Friday, December 12, 2014

Eye on Iran: Must-pass Bill Gives Congress Unprecedented Iran Oversight








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Times of Israel: "A must-pass spending bill released late Tuesday night seeks to establish unprecedented levels of congressional oversight over Iran's compliance with the terms of the Joint Plan of Action, the temporary agreement reached between the P5+1 world powers and Tehran in November 2013. The Omnibus Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2015 will keep the US government funded through September. Although support for the $ 1.1 trillion bill is split in both the Republican and Democratic caucuses, members of both parties have said that they hope to pass the legislation to avoid an impending government shutdown... The bill contains a rider - a non-budgetary clause - that requires the administration to report to Congress every 30 days regarding Iran's compliance with the terms of the interim plan as well as offer an assessment of the state of Iran's nuclear program... The wording requires the secretary of state to submit the monthly report to the appropriate congressional committees, starting from 30 days after the omnibus legislation is passed. It specifies that even if a 'successor' agreement is reached with Iran, the reporting must continue until the end of the fiscal year." http://t.uani.com/1GtRJa4

Reuters: "The U.N. atomic watchdog dismissed on Thursday an Iranian offer of access to a region where explosives experiments of possible use in nuclear weapons development may have taken place, saying this did not address its concerns. Iran told a board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency last month it would let IAEA inspectors visit the western Marivan area to prove that suspicions it had carried out atomic bomb research were wrong and baseless. However, the IAEA's main priority for its long-stalled investigation into Iran's nuclear program has been to go to another location, the Parchin military base southeast of Tehran, where the Vienna-based agency says other nuclear-related explosives tests may have been conducted, perhaps a decade ago... The IAEA has 'explained clearly to Iran - on more than one occasion - that an offer of a visit of Marivan does not help address specific concerns related to the issue of large- scale high explosive experiments,' he said, without elaborating." http://t.uani.com/13gpak9

AFP: "The European Union confirmed Friday that talks between Iran and world powers on Tehran's nuclear programme will resume on December 17 in Geneva. The talks, first announced in a report from Iran on Thursday, will be at the level of senior officials rather than ministers, the EU's diplomatic service said. 'The political directors of the (world powers) and Iran will meet again on 17 December 2014 in Geneva for a one-day meeting to continue diplomatic efforts towards reaching a long-term, comprehensive solution,' it said in a statement." http://t.uani.com/13gt0K5

Nuclear Program & Negotiations

Reuters: "Israel will not press Washington to tighten sanctions on Iran while nuclear negotiations continue for the next six months, but will push for tough action if the talks' June deadline is not met, a senior Israeli official said on Thursday. Intelligence Ministry Director-General Yuval Wollman's remarks suggested cautious confidence Washington will stick to demands that Iran curb its atomic work, although any deal is unlikely to meet Israel's original call that Tehran's nuclear program be dismantled... 'Within the framework of the extended talks, we think what is right is a steady and strong sanctions regime,' Wollman told Reuters in an interview. 'We are not dealing with additional sanctions now. I know of no (Israeli) position calling for that, officially or unofficially.'" http://t.uani.com/1yGGKWs 
   
Sanctions Relief

Reuters: "China's state-run oil trader, Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp, has renewed a pact with National Iranian Oil Company to buy the same volume of Iranian crude supplies in 2015 as it did this year, two industry officials with direct knowledge of the deal said on Friday. Zhuhai Zhenrong will lift a total of 12 million tonnes, or about 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian crude, next year. 'We have finalised the numbers, no change from this year,' said one Chinese trading official, who asked not to be identified as the official is not authorised to speak to the media. Zhenrong, an affiliate of China's defence authorities in the 1990s, acts largely as an import agent for China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, or Sinopec , whose refineries process Iranian crude. Sinopec, Asia's largest oil refiner, has a separate annual contract with NIOC for 265,000 bpd of supplies, chiefly of crude oil, but also a small amount of condensate. That will be rolled over automatically for next year under an 8-year deal struck early in 2012, said another senior trading official who also asked not to be named. China's purchases of an average of 547,000 bpd of Iranian crude in the first 10 months of the year, an increase of a third from a year earlier, make Iran the fastest growing exporter among China's top oil suppliers." http://t.uani.com/1vJ0Ugu

Sanctions Enforcement & Impact

Reuters: "Commerzbank AG's expected settlement with authorities over alleged violations of U.S. sanctions and anti-money laundering laws is likely to exceed $1 billion (636.42 million pounds) in penalties, according to a person familiar with the probes. The settlement is still being negotiated, and a deal before the end of the year is unlikely, two sources said. Margarita Thiel, a spokeswoman for Commerzbank, Germany's second-largest lender, declined to comment. Commerzbank was close to an agreement in September with U.S. prosecutors and regulators over its dealings with Iran and other countries subject to U.S. sanctions, Reuters has reported, citing sources." http://t.uani.com/1zYKqVT

Syria Conflict

RFE/RL: "Martyrdom was one of the greatest wishes of Iranian Basij member Mohammad Hassan Rasoul Khalili. In the words of his father, 'this world was like a cage to him.' Khalili, a devotee of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, finally achieved his death wish last year in Syria, when a bomb he was trying to defuse exploded. Khalili, 27, was among a number of Iranians who have joined the fight in Syria against rebels and the extremist Islamic State (IS) group. Figures are not available. Every now and then news of their deaths and large funerals pops up on Iranian news agencies and hard-line blogs that refer to them as the 'defenders of the Sayeda Zeynab shrine,' while claiming that they had traveled to Syria voluntarily. The shrine, located in the southern suburbs of Damascus, is a holy site for Shi'a around the world. But a documentary about Khalili recently posted on a hard-line Iranian website offers greater-than-usual detail about one of the Iranians who have joined the fight in Syria." http://t.uani.com/1GtR6x2

Human Rights

NYT: "The Iranian-born journalist Maziar Bahari, who was detained in Tehran in 2009 and accused of espionage for covering the postelection protests in Iran that summer, has released nearly 40 minutes of previously unseen footage he recorded during the first deadly clashes between protesters and the security forces. Mr. Bahari, whose account of his four-month detention was adapted by Jon Stewart into the docudrama 'Rosewater,' posted the footage on YouTube last week, to provide more historical context for the killing of protesters by members of Iran's Basij militia on June 15, 2009, an event that was recreated in the film... In a telephone interview this week, Mr. Bahari recalled that he was recording video that day of hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters marching through central Tehran to demand a recount when he heard shooting nearby and ran toward it... Forty-seven seconds of Mr. Bahari's graphic video of protesters being killed, the first documented deaths in the dispute over the election, was broadcast that night in a report from Tehran by Lindsey Hilsum of Britain's Channel 4 News." http://t.uani.com/1uvh64I

WashPost: "In an interview with CNN to be aired in full on Friday, the mother of detained Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian appealed to the Iranian government to release her son, directly addressing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. 'It is my intention to come to Iran. I am asking, sir, for your time to sit and discuss Jason's case,' said Mary Rezaian. 'I'm asking that you allow me the time and the guarantee that I'd be able to meet with my son and I'd be able to leave.'" http://t.uani.com/1vYQj66
IHR: "Three prisoners were hanged in the Rajaishahr Prison of Karaj (west of Tehran) yesterday 10. December, reported the Iranian media... Several Iranian news sites such as Tabnak reported about the execution of an Afghan citizen in the Rajaishahr Prison yesterday." http://t.uani.com/1so1akZ

Domestic Politics

Reuters: "Iran's parliament has passed a resolution to tax organizations overseen by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the armed forces, an unusual move by the legislature into areas dominated by the most powerful figures in the country. The parliamentary resolution was approved last week and there are still several steps before it would become law... Among the organizations that could get taxed is 'Setad Ejraiye Farmane Hazrate Emam', or the Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam, a body that reports directly to Khamenei which initially built its financial empire through systematic property confiscations. Setad was the focus of a three-part investigative series by Reuters that examined the real estate holdings and network of companies, ranging from ostrich farms to petrochemicals, controlled by the organization. The series, published in November 2013, estimated the value of Setad's companies and properties then at about $95 billion." http://t.uani.com/1wIe3NL

AFP: "Iranian authorities have arrested 12 people for syphoning off more than $4.5 billion (3.6 billion euros) from one of the country's main banks over several years, media reported Thursday. The reports come amid government vows to clamp down on corruption in a bid to revive an economy devastated by decades of international sanctions. President Hassan Rouhani warned Monday that corruption poses a threat to the Islamic republic, pinning the blame on monopolies. The suspects embezzled from the Kerman branch of Tejarat Bank from 2009 until their arrest in 2013, Shargh newspaper quoted local prosecutor Yadollah Movahed as saying. Media said most of the 130 billion rials embezzled had been retrieved and returned to the bank in Kerman, in southern Iran... Iran is considered one of the world's most corrupt places. It was ranked 136th out of 175 countries on Transparency International's corruption index for 2014." http://t.uani.com/1GtNrPX

Opinion & Analysis

Medium: "An Iranian fighter named Sayyed Hassan Entezari, who was injured and paralyzed fighting in Syria on behalf of Bashar Al Assad's government, recently sat for an interview with Mashregh News, a Website run by Tehran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. The interview, part of Tehran's propaganda campaign in support of the Syrian regime, offers rare insight into the proxy fighters' beliefs and motives. War Is Boring has translated portions of the interview from Farsi, preserving Entezari's words. We have added some clarifying details in brackets." http://t.uani.com/1z0B65s
    

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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