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Top Stories
Daily Beast:
"Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Abbas Araghchi, said this week
that if Iran decides to resume enriching uranium to levels prohibited
by the new nuclear deal, it could begin to do so in one day's time.
Araghchi spoke on Jan. 12 to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting
Channel 2 following his return from Geneva... 'We can return again to
20 percent enrichment in less than one day and we can convert the
[nuclear] material again. Therefore the structure of our nuclear
program is preserved,' said Araghchi, in a broadcast which was
independently translated for The Daily Beast. 'Whenever we feel
the other side is not following through with its commitments, whenever
we feel there are other motives involved, whenever-now, say, under
pressure from Congress or something else-they take action against their
commitments, say put in place new sanctions, we will immediately revert
to the current status quo. And we will again continue our nuclear
program in the form that it is today.' 'I can say definitively that the
structure of our nuclear program will be exactly preserved. Nothing
will be put aside, dismantled or halted. Everything will continue,
enrichment will continue,' Araghchi said." http://t.uani.com/LfsMct
Reuters:
"The White House on Thursday released a summary of the deal
reached between six major world powers and Iran to curb its nuclear
program, responding to calls from the U.S. Congress and other groups
for more transparency about what the agreement entails... The White
House gave Congress access to the full text of technical instructions
for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) but released a
detailed four-page summary of the deal to the public. 'It is the
preference of the IAEA that certain technical aspects of the technical
understandings remain confidential,' White House spokesman Jay Carney
told reporters. Wendy Sherman, the State Department's lead Iran
negotiator, briefed lawmakers on the agreement on Thursday. Some walked
out of the meeting saying it had heightened, rather than eased, their
concerns about negotiations between Iran and the United States and five
other world powers. 'I'm more disturbed more than ever after the
briefing,' Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham told
reporters. Graham, a frequent critic of Obama administration foreign
policy initiatives, is a co-sponsor of a bill opposed by the Obama
administration to slap new sanctions on Iran if it walks away from the
negotiations." http://t.uani.com/1eGOqPQ
Amnesty
International: "Iran has carried out a total of 40
executions since the beginning of 2014, with at least 33 carried out in
the past week alone, said Amnesty International today. 'The spike in
the number of executions carried out so far this month in Iran is
alarming. The Iranian authorities' attempts to change their
international image are meaningless if at the same time executions
continue to increase', said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty
International's Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa...
'In Iran drug-related offences are tried in Revolutionary Courts which
routinely fall far short of international fair trial standards. The
reality in Iran is that people are being ruthlessly sentenced to death
after unfair trials, and this is unacceptable,' said Hassiba Hadj
Sahraoui." http://t.uani.com/1gUPBgb
Nuclear Program & Negotiations
Reuters:
"U.N. nuclear inspectors will soon visit an Iranian uranium mine
for the first time since 2005 as part of Tehran's agreement to open its
disputed nuclear program to greater scrutiny, state television reported
on Friday. 'Based on our agreement with the agency (IAEA), their
inspectors will visit the Gachin mine in southern part of the country
on January 29,' Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for the Atomic Energy
Organisation of Iran, was quoted as saying. The Vienna-based
International Atomic Energy Agency had no immediate comment. It
previously said it wanted to visit the Gachin mine uranium mine to
acquire a better understanding of the nature of Iran's nuclear
program." http://t.uani.com/1avGbqv
Congressional
Sanctions Debate
NYT:
"On Thursday, under pressure, the White House released technical
details of how it is carrying out an interim deal with Iran. The
document contained few surprises, though it raised enough questions -
from the nature of Iran's centrifuge research to the size of its
stockpile of low-enriched uranium - that it is likely to feed the
doubts of skeptics. Those doubts run through the Senate bill, which
would require Mr. Obama to certify, every 30 days, that a host of
conditions have been met in order to defer the new sanctions. White House
officials zeroed in on three of the conditions: first, that any deal
would dismantle Iran's 'illicit nuclear infrastructure'; second, that
Iran 'has not directly, or through a proxy, supported, financed,
planned or otherwise carried out an act of terrorism against the United
States'; and third, that Iran has not tested any but the shortest-range
ballistic missiles... 'There's no language that says a centrifuge is
prohibited or allowed,' said David Albright, an expert on Iran's
nuclear program at the Institute for Science and International
Security, who helped Republicans and Democrats draft some of the
technical wording. The ambiguity, he said, reflected the fact that the
lawmakers who sponsored the bill are 'doing it in a bipartisan way, but
they have disagreements on what the end state should look like.' ...
Mr. Albright said he believed that the Senate and White House could
still negotiate a final version of the bill that would allay the
administration's concerns. But the White House seems uninterested, calculating
perhaps that the bill's sponsors were losing momentum in attracting
enough Democrats to give the legislation a veto-proof majority." http://t.uani.com/1cA8GQs
AFP:
"The pro-sanctions camp believe it has at least 59 votes in the
Senate and a healthy majority in the House of Representatives and could
be approaching the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto
Obama has promised. It remains unclear however whether Senate Majority
leader Harry Reid, keen to avoid embarrassing fellow Democrat Obama,
will bring the sanctions bill up for a vote. Republican Senator Bob
Corker meanwhile suggested a compromise position, noting that US
officials agreed to impose no new sanctions for the six-month duration
of the interim deal. 'Why don't we schedule a vote for July 21,' he
said. 'If they haven't reached an agreement that we believe is
satisfactory, let's implement on that day.'" http://t.uani.com/1dBwZCg
Sanctions
Relief
Reuters:
"Iran has about $100 billion in foreign exchange assets around the
world, of which it will be able to access $4.2 billion under last
year's nuclear agreement with six world powers, a senior U.S.
administration official said on Friday. The official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, said the money and assets were held in various
countries and that a significant proportion was Iran's oil revenue.
Financial and other sanctions have meant Tehran has not had free access
to spend it... The U.S. official said Iran would identify from where it
wants to take the funds and that Western authorities would facilitate
their transfer in a series of instalments during the next half year,
depending on the Islamic Republic carrying out its part of the
deal." http://t.uani.com/1avoF2z
AP:
"Sometime between breakfast and lunchtime Monday, a message will
arrive in Belgium's capital that should set in motion an international
diplomatic machine, affect billions of dollars blocked in banks and
have repercussions from U.S. college campuses to oil tankers on the
seas. In Tehran, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency
are expected to certify that day whether Iran is respecting its
engagement to rein in its nuclear program... If the inspectors are
satisfied the Iranians are keeping their word, European Union
governments, with the White House's blessing, are poised to deliver
with surprising swiftness on their end of the deal: a six-month
suspension of some of the sanctions that are hobbling Iran's economy.
Foreign ministers of Britain, Germany, France and the rest of the EU
member countries will be in Brussels on Monday for one of their
periodic meetings. EU officials said Thursday the plan is that within
30 minutes of receiving an email, phone call or other form of
communication from IAEA inspectors or their bosses in Vienna, the foreign
ministers will unanimously approve the necessary changes in European
Union legislation, and transmit their decision to the trade bloc's
offices in the neighboring country of Luxembourg...Within an hour or
hour and half, the new regulations should be posted in the EU's
official journal, published in Luxembourg, and take effect, a European
Union official said. All this should happen between 10 a.m. and noon
Monday - 'unless something goes wrong,' the official said on condition
of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the
matter... Jos Douma, ambassador of the Netherlands to Iran, posted on
his Twitter account this week that he had just held a 'speeddate
session' back home to accommodate Dutch companies interested in Iran. http://t.uani.com/1avK6Uk
WSJ:
"A small group of European industries, from insurance to precious
metals, stand to benefit from the loosening of European Union sanctions
against Iran on Monday, according to details provided by EU officials.
Companies will be allowed to provide transportation and insurance, for
example, for shipments of Iranian crude oil to the six countries still
allowed to buy it without facing U.S. sanctions-India, China, Japan,
South Korea, Turkey and Taiwan... The deal would allow EU-based companies
to buy, import, insure and transport petrochemicals from Iran, EU
officials said, something that is now prohibited. A ban on trading in
gold and precious metals from Iran would also be suspended." http://t.uani.com/KnjlqX
Reuters:
"Belgian chemical firm Tessenderlo will ship fertiliser to Iran
within weeks as the easing of Western financial sanctions has helped
Tehran complete its first potash tender purchase in two years... In
September, Iran's Agricultural Support Services Company (ASSC) issued a
tender to buy 60,000 tonnes of potassium sulphate, its first for two
years, according to its website. A Tessenderlo spokeswoman said the
chemical producer won the tender and expected to deliver the first of
two cargoes by the end of this month. Unifert, a Lebanese fertiliser
trading firm with offices in Europe, Iran and across the Arab world, is
executing the physical and financial transactions, sources close to the
deal said... The easing of restrictions on Iran's banking system will
facilitate trade and encourage future transactions, they said. 'It is
now easier and more workable on the banking side to seal deals now,' a
European trading source said... 'The tender was issued two or three
months before the deal, so the demand was there anyway. However, the political
environment makes it easier. It was the difficulties the Iranians had
making transfers in hard currency that had restricted trade before,' a
source close to the deal said. ASSC also in September issued a tender
to buy 210,000 tonnes of granular triple super phosphate (GTSP), which
was awarded to producers in Bulgaria and China, according to market
sources." http://t.uani.com/1eWRDLm
Reuters:
"An Iranian bank plans to file a claim worth hundreds of millions
of pounds against the British government next month as part of efforts
by Iranian companies to dismantle Western sanctions against them, a
lawyer for the bank said. Bank Mellat will demand at least 500 million
pounds in a filing at Britain's Commercial Court on February 7, after
the Supreme Court ruled last year that the government was wrong to slap
sanctions on it, said the lawyer, Sarosh Zaiwalla. It is the first time
that an Iranian plaintiff against sanctions in Europe has reached the
stage of claiming damages after a top court found in its favour, he
said. By making British taxpayers potentially liable, the case may put
pressure on Western governments to ease their measures against Iranian
firms in general, added London-based Zaiwalla, who represented Bank
Mellat in its appeal to the Supreme Court. 'It may set a benchmark for
any sanctions against Iran,' he said in an interview late on
Wednesday." http://t.uani.com/1dBAHgK
Syria
Conflict
Reuters:
"In recent weeks Russia has stepped up supplies of military gear
to Syria, including armored vehicles, drones and guided bombs, boosting
President Bashar al-Assad just as rebel infighting has weakened the
insurgency against him, sources with knowledge of the deliveries say.
Moscow, which is trying to raise its diplomatic and economic influence
in the Middle East, has been a major provider of conventional weapons
to Syria, giving Assad crucial support during the three-year civil war
and blocking wider Western attempts to punish him with sanctions for
the use of force against civilians. The new Russian supplies come at a
critically fluid stage of the conflict, with peace talks scheduled for
next week in Switzerland, the factious opposition losing ground, and
Western support for the rebellion growing increasingly wary of the role
played by foreign militants. Syria has even said some countries
formally opposed to Assad have begun discussing security cooperation
with his government." http://t.uani.com/1acOMRc
Domestic
Politics
AFP:
"Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned Thursday that he was
facing domestic opposition to a landmark nuclear deal with major powers
that is to go into effect next week. Rouhani, whose June election has
led to a quickening rapprochement with the West after years of
hostility, said there was organised opposition in Iran to his efforts
to allay Western concerns about its nuclear programme in return for an
easing of sanctions. 'A group does not wish to see the sanctions
lifted,' the president said in remarks reported by the Tasnim news
agency. 'This group -- for their individual and party interests -- is
against the normalisation of relations with the world.' ... 'It is
correct that the structure of sanctions remains in place... but we have
taken down one or two of its pillars,' he said." http://t.uani.com/LfnMVs
Foreign Affairs
AP:
"The last American orchestra to perform in Iran is considering
what would be a groundbreaking return concert tour this fall. The
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra visited Iran a half-century ago. The
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports orchestra officials and the American
Middle East Institute are in talks with Iran about a potential trip in
September. But many hurdles remain given the countries' history of
strained relations. State Department adviser Gregg Sullivan says many
details would have to be worked out for the tour to happen.Orchestra
and institute representatives plan an advance trip to Iran next month
during the country's Fajr (fa'-juhr) International Music Festival.
Institute president Simin Curtis said if the tour happens, 'it will be
a sensation.'" http://t.uani.com/1ddY2in
Opinion &
Analysis
George Russell
in Fox News: "Iran, already exulting about the
'surrender' of the West in its nuclear enrichment negotiations, may
soon have another diplomatic victory to celebrate: a role in the
election of the next executive director of the U.N.'s World Property
Organization (WIPO), a which deals in the complexities of international
copyright and technology transfer. The election takes place in early
March, and Iran-along with North Korea-is a member of WIPO's so-called
'coordination committee'-a select group of less than half of the
organization's membership. It will nominate a leadership candidate for
ratification by the entire 183-member organization. Three other
candidates are running, but WIPO's current executive director, an
Australian native named Francis Gurry, is considered by most observers
to be a shoo-in. As it happens, both Gurry and WIPO came in for searing
criticism in late 2012 for their role in the shipment to North Korea
and Iran-- both under U.N., U.S. and other sanctions for their
extensive and illegal nuclear programs--of largely U.S.-made computers,
servers and other equipment subject to U.S. export restrictions. A
WIPO-appointed investigative panel subsequently asserted that the two
countries could never legally have purchased the equipment, some of it
subject to high-level export scrutiny even to U.S. allies, on their
own. Due to the U.N. privileges and immunities that swaddle WIPO,
however, U.S. sanctions against Iran were apparently never an issue.
Nor did Gurry or WIPO inform U.N. sanctions committees about the
shipments, part of a pattern of disregard for the sensitivities of the
issue that a subsequent WIPO-appointed investigative panel said
"we simply cannot fathom." Both WIPO and Gurry, however, were
absolved of taint for their actions. Now, apparently, Iran's role has
come full circle: having helped to spark a proliferation-related
scandal within WIPO, it will now flex its privileged membership status
in the same organization by helping to re-elect its top official... At
around the same time as the WIPO episode was brewing, for example, Iran
was able to win permission from the U.N.'s 62-nation Economic
Commission for Asia and the Pacific to build a regional 'disaster
information management center' that some experts worried could advance
its ballistic capability, a move that the U.S. long opposed. In other
words, throughout the long international struggle over its clandestine
nuclear weapons activities-which is far from over-Iran has been an international
bad guy and a U.N. big dog, all at the same time. Its big dog status is
considerable, and long-lasting. At the moment, Iran sits until 2015 on
the 36-member executive board of the influential United Nations
Development Program (UNDP), which is the chief coordinator for U.N.
programs in all 162 countries where it has offices, as well as the
U.N.'s chief anti-poverty agency. (The U.S. is also a UNDP executive
board member.) The Islamic Republic also has appointed a member to the
34-member board of the World Health Organization (WHO), and is a member
of the 49-nation governing Council of the 192-member Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO), as well as the 36-member Executive
Board of UNICEF. Iran also sits on the guiding industrial development
board and program and budget committees of UNIDO, the United Nations
Development Organization, an agency increasingly shunned by developed
nations but a bastion of the developing world. In addition, it is a
member of the 32-nation executive council of the 156-nation World
Tourism Organization, which, among other things, promotes a 'global
ethics code for tourism,' an activity that the WTO says makes up 9
percent of global GNP... 'There's a real gap in the U.N. governance
system,' agrees Mark Wallace, himself a former U.S. Ambassador to the
U.N. for management and reform, and currently head of United Against
Nuclear Iran, an organization devoted to brining financial, corporate
and grassroots pressure to bear to rein in Iran's nuclear weapons
ambitions. 'Iran has flouted U.N. Security Council resolutions for
years and years. It is not good governance for a country running afoul
of U.N. sanctions to be building legitimacy for itself through the same
U.N. system.' At the same time, Wallace acknowledged, Iran and its
foreign minister, Javad Zarif, have done a 'masterful job of using U.N.
organization bodies' for Tehran's own diplomatic purposes, especially
in recent months to help generate a receptive climate for the most
recent sanctions relaxation negotiations. All of which raises a
question: with international financial pressures on Iran waning, if
only temporarily, as a result of the budding nuclear enrichment deal,
what additional ways will Iran find to extend its clout and influence
in a U.N. system that it has learned how to game so well?" http://t.uani.com/1j8ofEM
UANI President
Gary Samore in Harvard's Iran Matters: "The key to
this initial phase of implementation is that both sides can reverse
their actions quickly if the agreement breaks down during the six-month
negotiations for a comprehensive settlement. Within a
matter of days, Iran can resume nuclear activities frozen under the
Joint Plan of Action, and the P5+1 can rescind the suspension of
sanctions on trade in petrochemicals, gold, auto parts, and so forth.
More complicated are actions that the two sides are required to take
that cannot be easily reversed. To deal with these actions, the
negotiators agreed to an installment plan over six months. Under the
terms of the Joint Plan of Action, Iran agreed to dilute half of its
stockpile of 20 percent enriched uranium in UF6 form to less than 5
percent in UF6 form and to convert the remaining half to oxide
form. The implementation plan specifies that the dilution process
will be completed within three months and the conversion process will
be completed by the end of six months. Correspondingly, the P5+1
will grant Iran access to $4.2 billion in restricted funds on a set
schedule at monthly intervals so that the final payment will be
released at the end of six months when the last of Iran's 20 percent
enriched uranium is converted to oxide. In essence, the P5+1 is
paying Iran to dispose of its stockpile of 20 percent enriched uranium
on the basis of performance. Either side can halt the process at
any time without having expended all of its chips if the other side
doesn't deliver. Two other issues bear specific mention. First is
the ban on the production of additional centrifuges, except to replace
damaged machines. On January 20, Iran will give the IAEA
information on relevant centrifuge production facilities for rotor
production and storage and centrifuge assembly. The IAEA and Iran
will then need to negotiate arrangements for IAEA access to the
declared production facilities so that the agency can monitor and
verify that centrifuge production and assembly rates are roughly equal
to failure rates at Natanz and Fordow. Depending on the degree of
access and surveillance that Iran allows, this could be one of the more
difficult aspects of the Joint Plan of Action to verify, especially if
there are suspicions that Iran has undeclared centrifuge production
facilities or stocks of undeclared components such as rotors. The
second specific issue is the range of centrifuge research and
development activities that Iran is allowed to conduct. The Joint
Plan of Action specifies that 'Iran will continue its safeguarded
R&D practices, including its current enrichment R&D practices,
which are not designed for accumulation of the enriched uranium.' According
to press reports, the interpretation of this provision was disputed,
including whether or not Iran could install additional centrifuge
machines or produce small quantities of enriched uranium above 5% as
part of its R&D activities at the Natanz pilot plant.
Apparently, this issue was resolved by agreeing that Iran could
continue to do what it has already been doing, as reported by the IAEA.
According to the November IAEA board report on Iran, Iran is
experimenting with a range of test centrifuges at the Natanz pilot
scale facility, including the IR-1, IR-2m, IR-4, and the IR-6.
Under the agreement, Iran will not be allowed to install additional
test centrifuges, but presumably it can replace individual machines on
a case-by-case basis if they fail. In addition, the current
R&D process apparently involves the enrichment of small quantities
of uranium above 5%, but this material is blended with depleted uranium
(so-called 'tails') in the test cascades so that no enriched uranium is
actually extracted from the process. The negotiators agreed to
allow this practice to continue so that - in effect - both sides can
claim victory on whether R&D will involve any enrichment above
5%." http://t.uani.com/1hy7EK3
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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.
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