Top Stories
AP:"Iran's state TV says the country's elite
Revolutionary Guard will begin large scale military maneuvers in the strategic
Strait of Hormuz, a move likely to heighten tension at a time when the West is
at a deepening standoff with Iran over its nuclear program." http://nyti.ms/b8HS1o
WP:"Facing increasing momentum behind a U.S.-backed bid
for new sanctions against it, Iran is launching a broad diplomatic offensive
aimed at persuading as many U.N. Security Council members as possible to oppose
tougher punishment for its nuclear program." http://bit.ly/dsdPPp
WSJ:"The Israeli security establishment is divided over
whether it needs Washington's blessing if Israel decides to attack Iran,
Israeli officials say, as the U.S. campaign for sanctions drags on and Tehran
steadily develops greater nuclear capability." http://bit.ly/9HOhQ5
Nuclear Program
AP: "The U.S. has ruled out a military strike against
Iran's nuclear program any time soon, hoping instead negotiations and United
Nations sanctions will prevent the Middle East nation from developing nuclear
weapons, a top U.S. defense department official said Wednesday. 'Military force is an option of last resort,'
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy said during a press
briefing in Singapore. 'It's off the table in the near term.'" http://nyti.ms/aaFffZ
AFP:"UN Security Council member Turkey offered on
Tuesday to help break a deadlock over an atomic fuel deal for Tehran and
insisted that diplomacy is the best way to resolve Iran's nuclear crisis." http://bit.ly/b3IVhl
BBC News:"If Iran decides to go for nuclear weapons, the
US may not be able to permanently stop this from happening unless it is willing
to occupy the country. This is the
candid conclusion of one army general testifying in front of the Senate but one
that seems to have gone mostly unnoticed amid a flurry of statements on Iran
over the past few days in Washington." http://bit.ly/d0hbG4
AFP:"The US Congress could send President Barack Obama
legislation imposing new sanctions on Iran 'in a matter of weeks,' Democratic
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday. Hoyer told reporters he was 'hopeful' that lawmakers
would act on the popular initiative 'sooner, rather than later.'" http://bit.ly/9IkY34
NYT:"Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates called on Tuesday
for an overhaul of the nation's export control system that he said would loosen
sales of sensitive technology to American allies without letting up on
restrictions over nations like Iran." http://nyti.ms/9IaIIO
AFP:"Iran's atomic chief said Wednesday the sites for
building new uranium enrichment plants have yet to be finalized, denying
reports that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has already approved the locations. 'The designs for the first new nuclear (enrichment) site
will be done this year,' Ali Akbar Salehi told ILNA news agency." http://bit.ly/9odCe8
Washington Times:"Iran is increasing its paramilitary
Qods force operatives in Venezuela while covertly continuing supplies of
weapons and explosives to Taliban and other insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq,
according to the Pentagon's first report to Congress on Tehran's military." http://bit.ly/aMoGVM
Human Rights
Radio Farda: "The International Campaign for Human Rights
in Iran has reported that three members of one family (husband, wife, and their
son) and two of their close friends have been sentenced to death after being
arrested in Iran's postelection crackdown. The rights group said the death sentences were
issued following an unfair trial during which only weak evidence was presented.
The five have been charged with sending videos and pictures to an exiled
opposition group, the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), which is on the U.S.
list of terrorist organizations." http://bit.ly/dAUvAj
Opinion
David Ignatius in WP: "The Obama administration's
strategy as it devises sanctions for Iran is to build a sticky trap -- so that
the harder the Iranians try to wriggle out of the sanctions, the more tightly
they will be caught in the snare. It's a
clever idea. But even if it works with mousetrap precision, it's unlikely to
stop the Iranian nuclear program." http://bit.ly/d8WowM
William Kristol in The Weekly Standard:"But Mullen's
formulation of geostrategic equivalence ignores a massive difference between
the two outcomes: Even assuming the degree and kind of 'destabilization' would
be the same in both the cases of attack and appeasement (which I don't think
would be so), one scenario--attack--leaves Iran without nuclear weapons, at
least for now; the other--appeasement--means Iran would have nuclear weapons
going forward. Which unstable outcome is less damaging to U.S. interests? I
think the answer is pretty clear: An attacked Iran that does not have nukes." http://bit.ly/aCopWE
Charles Recknagel for Radio Farda:"Iranian President
Mahmud Ahmadinejad has aimed his strongest blow yet at his political opposition
by suspending two prominent reformist factions. If upheld by the judiciary, the April 19 suspension would mean that foes
of Ahmadinejad within Iran's establishment would be able to seek power in
elections only by running without an established political network. That would
leave the authority in Iran firmly in the hands of hard-liners for the
foreseeable future." http://bit.ly/b3NKNr
Q&A with Henry Kissinger in CS Monitor:"Kissinger: I
favor developing a joint missile defense with Russia against Iran. But the US
also needs missile defenses controlled by the United States against strategic
attack from other directions. So, let's cooperate with Russia on Iran, but we
cannot relinquish missile defenses aimed at other threats - especially
unauthorized launches and accidental launches." http://bit.ly/a9G20z
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