|
|
Top Stories
AP:
"The failure of negotiations between six world powers and Iran over
its disputed nuclear program has jumpstarted the congressional push for
even tougher sanctions aimed at crippling the economy in Tehran... The
stalled negotiations - there were no plans for new talks - gave fresh
impetus to bipartisan legislation in the House to impose new sanctions on
Iran while Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., was putting together a package of
penalties likely in the next week or so, according to congressional aides
and sanctions experts. The penalties are certain to draw strong
bipartisan support as lawmakers, fearful of Iran's ambitions and worried
about its threat to Israel, have overwhelmingly embraced past sanctions
legislation. The latest effort would mark the fifth time since June 2010
that Congress has slapped penalties on Iran. 'I'm concerned Tehran is
only using talks as a delaying tactic - in the same way North Korea used
a similar tactic to develop its nuclear arsenal,' Rep. Ed Royce,
R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a
statement. 'Rather, the bipartisan legislation I've introduced further
increases economic pressure on Iranian leaders to give up their nuclear
weapons program. Congress will continue to turn up the pressure; it is
our best chance to succeed.' Royce and Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, the
top Democrat on the committee, introduced legislation in February that
would broaden sanctions on Iran by expanding the list of blacklisted
Iranian companies and moving to cut off Tehran's access to the
euro." http://t.uani.com/ZA685k
Reuters:
"Iran said on Tuesday operations had begun at two uranium mines and
a milling plant and that Western opposition would not slow its nuclear
work, days after talks with world powers made no breakthrough. Iran
opened the Saghand 1 and 2 mines in the central province of Yazd and the
Shahid Rezaeinejad yellowcake plant in the town of Ardakan in the same
region to mark the country's National Nuclear Technology Day, state news
agency IRNA said. Yellowcake can be further processed into enriched
uranium to make fuel for nuclear power plants, Iran's stated aim, or to
provide material for atomic bombs if refined much more, which the West
fears may be the Islamic Republic's ultimate goal... Western nations have
'tried their utmost to prevent Iran from going nuclear, but Iran has gone
nuclear,' Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech at
Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation on Tuesday. 'This nuclear technology
and power and science has been institutionalized ... All the stages are
in our control and every day that we go forward a new horizon opens up
before the Iranian nation.'" http://t.uani.com/10JsCfq
WashPost:
"The head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog said Monday that
his agency cannot rule out the possibility that Iran was actively seeking
nuclear weapons technology, citing intelligence on suspicious research by
Iranian scientists that occurred as recently as a few years ago. Yukiya
Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said
it is crucial that Iran come clean on its nuclear past, granting full
access to Iranian facilities and documents as well as key scientists
believed involved in the work... 'We have credible information that Iran
continued its activities beyond 2003,' Amano told an audience of nuclear
and arms-control experts at the annual Carnegie International Nuclear
Policy Conference. Officially, 'we do not know' whether the research
remains active, he said." http://t.uani.com/10OIddS
Nuclear Program
Reuters: "World powers believe
there are enough grounds to keep talking to Iran about its disputed
nuclear program, a senior Western diplomat said on Monday, even though
the latest round of negotiations made little apparent progress. 'There is
enough substance for these negotiations to continue,' the diplomat,
speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters. 'I would not expect a
breakdown.' At a meeting in the Kazakh city of Almaty on Friday and
Saturday, the six nations - the United States, Russia, China, France,
Britain and Germany - tried to persuade Iran to give up its most
sensitive uranium-enrichment work to allay concerns that Tehran is
seeking the means to make atom bombs. Iranian negotiators did not accept
the offer - coupled with a pledge of modest relief from crippling
economic sanctions - and the two sides failed to even agree to meet
again." http://t.uani.com/12EVCq4
BBC:
"A 6.3 magnitude earthquake has struck in south-west Iran, not far
from the country's only nuclear power station, the US Geological Survey
(USGS) says. Initial reports on state media say three people have died...
The USGS said the quake struck at 11:52 GMT at a depth of 10km (6.2
miles), some 90km from Bushehr city, near to the power plant... The
Russian contractor which built the Bushehr plant says it has not been
affected by the earthquake, says Russian news agency Interfax. Staff at
the complex felt the jolts but continue to work as usual, while radiation
levels have not changed, an unnamed Atomstroyexport official told
Interfax." http://t.uani.com/151BT8o
Sanctions
Bloomberg:
"A group of U.S. lawmakers is proposing to intensify the economic
pressure on Iran over its disputed nuclear program by drafting the
harshest penalties to date on a nation whose income from oil exports has
been cut in half by sanctions since 2011. A draft Senate bill, a copy of
which was obtained by Bloomberg News from a congressional office, would
penalize foreign countries that do business with any Iranian entity
controlled by the government. It also would bar Iran from using earnings
from oil exports to purchase anything other than food and medicine. The
draft measure, which is expected to be finalized and introduced this
month, also would require the Islamic Republic to release political
prisoners, respect the rights of women and minorities and move toward 'a
free and democratically elected government' before Iranian
government-controlled entities could be removed from the U.S. sanctions
list... The draft Senate legislation, which would have to pass both houses
of Congress and be signed by President Barack Obama, would target Iran's
foreign exchange holdings by cutting off its access to hard currencies,
including the euro, and restricting its use of money exchange houses. In
an effort to stop Iran from evading existing sanctions on oil exports,
the bill also would penalize companies that provide ship insurance and
reinsurance for Iran and punish entities involved in vessel-to-vessel
transfers of Iranian oil." http://t.uani.com/YasljT
Reuters: "Iran's April crude
exports will rebound to above 1 million barrels per day (bpd), industry
sources said on Friday, after falling in March to the lowest level seen
since the West imposed sanctions to reduce the oil flow in 2012. U.S. and
European Union sanctions aimed at choking the flow of oil money into Iran
and forcing Tehran to negotiate curbing its disputed nuclear programme
have cut around a million barrels per day from Iran's crude exports. Iran
is expected to export 1.08 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude in
April, preliminary data obtained by Reuters showed, up from the 810,000
bpd that was scheduled to load in March and close to export levels of
around 1.1 million bpd in February. The volumes are based on preliminary
loading plans and final export volumes may vary." http://t.uani.com/10KTLis
Syrian Uprising
AFP:
"Iraq on Tuesday grounded and inspected a second Iranian aircraft
bound for Syria in as many days, but found only humanitarian material,
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's spokesman said. The back-to-back searches
come after Baghdad said last month it would step up such inspections,
after US Secretary of State John Kerry publicly accused Iraq of turning a
blind eye to Iranian flights which Washington says carry military
equipment for the Damascus regime. 'Iraqi authorities inspected an
Iranian cargo plane operated by the company Mahan Air, but only found
humanitarian goods,' Maliki's spokesman Ali al-Mussawi told AFP. On
Monday, a flight operated by the same private Iranian airline was stopped
and searched, with inspectors finding only medical supplies... Iraq
previously announced two inspections of aircraft, both in October. But
the New York Times reported that Iran appeared to have been tipped off by
Iraqi officials as to when searches would be conducted, helping Tehran
avoid detection." http://t.uani.com/XpUNRF
Human Rights
Fox News:
"The Iranian-American Christian pastor jailed in Iran for his faith
again has been denied bail as he awaits proper medical treatment for
serious injuries and internal bleeding sustained from brutal prison
beatings, according to the family's attorneys. Saeed Abedini, the
32-year-old U.S. citizen imprisoned in Iran since September, purportedly
was taken to an external hospital, but he was not admitted for treatment,
according to sources close to the pastor who report that the medical
specialist who was supposed to examine him was not in. Instead of seeing
a different doctor, Abedini was returned to Evin Prison without receiving
any medical treatment. 'This is yet another example of psychological
abuse,' said Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the American Center
for Law and Justice, the organization representing Abedini's U.S.-based
family." http://t.uani.com/17oGcKl
Opinion &
Analysis
WashPost
Editorial: "The latest round of negotiations on
Iran's nuclear program was, by all accounts, a disappointment. Tehran's
negotiators did not spell out a full response to a proposal by the United
States and five partners for limiting its enrichment of uranium, and what
they did say revealed a wide gulf between the two sides. In essence, the
international coalition is offering Iran a partial lifting of sanctions
in exchange for a freeze on the production of medium-enriched uranium,
while Iran wants a complete lifting of sanctions in exchange for token
steps that would leave its nuclear work unfettered. The meetings left the
diplomatic process in limbo; the Obama administration and its allies
rightly refused Iranian requests to schedule further meetings. Yet for
now, at least, there is no crisis: Neither Israel nor the United States
is under pressure to consider immediate military action against Iran, and
there is time to wait and see if Iran's position will soften following a
presidential election scheduled for June. For that, proponents of
diplomacy over war with Iran can thank a man they have often ridiculed or
reviled: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr. Netanyahu's
government is not a participant in the talks with Iran, of course; Iran
won't parley with a nation it aspires to 'wipe off the map.' But the
Israeli leader's explicit setting of a 'red line' for the Iranian nuclear
program in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly in September appears to
have accomplished what neither negotiations nor sanctions have yielded:
concrete Iranian action to limit its enrichment... Mr. Netanyahu's red
line is only a partial and temporary check on the Iranian threat. The
ongoing installation of a new generation of faster centrifuges could soon
make it obsolete by providing a new means for Iran to quickly produce
bomb-grade uranium. But the lesson here is twofold: The credible threat
of military action has to be part of any strategy for preventing an
Iranian nuclear weapon, and clear red lines can help create the 'time and
space for diplomacy' that President Obama seeks. Mr. Obama, who last year
stiffly resisted pressure from Mr. Netanyahu to spell out U.S. red lines,
ought to reconsider." http://t.uani.com/11O9U90
Jonathan Adelman
in CNN: "Despite the rhetoric of the Obama
administration and tougher sanctions, hard realities suggest a likely
American policy of not attacking Iran but seeking to contain it. For
Iran, the benefits of nuclear weapons are significant: becoming the ninth
member of the world's exclusive nuclear club, spurring nationalist ardor
at home, potentially dominating the Middle East, enhancing its leadership
of the world's neutralist bloc, offsetting the likely loss of their main
Arab ally Syria and deterring an American attack. America's desire to
stop Iran, meanwhile, is constrained by many factors: withdrawal of an
aircraft carrier battle fleet from the Persian Gulf, $80 billion in
Iranian hard currency reserves, opposition from Russia and China, foreign
efforts to help Iran evade international sanctions, American war weariness,
economic malaise, Congressional hyper partisanship and the Obama policy
of leading from behind. Trying to contain a nuclear Iran avoids an
unpopular military strike, regional war and harsher sanctions. And most
appealing of all, containment succeeded for 40 years with the Soviet
Union, culminating in its dissolution in 1991. There is only one critical
problem with the alluring temptation of containment -the Islamic Republic
of Iran is no Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was a global superpower,
with a vast military-industrial complex and Red Army whose World War II
victories helped defeat Nazi Germany. During the Cold War the Soviet
Union had several thousand strategic nuclear weapons capable of
destroying the United States. The Red Army dominated Eastern and much of
Central Europe and threatened Western Europe. By contrast, Iran is a
second rate military and economic power. It reactivated its nuclear
program in 1984 and has still not exploded its first atomic bomb. In the
1980s, even after eight years, it could not defeat Iraq, a task that the
United States accomplished in three weeks in 2003. With only several
hundred atomic scientists, Iran relies heavily on foreign help for its
nuclear project. It possesses a modest missile force, weak army and
no modern navy. Iran lags far behind Israel, with its strong air force
and 100 to 200 atomic bombs, and NATO stalwart Turkey. Iran's $13,000
GNP/capita lags far behind the United States ($49,000), United Arab
Emirates ($49,000) and Israel ($32,000). Second, Iran lacks Soviet global
political influence and ideological clout. Moscow was the center of
international communism that embraced one third of the world's
population. Iran's Islamic fundamentalism resonates only among 2
percent of the world's population (mostly 100+ million Shiites). It has
few state allies (Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, Iraq?) and only two
non-state actors (Hezbollah and Hamas). Third, the Soviet Union was
largely rational in its foreign policy. When the Berlin Blockade (1948),
Cuban missile crisis (1962) and invasion of Afghanistan (1979) failed, it
withdrew its forces. It maintained embassies in enemy countries and a hot
line with Washington after 1962. Moscow conducted prolonged negotiations
with the West that resulted in several treaties. Iran does not have
embassies or hot lines with its 'enemies,' supports international
terrorism, conducts cyber attacks on Western targets and often talks
recklessly of destroying Israel. Fourth, the Soviet nuclear threat was
remote, many thousands of miles away, and slowed by liquid fueled rockets
that took hours to fire. Iranian rockets, on the other hand, are solid
fuel and only hundreds of miles from their targets. Finally, there is the
nature of leadership. The Soviet elite were dominated by secular college
graduates, heavily engineers, who had a rational international
perspective. The Iranian elite are dominated by radical mullahs with a
limited world view. Containment of a nuclear power under any
circumstances is a risky business. Containment even of the relatively
rational Soviet Union almost led to a nuclear war over Cuba in 1962.
Imagine what could happen in trying to contain an Iran lacking many of
the rational aspects of the Soviet Union." http://t.uani.com/12Duwn5
|
|
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.
|
|
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment