Monday, November 23, 2015

Eye on Iran: Post Correspondent Jason Rezaian Sentenced to Prison Term in Iran






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WashPost: "Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post reporter who has been held by the government of Iran for the past 16 months and was convicted on unspecified charges last month, has been sentenced to a prison term, the state news agency announced Sunday. Rezaian faced four charges, including espionage, according to his lawyer. But in announcing a conviction in October, Iranian authorities did not provide any details of the verdict. Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, a spokesman for Iran's judiciary, confirmed the punishment in a statement posted on the official Islamic Republic News Agency's Web site, according to the Associated Press. He did not say how long the prison term would be. 'The verdict has been issued but has not been officially handed down to the accused or his lawyer,' Mohseni-Ejei said. 'Given the fact that the verdict has not been officially handed down, I cannot reveal the details, but what I can say is that the accused has been sentenced to prison.' ... 'We're aware of the reports in the Iranian media but have no further information at this time,' said Douglas Jehl, The Post's foreign editor. 'Every day that Jason is in prison is an injustice. He has done nothing wrong. 'Even after keeping Jason in prison 488 days so far, Iran has produced no evidence of wrongdoing,' Jehl added. 'His trial and sentence are a sham, and he should be released immediately.'" http://t.uani.com/1NngWfl

USA Today: "Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a visit to Iran's supreme leader in Tehran on Monday and brought along two coveted deals. Before leaving Moscow, Putin lifted a ban on uranium exports to Iran. The move is linked to Russia's plan to import enriched uranium from Iran, according to Russian state-owned media site RT. The nuclear deal signed between Iran and world powers in July requires Iran to dilute or ship 98% of its enriched uranium, and it does not have the capacity to dilute it. Putin also presented Khamenei with a copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book, according to the supreme leader's web site. Iranian media on Monday reported that Russia also began delivering an advanced S-300 air-defense system that had been on hold for years. Iran's ambassador to Moscow, Mehdi Sanaei, said the missile-delivery process began under a new contract between Tehran and Moscow, according to Iranian state-owned media Tasnim... Putin also addressed a natural gas export summit in Tehran - both Russia and Iran are large gas exporters. And he met Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. The two were shown shaking hands at the summit in Iranian and Russian government-released photos." http://t.uani.com/1MN1gw9

AP: "Paramilitary forces from Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard have held a war game simulating the capture of Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque from Israeli control, state media reported Saturday. It said forces stormed and 'liberated' a replica of the mosque in the exercise. They say thousands of members of the Basij, the paramilitary unit of the Guard, participated in Friday's exercise outside the holy city of Qom in central Iran. The symbolic operations were backed up by Guard helicopters, drones and Tucano planes that bombed hypothetical enemy positions before ground troops captured the replica of the mosque set up at the top of a mountain." http://t.uani.com/1R0Aiqg

Nuclear Program & Agreement

Mehr (Iran): "Iran's ambassador to the IAEA says the Agency is currently drafting the final report on Iran's nuclear program to be released by December 1-2, 2015. Reza Najafi, Iran's Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), quoted Tero Varjoranta, Head of the Department of IAEA Safeguards, on saying that the Agency's final report on Iran's nuclear program will be released by December 1-2, 2015. 'Tero Varjoranta in the IAEA's technical-briefing meeting on Friday briefed the member states on the report IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano had released on Iran and mainly discussed the technical aspects of the report,' said Najafi." http://t.uani.com/1ldWq3V

Reuters: "Six world powers will help Iran redesign its Arak heavy water reactor so that it cannot produce weapons-grade plutonium, according to a document released by the state news agency IRNA on Saturday. The document was signed separately on Nov. 13, 17 and 18 by the foreign ministers of Iran and the P5+1 (the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia plus Germany) as well as EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. It became effective on the date it was signed by all states. The fate of the Arak reactor in central Iran was one of the toughest sticking points in the long nuclear negotiations that led to an agreement in July. Removing the core of the heavy water reactor to produce less plutonium is a crucial step before the relief from sanctions starts. Iran will act as project manager, according to the document, while China 'will participate in the redesign and the construction of the modernized reactor' and the United States 'will provide technical support and review of the modernized reactor design'. France, the United Kingdom and Germany will participate in design review and Russia will provide consultative services. 'The primary design of Arak reactor will take one year. Then the (P5+1) working group has three months to approve it,' Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for Iran's atomic energy agency, was quoted as saying on Saturday by state broadcaster IRIB." http://t.uani.com/1Obw3aq

Reuters: "President Vladimir Putin has eased an export ban on nuclear equipment and technology to Iran, a Kremlin decree published on Monday showed, after Tehran struck a deal with world powers on its nuclear program in July. The decree, issued on the same day as Putin arrived in Iran on an official visit, said Russian firms were now authorized to export hardware and to provide financial and technical advice to help Iran with three specific tasks. They were listed as helping it modify two cascades at its Fordow uranium enrichment plant, supporting Iranian efforts to export enriched uranium in exchange for raw uranium supplies, and helping Iran modernize its Arak heavy water reactor." http://t.uani.com/1jfWdvS

Military Matters

Free Beacon: "The Russian Defense Ministry on Friday released multiple videos showing Moscow's continued air and sea operations against targets in Syria. In one of the videos, Iranian F-14 fighter jets appear to escort Russia's long-range bombers as they fly toward Syria to strike areas held by the Islamic State, the terror group that claimed responsibility for downing a Russian passenger jet in Egypt and killing all 224 people aboard at the end of October. The video purports to show 'combat sorties of the long-range aviation of the Russian Air Force against terrorists in Syria,' according to its the caption. Boris Zilberman, an expert on Russia and the Middle East at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that the video points to continued military cooperation between Russia and Iran and also suggests that Russia may be launching cruise missiles into Syria from Iranian airspace." http://t.uani.com/1XlEoZQ  
U.S.-Iran Relations

Tasnim (Iran): "Iran's Judiciary spokesman said the terrorist elements arrested in the country over the past days are proved to have been nurtured by foreigners and benefited from the backing of the US. The point is that none of the detainees were member of a single, specific terrorist group, but had links with 'branches' of different Takfiri groups, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei said at a press conference in Tehran on Sunday. Supports for the arrested terrorists came from outside the country, mainly by the US, he added." http://t.uani.com/1PVw42g

Tehran Times: "The deputy commander of Iran's Joint Staff of Armed Forces has said that Western countries are to suffer more for supporting terrorism, according to Nasim. 'I personally warned Americans and Europeans that the terrorism they were raising in the region would someday get back to them and afflict them,' Masoud Jazayeri said on Friday. 'Today there are signs of that prediction and I have no doubt that those who raised terrorists will pay more for it in the future.' In the meantime, he went on to say that Iran does not believe in France's will to fight terrorism. 'Therefore, we will conduct any possible cooperation with the French and other European countries according to some special considerations. The French have to show in action that they are really serious in fighting terrorism,' he asserted." http://t.uani.com/1YpuSav

Sanctions Relief

FT: "Moscow is hoping to cement its strengthening relationship with Tehran by clinching industrial export deals of more than $21bn, as it prepares to send one of its biggest trade delegations to Iran next month. Ilya Tarasenko, new president of Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, said the company was in advanced talks to sell 100 Sukhoi regional passenger superjets to Iran. 'We are in talks and are ready to ship the order should the sanctions be lifted,' said Mr Tarasenko... The talks on the Sukhoi superjets, which can seat about 80 people, come as Denis Manturov, Russia's Minister of Trade and Industry, will head a group of companies operating in the civil and defence sectors, including Gazprom, Russian Helicopters, United Aircraft Corporation, the maker of Sukhoi jets, in mid-December. Rostec, Russia's biggest defence conglomerate, said the focus would mainly be on civil exports in areas such as aerospace, infrastructure and energy, although Russia's defence companies are also eyeing up the potential of the Iranian market when sanctions are finally lifted... Among the companies hoping to clinch big export deals at next month's trade fair is Russian Helicopters, which is looking to increase sales of serially produced civilian helicopters in Iran and others countries of the Middle East, it said. Alexander Mikheev, chief executive of Russian Helicopter, was in Tehran last week with Dmitry Rogozin, deputy prime minister in charge of the defence industry, to lay the groundwork for Mr Putin's visit and for further deals at the trade fair." http://t.uani.com/1N98rSY

Press TV (Iran): "Iran looks to the lifting of sanctions to unveil a series of grand projects in partnership with major world shipbuilders, including South Korea's Hyundai and Germany's Nordic Yards Wismar, a senior official says. Talks have been held with South Korean, Italian, Chinese, German and Turkmen companies to implement joint schemes, Managing Director of Iran Shipbuilding & Offshore Industries Complex Co. (ISOICO) Hamid Rezaian said on Sunday. 'We have held numerous negotiations with the world's big companies and now we intend to choose the best partner from among them,' Tasnim quoted him as saying. Preliminary agreements have been reached with South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and an MoU has been signed with Nordic Yards Wismar which is Germany's biggest shipbuilder, Rezaian said." http://t.uani.com/1Sf3198

Tehran Times: "A 150-strong Italian trade delegation, headed by Italian Economic Development Minister Federica Guidi, will pay a visit to Iran on November 29, according to Iran's Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture official website. The delegation will consist of representatives of firms active in various banking, manufacturing, and industry domains which will attend a joint trade seminar between Iran and Italy on November 29. It is worthwhile to note that first post-sanctions trade agreement was signed between Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPOI) and Italian Institute for Foreign Trade, known as Istituto per il Commercio con l'Estero (ICE) in Tehran on August 4." http://t.uani.com/1Sf3Z5j

Human Rights

IHR: "According to confirmed sources, Iranian authorities have executed at least five prisoners in the span of four days. Close sources and the human rights group HRANA report that three prisoners were hanged by Iranian authorities on Wednesday November 18 at Zahedan Central Prison (Sistan & Baluchestan) for alleged drug related offenses. The names of the prisoners have been reported as Hassan Doroiee Moghaddam, Morteza Lakzaie, and Nazir Ahmad Reigi. A confirmed source who asked to be anonymous tells IHR:  'Nazir Ahmad Reigi is an Afghan citizen who was held in prison for six years prior to his execution.'" http://t.uani.com/1MxB9eJ

ICHRI: "A month after a warning by Iran's Revolutionary Guards' Center for Investigation of Organized Crime that the use of Telegram violated Iran's crime laws, access to the popular messaging network in Iran was severely interrupted on November 16, 2015. Access to Telegram on the HTTP protocol (an insecure computer network protocol) was blocked in Iran and users could only get on the network through their smartphones or the HTTPS protocol (a secure network protocol which is more difficult to block). The warning, published on the Guards' Gerdab website in an article on October 20, 2015, stated that content by Iranian users on Telegram violated Article 21 of the country's cyber crime laws. An investigation by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has found that other social media applications have also been affected. One of these applications, IMO, had been gaining more Iranian users after rumors about blocking Telegram intensified. But now it is almost impossible to enter the alternative messaging service. Similar applications known as BeeTalk and Signal have also been very slow to respond for Iranian users." http://t.uani.com/1PVmWdW

IranWire: "Today, November 21, is World Television Day, a day that the United Nations proclaimed nearly 20 years to recognise 'the increasing impact television has on decision-making by bringing world attention to conflicts and threats to peace and security,' as well as its 'potential role in sharpening the focus on other major issues, including economic and social issues.' But to achieve these goals, press and television broadcasters need to operate free from censorship. This is not the case in Iran where television is monopolized by the state. Although the Constitution does not openly ban private broadcasting, it does give it a 'monopoly over setting up stations and broadcasting radio and television programs anywhere in the country.' It also says that anyone who attempts 'to set up or use such installations will be stopped from doing so and will be prosecuted legally.' This monopolization of the media violates Iran's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [the ICCPR], which clearly states that according to the ICCPR's Human Rights Committee, 'The state should not have monopoly control over the media and should promote the plurality of the media.'" http://t.uani.com/1Sf1kIP

Foreign Affairs

Bloomberg: "Russia's President Vladimir Putin, visiting Iran for the first time since 2007, held talks with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as he seeks to strengthen his country's strategic alliance with the Islamic Republic. Putin, who is also set to meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, will discuss the civil war in Syria, where they both back President Bashar al-Assad, the fight against terrorism, and cooperation on gas and oil projects, according to Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov. He will also join eight other heads of state attending the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, according to the Kremlin. 'The Tsar of the East in the heart of Tehran,' read the banner headline on the Etemad newspaper, whose front page featured a picture of the Russian leader. Putin is being accompanied on his trip by Gazprom PJSC Chief Executive Officer Alexey Miller and Rosneft OJSC head Igor Sechin, Ushakov said." http://t.uani.com/1Ypw8Kz
       

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

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