|
|
Join UANI
Top Stories
Press TV (Iran):
"A senior Iranian official has warned that Tehran will increase the
number of its uranium enrichment centrifuges should the United States
introduce further sanctions against the Islamic Republic over its civilian
nuclear activities. 'Naturally, it is a source of concern for everyone. It
is a return to a situation from which no one is going to benefit. Iran will
certainly go ahead with its nuclear program [in case of new US sanctions].
We are going to install more centrifuges,' Hamid Baeidinejad, the director
general for political and international security affairs at Iran's Foreign
Ministry, told a news conference at the Iranian embassy in the Russian
capital, Moscow, on Wednesday." http://t.uani.com/1zUzYDd
Press TV (Iran):
"A senior Iranian commander has dismissed as 'meddlesome' the recent
US claims that Tehran's defense might would be part of the nuclear talks
with six world powers, saying Iran's missile capability is non-negotiable.
'Iran's missile programs and defense capability, irrespective of their
purpose, are not negotiable in any foreign circle,' Deputy Chief of Staff
of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri said on
Wednesday. 'We don't allow the US and others to interfere in the country's
defense affairs,' he added... 'Gone are the days when the US was a
superpower, but some still haven't realized it,' he said." http://t.uani.com/1ujlnhW
ICHRI:
"An IRGC cyberspace specialist, Mostafa Alizadeh, announced in a
statement on Iranian state television on February 1, that 12 Iranian
Facebook users have been arrested on charges of 'spreading corruption, and
[carrying out a] mission to change family lifestyles.' He added that 24
other citizens were summoned to answer questions about their Facebook
activities. Alizadeh said that since September 2014, the IRGC has
intensified its review of Facebook pages, and that 350 Facebook pages
managed by 36 individuals had been identified and 130 of them deleted from
Facebook. The IRGC cyberspace specialist threatened citizens who are
members of Facebook by saying that the IRGC was monitoring all social
networks, 'and those who think this space is safe for them, must cease
their activities.'" http://t.uani.com/18UbsWM
Nuclear Program & Negotiations
WSJ:
"In the chamber of Iran's parliament recently, consternation mounted
quickly over what hard-liners saw as a grave development: The foreign minister
had taken a private stroll through a Geneva garden with his American
counterpart, John Kerry, during a break in nuclear negotiations. Critics of
the urbane Javad Zarif, a fluent English speaker, demanded last week that
he appear before the legislature to recount what he had discussed with the
U.S. secretary of state in mid-January. 'Our nation can never tolerate
this!' thundered lawmaker Ali Taheri from the main rostrum to what appeared
to be a largely unfazed crowd of legislators going about other business. In
a hall outside the chamber, another turbaned hard-liner Hamid Rasaee who
belongs to what is known as the 'steadfast' or 'resistance' front,
unleashed a tirade about the tête-à-tête before television cameras from the
national broadcasting channel. 'It's a big mistake to have any relationship
with the U.S.,' he railed. As sanctions hawks in the U.S. Congress butt
heads with President Barack Obama over negotiations with Iran, a similar
battle on the Iranian side has been playing out between President Hasan
Rouhani, who has staked his political future on cutting a deal with the
West, and his ultra-hard-line opponents." http://t.uani.com/1zftV52
Sanctions Relief
Press TV (Iran):
"A Moscow-based subsidiary of Iran's state-run Bank Melli is
facilitating money transfer between Iran and Russia, which are both slapped
with US sanctions, Iran's ambassador to Russia says. 'Following measures
undertaken by Bank Melli of the Islamic Republic of Iran, transfer of money
between Iran and Russia through Mir Business Bank in Moscow and the foreign
exchange section of Bank Melli in Tehran is possible at any level,' Mehdi
Sanaei said in a meeting with a group of Iranian manufacturers based in the
Russian capital. He said the previous obstacles like high tariffs on
exports, money transfer restrictions and visa problems have been largely
overcome." http://t.uani.com/1LRCnS9
Terrorism
AFP:
"Uruguay has expelled a senior Iranian diplomat over last month's
planting of a dummy bomb near Israel's embassy in Montevideo, Israeli daily
Haaretz reported on Friday. Citing an unidentified 'senior official in
Jerusalem', it said the diplomat was expelled two weeks ago and although
Uruguayan officials briefed Israel on the move they made no public
announcement. 'Investigations carried out by Uruguay's intelligence
services after the discovery of the device yielded information pointing to
a possible involvement of someone at the Iranian embassy,' Haaretz's diplomatic
correspondent wrote. 'The Uruguayan government turned to Iran's government
for information and after consultations between the two, it was decided to
expel one of the senior diplomats at Iran's embassy.' ... On January 8,
Montevideo bomb squad officers detonated what turned out to be a fake bomb
near the Israeli embassy, located in the World Trade Centre office complex
in the city. The convincing-looking fake -- complete with fuse, detonator
and other elements found in a real bomb -- was detected some 70 metres (230
feet) from the building by bomb-sniffing dogs. After destroying the device,
bomb brigade Lieutenant Colonel Alfredo Larramendi told reporters that it
'never posed any danger' but might have been part of a dress rehearsal for
the real thing." http://t.uani.com/1LUjSws
Domestic Politics
IranWire:
"The judiciary's cultural deputy, Hadi Sadeqi, defended male polygamy
in the name of sharia law at a news conference in early February. 'No law
can veto the recommendations of sharia law and no law can prevent polygamy
because it would go against the Koran,' said Sadeqi. Under Iranian law,
Muslim men can practice polygyny - having between two and four wives - but
women are forbidden from engaging in polyandry, when a woman has multiple
husbands... Iranian marriage law traditionally favors the husband. In cases
where women want a divorce but the men do not, a wife must legally prove
that her husband is either abusive, suffers from psychological problems or
is somehow unable to uphold his marriage responsibilities. 'Nobody should
renounce polygamy for men,' added Hadi Sadeqi. 'The Koran says men should
be fair in this regard. This is where the law comes into question - to
ensure that husbands treat their wives honorably.'" http://t.uani.com/1CAXXHZ
Foreign Affairs
NBC:
"A global cartoon competition based on the theme of Holocaust denial
was launched in Iran Thursday in response to the Charlie Hebdo magazine
cover that featured a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad, the official news
agency Fars reported. Organized by Tehran-based House of Cartoons and
the Sarcheshmeh Cultural Complex, the contest sets out questions for
entrants to address in their artwork, including: 'If the West says that
freedom of speech has no borders then why don't they let historians and
experts properly research the Holocaust?' and 'Why should the Palestinian
people pay for the Holocaust?' All cartoons must be submitted by April
Fools' Day because 'April 1 is the day of big lies, and the Holocaust is a
big lie that the Zionists invented to suppress the Palestinians,' said
Masoud Shojaei-Tabatabaii, head of House of Cartoons and one of the
competition's organizers. .. It is the second such competition of its kind.
In 2006, there were violent protests outside the Danish embassy in Tehran
in response to a Danish newspaper depicting the Prophet Muhammad. In
response, Iran launched its first holocaust denial cartoon contest and a
holocaust denial conference that was attended by American ex-Ku Klux Klan
leader David Duke and many neo-Nazis. Fars said the winner will receive a
cash prize of $12,000, the runner-up $8,000 and third place $5,000." http://t.uani.com/1LUsjaY
Opinion &
Analysis
WashPost Editorial:
"As the Obama administration pushes to complete a nuclear accord with
Iran, numerous members of Congress, former secretaries of state and
officials of allied governments are expressing concern about the contours
of the emerging deal. Though we have long supported negotiations with Iran
as well as the interim agreement the United States and its allies struck
with Tehran, we share several of those concerns and believe they deserve
more debate now - before negotiators present the world with a fait
accompli. The problems raised by authorities ranging from Henry Kissinger,
the country's most senior former secretary of state, to Sen. Timothy M.
Kaine, Virginia's junior Democratic senator, can be summed up in three
points:
- First, a
process that began with the goal of eliminating Iran's potential to
produce nuclear weapons has evolved into a plan to tolerate and
restrict that capability.
- Second, in
the course of the negotiations, the Obama administration has declined
to counter increasingly aggressive efforts by Iran to extend its
influence across the Middle East and seems ready to concede Tehran a
place as a regional power at the expense of Israel and other U.S.
allies.
- Finally, the
Obama administration is signaling that it will seek to implement any
deal it strikes with Iran - including the suspension of sanctions that
were originally imposed by Congress - without seeking a vote by either
chamber. Instead, an accord that would have far-reaching implications
for nuclear proliferation and U.S. national security would be imposed
unilaterally by a president with less than two years left in his term.
The first and broadest of these problems was outlined by Mr.
Kissinger in recent testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee. The
talks, he pointed out, began as a multilateral effort headed by the
European Union and backed by six U.N. Security Council resolutions intended
'to deny Iran the capability to develop a military nuclear option.' Though
formally the multilateral talks continue, 'these negotiations have now
become an essentially bilateral negotiation' between the United States and
Iran 'over the scope of that [nuclear] capability, not its existence,' Mr.
Kissinger said. Where it once aimed to eliminate Iran's ability to enrich
uranium, the administration now appears ready to accept an infrastructure
of thousands of Iranian centrifuges. It says its goal is to limit and
monitor that industrial base so that Iran could not produce the material
for a warhead in less than a year. As several senators pointed out during
the hearing, the prospective deal would leave Iran as a nuclear threshold
state, while theoretically giving the world time to respond if Tehran chose
to build a weapon. Even these limited restrictions would remain in force
for only a specified number of years, after which Iran would be free to
expand its production of potential bomb materials. Mr. Kissinger said such
an arrangement would very likely prompt other countries in the region, such
as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey, to match Iran's threshold capability.
'The impact... will be to transform the negotiations from preventing
proliferation to managing it,' he said. 'We will live in a proliferated
world in which everybody - even if that agreement is maintained - will be
very close to the trigger point.' A related problem is whether Iran could
be prevented from cheating on any arrangement and acquiring a bomb by
stealth. Mr. Kaine pointed out that an attempt by the United States to
negotiate the end of North Korea's nuclear program failed after the regime
covertly expanded its facilities. With Iran, said Mr. Kaine, 'a nation that
has proven to be very untrustworthy... the end result is more likely to be
a North Korean situation' if existing infrastructure is not
dismantled." http://t.uani.com/1C0LtUw
David Ignatius in
WashPost: "Niccolo Machiavelli, perhaps the shrewdest
political philosopher in history, believed that great events were shaped by
luck - or 'fortuna,' as he called this unpredictable force of life. The
same actions might produce success or failure, depending on the whims of
the goddess Fortuna. You wouldn't know it by listening to gloomy
commentators, but the United States has been extremely lucky of late. Its
inherent economic strength has become more obvious. Meanwhile, its
adversaries have suffered reversals - some of their own making, others
because of bad luck. With this advantageous position, the United States can
afford to think like a superpower. It shouldn't rush to make concessions to
weaker nations or to gain agreements that aren't fully ripe, as may be the
case with nuclear talks with Iran. It shouldn't be shy about helping its
friends or making its adversaries pay for their reckless behavior, as in
dealing with Russia's aggression in Ukraine... Powerful countries such as
the United States have the wind at their back. They don't need to rush
things in the clamor of partisan politics and 24-hour news cycles. That's
why I hope the Obama administration won't make too many concessions to Iran
in its eagerness to reach a nuclear deal. If the Iranians are truly ready
to turn away from confrontation and verifiably unplug their nuclear
program, fine. If not, let's wait. In a world of low oil prices and an
Iranian population desperate to end its isolation, time doesn't favor the
Iranian hard-liners... Fortune blesses strong nations, but only when they
act with resolve. Squandering America's real advantage to gain short-term
diplomatic success would be a big mistake." http://t.uani.com/1yQnVAO
UANI Outreach
Coordinator Bob Feferman in Algemeiner: "These days,
the news is full of rumors about a dangerous development in the
negotiations between the P5+1 and Iran. There is deep concern that instead
of being forced to significantly dismantle its nuclear program, Iran will
be left as a threshold nuclear state and gain relief from sanctions. These
fears are reminiscent of the days following the signing of the Munich
Agreement between Adolf Hitler and the leaders of France and Great Britain.
In a speech to the House of Commons on October 5, 1938, Sir Winston
Churchill warned, 'All these calamites fell upon us because of evil
counsel... when they had done the most evil, then was peace made with
them.' That Churchillian warning certainly applies to modern-day Iran. It
is time to realize that if the international community continues to allow
Iran to support terrorism and seek regional dominance while remaining a
nuclear threshold state, we will have made a historic mistake that will
have grave consequences. Since 2008, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) has
made the case that Iran is already a major threat to world peace, and that
a nuclear-armed Iran would feel emboldened to do even worse. In fact,
Iran's support for terrorism and its quest for hegemony raises the question
why any responsible government would do business with this brutal and
dangerous regime. The recent takeover of Yemen by Iranian-backed Houthi
rebels is just one more example of the rapid expansion of Tehran's power.
With the exception of tough sanctions from the United States and Canada,
and the more recent European oil embargo, an indifferent world has remained
silent on Iran's sponsorship of terrorism. Hundreds of major multinational
companies continue to do business as usual with Iran, thereby sending the
message that Iran can literally get away with murder. Iran has received
that message loud and clear. Through its partnership with its Lebanese
proxy Hezbollah, and the support provided to terrorist groups like Hamas,
the Iranian regime is responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians
in terrorist attacks in Beirut, Buenos Aires, Iraq, Europe, Israel,
and elsewhere. Since the outbreak of the popular uprising against the
brutal dictatorship of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, more than 200,000 Syrians
have died, and two million have become refugees. This has happened for two
primary reasons: Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah. For three years, Iran has
provided massive financial support, weapons, and thousands of fighters to
keep Assad's brutal dictator in power. As a result, the Assad regime has
committed crimes against humanity with impunity. All this has happened
while an indifferent world remains silent." http://t.uani.com/1C4WCWY
|
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment