Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Eye on Iran: Iran Hackers Target Airlines, Energy, Defense Companies








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Reuters: "Iranian hackers have infiltrated major airlines, energy companies, and defense firms around the globe over the past two years in a campaign that could eventually cause physical damage, according to U.S. cyber security firm Cylance. The report comes as governments scramble to better understand the extent of Iran's cyber capabilities, which researchers say have grown rapidly as Tehran seeks to retaliate for Western cyber attacks on its nuclear program. 'We believe that if the operation is left to continue unabated, it is only a matter of time before the team impacts the world's physical safety,' Cylance said in an 87-page report on the hacking campaign released on Tuesday. The California-based company said its researchers uncovered breaches affecting more than 50 entities in 16 countries, and had evidence they were committed by the same Tehran-based group that was behind a previously reported 2013 cyber attack on a U.S. Navy network." http://t.uani.com/1zdFRqj

HuffPost: "The list of countries bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq has thus far featured a host of classic United States partners -- Canada, the U.K., France. Now, it looks like the U.S. has a new quasi-partner in the air: Iran. The U.S. is aware of Iranian bombing activity in the same national airspace where planes aligned with the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State are operating, a defense official told The Huffington Post Monday evening.  The official said he believes the Iranian bombing is unlikely to end as long as the Shiite-dominated nation feels threatened by the Sunni extremist group, also called ISIS. The bombing will not require a U.S. response unless Iran presents an immediate threat to U.S. forces in the air, he said. 'We are aware of that. I wouldn't say we're necessarily concerned with it -- we kind of have our eyes on it,' the official said... The fact that the U.S. is not challenging this level of Iranian involvement is the strongest evidence yet that the Obama administration sees the Iranian government as a tactical partner in the Middle East... The defense official's comments offered evidence for recent claims about an Iranian jet in Iraqi skies made by IHS Jane's Defence Weekly, a British defense analysis firm, and Haaretz, a leading Israeli newspaper." http://t.uani.com/1yeJRIA

AP: "The powerful pro-Israel lobby AIPAC is urging a dramatic escalation in sanctions on Iran in response to a recent seven-month extension of nuclear talks. The group, widely influential in Congress, wants the U.S. to reinstate all economic penalties on Iran suspended during the diplomacy. It also seeks a U.S. ban on Iranian oil exports worldwide and more Iranian industries blacklisted... State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday the U.S. must avoid new measures while negotiations continue." http://t.uani.com/1tzsgWo

   
Nuclear Program & Negotiations

Al-Monitor: "Iran will limit research and development on its advanced centrifuges, grant the IAEA expanded access to its centrifuge facilities and convert half its stocks of 20% oxide into fuel for a research reactor under the terms of a seven-month extension on an interim nuclear deal reached with six world powers in Vienna last week. The terms of the extension were shared with Al-Monitor by a source briefed by the negotiating teams. In return for the steps Iran will take, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) have agreed to continue providing Iran $700 million in its oil sale proceeds per month, amounting to almost $5 billion total through June 30, as well as to continue suspending certain sanctions including on petrochemical exports, trade in precious metals and auto parts. Iran and the P5+1 announced Nov. 24 that they would try to reach a political agreement for the final nuclear deal within four months, with the additional three months of the extension to be used to complete drafting of the technical and implementation details. Among the steps Iran has agreed to take under the seven-month extension, the source briefed by the negotiating teams said: ..." http://t.uani.com/1wjIGrW

Bloomberg: "Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said nuclear negotiations are within reach of a 'successful end,' according to the semi-official Iranian Students' News Agency. 'In the past 10 years of talks we haven't been this close to resolving the nuclear issue,' Zarif said today. He was addressing the nuclear talks publicly for the first time since returning from Vienna, where world powers and Iran last week agreed to extend negotiations over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program by another seven months. If the talks had continued for an extra two or three days, Iran and the six members of the P5+1 could have been within reach of a 'general framework,' Zarif said. 'A framework doesn't mean that we could have had all the details written down,' he said. 'We would have needed an extension anyway in order to have those details written down.'" http://t.uani.com/1pN4PN1

AFP: "The world is no longer beating the 'drum of war' against Iran, its foreign minister said on Tuesday, citing the direct benefit of the government's nuclear talks with the West. Mohammad Javad Zarif said the decision to restart negotiations and seek a deal over the Islamic republic's disputed nuclear programme had reduced tension and would not be reversed. But Zarif, who has led the Iranian side in talks with world powers that last month saw an interim agreement extended to June 30 next year, denied his team was bargaining 'like carpet sellers' for a better deal. 'Because of these negotiations the Islamic republic of Iran has become safer... and less vulnerable than before,' he told students in Tehran in a speech carried live on state television. 'No one can any longer beat the drum of war... the hostile atmosphere created against us has fallen through. The world has realised mutual understanding and common interests can lead to agreement.'" http://t.uani.com/1CBChfo

RFE/RL: "A top adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called for an end to domestic criticism of Tehran's nuclear negotiations with major world powers. Former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, who advises Khamenei on international affairs, said on November 30 that since the supreme leader has endorsed an extension of the talks for several months, people should stop their criticism. Velayati noted that Khamenei's 'commands' are the final word in Iran. He added that 'after [Khamenei] said he agrees with the talks and their extension, no comment should be made against the negotiations.' The comments appear to be part of efforts by the Iranian establishment to rein in hard-line critics of the extension of the nuclear negotiations that was announced on November 24 following talks between six world powers -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany -- and Iran in Vienna... Velayati said the nuclear negotiators should be praised for their work and for obeying Khamenei. He said 'our nuclear negotiating team has so far respected all the red lines set by the supreme leader, they've worked hard and their efforts should be appreciated.'" http://t.uani.com/1ybm5JV

Reuters: "Iran said it has provided evidence to the United Nations atomic agency showing that documents on suspected nuclear bomb research by the country were forged and riddled with errors. In a statement to the International Atomic Energy Agency, it dismissed accusations that it is stonewalling an IAEA investigation into what the U.N. watchdog calls the possible military dimensions (PMD) of Iran's nuclear program. Iran has offered detailed explanations to the IAEA and there has never been 'any authenticated documents for PMD claims', said the Iranian note posted on the agency's website. It said Iranian officials had also given 'pieces of evidence' during meetings in October and November indicating that documents shown by the IAEA were fabricated. They 'are full of mistakes and contain fake names with specific pronunciations, which only point toward a certain member of the IAEA as their forger', it said." http://t.uani.com/1w0AtJO

Free Beacon: "Iran on Monday unveiled new missiles, torpedoes, and warships just a week after nuclear negotiations between Tehran and the West broke apart with little headway made between the sides. The new military hardware was widely publicized by Iranian military leaders following an order by Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei urging the country's armed forces to step up their combat readiness despite an extension in nuclear talks with the West. The Iranian Navy displayed a crop of new vessels equipped with cruise missiles and other rockets. Also unveiled were new attack helicopters 'equipped with Iran's latest home-grown torpedoes,' according to Iranian military leaders quoted by the country's state-controlled press. The show of force is likely meant to send a message to the United States and other Western nations following another failed round of talks over Iran's contested nuclear weapons program." http://t.uani.com/1AbDGnW

Sanctions Relief

AFP: "France's PSA Peugeot-Citroen is in 'intense' talks about resuming production in Iran, halted since March 2012, a top representative of the automaker said in Tehran on Monday. The company quit the Islamic republic after international banking sanctions were imposed on Tehran as punishment for its disputed nuclear programme. At an auto industry conference and exhibition in the Iranian capital, Jean Christophe Quemard, PSA's operations director for the Middle East, told delegates the company wanted to return. 'We are in intense discussions,' he said. 'We have a long relationship with Iran. We have the strong will to create a joint venture covering the entire automotive chain as soon as possible.' ... Discussions between Peugeot and its former joint venture partner, Iran Khodro, began at the Paris Auto Show in October." http://t.uani.com/1yCwu3Y

Shana: "The Persian Gulf island of Kish is to host an international energy exhibition January 12-15. The exhibition, which is the 11th, is to focus on investment in the energy sector and provide a venue for Iranian and foreign companies to get acquainted with the potentialities of each other. The event will put on display the latest opportunities for investment as well as achievements by manufacturers for the oil, gas, petrochemical, water, electricity and renewable energies sectors. Companies from China, Turkey, Italy, India, South Korea, Taiwan, Azerbaijan, France, Malaysia, Germany and the United Arab Emirates are attending the exhibition. The exhibition is sponsored by Iran's Petroleum Ministry, National Iranian Oil Company, National Iranian Gas Company, National Petrochemical Company, National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company, Tehran Kala Naft Company, chemical engineering and designing (SPEC), Association of Oil Industry Equipment Manufacturers, Iran Electricity Industry Union as well as water and wastewater companies." http://t.uani.com/1yvpANU

Human Rights

HRW: "Iran's judiciary should vacate the death sentence of a 30-year-old man who faces imminent execution for Facebook posts linked to his account. On November 24, 2014, Iran's Supreme Court upheld a criminal court ruling sentencing Soheil Arabi to hang. The court transferred his file to the judiciary's implementation unit, opening the way for his execution. A Tehran criminal court had convicted him in August of sabb al-nabbi, or 'insulting the prophet,' referring to the Prophet Muhammad, which carries the death penalty. Arabi's legal team has asked the judiciary to suspend the death sentence and review the case. 'It is simply shocking that anyone should face the gallows simply because of Internet postings that are deemed to be crude, offensive, or insulting,' said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East and North Africa director. 'Iran should urgently revise its penal code to eliminate provisions that criminalize peaceful free expression, especially when they punish its exercise with death.'" http://t.uani.com/1ybZguH

Domestic Politics

Al-Monitor: "Outspoken conservative member of the Iranian Parliament Ali Motahari has once again stirred controversy by criticizing the near four-year house arrest of the 2009 Green Movement leaders and questioning the function of the body meant to supervise and elect Iran's supreme leader. During a speech at Ferdowsi University in the city of Mashhad Nov. 26, Motahari said, 'The prime responsibility of the Assembly of Experts is to supervise the performance of the supreme leader and his subsidiaries. Until now, they have not done this and will not do it. They get involved with any issue other than the job they are supposed to do.' Motahari continued, 'Have they ever discussed a subsidiary of the institution of the supreme leader? For instance, the Headquarters for Executing the Order of Imam [Setad] has been turned into an economic cartel - they build towers. Has this been investigated?'" http://t.uani.com/1w0AHRg

Opinion & Analysis

John Bolton in The Washington Times: "While the future of Iran's nuclear program has rightly been the focus of the intense Vienna negotiations, there are other significant implications extending well beyond Tehran. Because of President Obama's many concessions, Iran has made significant gains, particularly enhanced international legitimacy for both its regime and its extensive nuclear activities. Now that the negotiating 'deadline' has been extended until June 2015, we should consider the broader global implications of Mr. Obama's Iran policy. Other aspiring nuclear-weapons states have carefully followed the negotiations, drawing conclusions and making plans accordingly. Very shortly, the wider ripples of the talks will manifest themselves in two ways. First, Iran's near neighbors, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey, will almost certainly accelerate their nuclear activities, following a clear path to producing weapons. Second, North Korea, left to its own devices (and continuing progress on both weaponization and ballistic-missile development) these past six years, clearly sees a weak negotiating counterpart in Washington, and will try to achieve many of the same advantages Tehran is now harvesting. The Middle Eastern conventional wisdom has long held that if Iran produced deliverable nuclear weapons, other states would follow inexorably. As then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in 2009, 'A nuclear-armed Iran with a deliverable weapons system is going to spark an arms race in the Middle East and the greater region.' Saudi Arabia will move first. Indeed, the Saudis may already have 'options' on existing Pakistani warheads, meaning that Riyadh would not need to build its own nuclear program, but could effectively become a nuclear power overnight. Egypt and Turkey would start farther behind, but they have already made initial efforts, such as Cairo's 2013 nuclear deal with Moscow. Iran's path to weaponization appears now to be merely a matter of its own timing, absent an Israeli military strike like those undertaken previously against Iraq and Syria. Accordingly, none of the potential proliferators have any incentive to wait for Iran to actually test a nuclear device to prove its existence. These regional powers will almost certainly conclude that Iran will weaponize, and that having their own deterrent capability is the only appropriate response. Indeed, with Washington accepting Iran's 'peaceful' program, these and others could move very quickly. They will definitely not rely solely on U.S. assurances. Given how meaningless Mr. Obama's Iran assurances were, the other potential proliferators will not bother with subtlety as they proceed... Finally, much of the damage done by the Obama administration cannot be easily repaired. Once a proliferator crosses key thresholds, the work cannot be rolled back except through a strategic decision to abandon the pursuit of nuclear weapons. While this has happened before (such as South Africa after apartheid), it typically requires regime change for a new government to have the courage and political space to reverse course. Unfortunately, therefore, Mr. Obama's dangerous nuclear legacy will inevitably be high on the agenda of repair work for his successor." http://t.uani.com/1AbEOrK

Michael Rubin in Dalls Morning News: "While the United States and Europe may lament the failure to reach a final agreement with Iran on its nuclear program, for Iranian officials, all is going according to plan. After all, while the West may engage in diplomacy to resolve conflict, for Tehran, the process has always been about winning concessions and relieving pressure on Iran's moribund economy, not coming to agreement. Immediately upon becoming Iran's president in 2013, Hassan Rouhani moved to remake the Islamic Republic's image on the world stage. His efforts, however, are window-dressing, meant to distract attention from Tehran's true aims. At its heart, the Islamic Republic's ideology remains as rigid and hostile as the day 35 years ago when revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini's followers seized the U.S. Embassy. Everything the Iranian leadership says in Persian and preach to their public suggest their regular call for 'Death to America' is not mere rhetoric. While Western officials hailed Rouhani as a moderate, Iranian leaders recognize him as a die-hard loyalist with a gift for public relations. He was the man who first called Khomeini 'Imam,' likening him to the Shiite messiah. In February 2005, before a gathering of luminaries in Iran's second-largest city, Mashhad, he outlined a doctrine of surprise in which Iran would lull the United States into complacency, before delivering a knockout blow. In October 2011, answering criticism that he was too willing to compromise, Rouhani bragged to Etemaad, a reformist daily, that he merely used diplomacy to trick the West all the while furthering Iran's nuclear program. In the year before talks began, Iran's economy shrank 5.3 percent. Not surprisingly, Rouhani's efforts have centered on lifting economic sanctions imposed on Iran in response to its refusal to open its nuclear program to full inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Supreme Leader Khamenei, however, never changed his stripes. His supposed anti-nuclear fatwa does not appear among those published on his website or, indeed, anywhere else. His aides explained that his call for 'heroic flexibility' endorsed a change in tactics, but not policy. Iran also continues to threaten Israel's existence. Khamenei calls the Jewish State a 'cancer' and has referred to it as 'the sinister, unclean, rabid dog of the region.' The head of Iran's armed forces, Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, left no room for doubt when he defined Iran's cause to be 'the full annihilation of Israel.' Iran's quest to arm itself with long-range missiles leaves America's Arab allies jittery. The commander of Iran's revolutionary guards bragged: 'We are able to hit all the vital interests of the enemies at any point in the region,' including American bases housing tens of thousands of American troops. Thirty-five years since Iranian radicals seized the U.S. Embassy, the Iranian message has not changed: Death to America. Death to Britain. Death to Israel. Furthermore, we cannot ignore that Iran remains the world's premier state sponsor of terrorism, providing financial and operational support to terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Iran may say it wants to negotiate with the West, but there is a difference between entering a process and seeking its fruition. If Iran can derive international legitimacy and financial reward simply by showing up and talking, why make hard compromise?" http://t.uani.com/11OCR8C

Charles Hoskinson in the Washington Examiner: "The Obama administration has taken a hard line against any new sanctions legislation in Congress while it keeps trying to negotiate a deal with Tehran that would limit Iran's nuclear ambitions. But for many lawmakers, the administration's uncompromising stance contrasts poorly with what they see as too much willingness to compromise in the talks, which were extended for a second time Monday after negotiators failed to agree on a permanent replacement for a November 2013 interim deal that was supposed to last six months. And the more President Obama is seen as willing to give in to Iran, the more support emerges for tougher sanctions. 'I'm going to be working as hard as I can to get a veto-proof majority in the Senate and the House,' Sen. Mark Kirk told the Washington Examiner. 'I'm confident that we're going to get there.' The Illinois Republican teamed up with Democrat Robert Menendez of New Jersey, outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to craft a bipartisan sanctions bill that was bottled up in the Senate by outgoing Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., at the Obama administration's request. He said that will be the basis for new legislation in the 114th Congress. Key Democrats in both chambers have joined Republicans in warning Obama that they will not accept a deal that ensures Iran will never be able to develop a nuclear weapon, and their skepticism of the administration's conduct of the talks is fueled by comments from officials in Tehran indicating U.S. negotiators have already let that goal slip away. 'For the past year, Iran has received economic relief and Congress has refrained from passing increased sanctions in a good-faith effort by the United States and our allies to enhance the chance of a diplomatic solution. What was clear to many of us before should now be clear to everyone: Iran is not negotiating in good faith. We need tougher sanctions to empower tougher diplomacy against a regime intent on building nuclear weapons that would threaten the United States, destabilize the region and pose an existential threat to Israel,' said Rep. Gary Peters of Michigan, the only new Democratic senator elected in November as Republicans captured the majority in that chamber. In response, the White House has dug in, reminding lawmakers that sanctions could cause the talks to collapse, an outcome many supporters of new sanctions are willing to risk. 'We continue to believe that adding on sanctions while negotiations are ongoing would be counterproductive,' White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday after the new extension was announced. Obama 'has become a prisoner of his own arguments against critics of the interim deal. The administration has called these critics warmongers from the start. As is becoming apparent now that talks will be extended, the White House will have us believe that the only alternative to the current framework is war,' wrote Emanuele Ottolenghi and Saeed Ghasseminejad of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies on Wednesday. Observers and lawmakers say the administration's approach toward its congressional critics has increased both their skepticism of its negotiating strategy and the chance of new sanctions legislation being enacted by a veto-proof majority. 'What the administration has to worry about is a situation in which Democratic senators give up on the administration, not so much giving up on Iran but losing confidence in the administration's ability to negotiate well or to handle them well,' said Edward Levine, national advisory board member of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. If the administration wants Democrats to help kill a sanctions bill it opposes, officials need to work with them to craft sanctions legislation it can live with, and show that it's willing to make a deal with Congress, he said. 'I would think there would be some pressure to talk, to explore possibilities for useful legislation,' he said." http://t.uani.com/1wk5LuS
    

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.

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