Thursday, October 9, 2014

Eye on Iran: Iran Issues 'Red Lines' Ahead of Key Nuclear Talks








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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 
   

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

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