Top Stories
WashPost:
"American-made devices used for Internet monitoring have been
detected on government and commercial computer networks in Iran and
Sudan, in apparent violation of U.S. sanctions that ban the sale of
goods, services or technology to the autocratic states, according to new
research. Several of the devices, manufactured by California-based Blue
Coat Systems, were also discovered in Syria. Although Blue Coat tools
have been identified in Syria in the past, the new research indicates
that the government of President Bashar al-Assad has more of the
monitoring devices than previously known... The Citizen Lab, based at the
Munk School of Global Affairs, found six devices in Iran, three in Sudan
and four in Syria, including on networks operated by the state-owned
Syrian Telecommunications Establishment. Each device, Marquis-Boire said,
probably can monitor the traffic of thousands of individual users...
Iran, which uses sophisticated tools to censor the Internet and crack
down on dissidents, is also facing tough economic sanctions imposed by
Western countries seeking to curb its nuclear advances. Still, the
Citizen Lab said it detected the presence of Blue Coat's devices on
several networks, including one belonging to the Information Technology
Co., which is partially owned by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. The
elite unit is believed to be heavily involved in Iran's censorship of the
Internet." http://t.uani.com/18KxRmF
Reuters:
"Iran is to assign all citizens an individual email address which
the communications minister said on Monday would aid interaction between
state authorities and the people. It was unclear whether the move would
add to regulations on Internet use imposed by a conservative Islamist leadership
wary of secular cultural influences it blames on the West.
President-elect Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate who takes office next
month, has called for less state intervention in people's private lives,
including less filtering of the Internet and a loosening of media
controls. More than half of the Islamic Republic's 75 million people use
the Internet, official figures show. But authorities have tried to limit
access with tools including a filter that blocks many websites on the
grounds they are offensive or criminal." http://t.uani.com/11ynGPU
Reuters:
"Iran on Monday called the Egyptian army's ousting of president
Mohamed Mursi 'unacceptable' and said Israel and the West did not want to
see a powerful Egypt. The comments from Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas
Araqchi were more disapproving than his immediate reaction last Thursday,
when he merely called for the Egyptian people's 'legitimate demands' to
be fulfilled. Iran welcomed the popular overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in
2011, calling it an 'Islamic awakening' inspired in part by its own 1979
revolution, and after Mursi's election victory last year it sought to
repair its strained ties with Egypt... Araqchi warned against greater
divisions in Egyptian society, adding: 'Certainly foreign hands are also
at work, and ... the West and the Zionist regime (Israel) will not want a
powerful Egypt.'" http://t.uani.com/15047gq
Sanctions
AFP:
"French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen on Monday said its global
sales plunged almost 10 percent in the first half of the year, mainly
owing to a weak European market... In February, PSA also saw its sales of
component kit deliveries to Iran come to an abrupt halt following the
tightening of international sanctions. A year ago, PSA sold 142,000 units
of the kits to Iran." http://t.uani.com/12AP7DF
Human Rights
Iran Human Rights:
"Three prisoners were hanged in the prison of Ardebil (northwestern
Iran) early this morning. According to the official site of the Iranian
Judiciary in Ardebil, three prisoners convicted of drug related charges
were hanged in the prison of Ardebil. Three other prisoners were hanged
in the same prison on July 6. Announcing the news about today's
executions, head of the Judiciary in Ardebil said that more executions
are expected in the coming days in Ardebil." http://t.uani.com/1a8oFqd
Opinion &
Analysis
Gary Gambill in
FPRI: "The growing infusion of Iranian-backed
Lebanese and Iraqi Shiite fighters into the Syrian civil war is causing
some veteran pundits to panic. Vali Nasr, dean of the School of Advanced
International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, warns that 'Iran is
beating the U.S. in Syria.' Former Bush administration deputy national
security adviser Elliot Abrams sees 'a humiliating defeat of the United
States at the hands of Iran.' Nothing could be further from the truth.
Setting aside the matter of how Washington can be losing a war it is not
fighting, the claim that Iran is winning is dead wrong. The Islamic
Republic's headlong intervention in Syria is akin to Nazi Germany's surge
of military forces into the Battle of Stalingrad in the fall of 1942 - an
operationally competent, strategic blunder of epic proportions. To be
sure, the influx of thousands of foreign (mostly non-Iranian) Shiite
fighters into Syria in recent months has enabled pro-regime forces to
regain some ground in the Damascus suburbs and a belt of territory
linking the capital to Homs and the coast. The town of Qusayr, critical
to both rebel and regime supply lines into Lebanon, fell on June 5.
That's a shame, but the Iranian surge won't prevent the overwhelmingly
Sunni Arab rebels from eventually prevailing on the battlefield. Sunni
Arabs have a 5-to-1 demographic edge over the minority Alawites who
comprise most uniformed and paramilitary pro-regime combatants, and a
2-to-1 advantage over all of Syria's ethno-sectarian minorities combined.
The rebels are strongly supported by the overwhelming majority of Arabs
and Muslims worldwide who are Sunnis, and their four principal sponsors -
Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Jordan - have a GDP well over twice that
of Iran. Russia continues to do business with the regime, but it won't
intervene decisively enough to change the math. Like the vaunted German
Wehrmacht in the Stalingrad kessel, Iran's expeditionary forces have been
thrown into a tactical military environment for which they are woefully
unprepared. Although Hezbollah wrote the book on guerrilla warfare against
conventional militaries, it has little experience fighting
battle-hardened insurgents on unfamiliar terrain - and it shows. At least
141 Hezbollah fighters were killed in the span of just one month fighting
in the battle for Qusayr, many of them elite commandos who cannot easily
be replaced." http://t.uani.com/18KyBIx
Mehdi Khalaji in
WINEP: "The collapse of the Morsi government poses
new challenges for Iran at a time when its reputation in the Middle East
has been taking hits from all sides. Over the past two years, Tehran
sought to create an alternative narrative for the Arab Spring as
crystallized in Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's term 'Islamic awakening.' This
narrative portrayed the unrest in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Bahrain as
an anti-Western movement inspired by Iran's 1979 revolution and aimed at
establishing Iranian-style Islamic governments. Developments in Syria,
Bahrain, and Egypt have spoiled this narrative, however. Iran's reaction
to protests in Bahrain disappointed Shiites throughout the region because
it did not go beyond words, and because it helped the island's Sunni
rulers depict the uprising as a sectarian conflict rather than a
democratic movement. Meanwhile, Tehran's overt support to the Syrian
government amid massive bloodshed has seriously damaged the Islamic
Republic's image in the Muslim world. In this context, the Muslim
Brotherhood's failed government in Egypt is another significant blow to
Tehran. Iran's leaders cut off diplomatic relations with Cairo after it
signed the peace treaty with Israel in 1979, and subsequent Egyptian
policies often ran counter to Tehran's designs. For example, Iran's
longtime military and financial support for Hamas gave the regime
influence in the Palestinian territories and beyond, but the Mubarak government's
opposition to the group threatened this sway. Accordingly, Tehran tried
to improve its relations with the Muslim Brotherhood and find common
ground with Islamist groups inside and outside Egypt. The Brotherhood's
post-Mubarak rise to power convinced Tehran that it could bridge its
theological and political differences with the group, resume normal
relations with Egypt, and strengthen its position in Gaza and,
ultimately, the region." http://t.uani.com/14G7cTU
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