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NYT:
"President Obama and Senator Robert Menendez traded sharp words on
Thursday over whether Congress should impose new sanctions on Iran while
the administration is negotiating with Tehran about its nuclear program,
according to two people who witnessed the exchange. In the course of the
argument, which was described as tense but generally respectful, Mr.
Obama vowed to veto legislation being drafted by Mr. Menendez, Democrat
of New Jersey, and Senator Mark Kirk, Republican of Illinois, that would
impose the sanctions before the multiparty talks are set to end this
summer. Their face-off occurred behind closed doors at the Hilton in
Baltimore, where the two-day Senate Democratic Issues Conference was
taking place... According to one of the senators and another person who
was present, the president urged lawmakers to stop pursuing sanctions,
saying such a move would undermine his authority and could derail the
talks. Mr. Obama also said that such a provocative action could lead
international observers to blame the Americans, rather than the Iranians,
if the talks collapsed before the June 30 deadline. The president said he
understood the pressures that senators face from donors and others, but
he urged the lawmakers to take the long view rather than make a move for
short-term political gain, according to the senator. Mr. Menendez, who
was seated at a table in front of the podium, stood up and said he took
'personal offense.' Mr. Menendez told the president that he had worked
for more than 20 years to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions and had always
been focused on the long-term implications. Mr. Menendez also warned the
president that sanctions could not be imposed quickly if Congress waited
to act and the talks failed, according to two people who were
present." http://t.uani.com/1yrBgBJ
Reuters:
"The new chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee
said on Thursday he expected a bill addressing Iran's nuclear program to
come to the U.S. Senate floor for debate ahead of a vote in early
February, if not sooner. 'I think sometime toward the end of January or
the first part of February, you'll see something being debated on the
Senate floor,' Republican Senator Bob Corker told reporters at a retreat
for Republican lawmakers in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Corker told Reuters in
an interview on Wednesday that Republican and Democratic lawmakers were
pushing ahead with two pieces of legislation. One would impose more
sanctions on Iran if international negotiators fail to reach an agreement
by the end of June, and the other would let lawmakers weigh in on any
final agreement reached by negotiators... Corker became chairman of the
influential committee this month after sweeping election victories gave
his fellow Republicans control of the Senate. He suggested that, given Congress'
determination to be involved in the Iran issue, it would make sense for
the White House to work with lawmakers. 'We just want Congress to be able
to vote up or down,' the Tennessee senator told reporters in
Hershey." http://t.uani.com/1x9STDc
RFE/RL:
"In Iran, a weekly publication linked with Hizbullah has welcomed
the recent deadly violence in France as a blessing amid silence by
authorities and hard-liners who have been quick to call for tough action
against a daily that featured a picture of actor George Clooney on its
front page with the headline 'I Am Also Charlie.' On its front page, Ya
Lesarat al-Hossein, the official publication of Iran's Ansar-e Hizbullah
plain clothes militia, has congratulated Muslims on the January 8 attack
while claiming that that the assassination of staff and police officers
on the premises of the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris
was the enforcement of the 'legitimate punishment' of those who insult
Prophet Muhammad. 'Thousands of congratulations to the nation of
Muhammad,' the hard-line publication wrote on its front page, which
features a picture of a bouquet of pink flowers. The main headline, in
red, is a poem that expresses joy over the Paris killings and says that
the 'enemy that insulted Prophet Muhammad' was sent to the grave." http://t.uani.com/1AYmtzi
Nuclear Program & Negotiations
AFP:
"Germany's foreign minister said Thursday no more deadlines must be
missed in the Iran nuclear negotiations which had entered 'a decisive
phase.' 'We must now use the newly opened time window, we must leave
nothing undone to reach the solution that has eluded us in recent years,'
Frank-Walter Steinmeier said before the talks with Iranian Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. In a brief joint press appearance with
Zarif, Steinmeier said 'we probably share the understanding that this is
now the decisive phase of the negotiations'... Steinmeier said that 'we
have extended this transition agreement twice but we also agreed at the
last meeting that we share the common understanding that one cannot
indefinitely continue the extensions'. 'Iran's path to nuclear weapons
must end unambiguously, verifiably and permanently, and in return
sanctions must be lifted credibly and step-by-step,' Steinmeier
said." http://t.uani.com/1u97pzp
Al-Monitor:
"A new sense of urgency emerged as US and Iranian negotiators met
for a second day here to try to advance a framework for a final nuclear
accord, even as gaps remain on critical issues that still have to be
overcome for any deal to be reached... 'We are not working on a 'draft'
framework, but on the actual framework,' a diplomat at the talks, speaking
not for attribution, told Al-Monitor Jan. 15. 'I think we will know in a
few days' how much progress has been made. While the talks have been
'held in a serious and direct atmosphere, we are still far from a deal,'
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iranian journalists
Jan. 14. It's too 'soon to judge the results of the talks.' ... Both
sides sense that the political atmosphere for prolonged negotiations is
getting harder, especially in Iran and the United Sates, with the Republican
take-over of Congress this month, and low oil prices putting renewed
pressure on Iran's economy. 'We cannot prolong the negotiations
endlessly,' German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said at a
meeting with Zarif in Berlin Jan. 15. We 'must really use the newly
opened time frame.' During a subsequent meeting between European Union
foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Zarif in Brussels Jan. 15,
Zarif and Mogherini 'agreed that time cannot be wasted,' the EU readout
of their meeting said. 'Negotiations have to be brought to a conclusion
in line with the agreed time,' Mogherini said... But as yet, Iran's
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not shown he is willing to
authorize his negotiators to make the necessary compromises for a deal, former
State Department Iran adviser Suzanne Maloney said. 'I know of no one ...
who thinks this is close to a breakthrough,' Maloney told Al-Monitor Jan.
14. To date, 'it is gob-smackingly clear that Khamenei is not prepared to
compromise,' said Maloney, now with the Brookings Institution. 'Maybe
that will change, but it has not changed yet. ... And maybe he just
doesn't have the confidence or the fortitude to do it.'" http://t.uani.com/1yr75fi
Free Beacon:
"Iran is permitted to build new nuclear reactors under the existing
conditions of an interim deal with the United States meant to curb
Tehran's nuclear ambitions, a State Department official told the
Washington Free Beacon less than a day after Iran announced the
construction of two new nuclear plants. The construction of these new
nuclear plants is not prohibited under existing United Nations
restrictions or under the terms of the current interim nuclear agreement
inked in 2013 with the United States, according to the State Department
official. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced on Wednesday that
Iran has begun construction on two new light water reactor nuclear plants
in the southern Bushehr region. The announcement came as senior U.S.
officials meet with their Iranian counterparts in Geneva for another
round of talks. The State Department says that it is still reviewing the
details of Rouhani's announcement. 'We are aware of the announcement and
are reviewing the details,' said the official, who was not authorized to
speak on record. However, 'in general, the construction of light water
nuclear reactors is not prohibited by U.N. Security Council resolutions,
nor does it violate the JPOA,' the official said." http://t.uani.com/14Ixc5i
AP:
"An American official says U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will
meet with his Iranian counterpart in Paris on Friday in what will be
their second face-to-face encounter this week. The American official said
the meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif will take
place at Kerry's hotel in the French capital before he returns to
Washington. The pair spent six hours together in Geneva on Wednesday on
the eve of a new round of nuclear negotiations among Iran, the five
permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany." http://t.uani.com/1AnYZ3M
Sanctions
Relief
Reuters:
"India imported 42 percent more Iranian oil last year over 2013
levels as its refiners increased purchases to take advantage of an easing
in sanctions targeting Tehran's nuclear programme. The jump came with an
end-of-the-year boost as imports in December surged 84 percent from a
year ago to 348,400 barrels per day (bpd), the highest since March...
India - Iran's top oil customer after China - imported 276,800 bpd of oil
and condensate last year, compared with 195,600 bpd in 2013, according to
tanker arrival data obtained from trade sources and Thomson Reuters Oil
Research & Forecasts. Indian refiners bought about 39 percent more
Iranian oil in December compared with November, the data also showed...
Private-refiner Essar Oil was the biggest Indian client of Iran in 2014,
followed by Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd and Indian Oil
Corp. Iran remained the seventh-biggest oil supplier to India in 2014,
while its share in overall purchases rose to 7.3 percent last year,
compared with 5.1 percent in 2013, the data showed." http://t.uani.com/1yrDnp4
Bloomberg:
"Attempts are being made near the United Arab Emirates' coast to
disguise oil from Iran so that it can be sold to countries that are
blocked by the U.S. from purchasing such shipments, global ship insurers
said. 'In recent weeks it has become apparent that sophisticated attempts
are being made to dupe shipowners,' the London P&I Club said in a
notice on its website today. The attempts to transfer cargoes between ships
off the U.A.E.'s coast are to allow the transportation of crude to
countries that don't have a waiver to U.S. sanctions blocking the
purchase of Iranian oil, it said... The alleged attempt to disguise
cargoes was also reported by the West of England Club. The organizations
provide protection and indemnity cover to their shipowner members against
risks including oil spills. Both West of England and the London
P&I Club are members of the International Group of P&I Clubs.
Andrew Bardot, the London-based secretary and executive officer of the
International Group, also said attempts have been made to disguise
Iranian cargoes 'recently.'" http://t.uani.com/1BBY2cC
Terrorism
AFP:
"Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said his powerful Lebanese Shiite
movement has had Iranian Fateh-110 missiles that can hit the whole of
Israel since 2006, in an interview broadcast Thursday. Asked by his
interviewer from the Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen channel about the Fateh-110
missiles, which have a minimum range of 200 kilometres (125 miles),
Nasrallah said: 'We have had this kind of missile since 2006.'" http://t.uani.com/1C7CMLR
Domestic
Politics
AFP:
"Iranian reformists held their first public meeting since June 2009
on Thursday to press their political comeback and wrest back control of
the conservative-dominated parliament in next year's polls. The
conservative establishment had cracked down hard on reformists following
the disputed June 2009 re-election of hardline former president Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad... Former moderate president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and his
successor Mohammad Khatami, a reformist, helped Rouhani to secure victory
by obtaining the withdrawal of reformist candidate Mohammad Reza Aref.
Thursday's meeting was organised by the council for coordinating the
reformist front, a coalition of some 20 parties, and brought together
about 200 delegates to chart the movement's future course of action. 'Our
objective must be to wrest the majority in parliament. We have no other
choice. We must set aside differences that threaten to weaken us,' Aref
told the gathering. Rafsanjani and Khatami did not attend the meeting,
instead sending messages of support calling on moderate parties and
reformist groups to close ranks ahead of the March 2016 legislative
polls. 'I salute the meeting of reformist and moderate parties... who are
the true heirs of the thought of imam (Ayatollah Ruhollah) Khomeini,'
Rafsanjani said in his message, in reference to the late founder of the
Islamic republic." http://t.uani.com/15cI5gc
Foreign Affairs
IranWire:
"Many Iranians became familiar with the French satirical weekly
Charlie Hebdo last week, when terrorists Cherif and Said Kouachi stormed
its headquarters and killed 12 of its employees on January 7. But the
magazine has featured Iran in its pages for many decades, and even
published caricatures of two of the country's most influential leaders,
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, and Ayatollah Khomeini, the
founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Website Mohammad Mosadegh, which
was set up in dedication to Iran's prime minister who was toppled by a
CIA-backed coup in 1953, collected every Iran-related cartoon published
in Charlie Hebdo and published them, as seen below." http://t.uani.com/14Iw0i8
Opinion &
Analysis
Robert Einhorn in
TNI: "Negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program
have become hostage to sharp internal divisions within Iran. Unless
Supreme Leader Khamenei throws his weight behind the adjustments in
Iran's negotiating positions that are necessary to reach a compromise
with the P5+1 countries, there will be no agreement... While incremental
progress was made during 2014, substantial gaps remain between Iran and
the P5+1 on fundamental issues, especially Iran's permitted enrichment
capacity and the duration of the agreement. A critical U.S. goal in the
negotiations is to reduce Iran's current centrifuge enrichment capacity
to the point where it would take Iran at least one year - if it decided
to break out of the agreement - to produce enough highly enriched uranium
for a single nuclear weapon. Achieving a one-year breakout time
would require substantial cuts in both the current number of operating
centrifuges and the amount of low-enriched uranium located in Iran.
To build international confidence in Iran's peaceful intentions, the United
States believes that an agreement should have a duration of 15 to 20
years. And to deter and detect any covert nuclear activities,
Washington requires rigorous monitoring measures that go beyond the
IAEA's Additional Protocol. Iran's negotiating position is largely driven
by its declared goal of achieving an industrial-scale enrichment capacity
(more than ten times its current operational capacity), which Iranians
claim they need as soon as 2021 in order to produce fuel for the
Russian-supplied Bushehr nuclear power reactor. In support of that
goal, Iran has opposed all but token reductions in its current centrifuge
capacity, and it has called for a short-duration agreement (five to seven
years) that would allow it to ramp up its enrichment program to
industrial scale at a relatively early date. Moreover, while
agreeing to adhere to the Additional Protocol, it has resisted IAEA
access to its military installations (which is provided for in the
Additional Protocol) and has been reluctant to accept monitoring measures
that go beyond the Additional Protocol. The United States has made
substantial concessions on the enrichment issue, first moving from a ban
on enrichment to allowing a small enrichment program and later from a
small number of centrifuges to a significantly higher number. It
also agreed that once the agreement expires, Iran would be free to
proceed with its enrichment program in a manner and pace of its own
choosing. With the compromises the P5+1 are prepared to accept on the
enrichment issue, Iran would be in a strong position to pursue its civil
nuclear energy plans. It would have sufficient enrichment capacity
to produce fuel for the reactors it intends to build for research and
medical isotope production. It could extend it fuel-supply contract
with Russia beyond 2021 and continue importing fuel rods for Bushehr and
any additional power reactors it acquires. Once the comprehensive
deal expires, it would be able to increase its enrichment capacity to
industrial scale. Moreover, the P5+1 countries seem willing to cooperate
with Iran in the civil nuclear field, including in such areas as
modification of the Arak reactor, design and fueling of a new light-water
research reactor, and even in planning the construction of an
indigenously-designed Iranian power reactor. While the P5+1
proposals would lengthen Iran's preferred timeline for achieving an
industrial-scale capability, the delay would be justified by the benefits
of cooperation with the advanced nuclear powers and by the additional time
it would give Iran to master key technologies. If Tehran is truly
interested in having an advanced nuclear energy program, the compromises
offered by the P5+1 make good sense. But Iran has hardly budged on
enrichment. While it has been prepared to discuss
readily-reversible modifications of its centrifuge program that would
only slightly reduce its existing enrichment capacity, it has not been
willing to scale back its centrifuge capability sufficiently to make a
compromise possible. Given that its inefficient first-generation
centrifuges will have to be phased out before long, this refusal to
accept a reduction in existing capability seems less a reflection of
Iran's technical requirements than a reaction to domestic political
pressures not to 'retreat' in any aspect of its program." http://t.uani.com/15cOXKp
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