Eye on Iran: Iran Nuclear Talks Set for Next Week in Vienna: Iran Foreign Ministry

Join UANI           Top Stories Reuters: "Iran and major powers are set to hold multilateral and bilateral nuclear talks in the coming days in Vienna, Iran's foreign ministry said on Wednesday, less than two months ahead of a deadline for a deal to end their dispute. A diplomatic source in the Austrian capital, where Iran and the six world powers have held a series of meetings since early this year, said the next round was expected to take place on Oct. 14-15 but that it would not include all the seven states. Senior Iranian officials have said that Iran was likely to hold bilateral talks with the United States in Vienna and then hold a full session with the six powers in November, with a Nov. 24 target date for a comprehensive agreement... Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that there was 'consensus between Iran and P5+1 on fundamental issues and differences are over fine details', the official IRNA news agency reported late on Tuesday. 'There's no dispute over whether reactors should be built in Arak or if Iran should enjoy enrichment technology or about Fordow or the end of so-called (nuclear) military activities. Differences are mainly over details and quantities,' he said. Iran has refused to close down an underground uranium enrichment plant at Fordow and a planned heavy-water reactor at Arak with the potential to yield plutonium." http://t.uani.com/ZsRz40 Reuters: "An exiled Iranian opposition group said on Wednesday that a facility in Tehran that the United States suspects is involved in nuclear weapons research has been moved to avoid detection by the United Nations atomic watchdog. The dissident National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) exposed Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and a heavy water facility at Arak in 2002... Citing information from sources inside Iran, the Paris-based NCRI said a nuclear weaponisation research and planning center called the Organisation of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND) was shifted in July to a secure site in a defense ministry complex about 1.5 km (1 mile) from its former location. The NCRI had reported in October 2013 that Iran had begun moving the center. It said the SPND, which was mentioned in a U.N. nuclear agency report in 2011, had also reduced the profile of its chief Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, whose office was now at separate location. To help divert attention from key elements of the center, it said, Iran had left 'non-sensitive' sections at the old site... 'The fact this operation is working at full speed and that Fakhrizadeh is running the apparatus shows Iran does not want to be transparent in its nuclear program to the IAEA,' NCRI spokesman Shahin Gobadi said." http://t.uani.com/1xoWw9C Tasnim (Iran): "Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said despite Tehran's willingness to reach an agreement over its peaceful nuclear program, the US and West have hindered the final deal. 'We should demonstrate it to the world that we wanted an agreement but the US and West did not want it and, therefore, blocked the (final) deal,' Zarif was quoted by Rapporteur of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign policy Commission Seyed Hossein Naqavi Hosseini as saying in a meeting with the commission on Tuesday. Zarif said that due to the Zionist lobbies' activities, the Americans are not seeking to resolve the issue and do not want an agreement to be reached on Iran's nuclear issue, Naqavi Hosseini added." http://t.uani.com/1rWJyy2     Nuclear Program & Negotiations Reuters: "Iran has dismissed criticism by the International Atomic Energy Agency of its refusal to let one IAEA expert into the country as part of a team investigating allegations of nuclear weapons research. Tehran said it had a sovereign right to decide who to let onto its territory. But its failure to issue a visa to an IAEA official, that diplomatic sources said was probably a Western atomic bomb expert, may add to longstanding Western suspicions it is stonewalling the U.N. agency's inquiry. The IAEA said last month that Iran had not issued a visa for one member of a team that visited Tehran on Aug. 31 to try to advance the investigation into what the U.N. agency calls the possible military dimensions of the country's nuclear program. It was the third time the person, whom it did not identify, had not obtained an entry permit. It is important, the IAEA added in a Sept. 5 report on Iran's nuclear program, that 'any staff member identified by the agency with the requisite expertise is able to participate in the agency's technical activities.'" http://t.uani.com/1rgYMKC  Sanctions Relief Reuters: "European Union sanctions on Iran's main oil tanker firm NITC have been annulled after the EU failed to appeal against a court ruling that ordered the measures to be lifted, the shipping company said on Tuesday. An EU official told Reuters the European Union was working to resolve the issue, adding: 'The time for appeal had elapsed, but work is still ongoing on remedial action for maintaining the entity on the list.' NITC - a major transporter of Iran's oil - had contested the EU's blacklisting, arguing that the firm is privately owned by Iranian pension funds. It has denied any links with the Iranian government or with the Revolutionary Guards... The ruling could help NITC resume contacts and relations with European counterparts including shipping firms as well as access to potential blocked assets in the bloc. However the company still remains on the U.S. government's sanctions list. Shipping and insurance officials have said this will mean the company will still struggle to secure international insurance cover given the restrictions." http://t.uani.com/1y6cDfs Reuters: "Iran's new development contracts will be finalised soon and presented to the cabinet for approval, its oil minister said, a sign that Tehran is pushing ahead with effort to lure foreign investors once sanctions are lifted. Iran wants Western oil companies to revive its giant, ageing oilfields and develop new oil and gas projects and has been preparing a new investment model for oil contracts as part of its drive to win back Western business... 'In case the sanctions are annulled, a new model of oil contracts will be unveiled in London,' from Feb. 23 to Feb. 25, Shana cited Mehdi Hosseini, the head of the Petroleum Ministry Oil Contracts Revision Committee, as saying. Iran's new contract model, known as the Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC), aims to tempt back oil companies with 25-year deals." http://t.uani.com/1BRBn8Q Human Rights Reuters: "An Iranian woman convicted of murdering an alleged rapist as a teenager is set to be hanged on Wednesday unless she wins forgiveness from the victim's relatives, an Iranian news agency reported on Tuesday. Reyhaneh Jabbari, 26, was sentenced to death for stabbing dead a man seven years ago who she says tried to rape her. She has been detained since her arrest and repeated appeals have failed. Jabbari said she acted in self defense, but Iran's Supreme Court upheld the death sentence. Her case has prompted an international outcry, with the United States and European Union demanding her sentence be repealed." http://t.uani.com/1scZ6k1 Domestic Politics Reuters: "President Hassan Rouhani called on Tuesday for Iran's universities to admit more foreign students and lecturers, dismissing conservatives' fears that more interaction with the outside world would encourage espionage... In a speech marking the start of the academic year broadcast live on state television, Rouhani urged the establishment of a university teaching in English and suggested Iranian academic life had much to gain from more international exposure." http://t.uani.com/1scXUwX Foreign Affairs Tasnim (Iran): "Iranian President Hassan Rouhani attached great significance to stability in the region, pledging that the Islamic Republic will continue its support for the regional countries in their fight against terrorism. 'Fortunately, Iran is the region's stable country and has always provided support for the regional countries, especially Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Afghanistan, and God willing, we will continue to support them in a bid to make the region stable,' Rouhani said, addressing a gathering of cabinet members and lawmakers at the Iranian parliament on Tuesday evening. 'All countries have said that Iran should play its role in fighting against terrorism and there is no doubt about this,' the Iranian president noted." http://t.uani.com/1seGUW5 Opinion & Analysis Lawrence Haas in U.S. News & World Report: "Monday's reported explosion at Iran's secretive Parchin nuclear site - leaving two dead and shattering windows 12 kilometers away - is welcome news to those concerned about Tehran's nuclear progress, but it's likely a mere blip on what seems an increasingly smooth Iranian road to nuclear weaponry. For a host of reasons, Washington is growing ever-more desperate for a nuclear deal through which to claim a diplomatic victory, while Tehran is growing less concerned about the ultimate outcome of the ongoing talks and, not surprisingly, more intransigent about offering new concessions... Nevertheless, the U.S. negotiating posture toward Iran remains rooted in fantasy over reality, for it reflects a set of misguided White House and State Department views about Tehran, its interests and its incentives. The nearly one year since U.S.-led negotiators and Iran inked an interim nuclear deal last November has been marked by missed Iranian deadlines for action, followed by more U.S. concessions, followed by more Iranian intransigence, followed by more U.S. concessions. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, insists that Tehran will not dismantle any of its 19,000 centrifuges, and he recently called for a 10-fold increase in his nation's enrichment capacity. At the same time, Iran is developing more sophisticated centrifuges that, if installed, can enrich much more quickly. In addition, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that, despite Iran's late 2013 promise to provide more transparency about its nuclear work, Tehran ignored an August 25 deadline to fully explain its past work in explosive technologies that have nuclear weapons applications. Meanwhile, Washington has withdrawn its previous demand that Iran abandon all uranium enrichment, discarded its previous effort to restrain Iran's burgeoning ballistic missile program as part of the negotiations, and offered to set a date after which all restrictions on Iran's nuclear program would expire. Now, for the ongoing talks, U.S. officials are considering whether to give Tehran a greater enrichment capacity under a negotiated deal. Specifically, they're mulling whether to offer that Tehran keep half of its centrifuges running while reducing its stockpile of uranium gas, or that it keep the centrifuges in place while disconnecting the circuits and pipes to feed the uranium gas for processing.Why Tehran would become more pliable in the face of more U.S. concessions, however, remains a mystery for two reasons. First, the more Tehran digs in, the more desperate Washington becomes - not only privately but, more tellingly, publicly. With more U.S. concessions following more Iranian intransigence as predictably as night follows day, Tehran has no reason to change course. Second, the sanctions relief that last year's interim agreement provided to Iran has proved an economic boon, helping lift Iran from its dire straits and, in turn, further reducing Tehran's incentive to negotiate. Iran's economy grew 4.6 percent in the first quarter of its calendar year (March 21 to June 21) compared to the same period a year earlier, according to official estimates from the Central Bank of Iran. In addition, as the watchdog group United Against Nuclear Iran has reported, inflation has fallen from 45 percent to 21 percent, Iran's currency is up 11 percent, and its stock market index is up 57 percent. Those concerned about Iran's nuclear progress are left to wonder how much more Washington is willing to offer Iran in return for a deal - and whether that deal will do much of anything to restrain Iran's nuclear program." http://t.uani.com/1rWKt1z     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.