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Top Stories
WashPost:
"Secretary of State John F. Kerry predicted Sunday that a deal to
limit Iran's nuclear capacity could be reached in three or four months,
or even sooner... Kerry said it will become apparent, long before the new
June 30 deadline, if an agreement is feasible. 'We're not looking at
seven months,' Kerry said. 'I think the target is three, four months, and
hopefully even sooner if that is possible.' ... 'Now why are we doing
this?' Kerry asked. 'Because I believe, President Obama believes, the
administration believes that it would be the height of irresponsibility,
it would be against our own interests and those of our closest partners,
to walk away from a table when and if a peaceful resolution might really
be within reach.'" http://t.uani.com/1w6szLY
AP:
"The Obama administration is telling members of Congress it has won
significant concessions from Iran for extending nuclear talks, including
promises by the Islamic republic to allow snap inspections of its
facilities and to neutralize much of its remaining uranium stockpile.
Those terms are included in a document that U.S. officials say represents
the terms for a seven-month extension in nuclear negotiations between
world powers and Iran, agreed to when the last deadline of Nov. 24 passed
without an accord. A copy was obtained by The Associated Press... The
officials have been presenting the Iranian concessions to lawmakers in
the hopes of convincing them to support the extension and hold off on new
economic sanctions that could derail the diplomatic effort. There is no
proof Tehran has agreed to or will follow through on the steps outlined,
and negotiators representing world powers and Iran offered few specifics
on their progress when they agreed to extend negotiations until July. No
signed agreement emerged from that understanding, but administration
officials say Iran accepted important limits on its nuclear program in
the discussions last month. The officials weren't authorized to speak
publicly on the sensitive negotiations and insisted on anonymity." http://t.uani.com/1yvGutm
WashPost:
"Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post reporter who has been detained in
Iran for more than four months, was officially charged Saturday in a
day-long proceeding in a Tehran courtroom, according to a source familiar
with the case. The specifics of the charges are still unknown, at least
to those not present in the courtroom. The court appearance came two days
after word arrived in the West that Rezaian's detention has been extended
until mid-January because the investigation against him is continuing.
The charges were the first lodged since Rezaian, an Iranian American who
holds dual citizenship, was arrested July 22. His family has hired a
lawyer for him, but the attorney has not been permitted to visit him...
The proceedings appear to dash any hope that Rezaian could be freed in
the near future. It could take as long as a month for the charges to be
delivered to the full court, which would then set a trial date, the
source said." http://t.uani.com/1ytm612
Nuclear
Program & Negotiations
Reuters:
"U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Saturday there was a 'less
than even shot' of a nuclear deal with Iran but that it was still worth
pursuing. Biden, speaking at a forum on the Middle East at the Brookings
Institution think tank, rejected calls for more sanctions against Tehran
over its nuclear program because 'this is not the time to risk a
breakdown when we still have a chance for a breakthrough.' Biden said the
sanctions imposed by the United States and allies were working by slowing
Iran's economy, as well as its nuclear program. 'It's frozen the program,
it's given us a shot for a peaceful solution,' he said. 'I tell you, I
think it's a less than even shot but it's a shot, nonetheless.'" http://t.uani.com/1yHADF0
Reuters:
"Britain and other powers negotiating with Iran for a deal over its
nuclear programme, which they suspect is aimed at building a bomb, must
not make 'unwise concessions' for the sake of convenience, Foreign
Secretary Phillip Hammond said on Saturday... 'We must choose persistence
over convenience ... upholding our principle position on enrichment
rather than succumbing to the temptation to make unwise concessions to
get a deal done,' Hammond told a security conference in Bahrain...
However, Hammond added that he believed that if a nuclear deal was
concluded, it could help to reduce friction between Iran and other
countries. 'There are many bases of mistrust between Iran and its
neighbours in the Gulf, between Iran and the West, but the nuclear file
is the key element here,' he said. 'If we can resolve that in a way that
is satisfactory to Iran and satisfactory to the west, a series of things
will then happen and they'll happen quite quickly which will change the
dynamics and create an opportunity,' he added." http://t.uani.com/1yHBaac
AFP:
"Israel had a critical role in stopping a deal with Iran on reining
in its nuclear program from going ahead last month, Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday. The deal would have 'effectively
left Iran as a threshold nuclear power,' he told a Washington think-tank
in a recorded speech. 'Even though Israel isn't part of the P5+1 our
voice and our concerns played a critical role in preventing a bad deal.'
... Calling it the most 'vital national security challenge we face,'
Israel and its allies 'must use the time available to increase the
pressure on Iran to dismantle its nuclear weapons capability,' Netanyahu
said." http://t.uani.com/1zFqjvD
WSJ:
"European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has asked
Catherine Ashton, her predecessor, to stay on in the role as chief
negotiator of the six powers in nuclear talks with Iran, a spokeswoman
for Ms. Mogherini said. Ms. Ashton, who has chaired the six-power group
since 2010, will report 'regularly' to Ms. Mogherini on the talks. 'To
ensure continuity to the negotiations that require a full dedication,
Ashton will facilitate the talks and she will report regularly to the
High Representative,' the spokeswoman said. Ms. Mogherini will also
attend the nuclear negotiations when there are future talks between
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and the foreign ministers of the
six-power group." http://t.uani.com/1qk1h5d
AP:
"A Chinese man conspired to export devices that can be used in
nuclear production to Iran for what an alleged conspirator called 'a very
big project and secret one,' according to a federal indictment. Sihai
Cheng, also known as Alex Cheng, was brought to the United States Friday
after being arrested in Britain earlier this year. He is expected to make
an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Boston on Monday. In a
2013 indictment, Cheng is accused of conspiracy, illegal exporting of
U.S. goods to Iran and smuggling. Cheng allegedly established shell
companies in China to receive pressure-measuring sensors known as
'pressure transducers' from the Shanghai subsidiary of Andover,
Massachusetts-based MKS Instruments Inc., according to the
indictment." http://t.uani.com/12i4siJ
Congressional
Sanctions Debate
LAT:
"Congress' passion for sanctions against Iran has united lawmakers
of both parties and different political perspectives. But many lawmakers
seem to be having second thoughts about their vows to immediately hit
Iran with new economic penalties if Tehran's negotiators didn't agree to
curb the nation's controversial nuclear program in negotiations that
reached a one-year deadline last week. Instead, it appears that
additional penalties probably will be delayed at least four months, which
is the latest deadline for the negotiations between Iran and six world powers...
Gary Samore, a former top White House nuclear advisor, told the committee
the challenge was to devise legislation that would pressure Tehran
'without giving the Iranians an excuse to renege on the joint plan of
action and blame it on the United States, which would jeopardize our
ability to go back to a sanctions campaign.' ... Discussion in the
committee is now about 'prospective sanctions should the deal not come
together,' a Senate aide said. Those penalties would be 'down the road,'
to be 'phased in over a period of time - calibrated and measured.'" http://t.uani.com/1w6B09Z
Iraq Crisis
WSJ:
"Shiite militia leaders say their recent successes reflect their
holy warrior zeal, superior training compared with Iraqi government
troops, less corruption in the ranks and freedom from the legal,
bureaucratic and human-rights restrictions on regular Iraqi forces. But
some Sunni politicians, tribal leaders and human-rights advocates are
worried that the take-no-prisoners tactics of many militia groups are
turning them into a mirror image of the Sunni jihadists fighting on
behalf of Islamic State. Militia groups have been accused of a plethora
of human-rights violations, including mass shootings of prisoners and
Sunni civilians and the forced displacement of Sunni families on a scale
approaching ethnic cleansing. Shiite fighters boast about executing enemy
soldiers after they surrender. In Jurf al-Sakher, some Al Qara'a members
hurried out of a meeting with a reporter for The Wall Street Journal to
deliver the severed head of an Islamic State fighter to relatives of a
slain militia member before his funeral ended." http://t.uani.com/1yvJBBB
Human Rights
AFP:
"Iran's telecommunications minister has said his technicians are
developing a system to identify any Internet user in the country at the
moment of log-on, the ISNA news agency reported Saturday. 'Because of our
efforts, in future when people want to use the Internet they will be
identified, and there will be no web surfer whose identity we do not
know,' Mahmoud Vaezi said, without elaborating on how this would
technically be done. Last month, he said the Islamic republic would have
'smart filtering' within six months to weed out Internet content the
authorities deem offensive or criminal. 'The first phase of smart online
filtering will be ready within a month, a second phase within three
months and a third within six months', ISNA reported him as saying on
November 14." http://t.uani.com/1ytnD7e
Domestic
Politics
AFP:
"Iran unveiled a draft budget Sunday for next year based on oil
prices remaining around $70 per barrel, with President Hassan Rouhani
saying the country would become less dependent on crude... Rouhani
admitted the budget for the fiscal year starting in March 2015 'would be
under pressure' given the big fall in oil prices in recent months, from
above $100 to less than $70. 'Such a drop is unprecedented,' he said in a
speech to parliament carried live on state television, noting that the
government had been cautious in its forecasts. 'In the short term, we
will have a decrease in our revenues. Our economy must move towards
non-oil exports. The oil price drop is a new opportunity to accelerate
this.' ... Rouhani said oil revenues earmarked for the budget would be
$24 billion next year, down from $27.5 billion, meaning less than half
the government's income would come from exported crude... Next year's
non-oil-based revenues will constitute more than half the government's
total income, rising to 53 percent from the current 47 percent, according
to forecasts. Total spending will rise 8.5 percent." http://t.uani.com/1w6w5G5
Reuters:
"Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will hike military spending by
more than a third in the next fiscal year despite presenting a 'cautious,
tight' budget to parliament on Sunday in response to falling oil prices
and punishing sanctions arising from the country's disputed nuclear
program... The 2015 general budget will be six percent above this year's,
Rouhani said, although inflation means this will be a cut in real terms
and will tighten spending in some areas. Yet defense expenditure will
rise 33.5 percent to about 282 trillion rials, most of which will be
assigned to the elite Revolutionary Guards. The Guards' budget will
increase by about half to 174 trillion rials." http://t.uani.com/1A8ru6O
AP:
"Iranian President Hassan Rouhani criticized widening corruption in
the Islamic Republic in unusually blunt terms Monday, saying money once
'given under the table now is being given on the table.' ... Speaking at
an anti-corruption conference, Rouhani said Iranians 'should apply all
our power in fighting corruption.' 'In the past, (money) was said to be
given under the table now is being given on the table,' the president
said in comments aired live on state television. 'The continuation, the
deepening and the expansion of corruption is endangering ... the Islamic
Revolution.'" http://t.uani.com/1zikHJw
Opinion &
Analysis
UANI Outreach
Coordinator Bob Feferman in Algemeiner: "Last year,
much attention was paid to President Obama's decision not to launch
airstrikes against Bashar al-Assad's brutal dictatorship in Syria. Lost
in much of the debate over 'red lines' and global national security was
the fact that Iran has long considered Bashar al-Assad's Syria to be a
loyal client state of Tehran, providing Damascus with extensive military
and economic aid. The result? A 21st century problem from hell that will
only be solved when the international community recognizes the nefarious
role the Iranian regime has played in enabling Assad's carnage. The
recent CBS News 60 Minutes segment on Syrian refugees should have been a
wakeup call and moved citizens of the world to action. In the report, we
learned that the regime of Bashar al-Assad has resorted to a new military
tactic to subdue the popular uprising: mass starvation. As the
international community seeks to negotiate a deal with Iran over its
nuclear program, we must not give Iran a free pass on its support for
Bashar al-Assad. If we fail, we may as well admit that we have learned
nothing from history. The shocking images of starving children we saw in
the 60 Minutes report were reminiscent of the Nazi Holocaust. As CBS
reporter Scott Pelley said, 'Starvation is a weapon in the war that began
as an uprising against the dictator Bashar al Assad.' According to the
report, the situation was so bad in one Syrian city, '...The people had
eaten the dogs and the cats and were running low on leaves and grass.'
The one thing not mentioned in the CBS report is the central role that
Iran has played in the Syrian tragedy. Today, there are 200,000 dead
Syrians and millions of refugees for two reasons: Iran and Hezbollah.
Since the outbreak of the conflict, Iran has provided massive economic
and military support to assist Bashar al-Assad in the brutal repression
of the uprising. In the meantime, an indifferent world remains silent,
especially over what amount to crimes against humanity. We can't say that
we don't know what Iran has been doing in Syria. Last year, the New
Yorker published an in-depth profile of General Qassem Suleimani,
Commander of the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. In the
article, author Dexter Filkins described the pivotal role that Iran is
playing in Syria under the leadership of Suleimani. He wrote, 'Suleimani began
flying into Damascus frequently so that he could assume personal control
of the Iranian intervention. 'He's running the war himself,' an American
defense official told me. In Damascus, he is said to work out of a
heavily fortified command post in a nondescript building, where he has
installed a multinational array of officers: the heads of the Syrian
military, a Hezbollah commander, and a coördinator of Iraqi Shiite
militias, which Suleimani mobilized and brought to the fight.' The facts
are sufficient to indict Iran for its role in the murder of innocent
Syrian civilians. The question remains: what will the world do with these
facts?" http://t.uani.com/1vERnvS
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the
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email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com
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regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons. UANI is an
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