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Top Stories
Reuters:
"Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Sunday a $10 billion arms
deal planned with Arab and Israeli allies sent a 'very clear signal' to
Iran that military options remain on the table over its nuclear program.
'The bottom line is that Iran is a threat, a real threat,' Hagel, who
arrived in Israel on Sunday on his first visit there as defense
secretary, told reporters on his plane. 'The Iranians must be prevented
from developing that capacity to build a nuclear weapon and deliver it,'
he said. Hagel was due to meet Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon on
Monday and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, with little
progress reported at talks this month between Iran and world powers. The
first stop on Hagel's week-long Middle East trip came two days after the
Pentagon said it was finalizing a deal to strengthen the militaries of
Israel and two of Iran's key rivals - Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates. The deal includes the sale of KC-135 aerial refueling tankers,
anti-air defense missiles and tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey troop transport
planes to Israel as well as the sale of 25 F-16 Fighting Falcon jets to
the UAE." http://t.uani.com/15A6t9p
Guardian:
"One of Britain's biggest companies has made millions of pounds
selling goods to Iran, including to a state-owned firm that supplies the
regime's nuclear programme. Glencore, a commodity trading house run by
the billionaire Ivan Glasenberg, traded $659m (£430m) of goods, including
aluminium oxide, to Iran last year, the Guardian has established. The company,
which is one of the biggest businesses in the FTSE 100 and has a market
value more than three times that of Marks & Spencer, has admitted
that some of its aluminium oxide ended up in the hands of Iranian
Aluminium Company (Iralco). Trafigura, another commodity trading house,
has also admitted to trading an unspecified aluminium oxide (also known
as alumina) with Iralco in the past... Mark Wallace, a former US
ambassador to the UN, said Glencore's dealings with Iran were 'completely
unacceptable', adding: 'We might expect this from a Russian or Chinese
company, but the truth is that even those companies usually stay away
from this sort of exposure' ... The Guardian has learned that Glencore
traded $659m worth of metals, wheat and coal with Iranian entities during
2012. Buried deep in its annual report, one of Glencore's US affiliates,
Century Aluminium, 46% owned by Glencore, states: 'During 2012 non-US
affiliates of the largest stockholder of the company [Glencore] entered
into sales contracts for wheat and coal as well as sale and purchase
contracts for metal oxides and metals with Iranian entities, which are
either fully or majority owned by the GOI [government of Iran].'" http://t.uani.com/17R7rgL
WSJ:
"Iran is accelerating its efforts to buoy its non-oil trade and to
find new markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East as it struggles for
economic survival amid an intensifying U.S. financial war on Tehran and
its allies, the country's chief economic manager said in an interview.
U.S. and European sanctions targeting Tehran's oil exports and central
bank have contributed to an 80% depreciation of the Iranian currency, the
rial, over the past two years, said Shamseddin Hosseini, Iran's minister
of economic affairs and finance. He also said the blacklisting of
virtually all of his country's banking system by Washington and Brussels
has significantly raised the cost for Iranians conducting international
trade, forcing them to seek alternative payment methods or to resort to
barter trade. Still, Mr. Hosseini said Iran's economy is adapting to the
West's sanctions as the government promotes non-oil exports and
businesses not conducted in dollars or euros. He also said the country's
foreign-exchange reserves remain above $100 billion, keeping Tehran's
finances stable despite hopes inside the Obama administration that Iran
is on the brink of an economic collapse." http://t.uani.com/15xMyHO
Nuclear Program
Reuters:
"Israel suggested on Monday it would be patient before taking any
military action against Iran's nuclear program, saying during a visit by
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel there was still time for other
options. With Iran's presidential election approaching in June there has
been a pause in hawkish rhetoric by Israel, which has long hinted at
possible air strikes to deny its arch-foe any means to make an atomic
bomb, while efforts by six world powers to find a negotiated solution
with Tehran have proved fruitless so far. 'We believe that the military
option, which is well discussed, should be the last resort,' Israeli
Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon told reporters at a news conference with
Hagel. 'And there are other tools to be used and to be exhausted,' Yaalon
said, listing diplomacy, economic sanctions and 'moral support' for
domestic opponents of Iran's hardline Islamist leadership." http://t.uani.com/10994z1
AP:
"An Iranian nuclear negotiator is saying that Iran's coming
presidential election will not affect its stance in nuclear talks with
world powers. The Sunday report by the official IRNA news agency quotes
Abbas Araghchi as saying 'changes in domestic politics in Iran will not
affect the trend in nuclear talks.' Araghchi, a deputy foreign minister, also
said Iran is ready for further talks." http://t.uani.com/17R8GwD
Reuters:
"Iran and the United Nations nuclear watchdog will have further
talks over Tehran's disputed nuclear program on May 21 in Vienna, Iranian
media said on Monday. There was no immediate confirmation from the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), leaving unclear whether a firm
date for the next meeting had already been agreed. The IAEA-Iran talks
are separate from, but have a bearing on, diplomatic negotiations between
Tehran and six world powers aimed at a broad settlement to the decade-old
dispute to head off the risk of a new Middle East war... If it were to
take place, it would be the 10th round of negotiations between the two
sides since early 2012, so far without a deal that would enable the U.N.
watchdog to resume its long-stalled investigation into Iran's nuclear
facilities." http://t.uani.com/13qt981
AP:
"Ahead of a round of global nuclear talks, five major powers labeled
North Korea and Iran as 'serious challenges' to the world's nuclear
security Friday, citing their repeated defiance of U.N. sanctions. Senior
diplomats with the U.N. Security Council's five permanent members singled
out North Korea's nuclear test in February and Iran's 'continued pursuit
of certain nuclear activities' as among the biggest threats to the 1970
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the world's most important pact on
preventing the spread of nuclear arms." http://t.uani.com/XZaOQV
Reuters:
"The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Sunday that the resignation of
one of its top officials who have been leading talks with Iran would not
change its policy in dealing with Tehran over its disputed atomic
program. The message of continuity came two days after diplomats said
that Rafael Grossi would quit as assistant director general of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a post which made him one of
the U.N. agency's most influential people... Grossi is one of two senior
IAEA officials who have been leading the agency's efforts since early
2012 - so far in vain - to persuade Iran to give its inspectors access to
sites, officials and documents for their inquiry. His resignation means
that both of them will leave the agency this year: the IAEA said last
month that a senior Finnish official, Tero Varjoranta, would succeed
chief IAEA nuclear inspector Herman Nackaerts when he retires in the
early autumn." http://t.uani.com/11tMpBp
Sanctions
AP:
"Iran's oil ministry says the country is considering exporting oil
to North Korea as a way to improve its battered economy. The official
IRNA news agency quoted on Saturday Oil Minister Rostam Ghasemi as saying
talks are underway between Tehran and Pyongyang on oil exports. An oil
deal would bring the two nations deeply at odds with the U.S. and the
West closer together. In September, they signed a scientific and
technological cooperation agreement. A delegation from North Korea's oil
ministry is currently visiting Iran. Iranian and North Korean officials
have said in the past that their nations are in 'one trench' in the
confrontation with Western powers." http://t.uani.com/13JHO1T
AFP:
"Iran is owed $4 billion for oil sales to customers who have been
unable to pay because of sanctions imposed on the Islamic republic over
its nuclear programme, a top Iranian oil official said on Sunday. 'We
have been unable to get paid around four billion dollars due to the
sanctions,' National Iranian Oil Company chief Ahmad Qalebani told
reporters when asked about the amount owed by customers, mostly Western,
to Iran. 'There is a possibility that it could be paid either as
medicine, food or barter of commodities,' he told a press conference on
the sidelines of an oil and gas trade fair in Tehran. Qalebani did not
give details on these customers. But on Saturday, Oil Minister Rostam
Qasemi said that Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell was among the firms that
owes Tehran petro-dollars which the Islamic republic can not repatriate
due to sanctions." http://t.uani.com/11CePXe
Reuters:
"Britain has blocked efforts by oil major Royal Dutch Shell to
settle a $2.3 billion debt it owes Iran by paying in kind with grains or
pharmaceuticals, industry sources said. Shell has been trying for months
to find a way to work around international sanctions that prevent it
paying in currency for crude it bought from the National Iranian Oil
Company before a European Union embargo on Iran that started last July.
The sources said the British government was reluctant to provide relief
for the Iranian economy when Western powers are using sanctions to apply
financial pressure on Tehran to dismantle its nuclear programme. 'The
view is that doesn't make sense to smooth the way for a payment that
helps Iran when government is trying to press Iran to negotiate,' said an
industry source." http://t.uani.com/13qwkMT
Reuters:
"South Korea's imports of Iranian crude in March fell 16.2 percent
from a year ago to 4.02 million barrels, data from the state-run Korea
National Oil Corp showed on Monday, after its biggest refiner SK Energy
shut a crude unit for maintenance. The world's No.5 crude oil buyer and
one of Iran's top four customers bought 129,710 barrels per day (bpd) in
March, down 8.6 percent from a month ago although more than double the
volume projected earlier based on loading data. But imports from
sanctions-hit Iran should surge month-on-month to 190,000 bpd in April as
SK Energy's 110,000-bpd crude distillation unit returned to operation on
April 16 after 30 days of maintenance." http://t.uani.com/XZHCtb
Terrorism
JPost:
"Bulgarian police officers last summer arrested a Canadian citizen
linked to the Iranian government who engaged in surveillance of the local
Chabad center in the capital of Sofia, a well-placed and reliable local
source told The Jerusalem Post last week, on condition of anonymity due
to security reasons. An Iranian-sponsored female agent in her 50s,
holding a Canadian passport, traveled from Istanbul to Sofia several
weeks after the bombing of the Israeli tour bus in the Black Sea resort
town of Burgas in July 2012. She was arrested on her first day in Sofia
after the Bulgarian police, on high alert, noticed she was monitoring the
Chabad center. Her mission was to survey the Chabad center - which houses
a synagogue - and not the main Sofia Sephardi synagogue, as first
reported." http://t.uani.com/11ef9fZ
Human Rights
WT:
"A number of the globe's most powerful countries 'continued to
repress or attack the means by which individuals can organize, assemble,
or demand better performance from their rulers,' according to the State
Department's annual review of human rights worldwide released Friday.
'From Iran to Venezuela, crackdowns on civil society included new laws
impeding or preventing freedoms of expression, assembly, association and
religion,' according to the assessment, officially titled the Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012... The summary takes aim at
Iran, asserting that the Islamic republic's government is 'supporting the
Assad regime and terrorist organizations outside its borders,' as well as
continuing to 'severely restrict the rights of its own citizens.'
'According to NGO reports, the government [of Iran] executed a total of
523 persons in 2012, many after trials that were secret or did not
provide due process,' the summary states." http://t.uani.com/17H4Tz8
France 24:
"An unusual punishment has shocked many in Iran. On April 15, police
paraded a convicted criminal through the northwestern city of Marivan
dressed in traditional Kurdish women's clothing. This has prompted
protests in the streets, online, and even in Iran's parliament... On
Thursday, the movement spread online, via a Facebook page titled 'Being a
woman is not humiliating and should not be considered punishment.' By
Friday, it had gained over 3,800 fans. Men living both inside Iran and
abroad have posted photos of themselves dressed as women to express
solidarity with the women of Marivan. A few women, too, have posted
photos of themselves -- this time, dressed as men. Meanwhile, 17 members
of Iran's parliament have signed a letter sent to the Justice Ministry
condemning this sentence as 'humiliating to Muslim women.' One MP even
spoke up to criticize it during a session of parliament." http://t.uani.com/14IfL3F
Domestic
Politics
FT:
"No football match was scheduled for Thursday afternoon, but
President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad still expected large crowds at the Azadi,
Iran's biggest football stadium. The national stadium can hold 100,000
people, and Mr Ahmadi-Nejad, due to step down after presidential polls on
June 14, was widely expected to use the rally to back a close ally in his
race for the presidency. But the fact that the stadium was little more
than half-empty suggested that he had made a mistake - one that might
cost him dearly. If he has no popular support, then his opponents at the
elite Revolutionary Guards, parliament and judiciary know they have
little to lose by opposing him or his favoured candidate, Easfandiar
Rahim-Mashaei, his former chief of staff. 'Mr Ahmadi-Nejad should
actually be allowed to have his best candidate in the election so it becomes
a public fact that he has little popularity,' observed one political
analyst." http://t.uani.com/ZfvRhQ
AP:
"Iranian newspapers warn that a new wave of price hikes could stir
greater discontent less than two months before presidential elections.
The press commentaries also suggest disputes within Iran's ruling system
over how to cope with an economy battered by international sanctions
imposed because of Tehran's controversial nuclear program. Monday's
reports include the influential conservative daily Kayhan, which often
supports the policies of the ruling clerics. Prices of staples such as
cooking oil, chicken and red meat have jumped up to 60 percent in recent
days after authorities increased the special exchange rate for importers.
Businesses now pay 24,500 rials for $1, nearly double from the 12,260
rials before." http://t.uani.com/11eec7g
Opinion &
Analysis
Meir Javedanfar in
The Guardian: "The Iranian government has claimed on
numerous occasions that sanctions can't influence its nuclear policies
and will not do so in the future. However, its own behaviour tells a
different story. In the two sets of negotiations between Iran and the
P5+1 (United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom, France and Germany)
in 2010 and 2011, the Iranian negotiations team refused to even address
confidence-building proposals made by the P5+1. What Iran did instead was
to demand that existing sanctions be lifted and that the P5+1 recognise
Iran's right to enrich uranium. But things changed after the EU
announcement on 23 January 2012 that it will impose an oil embargo
against Iran this July. After the announcement, the Iranian regime -
despite its previous rhetoric - did change its stance by starting to show
willingness to address and discuss what it had ruled out during
negotiations with the P5+1 in 2010 and 2011, namely proposals and
suggestions from the P5+1. This was first evident in the letter that
Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili sent to the P5+1's chief
nuclear negotiator Catherine Ashton, on 15 February, three weeks after
the EU declared its oil sanctions plan. A senior diplomat who had dealt
with Iran for more than a decade described the letter as a 'breakthrough'
because 'it directly mentions willingness to focus talks on the nuclear
issue and avoided past versions' lengthy diatribes against perceived
international double standards'. This is in fact one of the reasons why
the Istanbul negotiations, which took place afterwards in April last
year, were described as 'positive'. Meanwhile, at the next negotiations
in Baghdad in May 2012, both sides continued to discuss specific
proposals. This continued in the next set of negotiations in Moscow
where, according to the New York Times: 'Iranian negotiators for the
first time delivered a detailed response to a set of proposals first
presented to them at a meeting last month in Baghdad. A senior American
official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy
of the talks, said this had happened for the first time in many years.'
At the next meeting in Istanbul on 19 September 2012, according to Iran's
ambassador to the IAEA, Iran offered to suspend uranium enrichment at 20%
'if the west lifts sanctions against Tehran'. Although this offer was
only for a suspension, this was nevertheless a breakthrough, as prior to
the EU oil sanctions announcement, the Iranian government had refused to
even address its 20% enriched uranium process. Iran's new willingness
also influenced the next sets of talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, that took
place in February and another round that started earlier this month.
Although an agreement has not yet been reached, at both meetings the two
sides discussed each other's proposals in more detail than before. This
included talking about Iran's 20% enrichment. Had it not been for the
sanctions, the Iranian government would have had little incentive to
change its strategy of the 2010 and 2011 negotiations with the P5+1,
which focused solely on its own demands. This could have led to the
eventual breakdown of the diplomatic process." http://t.uani.com/ZJ66Bm
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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