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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
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