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Middle
East Eye:
"Iranian and Lebanese forces are in de facto control of Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad's army, according to former Syrian soldiers.
Khaled al-Shami told Middle East Eye columnist Lara Nelson that foreign
militias have overrun the Syrian army. 'One important thing to realise is
that there is no Syrian army anymore, it is just militias, mostly
Iranians and Lebanese,' he told Nelson, in a column published on
Wednesday. Shami defected from Assad's troops to join the Syrian
opposition in July. He was a soldier in the ninth armoured division and
served in southern Syria, where President Assad's forces are battling a
coalition of rebel groups. Now living in Jordan, Shami said that 70
percent of troops in the ninth armoured division are either Lebanese or
Iranian... Former Syrian soldier Shami said his experience in the army
suggested Iran and Hezbollah are not playing a supporting role, and
instead are controlling President Assad's forces. 'The Iranians and
Hezbollah are not under the control of the Syrian army, it's the exact
opposite,' he said. 'Ten high-ranking Iranian officers control the [ninth
armoured] division, they plan the operations. Only Iranian or Hezbollah
forces can access operations rooms, no Syrian soldiers are allowed in.'
Shami said that in battles 'the commander is an Iranian IRGC (Iran's
Revolutionary Guard Corps), his deputy will be a Hezbollah officer.' Abu
Osama al-Jolani, a Free Syrian Army commander and former Syrian army
officer, told Nelson: 'Everyone we are fighting now are foreigners.'
Another Syrian army officer who had defected told Nelson that Syrians in
President Assad's army are treated poorly compared with Iranians and
Lebanese." http://t.uani.com/1Xet2GW
Reuters: "The U.N. General Assembly's
human rights committee on Thursday criticized Iran for cracking down on
activists, journalists and dissidents and its increased use of the death
penalty, a rebuke Tehran dismissed as 'Iranophobia.' The non-binding
resolution, which was drafted by Canada, was adopted by the 193-nation
assembly's Third Committee with 76 votes in favor, 35 against and 68
abstentions... It noted the 'alarming high frequency' of the death
penalty in the Islamic Republic. The resolution said Iran continued to
execute minors in violation of international conventions it has signed.
It also said some juvenile executions were for offenses not considered
'most serious crimes.' Iran's deputy U.N. representative, Ambassador
Gholamhossein Dehghani, slammed the resolution as a 'selective and
politicized distortion of facts' reflective of 'nothing but baseless and
pure speculation and hearsay and ... Iranophobia.' He had sharp words for
Canada, saying it 'stubbornly continued a deliberate policy of
incitement' toward Iran... The resolution urged Tehran to improve
conditions in Iranian prisons and ensure there was no torture. It demanded
that Iran end what it said were 'widespread and serious restrictions, in
law and in practice, on the right to freedom of expression, opinion,
association and peaceful assembly' of dissidents and human rights
defenders. It said they were subjected to 'ongoing harassment,
intimidation, arbitrary detention and prosecution.'" http://t.uani.com/1HcJhCG
Reuters: "The U.N. General Assembly's
human rights committee on Thursday adopted a Saudi-drafted resolution
condemning Iranian and Russian intervention in Syria, a decision that the
Syrian and Iranian delegations rejected as unhelpful and unjustified. The
non-binding resolution, authored by Saudi Arabia and co-sponsored by
Qatar and other Arab nations, the United States and other Western powers,
was adopted by the 193-nation assembly's Third Committee. There were 115
votes in favor, 15 against and 51 abstentions. Without explicitly naming
Russia, it said the General Assembly 'strongly condemns all attacks
against the Syrian moderate opposition and calls for their immediate
cessation, given that such attacks benefit so-called ISIL (Daesh) and
other terrorist groups, such as al Nusra Front.' 'ISIL' and 'Daesh' are
names for Islamic State... The resolution also condemned the presence in
Syria of 'all foreign terrorist fighters ... and foreign forces fighting
on behalf of the Syrian regime, particularly the al Quds Brigades, the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (of Iran) and militia groups, such as
Hezbollah.'" http://t.uani.com/1PR1R4v
Nuclear
Program & Agreement
AFP: "Iran's atomic agency chief
said Thursday the path was clear for final implementation of a nuclear
deal with world powers after 'guarantees' were received on the redesign
of a controversial reactor. Ali Akbar Salehi's remarks came a day after
UN inspectors reported that Iran had started to dismantle parts of its
nuclear programme in compliance with the agreement struck in July with
the United States and five other leading states. However his statement
spoke mostly of planned alterations to Iran's heavy water reactor at
Arak, which under the deal is to have its core removed and filled with
concrete so that it cannot produce substantial quantities of plutonium.
The changes, made with foreign help, will cut off a possible route to an
atomic bomb, with the reactor being used for research. All its spent fuel
is to be shipped out of the country... Salehi, quoted by the official
IRNA news agency, said foreign ministers of the P5+1 group -- Britain,
China, France, Russia and the US plus Germany -- had now signed a formal
document relating to the Arak reactor's 'redesign and modernisation'.
'The other side has guaranteed to cooperate. The path is clear for full
implementation of JCPOA,' Salehi said, referring to the nuclear deal by
its official name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action." http://t.uani.com/1NH4DVv
Tasnim
(Iran): "An
official document on redesigning Iran's heavy-water reactor in Arak is a
firm, legally binding compact, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of
Iran (AEOI) asserted. 'The document on redesigning the Arak (reactor) is
very rigid in legal terms, because the six (foreign) ministers of the
Group 5+1 members, the European Union representative as well as our
country's foreign minister have signed it,' Ali Akbar Salehi said in a
televised interview on Thursday night. He said the pact 'is one of the
most credible international documents,' because it has been signed by the
governments, not by the companies." http://t.uani.com/1jbeudM
U.S.-Iran
Relations
ICHRI: "Hardliners in Iran's
Parliament, Judiciary, and Revolutionary Guards are intensifying a broad
crackdown on supporters of human rights and free elections, in a campaign
underpinned by supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei's assertion that the US
seeks to 'infiltrate' and undermine the Islamic Republic. The crackdown
has resulted in the arrests and prosecutions of growing numbers of
journalists, peaceful activists, reformists, dual Iranian-American
nationals, and cultural figures. In an October 12, 2015 speech posted on
Khameini's official website, he warned of 'the danger of America's
influence' and of the West's 'carefully planned soft war' designed to
change the essence and direction of the Islamic Republic. 'What's
important in this soft war is that they want an Islamic Republic only in
name, with a religious figure still at its helm, who would pave the way
for the Americans, Zionists and powerful world networks.'" http://t.uani.com/1PEpiPQ
Extremism
Mehr
(Iran): "Tehran
Friday Prayers of this week was led by Ayatollah Khatami who commented on
Paris terrorist attack. The terrorist attacks of Paris are vehemently
condemned by Islamic teachings, said Ayatollah Seyed Ahmad Khatami in his
second sermon of weekly ritual of Tehran Friday Prayers. The interim Friday
Prayers leader made the remark in the beginning of his five points about
Paris tragedy. The ISIL and other extremist terrorist groups are the
outcome of an intention to distort Islam and the time of their appearance
coincided with the Islamic Awakening that was a time of rise for Islam,
asserted the top cleric as the second point of his comments on the
attack... For the fourth in his list of notes on Paris Attacks, Ayatollah
Khatami blamed the French politician for wrong policies in dealing with
terrorism and the ISIL. The misery and insecurity felt in Paris over the
past week is a tiny sample of what the Westerners have created for
Syrians over the past five years, stressed the cleric saying that, 'the
French have homed anti-Iran terrorists like Mujahedin-e Khalgh
Organization (MKO) for many years, those who assassinated Iranian
President Rajaei, Prime Minister Bahonar, and Ayatollah Beheshti along
with his 72 colleagues.' Those snakes you brought up in Syria, now are
biting you, said the Ayatollah referring to a Persian proverb." http://t.uani.com/1MZ74SB
Sanctions
Relief
Bloomberg: "Iran plans to unify the rial's
exchange rates with the dollar after the nuclear accord signed with world
powers is implemented, according to the country's central bank Governor
Valiollah Seif. 'We have a very stable currency market, but to proceed toward
a unified exchange rate requires accelerating the country's access to
foreign currency,' Seif said in an interview in Frankfurt on Wednesday.
'It can happen once the nuclear deal is implemented, maximum six months
after that.' Iran has both an official exchange rate to the dollar and
another rate that is used in unregulated markets. The rial traded at
35,750 per dollar on the street on Wednesday, compared to the official
rate of 29,970 cited on the central bank's website... Iran's economy will
expand less than 3 percent this year, with growth rising to 5 percent in
the Iranian year starting March 2016 boosted by oil sales, industrial
output and tourism, he said. Inflation will fall to 'single-digits' next
year, from 13 percent, he said." http://t.uani.com/1T3PsdA
Tehran
Times: "The
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias would lead a 40-member economic
delegation to Iran in late November, the Tasnim News Agency cited the
report of Greek daily newspaper, Ekathimerini on Wednesday. 40
Greek entrepreneurs in different fields will be scanning the Iranian
market for business opportunities as several sectors are hoping to
penetrate the Iranian market. The delegation to Tehran will include
representatives of Aegean Airlines as well as construction materials and
food companies. Representatives of Greek pharmaceutical companies such as
ELPEN, Demo and Vianex are also part of the delegation." http://t.uani.com/1I3Q8cf
Syria
Conflict
Reuters: "Around 55 Iranian military
personnel have been killed in Syria's civil war, Israeli intelligence
believes, and a think-tank close to Israel's spy services said the toll
is undermining support among Iranians for Iran's actions in Syria...
Speaking to Reuters, a senior Israeli military officer cited Israeli
intelligence findings that '55-plus' Iranian personnel had been killed in
clashes with Syrian rebels, in addition to a Hezbollah death toll he put
at between 1,000 and 2,000... Israel's Meir Amit Intelligence and
Terrorism Information Center said in a report that 53 Iranians, including
elite troops and senior officers, had been killed in Syria as of Nov.
15... A regional security source who declined to be identified by name or
nationality said that, at its peak, the Iranian force deployed in Syria
was made up of 1,800 personnel but that number had since been reduced to
1,300. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had called for the current
deployment to be halved but was coming up against opposition from
hardliners in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the source added,
declining to say where this information came from." http://t.uani.com/1O7FlED
Human
Rights
ICHRI: "The recently announced arrests
of 170 people in Qazvin Province, a number of others in Gilan Province,
and five journalists in Tehran, all by Iran's Revolutionary Guards,
amounts to the largest crackdown since the violent state suppression of
the protests that followed the disputed 2009 presidential election in
Iran. Judiciary officials have expressed no knowledge about the arrests
in Qazvin and it is not clear whether the Revolutionary Guards acted
directly or with a court warrant. 'These arrests by the Revolutionary
Guards are effectively abductions, not arrests,' said Hadi Ghaemi,
executive director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in
Iran, 'because the Judiciary says they know nothing about at least 170 of
them.' 'People are transferred to unknown locations, without oversight by
the Judiciary,' continued Ghaemi, 'and if the Judiciary disavows
knowledge of it, that means the Guards are arresting people without
judicial warrants.' The Revolutionary Guards' Gerdab website reported on
October 16, 2015, that the Guards' cyber unit in Qazvin Province had
arrested 170 'managers of groups active in mobile social networks.' Their
announcement, which was also carried by the Fars news agencies, both of
which are close to the Revolutionary Guards, claimed that those who were
arrested were acting 'against moral security' and distributing 'indecent
and immoral' content in the form of text and images that 'encouraged
people to commit obscene acts' and 'insult ethnic minorities, officials
and distinguished national figures.'" http://t.uani.com/1SLNq0Q
AFP: "Iran on Thursday accused
countries backing a UN resolution criticizing its rights record of
spreading 'Iranophobia' and said they should instead focus on the threat
from violent Islamic extremists. The resolution drafted by Canada was
backed by a vote of 76 to 35 with 68 abstentions in a UN General Assembly
committee. Support for the measure dropped by two votes from last year...
Iran's Deputy UN Ambassador Gholamhossein Dehghani dismissed the
resolution as 'hostile' and 'short-sighted,' saying it ignored 'the real
threats to the most fundamental rights by violent extremists.' 'The
Iranophobia that the co-sponsors of the draft are trying to spread in
this committee and beyond is to serve this process,' he said. Dehghani
urged the new government of Justin Trudeau in Canada to drop the annual
exercise of drafting the 'counter-productive and unjust' resolution on
Iran's rights violations and begin talks to address concerns." http://t.uani.com/1MZytbi
Foreign
Affairs
AFP: "Russian President Vladimir
Putin will meet Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a
visit to Tehran Monday, the Kremlin said, as Moscow goes on a diplomatic
push over the Syria conflict. Talks with Iran's leadership will focus on
'issues in bilateral relations, including atomic energy, oil and gas and
military-technical cooperation', Putin's top foreign policy aide Yury
Ushakov said Friday, with the Russian president also set to meet his
counterpart Hassan Rouhani." http://t.uani.com/1QSMKID
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