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Fars (Iran):
"Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said her
country would not stand against a potential extension of the nuclear
talks with the world powers beyond the July 1 deadline if the need
arises. 'We have said that if the path of drafting the text and reaching
a possible agreement requires prolonging the talks, we won't have any
problem and will be ready to do it,' Afkham told reporters in her weekly
press conference in Tehran on Wednesday. 'Progress will show how the
trend of talks and drafting of the text has been. If the trend of affairs
leads to the point that makes the talks longer than the end of June, this
needs to be done. The main job and the comprehensive agreement... is much
more important than the timetable that many emphasize, and the important
point is reaching a good agreement,' she added." http://t.uani.com/1EXEdtQ
Reuters:
"Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday
Tehran would not accept 'unreasonable demands' by world powers during
negotiations over its disputed nuclear program, and ruled out letting
inspectors interview its atomic scientists. The comments, broadcast live
on state TV, were the latest in a series of forthright statements on
inspections in the countdown to a June 30 deadline to resolve a decade-old
standoff over Iran's nuclear work. 'We will never yield to pressure ...
We will not accept unreasonable demands ... Iran will not give access to
its (nuclear) scientists,' Khamenei said. 'We will not allow the privacy
of our nuclear scientists or any other important issue to be violated.'
Khamenei, who has the final say for Iran on any deal, last month ruled
out any 'extraordinary supervision measures' over nuclear activities and
said military sites could not be inspected... 'They say we should let them
interview our nuclear scientists. This means interrogation,' Khamenei
said. 'I will not let foreigners talk to our scientists and to
interrogate our dear children ... who brought us this extensive
(nuclear)knowledge.'" http://t.uani.com/1JzReAj
Bloomberg:
"An Iranian aid ship headed toward Yemen and flanked by two warships
will stop at Djibouti for international inspection, diminishing the risk
of a showdown with the Saudi-led military coalition blockading Yemeni
ports. The vessel will be inspected by the United Nations at Djibouti,
less than 20 miles across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen, Fars news agency
reported, citing its reporter on board. It will then continue its course
onto the Yemen's Red Sea port of Hodeidah as initially planned, it
said... Two Iranian warships joined up with the cargo ship late on
Monday, U.S. Army Colonel Steve Warren told reporters at the Pentagon on
Tuesday. He said the U.S. is monitoring their progress 'every step of the
way' and isn't 'overly concerned.'" http://t.uani.com/1PwV41I
Nuclear Program & Negotiations
AP:
"Experts from Iran and six world powers are launching a new round of
negotiations focused on reaching a deal that curbs Iran's nuclear
program. Diplomats said ahead of Wednesday's meeting that progress is being
made but significant gaps remain on a main document and technical annexes
ahead of an end-of-June deadline. Iran's team is led by Deputy Foreign
Minister Abbas Araghchi. EU official Helga Schmidt is heading the other
side. Senior officials from the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and
Germany may join in later." http://t.uani.com/1PWry0t
Times of Israel:
"Israel and the US have reportedly been holding preliminary and
unofficial talks over a 'compensation' package for Jerusalem that would
include the delivery of advanced weapons in exchange for the Netanyahu
government's quiet acceptance of the emerging nuclear deal with Iran. The
package could include an increase in the number of F-35 fighter jets the
US is to supply Israel, and additional batteries for Israel's
anti-missile defense systems, according to reports in both Haaretz
(Hebrew) and Yedioth Ahronoth this week. A senior Obama administration
official told Yedioth that 'the White House is willing to pay a hefty
price to get some quiet from the Israelis at this point. We are surprised
the demand has not been made.'" http://t.uani.com/1KjIFL8
Sanctions Relief
FT:
"When western sanctions prevented PSA Peugeot Citroën from supplying
cars to Iran three years ago, the French car manufacturer lost access to
its second-largest market. Until then, the company had been selling
nearly half a million vehicles in the country each year. The sale of
Peugeot branded cars remained mysteriously strong, however. Around
300,000 Peugeot branded cars were registered last year alone in Iran,
according to registration data and a person close to the company, as
partners which had once constructed the cars locally from Peugeot kits
appeared to source components from elsewhere... Peugeot last month signed
a non-binding agreement with Iran Khodro for a 50:50 joint venture to
produce cars together as soon as possible, people close to the French
group have revealed... Elsewhere in the car market, Renault has already
started a low-level supply of car kits to Iran, in compliance with
certain recently relaxed sanctions." http://t.uani.com/1FnSFP9
Reuters:
"Iranian trade negotiators have become more assertive with Indian
counterparts as hopes rise of international sanctions on Tehran easing
later this year, sources said, and Indian companies fear they may lose
business as more countries bid for projects. The push back from the
Iranians came as a surprise to India, which has enjoyed special
dispensation from Tehran as one of only a handful of countries willing to
do business with it while it faced Western economic sanctions. Under a
tentative framework agreement reached between six major powers and Tehran
in April, Iran agreed to limit its nuclear activity in return for
sanctions relief. A final deal could be reached by June 30. That prospect
appears to have emboldened Iran, said sources familiar with trade
negotiations with India, including in its handling of a sizeable deal to
import railway tracks. The $233 million contract, signed last October,
was for India's State Trading Corp (STC) to facilitate exports of rail
tracks from SAIL Ltd and Jindal Steel and Power Ltd to Iran's railways.
But Iran told Indian negotiators that it had offers from other countries,
including Turkey, to supply the equipment at a cheaper cost, the sources
said." http://t.uani.com/1K0CaJT
Iraq Crisis
Defense One:
"Iranian-fueled rumors that the U.S. is arming the Islamic State,
or ISIS, with weapons have resulted in at least one instance where
anti-ISIS fighters fired on U.S. forces. Iran's Quds Force commander
Qassem Suleimani, the most important military leader in Iran, and a man
with tremendous influence over Iran's activities in both Iraq and Yemen,
believes the rumor fully according to a key U.S. special operations
forces commander in Iraq... The idea that the United States is
effectively arming the Islamic State is a popular rumor, particularly on
Iranian State-run media, but the extent of individuals who believe that
mistruth reaches to the highest echelons of Iranian society, according to
Crytzer. 'The Iranian Quds Force commander absolutely believes we're
supplying Daesh,' Crytzer told Defense One. 'He's not trying to play on
it. He actively believes it.'" http://t.uani.com/1c4EnIL
Syria Conflict
AFP:
"Syria's President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday praised Iran's support
as a 'key pillar' in his fight against rebels, as a third Iranian
official visited Damascus in less than a week. The visits come after
several military losses for the Syrian government and as Tehran
negotiates a key nuclear deal with the United States, which backs the
rebels fighting Assad. 'The support given by Iran to the Syrian people
constitutes a key pillar in the battle against terrorism,' official news
agency SANA quoted Assad as saying during a meeting with Ali Akbar
Velayati, foreign affairs adviser to Iran's supreme leader... Velayati
meanwhile praised the 'strategic relations' between Damascus and Tehran,
saying they 'constitute one of the essential pillars in confronting
Western projects... and the illusions... of certain regional countries.'
He said Iran would 'continue to support Syria by all means,' adding 'a
small world war is being waged against Syria,' SANA said." http://t.uani.com/1LaPonz
Human Rights
IHR:
"Five prisoners were hanged in two Iranian cities Tuesday morning
May 19, reported Iranian state media. According to the official website
of the Iranian Judiciary in Fars province (Southern Iran), one man was
hanged publicly in the city of Shiraz this morning... The website of the
'Human Rights Activists News Agency' (HRANA) reported about execution of
five prisoners in the Adelabad prison of Shiraz... These executions have
not been announced by the official sources yet." http://t.uani.com/1c4C8oE
Domestic
Politics
AFP:
"Iran can no longer sustain the billions of dollars needed to pay
cash handouts enacted by former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a top
official said Tuesday, signalling plans to halt them. Since coming to
power in 2013, Hassan Rouhani, Ahmadinejad's successor, has sought to put
Iran's economy back in order after it plunged into recession and was hit
hard by inflation. Tackling the handouts -- a partial replacement after
subsidies on staples such as electricity, gas, water and bread were cut
-- has proved politically difficult. But Ali Rabii, Rouhani's minister of
labour and social welfare, wrote in an open letter that change was needed
as the bill for the individual monthly payments of 455,000 rials (about
$15) was too high." http://t.uani.com/1FvKyRS
Opinion &
Analysis
Michael Doran in
Mosaic: "Obama has presented this deal as an effort
to solve, through entirely peaceful means, the most consequential dispute
in the Middle East. At the same time, he is signaling that his Iran
gambit heralds much more than that. It is nothing less than the birth of
a new vision of the American role in the world-an antidote to the
military approach that allegedly characterized our foreign policy for
decades. This vision, however, is a fiction. Just as Robert Gates could
see clearly in February 2011 that ousting Mubarak would deliver chaos and
not democracy, it is clear to sober observers on all sides that the
agreement with Tehran will fail to establish the elementary conditions
for preventing the regime's development of a nuclear bomb. Yet most
people still do not appear to regard the president as either the cause of
this disaster or as the solution to it. Will they ever? The emerging deal
with Iran has three obvious defects that will be impossible to solve in
the final round of negotiations. First, instead of phasing out, over a
decade's time, the existing diplomatic and economic sanctions on Iran,
the deal, practically speaking, will lift the sanctions immediately.
Second, the president's assurance that sanctions will 'snap back' in the
event of Iranian misbehavior is absurd on its face. Re-imposition of
sanctions will require concerted action by the United Nations Security
Council, a body that no one has ever accused of being either speedy or
efficient. Finally, Iranian leaders have asserted, repeatedly and
explicitly, that they will never allow the United States and its partners
to conduct the kind of 'anywhere, anytime' inspections that the Obama
administration has disingenuously claimed are part of the deal; without
such a guarantee, international inspectors will be incapable of verifying
Iranian compliance. Thanks to these core deficiencies, the deal will
enable the Iranians to pocket enormous benefits-diplomatic, economic, and
military-up front. And once they have enriched themselves by playing
nice, there will be nothing to prevent them from beginning to cheat
again. Does the president believe otherwise? If so, he must assume that just
by signing the deal, the Islamic Republic will be transformed into
something other and better than the aggressively hostile and repellent
regime we have come to know over the last 36 years. This is like the
legitimate businessman who assumes that his new Mafioso partner will
abandon his criminal ways once he develops a taste for honest profit.
Even if the businessman manages to get out of the deal alive, it will be
only after an arsonist's flames have engulfed his shop and he's been
fleeced of the insurance money. And yet, no matter how tortured and
implausible the president's claims may be, many respected public figures
seem willing to set aside common sense and endorse them." http://t.uani.com/1Llmthp
Leon Panetta &
Stephen Hadley in WSJ: "The United States faces a
startling array of global security threats, demanding national resolve
and the resolve of our closest allies in Europe and Asia. Iran's moves to
become a regional hegemon, Russia's aggression in Ukraine, and conflicts
driven by Islamic terrorism throughout the Middle East and North Africa
are a few of the challenges calling for steadfast commitment to American
democratic principles and military readiness. The pathway to achieving
U.S. goals also can be economic-as simple as ensuring that allies and
friends have access to secure supplies of energy. Blocking access to
these supplies is the ban on exporting U.S. crude oil that was enacted,
along with domestic price controls, after the 1973 Arab oil embargo. The
price controls ended in 1981 but the export ban lives on, though America
is awash in oil. The U.S. has broken free of its dependence on energy
from unstable sources. Only 27% of the petroleum consumed here last year
was imported, the lowest level in 30 years. Nearly half of those imports came
from Canada and Mexico. But our friends and allies, particularly in
Europe, do not enjoy the same degree of independence. The moment has come
for the U.S. to deploy its oil and gas in support of its security
interests around the world. Consider Iran. Multilateral sanctions,
including a cap on its oil exports, brought Tehran to the negotiating
table. Those sanctions would have proved hollow without the surge in
domestic U.S. crude oil production that displaced imports. Much of that
foreign oil in turn found a home in European countries, which then
reduced their imports of Iranian oil to zero. The prospect of a nuclear
agreement with Iran does not permit the U.S. to stand still. Once world
economic growth increases the demand for oil, Iran is poised to ramp up
its exports rapidly to nations whose reduced Iranian imports were
critical to the sanctions' success, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan,
Turkey, India and China. U.S. exports would help those countries
diversify their sources and avoid returning to their former level of
dependence on Iran. More critically, if negotiations fail, or if Tehran
fails to comply with its commitments, the sanctions should snap back into
place, with an even tighter embargo on Iranian oil exports. It will be
much harder to insist that other countries limit Iranian imports if the
U.S. refuses to sell them its oil... Too often foreign-policy debates in
America focus on issues such as how much military power should be
deployed to the Middle East, whether the U.S. should provide arms to the
Ukrainians, or what tougher economic sanctions should be imposed on Iran.
Ignored is a powerful, nonlethal tool: America's abundance of oil and
natural gas. The U.S. remains the great arsenal of democracy. It should
also be the great arsenal of energy." http://t.uani.com/1AeTuuK
Elliot Abrams in
CFR: "This week marks a landmark in the Islamic
Republic of Iran's crimes against that country's small Baha'i community:
Seven years ago this week the regime imprisoned seven peaceful Baha'i
leaders. What is the true nature of Iran's clerical regime? The answer is
visible in its continuing brutal treatment of this religious minority,
just 300,000 people in a nation of 70 million-less than one half of one
percent of the population. From its early days the Islamic Republic has
singled out the Baha'i for discrimination and then persecution. They are
seen as apostates from Islam, because their faith originated in Iran in
the 19th century. The existence of the Baha'i international headquarters
and shrine in Haifa, Israel have led to repeated accusations of spying
and treason. Hundreds of Baha'i were killed and thousands imprisoned in
the early decades of theocratic rule after the revolution in 1979. Baha'i
institutions were all closed in 1983; Baha'i marriages are not
recognized; Bahai's are discriminated against in employment; their holy
places have been destroyed; and Baha'i children are kept out of
universities. The UN's 'Special Rapporteur on the situation of human
rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran,' in his March 2015 report, noted
one emblematic and shameful incident: when roughly one million students
took the national math exam in 2014, a Baha'i student placed 113th in the
entire country. But he was nevertheless barred from attending a public
university... The persecution continues to increase-including since the
election of the supposed reformer Hassan Rouhani as president in 2013.
For example, there were 57 Baha'is in prison in 2011, but by January 2014
the number had reached 136 (in addition to hundreds more awaiting trial
or sentencing). The UN Special Rapporteur's report notes additional
arrests last Fall. And state-controlled media have greatly increased
their attacks on the Baha'i: instead of once every day or two in previous
years, last year attacks were running an amazing average of 400 per
month... The Baha'i have no clergy and are self-governing communities
with ad hoc leaders. The informal leadership group in Iran, the
'Yaran-i-Iran' or 'friends of Iran,' were arrested in May 2008 and sent
to Tehran's notorious Evin prison. These seven men and women remain in
prison today, seven years later. They've been charged with espionage,
cooperation with Israel, and 'spreading corruption on earth.,' among
other crimes. They were tried in closed sessions in 2010. One of the
lawyers who tried to represent them, Nobel Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi,
says there was no evidence against them-nor did they get a fair trial.
But all seven were sentenced to 20 year terms. On this seventh
anniversary of their incarceration, it's worth remembering the
viciousness and the deceit with which the Iran continues to treat its
peaceful Baha'i citizens. The truth about life in the Islamic Republic is
revealed not by the smooth diplomats it sends abroad for international
negotiations, but by the suffering of these peaceful and vulnerable
citizens." http://t.uani.com/1GpcTdp
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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