Top Stories
AP: "CIA Director Leon Panetta says Iran probably has
enough low-enriched uranium for two nuclear weapons, but that it likely would
take two years to build the bombs. Panetta
also says he is doubtful that recent U.N. penalties will put an end to Iran's
nuclear ambitions." http://bit.ly/bBRItR
AP: "Iran's president says Tehran will not hold talks
with the West over its disputed nuclear program until late August to 'punish'
world powers for imposing tougher economic sanctions. The U.N. Security Council approved new sanctions
against Iran earlier this month over Tehran's refusal to halt uranium
enrichment." http://bit.ly/9RnHll
LAT: "U.S. and European officials in charge of efforts to
tighten sanctions against Iran have expressed new concerns that China is
quietly positioning itself to undermine the latest measures. In the last two weeks, the United States and
the European Union imposed new sanctions to pressure Tehran to curtail its
nuclear program. The measures, which augment United Nations sanctions adopted
this month, aim to discourage international investment in Iran, particularly
its energy sector." http://bit.ly/9mAjIB
Nuclear Program
LAT: "Tapper asked about suspicions that the U.S. was
secretly helping Iran stumble in its research. That wouldn't exactly be
transparent, would it? But, hey, when it comes to nukes in the hands of the
likes of those types, whatever works, right?
Panetta, of course, is not really going to answer. 'Why, yes, Jake. We
did give his scientists the incorrect recipe for enriching uranium just the
other day.' But see if you read into
Panetta's non-answer here a hopeful sign that the Obama administration may not
be as passive as it looks." http://bit.ly/coraSb
Commerce
Reuters: "Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Ali-Reza Zeighami
says emergency plans will help boost the country's gasoline output sharply by
early 2012. The daily 'Resalat' quotes
Zeighami as saying on June 27 that daily gasoline production would increase by
17 million liters by the end of the next Iranian year, which runs until March
2012. This would amount to almost the same volumes that Iran is now importing."
http://bit.ly/9n8C3D
WSJ: "Total SA has become the latest company to
discontinue the sale of refined products to Iran, a person familiar with the
matter said Monday, amid new U.S. sanctions targeting Iran's gasoline imports."
http://bit.ly/ahN1il
WSJ: "Iran's beleaguered oil industry could be on its way
to passing an ignominious milestone: being replaced by its onetime nemesis,
Iraq, as the Middle East's second-biggest oil producer. That possible drop in standing, largely a
result of economic sanctions and Iranian mismanagement, raises the prospect of
less revenue for Tehran at a time when new sanctions are piling up against the
regime." http://bit.ly/bxxR9m
Dow Jones: "Iran's negotiations to finalize an oil-fields
deal with Russia's OAO Gazprom Neft (SIBN.RS) are in final stages, a top Iran
government official said Friday. Russia
has come into trouble with Iran after agreeing to support US efforts to get new
sanctions from the UN Security Council But speaking to Dow Jones Newswires,
Hojatollah Ghanimifard, vice president in charge of investment affairs at the
National Iranian Oil Co., said: 'We hope to have a final decision
soon' on the Gazprom Neft deal." http://bit.ly/b9NgPT
Dow Jones: "Iran is leaving the door open to Royal Dutch
Shell PLC (RDSA, RDSB, RDSA.LN, RDSB.LN) to join a giant gas project but Repsol
YPF (REP, REP.MC) has completely pulled out, a top government official said
Friday. The statement comes after
state-owned Pars Oil and Gas Co. awarded contracts to develop phases 13 and 14
of the South Pars field to domestic companies after talks with Shell and Repsol
came to no avail." http://bit.ly/9TLQly
Human Rights
NYT: "At least 30,000 opponents to the Iranian government
gathered on Saturday in a stadium in this quiet town outside Paris to support
the National Council of Resistance to Iran in a large rally coming a year after
disputed elections in Iran." http://nyti.ms/cokaGx
Foreign Affairs
AP: "Iran will not be sending a blockade-busting ship to
Gaza in defiance of Israeli warnings, an Iranian lawmaker said Saturday, citing
Israeli 'restrictions.' Mahmoud Ahmadi
Bighash told the semiofficial ISNA news agency that instead of sending a ship,
an Iranian delegation of lawmakers would travel to Lebanon and sail on one of
the aid ships expected to head to Gaza from there." http://bit.ly/bXOgyQ
Reuters: "Iranian lawmakers protesting Israel's naval
blockade of Gaza plan to travel on an aid ship that is expected to leave from
Lebanon, a member of the Iranian Parliament said on Saturday. Lebanon said last week that it would allow a
Gaza-bound ship, the Julia, to sail via Cyprus, despite warnings from Israel
that it reserved the right to use all necessary means to stop ships that tried
to sail to Gaza from Lebanon." http://nyti.ms/cf8Ehl
Culture
LAT: "If pop culture is a measure of cultural visibility,
then Iranian Americans have been invisible for decades. Of course, there was
Iran itself, hardly invisible. But as a teenager, I knew my reality, one far
from hostage crises and contra trials, was never going to make it pop
culturally; in fact, I would have bet my little hyphenated life against the
very moment of pop cultural breakthrough we're finally reaching now." http://bit.ly/aq2ggw
Opinion
Mort Zuckerman in U.S. News: "What is at stake here is
too menacing for the world to delude itself that Iran will somehow change
course. It won't. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, does not want a seat
at the negotiating table with the great powers, he wants to overturn the table.
He is a messianic revolutionary, not a leader." http://bit.ly/bu9tSe
Golnaz Esfandiari for Radio Farda: "A dispute over
control of one of the world's largest universities has turned into a fight
between government bodies that is exposing deep fissures within the Iranian
establishment. At the center of the
tug-of-war is Azad University: its leadership, board, 1.4 million students, and
tens of billions of dollars in assets." http://bit.ly/aRP4pm
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