Eye on Iran: New Iran Sanctions Supporters Seek Veto-Proof Bloc

Join UANI           Top Stories AP: "Congressional hawks are struggling to build a veto-proof majority for new Iran sanctions despite wide discontent among lawmakers over the lack of progress from more than a year of nuclear talks with Iran, recently extended for seven more months... Rhetoric aside, however, there has been no serious push yet in the Senate that would match a package of new sanctions approved by the House a year and a half ago. And even though Senate Republicans will be in the majority next month, there is no clarity on what is going to happen. That's because President Barack Obama has threatened to veto any new sanctions legislation while American diplomats push for an accord that would see Iran accept stricter limits on its uranium enrichment activity for a gradual easing of the international sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy. Sanctions proponents thus need 67 votes out of 100 in the Senate, and administration officials have been lobbying furiously to keep them below that threshold." http://t.uani.com/1FSTLBW AFP: "After returning empty-handed from talks in Vienna with Iran on its nuclear program, the US administration will now go on the offensive in Congress to dissuade lawmakers from passing new sanctions against Tehran and prevent a collapse of the critical international negotiations... Now, the second highest official at the State Department, Acting Deputy Secretary Wendy Sherman, will go Thursday before leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives for a closed door briefing. Most favor tightening the screws on Tehran, which insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only and is desperate for relief from Western economic sanctions. Washington and its allies fear Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons. To these lawmakers, 'we will make a very strong case to them why now is not the time for new sanctions,' deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters Wednesday... A draft calling for new sanctions has been sitting idle in the Senate for a year. It has the backing of 60 of the 100 members, but has been blocked by the White House. It would present Iran with an ultimatum: if no definitive accord is reached in the next few months, Congress would automatically slap new economic sanctions on strategic sectors of Iran's economy. One of its sponsors, hawkish Democrat Robert Mendendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a stern warning Wednesday. 'At the end of the day, if no deal is reached by March 24, Congressional action to authorize prospective sanctions may provide the leverage we need to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons state,' he said." http://t.uani.com/1AljAaW NYT: "Iranian fighter jets struck extremist targets in Iraq recently, Iranian and American officials have confirmed, in the latest display of Tehran's new willingness to conduct military operations openly on foreign battlefields rather than covertly and through proxies. The shift stems in part from Iran's deepening military role in Iraq in the war against the Sunni extremists of the Islamic State. But it also reflects a profound change in Iran's strategy, stepping from the shadows into a more overt use of hard power as it promotes Shiite influence around the region... For months, Iran has flashed its military prowess around the region. It has offered weapons to the Lebanese Army and supported the Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen who have taken over the capital, Sana, where a car bomb struck the Iranian ambassador's residence on Wednesday... In Syria, Hezbollah, the Iranian-supported Shiite militant movement, and the Iranian paramilitary Al Quds force, have kept President Bashar al-Assad in power. And in Iraq, Iran's once-elusive spymaster, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the commander of the Quds force who has spent a career in the shadows orchestrating terrorist attacks - including some that killed American soldiers in Iraq - has emerged as a public figure, with pictures of him on Iraq's battlefields popping up on social media. The apparent shift in Iran's strategy has been most noticeable in Iraq, where even American officials acknowledge the decisive role of Iranian-backed militias, particularly in protecting Baghdad from an assault by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, but also working with the American-led air campaign. While Iran's increasingly public military role has proved essential in repelling the advances of the Islamic State, American officials worry that it could ultimately destabilize Iraq by deepening sectarian divisions... Ali Khedery, a former American official in Iraq, said, 'For the Iranians, really, the gloves are off.' Of the growing regional role of General Suleimani, Mr. Khedery was blunt. 'Suleimani is the leader of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen,' he said. 'Iraq is not sovereign. It is led by Suleimani, and his boss, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei' - Iran's supreme leader." http://t.uani.com/1Alo69n     Nuclear Program & Negotiations Reuters: "Iran will refrain from expanding its testing of more efficient models of the machine used to refine uranium under an extended nuclear agreement with six world powers, according to U.S. experts with knowledge of the issue. Iran's development of advanced centrifuges is sensitive because, if successful, it could enable it to produce potential nuclear bomb material at a rate several times that of the decades-old version now in use... An interim accord last year between Iran and the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia said Tehran could continue its 'current enrichment R&D (research and development) practices', implying they should not be stepped up. But a U.N. atomic agency report in November said Iran had intermittently been feeding one of several new models under development with uranium gas, prompting a debate among analysts whether this may have been a deal violation. Iran said there was no breach and that it would continue with its centrifuge research. In what may be an attempt to clarify the issue and close any potential loopholes, a U.S. think-tank said Iran would effectively be prevented from 'moving to the next level of development' of its new centrifuges, under a seven-month extension of the preliminary deal agreed last week." http://t.uani.com/1yqcX82 Al-Monitor: "With the decision last week to extend the Iran nuclear deal talks for another seven months, some key members of the US negotiating team, including the State Department's deputy sanctions chief Richard Nephew, are moving on. But Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman will stay on as the lead US Iran negotiator, and US officials said some attrition on the team is normal given the grueling nature of the negotiations, which have been underway mostly in Europe for over the past year, and have now been extended until June 30, 2015. 'Our negotiating team has changed over time and will likely continue to do so given the grueling nature of it and the rhythm of people's lives and other work commitments,' State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf told Al-Monitor Dec. 3. 'None of those changes have affected the policy or way forward - that continues at the direction of President Obama and Secretary Kerry, no matter who is on the team.'" http://t.uani.com/1yqhHL2 AFP: "A 900-kilometre (560 mile) railway through Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Iran was launched Wednesday, in what leaders hailed as a historic event linking Central Asia to the trade routes of the Persian Gulf. The route, whose construction was agreed in 2007 and which reportedly had cost about two billion dollars, permits train service from Kazakhstan's city of Uzen through Turkmenistan to Iran's Gorgan... 'This railway is a means to bring together the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, Asian countries, China, Russia, Turkey and Europe,' Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said." http://t.uani.com/1vlNiHK Sanctions Enforcement & Impact AP: "The owner of a Pennsylvania company that makes steel-processing equipment has been sentenced to 12 months on probation under a plea deal for conspiring to illegally sell an $800,000 machine to an Iranian firm. Helmut Oertmann is CEO and owner of Hetran Inc., of Orwigsburg. U.S District Court Judge Yvette Kane sentenced him Wednesday. Prosecutors say Oertmann falsified paperwork to get around a U.S. trade embargo and deliver a machine to be used in Iran for the production of high-grade steel." http://t.uani.com/1vrnOhl Congressional Sanctions Debate Washington Examiner: "Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez has amped up his push for new sanctions on Iran - and rekindled a long standing tiff with the Obama administration over how best to rein in the Middle East country's nuclear program. The New Jersey Democrat on Wednesday suggested the administration hasn't taken a strong enough stance with Iran during ongoing multi-nation negotiations to dismantle Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program, a move he says threatens to undermine the U.S. bargaining position... 'While they have maximized their demands at the negotiating table, we have minimized ours, with no consequences,' he said. 'This is a worst-case scenario ... and could leave Iran as a nuclear threshold state.' Menendez has proposed attaching an Iran sanctions amendment to a defense authorization bill that the Senate is scheduled to take up this month... Committee witness Gary Samore of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government said the P5+1 shouldn't make any new offers until Iran shows that they're serious about coming to an agreement. He added that it's important for the U.S. and its allies begin preparing for a resumption of sanctions as early as March, if no agreement is reached. 'We need to try to position ourself so that Iran is responsible for breaking out of the negotiations instead of ourselves,' he said." http://t.uani.com/1vQnBmi Washington Examiner: "The top Senate Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee said any effort by the Obama administration to convince lawmakers not to impose new sanctions on Iran is a 'non-starter.' Sen. Bob Menendez, the outgoing Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, says time has run out for negotiations to roll back Iran's nuclear program. The New Jersey Democrat pledged to try to move a bill imposing new sanctions on Tehran as soon as possible. He, along with a bipartisan group of lawmakers, is concerned that Iran is stretching out the talks to advance its efforts to build a nuclear weapon. While Menendez welcomes input from the White House in crafting the bill, he said he would not entertain any administration arguments against new sanctions. 'We're happy to work with the administration if they are willing to consider a calibrated sanctions bill, but if the answer is no to anything except these negotiations that have gone on for a year without much progress, then that's a non-starter for me,' he told the Washington Examiner. 'I do think that prospective, calibrated sanctions are important to try to hopefully achieve the final goal,' he added." http://t.uani.com/1yVfneJ Iraq Crisis AFP: "US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday welcomed any Iranian military action against Islamic State jihadists in Iraq as 'positive' after the Pentagon said Tehran had carried out air strikes against the group... He denied there was any military coordination with Iran, after the Pentagon said earlier that Iranian F-4 Phantom jets -- acquired from the United States before the 1979 Islamic revolution -- had deployed against IS fighters in eastern Iraq's Diyala province. But he suggested there is an understanding between mainly Shia Iran and the United States to tackle a common threat. 'If Iran is taking on (IS) in some particular place... and it has an impact, then it's going to be net effect (that) is positive,' Kerry told a press conference after the meeting. In Washington, US defence officials said the Iranian air raids were part of a pattern in which Iranian or American military advisers have carved out separate spheres in Iraq... 'There's a tacit understanding we're not going to operate in the same space. And they're not targeting American forces,' the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP." http://t.uani.com/1vlN2IN WSJ: "Iran has played an important role in Iraqi politics since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003-sometimes by working at odds with Washington, and at other times with Washington's tacit encouragement. During the nearly decadelong U.S. occupation of Iraq, Iran actively worked to destabilize its neighbor through proxy militias and puppet political parties. Shiite-dominated militias such as the Badr Corps-which was founded in Iran during the country's war with Iraq in the 1980s-attacked U.S. troops as well as the country's Sunni minority, which cooperated with Sunni jihadist groups such as al Qaeda and remnants of the fallen regime of Saddam Hussein. As the U.S. withdrew, the Badr Corps transformed itself into a political party known as the Badr Organization, a group whose loyalists populate important positions throughout the security services. After Islamic State began its aggressive campaign to seize territory in June, a Badr leader was elected to the powerful post of Interior Minister, giving Iran a direct channel of influence into Iraq's fight against Islamic State. Beyond Badr, Iran also enjoys considerable influence through its funding of smaller militias that have played essential roles in the latest fight against Islamic State. While U.S. officials say they don't coordinate directly with Iran, Iranian-backed groups have often picked up where U.S. airstrikes have left off. That is mostly because Iraq's U.S.-trained military remains incapable of challenging Islamic State on its own." http://t.uani.com/1Bh2her Human Rights WashPost: "Iran's detention of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian has been extended for up to an additional 60 days, according to his family. Hopes that Rezaian, who has been held without charge at Tehran's Evin prison for 134 days, might be released soon were bolstered at the end of October, when a senior Iranian official said in an interview that possible charges under review by the judiciary might be dismissed. Instead, his family said, Rezaian was shown a document last week signed by the judge in charge of his case that authorized the extension. The document, dated Nov. 18, said the investigation against him was ongoing... 'We have never had a clear view of why Jason is being held, how long he would be held, what might lead to his release, or when. We still don't,' said Post Executive Editor Martin Baron. 'The key thing to remember is that he should never have been arrested and imprisoned in the first place, and he should be released immediately. There was no legitimate reason for him to be held without charges or explanation for more than four months. We again urge the Iranian authorities to give him his freedom and allow him to reunite with his family.'" http://t.uani.com/1pXSJAR Domestic Politics Bloomberg: "Iran is basing next year's budget on an average oil price of $70 a barrel, the head of parliament's planning and budget commission said. 'The government is trying to devise the budget based on $70 a barrel for oil," Gholamreza Tajgardoon told the Islamic Students News Agency yesterday. The government had assumed $100 a barrel in the budget for the current Iranian year, which ends on March 19, and will have to 'limit spending' to stay within its framework, he said... The Iranian government also plans to adjust the official exchange rate to 28,500 rials per dollar from the current 26,500 rials, Tajgardoon said. On the unregulated market, the dollar trades at about 33,730 rials, according to Fars news agency." http://t.uani.com/1Bh16M2      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.