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Top Stories
NYT:
"At his first presidential campaign rally, Saeed Jalili on Friday
welcomed the cheers of thousands of young men as he hauled himself onto
the stage. His movements were hampered by a prosthetic leg, a badge of
honor from his days as a young Revolutionary Guards member in Iran's
great trench war with Iraq. 'Welcome, living martyr, Jalili,' the
audience shouted in unison, most of them too young to have witnessed the
bloody conflict themselves but deeply immersed in the national veneration
of its veterans. Waving flags belonging to 'the resistance' - the
military cooperation among Iran, Syria, the Lebanese Shiite group
Hezbollah and some Palestinian groups - the crowd roared the candidate's
election slogan: 'No compromise. No submission. Only Jalili.' Mr. Jalili,
known as Iran's unyielding nuclear negotiator and a protégé of the
supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is emerging as the presumed
front-runner in Iran's presidential election on June 14, an unsettling
prospect for future relations with the West. Mr. Jalili, 47, who many
analysts say has long been groomed for a top position in Iran, is by far
the most outspoken hard-liner among the eight candidates approved to
participate in the election." http://t.uani.com/11ahZVG
Human Rights
Watch: "Serious electoral flaws and human rights
abuses by the Iranian government undermine any meaningful prospect of
free and fair elections on June 14, 2013. Dozens of political activists
and journalists detained during the violent government crackdown that
followed the disputed 2009 presidential election remain in prison, two
former presidential candidates are under house arrest, and authorities
are already clamping down on access to the internet, having arbitrarily
disqualified most registered presidential and local election candidates.
As the elections approach, authorities have tightened controls on
information by severely cutting back internet speeds and blocking proxy
servers and virtual private networks that Iranians use to circumvent
government filtering of websites. The authorities have also gone after
government critics, summoning, arresting, and jailing journalists and
bloggers, while preventing opposition figures and parties aligned with
Iran's reformist movement from participating in the elections by banning
or severely restricting their activities. 'Fair elections require a level
playing field in which candidates can freely run and voters can make
informed decisions,' said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at
Human Rights Watch. 'How can Iran hold free elections when opposition
leaders are behind bars and people can't speak freely?'" http://t.uani.com/158tg9C
Reuters:
"Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday he
does not favor any candidate for June's presidential election, although hardliners
with outlooks similar to his dominate the field. The field of candidates
was narrowed considerably last week when the Guardian Council, a body of
clerics and jurists that vets all candidates, disqualified two
independent contenders - former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and
Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, a close aide of current President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad... Khamenei said on Wednesday that any notion that he had a
favorite to win this time was wrong. 'These things have always been said
and it's not true, because no one knows who the leader will vote for,'
Khamenei said in a speech to parliamentarians, according to his website.
'Just like everyone else, the leader only has one vote.'" http://t.uani.com/Ze55VY
Sanctions
AP:
"Iran's state TV reports the parliament has approved a budget that
reflects the effects of tough Western sanctions over the country's
suspect nuclear program. The $290 billion budget for the current fiscal
year is 36 percent less than last year's. The West suspects Iran might be
heading toward production of nuclear weapons. Iran insists its nuclear
program is for peaceful purposes." http://t.uani.com/10zLVe5
June 14
Elections
Guardian:
"Iranian opposition figures with various political allegiances have
set aside differences and united to condemn the 14 June presidential
election as a charade, saying the exclusion of candidates showed it lacks
legitimacy. Exiled Iranians from different political groups including
republicans, leftists, constitutional monarchists and the green movement
gathered for a two-day conference in Stockholm at the weekend, organised
by the umbrella group United for Democracy in Iran (UDI) to scrutinise
the vote... A statement issued at the end of the conference described the
vote as 'an insult to the Iranians', saying it violates their rights to
free elections. 'The policies of the Islamic Republic, both internally
and externally, have created numerous crises and placed our homeland in a
truly precarious position,' it said. 'In these circumstances, the regime
in Tehran is staging an election that bears no resemblance to free and
fair elections in accordance with international standards.'" http://t.uani.com/10HhTSv
Reuters:
"A former Iranian nuclear negotiator running for president used his
first television appearance of the campaign to reject accusations he had
been too soft in talks with world powers. The most prominent moderate
candidate in an election dominated by hardliners, cleric Hassan Rohani,
nuclear negotiator from 2003 to 2005, oversaw an agreement to suspend
Iran's fledgling uranium enrichment-related activities... Hardliners see
the nuclear program as a matter of national pride and any concession to
outside pressure an affront to Iran's sovereign rights. The current
nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, is campaigning for president on his
record of giving no ground in talks." http://t.uani.com/1465vMs
Bloomberg:
"Saeed Jalili, the face of Iran's nuclear ambitions as the Islamic
republic's chief negotiator, is running for president on his record of
defying global pressure to curtail the program. Iran is 'standing up to
oppressive powers,' and interlocutors have 'surrendered' in the face of
its determination to continue with nuclear work, Jalili told state
television on May 25, days after official campaigning began for the June
14 vote. 'They want to secure what they already have. But we want to
break through, to make progress in science and nuclear technology,' he
said... If Jalili emerges as frontrunner, it would suggest Iran is undeterred
by the 'very traumatic impact on the economy' from sanctions, said
Farideh Farhi, an Iran analyst and lecturer at the University of Hawaii
at Manoa. It would show 'that Khamenei is not willing to change direction
and wants to follow the same path. It's an important message for a part
of the population which had been hoping for a redirection.'" http://t.uani.com/13imn3H
AP:
"Iran's culture minister is seeking to tighten rules to supervise
visiting foreign journalists. A Wednesday report by the semi-official
Mehr news agency quotes Mohammad Hosseini as saying tighter measures are
being sought after an Israeli journalist reported from Tehran about the
2009 presidential election for a European news outlet. Postelection
turmoil in 2009 led the government to restrict access for visiting
foreign journalists, many of whom left the country ahead of schedule.
Hosseini did not elaborate. He said 200 foreign journalists have applied
to cover June's presidential elections." http://t.uani.com/146905u
Human Rights
Fox News:
"Government agents shut down Iran's largest Persian-language
Pentecostal church Monday, just one week after one of its pastors was
arrested and hauled away midway through a worship service. The closing of
Central Assemblies of God church in Tehran is the latest case of the
Islamic Republic's leadership cracking down on Christians ahead of the
June 14 presidential election to replace President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad...
'These incidents appear to be an attempt to stop worship services from
being conducted in Farsi, the language of the majority of Iranians,'
George Wood, general superintendent of the AoG in the U.S., told the
service. 'Services are allowed in Armenian, a minority language that most
Iranians do not speak or even understand.'" http://t.uani.com/11ajgvT
RFE/RL:
"Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry says the government is investigating
reports by a human rights group suggesting Iran has been deporting Afghan
refugee children. Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission
had said on May 28 that more than 1,000 Afghan children have been
forcibly deported by Iranian authorities since the beginning of April.
The rights group said the children were forcibly taken from streets,
shops, and markets in different Iranian towns, where they lived with their
families." http://t.uani.com/12iqEZw
Foreign Affairs
Free Beacon:
"American national security officials are not adequately addressing
the deepening ties between socialist Latin American regimes and state
sponsors of terrorism in the Middle East, experts say. The ties, these
experts add, could help hostile regimes flout international sanctions.
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, who is looking to fill the
geopolitical vacuum left by the death of Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez, is strengthening his relationships with Iran and Syria, two
outspoken foes of the United States. Those ties are the products of
efforts by regimes that have been isolated economically to 'launder'
funds through countries that can operate freely in the international
economy, according to American Enterprise Institute fellow Roger Noriega,
a former State Department official and U.S. ambassador to the
Organization for American States. American policymakers, Noriega said,
have not adequately responded to the threat." http://t.uani.com/10zLy3g
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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