Eye on Iran: Iranian Nuclear Experts Take Parchin Samples Without IAEA

Join UANI           Top Stories Reuters: "Iranian nuclear experts have taken environmental samples from the military base at Parchin without United Nations inspectors being present, the spokesman for Iran's atomic energy agency was quoted as saying on Monday. The procedure for taking the samples, which could shed light on whether Iran's nuclear programme ever had a military dimension, has been under intense discussion since Tehran reached a nuclear deal with world powers in July... 'Iranian experts took samples from specific locations in Parchin facilities this week without IAEA's inspectors being present,' Behruz Kamalvandi was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA. 'They followed regulations and standards and the samples were given to IAEA's experts,' the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) spokesman added. He did not rule out IAEA inspectors being present for future samples being taken. IAEA chief Yukiya Amano visited the site at Parchin on Sunday, the agency's first visit there in a decade. Iranian state media described the visit as ceremonial rather than an inspection." http://t.uani.com/1V5ECmx Times of Israel: "Since the deal was signed, Iran has significantly increased its financial support for two of the largest terror groups in the region that have become political players, Hamas and Hezbollah. In the years before the deal was signed, the crippling sanctions limited this support, which had significantly diminished along with Iran's economy. But Tehran's belief that tens, or hundreds, of billions of dollars will flow into the country in the coming years as a result of sanctions relief has led to a decision to boost the cash flow to these terror organizations. This support, for example, has enabled Hezbollah to obtain highly developed new armaments, including advanced technologies that many militaries around the world would envy. Al-Rai, a Kuwaiti newspaper, reported Saturday that Hezbollah has received all the advanced weaponry that Syria has obtained from the Russians. The report cited a security source involved in the fighting in Zabadani, on the Syria-Lebanon border, where Hezbollah is fighting the al-Nusra Front, the Islamic State, and other groups. It is evidently the growing Iranian financial support that is enabling the Lebanese Shiite militia to purchase advanced weapons, including ones that were hitherto outside of its reach... As regards the Palestinians, in the past two months, Iran has sent suitcases of cash - literally - to Hamas's military wing in Gaza." http://t.uani.com/1OKZCPM FT: "With hopes high that Tehran's nuclear accord with world powers could lead to the lifting of international sanctions, consumers are holding back on spending in the expectation of price drops and the arrival of better quality imported goods... But any dividends from the nuclear deal will take many months to materialise, and Iran's economy remains mired in stagnation. The centrist government of President Hassan Rouhani has managed to cut inflation from about 40 per cent to 12.6 per cent over the past two years and end three successive years of economic contraction, with growth of 3 per cent in the year to March. But economists believe the economy has now stopped growing and may even be contracting. 'The economic growth rate has not been positive in the first half of this Iranian year [since March] and will probably be negative in the second half, which makes negative economic growth this year almost inevitable,' said Mohsen Safaei Farahani, a former deputy economy minister... Plunging oil prices have added to the strain on a budget already depleted by a halving of oil revenues, the country's economic lifeblood, and the freezing of tens of billions of dollars of assets held in overseas banks under EU and US sanctions. 'The pressure of sanctions over the past four years, which is going to continue at least to the end of 2015, the dramatic fall of petrodollars in an oil-dependent economy, and mismanagement over the past decade have put Iran's economy in the worst situation ever,' said Mr Safaei Farahani." http://t.uani.com/1NOAzfJ Nuclear Program & Agreement Reuters: "Environmental samples have been taken at a sensitive military site in Iran, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Monday, citing 'significant progress' in its investigation of Tehran's past activities. Inspecting the Parchin military site is a crucial part of the International Atomic Energy Agency's investigation of whether Iran previously carried out work related to developing nuclear weapons. The IAEA has not visited Parchin in a decade. The agency is due to provide an assessment of 'possible military dimensions' of Iran's nuclear program by the end of the year. That report is vital to Iran's breakthrough deal with major powers, under which limits will be placed on Tehran's atomic activities in exchange for a lifting of sanctions. IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano said he and the head of the agency's Department of Safeguards, which carries out inspections, visited a building at the Parchin site on Sunday that the agency had previously only observed by satellite. 'Inside the building, we saw indications of recent renovation work,' Amano said in a statement he read to reporters in Vienna, where his agency is based. 'There was no equipment in the building.'" http://t.uani.com/1Mm1wEa Reuters: "Four diplomats familiar with the deal told Reuters that U.N. inspectors would be present at Parchin to oversee the inspections. In the unusual arrangement struck in July, the samples would be taken by Iranian technicians while IAEA experts present at Parchin observe and oversee the process, Western diplomats told Reuters. The diplomats, who have knowledge of the deal, said that while the IAEA inspectors will not be next to the Iranian technicians when they take samples, they will be at Parchin overseeing the process. Cameras will record the process." http://t.uani.com/1gGlJsK Reuters: "Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in an interview with a U.S. television network that aired on Sunday that Tehran and Washington 'have taken the first steps' toward decreasing their enmity due to a landmark nuclear accord. But Rouhani told CBS' '60 Minutes' program that despite the nuclear agreement, 'the distance, the disagreements, the lack of trust, will not go away soon.' ... 'What's important is which direction we are heading?' Rouhani added. 'Are we heading toward amplifying the enmity or decreasing this enmity? I believe we have taken the first steps toward decreasing this enmity.' ... Rouhani, who was interviewed in Tehran, expressed confidence that Iran's parliament and Supreme National Security Council would likewise approve the accord... The weekly chant of 'Death to America' in Iran 'is not a slogan against the American people,' Rouhani added. 'The policies of the United States have been against the national interests of Iranian people,' he said. 'We cannot forget the past, but at the same time our gaze must be toward the future.'" http://t.uani.com/1MEoXvw WSJ: "An international business consortium is in talks with Middle East governments to build as many of 40 nuclear reactors in countries including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, according to participants in the discussions. The group, which includes the Dutch conglomerate Mammoet, foresees producing the nuclear fuel for the reactors and their parts in plants to be constructed in Virginia and Tennessee. Members of the group are seeking to partner with either the Russian or Chinese governments, which would be responsible for taking the spent fuel from the reactors and disposing of it... Officials from Arab governments have confirmed holding discussions with the ACU-Mammoet consortium. But they said the project is still in its initial phases and it's uncertain if Riyadh, Cairo or Amman would take part." http://t.uani.com/1JkEN6K Congressional Action AP: "It's a done deal, yet opponents of the Iran nuclear agreement won't go quietly. The 60-day congressional review period has expired, and last week the State Department outlined its plan to put in place an accord that aims to prevent Iran from becoming nuclear-armed. Congress is poised to start cranking out legislation to reinstate sanctions or shore up what some lawmakers say is an ill-fated pact with a state supporter of terrorism. Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has begun a series of hearings on the U.S. role and strategy in the Middle East that will examine the deal's implications. 'It's going to take a while. It's a very substantive issue,' said Corker, R-Tenn., who opposed the deal. 'It will be a complex piece of legislation.' ... One idea being discussed in Congress calls for shoring up oversight of Iran's compliance. Another measure would reauthorize the Iran Sanctions Act. The law was passed in 1996 to pressure foreign companies not to invest in Iran's oil and gas industries; it has since been expanded. Other legislation being weighed would strengthen security for Israel, which Iran has threatened to destroy, and for U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf worried about Iran gaining influence in the Mideast as a result of the deal. 'Although the congressional review period may be over, now the real work begins,' Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said in a speech Thursday at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Coons said preventing and deterring Iran from cheating must be a priority and even 'marginal cheating and ambiguous evasions of the deal' must be met with a heavy club. 'Iran must not be left with any doubt that it will feel the pain of sanctions from the entire global community the moment it violates the agreement,' he said... Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said he will propose legislation with Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to address some of the deal's 'shortfalls.'" http://t.uani.com/1KGvCmu The Hill: "A Republican critic of the nuclear deal with Iran wants the State Department to give Congress a copy of the agreement that includes the formal signatures of the seven nations involved in the talks. Without those signatures, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) told Secretary of State John Kerry, Congress cannot be assured that every country has agreed to the terms of the deal. 'This is not a mere formality,' Pompeo wrote. 'Those signatures represent the commitment of the signatory and the country on whose behalf he or she is signing.' 'In short, just as with any legal instrument, signing matters.' Though the Obama administration sent a copy of the landmark nuclear agreement to Congress shortly after it was sealed earlier this summer, it was never stamped with the signatures of negotiators from the U.S., Iran and the five other nations involved, Pompeo said." http://t.uani.com/1V5E7yi Sanctions Relief Reuters: "A senior French economic and political delegation heads to Tehran on Sunday to lay the groundwork for the first business contracts between France and Iran since an accord to curb its nuclear program in July. France's main business lobby group, the Medef, is sending a delegation comprising more than 100 firms to Iran, including companies such as oil major Total, planemaker Airbus and car manufacturer Peugeot. 'We're trying to identify areas where we can move forward, but we're not going to do business at any cost.' The delegation includes most of France's CAC 40 companies, but also small and medium enterprises with sectors as wide-ranging as agriculture, finance, luxury goods, pharmaceuticals, construction and transport represented. Heading it up are Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll and Trade Minister Matthias Fekl, who will open a new trade office in the Iranian capital on Sept. 22... One official said the visit could lead to expressions of interest that could become agreements by November, although big contracts were impossible until the lifting of sanctions." http://t.uani.com/1Qt5fAx AFP: "Iran plans to buy Airbus and Boeing passenger planes through long-term payment agreements once a nuclear accord with world powers is implemented, the transport minister said... To purchase new planes, 'our negotiations have been mostly with Airbus and Boeing, and we have provided them with our plans and needs until 2020,' Abbas Akhoundi was quoted as saying in Monday's Iran government daily. 'For shorter range planes, we have talked with other companies also,' he said, in remarks made to reporters on Sunday... Akhoundi said Iran had offered its 'proposals' to the aviation companies. 'A company will be founded. It leases or hire purchases the plane from the foreign companies, and provides the Iranian airlines with new planes, so that domestic companies are not involved with the purchase,' he explained." http://t.uani.com/1LrnQh6 Sanctions Enforcement FT: "Nine years on, after paying nearly $1bn in fines to US regulators and law enforcement agencies for sanction breaches and compliance failures, StanChart seems no closer to ending its legal problems. A Financial Times investigation has identified transactions involving Iran that could put the bank at risk of severe penalties ranging from further fines to suspension or loss of its crucial dollar clearing licence. Documents seen by the FT suggest that StanChart continued to seek new business from Iranian and Iran-connected companies after it had committed in 2007 to stop working with such clients. These activities include foreign exchange transactions that, people familiar with StanChart operations say, would have involved the US dollar. The documents suggest the bank - a few months after a costly settlement with US authorities in 2012 - was still internally reviewing its client list and was unable to determine in certain cases whether customers were Iranian or not... The US Department of Justice, the Manhattan district attorney, the Federal Reserve, the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) and most recently, the New York attorney-general's office, are all investigating StanChart for potential new sanctions breaches. The probes, most of which became public late last year, are scrutinising whether StanChart breached sanctions after the period covered by its 2012 settlement, when the bank declared it had 'ceased all new business with Iranian customers in any currency' five years earlier. A pivotal issue is whether senior executives condoned the bank's continuing business with Iran, according to people familiar with the investigations." http://t.uani.com/1Qtbft8 Terrorism WashPost: "The Iranian government has released a number of top al-Qaeda operatives that it has held for years in exchange for one of the country's diplomats who was kidnapped in Yemen, U.S. officials confirmed. The release could provide an immediate boost to al-Qaeda, whose leadership has been significantly degraded by a CIA drone campaign. The development was first reported this week by Britain's Sky News, which said the men were released this year in exchange for the Iranian diplomat. He was reportedly abducted in Sanaa, ­Yemen's capital, in 2013. Officials said it's unclear whether the men were released in Yemen or another al-Qaeda stronghold, possibly in Syria or the tribal areas of Pakistan. Among those freed were two key Egyptians, Saif al-Adel, the group's chief of military operations, and Abu Kayr al Masri, who once ran al-Qaeda's management council. Either could potentially succeed the current al-Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who is also Egyptian." http://t.uani.com/1Wdtd6D Human Rights ICHRI: "The artist and civil activist Atena Farghadani, behind bars since January 10, 2015, went on a hunger strike in Evin Prison to protest continuous verbal abuse by prison staff, and she required urgent medical care when her blood pressure dropped, her mother Eshrat Ardestani told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. 'Atena was looking really bad when we visited her on September 13, 2015. She could barely walk and could not stand on her feet. Then we realized she had been on a dry [refusing water as well as food] hunger strike for three days. On the fourth day her blood pressure had dropped so low that they had to take her to the clinic on [a makeshift stretcher made of] a sheet,' Ardestani said. Asked why Farghadani had refused food and water, her mother said prison staff had been repeatedly abusing her verbally, suggesting she has had sexual relations with her lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi. Moghimi was detained for four days on June 13, 2015 after shaking Farghadani's hand during a prison visit and charged with 'non-adultery illegitimate relations.' ... Atena Farghadani, the recipient of the 2015 Courage in Cartooning Award by the Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI), was sentenced on June 1, 2015, to 12 years and nine months in prison after drawing a cartoon that showed members of the Iranian Parliament as animals and posting it on her Facebook page." http://t.uani.com/1KvFPh8 Domestic Politics Guardian: "As Iran and world powers reached their nuclear agreement in Vienna, the website of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced a new publication, the Line of Hezbollah, which it said would 'allow the revolutionary community to benefit directly from the ideas and declarations of the supreme leader on...current political, social, and economic events'. So far there have been 12 nine editions of the Line of Hezbollah, which differs from www.khamenei.ir in offering analyses of the leader's speeches and articles rather than simply presenting them. And if Khamenei's website is aimed at all Iranians as well as the foreign media, the Line of Hezbollah is directed squarely at the leader's committed supporters, sometimes known as 'Hezbollahis' and often members of the volunteer Basij militia. This is the first time such a publication has appeared in the 26 years Khamenei has been leader. There is no coincidence between its emergence and the nuclear agreement. Some fundamentalists have expressed concern over a possible wider thaw in relations with the United States, and Khamenei's strategy appears to be to mollify their worries by emphasising he will not allow undue concessions." http://t.uani.com/1Fpp6Qy Foreign Affairs Reuters: "China will send the head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) as its special envoy to Iran, the foreign ministry said on Monday, a week after Iran's foreign minister called on China's help to resolve tensions in the Middle East. China and Iran have close diplomatic, economic, trade and energy ties, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has been active in pushing both the United States and Iran to reach agreement on the nuclear issue. Zhang Yi, the head of SASAC, will be in Iran from Monday to Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a daily news briefing. He did not elaborate on the reason for Zhang's visit." http://t.uani.com/1FXy0zR AP: "Iran's state TV is reporting the country has appointed its non-resident diplomat as permanent top envoy to Britain. The Sunday report said Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif appointed Mohammad Hassan Habibollahzadeh as chargé d'affaires to London. The career diplomat has served as non-resident chargé d'affaires to Britain for the past two years." http://t.uani.com/1YuXzDI Opinion & Analysis Peter Feaver & Eric Lorber in FP: "Now that President Obama is assured that Congress cannot block his Iran deal, the focus of policymakers is rightly shifting from the question of whether Obama will get his nuclear deal to whether Obama will embed the nuclear deal in a larger regional strategy to address the remainder of the issues that have divided the United States and Iran over the years. So far, despite strenuous assurances from the administration that they are working on such a strategy - and despite the equally earnest insistence from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the nuclear deal requires such a strategy - the administration has not yet presented a coherent and compelling account of it. One reason is that developing such a strategy is harder to do in the face of a basic contradiction at the heart of Obama's case for the nuclear deal. In the lead up to the agreement - and in selling it to Congress - the president and his deputies repeatedly noted that international support for the robust sanctions regime on Iran was waning and that - absent a deal - the concerted pressure that brought the Islamic Republic to the negotiating table would fall apart. Further, the administration noted that - without the backing of an international coalition - it would not be able to unilaterally bring enough pressure to bear on Iran over its nuclear program. Now that the deal has been signed, however the administration has adopted a very different and logically contrary claim in selling the agreement to a skeptical Congress and the public: that it can, through strictly enforcing remaining sanctions on Iran related to terrorism and human rights abuses, deter, dissuade, and effectively limit Iran's destabilizing activities. Further, many of these sanctions could be imposed without the cooperation of our allies. For example, the United States can, post-deal, still penalize European and Asian financial institutions that do business with Iran under many circumstances, even if so-called 'secondary sanctions' are no longer in force. The contradiction is clear. Pre-deal, the administration argued that the sanctions regime was so brittle that we had to strike the deal, any deal, before the regime fell apart. Post-deal, the administration is arguing that we need not fear that Iran will use its newfound wealth to further its destabilizing agenda because the United States can deter and dissuade Iran through the pressure of sanctions regime. Put another way, the Obama case for the Iran deal reduced to this: multilateral sanctions were not strong enough to produce a better deal in the face of determined Iranian defiance, but unilateral sanctions will be strong enough to hold Iran's defiance in all of the other matters in check." http://t.uani.com/1NH3gcQ Jamsheed Choksy & Carol Choksy in YaleGlobal: "Around the world, businesses act overwhelmingly in favor of not only removing all sanctions on Iran, but keeping them off irrespective of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action's success or failure. Yet as Iran gets re-hooked into the global system, the need for trade may not necessarily keep its government on the straight and narrow. The plan of action adopted by international powers to curb the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions has yet to be implemented, but a stampede is underway by countries to resume trading with Iran. As global industrial leaders rush to the Iranian El Dorado, many fear that Tehran will have less compulsion to keep its ambitions in check... The ultimate test is Iran's behavior. Even now the country continues to buttress the Assad regime, Hezbollah and Hamas while denouncing Israel and the United States. Aware of possible backsliding, US President Barack Obama emphasized when announcing the joint plan of action: 'If Iran violates the deal, all of these sanctions will snap back into place.' Certain multinational corporations, such as British Petroleum, are hesitant to rush back into Iran fearing sanctions could be reintroduced by Washington. BP suggests it is 'monitoring the situation and will look for opportunities.' As Iran's economy and society revive, its ambition as a regional power will likely grow, for Rouhani has declared: 'Iran's power is your power, we know security in the region as our security; we assume our stability [is] the stability of the region; now we will want more cooperation and more harmony.' Those words may have struck rivals like Saudi Arabia and Israel as both ominous and prognostic. US options are limited if Iran strays from the agreement. The American public does not want another war. Sanctions waivers and non-compliance were already rising before the deal. Now, powerhouses like China, Germany and Japan are getting more deeply enmeshed in Iran's economy and counting on Iranian spending to boost their own growth. So, nations may decide not to bow to a Washington decision on snapback sanctions. Once the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action sunsets, Iran will be better poised economically and technologically to return to the nuclear arena. During an interview with Science Magazine, Ali Akbar Salehi, who heads Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, spoke of the ultimate target being not nuclear fission but fusion. Whether Iran's agenda a decade from now includes bomb technology or new peaceful energy sources will hinge on whether resurgent trade empowers the military and others in power - or ordinary Iranians." http://t.uani.com/1iIK0QS           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.