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Reuters: "Russia is attempting to suppress a United Nations report that says Iran has been breaking a U.N. arms embargo by shipping weapons to Syria, Western diplomats said Thursday. 'Russia has objected to the publication of the report as an official Security Council document,' a council diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Several other diplomats confirmed it. 'It's obviously an attempt to protect (Syrian President) Bashar al-Assad,' who is coming under increasing international pressure over his violent crackdown on anti-government protesters, another council diplomat said. The confidential report, obtained by Reuters, said most of Iran's breaches of the embargo have been deliveries of weapons to Syria, which Western diplomats say were to be passed on to Lebanese and Palestinian militants. The report by the U.N. Security Council's so-called Panel of Experts, a newly formed committee that reports on compliance with four rounds of U.N. sanctions imposed on Iran for refusing to halt its nuclear enrichment program, also says Tehran flouts the sanctions as it continues to develop its atomic program. Diplomats said Russia offered a procedural justification for objecting to the publication of the report -- it should first be discussed by the Security Council's Iran sanctions committee before being released to the public. 'Eventually they'll have to give in but we don't know how long it will take,' a diplomat said." http://t.uani.com/k22Vka
WSJ: "An Iranian exile group once allied with Saddam Hussein has enlisted former top U.S. officials-including heads of the CIA, FBI, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and politicians from both parties-to try to get it removed from the State Department's terrorist list. The Mujahedin e-Khalq, or People's Holy Warriors, has deployed the heavyweights on speaking tours in Washington and European capitals, hoping to convey the image of a popular, democratic alternative to Tehran's ruling clerics. Obama administration and European officials, however, fear the campaign could undermine Washington's policy of reaching out to opposition forces in Iran. They say that's because the U.S. would appear to be aligned with a group that is widely unpopular due to its military alliance with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein during the 1980s and '90s and a string of terrorist attacks the U.S. says it launched inside Iran. Among the group's newfound cheerleaders are recently departed members of President Barack Obama's national security team, including Jim Jones, the former national-security advisor, Dennis Blair, the former director of national intelligence and James Woolsey, who headed the Central Intelligence Agency." http://t.uani.com/lZySGO
Reuters: "Rich Gulf Arab dynasties have reacted to upheaval in the Arab world by inviting fellow monarchies Jordan and Morocco to join their club as they seek ways to combat domestic unrest and a perceived Iranian threat. The announcement by leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Tuesday welcoming Jordan and Morocco as prospective members of the oil-producing bloc surprised many in Amman and Rabat, which have not seen themselves as being on a par with the wealthier economies of the Gulf. Impetus for the closer realignment has been enhanced by mass protests gripping the Arab world that worried autocratic ruling elites about a contagion sweeping their region as former allies Egypt and Tunisia succumbed to popular revolts, analysts say. Sunni Gulf leaders are concerned that Western allies could abandon them and back reforms if protests become widespread enough as they did with their longtime allies Hosni Mubarak and Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali." http://t.uani.com/izab0S
Human Rights
Oregonian: "Iran has no reason to detain journalist Dorothy Parvaz, the Committee to Protect Journalists tells National Public Radio on Morning Edition. Mohamad Abdul Daymen says Syria also had no reason to deport Parvaz, 39. After more than a week of silence, the Syrian Embassy in Washington D.C. issued a statement May 10 saying that airport authorities had deported the Northwest journalist to Tehran two days after her arrival for not identifying herself as a journalist and for traveling on an expired Iranian passport. But, Mohammad Abdul Dayem of the Committee to Protect Journalists tells NPR's Morning Edition, that's no reason for Syria to send Parvaz to Iran, or for Iran to detain her." http://t.uani.com/m5wCZ1
Domestic Politics
Radio Farda: "Blogger 'Zeitoon' believes Iran could see social upheaval and riots over the hike in energy prices that is the result of the removal of subsidies by the Iranian government. She suggests that the reported tensions between Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Mahmud Ahmadinejad could be an attempt by the Iranian establishment to divert the public's attention from the rising prices." http://t.uani.com/ltYPFz
AFP: "The level of industrial and oil pollution in the Caspian Sea has reached a 'critical condition,' an Iranian ecological expert warned, quoted by local media on Thursday. 'In terms of pollution, the Caspian Sea is in critical condition,' Reza Pourgholam, head of the Caspian Sea Ecological Research Institute, told Fars news agency. Exploitation of oil fields and traffic of large oil tankers dumps 122,350 tonnes of potentially cancerous oil pollutants into the world's largest inland sea annually, Pourgholam said." http://t.uani.com/mLascD
Foreign Affairs
WSJ: "Preliminary charges of terrorism filed eight years ago against members and supporters of an umbrella Iranian opposition group have been dismissed by investigating magistrates looking into the case, French officials said Thursday. The decision could give a boost to the France-based group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, and its main branch, the Mujahedin e-Khalq, known as MeK, in their campaign to persuade the U.S. to remove them from the State Department's list of global terrorist organizations. A group of 24 NCRI members and supporters was put under formal investigation in 2003 after a predawn sweep against the dissident movement's headquarters near Paris. At the time, French investigators said they suspected the NCRI was diverting money collected in Europe through relief organizations to help finance terrorist projects against the Iranian regime. The NCRI, which formally renounced acts of violence in 2001, and its leader, Maryam Rajavi, who was among those under investigation, have repeatedly denied any link to terrorism." http://t.uani.com/kFHs2V
Opinion & Analysis
Meir Javedanfar in The Diplomat: "Reporting and official reaction in Iran over the death of Osama bin Laden last week was in many ways surprisingly mixed. Some Iranian officials were openly sceptical about the veracity of US claims that bin Laden was killed by Navy Seals in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Iranian Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi was one of them, declaring soon after the news broke that the al-Qaeda leader had, in fact, 'died of illness some time ago.' Even some of those who accepted US claims that he had only just been killed were dismissive over the likely impact of bin Laden's death, not least because of the still popular view amongst some Iranian politicians that bin Laden was actually a CIA agent. This view was reportedly voiced by Iran's ambassador to Indonesia, Mahmoud Farazandeh, and echoed by former Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who stated that the United States 'could have killed Bin Laden 10 years ago, but didn't.' According to Mottaki, the decision to kill him now was taken because he was an 'egg that was about to become rotten.' Such views weren't confined to the political class-Iranian news agencies chimed in with similar sentiments, including Seratnews, which somewhat outrageously suggested that CNN filmed bin Laden's body being fed to sharks, with this footage then allegedly having been broadcast to US soldiers. In a way, this is all a little puzzling. After all, Sunni bin Laden and his al-Qaeda outfit were enemies of Shiite Iran. Indeed, bin Laden's affiliates in Kuwait even issued a fatwa against Iran in 2007. Bin Laden was fanatically anti-Shiite, and al-Qaeda and its affiliates have been responsible for the slaughter of thousands of Shiites, including in Iraq. With this in mind, you'd think that Iranian officials and the media would be upbeat over bin Laden's death. So what's behind the gloom? To Iran's leaders, the country's nuclear programme and its standing in the international community are more important than the safety of Iraq's Shiites. So it's to Iran's dismay that bin Laden's death has boosted the standing of another one of its foes, a man who has proved himself capable of hurting Iran's nuclear efforts through sanctions and covert operations, while isolating it at the United Nations-Barack Obama." http://t.uani.com/kcTw3J
Struan Stevenson in European Voice: "The photographs and videos that circulated across the internet in the aftermath of the recent massacre at Camp Ashraf in northern Iraq testified to a sickening level of violence perpetrated by the security forces of Iraq's nascent democracy. The scale of violence was later confirmed by the United Nations, which concluded that 35 people died on 8 April when five Iraqi army divisions moved into the camp, which is home to 3,400 Iranian dissidents who fled their homeland and were allowed to enter Iraq under the regime of Saddam Hussein. In the aftermath of Saddam's downfall, they were afforded protected status by both the US and the UN. After US troops handed responsibility for their security to the Iraqi government in 2009, the UN urged the Iraqi government to respect the human rights of the political refugees in the camp, as did the European Parliament, in two resolutions. The violence is the government's response. And, in the weeks since, Baghdad has repeatedly turned away medical teams and international observers seeking to treat and question those trapped in the camp, which remains surrounded by heavily armed troops. When, after two years of requests, a European Parliament delegation was allowed to visit Iraq in late April, we sought explanations for the attack and answers about what was being done to assist the numerous severely injured people who remain in the camp. The Iraqi government refused either to explain its actions or to provide information about conditions inside the camp. What was clear when we arrived in Baghdad was that we were entering a place of fear, where Iraqi leaders, and visitors like us, hurtle around at speed in heavily armoured vehicles driven by men clad in body armour and armed with sub-machine guns. Baghdad remains a war zone, where missiles, mortars, suicide bombs and assassinations remain a part of daily life. It was evident that the political scene also remains fragile. The unity of the national-unity government formed in December remains questionable and a wide range of powers are concentrated in the hands of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. This combination of a weak political system and of a concentration of power leaves marginalised groups vulnerable to abuse. Among those marginalised groups are the Camp Ashraf refugees, supporters of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI) who fled Iran in the 1980s when the clerical regime in Tehran executed more than 30,000 political prisoners. Clearly, according to many senior politicians we spoke to in Baghdad, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is under constant pressure from Iran to take action on Ashraf. This pressure has resulted in the basest violence and intimidation in order to expel the refugees. This amounts to an international crime whose perpetrators should be brought to justice after a fully independent inquiry." http://t.uani.com/jBmggP
Geneive Abdo in Al Jazeera: "No matter how he twists and turns, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad keeps sinking. No sooner than he appeared to have mended his frayed relationship with supreme leader Ali Khamenei - he was photographed sitting dutifully at Khamenei's feet during a religious ceremony over the weekend - new assaults against him have begun. The motivations of conservatives around Khamenei trying to discredit him seem clear: upcoming parliamentary elections are an opportunity to deny hardline supporters of the president the chance to win a clear parliamentary majority. And as their long-term goal, Iran's traditional conservatives and clerics, backed by Khamenei, are striving to prevent an Ahmadinejad protégé from becoming the next president in 2013. This intense power struggle broke into public view recently over Ahmadinejad's decision to dismiss intelligence minister Heydar Moslehi. Khamenei gave the president an ultimatum last week to reinstate the minister or resign. Khamenei took this unprecedented step not only to maintain his own power but to ensure that of the entire clerical establishment, which Ahmadinejad is trying to marginalise. Since the disputed election which returned him to power in 2009, Ahmadinejad has tried to advance an Iran with minimal clerical influence run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. This is the reason many members of the establishment believe he is a threat to the system. Ahmadinejad's predicament was aptly captured this week by a prominent Iranian cartoonist who has followed the president's travails. He drew the president as a bee buzzing in Khamenei's ear on Tuesday, and by Wednesday Khamenei had cut off the bee's stinger, rendering him harmless or even sending him to his death... The bottom line is that many conservatives in the regime have had enough of Ahmadinejad, and they see this latest conflict with Khamenei as a good way to completely paralyse him and his loyalists. Outrage among influential conservatives has been fuelled further by the belief that they brought Ahmadinejad to power only to see their interests spurned after his election. Moreover, Ahmadinejad hails from a provincial and populist background that is at odds with the economic principles of the urban and merchant class that has long used its significant backing for the ruling clerics to pursue its interests... For now, Ahmadinejad appears unable to control his own destiny. With Khamenei, his long-time supporter, no longer willing to tolerate his insubordination, Iran's parliament poised to bring him in for questioning and his attempts to appear presidential mocked openly in the press, he might have to settle for serving out two years of his term as a weakened and lame duck president. On Tuesday, in a bid to fend off his detractors and act presidential, Ahmadinejad suddenly attempted to initiate yet another meeting with members of the UN Security Council, after months of stalled nuclear negotiations. Seemingly out of the blue, Ahmadinejad and a few other officials, such as the foreign minister and the head of the nuclear program, announced on May 9 that Iran would respond to a letter sent by European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton back in February." http://t.uani.com/iQWyt4
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