Top Stories
Reuters: "The European Union significantly extended its sanctions against Iran on Monday, reflecting mounting frustration over a lack of progress in nuclear talks with Tehran. EU foreign ministers agreed at a meeting in Brussels to add more than 100 new entities to a list of companies and people affected by EU sanctions, designed to put economic pressure on Tehran to abandon its atomic program, EU diplomats said. The measures, asset freezes and visa bans, add to a range of financial and trade sanctions the EU's 27 governments have already imposed on Tehran. 'The Council adopted legislation today to strengthen the restrictive measures imposed on Iran owing to concerns about its nuclear program,' the ministers said in a statement... EU diplomats said Monday's sanctions list included German-based EIH bank, which specializes in business in Iran." http://t.uani.com/ifUEvi
AFP: "President Barack Obama vowed Sunday to 'keep up pressure' on Tehran to prevent the Islamic republic from obtaining nuclear weapons, as he condemned its support for extremists in the region. Outlining US and UN sanctions imposed on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime, Obama said Iran is now 'virtually cut off from large parts of the international financial system.' 'We're going to keep up the pressure... So let me be absolutely clear -- we remain committed to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,' he added to roaring applause from the audience at the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC Policy Conference. The United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany have engaged in on-again, off-again talks with Iran aimed at halting its uranium enrichment program, which Washington fears masks a drive to produce a nuclear weapon. Iran denies the charges and claims its program is peaceful. Obama also pointed to Iranian 'hypocrisy' in 'claiming to support the rights of protesters while treating its own people with brutality.' He said Iran was funding, arming and otherwise supporting violent extremists." http://t.uani.com/lAO6St
Reuters: "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remains Iran's caretaker oil minister, despite a ruling by the constitutional watchdog that he had no legal right to the post, ISNA news wire reported a vice-president saying on Sunday. The report shows the conservative president has no intention of retreating from his move to personally oversee the Oil Ministry, criticised by adversaries as his latest step to accrue more power. When asked by reporters whether Friday's ruling by the Guardian Council meant Ahmadinejad could not be the caretaker oil minister, vice-president Fatemeh Bodaghi said it did not. 'On this issue the government has already announced its decision and it has been settled and the president is the caretaker of the ministry,' said Bodaghi, a vice-president in charge of legal affairs, according to the students news agency ISNA." http://t.uani.com/jZRorM
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
Reuters: "Iran invited China on Monday to send experts to see its nuclear facilities, the Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in Beijing, in a fresh effort to persuade the world that its atomic activities should not attract sanctions. Speaking in English, Salehi also told an audience of researchers and diplomats that China could trust Iran as a stable supplier of oil to fuel its rapidly growing economy. The Iranian foreign minister's visit comes as Western governments continue to press his country over its disputed nuclear ambitions, highlighting China's importance as an economic and diplomatic buffer for Tehran." http://t.uani.com/ktHXWE
Reuters: "India's cabinet will make a decision on how to pay for oil imports from Iran, the head of state-run explorer ONGC said on Friday, but did not mention when a final solution could come. Iranian supplies to India have not yet been hit, despite India's central bank stopping use of a clearing house system for crude imports from the Islamic nation in December, under pressure from the United States. Iran is India's second biggest oil supplier after Saudi Arabia and imports total about $12 billion a year." http://t.uani.com/kpRtIC
Human Rights
AP: "Two American hikers held captive in Iran have called home for only the third time since their arrest nearly two years ago. Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, both 28, told their families they had staged a 17-day hunger strike after they were stopped from receiving letters, the hikers' families said in a news release. Bauer's mother, Cindy Hickey of Pine City, Minn., and Fattal's mother, Laura Fattal of suburban Philadelphia, began what they called a 'rolling' hunger strike last Thursday out of concern their sons also were fasting. Hickey said her son's phone call was about four minutes and that he sounded 'OK.' 'I was very glad to hear his voice,' Hickey said Sunday. 'After the third phone call in 21 months, it's a little. We want him home.'" http://t.uani.com/jhiL99
Domestic Politics
AFP: "The Iranian intelligence ministry said on Saturday that it had made 30 arrests as it dismantled a network suspected of spying for the United States on its basic infrastructure as well as its nuclear and defence research. 'Due to the massive intelligence and counter-intelligence work by Iranian intelligence agents, a complex espionage and sabotage network linked to America's spy organisation was uncovered and dismantled,' a ministry statement read out on state television said. 'Elite agents of the intelligence ministry in their confrontation with the CIA elements were able to arrest 30 America-linked spies through numerous intelligence and counter-intelligence operations.' The statement said that the 'network' operated in 'a number of nations' under the command of 'prominent intelligence officers' of the US Central Intelligence Agency... Iran has claimed several times in the past to have dismantled spy networks working for the United States or Israel." http://t.uani.com/lAz6Vs
AFP: "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has no legal right to assume the duties of the oil minister, the top panel which interprets the constitution was quoted as saying by local media on Monday. 'According to various articles of the constitution... the president cannot be personally responsible for the supervision of the ministries that do not have a minister,' Guardians Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei was quoted as saying by the Shargh newspaper. His remarks came after Ahmadinejad announced on May 15 that he had taken control of Iran's most-strategic sector for an interim period after dismissing former oil minister Masoud Mirkazemi. Kadkhodaei said the Guardians Council 'had been asked repeatedly' to intervene on the issue and declare its interpretation of article 135, which authorises the president to appoint a caretaker for up to three months after removing a minister. Council members have ruled that the president was only allowed to appoint any caretaker except for himself, Shargh quoted Kadkhodaei as saying." http://t.uani.com/kJjD8t
AP: "Iran's Administrative Justice Court has ordered that an Iranian vice president be barred from government service for four years. The conservative news website alef.ir says Vice President for Executive Affairs Hamid Baqaei has been convicted of committing 'violations' and banned from serving in the government for four years. The report was posted on the website Saturday. The website doesn't say when the verdict was issued and doesn't elaborate on the violations but says the ruling is related to 'numerous violations' allegedly committed by Baqaei when he headed Iran's cultural heritage and tourism organization. Hard-liners have dramatically increased pressure on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his loyalists amid a bitter power struggle over who will shape Iran's next government." http://t.uani.com/jsB6cm
Reuters: "Iran has discovered a deposit of light oil offshore of an estimated in-place reserve of 756 million barrels valued at $13.6 billion, the state TV website reported on Saturday quoting a senior oil official. The oil reserve was found at Khayyam field off the Gulf shore in Hormuzgan province. It was originally discovered in 2010 but was classified only with natural gas reserves. 'The volume of in-place oil at this field is 758 million barrels of which around 22 percent, or some 170 million barrels, are recoverable,' said Ahmad Qalebani, managing director of the state National Iranian Oil Co." http://t.uani.com/iZuPON
Foreign Affairs
Reuters: "Some Iranian students may seek two-year, multiple-entry U.S. visas, the State Department said on Friday, giving them greater freedom to travel to the United States in a gesture to improve people-to-people ties. The step is the latest in a series by President Barack Obama's administration to reach out to the Iranian people and, in particular, to young Iranians despite the long enmity between the two countries. Students from Iran, which the United States accuses of seeking nuclear weapons, sponsoring terrorism and brutally repressing its people, previously were eligible only for three-month, single-entry visas. The new guidelines apply to Iranians and their dependents applying to study in 'nonsensitive, nontechnical fields' -- those that would not contribute to Iran's nuclear, missile or other weapons-related activities, a U.S. official said. Under the revised policy, the visas could be valid for two years and allow Iranian students to come and go as often as they wished in that period without applying for a new visa." http://t.uani.com/mmJA2X
Bloomberg: "Iran sent a new ambassador to Kuwait two months after a dispute over an alleged spy network operating in Kuwait prompted both countries to expel diplomats. Ruhollah Ghahremani Chabok arrived in Kuwait to start his role as head of the Iranian mission, the state-run Press TV news channel said today. In March, a Kuwaiti court sentenced two Iranians and a Kuwaiti to death for involvement in a spy ring in the Arab country. Iran has denied having such an operation in Kuwait. Tension has been building between Iran and nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council since Saudi Arabia and other members including Kuwait sent forces to Bahrain in March to support the government's crackdown against pro-democracy protesters." http://t.uani.com/j91v4l
AFP: "Three opposition lawmakers Sunday demanded to question the Kuwaiti prime minister in parliament for allegedly harming national security by favouring good ties with Shiite Iran over Gulf Arab states. The MPs also blame Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammed al-Ahmad al-Sabah for damaging ties with Kuwait's Gulf Arab partners by failing to promptly dispatch troops to Bahrain to help crush Shiite-led protests. The fresh grilling comes amid heightened sectarian tensions between the oil-rich Gulf state's Shiite minority and the Sunni majority over Bahrain, Iran and other issues. Last week, several Shiite and Sunni MPs had a fistfight during a parliamentary session when a Shiite lawmaker described the two remaining Kuwaiti inmates in the US Guantanamo detention centre as 'terrorists.'" http://t.uani.com/m7Vh2h
Reuters: "Iraq's electricity ministry said on Sunday it has signed an initial agreement with Iran to import natural gas for power generation. Under the memorandum of understanding between the two neighbours, Iran will install a pipeline through Iraq and supply it with gas that would be used to feed two power plants in Baghdad, the electricity ministry said. Iraq will buy 25 million cubic metres of gas each day from Iran under the five-year deal, according to international prices, which would generate 2,500 megawatts. The gas pipeline will pass through Iraq's Mansuriyah gas field near the Iranian border in volatile Diyala province. The gas would supply a power plant in Sadr City in northern Baghdad, and another plant in the northern outskirts of Baghdad. The pipeline will be completed in 18 months. The MOU still needs the approval of the Iraqi cabinet and parliament." http://t.uani.com/lrHBzr
Opinion & Analysis
Philip Shenon in The Daily Beast: "With the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks looming, a federal lawsuit in Manhattan offers the possibility of resolving a central mystery about the attacks: Was Iran involved? Former investigators on the 9/11 Commission, which uncovered tantalizing but inconclusive evidence of Tehran's ties to the plot, tell The Daily Beast they welcome the lawsuit, because they believe the U.S. government has done little to follow up on the commission's evidence of Iranian complicity. The lawsuit, they say, may offer the best hope of getting to the truth about whether Iranian government officials had advance knowledge of the plot and worked with al Qaeda to make it easier for several of the hijackers to travel undetected in the year before the attacks. The suit, brought in the United States District Court in Manhattan on behalf of the families of dozens of 9/11 victims, is promising testimony from three Iranian defectors, all of them identified as former members of Iran's central spy agency, who will implicate Iran and its terrorist proxies in Lebanon in the Sept. 11 attacks. In court papers filed last week that outlined their testimony, the defectors were not identified by name out of concern for their safety, said Thomas Mellon, a Pennsylvania lawyer and former federal prosecutor who is representing the families. 'But I can tell you that we have vetted and cross-vetted and examined and cross-examined all three, and they corroborate each other independently,' Mellon said of the defectors, identified in the court papers as 'Witness X,' 'Witness Y' and 'Witness Z.' 'I am convinced that our evidence is absolutely real-that Iran was a participant in the preparations for 9/11.' He said he was hopeful that the three would allow their names to be made public eventually. (Spokesmen for the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York did not return calls for comment from The Daily Beast.) The court papers also include sworn statements from staff members of the 9/11 Commission, including Dietrich Snell, a former top terrorism prosecutor at the Justice Department, who says in his affidavit that 'there is clear and convincing evidence the government of Iran provided material support to al Qaeda in the planning and execution of the 9/11 attack.' He said the support came in the form of 'facilitating the travel of members of the 9/11 conspiracy to and from Afghanistan and Pakistan, in which countries, in my opinion and as found by the 9/11 Commission, the plot was hatched and developed.'" http://t.uani.com/ms4kMl
Jubin Goodarzi in The Iran Primer: "In April, the United State claimed that Tehran has been helping Damascus put down the Syrian uprising. Two rounds of U.S. sanctions on Syria for human rights abuses have since named Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) for a role in the bloody crackdown. The sanctions specifically targeted Qasem Soleymani, commander of the IRGC Qods Force, and Mohsen Shirazi, head of Qods Force operations. The Qods Force is the elite IRGC wing that liaises with foreign governments and militias. Accounts of Iran's role vary significantly. But other reports have suggested that Iran's security apparatus, including police and intelligence, have also provided support to the Assad regime. Direct involvement by Iranian personnel is likely to be limited, however. The Assad regime may need advice and assistance from its long-time Iranian allies, but Damascus has enough manpower to confront the opposition. The Syrian regime is also unlikely to defer to or hand over management of domestic affairs, especially decision-making on how to defuse the current crisis, to Iran. Cooperation between Iran and Syria was evident in the case of Dorothy Parvaz, an Iranian-Canadian journalist who works for al Jazeera. Parvaz was arrested in April when she flew to Syria to cover the unrest. She was imprisoned in Damascus and has written a graphic account of her ordeal. She was sent to Iran, where she was detained and eventually released. For Iran, the ouster of President Bashar Assad in Syria would arguably be the most significant setback since the end of its eight-year war with Iraq in 1988 and possibly even since its 1979 revolution. Regime change would be a major blow for both Iran's ideological and foreign policy goals. Syria has been Iran's only stalwart supporter over the past 32 years. It was one of the few Arab states that stood by Iran during its eight-year-long war with Iraq in the 1980s. Over the past three decades, Syria has also served as a major conduit for Iranian arms shipments and support to Lebanon's Hezbollah. The militant Shiite movement represents a major asset for Tehran and Damascus in the regional power struggle against Israel, the United States and their allies. Since the end of the 2006 Lebanon conflict, Damascus and Tehran have rebuilt Hezbollah into a formidable force with an arsenal estimated at 40,000 rockets and missiles." http://t.uani.com/k38c0y
Ilan Berman in Forbes: "Give Angela Merkel credit. For all her rhetoric to the contrary, Germany's Chancellor has not always been an ardent supporter of international pressure on Iran. In fact, over the past half-decade, her government has perpetuated Germany's historic Janus-faced policy toward the Islamic Republic, supporting UN and European sanctions against Iran's ayatollahs while simultaneously nurturing a thriving economic partnership with them. Of late, however, Merkel and her administration seem to have had a change of heart. In recent days, Germany has signaled its willingness to sign on to a European Union effort to sanction the European-Iranian Trade Bank, or EIH. (A formal designation by the EU is expected on Monday). The move is deeply significant. The Iranian-controlled, Hamburg-based bank is widely known to be a key financial conduit for the Islamic Republic, facilitating billions of dollars in trade between Iran and Europe-and contributing substantially to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs in the process. According to U.S. and international intelligence assessments, EIH serves as a pass-through for arms deals involving Iran's acquisition of WMD-related components; as a financial lifeline for Iran's feared clerical army, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps; and as an economic conduit which has facilitated the transfer of millions of dollars in ballistic missile technology to the Islamic Republic in recent years. This role led the U.S. Treasury Department to formally blacklist EIH in September of 2010. Until recently, however, Germany has been reluctant to follow America's lead. For years, the Merkel government has dragged its feet on similarly proscribing EIH, citing its potential financial liability to investors that could be disadvantaged if the bank were shuttered. It has also nixed proposals to do so put forth by other nations; as recently as February, Berlin reportedly blocked a French bid to designate EIH as a potential target for future EU sanctions... Nevertheless, Germany's support of sanctions against EIH should be seen for what it is: a significant evolution in Berlin's Iran policy, and a major step forward for international efforts to cut off a critical conduit for Iran's burgeoning strategic arsenal. When she comes to Washington, American policymakers should commend Chancellor Merkel for facilitating both. But they also should make clear that they expect these changes to be more than simply temporary." http://t.uani.com/jSMoiH
Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim in LAT: "Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wanted to send his onetime protege Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an unmistakable message: You're replaceable. The Iranian president had been skipping Cabinet meetings, apparently over Khamenei's decision to overrule his firing of the country's intelligence chief. So Khamenei asked a conservative lawmaker to begin assembling a caretaker Cabinet, just in case the president resigned or had to be removed, said an Iranian official close to the politician. Ahmadinejad eventually returned to work. But he also had a message for Khamenei: I can still make a big mess. He recently defied the nation's constitutional watchdog, and Khamenei, by launching a drastic restructuring of the country's government and naming himself caretaker minister of the country's vast oil and gas resources, saying, 'The president has the authority to replace ministers and be the caretaker himself.' But on Friday he was overruled again, by the country's powerful Guardian Council. The eyebrow-raising dispute between Ahmadinejad's camp and the conservative clerical and political class is rippling across the world - and igniting concern inside Iran that it weakens the country's ability to project power internationally at a moment of historic instability across the region. Ahmadinejad and the conservative factions, which have long been suspicious of the president's populist politics and anticlerical religious attitudes, are skirmishing feverishly over the country's future, positioning themselves for survival once the frail, 71-year-old Khamenei dies. Ahmadinejad has embarked on nothing short of a program to reinvent the Islamic Republic, adding touches of fiery nationalism and a version of evangelical Islam to the country's identity. But his populist giveaways and talk of impending apocalypse threaten not only economic interests and the traditional power of the clergy but Khamenei himself. The supreme leader, his allies and other factions want to keep Ahmadinejad in check as he seeks to expand his powers and build a political future for himself beyond the constitutionally mandated end of his second term in 2013." http://t.uani.com/lchbY4
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