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AP: "Iran said Wednesday it will
attend the international talks on Syria's future later this week in
Vienna, following an invitation from the Russian envoy that would mark
Tehran's first appearance at such a gathering. The invitation to the
talks came after the United States declared itself ready to engage
long-time foe Iran if it might help halt Syria's four-year civil war.
Iran is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad and has provided his
government with military and political backing for years. Tehran admits
that its Revolutionary Guard officers are on the ground in Syria in an
advisory role, but denies the presence of any combat troops in the
country. Iranian state TV quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Marzieh
Afkham, as saying Wednesday that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
will attend the talks. It didn't provide details but said Zarif discussed
the Syrian crisis with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, on Tuesday
night and Wednesday morning. The TV also said Deputy Foreign Ministers Hossein
Amir Abdollahian, Abbas Araghchi and Majid Takht-e-Ravanchi would
accompany Zarif on the trip. 'We believe the solution for Syria is a
political solution. Americans and foreign players in Syria have no choice
but to accept the realities in Syria,' Abdollahian told state TV
Wednesday. 'Assad ... has the necessary readiness for talks with
insurgents who are committed to a political path.' ... U.S. Secretary of
State John Kerry, Russia's Lavrov and several top European and Arab
diplomats, including those from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, will be attending
- a familiar cast that up to now has not included any Iranian
representatives. Kerry departs for the Austrian capital on
Wednesday." http://t.uani.com/1M1YJkR
NYT: "The special United Nations
investigator of human rights in Iran presented a highly critical report
on Tuesday that contradicted the Tehran government's own assessment,
describing a record rate of executions, a deeply flawed judiciary and
repression of journalists, dissidents, women and freedom of expression.
The conditions described by the investigator, Ahmed Shaheed, a former
Maldives foreign minister and an expert on human rights in
Muslim-majority countries, belied the image of moderation and eased
constraints that President Hassan Rouhani of Iran has sought to project
since his election in 2013. In some ways, Mr. Shaheed said, Iranians are
worse off than during the era of Mr. Rouhani's polarizing and relatively
conservative predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Amendments to a criminal
procedure law, for example, impose new restrictions on access to legal
counsel. Some defendants must now choose lawyers from a pool selected by
the head of the judiciary. 'The human rights situation in the country
remains dire,' Mr. Shaheed said in a briefing at the United Nations.
Despite Mr. Rouhani's pledge to lighten the repressive atmosphere that
prevailed during the Ahmadinejad years, Mr. Shaheed said, there was a 'strong
disconnect between the professed policy of engagement and the behavior of
authorities on the ground.' ... His most striking criticism dwelled on
what rights advocates have called Iran's increasing rate of executions,
mostly for nonviolent drug offenses, under Mr. Rouhani's administration,
which has given Iran the distinction as the top employer of the
death-penalty per capita of any country. Mr. Shaheed described the trend
as an 'unprecedented assault on the right to life in Iran.'" http://t.uani.com/1WhHlzp
Times of
Israel: "A
former Iranian president admitted this week that the country's nuclear
program was started with the intent of building a nuclear weapon, Iranian
dissidents said. The reported comments by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani to the
state-run IRNA news agency would appear to mark the first time a top
Iranian official - current or former - has said the country sought a
nuclear weapon, in contravention of repeated assurances by the regime
that its enrichment program is and always has been peaceful. The comments
by Rafsanjani, which do not appear on IRNA's English website, were first
reported on by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a dissident
group of Iranian exiles. Rafsanjani said the program was begun while the
country was at war with Iraq in the 1980s with the express consent and
participation of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to NCRI. 'Our basic
doctrine was peaceful usage of the nuclear technology although we never
abandoned the idea that if one day we are threatened and it is
imperative, we would have the capability for going the other path [to
nuclear weapon] as well,' Rafsanjani reportedly said... 'The statement by
Rafsanjani is an unequivocal testimony to the fact that the Iranian
regime, from the onset until present, and under direct supervision of
Khamenei and Rafsanjani, has been in search of the nuclear weapon and has
never abandoned it,' NCRI said in a statement... In the interview,
published Monday, Rafsanjani reveals that the country's nuclear program
was given a boost by renegade Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdel Qader
Khan, widely credited with also selling nuclear technology to North
Korea. He said he and Khamenei, who was at the time a politician and
close confidant of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, both went to Pakistan to
explore the issue after the outbreak of war with Iraq and a failed
bombing of Iraq's Osirak nuclear facility. 'Those years, we were all
thinking that we should arm ourselves with deterrent elements since the
war was not about to end and in our defensive policies we had the word of
Imam [Khomeini] in mind that the war may last 20 years,' he said." http://t.uani.com/1LYFHsa
Nuclear
Program & Agreement
Tehran
Times: "Iranian
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says redesigning the Arak nuclear
reactor will not be a single project, noting it will be implemented in
three phases. 'The project will be carried out under the management of
Iran. In other words, others sides will somehow work along with us,'
Zarif said on Tuesday. 'In the first phase, the joint statement between
Salehi, the U.S. energy minister and the Chinese counterpart was issued,'
Zarif said. 'In the second phase, the official document will be signed by
ministers or other high-ranking officials of Iran and the 5+1 group. And
the third phase will be about details of each project related to the Arak
reactor.' The redesigning process of the Arak reactor will be conducted
in compliance with the Supreme Leader's guidelines, decisions of the
Supreme National Security Council and the parliament's approval, he
noted." http://t.uani.com/1LYFS6O
Military
Matters
Tasnim
(Iran): "The
CEO of Russia's intermediary agency for exports and imports of
defense-related products, Rosoboronexport, said Iran will withdraw its lawsuit
against Russia over S-300 as soon as a new contract on delivery of the
missile system is finalized between the two countries. 'The Iranian side
will withdraw its lawsuit as soon as the contact takes effect and we are
in full compliance with our liabilities,' Anatoly Isaikin said on
Tuesday, Russia's news agency Tass reported. 'The completion of the
contract on the S-300 missile system for Iran was suspended and we've
been given the order to renew work and as the executors, we are doing
this, but much time has gone by and the S-300 system has changed so we're
working on the modernization of the system,' he added. Under a contract
signed in 2007, Russia was required to provide Iran with at least five
S-300 defense system batteries." http://t.uani.com/1kRy7sM
U.S.-Iran
Relations
Breitbart: "Siamak Namazi, an
Iranian-American citizen who helped establish a pro-Tehran lobbying group
in America, has been arrested in Iran and imprisoned indefinitely. Mr.
Namazi was visiting family in Tehran when he was arrested by Iranian
Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) soldiers and sent to Evin Prison,
according to Iranian media reports. The detention center is infamously known
for its horrific mistreatment of prisoners. The facility is noted for its
routine 'beatings, torture, mock executions, and brutal interrogations,'
experts have said. As the 5th American citizen now held hostage by the
regime, Namazi joins the Washington Post's Jason Rezaian, former FBI
agent Robert Levinson, Christian pastor Saeed Abedini, and former U.S.
Marine Amir Hekmati. Namazi has been described as one of the
'intellectual architects' of the National Iranian American Council
(NIAC), a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group that has been accused of
working in support of the regime in Tehran." http://t.uani.com/1HaLmta
Fars
(Iran):
"Washington has come to realize that it lacks the ability to pose an
effective military threat to Iran and has, thus, shifted its focus to
soft war plots as its main agenda, Head of Iran's Civil Defense
Organization Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali said Wednesday. 'For
different reasons, the US does not deem the military option against Iran
as to be effective... ,' Jalali said, addressing Civil Defense Conference
in Tehran on Wednesday. Jalali further pointed to the US role in the 2009
post-election unrest in Iran and Washington's efforts to influence the
elections mechanisms in the country, and said, 'Permanent and continued
penetration into the country is their plan and approach, and to stand
against this plan, a serious approach is needed in the cyberspace and in
mobile-related cyberspace to confront the enemy.'" http://t.uani.com/1S9lYu7
Free
Beacon: "Iran
is hosting a three-day conference this week focusing on 'police brutality
against blacks in America,' according to the event announcement. Foreign
Desk reported that the event's organizer, Nader Talebzadeh, told an
Iranian news outlet that he had extended invitations to the conference to
30 'anti-Israel blacks' from the United States. He said that the
conference, beginning Monday, would feature 'human rights defenders' and
'social activists.' ... Talebzadeh labeled the conference the 'beginning
of a cultural revolution and resistance and an international model for
public diplomacy.' Another conference organizer, Reza Montazami, likened
the treatment of blacks by law enforcement in America to the way in which
the 'Zionist regime' treats Palestinians in Israel. 'Israeli and American
forces are working together. It is evident that the way police treat
blacks is identical to the treatment of Palestinians by the Zionist
regime in Israel,' Montazami said. 'It is my belief that Americans should
consider it imperative to start making their own decisions and not allow
the Zionists to interfere in important intellectual matters.'" http://t.uani.com/1N7BfvI
Mehr
(Iran): "The
third edition of Iran's International New Horizon Independent Conference
started its programs in the capital city of Tehran on October 27. A
number of senior journalists, authors, anti-US musicians, political
analyists, university professors and renowned political activists took
part in the event. The participants attending the three-day event are
mostly from the United States, and also several countries of Europe. The
first panel of the event hosted the presentations of several experts
focused on police brutality, racism and discrimination against blacks in
the US. A number of Iranian experts and US scholars and thinkers
presented lectures criticizing police brutality against African
Americans, massacre of African Americans and widespread human rights violations
both in domestic and international arenas in the US community. The first
day of the conference included interesting and passionate lectures by
American scholars, including Cicile Johnson and Wilmer Leon, and a
beautiful performance by African American poet Amir Suleiman who read a
poem describing unfortunate conditions of blacks in the US. Meanwhile,
three books on Zionism, Israeli lobbies, collapse of morality in the West
and racism in the US community were revealed and discussed during the conference."
http://t.uani.com/1ka7qPr
Sanctions
Relief
IHS
Maritime 360: "A
delegation from the Port of Antwerp visited Iran last week, along with
officials in the shipping and commerce sectors hoping to exploit relaxed
sanctions. Led by port alderman and port authority chairman Marc Van
Peel, the group of petrochemical and shipping experts met in Tehran with
various ministries, petrochemical organisations, and private companies.
The exploratory mission was aimed at making contact with official bodies,
the Belgian port said. 'Up until 2010 Antwerp was the largest European
port destination for Iranian cargoes,' Van Peel said. 'In the light of
the recent nuclear agreement and the raising of economic sanctions, we
wanted to let the Iranians know directly that Antwerp is still the ideal
hub for reaching the European hinterland.' ... In August Contship Italia,
Italy's largest container terminal operator, signed a strategic
memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Sina Port and Marine, Iran's
biggest port company. Diego Aponte, the CEO of Mediterranean Shipping Co,
and Sultan bin Sulayem, chairman of DP World, the Dubai-based global
container terminal operator, have also visited Iran recently. Maersk Line
has said it sees great potential in Iran but is not expected to enter the
market until sanctions are officially lifted. The sanction rollbacks are
expected to be phased in from next year. Hanjin Shipping and Yang Ming
have added Bandar Abbas to their Asia-Middle East services, as has CMA
CGM. Most carriers dropped Iran from their networks in 2012-13 after
sanctions were tightened, while a few, including Wan Hai and Pacific
International Lines, resumed calls at Bandar Abbas in 2014 when the
restrictions were eased." http://t.uani.com/1kO0JmC
Reuters: "Iran's exports of crude oil
and condensate dropped to a seven-month low this month, hit by refinery
maintenance and a lull in demand ahead of winter, according to an
industry source with knowledge of the nation's tanker loading schedule.
Still, loadings of the light oil condensate grade were robust - the
second highest for the year - due to Iran's attractive pricing relative
to other producers, the source said. Iran this month exported 1.07
million barrels per day (bpd) of crude and condensate, down 13 percent
from revised figures in September and the lowest since March, when India
and Japan took no oil to stay within sanction limits, said the source who
keeps a close watch on the producer's shipping programme. Asia's Iranian
crude oil imports for the last two years have dipped in October, however,
before recovering due to seasonal winter demand, and some industry
sources said Chinese loadings are likely to rebound again in the coming
months. Iran's exports of condensate, a by-product of natural gas output,
in October totalled 240,000 bpd, the second-highest this year and down 10
percent from top-month September. Industry sources attributed the recent
high condensate shipments in part to Unipec - the trading arm of Chinese
state giant Sinopec - resuming its purchases after laying off the light
oil for several months, taking about 1 million barrels each month in
September and October." http://t.uani.com/1HaJVe9
Tehran
Times:
"Brazilian firms expressed interest in furthering cooperation with
post-sanctions Iran in the evening follow-up to the minister-level
conference of Iranian and Brazilian economic decision-makers in Tehran.
Representatives from Brazilian companies of SOFTEX, ABIMO, MARFRIG and
FANEM reviewed their potentials and capabilities in the event. SOFTEX
President Ruben Delgado, key Brazilian software and IT service provider,
stated his company can cooperate with Iranian firms in fields such as application
stores and cyber defense as well as IT marketing and technical training.
Also, Carlo Porto of ABIMO, Brazilian medical devices manufacturer, noted
that her company is ready to collaborate with Iranians particularly in
consumables, dental products, and medical equipment. Third speaker of the
event was the commercial director of the food-producing MARFRIG Alisson
Navarro. To Navarro, Iran's market is very luring as the company has been
exporting fresh and frozen beef to Iran as of 2001 and the sanctions
relief would ease money transfer and goods delivery between the two
countries. The last speaker of the event was export manager Jose Flosi of
FANEM, Brazilian medical equipment manufacturer, who saw the possibility
of either manufacturing or assembling medical and lab equipment in Iran
through joint ventures provided conditions for doing business are
provided." http://t.uani.com/1jR7DYe
Syria
Conflict
NYT: "Iran has been invited to join
talks in Vienna this week with Russia, the United States and European
nations on whether a political resolution is possible in the Syrian civil
war. If Iran accepts, it will be the first time Secretary of State John
Kerry will enter formal negotiations with Tehran on issues beyond the
nuclear accord reached in July... But the American denunciation of Iran's
activities in Syria, including its support for Mr. Assad's forces and for
terror groups like Hezbollah, has always prevented the United States from
including Iran in formal talks about the Syrian crisis. The State
Department spokesman, John Kirby, buried that policy at a briefing on
Tuesday, before it was announced that Mr. Kerry would attend the meeting
on Syria in Vienna on Thursday and Friday. 'We anticipate that Iran will
be invited to attend this upcoming meeting,' Mr. Kirby said. Mr. Kirby
added that the United States still opposed what he termed Iran's
'destabilizing activities' in Syria. But he said that the United States
'recognized that at some point in the discussion, moving toward a
political transition, we have to have a conversation and a dialogue with
Iran.' ... The Vienna II meeting, as it is called, comes as Western
diplomats seek to advance a United Nations Security Council resolution
that would ban Mr. Assad's use of barrel bombs." http://t.uani.com/1NADUfy
CNN: "Iran is increasing its
military presence in Syria, a top commander told Iranian television
Monday. Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, deputy commander of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Corps, said Iran is increasing the quality and
quantity of its presence in Syria, according to Iranian media. He
described their mission as an advisory role to help the Syrian army loyal
to President Bashar al-Assad... A U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency
official estimated that since 2013, Iran has lost eight senior Iranian
commanders in Syria, including at least six generals. 'Replacing
commanders is not easy,' said a U.S. counterterrorism official. 'Iran's
deepening involvement in the conflict suggests Tehran will have to weigh
the risks of propping up the Assad regime even more carefully.' Salami
did not say how many Iranians are now in Syria, but a top American
commander Tuesday gave senators a general estimate of Iran's military
presence in Syria, as well as in Iraq. 'I think there's more than 1,000
Iranians that are on the ground in Iraq,' said Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr.,
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 'In Syria, we think the numbers
are probably something less than 2,000.'" http://t.uani.com/1jR3ovE
LAT: "Russian bombing and Iranian-backed
forces have helped give Syrian President Bashar Assad's embattled forces
an advantage in the country's bitter civil war, the top U.S. military
officer said Tuesday, suggesting a sharp setback for the Obama
administration. Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, appeared to contradict upbeat assessments by the White House
last month that indicated Assad's government had suffered a series of
military losses and was losing control. Although the long-term effect is
far from clear, Pentagon intelligence has concluded for now that Russian
air attacks, which began Sept. 30, and growing involvement by
Iranian-backed forces have helped Assad's military advance on several
critical fronts and extend his grip on power. 'The balance of forces
right now are in Assad's advantage,' Dunford, who visited the region last
week, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. Citing the Obama
administration's continued failure to find a reliable military partner in
Syria, Dunford said, 'No one is satisfied with our progress to
date.'" http://t.uani.com/1jR754y
Reuters: "A senior member of Syria's
Western-backed political opposition came out on Wednesday against Iranian
participation in Syrian peace talks in Vienna, saying their presence
would undermine the political process... Hisham Marwa, Vice-President of
the Turkey-based Syrian National Coalition, criticized any participation
in the talks by Tehran but stopped short of saying it would refuse
participation itself if Iran was involved. 'Iran doesn't believe in the
Geneva Communiqué. Involving it (Iran) in talks undermines the political
process,' he told Reuters, speaking of an internationally agreed document
setting out guidelines for Syria's path to peace and a political
transition. Asked whether the Coalition would refuse to take part in
talks, he said, 'What's important now is not to refuse talks, it is
important to express our concern. Iran has only one project - to keep
Assad in power... they don't believe in the principle of the talks'. In
January 2014 the opposition body refused to attend political talks in
Switzerland unless the United Nations retracted its invitation to
Iran." http://t.uani.com/1P4OEV6
AFP: "A spike in the number of
Iranian military officers killed in Syria has started a rare debate back
home about the country's increased efforts to prop up President Bashar
al-Assad. In Tehran, where war dead are revered and remembered in giant
public murals, newly erected memorials are a sign of the human cost that
Iran is paying in Syria, amid worries of what is to come... The past two
weeks have seen the deaths there of one of Iran's best known generals,
Hossein Hamedani, two colonels and nine other members of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The mounting toll has followed
Russia's launch of an air campaign in support of Assad that has coincided
with an escalation in the ground war. The confluence of events has for
the first time in Iran led some to openly question the country's
four-year involvement in Syria, with concerns aired on social media... In
an admission of the difficulties, the IRGC's deputy commander gave an
extensive interview on state television on Monday night, in what appeared
to be an effort to address public concern. 'They must visit the scene...
and must get to know the realities on the ground in order to be able to advise.
They cannot sit in rooms and help the Syrian army,' said Brigadier
General Hossein Salami. 'Our presence increased in quantity and quality.
Our number of martyrs is not high, but compared to before it is more
noticeable,' he said, conceding that Syria had asked for more help."
http://t.uani.com/1RBhrjc
Trend: "The number of Iran's Islamic
Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) casualties in Syria reached 20 in the last
week, semi-official Defapress news agency reported Oct. 27. Jabbar
Araghi, Hamid Reza Dayi Taghi and Pouya Izadi who were the members of the
IRGC were killed in fighting with 'terrorist' in Syria on Oct. 26. Araghi
was introduced as IRGC 'Sardar', which is equal to General in
international military ranking. Pouya Izadi was an IRGC lieutenant while
no information was published about Dayi Taghi's military rank. The IRGC
members, who were killed in Syria in the last week, mainly have lost
their lives in clashes near Aleppo, according to the Iranian media."
http://t.uani.com/1ihAJhN
Human
Rights
AP: "Executions in Iran have been
rising at 'an exponential rate' since 2005 and could top 1,000 this year
as the country cracks down on drug offenders, a U.N. investigator said
Tuesday. Ahmed Shaheed said in a report to the General Assembly and at
media briefings that Iran executes more individuals per capita than any
other country in the world. He said the majority of executions violate
international laws that ban the use of capital punishment for non-violent
offenses and for juveniles. He urged Iran to impose a moratorium on the
death penalty in those cases, and for all but the 'most serious crimes'
where it can be shown there was an intention to kill that resulted in the
loss of life. Shaheed, the special investigator on the human rights
situation in Iran, said the 'shocking 753 executions' carried out by Iran
in 2014 - the highest number ever - will be topped this year. In the
first seven months of 2015, at least 694 people were reportedly executed
by hanging, he said, and a number of human rights organizations now
report that well over 800 individuals have been executed in the last 10
months. 'And there are dozens more waiting a similar fate on death row,'
he added. Shaheed called the rate of executions 'alarming' and said Iran
is 'possibly on track to exceed 1,000 by the end of the year.' He said 69
percent of the executions during the first six months of 2015 were
reportedly for drug-related offenses, reflecting the increasing influx of
drugs and rising drug abuse in the country." http://t.uani.com/20a6BXH
IranWire: "A prominent global
communications technology expert has gone missing after participating in
a conference in Tehran, IranWire has learned. Nazar Zakka, a Lebanese
information and communications technology (ICT) expert, disappeared on
September 18 after attending a conference on Entrepreneurship and
Employment at the 2nd International Conference & Exhibition on Women
in Sustainable Development in Tehran. President Rouhani's Vice President
for Women and Family Affairs Shahindokht Molaverdi invited Zakka to the
four-day conference, where he delivered a speech about the role of ICT in
empowering women on September 18, after arriving in Iran on September 11.
Zakka also took part in round-table discussions at the meeting, which was
attended by high-level Iranian ministry officials. On September 18, Zakka
left his hotel by taxi to travel to the airport to travel back to Beirut.
He did not arrive back in his home country... The announcement of Zakka's
disappearance follows the arrests of two other businessmen who had
traveled to Iran to explore business opportunities. On October 15,
security agents arrested Siamak Namazi, the Iranian-American director of
the strategic planning office of Crescent Oil Company. At the time of his
arrest, agents ransacked Namazi's family's home and confiscated personal
items. Prior to this, around the same time as Zakka's arrest, authorities
detained a Europe-based Iranian businessman." http://t.uani.com/1GJ0mDv
ICHRI: "Esmail Gerami Moghaddam, a
former Member of Parliament and spokesman for a reformist party has been
sentenced to six years in prison. Moghaddam's lawyer, Nemat Ahmadi, told
the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that the trial took
place on September 29, 2015, and was presided by Judge Salavati who
issued a sentence of five years in prison for 'collusion against the
state.' Salavati also reinstated a one-year prison sentence issued
earlier against Moghaddam in absentia for 'propaganda against the state'
based on Article 500 of Iran's Islamic Penal Code." http://t.uani.com/1LYFrJI
ICHRI: "Student activist Amin Anvari,
21, who received a suspended prison sentence earlier this year for
Facebook postings promoting basic civil liberties, has been arrested and
held without charge at Evin Prison's Ward 2-A by Iran's Revolutionary
Guards since October 4, 2015, and is under intense pressure to make false
confessions, according to a family member. 'They are threatening us and
harassing us just to put pressure on Amin in prison. I'm sure of that.
They want him to agree to confess to lies,' Amin Anvari's mother, Farah
Bakhshi, told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran... Amin
Anvari was first arrested on December 30, 2014, because of his Facebook
posts on basic civil rights. He was released the same day on
300-million-rial (approximately $10,000) bond. In July 2015, he was tried
at Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court presided by Judge
Ahmadzadeh and sentenced to two and a half years in prison for
'propaganda against the state,' 'insulting the Supreme Leader,' and
'insulting Mohammad Taghi Mesbagh Yazdi' (a member of the Council of
Experts). But his sentence was suspended for five years." http://t.uani.com/1kRlDBi
Opinion
& Analysis
Khaled
Bahah in WSJ:
"In a region racked by strife, Yemen stands out. It is the poorest
country in the Middle East and since March the plight of my people has
been worsened by an inhumane war. The people of Yemen elected President
Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in February 2012 to preserve the country's unity,
independence and territorial integrity, while leading all Yemenis toward
a brighter future. But that future has been stolen by Iranian-backed
Houthi militia, who drove our legitimate government from office and have
committed countless human-rights abuses, documented by the U.N. In
response, a broad, international coalition led by Saudi Arabia, and with
Yemen's national army, is working to liberate our country from illegal,
foreign-sponsored control. Although the battle for Yemen's future has
been intense, we have recently made significant progress. In July the
port city of Aden was wrested from Houthi control and is now the
temporary base of the legitimate government... In its practices, the
Houthi group enjoys the support of a regional power. My country is keen
to have good relations with all countries, including the Islamic Republic
of Iran, provided that principles enshrined in the U.N.
charter-particularly non-interference in internal affairs-are respected
and observed. But Tehran must choose: Either it continues to sow discord
and maintain relations with a seditious movement, the Houthis, or it
deals with Yemen's legitimate authority. The end of this conflict cannot
come soon enough. In their callous disregard for the rule of law, the
Houthis have opened up a dangerous power vacuum in parts of the country,
which al Qaeda and ISIS-the sworn enemies of humanity-are exploiting. As
a result, much more than the future of my country is at stake. Failure in
Yemen will reverberate regionally and globally, emboldening and empowering
extremists. Victory will send a powerful message beyond our shores that
Yemenis are committed to defend their inalienable right to
self-determination, to prosper in peace and to project those values
throughout the Middle East." http://t.uani.com/1KFs6UX
Robin
Wright in The New Yorker: "Iran can no longer downplay its intervention in
Syria's civil war; there are too many public funerals these days. Two
generals were killed in action this month. So was a senior bodyguard of
former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In recent weeks, senior
Revolutionary Guards commanders-advertised as 'military advisers'-have
died on three separate fronts. The human cost of Iran's intervention in
Syria, on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad, started small, and with
little notice. The first to die were young paramilitary fighters. I
learned of one of the early casualties in December, 2013, when I visited
Zahra's Paradise, the largest cemetery in Tehran. It sprawls across many
blocks. One section is devoted to martyrs killed during the devastating
eight-year war with Iraq, in the nineteen-eighties. Iran's Shiites revere
the dead, especially their martyrs, so the cemetery is a good place to
gauge public opinion. Among the old tombstones, and the families
picnicking among them, I found a new grave. It had been squeezed in, next
to a sidewalk. The red rose petals strewn across it, and the yellow
flowers that neatly circled it, were fresh. A picture identified the man
buried there as a martyr, Mohammad Hassan Khalili, a
twenty-seven-year-old with dark hair and light facial stubble. An Iranian
flag had been draped over the temporary headstone. A banner said that he
belonged to a paramilitary wing of the Revolutionary Guards called the
Basij. He died protecting the Tomb of Zaynab, a site of pilgrimages to
honor the granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad, one of Shiism's early
heroines. It's on the outskirts of Damascus. The Islamic Republic described
the first men to die as a few young 'volunteers' deployed to protect
symbols of the faith. The numbers have escalated since then. In June, the
Islamic Republic News Agency reported that more than four hundred
volunteers from Iran, including Afghan refugees living in the country,
had died in Syria so far. Iranian news agencies and social media are now
rife with stories about senior officers killed in Syria on the war's
toughest front lines. Last week, Iran's Fars News Agency reported that
the death toll hit eight in just two days. The funerals have become major
events, sometimes drawing thousands onto Tehran's streets to escort the
coffins to Zahra's Paradise. Iran has increasingly been forced to
acknowledge its losses-including at least four generals in the past
year-with some reports suggesting that twice that number have been killed
since the intervention began. Brigadier General Hossein Hamedani, who was
killed on October 8th, was given a state funeral. Iran's Supreme Leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, personally called on Hamedani's family to convey
his condolences. Khamenei's official Twitter account, in English, lauded
the general for fulfilling his 'martyrdom wish.' Hamedani's death was a
setback for Iran-and possibly for Syria, too. According to Jane's Defense
Weekly, Syria's regular Army has been halved since the war began, in
2011. Assad has increasingly relied on leaders in Iran to develop
strategy, and counted on Hezbollah, Iran's proxy force in Lebanon, to
provide new fighters. Hamedani was the senior Iranian tactician in
northern Syria, where the regime is simultaneously fighting
Western-backed rebels, the Islamic State, a local Al Qaeda franchise, and
smaller militias. Hamedani was a hero of the war with Iraq-the deadliest
modern conflict in the Middle East-and his death was the most notable
Iranian military loss since that war ended. Iran has provided few details
about any of the deaths. But the locations, in three different parts of
Syria, offer insight into the scope of Iran's intervention. General
Hamedani was killed on the outskirts of Aleppo, which is Syria's largest
city, its commercial center, and, today, the war's most important front
line. On October 13th, two Revolutionary Guards commanders, both
colonels, died in southern Syria, Iranian news agencies reported. On
October 22nd, Brigadier General Reza Khavari died in clashes around Hama,
in central Syria. Earlier this year, in January, Brigadier General
Mohammad Ali Allahdadi was killed, along with six Hezbollah fighters,
when an Israeli air strike hit southern Quneitra. In February, 2013,
Revolutionary Guards Brigadier General Hassan Shateri was assassinated in
the vicinity of Syria's western border with Lebanon. Tehran blamed
'agents and supporters of the Zionist regime.' The Iranians are dying in
gun battles, not just on the sidelines or while protecting religious
shrines. This month, a senior commander in the Basij, Nader Hamid, died
of gunshot wounds suffered in a battle around Quneitra. He was reportedly
coördinating a campaign by Hezbollah and a Syrian militia against
Western-backed rebels. In April, Major General Hadi Kajbaf and three
other Iranians died fighting rebels sixty miles south of Damascus. Iran
has been sucked deeper into the Syrian conflict in phases." http://t.uani.com/1XyJmEz
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