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Stories
AP:
"Talks over Iran's nuclear program are making little headway, with
Tehran resisting U.S.-led efforts to crimp activities that could be
turned toward making weapons, diplomats said Monday. As negotiations move
closer to a July 20 target date for a deal, both sides are trying to plug
holes in a sketchy draft agreement. Five days into the latest round of talks
between Iran and six global powers, two diplomats told The Associated
Press that there is still a disagreement on the constraints Iran is ready
to accept in exchange for a full end to sanctions stifling its economy.
The diplomats demanded anonymity because they are not authorized to
discuss the confidential negotiations. The biggest hurdle remains uranium
enrichment, a process that can make reactor fuel or the core of a nuclear
weapon depending on the grade of material produced." http://t.uani.com/TNFoLZ
Reuters:
"Iran has reduced demands for the size of its future nuclear
enrichment program in talks with world powers although Western
governments are urging Tehran to compromise further, Western diplomats
said on Thursday. The diplomats, who spoke to Reuters at the start of a
two- week round of negotiations between Iran and the United States,
Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, said it would still be hard
to clinch a deal by the self-imposed July 20 deadline... 'Iran has
reduced the number of centrifuges it wants but the number is still
unacceptably high,' a Western diplomat told Reuters on condition of
anonymity and without further detail... On Wednesday, a senior Iranian
official told Reuters Tehran has refused to back down from its demand to
maintain 50,000 operational centrifuges, a figure Western officials say
is too high for a strictly civilian nuclear energy program... 'Iran needs
at least 50,000 centrifuges and not 49,999,' the Iranian official said.
'The other party is talking about a few thousands and this is
unacceptable for Iran.'" http://t.uani.com/1pUlVIG
Reuters:
"A year ago, the president of Iran's chamber of commerce could go
more than a month without hosting a foreign business delegation, due to
their fears of violating economic sanctions. These days, Gholam Hossein
Shafei greets trade missions from the Middle East, Asia and Latin America
almost every day and travels to European capitals. 'We have a new
environment domestically, and a new look from the outside,' the
63-year-old said from his expansive offices in central Tehran, which
overlook the abandoned American Embassy. 'We have good interest now in
our economy.' Firms including energy giants Total SA and Royal Dutch
Shell PLC; car maker PSA Peugeot Citroën; and financial firms Deutsche
Bank AG and Russia's Renaissance Capital Ltd. have participated in
presentations about investment in Iran... Mr. Rouhani is pouring
diplomats into European and Asian capitals to spread the message that
Iran is open for business. Special focus is on rehabilitating Iran's oil
industry, which had a steep decline in production and exports over the
past decade due to a drop in investment and a European embargo on oil
exports. In recent months, senior executives from European energy giants
Total of France, Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell and Italy's ENI SpA have
met with Iran's Oil Ministry to discuss their potential return if
sanctions are lifted, according to the ministry and companies. All had
major oil-extraction operations in Iran prior to the sanctions and have
expressed interest in resurrecting them. Spain's Repsol SA and Norway's
Statoil ASA have met Iranian oil officials in recent months to explore
the possibility of returning to the country, according to people familiar
with the meetings... Iran's largest auto maker, Iran Khodro Industrial
Group, has restarted partnership talks with international car makers
including Renault SA and Peugeot, one of its key former joint-venture
partners, which pulled out of Iran in 2012... Officials at Peugeot and Renault
confirmed their discussions with Iran Khodro about restarting their
partnership if the sanctions are lifted... Since the start of the year,
Société Générale SA, BNP Paribas and Barclays PLC have received
permission to conduct limited transactions in Iran, according to records
The Wall Street Journal obtained from the U.S. Treasury Department
through a Freedom of Information Act request." http://t.uani.com/1xgBvhI
Nuclear Program & Negotiations
Reuters:
"Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took to YouTube on
Wednesday to deliver a message that Iran was ready to take steps to
ensure its nuclear programme remains peaceful but would not 'kneel in
submission' to do a deal with major powers. In the video, Zarif said a
nuclear deal would make history, and Iran was 'willing to take concrete
measures to guarantee that our nuclear programme will always remain
peaceful'. But he added: 'To those who continue to believe that sanctions
brought Iran to the negotiating table, I can only say that pressure has
been tried for the past eight years, in fact for the past 35 years. It
didn't bring the Iranian people to kneel in submission. And it will not
now, nor in the future.' British Foreign Secretary William Hague struck a
similarly sober tone. 'We will not accept a deal at any price,' he said
in a statement. 'A deal that does not provide sufficient assurances that
Iran will not develop a nuclear weapon is not in the interests of the UK,
the region or the international community.' ... Iranian Deputy Foreign
Minister Abbas Araqchi told Iranian media the fact that almost three
weeks had been scheduled for final negotiations was 'a sign the two sides
are serious about driving the talks to a conclusion'. 'We'll decide by
the July 20 deadline, based on how the talks proceed, whether to extend
the talks, take a pause, or even bother to continue. It is too soon to
predict,' he said... Araqchi said that 'any limitation we submit to would
be short-term and on a trial basis', ISNA news agency reported." http://t.uani.com/1jJE5og
Reuters:
"The two sides are now seeking a final deal that would eventually
lift all nuclear-related Iranian sanctions in exchange for steps from
Tehran that would prevent it moving quickly to pursue nuclear weapons.
People involved in the talks have said that extending the talks would
likely require some renegotiation of the interim deal's terms. Iran is
expected to seek additional sanctions relief, at least by demanding the
release by Washington of an average $700 million a month in Iranian oil
sales revenue frozen in foreign bank accounts. The six powers would
likely demand something in return, which analysts say could be tighter
constraints on Iran's nuclear research work or a reduction in Tehran's stockpile
of low-enriched uranium." http://t.uani.com/1j8t4C2
Sanctions
Relief
Reuters:
"The man tasked with engineering the recovery of Iran's economy must
do so from atop a central bank that is incapable of conducting financial
transactions with most foreign governments and companies. Akbar Komijani
is deputy governor of Bank Markazi, Iran's central bank, an institution
the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned in 2012 for allegedly aiding
Iran's nuclear program. Called out of academia last year by the newly
elected President Hasan Rouhani, Mr. Komijani says he was shocked by the
state of the government's finances, which had deteriorated dramatically
during former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's tenure. 'The sanctions were
a catalyzer that exposed many other problems in our economy,' said Mr.
Komijani in an interview at Bank Markazi's gleaming Tehran office tower,
which looks up at the snow-capped peaks of the Alborz Mountains. 'By July
2011, the sanctions really started to have an impact.'" http://t.uani.com/1vRuX6t
WSJ:
"The European Union lost two new sanctions cases Thursday, with the
bloc's second highest court overturning the EU's decisions to blacklist
Iran's Sharif University of Technology and former Syrian Economy and
Trade Minister Mohamad Nedal Alchaar. The decisions by the EU General
Court are the latest defeats the bloc has suffered as it seeks to uphold
dozens of decisions in recent years to impose asset freezes and travel
bans on hundreds of individuals and companies in Iran and Syria." http://t.uani.com/1jYWtd3
AFP:
"A US company has signed a preliminary agreement to invest $1.175
billion (864 million euros) in Iran, in a rare joint commercial project
to turn rubbish and human waste into electricity. California-based World
Eco Energy told AFP it plans to produce 250 megawatts daily by burning
trash and by processing algae and salt and waste water into power. Iran
will match the US investment, the company said. A company spokesman said
the project, in the southwestern province of Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari, would
create 600-700 jobs, 80 percent of which would go to locals. It is
scheduled to start in September 2014 and is an early indication of the
foreign business that may flow back to Iran if US, European and UN
sanctions are lifted." http://t.uani.com/1n0e9VG
Iraq Crisis
WSJ:
"Iran is pursuing a delicate strategy of supporting fellow Shiite
Muslims and preserving its influence in neighboring Iraq-where the
government is under siege by radical Sunni militants-without pushing the
confrontation into outright sectarian warfare. For the second straight
week, influential clerics, who are appointed by the Islamic Republic's
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, used their Friday sermons to
denounce the militant groups and support Iraq's government. But their
speeches steered clear of explicitly encouraging individual Shiites to
act against the Sunni insurgents. 'We are ready to help Iraq as they ask
for help,' Ayatollah Mohammad Saeedi told thousands of Iranians gathered
for Friday prayers in Qom, Iran's religious capital. The country has
openly sent top military advisers to help the Iraqi government, and
blamed a collection of foreign enemies from Saudi Arabia to Israel and
the U.S. for the violence. It deployed at least three battalions of elite
Revolutionary Guards units to Iraq, according to Iranian security
officials-an action Iran's foreign ministry denied... Perhaps its biggest
contribution, referred to only obliquely in Iranian media, has been
helping Mr. Maliki's government overhaul Iraq's lackluster professional
military. Iran has provided advisers and trainers of zealous and often
battle-trained militias formed and largely controlled by hard-line Iraqi
Shiite religious groups with close ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Corps." http://t.uani.com/1jgq4UG
WashPost:
"State media reported Saturday that an Iranian military pilot was
killed in Iraq, the first confirmation that Iranian forces are involved
in the Iraqi government's battle to repel an offensive by
al-Qaeda-inspired extremists. IRNA, Iran's official news agency, did not
provide details of how or when the pilot was killed but said he died
defending holy places in the Iraqi city of Samarra, which is home to an
important Shiite pilgrimage site." http://t.uani.com/1rHhFfm
WSJ:
"Iran's leadership is split over whether to continue its support for
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, according to senior U.S. officials
involved in Baghdad's political process." http://t.uani.com/1smU8Oa
Human Rights
Reuters:
"Talks between Iran and six world powers aimed at clinching a deal
on Iran's contested nuclear program should include human rights concerns,
the U.N. human rights chief said on Thursday. U.N. Commissioner for Human
Rights Navi Pillay said the United Nations was especially worried about executions
in Iran, including the planned execution of a woman convicted of
murdering her husband at the age of 17. 'These very many acts of
execution stemming from trials that we feel are not fair or trials on
spurious charges are all huge concerns,' she told journalists on the
sidelines of a conference in Vienna. 'I do encourage that any talks with
Iran fully cover the human rights situation. We do need a commitment on
the part of Iran that they will protect the human rights of their
citizens.'" http://t.uani.com/TNE77J
AFP:
"Iranian journalist Marzieh Rasouli said Monday that she has been
sentenced to two years in Tehran's notorious Evin prison and 50 lashes
for publishing anti-regime propaganda. Rasouli, respected for her work as
an arts and culture reporter for leading reformist media outlets,
including the Shargh and Etemaad dailies, was detained in January 2012 as
part of a crackdown. She was later freed on bail, but her incarceration -
shortly before a parliamentary election - drew international condemnation
led by the United States and France." http://t.uani.com/1n7M7wh
IHR:
"A juvenile offender was executed in the prison of Tabriz
(Northwestern Iran) in the month of June, according to unofficial
sources... According to reports published by Iran Human Rights (IHR) at
least 8 juvenile offenders have been executed in 2014 in Iran." http://t.uani.com/1m8GhdK
IranWire:
"Iran's state broadcaster, known as Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcasting, IRIB, has never been the country's most dignified
institution. But even by its own standards, the network plunged into a
fresh abyss of superstition and fear-mongering with a recent broadcast in
which Valiollah Naghipourfar, a cleric and professor at Tehran
University, discusses the use of jinns, or genies, in public life. 'Can
jinns be put to use in intelligence gathering?' the presenter asks
ingenuously, as though dragons can also serve as defense ministers and
we've all entered the realm of the Hobbit. The cleric nods, as though
speaking about a species of exotic elf: 'The Jew is very practiced in
sorcery. Indeed most sorcerers are Jews.'" http://t.uani.com/1sn4uOc
Domestic
Politics
WashPost:
"Iran is headed for a water shortage of epic proportions, and little
is being done to reverse a decades-long trend that has reduced the
country's water supply to crisis levels. Changes in the global climate, a
century of rampant development and heavy subsidies for water and other
utilities are all contributing to a situation that is likely to get much
worse. 'Our water usage is twice the world standard, and considering the
situation in our country, we have to reduce this level,' Massoumeh
Ebtekar, a vice president and the head of Iran's Department of
Environment, said in a recent speech." http://t.uani.com/1sn0ZY3
Foreign Affairs
Bloomberg:
"Iranian President Hassan Rouhani may name his American-educated
chief of staff to be the country's next envoy to the United Nations,
after the U.S. denied a visa to his previous choice. Rouhani is
considering Mohammad Nahavandian, 60, who holds a Ph.D. in economics from
George Washington University, for the position, according to two UN
Security Council diplomats and one European diplomat, who asked not to be
identified because they weren't authorized to comment. Nahavandian also
has been cited as the likely nominee in Iranian media. In April,
the Obama administration denied a visa to Hamid Aboutalebi after
Bloomberg News reported on his involvement with the militant group that
seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage
for 444 days. Iran may fill the post after the conclusion of the current
round of talks with world powers in Vienna over the Islamic Republic's
nuclear program." http://t.uani.com/1xG3O9u
Opinion &
Analysis
David Ignatius in
WashPost: "With the sudden rise of the terrorist
Islamic State , a little-noted aspect is that Gen. Qassem Suleimani, the
supposed strategic genius of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, has
blundered disastrously. By overreaching in Iraq and Syria and triggering
a violent reaction, Iran now faces dangerous instability on its border
for years to come. Most commentary on the Iraq situation has focused on
U.S. errors and the potential dangers to U.S. interests, and there are
plenty of both. But perhaps we can put aside our national myopia and look
at what recent events mean for Iran, which shares a 900-mile border with
Iraq and desperately wants political hegemony there. It's not a happy
picture. 'Suleimani's orchestration of brutal military campaigns in both
Syria and Iraq set the stage for the Sunni Arab response turning to
extremism,' explains Derek Harvey, a longtime Iraq intelligence analyst
who now teaches at the University of South Florida. Harvey lists some of
Suleimani's mistakes: 'He missed opportunities for moderation while still
protecting Iranian interests. His partnership with extremism in Syria
resulted in the threat growing in Syria and rebounding to Iraq. His
refusal to counsel some moderation and inclusion by [Iraqi Prime Minister
Nouri al-]Maliki developed a fertile environment for [the Islamic State]
and others to exploit.' Suleimani's reversals are significant because he
has become something of a cult figure among those who follow the
paramilitary Quds Force he directs. I have likened him in past columns to
John le Carré's fabled spymaster, Karla. The New Yorker's Dexter Filkins
chronicled what Arabs call Suleimani's 'khilib, or understated charisma,'
in a memorable profile in September. Suleimani seemed a man who could run
circles around rival commanders. Not anymore. Viewed from Iran's
perspective, there was a catastrophic aspect to the Islamic State's
declaration of a caliphate in northwestern Iraq and neighboring areas of
Syria. Iran is now rushing to mobilize its Iraqi allies to stop the
marauding Sunni insurgents from seizing Baghdad's airport. The Iranians,
watching the collapse of the U.S.-trained Iraqi army, have turned to
Shiite militias that are trained and run by Suleimani's operatives. But
this reliance on sectarian militias only deepens the potential for
violence; indeed, it's probably the polarizing response the Islamic State
hoped to trigger." http://t.uani.com/1n0ivfz
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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