Eye On Iran: Diplomats: Iran Expands Enrichment Facility

For continuing coverage follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group. Top Stories AP: "Iran has set up new equipment that will allow it to boost its efficiency at enriching uranium at higher levels, diplomats said Friday. The move is likely to give the U.S. more leverage with Russia and China in its push for new U.N. sanctions on Tehran." http://bit.ly/bPdA0M WP: "Iranian authorities are taking increasingly harsh measures to prevent protests marking the one-year anniversary of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed reelection, opposition leaders and analysts say, exacerbating political tensions." http://bit.ly/d7mlWd AP: "The Obama administration moved Thursday to head off a joint Turkish-Brazilian effort that could help Iran avoid new United Nations sanctions over its suspect nuclear program. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a blunt message to Turkey's foreign minister, telling him that Iran is not serious about accepting international demands to prove its nuclear program peaceful." http://bit.ly/a6Orgm Nuclear Program AP: "Negotiations on a U.S.-drafted resolution that would impose new sanctions against Iran for refusing to suspend its nuclear enrichment program are making 'good progress,' U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said Thursday." http://bit.ly/9zYX9m LAT: "Nearly 300 insurance companies licensed to do business in California have refused to comply with a state regulator's request that they stop making new investments in corporations engaged in energy or defense-related work in Iran. The insurers, including more than a dozen major firms such as State Farm, Geico and Prudential, are questioning the authority of state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner to impose sanctions." http://bit.ly/d1eb09 AFP: "Britain's new Foreign Secretary William Hague has criticised Iran's nuclear program ahead of his first visit to Washington on Friday, in comments to a newspaper. Hague, who embarks on his inaugural overseas trip in his new role just three days into Britain's coalition government, told the Times that 'tackling nuclear proliferation 1/8in 3/8 Iran' was a priority for the administration." http://bit.ly/8XV1rq Reuters: "President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday called for the speeding up of six-nation negotiations on a U.N. sanctions resolution against Iran over its nuclear program." http://bit.ly/bD9xpe CS Monitor: "Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visits Tehran this weekend in what a US official has called 'perhaps the last big shot at engagement' with the Islamic Republic before the UN Security Council applies fresh sanctions against Iran for its refusal to suspend its nuclear program." http://bit.ly/ciFhTg Human Rights CNN: "Protesters in the capital cities of Denmark and Sweden attacked Iran's embassies Thursday as demonstrators opposed to executions turned violent. In Copenhagen, Denmark, about 100 people attacked the embassy and police with stones, Copenhagen police spokesman Mads Firlings said." http://bit.ly/bzn1SN Domestic Politics NYT: "Iranian Kurds staged one of their largest strikes in recent years, closing shops and bazaars in nearly all Sunni Kurdish cities and towns in eastern Iran to protest the executions of five people, including four Kurdish activists, on Sunday, according to opposition Web sites and witnesses." http://nyti.ms/c6q8f8 Opinion Gerald F. Seib in WSJ: "U.S. officials are quietly confident they are within striking distance of a long-sought agreement to impose new international economic sanctions on Iran. And for that they can thank, at least in part, North Korea and Iran itself." http://bit.ly/bt8XoQ Tom Lasseter in CS Monitor: "As world powers wrangle this month at the United Nations about how to handle Iran's nuclear plans, China is attempting to balance its thirst for Iranian oil and natural gas with its ambition to be a diplomatic heavyweight." http://bit.ly/bygtGt Johann Bergenas in The Guardian: "Iran this week agreed to meet with the European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, to discuss Tehran's nuclear program. Ashton is a relatively untested EU official who will, if the talks take place, face experienced Iranian nuclear negotiators. Yet the record shows that in recent months the EU's top diplomat has emerged as a sharp critic of Iran's nuclear policy. The talks hence offer an opportunity for Lady Ashton to silence the political foes who claim she does not have the bona fides to represent the EU to the world." http://bit.ly/c0ScnZ 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 United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons. UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.

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