Top Stories
Guardian: "Shell, the Anglo-Dutch
oil giant, paid the state-owned Iranian oil company at least $1.5bn (£0.94bn)
for crude oil this summer, increasing its business with Tehran as the
international community implemented some of the toughest sanctions yet aimed at
constricting the Islamic republic's economy and its lifeline oil business. Sensitive
trading documents seen by the Guardian show the UK-registered company stepped
up its orders of Iranian oil at a time when other major buyers, including BP
and Reliance Industries, India's largest conglomerate, halted orders amid
impending trade sanctions aimed at curbing Tehran's perceived desire to acquire
nuclear weapons. Shell is not accused of acting illegally because the sanctions
- enforced by the US, UN and EU - stopped short of banning the import of
Iranian oil. But its trades with the state-owned oil company, a major
contributor to the finances of a government which has made its nuclear
programme a priority, are likely to expose Shell to growing political pressure."
http://bit.ly/d2smsZ
AP: "Iran's state TV says a
court
has ordered the dissolution of two major pro-reform political parties.
Judiciary
spokesman Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi said Monday that a court had
dissolved
the Islamic Iran Participation Front and the Islamic Revolution
Mujahedin
Organization at the request of the Interior Ministry. He did not say
when the
court decision was made. Earlier this year, the Interior Ministry
suspended
both parties' activities... Both parties supported reformist Mir Hossein
Mousavi,
who said Ahmadinejad won the election through fraud."
http://bit.ly/8Ze0lV
WashPost: "Iran
suspects that a foreign organization or nation designed 'Stuxnet,' a quickly
mutating computer worm that has been infiltrating industrial computer systems
in the Islamic republic, a high-ranking official said Monday. 'We had
anticipated that we could root out the virus within one to two months,' Hamid
Alipour, deputy head of Iran's Information Technology Co., a part of the
ministry of communication and information technology, told the Islamic Republic
News Agency. 'But the virus is not stable, and since we started the cleanup
process three new versions of it have been spreading,' he said." http://bit.ly/cvkbwq
Nuclear
Program
AP: "Iran's state TV says the
country's powerful Revolutionary Guard has received its first three squadrons
of radar-evading flying boats. The development comes after Iran in 2009 said it
had successfully tested the domestically made craft. A flying boat is a
fixed-winged seaplane with a hull that allows it to land on water. It's part of
Tehran's efforts to boost its arsenal and military capabilities despite
international sanctions over the country's controversial nuclear program." http://bit.ly/acWFW4
Reuters: "Iran has limited
capacity to retaliate in kind to an apparent cyber attack that infected
computers at its sole nuclear power plant, analysts say, but some worry it
could seek to hit back by other means. Security experts say they believe the
release of the Stuxnet computer worm may have been a state-backed attack on
Iran's nuclear program, most likely originating in the United States or Israel.
But they say the truth may never be known." http://bit.ly/be4cTu
Bloomberg: "Iran is producing
gasoline in five of its petrochemical plants as part of a plan to halt imports
and counter international sanctions, the state-run Mehr news agency reported. Iran
is producing fuel in the petrochemical complexes of Imam Khomeini port, Amir
Kabir, Jam, Nouri and Arak, Ali- Mohammad Bosaghzadeh, director for production
control at the National Petrochemical Co., was cited as saying by Mehr late
yesterday." http://bit.ly/dq39Rq
AFP: "Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov on Sept. 27 defended Moscow's refusal to supply Iran with S-300 air
defense missiles, saying such a sale would violate U.N. Security Council
sanctions. Last week, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree banning
supplies of the missiles and other arms to Tehran, which is engaged in a
standoff with the international community over its nuclear drive." http://bit.ly/aebyKZ
Commerce
WSJ: "American living rooms will lament Sept. 29, 2010: the day Persian
carpets ceased flying into the U.S. legally. That's when a ban on 'carpets and
other textile floor coverings and carpets used as wall hangings' of Iranian
origin takes effect, as part of a package of sanctions issued by the U.S.
against Iran over its nuclear program. The legislation was signed by President
Obama on July 1. While the ban may irritate wealthy Americans, it is expected
to really smart in Iran, where the export of hand-woven carpets generates about
$500 million annually for the economy. Bloomberg recently reported that 20% of
the total is earned in the U.S. market. The sanctions also bar the importation
of pistachios and other Iranian food stuffs (much to the delight of California
nut growers)." http://bit.ly/dlawLq
Guardian: "So why, according to sensitive trading records seen by the Guardian,
did other European oil giants, including Shell, Total and API, increase their
purchases? The answers illustrate the tendency of the increasingly complex
measures being taken against Iran to throw up unintended consequences, and the
apparent willingness of some oil firms to place profits ahead of the west's
political strategy... Shell, Total and API all stressed they bought the oil at
the market price and that no additional discount was received." http://bit.ly/a2yzOH
Human
Rights
AP: "An Iranian news website says
a court has sentenced a well-known Canadian-Iranian blogger to more than 19
years in prison. The conservative website, Mashreghnews.ir, which is close to
Iran's presidential office, says Hossein Derakhshan was convicted on charges of
cooperation with hostile countries, spreading propaganda against the ruling
establishment, promotion of counterrevolutionary groups and insulting Islamic
thoughts and religious figures. The report says Derakhshan can appeal. Derakhshan,
who made trips to Israel and blogged in both English and Farsi, has been in
prison since 2008. It's unclear if he would benefit from time served." http://bit.ly/d9BzHl
WashPost: "Iran's chief
prosecutor on Monday contradicted earlier statements by President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad by saying a woman convicted of adultery could in theory still be
stoned to death for her crime. But Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei stressed that
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who was convicted of cheating on her husband in
2006, is more likely to be executed by hanging, instead of receiving the
stoning sentence, a Shiite Islamic punishment for adultery." http://bit.ly/bfPdaG
AP: "Iran on Tuesday offered the
first official indication that Oman is playing a role in trying to secure the
release of two American men imprisoned for more than a year. The remarks by
foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast come after a newspaper reported
that an Omani delegation was expected to visit Iran and hoped to take the
detainees home with it. When asked about the report, Mehmanparast said only
that 'delegations from various countries travel to Iran' and vice versa." http://bit.ly/azuTlz
Reuters: "Iran has banned two
newspapers for insulting political and religious figures, in a continued
crackdown on dissent more than a year after a disputed presidential election. The
news came a day after a court ordered the dissolution of two leading reformist
political parties and at a time when leading opposition figures say their
houses are coming under sporadic attack." http://bit.ly/9uXTz9
Foreign Affairs
AP: "Kurdish rebels fighting
Iran's government from bases across the border in Iraq denied Monday that
Iranian forces carried out a cross-border raid. Iran's state television
reported Sunday that Revolutionary Guard forces crossed into Iraq and killed 30
fighters from a group involved in a deadly bomb attack last week at a military
parade in northwestern Iran. Iranian officials blamed the bombing on Kurdish
rebels, though most Kurdish groups condemned the attack and there has been no
claim of responsibility." http://bit.ly/cLohdF
AP: "The increased tension is a
result of an Iraqi government in limbo as American troops prepare to leave the
country after more than eight years of war. Underscoring the insecure time,
Iraqi wariness of Iranian aggression is on the rise, especially after two major
Iranian incursions in less than a year. 'The region here is like a jungle: the
strong eat the weak,' said Iraqi Brig. Gen. Sami Wahab, who oversees the nearby
Zurbatiyah port of entry, the largest official pedestrian land crossing between
Iraq and Iran. 'If the Iraqi government keeps going backward and reaches the
level where you can say it's a weak country, then there's a good chance of Iran
coming in,' Sami said. 'But we don't have cannons to respond; we don't have
jets to bomb. That's why the Iraqi people are scared.'" http://bit.ly/cm1ZCa
Opinion
Ilan Berman in WT: "Can sanctions
stop Iran's nuclear drive? Since the passage of new U.S. and multilateral
measures this summer, there have been unmistakable signs that Iran has begun to
feel the economic pinch. Prompted by mounting international pressure, a slew of
foreign multinationals have exited the Iranian market, while a range of
countries - from South Korea to the United Arab Emirates - are in the process
of curtailing their financial dealings with the Islamic republic. But, despite
these heartening signs, the ultimate success of sanctions depends on what could
come after. In order for economic pressure to be taken seriously in Tehran, Iran's
leaders must be convinced that their continued intransigence on the nuclear
front will lead to something far worse. For the moment, at least, they clearly
are not. That is in large part because, despite repeated assurances from U.S.
officials that 'all options remain on the table' in dealing with the Iranian
regime, Tehran has been permitted to wage not one but two irregular wars
against America for more than half a decade and to do so with virtual impunity."
http://bit.ly/bUjfpc
Reuel Marc Gerecht in Weekly Standard: "After Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's
speeches, press conferences, and interviews in New York City last week, it's
obvious the Iranian president lives in a parallel universe. This has been
difficult for many in the West to grasp. The Western reflex to believe that
there are 'universal truths' is irrepressible. The desire to see common sense
and shared interests in the worst ideologue strikes Republicans and Democrats
with almost equal intensity. Ahmadinejad and his boss, supreme leader Ali
Khamenei, also believe in universal truths and the 'rational' conduct of
affairs-they just use, to borrow from mathematics, a different base system that
allows for little overlap with the way Westerners think. The result: When we
see individual liberty squashed, they see divinely guided human freedom being
fully expressed; when we see women oppressed, they see women being protected
from male rapacity; when we see religious hubris, intolerance, and bad taste,
they see man struggling hard, against terrible odds, to be a 'sincere slave of
God.'" http://bit.ly/btK9Dy
Jamsheed Choksy in World Politics Review: "Despite some
typically incendiary remarks, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's
attendance at the U.N. General Assembly's 65th session in New York was marked
by a low-key tone noted by many. The change in tone, including a reported
willingness to resume talks with the U.S. and its allies, reflects the impact
of Iran's domestic politics. For increasingly, Ahmadinejad's real battle is at
home, against the mullahs who brought him to power. And in that struggle,
Ahmadinejad and his allies are increasingly embracing Iran's venerable
2,500-year-old national heritage to attack its recent three-decade Islamist
experiment." http://bit.ly/9wuhGJ
Dov Zakheim in The National
Interest: "Iran's nuclear program does not require decades to become
operational. It may not require more than a few years, if that long. That is
why the Israelis continue to rattle their sabers, even while pressing for
America to strike Iran on their behalf. A strike by either country would have
terrible ramifications, but that does not mean that Israelis in particular will
not undertake one anyway. Stuart Levey may indeed be doing a wonderful job-he
has certainly got Iran's attention, being subjected to the usual ad hominem
attacks that often pass for dialogue in Iran-but his optimism may still be
premature. And that is a worrying prospect indeed." http://bit.ly/de6DAy
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment