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WSJ:
"Iran's government continues to stonewall United Nations weapons
inspectors, complicating the Obama administration's effort to forge a
nuclear agreement with Tehran by a late-November deadline, according to
U.S. and U.N. officials. The U.S. and the European Union have said Iran's
cooperation with the U.N. in addressing evidence that Tehran conducted
studies in the past on the development of atomic weapons is crucial to
reaching a broader accord on the future of the Iranian nuclear program.
But Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy
Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, said Friday there has been almost no
progress in resolving the outstanding allegations of weapons development,
despite a year of negotiations with Iranian President Hasan Rouhani 's
government... 'What is needed now is concrete action,' Mr. Amano said
during a speech in Washington. 'Progress is limited.'" http://t.uani.com/1wXkUSR
Guardian:
"A British-Iranian woman detained in Iran for trying to watch a
volleyball game has been sentenced to one year in a notorious prison,
according to her family and lawyer. Ghoncheh Ghavami, 25, a law graduate
from London, was found guilty of spreading 'propaganda against the
regime' following a secret hearing at Tehran's revolutionary court.
Ghavami has been detained for 127 days in prison since being arrested on
20 June at Azadi ('Freedom' in Farsi) stadium in Tehran where Iran's
national volleyball team was scheduled to play Italy. Although she had
been released within a few hours after the initial arrest she was
rearrested days later. Speaking to the Guardian, Ghavami's brother Iman,
28, said the family felt 'shattered' by the court verdict. 'We are really
disappointed because we felt she would get out on bail immediately. She's
been through a lot and now it's a full-year sentence and she's already
served four months,' he said." http://t.uani.com/1wYlduZ
AFP:
"Global powers wrestling to hammer out a ground-breaking deal with
Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions are moving complex talks into high
gear with a 'critical' three weeks left for an accord. The main players
-- US Secretary of State John Kerry, his Iranian counterpart Mohammad
Javad Zarif and outgoing EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton -- will
crisscross the globe ahead of the November 24 deadline seeking to narrow
the gaps. Ashton will first meet in Vienna on November 7 with political
directors from the so-called P5+1 grouping -- Britain, China, France,
Russia and the United States as well as Germany -- her spokesman Michael
Mann said. She will then fly to Oman to meet with Kerry and Zarif in
closed meetings, in the country that first hosted secret talks between
old foes Iran and the United States... 'We have critical weeks ahead of
us,' Kerry told PBS television. 'The stakes for the world are enormous. I
hope the Iranians will not get stuck in a tree of their own making, on
one demand or another, in order to try to find a way together. I'm
hopeful, but it's a very tough negotiation.'" http://t.uani.com/1x1benK
Nuclear Program & Negotiations
Bloomberg:
"Iran will meet with the U.S. and other world powers next week in
Oman in advance of a Nov. 24 deadline for a deal that would curtail
Tehran's nuclear program. Iran will hold talks with the group known as
the P5+1 nations -- the U.S., U.K., Russia, China, France and Germany --
in Oman's capital, Muscat, on Nov. 11, State Department spokeswoman Marie
Harf said in a statement today. That meeting will follow two days of
talks that Secretary of State John Kerry plans to hold in Muscat with
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Catherine Ashton, who
represents the European Union in the talks." http://t.uani.com/1xSr5nS
Al-Monitor:
"Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), told Al-Monitor Oct. 31 that Iran's halting cooperation so
far in explaining possible military-related nuclear work would not derail
ongoing negotiations on a long-term nonproliferation agreement. 'It
should not be an impediment,' Amano said after the conclusion of remarks
at the Brookings Institution in Washington... Many experts doubt that a
deal can be concluded next month but suggest that the major elements of
an agreement could be reached. 'I see no possibility of achieving a
comprehensive deal by Nov. 24,' Robert Einhorn, a former senior nuclear expert
with both the Obama and Clinton administrations who hosted the event with
Amano, told Al-Monitor. 'The best that can be achieved is to reach
agreement on the key parameters of a deal and to take several more months
to flesh out the parameters.'" http://t.uani.com/1t6XyCB
Sanctions Relief
Fars (Iran):
"Secretary of Iran's Second International Auto Exhibition Sasan
Qorbani announced that the number of international foreign companies that
will take part in the exhibition has considerably increased. 'A sum of 55
foreign automakers and part-makers will take part in the exhibition,'
Qorbani said on Sunday. He noted that the number of foreign guests
participating in the event has also increased to 190, and said, 'All
European and Asian carmakers will take part in Iran's auto expo.' Last
week, Qorbani announced that Benz, Volkswagen, Volvo, Fiat, Rover, Skoda,
Renault, Peugeot, Kia and Toyota would take part in the Iranian auto
expo, adding that the US car-manufacturers would also join the event. 'In
case of desirable conditions, General Motors and Ford companies will also
attend the event.' He continued that some leading car parts makers,
including Siemens, FORD Mendo, Busch, FRW and ACI would attend the
gathering. The event will start work on December 10." http://t.uani.com/13zqnD7
AFP:
"For Iran -- whose currency, the rial, has been severely depressed
by rampant inflation -- tourism offers a foreign exchange windfall...
People are coming back. Official figures show that at the end of March,
tourist numbers were up 35 percent year-on-year to 4.5 million, bringing
in $6 billion... However, a nuclear deal remains a hope rather than a
given and tour operators know optimism can vanish quickly. For the
moment, local guides are filling their pockets. 'This is a new wave. We
have between 300 percent and 400 percent more visitors,' says Mohsen
Hajisaeid, who was looking after a group from Hong Kong." http://t.uani.com/1x1a1gf
Fars (Iran):
"Iran's largest carmaker, Iran Khodro Company (IKCO), has signed a
4-year contract with a German auto designer, the company's president
announced on Sunday, adding that a foreign team has also been hired for
designing two new car platforms for the company. 'We have endorsed a
4-year contract with this designer and he is due to design two new
platforms in the next four years,' IKCO President Hashem Yekeh Zareh told
FNA. 'Accordingly, it was decided that a 10-member team visit Iran along
with the German designer in the next one to two months to plan for
designing two new car platforms.' Noting that the German designer has
been employed by Iran Khodro at least for four years, Yekeh Zareh said
that other members of the team are also due to sign a 1 to 4-year
contracts with IKCO." http://t.uani.com/10eZfqH
Sanctions
Enforcement & Impact
Reuters:
"U.S. authorities are investigating London-based Standard Chartered
Plc for potential U.S. sanctions violations connected to its banking for
Iranian-controlled entities in Dubai, according to people familiar with
the probe. The latest investigation involving the bank is based, in part,
from evidence that emerged during a separate probe of BNP Paribas, the
French bank that pleaded guilty this summer to charges related to
sanctions-busting and agreed to pay $8.9 billion in penalties, the people
said. During the course of the BNP case, U.S. federal and state
investigators received evidence the French bank had done business with a
Dubai-registered corporation that was a front for an Iranian entity, one
source said. Investigators also learned that the company used to have an
account with Standard Chartered, according to the source. Such an account
would have been covered by U.S. sanctions laws that ban dealings with
Iran because activity in the account involved U.S. dollar transactions...
Standard Chartered in 2012 paid $667 million to U.S. authorities and
entered into deferred prosecution agreements with the Manhattan District
Attorney and U.S. Department of Justice over violations stemming from
Iran and other sanctioned countries." http://t.uani.com/1DRz32G
Human Rights
NYT:
"A senior Iranian emissary hinted on Friday that Iranian authorities
might be prepared to free a Washington Post correspondent who has been
inexplicably imprisoned and kept virtually incommunicado since July 22.
The emissary, Mohammad Javad Larijani, who was attending a United Nations
Human Rights Council session, said that security service officials had
prepared charges against the correspondent, Jason Rezaian, for activities
'entering the area of the security of the state.' But he added that he
hoped the charges would be dropped during court proceedings that he
expected to start 'soon.' Mr. Larijani, a member of a politically
powerful Iranian family and secretary general of Iran's High Council for
Human Rights, declined to elaborate on the charges. Nor did he further
specify the status of Mr. Rezaian's case in the opaque Iranian judicial
process. Mr. Rezaian has not been able to hire a lawyer because no
charges have been formally made." http://t.uani.com/10jf4Nh
Press TV (Iran):
"The secretary of Iran's High Council for Human Rights says the
propaganda campaign launched by Western media is to blame for the recent
execution of a convicted Iranian woman. The Iranian government sought 'to
solicit forgiveness from the [victim's] first-degree families. Unfortunately,
the campaign which was launched by Western media and politicians
definitely' ruined the atmosphere of soliciting forgiveness, Larijani
said in an interview with CNN. He made the remarks on the sidelines of
the 20th session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group in
Geneva, Switzerland." http://t.uani.com/1t6XItI
Domestic
Politics
RFE/RL:
"Promoting virtue and preventing vice proved to be the death of Ali
Khalili, a young Iranian seminary student who eventually succumbed to
injuries sustained when he tried to stop a group of men from harassing
and kidnapping two women. Now lawmakers are debating ways to protect
citizens like Khalili who take it upon themselves to defend the values of
the Islamic republic. But by giving citizens legal license to take
Islamic law into their own hands, critics warn, Tehran could be
institutionalizing violent acts such as the recent spate of acid attacks
targeting women -- apparently because they were deemed to be in violation
of Iran's strict Islamic dress code. The bill winding through the
conservative-dominated parliament would strengthen punishments for those
who injure or kill people carrying out their Islamic duty to promote
virtue and prevent vice, and would give injured vigilantes of Islamic
justice the same benefits and legal protections afforded to 'martyrs and
disabled veterans.'" http://t.uani.com/1zrSykz
Foreign Affairs
Bloomberg:
"After forcing concessions from Yemen's government last month,
Shiite Muslim rebels ignored pleas to pull out of the capital, flaunting
an ascendancy that has alarmed the country's Gulf Arab neighbors. The
Houthi fighters, with scimitars hanging from their waists, now guard key
ministries and the central bank in Sana'a. Outside the capital, they have
fought their way into Yemen's second-largest port on the Red Sea and
seized a crossing post on the Saudi border. For Saudi Arabia, it's the
perception of an Iranian hand that makes the advance a threat. The
Houthis, who follow a branch of Shiite Islam called Zaidi, have pushed
aside a government installed three years ago as part of a peace plan
backed by the Saudis and their Sunni allies. Yemen, which shares a
1,100-mile border with the world's biggest oil supplier, threatens to
become another arena for the Saudi-Iranian antagonism that underlies many
of the region's crises... In Yemen, Houthi gains will weaken Saudi
Arabia's influence over the impoverished country led by Gulf Cooperation
Council-backed President Abdurabu Mansur Hadi. 'What is happening in
Yemen should worry Saudi Arabia,' Faris al-Saqqaf, an adviser to
President Hadi, said in a phone interview on Oct. 17. 'Iranian ambition
will not stop at Yemen.'" http://t.uani.com/1s7ST4a
Opinion &
Analysis
Ray Takeyh in
WashPost: "As the Nov. 24 deadline for Iran and the
great powers to negotiate a comprehensive nuclear agreement approaches,
both sides may be confronted with momentous choices. What happens if the
decade-long search for an arms-control accord falters? Although there is
little evidence that the West is contemplating alternative strategies,
important actors in Iran are beginning to consider life after diplomatic
failure. Since the exposure of its illicit nuclear program in 2002, the
Islamic republic has wrestled with a contradictory mandate: how to expand
its nuclear infrastructure while sustaining a measure of economic growth.
The reformist president Mohammad Khatami avoided debilitating economic
sanctions by suspending nuclear activities. Then came the tumultuous
presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which privileged nuclear empowerment
over economic vitality. Current president Hassan Rouhani has succeeded in
negotiating an interim agreement - the Joint Plan of Action - but he
faces diminishing prospects for a final accord. Iran has finally come to
the crossroads, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and many
hard-line elements seem ready to forge ahead with their nuclear ambitions
even if they collide with economic imperatives. During the past few
years, Khamenei has been pressing his concept of a resistance economy
whereby Iran would shed its need for foreign contracts and commerce.
'Instead of reliance on the oil revenues, Iran should be managed through
reliance on its internal forces and the resources on the ground,' he said
last month. Writing in the conservative daily Khorasan last year,
commentator Mehdi Hasanzadeh went further: 'An economy that relies on
domestic [production] rather than preliminary agreement or the lifting of
a small part of sanctions or even all sanctions will bring a great economic
victory.' In the impractical universe of conservatives, Iran can meet the
basic needs of its people by developing local industries. Iran's
reactionaries seem to prefer national poverty to nuclear disarmament. The
notions of self-sufficiency and self-reliance have long been hallmarks of
conservative thinking in Iran. Since the 1980s, a central tenet of the
hard-liners' foreign policy perspective has been that Iran's revolution
is a remarkable historical achievement that the United States can't
accept or accommodate. Western powers will always conspire against an
Islamic state that they cannot control, this thinking goes, and the only
way Iran can secure its independence and achieve its national objectives
is to lessen its reliance on its principal export commodity. Hard-liners
believe that isolation from the international community can best preserve
Iran's ideological identity. This siege mentality drives Iran's quest for
nuclear arms and their deterrent power." http://t.uani.com/1tusbFy
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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