Eye on Iran: Iran, North Korea, Syria Block U.N. Arms Trade Treaty

For continuing coverage follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group.    Top Stories Reuters: "Iran, Syria and North Korea on Friday prevented the adoption of the first international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional arms trade, complaining that it was flawed and failed to ban weapons sales to rebel groups. To get around the blockade, British U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant sent the draft treaty to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and asked him on behalf of Mexico, Australia and a number of others to put it to a swift vote in the General Assembly. U.N. diplomats said the 193-nation General Assembly could put the draft treaty to a vote as early as Tuesday... 'The world has been held hostage by three states,' said Anna Macdonald, an arms control expert at humanitarian agency Oxfam. 'We have known all along that the consensus process was deeply flawed and today we see it is actually dysfunctional.' 'Countries such as Iran, Syria and DPRK (North Korea) should not be allowed to dictate to the rest of the world how the sale of weapons should be regulated,' she added. The point of an arms trade treaty is to set standards for all cross-border transfers of conventional weapons. It would also create binding requirements for states to review all cross-border arms contracts to ensure arms will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism or violations of humanitarian law." http://t.uani.com/16m6fjK LAT: "Ten years after the U.S.-led invasion to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the geopolitical winner of the war appears to be their common enemy: Iran. American military forces are long gone, and Iraqi officials say Washington's political influence in Baghdad is now virtually nonexistent. Hussein is dead. But Iran has become an indispensable broker among Baghdad's new Shiite elite, and its influence continues to grow. The signs are evident in the prominence of pro-Iran militias on the streets, at public celebrations and in the faces of some of those now in the halls of power, men such as Abu Mehdi Mohandis, an Iraqi with a long history of anti-American activity and deep ties to Iran. During the occupation, U.S. officials accused Mohandis of arranging a supply of Iranian-made bombs to be used against U.S. troops. But now Iraqi officials say Mohandis speaks for Iran here, and Prime Minister Nouri Maliki recently entrusted him with a sensitive domestic political mission." http://t.uani.com/XgLIg4 Daily Telegraph: "Alarm bells are ringing at a lofty diplomatic level over Grant Thornton's continued business dealings in Iran through correspondent firm Rymand & Co. Mark Wallace, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, has written to Grant Thornton global chiefs Edward Nusbaum and Stephen Chipman to question the 'financial and reputational harm' of the accountant's Iranian affiliation. 'As you know,' writes Wallace on behalf of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), 'the international community is ... increasingly alarmed by Iran's refusal to alleviate concerns that it may be pursuing nuclear weapons. As one of the world's leading professional networks, Grant Thornton's ongoing business activities in Iran raise serious questions and concerns.' So will Grant Thornton follow KPMG, PwC and Ernst & Young's lead in cutting their Iranian ties? 'We are investigating the matter and will respond to [UANI] directly,' said a spokesman. By UANI's deadline on Monday, Diary hopes." http://t.uani.com/Zsr8DK   Sanctions Economia: "US-based United Against Nuclear Iran is targeting UK mid-tier firms that have representation in Iran. It says they are undermining global economic sanctions by working in Iran through their correspondent firms. The not-for-profit, non-partisan, advocacy group has written to the CEOs of Grant Thornton and RSM International and their counterparts in the US expressing concern about their 'apparent business dealings' with the country. In the letters, former US ambassador to the United Nations and founder of UANI Mark Wallace stresses the increasing alarm with which Iran's nuclear development and its refusal to alleviate fears that it may be pursuing nuclear weapons is viewed. In RSM's case, he points out that the 2010 client list of its Iranian correspondent firm, Dayarayan Auditing and Financial Services Firm, included Iranian government bodies, energy firms and foreign companies... Grant Thornton's letter points out that its Iranian correspondent firm, Rymand & Co, looks after major clients including public manufacturing firms, government organisations and agencies, as well as foreign companies with a presence in Iran. Both firms are warned that their Iranian interests could adversely impact the business and income of their US practices." http://t.uani.com/10fNCdI The Hindu: "Notwithstanding the tightening of sanctions by US and European Union (EU), India does not intend to halt imports of crude oil from Iran. Instead the government is working on a scheme to insure oil import shipments from the Islamic nation to maintain smooth supply of energy supplies and also expand trade in other commodities. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Veerappa Moily had earlier this week stated that India had no intentions to put a halt to imports from Iran. Officials in the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry said that although imports from Iran had witnessed a dip as compared to last year, there is no move to completely phase out such crude oil imports. The Petroleum Ministry, the Shipping Ministry and the Finance Ministry are holding consultations on establishing a special fund that would insure oil imports from Iran. It is learnt that the state-run national insurance companies, the Petroleum Ministry and the Oil Industry Development Board (OIDB) are working on a plan for the new fund to ensure that Indian oil companies continue to get safe shipments of crude oil from Iran. State-run Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) is one of the biggest importers of oil from Iran." http://t.uani.com/11WGLa8 Syrian Uprising CSM: "As the mish-mash of rebel forces capture more ground, more regime military bases and hardware, and key civilian targets, few analysts predict that Assad's regime will survive in its current form, or that Syria's longstanding ruler will be alive when it is over. Even Iran, despite its unbending public support for Assad, appears to be preparing for a post-Assad world. 'Iran so far was successful; without Iran's money and strategic help, Assad would have fallen much earlier,' says Mehdi Khalaji, an Iran specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. 'But in terms of policy, they have a Plan B.... So even if Assad falls, to some extent Iran would be able to protect its interests.' That plan may hinge on a pro-regime militia Iran helped to create called Jaysh al-Shabi. The militia could protect Syria's Alawites - the Shiite Muslim offshoot to which Assad and much of his regime belong - if they are relegated to only a portion of the country in northwest Syria, along the coast to the border with Lebanon." http://t.uani.com/10ZcEA8 Reuters: "Iran, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, accused Qatar on Friday of 'intensifying the bloodshed' in Syria and criticized it for enabling an opposition bloc to open its first embassy in Doha. Syrian opposition leader Moaz Alkhatib, whose group is recognized by the Arab League as the sole representative for Syria, opened the embassy in Qatar on Wednesday. 'It is in Qatar's interest to stop making hasty actions and intensifying the bloodshed in Syria,' Iran's state news agency IRNA quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian as saying." http://t.uani.com/10mX8LN Opinion & Analysis Simon Tisdall in The Guardian: "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in jovial mood when he met the Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, and a 300-strong delegation at the Iranian border town of Chabahar earlier this month. The two men were attending a ceremony to launch construction, on the Pakistani side, of a new pipeline that will funnel natural gas from Iran's South Pars field in the Gulf to energy-starved Pakistani businesses, car drivers and consumers from the end of 2014. For the smiling Ahmadinejad, the £5bn pipeline serves several key purposes. It will produce hard currency for Iran's hard-pressed economy. It goes some way to mitigating historical suspicions that have separated Shia Iran and predominantly Sunni Muslim Pakistan. It boosts Tehran's regional influence. But more than that, the pipeline will help break the sanctions stranglehold on Iran's energy sector imposed by the US and western allies concerned about Tehran's nuclear-related activities. 'I'm confident that no foreign element will be able to affect our historic and brotherly relations,' the Iranian president said. The pipeline was a symbol of the two countries' independence from 'those who only aim to humiliate us, and break us apart, and dominate us ... With natural gas, you cannot make atomic bombs. That's why they should have no excuse to oppose this pipeline.' The revival of the much-delayed project, and the timing of the high-profile joint ceremony attended by diplomats from Arab states, appears, in part at least, to be the product of canny calculations by Zardari ahead of Pakistan's national elections on 11 May. The Pakistani president, whose own five-year term ends in September, wants to be seen to be doing something about chronic energy shortages that bring daily power cuts and caused a nationwide blackout last month. But by courting Ahmadinejad, Zardari was also sending a pointed signal to the US government. Pakistan's long-running, ambivalent relationship with its principal financial backer and strategic ally has been more hate than love in recent times. Strong anti-American feeling, outraged by the 2011 commando raid that found and killed Osama bin Laden on Pakistani territory and by lethal Afghan border incidents involving Pakistani and American troops, is being stoked on an almost weekly basis by US drone attacks. US commentators describe the relationship as 'toxic'. In this poisonous context, Zardari's move was seen as a deliberate attempt to emphasise Islamabad's growing freedom of action as the American regional presence declines with next year's withdrawal from Afghanistan. Anthony Skinner, of the British-based Maplecroft risks consultancy, said: 'The Pakistani government wants to show it is willing to take foreign policy decisions that defy the US ... The pipeline not only caters to Pakistan's energy needs but also lodged brownie points with the many critics of the US among the electorate.' http://t.uani.com/ZssdLI 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.