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Top Stories
NYT:
"Efforts led by the United States and Israel to isolate Iran
suffered a setback on Wednesday when the United Nations announced that
Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general, would join officials from 120 countries
in Tehran next week for a summit meeting that Iran has trumpeted as a
vindication of its defiance and enduring importance in world affairs. Mr.
Ban's decision to attend the meeting of the Nonaligned Movement,
announced by his spokesman, Martin Nesirky, came despite objections from
both the Americans and Israelis, including a phone call from Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. It was announced a few days after
the new president of Egypt, a country that has long been estranged from
Iran, said he would attend the summit meeting as well, a decision that
had already unsettled the Israelis. Taken together, the moves reinforced
Iran's contention that a reordering of powers is under way in the Middle
East, where Western influence is waning, and that the American-Israeli
campaign to vilify Iran as a rogue state that exports terrorism and
secretly covets nuclear weapons is not resonating in much of the
world." http://t.uani.com/Q3fOil
Daily Telegraph:
"Iran's Supreme Leader has ordered the country's Revolutionary
Guards to intensify its campaign of terror attacks against the West and
its allies in retaliation for supporting the overthrow of President
Bashar al-Assad in Syria. According to Western intelligence officials,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave the order to the elite Quds Force unit
following a recent emergency meeting of Iran's National Security Council
in Tehran held to discuss a specially-commissioned report into the
implications for Iran of the Assad regime's overthrow. Damascus is Iran's
most important regional ally, and the survival of the Assad regime is
regarded as vital to sustaining the Iranian-backed Hizbollah militia
which controls southern Lebanon. The report, which was personally
commissioned by Mr Khamenei, concluded that Iran's national interests
were being threatened by a combination of the U.N. sanctions imposed over
Iran's nuclear programme and the West's continuing support for Syrian
opposition groups attempting to overthrow the Syrian government." http://t.uani.com/RgEYcJ
Reuters:
"Iran appears to be supplying Syria with weapons, the United Nations
said on Wednesday, as the 17-month conflict that began as a popular
uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad slides deeper into
civil war. The U.N. accusation backs charges by Western officials that
Iran is providing funds, weapons and intelligence support to Assad in his
bid to crush the opposition. Syrian rebels also say Tehran has sent
Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah fighters. 'The Secretary-General has
repeatedly expressed his concern about the arms flows to the two parties
in Syria, which in some cases appear to violate resolution 1747 passed by
this council banning arms exports under Chapter 7 authority,' U.N.
political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman told the U.N. Security Council.
In a prepared copy of his speech, Feltman noted that the ban was on
Iranian arms exports." http://t.uani.com/P3l2uu
Nuclear
Program & Sanctions
Reuters: "The
U.S. Navy is cutting short home leave for the crew of one of its aircraft
carriers and sending them back to the Middle East next week to counter
any threat from Iran, according to the official Navy News Service.
Defence Secretary Leon Panetta told sailors aboard the USS Stennis in
their home port of Seattle on Wednesday they were needed back in the
Middle East soon, after approving calls from the U.S. Central Command for
Stennis to return to the region. 'Obviously, Iran is one of those
threats,' the U.S. military news service quoted Panetta as saying during
a send-off event at a military base on the U.S. West Coast. 'Secondly, it
is the turmoil in Syria,' he said. 'We're obviously following that
closely as well.'" http://t.uani.com/P3r1Qc
Reuters:
"The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief played down chances of a
breakthrough when talks with Iran resume on Friday but said the agency
would pursue access to a military site that diplomats say may have been
cleansed of evidence of illicit nuclear activity. Visiting the Parchin
complex has become a priority for the International Atomic Energy Agency
as it seeks to end what the West sees as Iranian stonewalling of an IAEA
investigation into allegations that Tehran has sought to design a nuclear
weapon. 'I cannot be too optimistic ... We have been making our best
efforts in a constructive spirit to work out an agreement between Iran
and IAEA, but so far we have not been successful in reaching agreement,'
agency Director General Yukiya Amano told reporters on Wednesday during a
visit to Finland." http://t.uani.com/RgEoM3
WSJ:
"Imports of Iranian crude oil to South Korea were suspended in July
as a result of EU sanctions, which cut off insurance for tankers carrying
Iranian crude. Yet data released Thursday showed Seoul imported 4.259
million barrels of Iranian crude in July. How so? An official from
state-run Korea National Oil Corp., which compiles monthly crude import
figures from the country's four oil refiners including SK Energy and
Hyundai Oilbank-the two importers of Iranian crude-attributed the import
figure to belated customs procedures." http://t.uani.com/OymvWI
WSJ:
"Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC has approached regulators on both
sides of the Atlantic to discuss whether its business dealings with Iran
could have breached U.S. sanctions, according to a person familiar with
the bank's position, increasing the prospect that more U.K. banks could
face fines for breaking U.S. rules. The U.S. investigation has been going
on for years, and banks have been periodically disclosing their
involvement in it. But the probe has taken on a higher profile in recent
weeks following an unusual flare-up between the U.K.'s Standard Chartered
PLC and a New York financial regulator over the bank's alleged misconduct
involving Iranian transactions." http://t.uani.com/NHjmaa
Reuters:
"Iran has started moving nearly two million barrels of fuel oil to
Singapore in the first such shipment since June, according to an
Iran-based port source and Reuters shipping data on Thursday. Asia's top
marine fuel trading hub secured exemption from U.S. financial sanctions
on Iran late in June, after authorities leaned on oil companies operating
in the city state to cut dealings with Iran. Although Singapore had been
left off the first list of nations exempted from U.S. sanctions, it
secured the reprieve after showing a significant dip in oil imports from
Tehran. Shipping data shows the Iranian owned supertanker Leadership,
which is set to arrive in Singapore sometime in early October, departed
Iranian waters this week." http://t.uani.com/RgE0Ns
Bloomberg:
"KRBL Ltd. (KRB), India's biggest basmati rice exporter, plans to
seek new markets in Africa to counter international sanctions against
Iran and revive profit amid sliding grain prices... The company has
scaled back outbound shipments to Iran after some buyers in the Persian
Gulf nation defaulted on payments as the rial slumped amid trade
sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the European Union to discourage what
they say is the Persian Gulf country's pursuit of a nuclear bomb. Iran
says its atomic program is for peaceful purposes. Two Iranian private
companies owed nine Indian rice exporters about 1.84 billion rupees ($33
million) as of February, Jyotiraditya Scindia, junior trade minister,
said on March 14." http://t.uani.com/R3v7D1
Vancouver Sun:
"Despite repeated Harper government boasting about imposing some of
the toughest sanctions against Iran, newly released documents show
Canadian customs agents are stretched thin - and have been missing some
shipments intended for Iran's surreptitious nuclear program. The
documents raise questions about the effectiveness of Canadian sanctions -
and whether efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring Canadian technology
for its nuclear program are mere rhetoric given a lack of resources and
personnel... The Canada Border Ser-vices Agency is responsible for
enforcing those prohibitions - and according to the documents, there have
been some successes. A paper prepared by the agency's
counter-proliferation intelligence section in October said that since
July 2010, when the sanctions were first imposed, the agency had seized
14 shipments worth about $3.96 million." http://t.uani.com/RgGPOE
Human Rights
AFP:
"Two leading rights groups on Tuesday called for an end to international
cash and technical assistance to Iran's anti-drug campaign, which they
said was bolstering a rise in executions. In 2010 and 2011, Iran executed
more than 1,000 drug offenders, more than triple the number in the
previous two years, according to Harm Reduction International, a
narcotics lobbying group which issued the call with Human Rights Watch.
UN agencies, Canada, Japan and European nations have provided millions of
dollars in the past decade to support drug control efforts in Iran and
neighboring countries that are intended to reduce the supply and demand
of illicit drugs, the two groups said. However the assistance has made it
'easier to prosecute alleged offenders based on unfair trials, and even
apply the death sentence under the draconian drug laws of Iran's
revolutionary courts,' said Rebecca Schleifer of HRW." http://t.uani.com/PeyqYG
Foreign
Affairs
Reuters: "North
Korea's figurehead head of state, not supreme leader Kim Jong-un, will
attend a summit of non-aligned developing nations in Iran next week,
Pyonyang's official KCNA news agency reported on Thursday. There had been
rumors Kim, who succeeded his father Kim Jong-il in December, would visit
Tehran to mark his first trip abroad as leader of the isolated and
impoverished state. However, KCNA said figurehead leader Kim Yong-nam
would represent the North at the summit for developing nations not tied
to any major political alliances." http://t.uani.com/R3qXuR
AFP:
"Iran is to host some 30 leaders, including those of India, Egypt
and Cuba, at an August 30-31 summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)
that officials are billing as proof the Islamic republic is not as
isolated as the West would like. 'So far, more than 100 countries have
said they are ready to participate, and around 30 nations will be
represented by presidents, prime ministers or vice-presidents, which is a
very good number,' Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told the ISNA news
agency. The Tehran summit, foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast
said, 'is the greatest political summit in Iran's history.'" http://t.uani.com/R3uaKI
Opinion &
Analysis
Ray Takeyh in The
National Interest: "More than thirty years after
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini came to power-and two decades after his
passing-the Islamic Republic remains an outlier in international
relations. Other non-Western, revolutionary regimes eventually eschewed a
rigidly ideological foreign policy and accepted the fundamental
legitimacy of the international system. But Iran's leaders have remained
committed to Khomeini's worldview. The resilience of Iran's Islamist
ideology in the country's foreign policy is striking. China's present-day
foreign policy isn't structured according to Mao's thought, nor is Ho Chi
Minh the guiding light behind Vietnam's efforts to integrate into the
Asian community. But Iran's leadership clings to policies derived largely
from Khomeini's ideological vision even when such policies are
detrimental to the country's other stated national interests and even
when a sizable portion of the ruling elite rejects them. Many Western
observers of Iran don't understand that its foreign policy has been
fashioned largely to sustain an ideological identity. Thus, we can't
understand Iran's foreign relations and its evident hostility by just
assessing its international environment or the changing Mideast power
balance. These things matter. But Iran's revolutionary elite also seeks
to buttress the regime's ideological identity by embracing a
confrontational posture. The question then becomes why the Iranian
leadership continues to maintain this ideological template so long after
its revolutionary emergence. After all, other revolutionary regimes,
after initially using foreign policy for ideological purposes, later
moved away from that approach. Why has China become more pragmatic but
not Iran? The answer is that the Islamic Republic is different from its
revolutionary counterparts in that the ideology of its state is its
religion. It may be a politicized and radicalized variation of Shia
Islam, but religion is the official dogma. Thus, a dedicated core of
supporters inevitably remained loyal to this religious ideology long
after Khomeini himself disappeared from the scene. Revolutionary regimes
usually change when their ardent supporters grow disillusioned and
abandon the faith. It is, after all, much easier to be an ex-Marxist than
an ex-Shiite. In one instance, renouncing one's faith is political
defection; in the other, apostasy. Although the Islamic Republic has
become widely unpopular, for a small but fervent segment of the
population it is still an important experiment in realizing God's will on
earth. To understand this, it helps to review some pertinent Iranian
history, beginning with the thought and actions of Ayatollah Khomeini.
Khomeini offered a unique challenge to the concept of the nation-state
and the prevailing norms of the international system. The essence of his
message was that the vitality of his Islamist vision at home was
contingent on its relentless export. Moreover, because God's vision was
not to be confined to a single nation, Iran's foreign policy would be an
extension of its domestic revolutionary turmoil. For the grand ayatollah,
the global order was divided between two competing entities-states whose
priorities were defined by Western conventions; and Iran, whose
ostensible purpose was to redeem a divine mandate. Of course, no country
can persist on ideology alone. Iran had to operate its economy, deal with
regional exigencies and meet the demands of its growing population. But
its international relations would be characterized by revolutionary
impulses continually struggling against the pull of pragmatism. Khomeini's
internationalism had to have an antagonist, a foil against which to
define itself. And a caricatured concept of the West became the central
pillar of his Islamist imagination. The Western powers were rapacious
imperialists determined to exploit Iran's wealth for their own
aggrandizement." http://t.uani.com/O85Gjb
NYDN Editorial
Board: "UN Secretary General Ban Ki- m oon made the
fateful announcement Wednesday: He will attend the summit of nonaligned
nations in Tehran - handing a massive propaganda victory to the
belligerent, anti-Semitic regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. What is Ban thinking? Or let's put it another
way: Is Ban thinking at all? Just five days ago, he mildly rebuked Iran's
leaders for engaging in what Ban called 'offensive and inflammatory'
rhetoric. Actually, Ahmadinejad and Khamenei had gone on a
death-to-Israel tear. 'The Zionist regime and the Zionists are a
cancerous tumor,' Ahmadinejad declared, adding: 'The nations of the
region will soon finish off the usurper Zionists in the Palestinian
land... A new Middle East will definitely be formed. With the grace of
God and help of the nations, in the new Middle East there will be no
trace of the Americans and Zionists.' The U.S. and Israel had pleaded
with Ban to skip the diplo-meetings as a statement that Iran is at
present a nation non grata and to prevent Ahmadinejad from exploiting
Ban's prestige. No such sanity emerged from a world leader who had
previously shown good sense while surrounded by the UN's blackguards. At
the worst moment, Ban is giving Ahmadinejad a stunning public relations
coup with a gesture that he can trumpet as an imprimatur of
respectability." http://t.uani.com/OyoNFa
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear
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email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com
United Against Nuclear
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commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a
regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons. UANI is an
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