Top Stories
AP: "Defense Secretary Robert Gates says that Iran's
resistance to a new round of proposed U.N. sanctions proves that they might
work. The U.S. introduced a resolution
this week calling for a series of economic and trade restrictions related to
Iran's nuclear and weapons programs, after winning support from China and
Russia." http://bit.ly/bcb7YK
Dow Jones: "A lobbying group is turning up its pressure
against Honeywell International Inc. (HON) for its business activities in Iran. United Against Nuclear Iran wants U.S.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates to bar Honeywell from receiving defense
department contracts as long as a subsidiary of the aerospace and industrial
conglomerate continues to do business with Iranian companies. The group said
defense contracts worth $3.45 billion were awarded to New Jersey-based
Honeywell last year." http://bit.ly/bfYO8M
NYT: "In their first public appearance, the three - Sarah
E. Shourd, 31; her companion, Shane M. Bauer, 27; and their friend Joshua F.
Fattal, 27 - described their nearly 10 months in the notorious Evin Prison and
expressed hope that they would be freed soon on 'humanitarian grounds.' They
said they had not been allowed to see a lawyer." http://nyti.ms/cL1D9d
Nuclear Program
AFP: "The International Atomic Energy Agency is still
waiting for an official notification from Iran on a uranium enrichment deal
with Turkey and Brazil, the nuclear watchdog's chief Yukiya Amano said
Wednesday. Amano told reporters during a
visit to Bucharest that he knew of the accord struck by the Iranian, Brazilian
and Brazilian presidents in Tehran on Monday." http://bit.ly/cP56aJ
Reuters: "Iran on Wednesday dismissed a draft U.N.
resolution to expand sanctions over its nuclear program, saying the measures
were unlikely to be approved and would not break its economy if they were
implemented." http://bit.ly/aoyk5i
BBC News: "Both were disappointed by proposals for new
sanctions tabled a day after Tehran agreed to trade uranium for ready-enriched
reactor fuel. Iranian officials said
major powers would be 'discrediting' themselves if they ignored the hard-won
deal." http://bit.ly/9K8wfx
Radio Farda: "A top Russian politician says possible
international sanctions against Iran will not affect current Russian contracts
with Tehran. The statement today by
Mikhail Margelov, the head of the International Relations Committee of Russia's
upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, contradicts earlier reports
that the sanctions under discussion could prevent Russia from delivering S-300
surface-to-air missiles to Iran." http://bit.ly/d7w1cW
WSJ: "China's biggest oil company is pressing ahead with
oil-and-gas projects in Iran valued at billions of dollars, its top executive
said, highlighting Beijing's strong economic ties to Tehran even as China has
signed onto a U.S.-led sanctions effort against Iran." http://bit.ly/9MABAq
Human Rights
Radio Farda: "A prominent Tehran-based lawyer has accused
the government of failing to address the problem of child abuse in Iran,
RFE/RL's Radio Farda reports. Nastrin
Sotoudeh told Radio Farda that judicial authorities pay little attention to
such mistreatment." http://bit.ly/dquoK9
Opinion
Boston Globe Editorial Board: "Facing new UN sanctions
for refusing to suspend its uranium enrichment, Iran executed a clever evasive
maneuver, announcing a deal with Turkey and Brazil to ship some of its
low-enriched uranium overseas, where it would then be converted for peaceful
uses. In responding to Iran, President Obama needs to match shrewdness with shrewdness."
http://bit.ly/cL61dN
Michael Anton in the Weekly Standard: "Just when you
thought the Iran problem couldn't get worse, it's worse. Earlier this week Tehran agreed to a deal,
brokered by Brazil and Turkey, to ship out more than 2,500 pounds of its
enriched uranium across the border to Turkey. In exchange the Iranians will
receive fuel rods containing about 250 pounds of uranium enriched to 20 percent
for use in their low-wattage Tehran Research Reactor, which the regime says
will be used to generate medical isotopes (for instance, sodium iodide 131I to
treat thyroid cancer)." http://bit.ly/8ZQUSj
Gerald Seib in WSJ: "A piece of paper can't stop a bomb,
and a United Nations resolution that hasn't even been passed yet certainly
can't do the trick. Yet the announcement
this week that the U.S. and the other permanent powers on the U.N. Security
Council have agreed on a proposed new set of sanctions on Iran represents a significant
moment in the tangled, long-running drama over Iran's nuclear program." http://bit.ly/b3dCOL
Roger Cohen in NYT: "John Limbert, once a U.S. hostage in
Tehran, now charged with Iranian affairs at the State Department, has given a
good description of the caricatures that bedevil American-Iranian
non-relations." http://nyti.ms/bN6UGJ
News Analysis
Sylvia Westall and Fredrik Dahl for Reuters: "A draft
plan for new U.N. sanctions seeks to squeeze Iran's banking and shipping sectors
and strengthen curbs on military and nuclear work, but crippling steps were
passed over in favor of big power unity." http://bit.ly/b91ZFr
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