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WSJ: "The Obama administration began
implementing its landmark nuclear agreement with Iran with an eye toward
lifting expansive sanctions imposed on Tehran in the past decade.
Concerns from opponents of the deal continued to grow, however, as senior
administration officials during the weekend played down the importance of
a United Nations probe into whether Tehran has attempted to secretly
develop the technologies needed to build atomic weapons. The U.N.'s
nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is committed
under the deal to release a report by year-end about the status of Iran's
alleged weaponization work. U.S. officials over the weekend said the IAEA
report would have no bearing on moves by the international community to
lift sanctions. 'That final assessment, which the IAEA is aiming to
complete by December 15th, is not a prerequisite for implementation day,'
a senior U.S. official said Saturday. 'We are not in a position to
evaluate the quality...of the data. That is between Iran and the IAEA.'
Secretary of State John Kerry and other U.S. officials had previously
said sanctions wouldn't be lifted unless Iran substantively cooperated
with the U.N. probe. The shifting U.S. position is stoking criticism from
Republicans, who say the White House is essentially agreeing to whitewash
the weaponization issue. They also charged Iran with growing more
belligerent since the July nuclear agreement, with Tehran testing a
ballistic missile this month and convicting a Washington Post journalist
of espionage... Steps announced Sunday by the U.S. and its negotiating
partners to move ahead on what has come to be known as 'adoption day' are
intended to show a readiness for sanctions relief if Iran begins scaling
back its nuclear infrastructure. That relief will only begin on
'implementation day,' when the IAEA certifies Iran has lived up to its
commitments to curb its nuclear program." http://t.uani.com/1ODU62R
AP: "Iran's recent ballistic missile test was 'a clear
violation' of U.N. sanctions, and the United States will seek action from
the Security Council, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said Friday. Power
said that after reviewing available information, the United States has
confirmed that the medium-range ballistic missile launched on Oct. 10 was
'inherently capable of delivering a nuclear weapon.' She said this
violated a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted on June 9, 2010 which
imposed a fourth round of sanctions on Iran. It was Iran's first missile
test since the historic nuclear deal reached July 14 between Iran and
world powers. While condemning the ballistic missile test, the United
States has made clear that it is 'entirely separate' from the nuclear deal,
which is aimed at preventing Iran from developing atomic weapons. The
2010 U.N. resolution bans Iran from undertaking 'any activity related to
ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including
launches using ballistic missile technology.' President Barack Obama said
Friday the Iran nuclear deal was never intended to resolve the range of
other issues where the U.S. and Iran have significant differences,
including ballistic missiles. He said the U.S. would continue to put
pressure on Iran to make clear there are costs for its bad behavior. But
he said those efforts wouldn't be any more effective if the U.S. hadn't
entered into a nuclear accord with Iran. 'Iran has often violated some of
the prohibitions surrounding missile testing,' Obama said. Power said the
United States is preparing a report to the Security Council committee
that monitors sanctions against Iran. She did not specify what action the
U.S. would seek. 'The Security Council prohibition on Iran's ballistic
missile activities, as well as the arms embargo, remain in place and we
will continue to press the Security Council for an appropriate response
to Iran's disregard for its international obligations,' she said in a
statement sent to The Associated Press." http://t.uani.com/1ZQYa3n
Politico: "With the next phase of the Iran
nuclear deal beginning Sunday, some U.S. officials worry that Tehran has
set unrealistic expectations for how quickly it can comply with the deal
and end economic sanctions. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is impatient
to downsize Iran's nuclear hardware and thereby halt the sanctions on his
country. Iran holds parliamentary elections on February 26, and Rouhani's
moderate faction might gain if the sanctions are history by then... In an
interview on Iranian TV last week, the Iranian president said the
sanctions could come off 'one to two months' after Iran begins the
process of implementing the nuclear deal... Rouhani's timeline may be
wildly optimistic. Many nuclear experts-including Energy Department
technical experts involved in the Iran talks-believe it could take Iran
six months or more to complete the work required by the agreement. That
work includes uninstalling and storing thousands of centrifuges, whose
operation was capped under the deal; refashioning the core of a reactor
at Arak to prevent it from producing plutonium; and reducing Iran's
stockpile of nuclear material by diluting it or shipping it out of the
country. 'There's a lot that Iran needs to do before it can actually get
the sanctions relief that we're offering in the deal,' said a senior
administration official, who said the time frame is 'at least months.'
Outside experts versed in the details of the nuclear deal were blunter.
'There's no way they can do it properly or effectively' in a matter of
weeks, says Robert Einhorn, a former Iran nuclear negotiator at the Obama
State Department now with the Brookings Institution. 'Hopefully it
doesn't mean they're planning to cut corners to get it done quickly,'
added Einhorn, who said he has discussed the issue with both a senior
Iranian official and with U.S. officials. It's not clear whether Iran
could cheat its way to the deal's implementation." http://t.uani.com/1PtKg3q
Nuclear Program & Agreement
Reuters: "Iran's nuclear negotiator Abbas
Araqchi said on Monday he expected a deal with six world powers on
shrinking Tehran's atomic program in exchange for sanctions relief to be
implemented by year-end. 'Hopefully before the end of this year certainly
we would have the implementation day,' Araqchi told reporters after
meeting senior officials from the United States, Russia, China, Britain,
Germany and France in Vienna... Germany's foreign minister said the EU
sanctions were likely to remain in place at least until January. When
asked whether Iran had started mothballing centrifuges, Araqchi said the
process had not begun yet. 'We need an order by the president to the
Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation to start the job. That would be done
after some preparations that we still need to do in the coming days. So
it would soon start,' Araqchi said... In July Iran also agreed to reduce
its stockpile of low-enriched uranium (LEU) to 300 kg of 3.67-percent
fissile purification for 15 years... Iran could dilute the excess LEU or
sell it abroad in exchange for natural uranium. 'We are on schedule and
we think we can do this business instead of diluting. We can do the
business and receive natural uranium in return for selling our enriched
uranium to outside,' Araqchi said, declining to say whom Iran is in talks
with." http://t.uani.com/1W0N9YD
NYT: "Iranian engineers on Sunday are
expected to begin executing one of the largest and most complex projects
of nuclear dismantlement in history. They have to mothball 12,000 nuclear
centrifuges, ship more than 12 tons of low-enriched fuel - 98 percent of
Iran's stockpile - out of the country and destroy the core of a giant
plutonium reactor. The engineers insist they will finish the job in
record time in order to get the more than $100 billion in sanctions
relief promised in the nuclear agreement Iran signed last summer with the
United States and five other nations. But others in their country are not
likely to hear or read much about what they are doing. To win passage of
the deal, Iran's leaders talked almost exclusively about how the West had
backed down on sanctions; they made little mention of the steps Iran
would have to take to have the sanctions removed, including details of
the dismantlement that they have deliberately left vague. The shipping of
fuel out of the country, for example, has been described as a 'fuel swap'
for face-saving purposes. And most members of Iran's Parliament were left
largely in the dark on the details of what must be dismantled before
Iranian ships can resume presanctions levels of oil shipments and Iranian
firms can once again process financial transactions around the globe. So
the arrival on Sunday of 'adoption day' - the day the much-disputed
accord finally takes effect - hardly ends the bitter politics that have
surrounded the Iran deal. Whether it is a historic success and a major
part of President Obama's legacy or a failure could be determined by
whether the work of carrying out the deal is marked by strife over what
constitutes compliance and what constitutes cheating. Each side fears
that the next few weeks and months will be fraught with possibilities for
disagreement and cheating around the edges." http://t.uani.com/1MyZzSz
AFP: "Iran on Sunday notified the
International Atomic Energy Agency that it would apply a protocol
granting inspectors greater access to its nuclear sites, a further step
in the implementation of a historic deal struck with world powers, the UN
nuclear watchdog said. The announcement came as the European Union's
foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif were set to make a statement on the lifting of
crippling sanctions on Tehran, as part of the so-called Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action signed in Vienna in July. 'On October 18, the director
general of the International Atomic Energy Agency was informed by the
Islamic Republic of Iran that... Iran will provisionally apply the
Additional Protocol to its Safeguards Agreement, pending its ratification
by the (parliament),' the IAEA said in a statement... Iran had been a
signatory to the protocol from 2003 until 2006 before pulling out of the
agreement." http://t.uani.com/1MPiL2X
Reuters: "Israel and the United States
signaled on Sunday they were starting to put disputes over the Iran
nuclear deal behind them, announcing resumed talks on U.S. defense aid
for Israel as it hosted Washington's top general and a joint air force
drill. The allies had been looking to agree on a 10-year military aid
package to extend the current U.S. grants to Israel worth $3 billion
annually, which are due to expire in 2017. But Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu froze those negotiations ahead of the July deal reached between
Iran and world powers, which Israel deems insufficiently stringent and
against which it had lobbied the U.S. Congress. 'With the nuclear deal
now moving ahead, Israel is also moving ahead, hoping to forge a common
policy with the United states to address the continuing dangers posed by
Iran,' Ron Dermer, Israel's ambassador to the United States, said in a
Facebook post. 'Discussions over a new Memorandum of Understanding between
Israel and the United States, which had been on hold for some time,
resumed this past week in Washington,' he said, using a term for the
defense-aid agreement. Netanyahu, who is due to meet President Barack
Obama at the White House next month, warmly received U.S. Marine General
Joseph Dunford and praised him for making Israel the first stop of his
first trip abroad since becoming chairman of the U.S. military's Joint
Chiefs of Staff on Oct. 1." http://t.uani.com/1GenlXi
Reuters: "Iran passed a law on Oct. 14
approving the nuclear deal reached by Tehran and six world powers,
supporting President Hassan Rouhani's government in implementing the
agreement subject to certain conditions. The bill, proposed by parliament
and ratified by the Guardian Council, was published in full by state news
agency IRNA. Below is a Reuters translation into English of that text,
which was written in Persian." http://t.uani.com/1LGdQjO
AFP: "Iran said on Saturday that its
recent test launch of a long-range missile does not violate UN Security
Council resolutions as claimed by the United States and France. 'Our
missile tests have nothing to do with Resolution 2231, which only
mentions missiles designed to carry nuclear warheads,' Iranian Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told a news conference. Speaking in Tehran
alongside his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, he added: 'None
of the Islamic Republic of Iran's missiles have been designed for nuclear
capabilities.' Iran announced Sunday it had successfully tested a new
domestically produced long-range missile without specifying its exact
range." http://t.uani.com/1OOsypO
U.S.-Iran Relations
AP: "Iran's foreign minister said Saturday there are
serious charges against jailed Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian but
that he is seeking to resolve the case from a 'humanitarian perspective.'
Mohammad Javad Zarif provided no further details during a security
conference Saturday to discuss Syria as well as Iran's future role in the
region following a landmark nuclear agreement reached with world powers
in July. Rezaian, who has been jailed for over a year on charges of
espionage, was recently convicted by a Revolutionary Court. Iranian
officials have not provided details on the verdict or sentence. 'The
issue over this defendant is a judicial process but we are making efforts
to resolve it from a humanitarian perspective,' Zarif said." http://t.uani.com/1QMd1Gj
The Hill: "The Navy does not have an aircraft
carrier in the Middle East region as the Iran deal takes effect and just
days after Tehran conducted a controversial ballistic missile test,
raising concerns. The USS Theodore Roosevelt pulled out of the Middle
East region on Tuesday, and the next carrier, the USS Harry Truman, won't
arrive to the Persian Gulf area until winter, leaving a months-long gap
without a carrier. The Navy's moves were planned well in advance, but
Iran's recent missile test, which the Obama administration said violated
international sanctions, is sparking worries about Tehran's actions
without a visible symbol of American deterrence in the region. The
missile test came just one day after the Roosevelt pulled out of the
Persian Gulf. It leaves the Gulf area without a continuous U.S. aircraft
carrier presence for the first time since 2008." http://t.uani.com/1GOYeow
Sanctions Relief
FT: "Iran's energy minister has vowed to reclaim the
country's share of global crude oil exports within months of sanctions
being lifted and said Tehran will move quickly to open the doors to
international oil companies to help boost production. Speaking in Tehran
at the first international oil and gas conference since a nuclear deal
was struck in July, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told representatives of some of
the world's biggest energy companies he is prioritising a return to
Iran's pre-sanctions export levels, the development of energy sector
technology and access to international financial markets. 'Today is a
starting point for international co-operation with Iran,' Mr Zanganeh
told a packed conference attended by executives from BP, Total of France,
Italy's Eni, Austrian oil company OMV and a host of Asian, Russian and
Middle Eastern and domestic groups. 'From the first day that nuclear
agreement is implemented and sanctions are lifted, Iran will increase its
exports,' he said... Mr Zanganeh said Iran could increase production by
500,000 b/d immediately after the lifting of sanctions and reach its
pre-sanctions output level within seven months... Oil executives at the
meeting said that while their return to the country would take time they
were optimistic of being able to do business and sign deals in the coming
months once sanctions are lifted. 'Things are no longer impossible,' said
Stéphane Michel, head of Total's Middle East exploration business." http://t.uani.com/1GOXboO
FT: "Japan Tobacco International has bought an Iranian
cigarette maker in an attempt to reinforce its position as the market
leader in a country which hopes to open up to western companies once
international sanctions over its nuclear programme are removed. The
company said JTI Pars, its Iranian subsidiary, had recently acquired the
privately owned Arian Tobacco Industry (ATI) for an undisclosed amount.
'A growing number of major companies from various countries are now
investing or reinvesting in Iran,' JTI said. 'Our Iranian subsidiary just
finalised the acquisition, so clearly this is very recent but we are
confident that it will enhance our business in Iran from next year
onwards. A person with knowledge of the country's tobacco market said the
purchase was likely a response to expectations that Philip Morris, maker
of Marlboro cigarettes, was expected to enter the market. 'This
acquisition will double JTI's market share and helps to maintain its
competitive advantage - thanks to JTI Pars' presence in Iran since 2002 -
before Marlboro steps into this market,' the person said. The other
foreign tobacco companies operating in Iran are British American Tobacco,
through its subsidiary BAT Pars, and KT&G of Korea." http://t.uani.com/1kjURS0
Reuters: "Iran will boost its crude oil
production within one week once international sanctions are lifted and is
determined to regain its lost market share, senior Iranian oil officials
reiterated on Monday. Iran will raise production by 500,000 barrels per
day in the first week after sanctions are lifted, Rokneddin Javadi,
general manager of the National Iranian Oil Company, was quoted as saying
by oil ministry news agency Shaha. 'A 500,000-barrel increase in Iran's
oil production will take place in less than a week after the effective
lifting of sanctions,' Shana quoted Javadi as saying. 'Our customers for
this increased production level will mostly be our traditional customers
in Europe and Asia.'" http://t.uani.com/1RRJE66
AP: "Iran's vice president told The Associated Press on
Sunday his country is preparing for a 'tsunami' of foreign tourists as
Iran and world powers are set to begin implementing a landmark nuclear
deal that will lift sanctions in return for curbs on Iran's nuclear
program. Masoud Soltanifar, who is also Iran's Cultural Heritage,
Handicrafts and Tourism Organization chief, said President Hassan
Rouhani's moderate policies and the easing of visa rules are opening the
door for the return of foreign tourists to Iran. A country rich in
historical and cultural treasures, Iran will unveil an investment package
of 1,300 projects in the coming days to attract foreign investment and
boost the badly-hit tourism industry. Iran is home to 19
UNESCO-registered sites. Even before sanctions are lifted, the number of
foreigners visiting Iran has grown 12 percent in each of the past two
years. In 2014, Iran hosted over 5 million tourists, bringing in some
$7.5 billion in revenue... 'In the post-sanctions era, tourism is an
industry that will get a boost more than any other sector,' Soltanifar
told the AP. 'Tourism is certainly the driving engine to get Iran's
economy out of recession. Iran's tourism sector is a flourishing market
for investors. We are anticipating a tsunami of tourists after sanctions
are lifted.'" http://t.uani.com/1Lk5U6t
Syria Conflict
AFP: "As many as 2,000 Iranian and
Iran-backed forces are currently in Syria helping regime troops in an
offensive near Aleppo that is being coordinated with Russia, a US
official said Friday. The fighters were helping Syrian forces loyal to
President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russian air power, as they opened a
new front against rebel fighters southeast of Aleppo. 'We are now seeing
a coordinated effort between Iran and Russia to assist Assad with
fighting opposition groups,' the official said, speaking on condition of
anonymity. 'There could be as many as 2,000 Iranian-enabled forces,' he
added. The official defined those forces as consisting of Iranians
including Quds special forces, Iranian-funded proxies and Lebanese
Hezbollah, noting it was difficult to determine a precise number of
fighters." http://t.uani.com/1kjRMkO
Regional Destabilization
NYT: "The Shiite leaders of Iran and the
Sunni rulers of Saudi Arabia traded insults over the deaths of hundreds
of Iranian pilgrims near Mecca. The government of Bahrain, long
criticized for repressing the country's Shiite majority, expelled the
Iranian ambassador, after accusing Iran of shipping arms to Bahrain and
trying to foment 'sectarian strife.' And a group of hard-line Sunni
clerics in Saudi Arabia, fired up by Russia's intervention in Syria,
issued a scathing sectarian call for holy war. Events over the last few
weeks have raised fears of an accelerating confrontation between the
region's Shiite and Sunni Muslims, with Saudi Arabia and Iran escalating
their power struggle, extremists attacking Shiite mosques in the Persian
Gulf and armed conflict aggravating religious differences in Iraq, Syria
and now Yemen. But as the violence flares and crosses borders, national
and religious leaders seem as eager as ever to stoke the fires,
mobilizing followers using implicit or naked sectarian appeals that are
transforming political conflicts into religious struggles and making the
bloodshed in the region harder to contain, scholars and analysts say...
'There was a collective Gulf need to stand up to expansionist Iran,'
Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a professor of political science from the United
Arab Emirates, wrote last week in an opinion piece in Gulf News,
explaining the decision by the Emirates to go to war. 'Yemen was the
place to draw the line.'" http://t.uani.com/1RRHUKi
Domestic Politics
Reuters: "Iran's government announced
proposals on Saturday to cut interest rates and encourage banks to lend,
state television reported, in an effort to boost a stagnant economy after
two years of tight monetary policy as inflation slows. Iran's economy has
stagnated since it reached a nuclear deal with world powers in July, as
consumers wait for sanctions to be lifted and international brands to
arrive. Officials have warned that the economy could experience zero
growth or even enter recession this year. The new package envisages a cut
in the central bank's interest rate, an increase in bank facilities to
stimulate public demand and a lowering of inter-bank lending rates and
the legal reserve requirement, according to a summary shown on state
television." http://t.uani.com/1kjRlH3
Opinion & Analysis
Henry Kissinger in WSJ: "The debate about
whether the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran regarding its
nuclear program stabilized the Middle East's strategic framework had
barely begun when the region's geopolitical framework collapsed. Russia's
unilateral military action in Syria is the latest symptom of the
disintegration of the American role in stabilizing the Middle East order
that emerged from the Arab-Israeli war of 1973... That geopolitical
pattern is now in shambles. Four states in the region have ceased to function
as sovereign. Libya, Yemen, Syria and Iraq have become targets for
nonstate movements seeking to impose their rule. Over large swaths in
Iraq and Syria, an ideologically radical religious army has declared
itself the Islamic State (also called ISIS or ISIL) as an unrelenting foe
of established world order. It seeks to replace the international
system's multiplicity of states with a caliphate, a single Islamic empire
governed by Shariah law. ISIS' claim has given the millennium-old split
between the Shiite and Sunni sects of Islam an apocalyptic dimension. The
remaining Sunni states feel threatened by both the religious fervor of
ISIS as well as by Shiite Iran, potentially the most powerful state in
the region. Iran compounds its menace by presenting itself in a dual
capacity. On one level, Iran acts as a legitimate Westphalian state
conducting traditional diplomacy, even invoking the safeguards of the
international system. At the same time, it organizes and guides nonstate
actors seeking regional hegemony based on jihadist principles: Hezbollah
in Lebanon and Syria; Hamas in Gaza; the Houthis in Yemen. Thus the Sunni
Middle East risks engulfment by four concurrent sources: Shiite-governed
Iran and its legacy of Persian imperialism; ideologically and religiously
radical movements striving to overthrow prevalent political structures;
conflicts within each state between ethnic and religious groups
arbitrarily assembled after World War I into (now collapsing) states; and
domestic pressures stemming from detrimental political, social and
economic domestic policies. The fate of Syria provides a vivid
illustration: What started as a Sunni revolt against the Alawite (a
Shiite offshoot) autocrat Bashar Assad fractured the state into its
component religious and ethnic groups, with nonstate militias supporting
each warring party, and outside powers pursuing their own strategic
interests. Iran supports the Assad regime as the linchpin of an Iranian
historic dominance stretching from Tehran to the Mediterranean. The Gulf States
insist on the overthrow of Mr. Assad to thwart Shiite Iranian designs,
which they fear more than Islamic State. They seek the defeat of ISIS
while avoiding an Iranian victory. This ambivalence has been deepened by
the nuclear deal, which in the Sunni Middle East is widely interpreted as
tacit American acquiescence in Iranian hegemony... Russia, Iran, ISIS and
various terrorist organizations have moved into this vacuum: Russia and
Iran to sustain Mr. Assad; Tehran to foster imperial and jihadist designs.
The Sunni states of the Persian Gulf, Jordan and Egypt, faced with the
absence of an alternative political structure, favor the American
objective but fear the consequence of turning Syria into another Libya.
American policy on Iran has moved to the center of its Middle East
policy. The administration has insisted that it will take a stand against
jihadist and imperialist designs by Iran and that it will deal sternly
with violations of the nuclear agreement. But it seems also passionately
committed to the quest for bringing about a reversal of the hostile,
aggressive dimension of Iranian policy through historic evolution
bolstered by negotiation. The prevailing U.S. policy toward Iran is often
compared by its advocates to the Nixon administration's opening to China,
which contributed, despite some domestic opposition, to the ultimate
transformation of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. The
comparison is not apt. The opening to China in 1971 was based on the
mutual recognition by both parties that the prevention of Russian
hegemony in Eurasia was in their common interest. And 42 Soviet divisions
lining the Sino-Soviet border reinforced that conviction. No comparable
strategic agreement exists between Washington and Tehran. On the
contrary, in the immediate aftermath of the nuclear accord, Iran's
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described the U.S. as the 'Great
Satan' and rejected negotiations with America about nonnuclear matters.
Completing his geopolitical diagnosis, Mr. Khamenei also predicted that
Israel would no longer exist in 25 years. Forty-five years ago, the
expectations of China and the U.S. were symmetrical. The expectations
underlying the nuclear agreement with Iran are not. Tehran will gain its
principal objectives at the beginning of the implementation of the
accord. America's benefits reside in a promise of Iranian conduct over a
period of time. The opening to China was based on an immediate and
observable adjustment in Chinese policy, not on an expectation of a
fundamental change in China's domestic system. The optimistic hypothesis
on Iran postulates that Tehran's revolutionary fervor will dissipate as
its economic and cultural interactions with the outside world
increase." http://t.uani.com/1KjW14C
MEMRI: "On October 18, 2015, the day set
as Adoption Day for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the
Iranian leadership continues to come out with statements opposing Iran's approval
of it. In the past few days, Iranian officials have clarified that Iran's
Majlis, Supreme National Security Council, and Guardian Council have not
approved the JCPOA; Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei tweeted, and posted on
his Facebook page, an announcement titled 'Negotiation With America Is
Forbidden'; and other Iranian officials have stated that Iran is
expecting the U.S. to announce that the sanctions have been terminated,
not suspended as the JCPOA stipulates. Khamenei's Facebook and Twitter
announcement: 'For America negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran
means penetration. This is their definition of negotiation and they want
to open the way for imposition. Negotation with America is forbidden,
because of its countless detriments and because of alleged advantages of
which it has none whatsoever.' @Khamenei_ir, October 16, 2015. In light
of these developments, it is not clear whether Iran will officially
announce its 'adoption' of the JCPOA. It is also not clear whether the
U.S. will announce its suspension of sanctions and the E.U. will announce
its termination of sanctions, as per the agreement. The following are
statements by Iranian officials on the matter." http://t.uani.com/1jx8VaA
Ann Telnaes in WashPost: "Atena Farghadani
has been imprisoned in Iran since January of 2015. Although she
describes herself as an activist and fine artist, her 12 year and nine
month sentence was due to an editorial cartoon she drew depicting Iranian
lawmakers as animals. (See below.) Farghadani created the cartoon in
response to a bill the lawmakers passed which would restrict
contraception, criminalize voluntary sterilization and would set Iranian
women's reproductive health back decades. Farghadani has been beaten and
interrogated for 9 hours at a time during her imprisonment and the
Iranian authorities have ignored repeated worldwide calls for her
release. Recently, Amnesty International reported that Farghadani had
been forced to undergo a 'virginity and pregnancy test' because she had
been seen shaking hands with her lawyer. Let's be clear, these 'virginity
tests', which were also used in Egypt against women protestors during the
Arab Spring, are sexual abuse. They are employed specifically against
women to intimidate and silence them from asserting their right to
freedom of expression. About a month ago I had the honor of accepting for
Farghadani the Courage in Cartooning Award, which is given by the Cartoonists
Rights Network International to 'a cartoonist who is in great danger or
has demonstrated exceptional courage in the exercise of free speech
rights.' (Disclosure: I am a former CRNI board member.) During my remarks
I pointed out the extraordinary courage she showed for standing up for
her beliefs and for the rights of her Iranian sisters even though she is
still but a young woman in her 20's. Although I've drawn cartoons for
years about women's rights I do so in a country where I have protection
under the First Amendment and I don't have to fear the possibility of
being thrown in jail for expressing an opinion. I doubt I could have been
as brave as Atena has been these last several months. The International
community should condemn Iranian leaders for their abusive treatment of
women and demand that Atena Farghadani be released from prison." http://t.uani.com/1Lk9FJa
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