Top Stories
The Hill: "Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton repeated her commitment to U.S. sanctions on Iran Sunday,
and said that the U.S. remains prepared to 'engage with' President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad on the state's nuclear program and its support for foreign
terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah. 'I think the sanctions that have
been endorsed and now are being implemented by the international community
demonstrates our engagement,' Clinton told Christiane Amanpour of ABC's 'This
Week.' ... 'They [the sanctions] are biting,' she said. 'We hear that from many
in the region and beyond ... the information we're getting is that the Iranian
regime is quite worried about the impact on their banking system, on their
economic growth because they've already encountered some tough times.'" http://bit.ly/cA1rey
Reuters: "Iran is struggling with
international sanctions aimed at curbing its nuclear ambitions and pressure on
its economy and banking sector is mounting, a senior U.S. Treasury official
said on Monday. 'The financial measures the
U.S. and others around the world are implementing are imposing serious costs
and constraints on Iran,' Stuart Levey, undersecretary for terrorism and
financial intelligence, said in excerpts of prepared remarks. 'We believe Iran's
leadership was caught off guard by the speed, intensity and scope of the new
measures, misjudging the strength of the international community's will.' Levey,
who is due to speak at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on
Monday afternoon in Washington, said the pressure on Iran was 'creating
leverage for diplomacy.'" http://bit.ly/bH85Q7
AP: "Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that 'the future belongs to Iran,'
and challenged the United States to accept that his country has a major role in
the world. The comments came in an hourlong interview with The Associated Press
on the first day of his visit to the United States to attend the annual general
assembly of the United Nations this week. He insisted that his government does
not want an atomic bomb - something he has said in the past - and that Iran is
only seeking peace and a nuclear-free world. He gave no indication of when Iran
would resume talks on its nuclear program and said any anti-nuclear sanctions
against his government would have no effect on his government's policies." http://bit.ly/cKhsv8
UNGA
JPost: "Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, who arrived in New York on Sunday for the UN General Assembly
meetings this week, described international sanctions against his country as
meaningless and ineffective, as consternation about Iran's nuclear future grows...
United Against Nuclear Iran, is organizing a worldwide boycott of Hilton Hotels
as a result of Ahmadinejad's accommodation. It is said, though not confirmed,
that Ahmadinejad and the Iranian delegation will be staying at the Hilton
Manhattan East during their time in New York. Other New York hotels, such as
the Helmsley Hotel and the Jumeirah Essex House, refused to accommodate
Ahmadinejad." http://bit.ly/cXFbCf
Nuclear
Program
AP: "The United States will continue
to pressure Iran to meet its international commitments and come clean about its
nuclear program, a senior U.S. official said Monday. Iran is under four sets of
U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to stop uranium enrichment and
ignoring other demands meant to ease global concern that it is seeking to make
atomic weapons... 'Iran must do what it has thus far failed to do - meet its
obligations and ensure the rest of the world of the peaceful nature of its
intentions,' U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu told delegates gathered in Vienna
for the IAEA'S annual General Conference." http://bit.ly/czzx5W
Reuters: "Turkey and other U.S.
allies have been allowing Iranian banks with suspected links to Tehran's
nuclear program to do business within their borders, frustrating Western
countries trying to put a financial squeeze on the Islamic Republic, Reuters
has learned. An examination of classified reports and interviews with Western
diplomats, government and intelligence officials underscore that Turkey and
others have resisted international pressure to make it harder for Iran to
finance its uranium enrichment program. 'Turkey's blossoming financial-economic
relationship with Iran provides Iran with a gateway to the entire European
financial system,' according to an intelligence report on Turkey and Iran provided
to Reuters by a diplomat." http://bit.ly/cuwHA5
AFP: "Iran's economy is feeling
no ill effects from the toughest Western sanctions yet and is in fact
benefiting from them, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told American
television on Sunday. 'These sanctions will definitively mark a new level of
progress in our economy,' Ahmadinejad told ABC News in an interview in New
York. 'We have turned sanctions around and created opportunities out of this.' His
assessment couldn't have differed more from that of US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton, who in a separate interview with ABC in Jerusalem praised the
measures imposed by the UN Security Council in June as 'biting.'" http://bit.ly/bz207D
AP: "Former U.S. Secretary of
State Colin Powell says neither the U.S. nor Israel is likely to launch a
military strike on Iran anytime soon. Powell, who was also once the top U.S.
military officer, says he doesn't think 'the stars are lining up' for an attack
on Iran's known or suspected nuclear sites. The U.S. accuses Iran of hiding
plans to build a bomb; Iran denies that." http://bit.ly/9MQqKS
Human
Rights
NYT: "Sarah Shourd, a teacher released
last week after 410 days in an Iranian prison, said Sunday after her arrival
back in the United States that she felt only 'one-third free' because the two
other American hikers arrested with her remain incarcerated in Tehran... 'My
disappointment at not sharing that moment with Shane and Josh was crushing,'
said Ms. Shourd, 32, reading from a prepared statement and declining to answer
any questions. 'I stand before you today only one-third free,' she continued in
a calm voice, her mother, Nora, constantly fighting tears behind her." http://nyti.ms/9b0F26
WSJ: "Iran's President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad arrived in New York early Sunday for the United Nations General
Assembly this week and said in an interview on ABC's 'This Week' that he
considered the release of the American hiker, Sarah Shourd, a huge humanitarian
gesture and hoped the U.S. would free Iranians detained here. Mr. Ahmadinejad
denied he was offering to exchange prisoners but said the eight Iranians jailed
in the U.S., some on charges of flouting international sanctions, were being
held illegally." http://bit.ly/9Sywo1
Reuters: "Iran
sentenced a female human rights activist to six years in prison on Saturday,
the latest sign of its determination to punish those the state views as 'seditionists'
for protesting last year's presidential election. Shiva Nazar Ahari, 26, was
arrested in December on her way to the funeral of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali
Montazeri, the spiritual mentor of the Green movement which opposed the
re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last June." http://bit.ly/aSGk1I
Domestic Politics
Reuters: "Two people including a
hostage were killed during an operation to free six Iranians taken captive in a
restive region of southeastern Iran, Mehr news agency reported Saturday. The other hostages were freed, Mehr quoted the
commander of the Guards' ground forces, Mohammad Pakpour as saying. The other
person killed was a hostage-taker, he said. Some people were injured, the
report said, but gave no details. The six were seized from a bus Thursday
morning. Pakpour said Jundollah, a Sunni Muslim rebel group, was behind the
abduction of five soldiers and a bank employee in Sistan-Baluchestan, an
impoverished Iranian province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan." http://bit.ly/8YrMie
AP: "Iran's
president will likely swagger into New York this week in much the same style as
past visits for the annual U.N. General Assembly - ready to take his jabs at
America on its home turf. But any outward confidence on the big U.S. stage
contrasts sharply with his increasingly public power struggles back in Iran
that could shape the tone of the Islamic republic for years to come. President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad - who was a divisive figure in Iran after his disputed re-election
last year - is now the great divider among the hard-line leadership as the
threat fades from the battered and dispirited opposition, analysts say." http://bit.ly/bAGN0f
Foreign Affairs
Reuters: "Iran has invited Turkey
to cooperate in work on the Islamic Republic's space program, which aims to put
a man in space by 2017, the Turkish newspaper Haberturk said on Saturday. Western
countries which suspect Iran is trying to build nuclear bombs are concerned the
long-range ballistic technology used to propel Iranian satellites into orbit
could be used to launch atomic warheads. Tehran denies such suggestions. Pro-business
Haberturk said Turkey had not responded to the proposal." http://bit.ly/9BwjMX
CNN: "On his way to the United
States, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took time Saturday to meet with
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a key ally in the Islamic republic's
confrontation with the West. After a two-hour meeting with his Syrian
counterpart at the Damascus airport, Ahmadinejad flew to Algeria on the second
leg of a trip that will bring him to the United States, Iranian state media reported."
http://bit.ly/cR8iFs
Opinion
WSJ
Editorial Board: "For most
Americans, the Iranian hostage crisis that began in 1979 and carried on for 444
days ended the day Ronald Reagan was inaugurated. For the families of Shane
Bauer, Josh Fattal and even Sarah Shourd, who on Tuesday was released from Iran
on a $500,000 bail, that nightmare is far from over. The three young Americans
were taken prisoner by Iran more than a year ago when they apparently strayed
over the Iranian border while backpacking in Iraqi Kurdistan. As with other
foreigners who have come into the clutches of Iran's security
ministries-American reporter Roxana Saberi or French academic Clotilde Reiss-the
three were charged with espionage, which potentially carries a death sentence. Iran uses hostages as bargaining chips in its
diplomacy, either to humiliate its enemies-as it did with the British sailors
it captured in 2007-or to extract concessions from them." http://bit.ly/9vptud
Ray Takeyh
in WashPost: "In an autumn ritual,
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once more arrives in New York this week. The Iranian
president's usual media tours and bombastic speeches are likely to be sprinkled
with hints of moderation on Iran's contested nuclear program. On his sixth trip
to the United Nations, Ahmadinejad is likely to find an international community
more confident that its forceful economic sanctions have finally made Tehran
appreciate the cost of its belligerence. A closer look, however, reveals that
the calculations of Iran's principal protagonists -- Ahmadinejad and Supreme
Leader Ali Khamenei -- are largely unaffected by mounting financial penalties
imposed by the West. After three decades of wrestling with the Islamic
Republic, Washington and its allies still fail to realize that they are not
dealing with a conventional nation-state making subtle estimates of national
interests." http://bit.ly/aKcz75
Becky Katz in the Global Post: "In
the end, Iran's breaking point might not be broad international sanctions or
the country's increasingly vocal opposition movement. Instead, it might be
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's own plan to slash long-standing, and enormous,
government subsidies. In January, after decades of debate within the government
and throughout every contour of Iranian society, the country's parliament finally
agreed on a bill to roll back the government support. The law will take effect
later this month amid growing concern that the sudden and dramatic cut in
subsidies could lead to high rates of inflation, price shocks and public unrest
- destabilizing the country." http://bit.ly/d7p1TT
Juan Zarate in
NRO: "The U.S.-led financial-sanctions campaign currently under way against
Iran is biting, but it isn't enough. To change the Iranian regime's nuclear
calculus, the administration and the international community need to act
urgently to pressure Tehran along multiple lines. To be sure, the latest
escalation of sanctions and financial isolation is hurting the regime.
Legitimate banks, insurance and shipping companies, and energy firms are
abandoning business with Iran for fear of sanctions and risk to their
reputations." http://bit.ly/c8uCBw
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