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AFP:
"US and Iranian officials were meeting for a second day of
negotiations in Switzerland Friday as they work towards hammering out a
full nuclear deal ahead of a November deadline. The US team led by Deputy
Secretary of State Bill Burns and Under Secretary Wendy Sherman began
meeting Thursday with an Iranian delegation led by Iran's Deputy Foreign
Minister Abbas Araqchi in a luxury Geneva hotel. No information filtered
out from the first day of closed-door talks, and it remained unclear
whether they would wrap up Friday or continue into Saturday... State
Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf meanwhile called Thursday on
Iran to 'fully and without delay' cooperate with UN watchdog the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), after its inspectors were refused
access to a military base outside Tehran that they have been trying to
visit since 2005." http://t.uani.com/1xkEuZV
IHR:
"Two prisoners were hanged in the public in two different Iranian
towns in the Mazanderan province (Northern Iran), reported the Iranian
state media. One of the prisoners was a man identified as 'Mohsen D.'
charged with a murder in 2008, according to the official website of
Mazanderan Judiciary. The execution was scheduled to take place in the
town of Mahmoodabad on Monday September 1. But due to protests by the
people it was interrupted and carried out on Tuesday September 2, under
heavy security measures... Since the beginning of August 2014 at least 90
people have been executed in Iran. 17 of the executions have been carried
out in the public." http://t.uani.com/1qtokbP
ICHRI:
"The accelerated efforts to restrict women's access to jobs,
professions, and public venues continue in Iran. In the latest
announcement, Colonel Khalil Helali, Head of the Public Buildings Office
of the Iranian Police, said on August 30, 2014, that henceforth women are
not allowed employment in coffee shops, coffee houses, and traditional
Iranian restaurants. No laws or reasons were cited as the basis for
the decision to bar women from having such jobs. Shargh Daily also
reported on September 2, 2014, that women are now banned from appearing
on stage at musical performances in 13 provinces across the country. Only
bands without any female members will be granted the required performance
license, according to the report." http://t.uani.com/1lEQeBc
Human Rights
RFE/RL:
"A newly launched women's monthly run by a prominent female editor
has irked Iranian hard-liners, who have accused her of promoting
'obsolete' feminist views and ideas that are un-Islamic. Iran's
semi-official Fars news agency reported last week that Shahla Sherkat ,
editor of 'Zanan-e Emruz,' will be put on trial by Iran's Press Court on
September 7. Fars, said to be close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards
Corps (IRGC), did not provide details about the charges against Sherkat.
The report has led to concern that action could be taken to shut down the
monthly devoted to women's issues." http://t.uani.com/1rPQOis
ICHRI:
"Omid Kokabi, an exceptional student serving a 10-year sentence, has
not been allowed medical treatment outside Evin Prison despite his
worsening kidney stone condition and stomach ailment, a source told the
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Kokabi, 33, who has not
been allowed furlough once in the four years since his incarceration (a
customary practice in Iran but routinely denied to political prisoners),
was among the country's top students. He was studying post-doctoral
Nuclear Physics at the University of Texas at Austin at the time of his
arrest at Tehran's International Airport as he was about to leave the
country on January 30, 2011, after visiting family in Iran. He was kept
in solitary confinement for over a month during his 15-month pre-trial
detention. On May 14, 2012, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison by
Judge Salavati for 'contact with enemy states' and other falsified
charges." http://t.uani.com/1xkBeOb
AFP:
"A Dutch-Iranian human rights campaigner who had been sentenced to
death in Iran has been freed and allowed to return home to the
Netherlands, his son told a Dutch press agency on Friday. Abdullah
al-Mansouri, 69, arrived home on August 20, his son Adnan told the ANP
press agency. 'He did not expect to leave prison alive,' the son said. A
defender of Arab minority rights in Iran, Mansouri was sentenced to death
in 2007 for 'terrorism', but this was later commuted to 15 years in
prison. He does not know why he was released so early, ANP reported. His
son said Iranian prisoners can be released early for good behaviour.
Mansouri was convicted for his work in the Khuzestan province of western
Iran, where the majority Sunni-Arab population has pushed for greater
autonomy." http://t.uani.com/1t8wCUT
Opinion &
Analysis
Sumitha Narayanan
Kutty in Lawfare: "As the United States begins to
disengage from Afghanistan, there is renewed interest in Washington to
understand the extent of Iran's involvement in the region... When it
comes to Afghanistan, Iran's influence is here to stay. Nevertheless,
there are no indications that Iran looks to involve itself militarily in
the country after 2016. Iran has lasting political, economic, religious,
ethnic, and cultural assets in Afghanistan, given that the latter area
was historically part of the Persian Empire. The two countries share a
582-mile border along a plain in western Afghanistan. About one-fifth of
Afghanistan's population is Shi'ite, and this remains the focal point of
Iran's interaction. Twenty percent of Afghans speak Dari, a dialect of
Persian. The two countries have never fought a war with each other. Yet,
despite these deep ties, the bilateral relationship remains fettered by
issue-based rivalries over conflicting economic interests, shared river
waters, and treatment of ethnic and sectarian minorities in Afghanistan.
Given these circumstances, Iran has four long-standing strategic
objectives in Afghanistan. First, Iran wants a pro-Tehran administration
in Kabul: one that will preferably distance itself from the United States
and remain wary of the Taliban and its state sponsors (Pakistan and Saudi
Arabia). Tehran will also not object to a Pashtun-majority government as
long as ethnic minorities (Tajiks and Hazaras) obtain fair representation
in the new government... Iran's second non-negotiable objective is to
maintain is its leverage over the Shi'ite, Dari/Persian-speaking, non-Pashtun
population. Iran has long supported its traditional Afghan allies-the
Farsiwan Heratis, the Shi'ite Hazara, and the Tajiks. Iran has also
preserved relationships with the various militias it helped train during
the Soviet invasion, many of which are led by prominent Afghan
political players... Iran's third priority is to preserve and expand its
economic sphere of influence in Afghanistan. Iran provides about 50
percent of Afghanistan's oil imports. Bilateral trade shot up ten-fold in
the last five years to $5 billion, with Afghanistan accounting for 45
percent of Iran's exports. On reconstruction efforts, Iran pledged over
$900 million in aid between 2002 and 2013. According to Iranian
officials, their "golden era" of support was from 2002 to 2007,
with contributions totaling over $560 million. From 2007, funds were
directed toward existing projects with the aim of pushing them toward
completion. Over half of that amount was spent on infrastructure and
power projects in western Afghanistan. In recent years, Iran has worked
meticulously to expand its cultural and economic profile, particularly in
the western border province of Herat, which feeds into its regional
integration strategy. Iran has long advertised to its landlocked neighbor
the availability of land and sea access through Iran to Central Asia and
beyond. Tehran's regional vision also includes the growth of transit
trade through its new Chabahar port in the country's southeast, with the
participation of Afghanistan and India." http://t.uani.com/1o68Fub
Abdulrahman
al-Rashed in Al Arabiya: "Iran's rush to aid the
Sunnis among Iraqi Kurds expresses Iran's tripartite strategy towards
Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Tehran wants to dominate the area to protect its
influence in Baghdad. It also aims to control eastern Syria and to
influence Kurdish relations with Turkey. Arabs don't have plans to
dominate or to gain influence in either Iraq or in Syria and they also
avoid raising Turkey's suspicions. Iran, however, is less concerned about
respecting the rules of the regional security balance. Iran desires to
take over Iraq at any price by presenting itself as the protector of
Sunni Kurds and Shiite Arabs... No one will remember ISIS in few years
but Iran wants to seize Iraq for decades to come, and this is the
regional game of the struggle over land and influence... Unfortunately,
the interest of Arab governments in Iraq's Kurdistan is limited and it's
no match for the interest of the United States and Iran, although the
Kurdistan region is like a balcony which different powers use to overlook
Baghdad since Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. Kurdistan is also
important in the game of balance played out in the Iraqi parliament and
cabinet. Iran's domination over Iraq will eventually lead to targeting
the Arab Gulf area, because this is the center of regional and
international battles and it is the center of global energy, funds and
political influence. As for the Kurds, they feel grateful to the Iranians
without giving any attention to the nature of Iran's goals, particularly
as Arab governments have not communicated with them to even verbally
convey their solidarity against the threat of ISIS. This is what one
Kurdish official told me. Truth be told, Kurdistan's leaders are wrong to
point this exaggerated finger of blame as Arab governments don't have an
expansionist agenda like Iran does. Second, ISIS is a general problem
that is not limited to Kurdistan. There are Kurds, not only Arabs,
fighting alongside ISIS! Third, ISIS has done worse to the Sunnis of Anbar.
It also shed the blood of many Syrian people and killed hundreds of young
men from the al-Sheitaat clan and they are all Sunni Arabs. Finally, the
Kurds must remember outgoing Iraqi Prime Minister's Nouri al-Maliki's
abuses against them and how all these violations would not have occurred
if Maliki hadn't coordinated with Iran. So, let's not think that Iran's
sudden rescue of Kurdistan is for the sake of god." http://t.uani.com/Wl2j2z
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the
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email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com
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