA said. It did not reveal the official's nationality or
expertise. But the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to
the sensitivity of the issue, said they believed he was a U.S. national
and an atomic arms expert." http://t.uani.com/1rZstUq
Reuters:
"A U.S. security institute has said it had located via satellite
imagery a section of a sprawling Iranian military complex where it said
an explosion or fire might have taken place earlier this week. Iran's
official IRNA news agency on Monday cited an Iranian defense industry
body as saying that two workers were killed in a fire at an explosives
factory in an eastern district of Tehran. An Iranian opposition website,
Saham, described the incident as a strong explosion that took place near
the Parchin military complex around 30 km southeast of the capital. It
did not give a source and the report could not be independently verified.
The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security
(ISIS) said it had obtained commercially available satellite imagery on
which six buildings at Parchin appeared damaged or destroyed. However,
the images ISIS issued indicated the site of the possible blast was not
the same Parchin location where the U.N. nuclear agency suspects that
Iran, possibly a decade ago, carried out explosives tests that could be
relevant for developing a nuclear arms capability." http://t.uani.com/1rZvN1D
AP:
"America's top diplomat is plunging back into Iranian nuclear talks,
keeping one eye on the longtime U.S. adversary and the other on political
developments at home, as pressure rises in Washington for a deal ensuring
the Islamic republic cannot become a nuclear state. Kerry, European Union
negotiator Catherine Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad
Zarif will meet in Vienna next Wednesday, the EU said.... The pressure on
the Obama administration was once bipartisan; now it is more divisive.
Republicans are impatient with the lack of progress a year after an
interim agreement with Iran that many of them opposed. They've tried to
attach Iran legislation to unrelated Senate bills, only to be rebuffed by
Democratic leaders. Democrats are avoiding a fight, for now." http://t.uani.com/1sfI6bE
Sanctions
Relief
Press TV (Iran):
"Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh says the Islamic
Republic gives priority to foreign companies that would negotiate to
invest in the country's oil and natural gas sectors prior to a final deal
between Tehran and six world powers. 'Iran will distinguish the countries
according to their stance, whether they discuss with us before or after
[a] final agreement,' between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers -
Russia, China, France, Britain, the US and Germany over Tehran's nuclear
energy program, Zanganeh said in an interview with the Japanese newspaper
Yomiuri Shimbun. He said many foreign firms are coming to Iran to seek
business opportunities, expressing confidence about a final agreement
with the six powers by the November 24 deadline and the concomitant
removal of US-led anti-Iran sanction. Iran will hold a briefing session
for foreign companies in the British capital, London, on February 22-23
to announce new arrangements regarding Iran's oil and natural gas
development contracts, said Zanganeh." http://t.uani.com/1v6zPZU
WSJ:
"The European Union intends to reimpose sanctions on five Iranian
companies, including Iran's National Iranian Tanker Company, and one
person who won court cases that struck down the restrictions placed on
them, EU officials said. The move is the latest effort to uphold the
bloc's sanctions regime against Iran and Syria after a series of legal
defeats in the EU's top courts over the last 13 months. Most of the Iran
sanctions were imposed because of Tehran's nuclear activities. On Friday,
the U.K. Treasury issued a news release saying it was lifting an asset
freeze on the National Iranian Tanker Company, Sina Bank, Moallem
Insurance Company, Sharif University of Technology and Sorinet Commercial
Trust. It also lifted the asset freeze on Iranian businessman Babak
Zanjani who was jailed in Iran earlier this year." http://t.uani.com/1o1ejUp
Islamic State
RFE/RL:
"Once again, Iran's supreme leader has used Twitter to slam the
U.S.-led coalition air strikes against IS. Ayatollah Khamenei accused
Washington of using IS as an 'excuse" to bomb Syria, and warned that
the coalition would fail... The supreme leader's hard-line stance against
the U.S.-led air strikes in Syria and Iraq has been echoed by the Iranian
military, which has accused the U.S. of creating and supporting IS.
Armed forces deputy chief of staff Brigadier General Seyyed Jazayeri said
on October 7 that the 'logistics and management' behind IS and other
'terrorists' in the region was the work of foreign intelligence and
security services. The Basij website quoted Jazayeri as saying that
information obtained by Iran showed that the U.S. was 'at the head of
IS's management.' ... Meanwhile, both President Hassan Rohani and Foreign
Minster Mohammad Javad Zarif have presented a somewhat milder version of
Khamenei's hard-line stance, while still speaking out against the
U.S.-led coalition." http://t.uani.com/1rZwqbG
Domestic
Politics
Bloomberg:
"Parliamentary opponents of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani are
seeking to impeach more members of his government, broadening a clash
between rival power blocs that has already claimed one minister. The
motion to impeach Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian has been signed by 80
lawmakers in the 290-member body, the Tehran-based newspaper Etemaad
reported, citing legislator Nader Ghazipour, who backs the
initiative." http://t.uani.com/10ULkXG
Opinion &
Analysis
Amal Mudallali in
FP: "Stopping the Islamic State has taken over the
headlines and dominated Middle East policy debates in recent weeks. While
the jihadists' rampage is cause for understandable concern, it has
obscured a huge strategic shift in another Middle Eastern linchpin:
Yemen. The takeover of Sanaa in mid-September by the Houthis, a Shiite
minority group, has dire implications for Yemen's neighbors and for the
American war on terror. And further escalation seems likely. On Oct. 8,
Houthi leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi called for mass demonstrations against
foreign meddling in the country's politics. Above all else, the latest
developments in Sanaa represent a huge victory for Iran. But the Houthis'
decision to tie their fate to Tehran's regional machinations risks
tearing Yemen apart and throwing the country into chaos. For years, many
Yemenis have believed that Iran provides money and training to the
Houthis, who comprise 30 percent of Yemen's 25 million citizens.
Officials in Sanaa, from President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi to party
leaders, have accused Iran of meddling in their affairs. Meanwhile,
Iranian officials are all too happy to encourage such suspicions: In a
recent statement, Ali Riza Zakani, Tehran's representative in the Iranian
Parliament, bragged that Sanaa would be the fourth Arab capital to fall
into Iran's hands. Houthi militias rode into Sanaa in mid-September, on a
wave of popular discontent over rising fuel prices and rampant
corruption. They soon moved to occupy public squares where they lead
chants of 'Death to America, death to the Jews!' and called for a change
in leadership and for lower fuel prices." http://t.uani.com/1sfLHq6
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