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The Hill: "Senate Democrats are urging President
Obama to take action against Iran for recent ballistic missile tests,
suggesting it could impact Iran's willingness to comply with a separate
nuclear deal. Twenty-one senators sent a letter to the president Thursday
telling him to be ready to act either unilaterally or with European
allies if the United Nations Security Council fails to reach an agreement
on responding to Iran's violations of UN resolutions. 'Such action is
essential to make clear to Iran's leaders that there will be consequences
for future violations of UN Security Council Resolutions and that the
United States reserves the right under the [nuclear agreement] to take
unilateral action in response to this and other significant actions by
Iran in the areas of ballistic missile development, terrorism and human
rights,' they wrote. While the Democratic lawmakers said that they
'appreciate' U.S. Ambassdor to the UN Samantha Power's efforts to try to
get the Security Council to take action, they also suggested the process
is moving too slowly. The added that if Iran doesn't face consequences
for two missile tests it has launched since October, government leaders
in Tehran will 'certainly also question the willingness of the
international community to respond to violations of the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action (JCPOA).' The letter is the latest sign of concern from
senators over the ballistic missile tests, with lawmakers on both sides
of the aisle sending a flurry of letters to Obama and top administration
officials since October pushing for a response... Thirty-five Republican
senators sent a letter to Obama on Wednesday, saying that as a
consequence of the tests, the administration should hold off on lifting
sanctions against Iran under the nuclear deal." http://t.uani.com/1UJduvg
CNN: "Iran is once again testing the
international community. A United Nations panel announced this week that
Iran violated a U.N. Security Council resolution when it tested a
ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead in October.
Coming just months before the international community prepares to
implement the landmark nuclear deal brokered between Iran, the U.S. and
five other world powers this summer, the Iranian missile test is raising
questions about Iran's commitment to international protocols and the
ability -- and will -- of the U.S. and the international community to
enforce the terms of the controversial nuclear accord. The response from
the international community, so far, has been a tepid one, sowing some
doubt about its ability to agree on what would constitute a violation of
the nuclear deal and which violations should be punished... Gary Samore,
who previously served as President Barack Obama's top arms control
adviser, said he believes the White House is 'nervous that if they
over-respond to the missile test, they will jeopardize implementation of
a nuclear deal.' But Samore, an early skeptic who eventually came out in
support of the Iran deal, said the administration faces a tough calculus,
as it must still send a message to the Iranians that missile test
violations won't be tolerated without pulling the rug out from under the
deal. 'By doing nothing to respond, we run the risk of potentially
indicating to the Iranians that we're willing to tolerate non-nuclear
activity in a way that could make the Iranians misbehave more than they
would otherwise,' Samore said. Samore suggested the administration should
offer up a set of targeted economic sanctions designed to hit individuals
or entities tied to Iran's ballistic missile activity -- sanctions that
Samore said would be largely symbolic but would send a message to Iran
that the U.S. won't ignore its bad behavior." http://t.uani.com/1RWMmJF
Reuters: "The 193-member United Nations
General Assembly on Thursday condemned human rights abuses in North Korea
and Iran, a rebuke rejected by Pyongyang and Tehran. The North Korea
resolution was adopted with 119 votes in favor, 19 against and 48
abstentions and the Iran resolution received 81 votes in favor, 37
against and 67 abstentions. General Assembly resolutions are non-binding
but can carry political weight. The resolutions on human rights in Iran
and North Korea have become an annual event... The resolution on Iran,
which was drafted by Canada, criticized Tehran for cracking down on
activists, journalists and dissidents and for its increased use of the death
penalty... Iran told the General Assembly the resolution was biased and
an 'insincere and indefensible political move.' It said the resolution
'takes place at the time Iran has pursued a policy of constructive
engagement with the world.'" http://t.uani.com/1PdmTuB
Nuclear
Program & Agreement
Reuters: "The Obama administration is
considering how to respond to an Iranian ballistic missile launch that
violated U.N. Security Council resolutions, senior U.S. officials said on
Thursday, as senators pressed for a strong reaction. 'We are now actively
considering the appropriate consequences to that launch in October,'
Stephen Mull, the State Department's lead coordinator for implementing an
international nuclear deal with Iran, told a Senate committee hearing...
Concerns in the United States about the agreement have intensified since
Iran's rocket test on Oct. 10 and other events seen as hostile, including
the conviction of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, who has been
held by Tehran for more than 500 days. Many lawmakers criticize the Obama
administration for what they see as an inadequate response to Tehran.
'One area that we all agree on is the need to be tough on any
destabilizing or illegal action by Iran. With that view, I think the
agreement is off to a really terrible start,' said Republican Senator Bob
Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. As first
reported by Reuters, a team of sanctions monitors in a report on Tuesday
found that Iran violated a U.N. Security Council resolution by
test-firing a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead. 'We have a
very permissive environment,' said Democratic Senator Robert Menendez,
who opposes the nuclear deal, as he closely questioned Mull and other
administration officials about the response to the missile test. Senator
Chris Coons, another Democrat who backed the Iran deal but with
reservations, said that starting next month members of Congress would
push for renewal of a U.S. sanctions bill that is in force until the end
of 2016." http://t.uani.com/1ZfMTbw
Extremism
JPost: "An international cartoon
contest held in Tehran is set this year to focus on the Holocaust,
offering a $50,000 cash prize to the winner. The organizers of the 11th
Tehran International Cartoon Biennial announced on Wednesday that the
competition scheduled for June 2016 was expected to draw in participants
from 50 countries, according to Iran's semi-official IRNA news agency...
'We do not mean to approve or deny the Holocaust, however, the main
question is that why is there no permission to talk about the Holocaust
despite their (the West) belief in freedom of speech,' IRNA quoted
contest secretary Masud Shojai-Tabatabai as saying. However, he indicated
the accusation that Israel leveraged the genocide of the six million Jews
who perished in the Holocaust against the Palestinians. 'Moreover, why
should the oppressed people of Palestine pay the price for the
Holocaust?' he was quoted as saying. On the sidelines of the competition
encouraging illustrators to draw about the Holocaust, the biennial had
reportedly arranged for a geopolitcially-motived portrait contest
focusing on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of Iran's foe
Israel. Last May, a similar competition took place in Iran at the Second
International Holocaust Cartoon Contest." http://t.uani.com/1QRhSaU
Congressional
Action
AP: "The United States appears
poised to lift at least some sanctions against Iran - possibly as early
as January - as members of Congress urge a swift, robust U.S. response to
Tehran's recent ballistic missile test. Secretary of State John Kerry
said in a letter Wednesday to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that
Iran is fulfilling its obligations under the international agreement in
what Kerry calls a 'transparent' and 'verifiable' way, and that
'suspension of sanctions ... is appropriate.' The committee's top
Democrat, Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, said at a hearing Thursday that it
appears that sanctions relief could start as early as January, not in the
spring as initially anticipated... Cardin said that throughout the
congressional review of the deal, witnesses for the administration
guessed that it would be spring until Iran could comply with the terms
required for that relief to begin. 'Now we understand it is likely that
Iran will be in compliance and entitled to sanctions relief as early as
January,' Cardin said at the hearing where Obama administration officials
were questioned about the deal. 'Obviously, we want them to comply -
don't get me wrong,' Cardin said. 'But why did we misjudge so badly the
date that is likely for compliance?'" http://t.uani.com/1ZfN4no
FP: "A top Republican senator on
Thursday said the Obama administration is failing to respond to Iran's
ballistic missile violations out of concern for the impact U.S. actions
might have on the Islamic Republic's parliamentary elections next year.
'I'm getting the strong sense that the reason we're doing nothing ... is
because we're trying to affect the internal elections that will take
place this spring,' said Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker.
'And that is just not in keeping with the intentions of this agreement.'
Corker and other Republicans on the committee called on the Obama
administration to impose additional sanctions on Iran, following a report
by the U.N. Security Council's Panel of Experts that concluded Iran
violated a U.N. Security Council resolution in October by testing a
missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. The State Department's
pointman on Iran, Stephen Mull, said the Obama administration was
considering additional punitive actions against Iran, but did not
describe those steps in detail Thursday." http://t.uani.com/1IddVwh
Sanctions
Relief
Reuters: "Iran is prepared to negotiate
its way into the World Trade Organization, Industry Minister Mohammad
Reza Nematzadeh said on Thursday, building on the momentum of a landmark
nuclear deal as Tehran restores international economic links after years
of sanctions. 'I'm here with an important message,' Nematzadeh told
ministers of the trade body's 162 members at a two-yearly meeting in
Nairobi. 'Now that years of intensive negotiations have finally cleared
all the misunderstandings around Iran's nuclear activities, we are taking
the next step towards integrating more deeply into the global economy.'
... 'Finalising WTO membership is therefore a priority for the Iranian
government. As the largest non-member economy in the world, our full
membership will be win-win for all and a significant step towards
creating a truly universal organisation.'" http://t.uani.com/1mcmBIR
Domestic
Politics
NYT: "Iran is in the grip of a
seven-year drought that shows no sign of breaking and that, many experts
believe, may be the new normal. Even a return to past rainfall levels
might not be enough to head off a nationwide water crisis, since the
country has already consumed 70 percent of its groundwater supplies over
the past 50 years. Always arid, Iran is facing desertification as lakes
and rivers dry up and once-fertile plains become barren. According to the
United Nations, Iran is home to four of the 10 most polluted cities in
the world, with dust and desertification among the leading causes. In
Zanjan, in central Iran, the historic Mir Baha-eddin Bridge crosses a
riverbed of sand, stones and weeds. In Gomishan, on the shores of the
Caspian Sea, the fishermen who once built houses on poles surrounded by
freshwater now have to drive for miles to reach the receding shoreline.
In Urmia, close to the Turkish border, residents have held protests to
demand that the government return water to a once-huge lake that is now
the source only of dust storms." http://t.uani.com/1lWyzGY
Opinion
& Analysis
Meir
Javedanfar in TNI:
"In a recent article for the National Interest titled 'Can
Washington Separate Its Iran Policy From Israel?', National Iranian
American Council president Trita Parsi writes that, 'for many on Capitol
Hill, the reality is that Iran is primarily viewed through an Israeli
lens.' Parsi refers to this as the 'Israelization' of America's Iran
policy. From this assertion, a number of others follow regarding the
impact of Israel and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)
on America's Iran policy over the past years. These assertions require a
response. First, Parsi claims that when it comes to Israel, Iran had been
'pursuing more moderate policies in the 1990's compared to the previous
decade.' A closer look at some of the policies that the Iranian regime
followed in that decade shows the opposite. In fact, Iran was following
more aggressive policies towards Israel in the 1990s than the 1980s.
First and foremost, in the 1990s, Iran expanded the number of anti-Israel
terror groups that it supported. In the 1980s, Iran financially supported
the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hezbollah; Iran also supported
Hezbollah militarily. In the next decade, it added Hamas to the list. In
1991, Hamas opened an office in Tehran. In the same year, Iran and Hamas
formed an alliance against the Madrid peace talks. In 1994, Iran started
to financially back Hamas, to the tune of millions of dollars, joining
Syria as one of the few foreign states that financially supported this
group. In the 1990s, both Hamas and PIJ took part in dozens of operations
targeting both Israeli civilians and military personnel on Israeli soil.
As a financial backer of both Hamas and PIJ, Iran became a stakeholder in
an unprecedented number of attacks against Israelis on Israeli soil,
which caused far higher casualties in the 1990s than in the preceding
decade. Furthermore, Hezbollah, Iran's main ally and proxy in Lebanon,
spent the decade expanding its attacks against Israeli targets abroad.
These manifested themselves in two major terrorist attacks that took
place in Argentina. One attack was against Israel's embassy in Buenos
Aires in 1992, in which twenty-nine people died and 242 people were
wounded. This attack came after Israel's assassination of Hezbollah Chief
Abbas Musawi in Lebanon in February 1992 (his wife and son were also
killed as a result of the attack). The other terror attack was the
bombing of the Jewish Center in Buenos Aires in 1994, in which
eighty-five people were killed and many were wounded... There is also the
impact of Iranian regime policy on U.S.-Iran relations, which on many
occasions has created far more enemies for Iran on Capitol Hill than
AIPAC could. This includes the 1979 takeover of the American embassy in
Tehran and Hezbollah's attacks on a U.S. Marine barracks in 1983, in
which 241 U.S. service personnel were killed. Iran-backed groups in Iraq
were reportedly responsible for the deaths of more than 1,000 U.S.
soldiers following the American-led invasion of Iraq. As recently as in
2011, the Iranian regime was reportedly planning to blow up a restaurant
in the middle of Washington, D.C., in order to assassinate the Saudi
ambassador-an attack which would have killed many innocent people... Then
there is the impact of Iran's domestic politics on its U.S. policies. An
Iranian-American dual citizen, Siamak Namazi, was arrested after the
recent nuclear deal that many had hoped would moderate Iran's policies.
This, alongside hostile statements towards the United States by the
supreme leader after the deal, send a strong signal to America that
despite Obama's numerous overtures, Iran's powerful hardliners don't want
relations with the United States to improve... Parsi refers to Iranian
presidents such as Rafsanjani and Rouhani in his article, but he makes no
mention of Iran's Holocaust-denying Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
in his entire article. The supreme leader has the last word on
Israel-Palestine issues, just as he had the last word on Iran's nuclear
program. To date, he has not stopped calling for the elimination of the
state of Israel. These days he is doing it in English, in case there were
any doubts." http://t.uani.com/1IYEghG
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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