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AP:
"U.S President Barack Obama reached out to a skeptical Israeli
public in an interview aired Monday saying that only an agreement, not
military action, can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Obama
said 'I can, I think, demonstrate, not based on any hope but on facts
and evidence and analysis, that the best way to prevent Iran from
having a nuclear weapon is a verifiable, tough agreement.' Obama's
remarks come as an end-of-June deadline for an Iranian deal is fast
approaching. 'A military solution will not fix it. Even if the United
States participates, it would temporarily slow down an Iranian nuclear
program but it will not eliminate it,' he said in excerpts from his
interview with Israeli Channel 2 TV's investigative program 'Uvda.' The
full interview will be broadcast Tuesday night." http://t.uani.com/1BHb6KO
NYT:
"With only one month left before a deadline to complete a nuclear
deal with Iran, international inspectors have reported that Tehran's
stockpile of nuclear fuel increased about 20 percent over the last 18
months of negotiations, partially undercutting the Obama
administration's contention that the Iranian program had been 'frozen'
during that period. But Western officials and experts cannot quite
figure out why. One possibility is that Iran has run into technical
problems that have kept it from converting some of its enriched uranium
into fuel rods for reactors, which would make the material essentially
unusable for weapons. Another is that it is increasing its stockpile to
give it an edge if the negotiations fail. The extent to which Iran's
stockpile has increased was documented in a report issued Friday by the
International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations organization
that monitors compliance with nuclear treaties... The overall increase
in Iran's stockpile poses a major diplomatic and political challenge
for President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry... In essence,
the administration will have to convince Congress and America's allies
that Iran will shrink its stockpile by 96 percent in a matter of months
after a deal is signed, even while it continues to produce new material
and has demonstrated little success in reducing its current
stockpile." http://t.uani.com/1AIyA7s
WSJ:
"French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said a possible nuclear
deal with Iran risks sparking a nuclear arms race in the Middle East
unless the agreement grants international inspectors access to Iranian
military sites and other secret facilities. In an interview with The
Wall Street Journal, Mr. Fabius insisted the ability to inspect such
sites be part of a final agreement with Iran to ensure Tehran doesn't
covertly try to build a nuclear weapon. The warning highlights a
persistent divide between Western negotiators and Tehran, which has
demanded Iranian military sites remain off-limits to international
inspectors. 'The best agreement, if you cannot verify it, it's
useless,' said Mr. Fabius. 'Several countries in the region would say,
OK, a paper [has been signed] but we think it is not strong enough and
therefore we ourselves have to become nuclear.' ... Mr. Fabius said if
Tehran wants to build a nuclear weapon in violation of the agreement,
it would inevitably do so at a military site or other secret facility.
'Therefore, if you say you cannot check any military site, then there
is no [real] agreement,' he said. Mr. Fabius said an accord should also
specify how much time should be allowed between the request to inspect
a site and access actually being granted to inspectors. 'If it is too
long a delay, they have enough time to change everything,' he
said." http://t.uani.com/1cvscoh
Nuclear Program & Negotiations
WSJ:
"The Obama administration Monday laid out an aggressive recovery
schedule for Secretary of State John Kerry as he returned to the U.S.
for treatment after breaking his leg over the weekend in a bicycle
accident in France. Though Mr. Kerry is likely to be sidelined for
several weeks, officials say the U.S. remains committed to a June 30
deadline in nuclear talks with Iran and that Mr. Kerry wants to advance
the diplomacy. But with Mr. Kerry's prognosis and recovery schedule
unknown, his injury could exert pressure on the timetable the Obama
administration has laid out to reach a final accord... 'Secretary
Kerry's main focus for the month of June remains squarely on the Iran
negotiations,' State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said. 'He's
committed to an aggressive, ambitious, and responsible recovery
timeline.' She added that he expects to be in the negotiating room at
the end of the month in the final days of talks to curtail Iran's
nuclear program and ease economic sanctions against Tehran... 'I don't
think you can get this deal done if at least at some point there's not
a conversation between Kerry and Zarif,' said Gary Samore, a nuclear
expert at Harvard University's Belfer Center who was the top
nonproliferation official in the first Obama White House." http://t.uani.com/1K6Vfwc
AFP:
"A nuclear deal with Iran will significantly roll back Tehran's
military capability, US Vice-President Joe Biden's national security
adviser told a conference in Qatar on Monday. Dr Colin H. Kahl,
speaking at the US-Islamic World Forum in Doha, said the current deal
being hammered out was the best on offer, despite many sceptical voices
in the US and elsewhere, including Gulf Arab states. 'Under the deal we
are negotiating... Iran's military capability will be substantially
rolled back,' said Kahl. 'The deal we are negotiating makes us and the
region safer.' ... Kahl said on Monday that 'today' it would take Iran
two-to-three months to produce enough fissile material for one bomb.
But despite criticism he said a negotiated settlement was the best
solution. 'In the absence of comprehensive agreement to deal with this
challenge and constrain Iran's programme, Iran would likely install and
begin operating tens of thousands of fissile centrifuges in the near
future,' he added." http://t.uani.com/1eN8ciP
WT:
"Members of the Iran task force, a committee of former government
officials and nuclear specialists that helps advise Congress, warned
that the nuclear deal President Obama hopes to nail down this summer
will bolster Tehran's influence in the Middle East. 'On every level,
this is a disaster,' former Sen. Joe Lieberman said in a briefing
Monday. 'What we seem to be talking about now is a serial suspension of
most of the economic sanctions in return for not the elimination or end
of the Iranian nuclear weapons program, but a kind of dialing-down
temporarily.' Former Sen. Evan Bayh seconded the analysis of the
Connecticut Democrat turned independent, but also acknowledged that the
situation is challenging for the negotiating parties. 'One of the
reasons it's so difficult is because you've got to deal with the
essential nature of the Iranian regime,' the Indiana Democrat said. 'Are
they willing to essentially change themselves? You have to be a little
skeptical about that.'" http://t.uani.com/1GVRc55
Reuters:
"Russian state arms producer Almaz-Antey said on Tuesday it would
supply Iran with the advanced S-300 missile system once a commercial
agreement is reached. The company's chief executive, Yan Novikov,
confirmed Moscow had removed restrictions on deliveries to Tehran that
were imposed under pressure from the West in 2010. He did not say when
the deliveries might go ahead or how close a deal was. 'All
restrictions have been lifted by the political authorities. When there
is a contract, we will supply the system, including to Iran,' he told a
news conference when asked whether Almaz-Antey would supply the missile
system to Iran. President Vladimir Putin signed a decree in April
ending the self-imposed ban on selling the S-300 system to Iran." http://t.uani.com/1Jhxh2a
Al-Monitor:
"On May 13, when International Atomic Energy Agency head Yukiya
Amano said that the agency expects Iran would permit inspections of
military sites as part of a comprehensive nuclear deal, conservative
Iranian media outlets reacted harshly, vowing that Iran would not allow
such a thing. On May 20, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
said that Iran would not only not allow inspections of military sites
but most importantly, would not allow the IAEA to 'interrogate' Iran's
nuclear scientists, saying the request came from a 'brazen and insolent
enemy.' The five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus
Germany (P5+1) had reportedly presented Iran a list of names of nuclear
scientists to be questioned by the IAEA. On May 26, Iranian negotiator
Seyyed Abbas Araghchi said that while Iran would accept 'managed
inspections' as part of the Additional Protocols, it had rejected the
P5+1 request to interview Iran's nuclear scientists. In an interview
with Iranian TV on May 30, Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme
National Security Council (SNSC), added a twist to the controversy when
he said that his name was 'first' on the list of those the P5+1 had
requested to interview. He added, 'It's not clear what questions they
have. There are 23 individuals and our negotiators have rejected this
request.' Up until this point, it was believed that only a request to
speak with Iran's nuclear scientists had been presented. However,
Shamkhani's words suggest the P5+1 and the IAEA have a wider list that
includes military officials as well." http://t.uani.com/1JmTWZe
Sanctions
Relief
Reuters:
"An Iranian airline that acquired nine passenger jets in defiance
of U.S. sanctions will begin using them on international routes this
week, the Fars news agency reported on Monday. Mahan Air, which is
blacklisted by Washington, acquired eight second-hand Airbus A340s and one
Airbus A321 in early May. The U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on two
firms based in Iraq and the United Arab Emirates on suspicion of
helping the purchase. The A340s will start flying from Tehran to Dubai
and Istanbul within two days, and will later be used for long-haul
journeys, Fars reported... The U.S. Treasury department last month said
Mahan Air had a 'blockable interest' in the planes, meaning they could
be subject to an asset freeze, raising the possibility that U.S.
officials may attempt to have them seized at airports outside
Iran." http://t.uani.com/1QmihyU
Bloomberg:
"Aercap Holdings NV, the world's biggest aircraft lessor, said
it's cooperating with a U.S. investigation into the supply of Airbus
Group NV jetliners to Iran and that it previously sold some of the nine
planes concerned. The aircraft were purchased by Tehran-based Mahan Air
from Al-Naser Airlines of Iraq, which appears to have sourced two of
them from Aercap, the lessor said in a filing, adding that it is
assisting in the U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control-led probe. OFAC
on May 21 designated Al-Naser and United Arab Emirates-based Sky Blue
Bird Aviation as sanctions violators over the supply of the nine
aircraft to Iran. 'There is no indication that the company or any of
its employees were aware of any such diversion,' Aercap said, citing an
internal review. 'The company is fully cooperating with the
investigations, which are in their early stages.' Aercap, based at
Schiphol in the Netherlands, said today it was subpoenaed by OFAC on
May 27 for information including any related to other transactions that
may have led to aircraft being diverted to Iran." http://t.uani.com/1M0Qwus
Reuters:
"India's imports of Iranian crude oil rose last month to their
highest level since March 2014 as refiners boosted purchases ahead of a
final push by international negotiators to reach a deal on Tehran's
disputed nuclear programme by end-June. The jump to a 14-month high
comes just two months after India dropped its crude imports from Iran
to zero under U.S. pressure to limit its purchases of the Islamic
republic's oil. In March this year India did not take any Iranian oil
for the first time in at least a decade... India, the world's fourth
biggest oil consumer and Tehran's top client after China, shipped in
367,900 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian crude in May in nine vessels,
up 39 percent over April, according to preliminary data from trade
sources and a report compiled by Thomson Reuters Oil Research and
Forecasts. The May imports surged by two-thirds from a year ago, the
data also showed." http://t.uani.com/1M0JpCa
Bloomberg:
"Iran, seeking billions of dollars to revitalize its ailing oil
industry, plans to offer significantly better commercial terms to
companies prepared to invest than offered during the last market
opening nearly two decades ago. Foreign oil executives who have
reviewed partial drafts of the new terms, called the Iranian Petroleum
Contract, said they're more generous than the types of deals used in
the 1990s and 2000s. Unlike those contracts, which merely paid a set
fee for the delivery of a project, the new agreements could give
investors some share of a field's production and allow companies to
book more reserves on their balance sheet. Such arrangements would
probably make Iran commercially more attractive than regional
competitors for international investment including Iraq and Algeria.
The executives asked not to be named because Iran has yet to announce
the new contract and terms could still change. 'In simple terms, the message
from Iran is that if the sanctions are lifted, in return Iran will
offer improved contractual terms to make it easier for international
oil companies to tap into its lucrative oil and gas reserves,' said
Amir Kordvani, a Dubai-based lawyer at Clyde & Co., a firm
specializing in the natural resources industry." http://t.uani.com/1eNbxyt
Terrorism
JPost:
"Israeli security sources are closely monitoring the arrest and
investigation of a suspected Hezbollah operative in Larnaca, Cyprus,
who was caught in possession of a massive quantity of explosive
material. Cypriot police suspect that a man arrested on Wednesday was
planning an attack on Israeli interests on the island after they found
almost two tons of ammonium nitrate in his basement, newspapers on the
island reported Friday. The 26-year-old man, who is Lebanese-born and
has a Canadian passport, was detained after authorities discovered the
stockpile... Israel has been updated on the details of the arrest and
the investigation. The arrest is 'further evidence of deep Iranian
involvement in international terrorism. This is an international
mechanism that the Iranians activate, with the intention of building
and utilizing a terrorism infrastructure in Europe,' Israeli security
sources said Saturday. 'Hezbollah, the contractor, is funded by Iran,
and its operatives are trained by Iranian experts. In this case, like
in other cases, the head is in Tehran, the orchestration is Iranian,
the funding is Iranian and the one that carries it out is Hezbollah.'"
http://t.uani.com/1JmX1Zi
Syria
Conflict
Reuters:
"Iran will back Syria's President Bashar al-Assad until the end,
Iranian news agencies quoted President Hassan Rouhani as saying,
signaling undimmed support for Tehran's Arab ally following major gains
by armed opposition factions in recent weeks... 'The Iranian nation and
government will remain at the side of the Syrian nation and government
until the end of the road,' state news agency IRNA quoted Rouhani as
saying on Tuesday in a meeting with Syria's parliament speaker in
Tehran. 'Tehran has not forgotten its moral obligations to Syria and
will continue to provide help and support on its own terms to the
government and nation of Syria.' The visit by speaker Mohammad al-Laham
is the latest in a series of high-level visits between Damascus and
Tehran, reflecting close coordination as the pressure on Assad has
mounted... 'Unfortunately some countries in the region have
miscalculated and think they can use terrorist groups to pursue their
goals, but sooner or later terrorism will be upon them,' Rouhani
said." http://t.uani.com/1I7rdsE
Human Rights
IHR:
"Twelve of the prisoners who were transferred from Unit 2 of the
Ghezelhesar prison (Karaj, west of Tehran) were executed Monday
morning, reported Iran Human Rights (IHR) sources from Iran. The report
has been confirmed by several independent sources. All the
prisoners were charged with drug offences... In less than one month 56
prisoners from Unit 2 of Ghezelhesar prison have been executed. 34 of
the executions has taken place after the prisoners gathered peacefully
in the prison yard carrying handwritten banners asking the Iranian
Supreme leader for forgiveness. More than 2000 death row prisoners are
held in Unit 2 of Ghezelhesar prison. All the prisoners are sentenced
to death for drug-related charges... IHR strongly condemns the
arbitrary mass-executions of Ghezelhesar prison and calls for the
international community to react. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: '
Hundreds of prisoners might be executed in Ghezelhesar prison if the
international community continues its silence. Iranian authorities' use
of the death penalty can only be compared to the ISIS." http://t.uani.com/1FrCjD3
IHR:
"Iranian state media reported about the public execution of a man
in the city of Jiroft (southeastern Iran) on Monday June 1... The
pictures published by the state media show a crowd including several
children watching the public execution." http://t.uani.com/1STleee
Opinion &
Analysis
WSJ Editorial:
"The Iranian nuclear talks are resuming with the June 30 deadline
approaching, and right on time here come the French talking tough. If
history repeats, however, our Gallic allies will take a hard line right
up until they agree to whatever President Obama wants. 'The best
agreement, if you cannot verify it, it's useless,' French Foreign
Minister Laurent Fabius told our Journal colleagues in an interview on
Monday from Nigeria. 'Several countries in the region would say, OK, a
paper [has been signed] but we think it is not strong enough and
therefore we ourselves have to become nuclear.' He no doubt means Saudi
Arabia and Turkey, and perhaps Egypt and the Gulf Sunni Arabs. Mr.
Fabius referred specifically to access by United Nations weapons
inspectors to Iran's military sites and other secret facilities as
crucial to a credible agreement. That's significant because Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini has repeatedly said that Iran will never
allow access by the 'enemy' to its military sites. By 'enemy' he means
America-never mind Mr. Obama's faith that a nuclear deal will turn Iran
into a normal country. Mr. Fabius is at least right about military
sites, and it's good to see him be so explicit. But then France has
already agreed to the inspection terms of the 'framework' nuclear
accord that are also inadequate. The framework doesn't allow on-demand,
go-anywhere inspections, which means Iran could hide a weaponization
program at a military site or at some other new secret facility not
near a military base. Recall how Iran hid its underground Fordo
enrichment facility before the U.S. exposed it. We'd like to think Mr.
Fabius is laying down a marker for Mr. Obama and Secretary of State
John Kerry as much as for the Ayatollah. He knows how eager the
Americans are for a deal. But Mr. Fabius has taken a harder line
before, only to fold in the clinches. In 2013 he said the West risked
being drawn into a 'fool's game' by the Iranians, but he and President
François Hollande have since gone along step by step with every new
U.S. concession to keep Iran at the negotiating table. It speaks
volumes that preventing the breakout of nuclear proliferation in the
Middle East may depend on French fortitude, but this is where we
are." http://t.uani.com/1JhGuHE
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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