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Fox
News: "The
State Department, in a stunning admission, acknowledged Wednesday that
an official intentionally deleted several minutes of video footage from
a 2013 press briefing, where a top spokeswoman seemed to acknowledge
misleading the press over the Iran nuclear deal. 'There was a deliberate
request [to delete the footage] - this wasn't a technical glitch,'
State Department spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday, in admitting that
an unidentified official had a video editor 'excise' the segment. The
State Department had faced questions earlier this year over the block
of missing tape from a December 2013 briefing. At that briefing,
then-spokeswoman Jen Psaki was asked by Fox News' James Rosen about an
earlier claim that no direct, secret talks were underway between the
U.S. and Iran - when, in fact, they were. Psaki at the time seemed to
admit the discrepancy, saying: 'There are times where diplomacy needs
privacy in order to progress. This is a good example of that.' However,
Fox News later discovered the Psaki exchange was missing from the
department's official website and its YouTube channel. Eight minutes
from the briefing, including the comments on the Iran deal, were edited
out and replaced with a white-flash effect. Officials initially
suggested a 'glitch' occurred. But on Wednesday, current State
Department spokesman Kirby said someone had censored the video
intentionally. He said he couldn't find out who was responsible, but
described such action as unacceptable. While saying there were 'no
rules [or] regulations in place that prohibited' this at the time,
Kirby said: 'Deliberately removing a portion of the video was not and
is not in keeping with the State Department's commitment to
transparency and public accountability.' Kirby said he learned that on
the same day of the 2013 briefing, a video editor received a call from
a State Department public affairs official who made 'a specific request
... to excise that portion of the briefing.'" http://t.uani.com/1Zg1ROd
LAT: "For Iranians who support
greater economic and social freedoms - and curbing the country's
disputed nuclear program - the elections held in February were a moment
to savor. Backers of moderate President Hassan Rouhani, who has pledged
to improve the economy and relations with the West, won a sizeable
minority in a parliament that has been under the sway of conservative
hard-liners for more than a decade. But in recent days, reformists and
centrists have suffered setbacks that show both the enduring power of
conservative forces in Iranian politics and the challenges facing
Rouhani as he seeks reelection next year. This week, leading
conservative Ali Larijani was reelected as speaker of the 290-seat
parliament with a resounding 237 votes. Though Larijani is not a
hard-liner - he helped secure parliamentary approval last year for the
nuclear deal Iran struck with Western nations - he handily defeated a
challenge for the powerful speaker's post from the pro-Rouhani list of
candidates that swept all 30 seats in Tehran, the capital. Mohammad
Reza Aref, a Stanford-educated reformist who headed the pro-Rouhani
'List of Hope' in Tehran and won the most votes of any lawmaker,
briefly mounted a bid for the speakership but withdrew his name after
an initial round of balloting. 'The reformists had an illusion of their
political power,' said Hamid Reza Taraghi, head of international
affairs for the conservative Islamic Coalition Party. 'Mr. Mohammad
Reza Aref's failure to become speaker pricked their balloon.'
Hard-liners scored a bigger victory when Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, a
prominent old-guard conservative, was chosen to chair the Assembly of
Experts, the group of clerics and scholars that helps select the
supreme leader, Iran's most powerful figure." http://t.uani.com/1Y4pH15
Tehran
Times:
"Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Wednesday
that Iran is a safe place for investment. 'I encourage all to cooperate
with Iran, because you will not find a safer place than Iran and the
reason behind this safety is trust on people not military power,' he
said during an Iran-Sweden joint economic committee in Stockholm. He
said that attendance of the Iranian and Swedish private sectors in the
meeting indicates economic capacities in the two countries." http://t.uani.com/1Xkqpsh
Nuclear
& Ballistic Missile Program
AP: "Iran's foreign minister says
the nuclear deal reached last year with world powers can't be
renegotiated despite Republican presidential contender Donald Trump's
pledge to do so if elected. After a lecture in Stockholm on Wednesday,
Mohammad Javad Zarif said the deal 'is not an Iran-U.S. agreement for
the Republican front-runner or anybody else to renegotiate. It's an
international understanding annexed to a Security Council resolution.'
Trump has denounced the deal and said he'd seek to renegotiate it if elected
president. Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has said she
supports the agreement to rein in Iran's nuclear program, which was
endorsed by the U.N. Security Council. It's not possible 'to
renegotiate a text that is annexed' to such a resolution, Zarif
said." http://t.uani.com/1RQqZoK
Free
Beacon: "The
Obama administration's $8.6 million purchase of nuclear material from
Iran appears to have stalled over Iranian demands that the United
States hand over the money in advance, according to recent remarks by
Iranian officials. U.S. officials have been telling the Washington Free
Beacon for more than a month that the deal would be completed in 'the
coming weeks.' However, the administration has declined multiple
attempts to obtain further information about the taxpayer-funded sale,
which congressional leaders claim is 'potentially illegal.' Iranian
officials stated this week that the Islamic Republic would not move
forward with the sale of 32 tons of heavy water, a nuclear byproduct,
until the United States agrees to pay the $8.6 million price tag in
advance of the delivery. Meanwhile, U.S. officials at the State,
Treasury, and Energy Departments remain mum about the holdup despite
repeated questions from the Free Beacon and other reporters." http://t.uani.com/1r3Ib4v
Daily
Caller: "A
recent compliance report on Iran's nuclear program is missing several
important pieces of information that could determine whether or not the
Islamic Republic is abiding by the terms of last July's nuclear
agreement. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United
Nations's nuclear watch dog, furnished its second report on Iran's
nuclear program Friday. The Institute for Science and International
Security (ISIS), not to be confused with Islamic State, claimed in a
report Tuesday there are at least eight key pieces of information
missing from the report. 'Although Iran appears to be living up to most
of its general commitments, the IAEA report continues to lack technical
details about critical implementation issues,' said David Albright,
Serena Kelleher-Vergantini and Andrew Stricker in the report. 'Without
this information, an independent determination of whether Iran is
complying with the JCPOA is not possible.' First, the authors say the
amount of Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) in Iran's possession is missing
from the report, as well as how much has been sent out of Iran, diluted
and produced. LEU can be further enriched to make weapons-grade uranium
or enriched to 3 percent and used as fuel for certain nuclear reactors.
Because of LEU's potential to be converted to a weapon, it is crucial
the international community knows how much of it Iran has. Per
regulations of last year's Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),
the technical term for the Iran nuclear deal, Iran may only possess 300
kilograms of LEU." http://t.uani.com/1O6CmhU
Sanctions
Enforcement
NYT: "Huawei Technologies has
become China's most successful international technology company, in part
by tapping markets as varied as Britain, India and Kenya. But it also
moved into markets like Syria, where American officials have imposed
limits on sales of technology that could be used to commit human rights
abuses, and into Iran, where sanctions have only recently eased. And
its presence in such countries is now coming under greater scrutiny.
The United States Commerce Department is demanding that the company,
based in the south China city of Shenzhen, turn over all information
regarding the export or re-export of American technology to Cuba, Iran,
North Korea, Sudan and Syria, according to a subpoena sent to Huawei
and viewed by The New York Times. The subpoena is part of an
investigation into whether Huawei broke United States export
controls... Huawei's business in Iran has fallen under American
criticism in the past. In 2011, Huawei said in a statement that it
would voluntarily restrict the growth of its business in Iran. A year
later, six American lawmakers wrote a letter to the State Department,
calling for an investigation into whether Huawei was violating
sanctions on Iran. Recently, the Congressional Research Service
released a report that said that companies like Huawei appeared to have
fulfilled pledges not to sell technology for blocking telecommunications
in 2014." http://t.uani.com/1O6ChdY
Sanctions
Relief
Tehran
Times: "Head
of Iran's Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture Mohsen
Jalalpour announced that $1.2 billion worth of economic cooperation
documents was signed during the visit of Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammad-Javad Zarif to the European countries. 'Some of the documents
are in the form of memorandum of understanding, and some in the form of
contract,' IRNA quoted Jalalpour as saying on Wednesday. The Iranian
economic delegation accompanying Zarif in his trip signed a total
number of 50 documents, 30 of which were done with Poland's economic
actors and 20 documents with Finnish business owners. The official
declared the value of the contracts signed in Poland to be $700
million, of which $240 million is allocated to projects in power
plants, $200 million in fisheries and the rest will be spent on various
spheres. 'The value of signed documents in Finland is estimated at $500
million in sectors such as industry, machinery as well as information
and communications technology (ICT),' he added." http://t.uani.com/1Pni1VG
Reuters: "India's oil imports from
Iran fell 3.5 percent in May from the previous month as Mangalore
Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd cut purchases because of the shutdown
of some units at its plant. Indian refiners took about 379,200 barrels
per day (bpd) of Iranian oil in May, down 13,700 bpd from the 392,900
bpd imported in April, according to preliminary tanker arrival data
from trade sources and ship-tracking services on the Thomson Reuters
terminal... While dipping last month, India's oil imports from Iran are
expected to surge in the coming months when refiners Hindustan
Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp begin lifting Iranian oil. The
nation's state-owned and private refiners together are expected to buy
at least 400,000 bpd in the year that began April 1, a seven-year high,
industry sources said early last month. In the first two months of this
fiscal year, Indian refiners shipped in about 386,000 bpd of Iranian
oil, a jump of 21.8 percent from a year ago, the data show. In May,
Essar Oil continued to be the biggest Indian importer of Iranian oil,
taking about 190,000 bpd. Reliance Industries Ltd resumed imports from
Iran after skipping them in April, taking about 100,000 bpd. Reliance
resumed imports from Iran in March after a gap of about six
years." http://t.uani.com/25CFlX7
Terrorism
Reuters: "Bahrain has charged 18
people with contacting Iran's Revolutionary Guard and the Shi'ite
Muslim Lebanese Hezbollah group with the aim of stirring up unrest in
the kingdom, state news agency BNA reported on Wednesday. Bahrain cut
diplomatic relations with Iran in January, a day after Riyadh severed
ties with Tehran following attacks by Iranian demonstrators on Saudi
diplomatic missions in response to the execution of a prominent Shi'ite
Muslim Saudi cleric convicted on terrorism charges. BNA said the
prosecution had established after the investigation that the group had
formed a 'secret cell' to incite Bahrainis against the ruling system
and to propagate information calling for changing the government by
force." http://t.uani.com/1sqHnYH
Regional
Destabilization
AFP: "Iran's foreign minister said
Wednesday that Tehran had no intention of leaving Iraq and criticized
'arrogant' Saudi Arabia for accusing it of stoking sectarian violence.
'We will leave Iraq whenever Iraq asks us to. And we will help Iraq to
confront terrorism, as long as Iraq wants us to,' Mohammad Javad Zarif
said at a press conference in Stockholm during a European tour to
attract investors. On Sunday, Saudi Arabia accused Iran of sowing
'sedition and division' in Iraq and sending in Shiite militias, and
urged Tehran to 'stop intervening' in the affairs of its neighbors. But
Zarif, whose Shiite-dominated country is an arch rival of Saudi Arabia,
bristled at the remarks by the Sunni-led kingdom's Foreign Minister
Adel al-Jubeir. 'It's an absurd statement, it's an arrogant statement.
Nobody should arrogate themselves to talk on behalf of other
countries,' he said in English." http://t.uani.com/1sqGSxD
Saudi-Iran
Tensions
Bloomberg: "Saudi Arabia faced
resistance from Iran to proposals to restore a production target
scrapped at OPEC's last meeting in December as persistent divisions
within the producer group undermined efforts to build unity... The
differences between Saudi Arabia and Iran echo the demise of a proposal
to freeze production in April. Saudi Arabia made that deal contingent
on the participation of Iran, which has insisted on its right to boost
crude output to pre-sanctions levels. Kuwait also questioned the need
for a production target, even as higher oil prices ease tensions within
the group. 'A general quota for OPEC with no country quotas has no
meaning,' Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Thursday.
'It's not possible to control or supervise, and what it means is that
anyone can do whatever they like and just say that it's within the
share.' Zanganeh said a country-quota system might be difficult to
achieve at today's gathering." http://t.uani.com/1UjeqE5
AP: "Iran officially announced on
Thursday that it won't be sending pilgrims to the hajj this year,
blaming Saudi Arabia for the move and claiming the kingdom has failed
to provide adequate security for the pilgrims. The hajj has become a
contentious issue as tensions between the two Mideast powers escalated
after last year's disaster at the hajj killed at least 2,426 people,
according to an AP count. Iran has said the disaster killed 464 of its
pilgrims. Iran has since demanded additional security guarantees for
pilgrims but a second round of talks in Saudi Arabia this week failed
to resolve the issue. Saeed Ohadi, head of Iran's Hajj and Pilgrimage
Organization, said Thursday that 'Saudi Arabia knows it will pay a
heavy price for depriving pilgrims' from Iran of the chance to perform
the hajj, considered a duty for every able-bodied Muslim." http://t.uani.com/1XSAWJA
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com
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