Eye on Iran: Iran's Zarif Suggests Charlie Hebdo Makes Dialogue Harder

Join UANI           Top Stories Reuters: "Iran's foreign minister said on Wednesday serious dialogue with the West would be easier if it respected Muslim sensitivities, ruffled by the latest Charlie Hebdo cartoons, as he began nuclear talks with the chief U.S. diplomat. Speaking to reporters before seeing U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Mohammad Jawad Zarif said the meeting would help gauge whether both sides were ready to advance toward a deal to curb Iran's nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief. 'I think it's important. I think it will show the readiness of the two parties to move forward and to speed up the process,' Zarif told reporters as he waited for Kerry, who arrived four minutes late for their meeting at a Geneva hotel... Zarif also sought to explain why Iranians are dismayed by the cover of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo's Jan. 14 edition, which features a cartoon of a tearful Prophet Mohammad with a sign 'Je suis Charlie' (I am Charlie) below the headline: 'Tout est pardonné' (All is forgiven)." http://t.uani.com/1CkBU4G AFP: "Iran condemned Wednesday the publication of a new cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, saying it was 'insulting' and 'provocative'. The magazine cover 'provokes the emotions of Muslims and hurts their feelings around the world, and could fan the flame of a vicious circle of extremism,' said foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham. The new issue of Charlie Hebdo follows an attack by Islamist gunmen last week at the magazine's office in Paris which killed 12 people. Iran denounced the massacre the day it occurred and Afkham said Wednesday that such attacks 'have no closeness or similarity to Islam"' and are 'in complete contradiction to Islamic teaching'. However she indicated that the new cartoon is 'abuse of freedom of speech, which is common in the West these days'. Such publication 'is not acceptable' and such 'abuse should be prevented'. 'Respecting the beliefs and values of followers of divine religions is an acceptable principle,' she added." http://t.uani.com/14zwlDX Bloomberg: "Iran is gaining momentum on the international stage after the U.S. extended relief from economic sanctions against the country until June 30 during talks over its nuclear program, Democratic Senator Bob Casey said today. 'The Iranian regime is scoring points,' said Casey of Pennsylvania, who served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for more than six years. 'They frankly look better than they did a few months ago because they've been engaged in negotiations and dialogue.' 'I worry that over time that these current sanctions have less significance,' Casey said at a Bloomberg News breakfast in Washington... The senator said he worries that some White House officials may be incorrectly sending a message that an agreement with Iran must happen now to be favorable to U.S. interests.  'I don't necessarily buy that,' Casey said. The U.S. should at least have the threat of imposing enhanced sanctions, he said." http://t.uani.com/1wc9t40     Nuclear Program & Negotiations Fars (Iran): "Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced on Tuesday that the country has started building two new nuclear power plants in the Southern province of Bushehr to increase nuclear-generated power output of the country. 'Construction of two new power plants will increase the capacity of Bushehr province's power generation to 2,000 megawatts,' President Rouhani said in a meeting with investors and economic activists in Bushehr province today." http://t.uani.com/1DFEPsq Free Beacon: "Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) warned the Obama administration on Tuesday that Congress will hold a vote on any final deal on Iran's nuclear program-and, if unable to prevent the president from lifting sanctions on Iran, would work with the next administration to re-impose them. Cotton said lawmakers aim to soon bring legislation to the floor that would impose additional sanctions on the regime in Tehran if the current negotiations collapse." http://t.uani.com/1wZZMHf Iraq Crisis CSM: "'We are looking into how to curtail the influence of Iran here,' says Iraqi Vice President Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite who served as interim prime minister after Saddam Hussein was defeated. 'They are supplying weapons to the Iraq government, so of course the influence of Iran is increasing.' ... Iran's help, however, is 'conditional' in terms of affecting Iraqi politics, 'and this will cause a lot of rifts within Iraq,' says Mr. Allawi. 'But if you step forward and help a country, without getting involved in the micro-policies, then there is no problem.'" http://t.uani.com/1APUXUG Human Rights NYT: "The Michigan family of a former Marine incarcerated for more than three years in Iran has been receiving telephone calls and emails from that country proposing prisoner swaps for Iranians held in the United States, he said in a letter to Iran's president made public by his relatives on Tuesday. The former Marine, Amir Hekmati, 31, said that he and his family had rejected the idea of such exchanges. He reiterated his contention that he is innocent and should be released. The letter also disclosed previously unpublicized details of Mr. Hekmati's confinement in Evin Prison in Tehran - including assertions of isolation in a 3-foot-by-3-foot cell for the first four months, and starvation and deception by Iranian officials - that the family had known but kept private. 'My family endured the most painful and horrific four months of their lives, wondering what became of me,' he wrote in the letter, addressed to President Hassan Rouhani of Iran." http://t.uani.com/1B14sTt Domestic Politics Guardian: ""When the world sneezes, we get cancer." In the south Tehran neighborhood of Tir Dogholoo, beauty shop owner Hojat uses this idiom to describe the Iranian economy, which has taken yet another hit in recent weeks due to a dive in global oil prices. Struggling to curb inflation and stymie the impact of international sanctions, Hassan Rouhani's government must now deal with a 50% drop in oil revenues while selling its austerity program to a grumbling and disenchanted public. 'They've made fools of us,' says Hojat. 'They're telling us to prepare for hardship, so that when it happens they can tell us don't say we didn't tell you so. Not that we're in a great situation to start with. That's what happens in a country whose government is entirely dependent on oil money.' ... 'One sees the prices climbing and starts to protest,' says Emad, 35, a doctor at a pharmacy in the Yousuf Abad neighborhood in central Tehran. 'What happened to Rouhani's promises that medicine would get cheaper and inflation would be controlled? One understands less about the sudden oil price drop and attributes everything to incompetence and theft, thinking that Rouhani is just a continuation of the previous president.' Mariam, 57, a housewife shopping for groceries at a supermarket in Karim Khan, notes that the price of pasta and oranges has increased by at least 20% in recent weeks. 'What's it to me if oil prices have gone down? They always come up with some excuse...I swear to God the situation has not changed since the Ahmadinejad era.'" http://t.uani.com/1C6DQNQ Foreign Affairs Reuters: "Muslim clerics in the Middle East who have denounced last week's attack on Charlie Hebdo criticised the French satirical weekly on Wednesday for publishing new cartoons depicting Islam's Prophet Mohammad in its first issue after the killings... In Iran, a leading conservative cleric, Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi, said the publication of new satirical images of Mohammad 'amounts to declaring war on all Muslims.'" http://t.uani.com/1wZXbNm Fars (Iran): "Commander of Iran's Basij (volunteer) Force Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi blasted the masterminds of the recent terrorist attack in Paris, and said the attack was aimed at stopping the growing tides of Islam-seeking in Europe. 'Europe which is faced with an Islam-seeking wave has no way but committing crimes in Paris under the name of Islam,' Naqdi said, addressing a forum in Tehran on Tuesday." http://t.uani.com/1ygvjcl      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.