Top Stories
Reuters: "U.S.
lawmakers in the House of Representatives said on Wednesday they are
concerned about Iran's ability to continue enriching uranium under the
interim agreement on Tehran's disputed nuclear program, an issue they are
likely to press as global powers attempt to reach a final agreement. The
concerns showed that House lawmakers could be willing to push for a new
sanctions package next year that would define what Congress would be
willing to accept in a final deal with Iran... 'It would have been better
if Iran during the course of the negotiations would stop enriching. I
don't think that would have been too much to ask Iran,' said
Representative Eliot Engel, a Democrat and ranking member of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee. 'It makes me question the sincerity of the
Iranians,' Engel told reporters after a classified House briefing with
Wendy Sherman, the State Department's lead negotiator on Iran's nuclear
program... Representative Tom Price, a Republican from Georgia, said on
Tuesday that the Obama administration had given Iran too much in the
interim agreement. 'I think we have to be much more aggressive in pushing
back on the administration on what they've done so far,' he said before
lawmakers met with Sherman." http://t.uani.com/1jphLSX
WashPost:
"When it comes to U.S. sanctions on Iran, no detail is too small to
overlook these days. Since February, publicly traded companies have filed
nearly 500 disclosure forms about their business ties to Iran. The
disclosures included hotel bills, Costco memberships and a few dollars
collected for ATM transaction fees. The recent six-month deal with Iran
over its nuclear program holds out the promise of a modest relaxation of
international sanctions, but there is no letup in the new requirement
that companies whose stock trades on U.S. exchanges keep track of even
the tiniest interactions with the Islamic republic. And as Congress
threatens to undercut the nuclear deal with even tougher sanctions,
companies are scrambling to document virtually every Iranian encounter.
Corporations can quickly rack up millions of dollars in fines if they
violate trade sanctions, and the dollar amount can climb higher if the
activity is not properly disclosed. Perhaps more alarming to firms are
the reputational and legal risks they face if they fail to report the
business ties, including potential lawsuits from disgruntled investors.
'It's statutes like these that strike fear in the hearts of companies,'
said Jacob S. Frenkel, a former Securities and Exchange Commission
enforcement lawyer who is now at Shulman Rogers. 'The concern is about
the consequence of not disclosing or disclosing too little.' So most
companies aren't taking any chances... Not all of the disclosures are
trivial. On Nov. 27, for example, Siemens reported that a French
affiliate had fixed a smoke alarm on an Iranian passenger plane - butalso
disclosed that it sold 23 diesel electric locomotives worth $56 million
to an Iranian firm that resold them to the state-owned railway. On Nov.
8, banking giant UBS said it had arranged trade financing for Swiss
exporters involving four Iranian banks allegedly taking part in deals
related to weapons of mass destruction." http://t.uani.com/1iCjAhB
CNBC:
"Iran's oil tanker fleet started enabled vessel tracking systems in
a signal to customers that it's ready to return to world markets barely
48 hours after Tehran agreed on an interim deal on November 24 to
restrict its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief, Thomson
Reuters data revealed. Before the deal's announcement in Geneva, more
than 50-75 percent of National Iranian Tanker Co (NITC) tankers were seen
to have their transponders turned off, according to information provided
by Thomson Reuters Oil Analytics. But just days after the deal was
struck, only eight out of 39 NITC tankers - or 21 percent of the fleet -
had their tracking systems disabled as of 0330 GMT on Nov. 26, implying
'that NITC is gearing up to bring its oil export operations back to
pre-sanction levels,' Thomson Reuters Oil Analytics' Yaw Yan Chong and
Luke Pachymuthu said in a commentary on Nov. 26. Thomson Reuters Oil
Analytics believe Iran is most likely signaling a willingness to export
more fuel oil - a feedstock used mainly by China's small, independent
'teapot' refiners which make up more than a quarter of the country's
refining capacity... Thomson Reuters Oil Analytics say Iran has raised
offers of its fuel oil cargoes by more than five times after the interim
nuclear pact was struck with Western powers, and state-run National
Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has reverted to 'direct negotiations with
buyers for the first time in more than two years.'" http://t.uani.com/1bjhZrl
Nuclear
Negotiations
Reuters:
"A top U.S. diplomat suggested on Wednesday the United States may
press Iran to agree to dismantle part of its Arak nuclear reactor in a
comprehensive agreement to rein in Tehran's atomic program. Under an
interim deal agreed between Iran and six world powers last month, Iran is
to shelve fuel production for six months at Arak, an unfinished
heavy-water research reactor which Western countries say Tehran could use
to produce plutonium for atomic bombs. Iran says the reactor is for
medical isotopes. A comprehensive agreement 'includes a lot of
dismantling of their infrastructure,' Wendy Sherman, undersecretary of
state for political affairs, said on PBS Newshour, speaking about a final
deal with Iran. 'Because, quite frankly, we're not quite sure what you need
a 40-megawatt heavy water reactor - which is what Arak is - for any
civilian peaceful purpose.'" http://t.uani.com/1hzRSAx
Sanctions
Bloomberg:
"U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in Jerusalem today that
sanctions against Iran will be maintained and their enforcement
tightened, in a bid to ease Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's
concerns about an initial nuclear deal with Iran... 'With respect to the
sanctions, we will obviously be vigilant,' Kerry said, after meeting with
Netanyahu. 'The fundamental sanctions regime of oil and banking remains
absolutely in place. It is not changed and we will be stepping up our
efforts of enforcement through the Treasury Department and through the
appropriate agencies of the United States.'" http://t.uani.com/ItRl4p
WT:
"Economic sanctions against Iran 'have failed utterly,' the Islamic
republic's foreign minister said of Western efforts to curtail Tehran's
disputed nuclear program, just days after securing a deal with world
powers to temporarily ease some of those same sanctions. 'When sanctions
started, Iran had less than 200 centrifuges. Today Iran has 19,000
centrifuges, so the net product of the sanctions has been about 18,800
centrifuges that have been added to Iran's stock of centrifuges,' Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in an interview with Al-Jazeera that
aired Tuesday night. 'So sanctions have utterly failed in that regard.'
In addition, Mr. Zarif said the sanctions, which constrict Iran's oil
industry and central bank, have invited consternation for the West among
Iranians, whose ability to buy food and medicine has been crippled.
'Iranians are almost allergic to pressure and intimidation. They respond
negatively,' he said." http://t.uani.com/19j3WOx
WSJ:
"The head of Italian oil company Eni SpA (E) had a 'fairly long and
very warm' meeting with Iran's oil minister in Vienna Thursday to discuss
a possible increase in the company's activities in the country if western
sanctions are lifted. 'We plan to continue to be in Iran and possibly increase
our activity, as long as the sanctions regime is lifted,' Eni Chief
Executive Paolo Scaroni said. However, he added the country would have to
modify the terms of its contracts to become more attractive to
international oil companies." http://t.uani.com/18EQ5rw
Human Rights
IHR:
"Four Ahwazi Arab political prisoners have been executed, according
to reports received by Iran Human Rights (IHR). The executions are also
reported by BBC Persian and several other sources. Ghazi Abbasi,
Abdul-Reza Amir-Khanafereh , Abdul-Amir Mojaddami and Jasim Moghaddam
Payam were sentenced to death by Branch 1 of the Ahwaz revolutionary
court on August 15, 2012. They were convicted of 'enmity with God', which
is a common charge made against critics of the government. The death
sentences were upheld by the Supreme Court in February, although it is
believed that the lawyer representing Abdul-Reza Amir-Khanafereh was
still in the process of appealing against the conviction before the
executions." http://t.uani.com/1cnzGq5
AP:
"Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard has arrested 16 activists
accused of providing material to anti-government websites, the state
media said Wednesday. The official IRNA news agency quoted Ahmad
Ghorbani, a local prosecutor in Kerman in southeast Iran, as saying the
16 are facing charges of cooperating with Western and anti-Iran news
networks. Ghorbani didn't say when the 16 were detained but said
confessions obtained during interrogations prove the charges against the
defendants. The 16 were not identified but were accused of providing
materials to websites seeking to topple Iran's Islamic ruling system...
Meanwhile, Iran's morality police have arrested Amir Tataloo, a popular
underground singer whose songs authorities deem inappropriate, the daily
Etemad reported Wednesday." http://t.uani.com/1cnyaUP
RWB:
"Reporters Without Borders condemns a new crackdown on online
freedom of information in Iran in which Revolutionary Guards have
arrested at least 24 news and information providers in Rafsanjan, Kerman
and Tehran in the past two weeks. On 23 November, Rafsanjan's public
prosecutor announced the arrest of seven men and a woman for 'insulting
society's sacred beliefs and Islamic values online" without naming
them or saying exactly what charges had been brought against them. He
limited himself to adding: "The intelligence services are monitoring
the Internet with great care and are cracking on all possible
violations.'" http://t.uani.com/1ccF2Ro
Verge:
"Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the Supreme Leader of Iran. He's
devout, conservative, and fiercely anti-Western. He's also an avid
Twitter user. Over the past few months, both Khamenei and Iranian
President Hassan Rouhani have warmed up to social media, regularly using
Facebook and Twitter to release statements, push agendas, and, in some
cases, engage in diplomatic tussles. It's not that different from how
politicians across the globe use social platforms, but the Iranian case
is unique considering the leadership's long-standing public aversion to
all things Western - and to social media, in particular. Sites like
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are blocked within Iran, underscoring a
fundamental tension that has only recently begun to crystallize: as
Iranian officials continue to spread their messages across social
platforms, the country's citizens remain quarantined behind web filters
and firewalls, unable to legally access the services that have suddenly
become an important part of their political landscape. 'Certainly there
is a glaring hypocrisy in how openly and frequently Iran's officials
engage in social media,' Afshon Ostovar, a Middle East analyst at CNA
Strategic Studies, wrote in an email to The Verge." http://t.uani.com/IEBvDG
Domestic
Politics
Al-Monitor:
"The website for Ansar-e Hezbollah has published an op-ed attacking
President Hassan Rouhani for allowing a large number of mixed-sex pop
music concerts to take place and for his lax approach to Iran's film
industry, which according to the article has threatened Iran's religious
and cultural values. The article, which referred to Rouhani as
"Doctor" in the headline because of his PhD from Glasgow
University, sardonically asks, 'Are you a cleric?' It's one of the
harsher articles against the president since he took office nearly three
months ago and uses the occasion of Rouhani's 100-day report to question
and criticize the administration's actions in the cultural field." http://t.uani.com/18EQVED
Opinion
& Analysis
Jeffrey Goldberg in Bloomberg:
"The interim nuclear agreement between the Great Powers (such as
they are) and Iran is creating a lot of anxiety for people who support
the deal, because not much proof has been offered to suggest that it will
actually work. And by 'not much proof,' I mean, 'no proof.' Why support
it, then? Because, so far, the remote possibility that this agreement
will lead to the denuclearization of Iran beats the alternative: military
action by the U.S. or, worse, by Israel. All options should be on the
table, but, really, the military option could be disastrous. Here are six
reasons to be worried about the strength of this interim deal. These
worries have to do with the particulars of the agreement, but also with
the reality of the Iranian nuclear program, which is already quite well
developed.
1.
The deal isn't done. Remember the
photos from Geneva of smiling foreign ministers slapping backs and
hugging in celebration of their epic achievement? Well, nothing was
actually signed. The deal is not, as of this moment, even operational.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki was asked a question last
week about when the deal might actually take effect. 'The next step here
is a continuation of technical discussions at a working level so that we
can essentially tee up the implementation of the agreement. So that would
involve the P5+1 -- a commission of the P5+1 experts working with the
Iranians and the IAEA,' she said, referring to the permanent members of
the United Nations Security Council plus Germany and the International
Atomic Energy Agency. 'Obviously, once that's -- those technical
discussions are worked through, I guess the clock would start.' Focus on
those last words for a second: 'I guess the clock would start.' Do words
like those make you worried, or is it just me? ...
2.
Momentum for sanctions is waning. It's
true that the economic relief the Iranians will receive in this deal is
modest, but it is also true that many nations, many companies and the
Iranians themselves are seeing this agreement as the beginning of the end
of the sanctions regime...
3.
The (still unenforced) document agreed
upon in Geneva promises Iran an eventual exit from nuclear monitoring.
The final (theoretical) deal, the document states, will 'have a specified
long-term duration to be agreed upon,' after which the Iranian nuclear
program 'will be treated in the same manner as that of any non-nuclear
weapon state' that is part of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. From what I'm
told, the U.S. hopes this eventual agreement, should it come to pass,
would last 15 years; the Iranians hope to escape this burden in five.
After the agreement loses its legal force, Iran could run however many
centrifuges it chooses to run. This is not a comforting idea.
4.
The biggest concession to the Iranians
might have already been made. Although it is the West's position that it
has not granted Iran the so-called right to enrich, the text of the
interim agreement states that the permanent deal will 'involve a mutually
defined enrichment program with mutually agreed parameters.' Essentially,
Barack Obama's administration has already conceded, before the main round
of negotiations, that Iran is going to end up with the right to enrich.
Realists would argue that Iran will end up with that 'right' no matter
what, but it seems premature to cede the point now.
5.
The Geneva agreement only makes the
most elliptical references to two indispensable components of any
nuclear-weapons program. The entire agreement is focused on the fuel
cycle, but there is no promise by Iran in this interim deal to abstain
from pursuing work on ballistic missiles or on weaponization. A nuclear
weapons program has three main components: the fuel, the warhead and the
delivery system. Iran is free, in the coming six-month period of the
interim deal, to do whatever it pleases on missiles and warhead development.
6.
The Iranians are so close to reaching
the nuclear threshold anyway -- defined here as the ability to make a
dash to a bomb within one or two months from the moment the supreme
leader decides he wants one -- that freezing in place much of the nuclear
program seems increasingly futile." http://t.uani.com/1g9NUhM
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