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Top Stories
Reuters: "The
last big company doing classification work on Iranian ships, key to
securing insurance and ports access, said on Friday it is stopping the
work, spelling further difficulty for Iran's shipping, including its oil
exports. The Korean Register of Shipping (KR) is the last of the world's
top 13 classification societies to halt marine work in Iran following a
recent exodus, including Britain's Lloyd's Register, triggered by Western
sanctions on Tehran. 'In early August, the Korean Register of Shipping
took the decision to stop providing classification services to Iranian
ships. All relevant authorities and parties concerned were informed at
that time,' KR said in a statement on Friday... In July, KR had
sidestepped calls by U.S. pressure group United Against Nuclear Iran to
halt its verification work saying it was concerned that vessel safety and
marine environment protection could be compromised... IACS members such
as Germany's Germanischer Lloyd and France's Bureau Veritas pulled out of
Iran after being urged to exit by United Against Nuclear Iran, which
includes former U.S. ambassadors on its board and is funded by private
donations. The pressure group backs tougher sanctions on Iran. 'We
applaud KR for this responsible and significant decision,' a spokesman
for the group said on Friday. 'KR has joined other shipping services and
countries in forcing Iran's business partners to now assume most all of
the shipping risks for their business with the regime.'" http://t.uani.com/OtyMiO
WashPost:
"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that a firm
ultimatum to Iran is the only peaceful way to stop the regime in Tehran
from getting atomic weapons, increasing pressure on President Obama weeks
before the U.S. presidential election. Netanyahu's address to the U.N.
General Assembly was a highly public argument for a stronger U.S. threat
to attack Iran if it does not back off from what the Israeli leader
described as the final push toward a nuclear weapon. Israel and the
United States say the program is intended to develop a weapon, an
accusation that Iran denies. Netanyahu made a case, laced with historical
references, for telling Iran explicitly where it must stop to forestall
an outside attack. He also warned that time was running out. 'At this
late hour there is only one way to peacefully prevent Iran from getting
atomic bombs,' Netan¬yahu told the annual gathering. 'And that is by
placing a clear red line on Iran's nuclear weapons program.'" http://t.uani.com/PKCwcN
NYT:
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told the United Nations
on Thursday that Iran's capability to enrich uranium must be stopped
before next spring or early summer, arguing that by that time the country
will be in a position to make a short, perhaps undetectable, sprint to
manufacture its first nuclear weapon. In his speech at the annual General
Assembly, Mr. Netanyahu dramatically illustrated his intention to shut
down Iran's nuclear program by drawing a red line through a cartoonish
diagram of a bomb. But the substance of his speech suggested a softening
of what had been a difficult dispute with the Obama administration on how
to confront Iran over its nuclear program. Only two weeks after that
dispute broke into the open, Mr. Netanyahu on Thursday praised the
warning Mr. Obama gave Iran in his own General Assembly speech on
Tuesday. 'I very much appreciate the president's position, as does
everyone in my country,' he said. The Israeli leader's speech also
suggested that his deadline for a military strike was well past the
American presidential election and into 2013 - perhaps as late as next
summer." http://t.uani.com/SUn0JR
 UN
General Assembly
NY Daily News:
"While President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad leisurely relishes the
Manhattan highlife, his Iranian underlings have been scouring the town
for low prices - including cheap shoes. Bargain-hunting members of the
huge visiting delegation eagerly visited a Costco, a Payless shoe store,
a Walgreens and a Duane Reade in recent days while hunting for discount
products in short supply back home: Shampoo. Soap. Vitamins. Tylenol.
'Since they are under sanctions, they can't get this stuff,' a man
assigned to work with the Iranians told the Daily News on Wednesday. '. .
. (And) their money is weak compared to the dollar.'" http://t.uani.com/Q81dzJ
Reuters:
"Iran blamed on Thursday 'a terrorist sect' for accosting a senior
Iranian diplomat in New York and condemned the United States for deciding
to remove the group, the Mujahadin-e Khalq (MEK), from a U.S. list of
foreign terrorist organizations. New York police said Iranian Foreign
Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was verbally abused, pushed and
shoved by 'anti-regime' protesters on the street as he walked a few
blocks from the headquarters of the United Nations on Wednesday. He
became separated from members of his party traveling by car in a
protected motorcade on Wednesday, New York Police Department spokesman
Paul Browne said. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed the
U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday." http://t.uani.com/Shkey4
Nuclear
Program
Reuters: "Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu's U.N. speech about Iranian nuclear advances has
dampened speculation in Israel that he could order a war this year.
Analyzing Thursday's address in which Netanyahu literally drew a 'red
line' on a cartoon bomb to show how close Iran was to building nuclear
weaponry, commentators saw his deadline for any military action falling
in early or mid-2013, well after U.S. elections in November and a
possible snap Israeli poll. 'The decisive year of 2012 will pass without
decisiveness,' wrote Ofer Shelah of Maariv newspaper on Friday." http://t.uani.com/PdisNG
Reuters:
"Iran responded to Israel's 'red line' for Tehran's nuclear program
on Thursday by declaring it was strong enough to defend itself and that
it reserved the right to retaliate with full force against any attack. In
a response to a speech at the U.N. General Assembly by Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Iran's U.N. mission said Israel had made
'baseless and absurd allegations against (its) exclusively peaceful
nuclear program.' 'While the use, or threat of use, of force under any
pretext is a grave violation of the principles of (the) UN Charter and
international law, as well as the norms of international relations, the
officials of the Israeli regime are so rude (they) on (a) daily basis
threaten countries in the region, particularly my country, (with)
military attack,' Iran said. 'The Islamic Republic of Iran is strong
enough to defend itself and reserves its full right to retaliate with
full force against any attack,' the Iranian mission said in the written
statement." http://t.uani.com/QKpKdg
AP:
"World powers decided Thursday to lay the groundwork for another
round of negotiations with Iran over its disputed nuclear program, a
senior U.S. official said, but they want a significantly improved offer
from the Islamic republic. Neither the U.S. nor any of its international
partners was ready to abandon diplomacy in favor of military or other
actions, as Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu has advocated. The new
hope for negotiated end to Iran's decade-long nuclear standoff came after
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with the foreign ministers
of Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia - powers that have sought,
over several rounds of talks, to persuade Iran to halt its production of
material that could be used in nuclear weapons. All such efforts have
failed so far." http://t.uani.com/RnRNBE
Reuters:
"China said on Thursday that the disagreement over Iran's nuclear
program had reached 'a new, crucial stage,' calling for Tehran to begin a
new round of talks with world powers, something a U.S. official said
could happen at some point. Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi made the
comment after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a speech
drawing a 'red line' for Iran's nuclear program on Thursday, despite a
U.S. refusal to set an ultimatum, saying Tehran will be on the brink of a
nuclear weapon in less than a year." http://t.uani.com/PKC26p
Sanctions
Reuters:
"Japan, a major buyer of Iranian crude, is set to import about 30
percent less crude oil from Iran for the rest of this year compared with
a year earlier, the president of the Petroleum Association of Japan (PAJ)
said on Friday. Japan, the world's third-biggest oil consumer, imported
101,035 barrels per day of crude from Iran in August, down 66.8 percent
from a year earlier, the trade ministry's data showed. The association's
president, Yasushi Kimura, said the steep year-on-year fall in August was
caused by certain shipping arrangements and should be considered an
exception." http://t.uani.com/QjHZ8I
NYT:
"An internal report prepared by Israel's Foreign Ministry calls for
an additional round of international sanctions against Iran, an Israeli
official confirmed on Thursday, in what appeared to be a rare Israeli
acknowledgment that there might still be time to try to stop the Iranian
nuclear program by means other than military action... The Foreign
Ministry report states that the international sanctions already imposed
on Iran are having a deep effect on the country's economy, according to
the official, and may, according to some assessments, also be affecting
the stability of the Iranian government. But the sanctions have not yet
persuaded the government in Tehran to suspend its nuclear drive.
Therefore, the report concludes that 'another round of sanctions is
needed,' the official said." http://t.uani.com/RnMx10
FT:
"Iran has revived a multiple-rate currency system last used in the
aftermath of its eight-year war with Iraq, but it has failed to curb a
currency crisis caused by international sanctions over its nuclear
programme. For more than a decade the Central Bank of Iran has supported
the national currency, the rial, through a managed float system that
helped it maintain a single exchange rate against hard currencies. But
currency volatility over the past year has widened the gap between the
official and open market exchange rates, leading to the near-collapse of
the single-tier system. The tightening of US banking sanctions and
an EU ban on oil imports since July have caused the the rial to fall more
than 50 per cent against the US dollar since the beginning of this year.
Sanctions have not only caused Iran's oil revenues to shrink, but have
also made it difficult for Tehran to receive payments, which are plagued
by long delays and high fees." http://t.uani.com/Q84wH4
NBC News:
"Even though threats of war with Israel are almost a daily
occurrence, what's really on people's minds in this city is the economy.
The United States, the European Union and the U.N. have imposed tough
economic sanctions against Iran, blocking access to the international
banking system and curbing sales of Iranian crude oil as a way to
persuade Tehran to abandon its nuclear program. As a result, Iran's
currency, the rial, is in a constant state of flux, but mostly on a
downward trajectory. These days, it seems to fall in value against the
dollar on an hourly basis. On Tuesday the currency hit an all-time low
against the U.S. dollar, trading at 26,500 to the U.S. dollar on the open
market, according to Persian-language currency tracking website Mazanex.
'Our money is becoming more and more worthless every day,' said Sarvenas
Sadi, an elderly woman doing her daily shopping in Tehran earlier this
week." http://t.uani.com/PvTeLX
Terrorism
AP:
"Three people have been convicted of plotting to kill teachers at a
Jewish school in Azerbaijan. A court in the capital Baku on Thursday
found plot ringleader Rasim Aliyev and two other Azerbaijani citizens
guilty of plotting the assassination of public officials and
gun-smuggling. Aliyev was given a 14-year sentence while the others
received 13 and eight years. Investigators said Aliyev was hired to carry
out the killings in Baku by an individual linked to security services in
neighboring Iran." http://t.uani.com/QjKZC8
Reuters:
"Argentina and Iran will keep talking until they resolve
diplomatically sensitive issues stemming from two 1990s attacks on Jewish
targets in Buenos Aires that were allegedly sponsored by Tehran, both
countries said on Thursday. Dialogue with Tehran is risky for Argentina,
even if the focus is on Tehran's possible culpability in a pair of
bombings. The opening of a diplomatic channel with Tehran could anger the
United States and Israel, which are seeking to isolate Iran as it appears
to pursue nuclear weapons. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez
surprised the United Nations General Assembly this week by announcing the
talks." http://t.uani.com/VU9BFC
Syrian Uprising
AP:
"Iran should only play a role in international diplomatic efforts to
end the violence in Syria if it withdraws support for President Bashar
Assad's regime, Britain's Middle East minister said Thursday. Alistair
Burt told The Associated Press in an interview that Iran could only have
credibility in efforts to press Damascus by withdrawing its backing for
Assad. 'Until the Iranians change their position in relation to Syria and
stop their active support of a regime that's killing its own people, it's
difficult to take them completely seriously,' he said, noting that
several nations in the Middle East shared Britain's skepticism." http://t.uani.com/SI7MNh
Human
Rights
CNN:
"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insists his government does
not know the whereabouts of the American retired FBI agent who
disappeared in Iran five and a half years ago, but that Iranian officials
continue to assist in the effort to find him and send him home. Robert
Levinson vanished during a business trip to Iran's Kish Island on March
8, 2007. His family says he was working as a private investigator looking
into cigarette smuggling in Iran when he went missing. The State
Department has repeatedly denied he was working for the government and
has urged Tehran to find him. Christine Levinson, Robert's wife of 38
years, travelled from her home in Florida, New York, this week in hopes
of making a personal plea to Ahmadinejad, who is attending this week's
U.N. General Assembly." http://t.uani.com/PvUv5K
Opinion
& Analysis
Stephen
Hadley in FP: "The Iranian nuclear program
poses one of the most pressing national security challenges confronting
the United States today. After years of increasing economic sanctions and
diplomatic pressure -- backed by the threat of force -- under both
Republican and Democratic administrations, the United States and the
international community have still not achieved an acceptable outcome
that prevents Iran from using its existing nuclear program for achieving
a nuclear weapon. Meanwhile, Iran is dangerously approaching the
threshold of a nuclear weapon capability as its centrifuges continue to
produce a growing stockpile of enriched uranium that could be converted
into material for a nuclear bomb. We have reached the point where all
options -- economic, political, diplomatic, and military -- must be
carefully examined and substantively debated in the public domain. The
purpose of this article is not to advocate a particular course of action,
but to contribute to the public debate by setting out the full range of
plausible approaches to resolving the confrontation between the
international community and the Iranian regime over its nuclear program
-- a program that virtually the entire international community believes
is a vehicle for achieving an advanced nuclear-weapons capability if not
a nuclear bomb itself. Eight options are described below -- from
negotiations through use of force to containment -- along with potential
benefits and costs in each case. These should be viewed as a set of
'nested' options that could lead sequentially from one to another. They
should be seen not in two dimensions, with the task being to pick one of
the options from among the list, but in three, as a family of options
through which the policy of the United States and the international
community could move over time depending on the success or failure of
prior options -- and the choices made by the Iranian regime. Why conduct
a review of Iran options now? Partly because of the American experience
in Iraq. The U.S. military action there was not, as many suggest, either
a war of choice or a war of preemption. It was, rather, a war of last
resort. After 12 years of diplomacy, 17 U.N. Security Council
resolutions, increasingly targeted economic sanctions, multiple
international inspection efforts, no-fly zones over both northern and
southern Iraq, the selective use of U.S. military force in 1998, and
Saddam Hussein's rejection of a final opportunity to leave Iraq and avoid
war, the United States and the international community were out of
options. The choice was either to capitulate to Saddam Hussein's defiance
of the demands of the international community or to make good on the
'serious consequences' promised by the United Nations for such defiance.
The United States and its international partners on Iraq chose the latter
course. Many people have argued that before making this fateful decision,
U.S. policymakers should have stepped back and conducted one last
searching examination of possible alternative courses of action. If that
is the case, then it is now time -- and perhaps almost past time -- to
make such an effort with respect to Iran. For there is a better than even
chance that sometime next year the United States and its international
partners will find themselves similarly out of options -- and face the
choice of either military action against Iran or accepting an Iran with a
clear path to a nuclear weapon. So if there are alternatives to these two
grim choices, now is the time to find them -- as well as to think through
carefully the military options available." http://t.uani.com/QvhKjf
Peter Kohanloo in
The Daily Caller: "The National Iranian American
Council (NIAC) will be hosting its annual conference next week in our
nation's capital. The gathering is billed as an opportunity to discuss
the most important issues concerning Iranian-Americans today. But can the
pro-Tehran outfit be considered a credible voice of the Iranian-American
community? Just last week, U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates ruled
against NIAC in its protracted, three-year legal battle to silence an
Iranian journalist who had charged the organization with lobbying for the
mullah regime. Judge Bates concluded that NIAC president Trita Parsi's
activities are consistent 'with the idea that he was first and foremost
an advocate for the [Tehran] regime.' He added that 'while Parsi does
criticize Iran's human rights record, his criticisms are tepid.' NIAC's
critics - who have been bullied and smeared by it for years - were
finally vindicated. Fresh on the heels of losing its defamation lawsuit,
NIAC received more bad news when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
announced that she would be removing the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), an
Iranian opposition group, from the State Department's list of terrorist organizations.
Although the MEK lies on the fringe of the Iranian political spectrum,
NIAC devoted enormous amounts of time and energy to prevent its
delisting. The effort, it now appears, was largely a red herring,
distracting the community from the real challenge facing it today:
supporting the Iranian people as they confront the clerical dictatorship
in Tehran. Despite these back-to-back failures, NIAC continues to display
a tin ear to the aspirations of Iranian-Americans. Take their choice of
keynote speaker. The organization has invited the ultimate icon of
leftist anti-Americanism, Noam Chomsky, as its keynote speaker. That
would be the same Noam Chomsky who has denied both the Cambodian genocide
and the Serbian massacre of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica
- until recently the single largest mass killing of Muslim civilians. In
a 2010 interview with a Persian-language outlet, Chomsky declared that
'in the past 55 years there has not been a single day that the U.S. has
not tortured the Iranian people.' Such anti-American demagoguery has
little appeal for Iranian-Americans who sought refuge here from a
tyrannical regime that has repeated the vile slogan 'Death to America!'
since its inception. That NIAC has positioned itself far from the mainstream
of Iranian-American life is self-evident. Its regime-friendly agenda
doesn't reflect the values of the Iranian-American community, the vast
majority of which prefers not drawn-out, fruitless negotiations with
Tehran's despots and 'gradualism,' but a fundamental democratic
transformation in their ancestral homeland." http://t.uani.com/VUdlH6
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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