Eye on Iran: Iran to Work With Russia to Stop Strike on Syria

For continuing coverage follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group.    Top Stories AP: "Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his country will press efforts to ward off military action by the U.S. and its allies against the Tehran-backed regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Iranian state TV reported on Thursday. The report said the remarks came late Wednesday during a phone conversation between Rouhani and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Rouhani was quoted as saying 'military action will bring great costs for the region' and 'it is necessary to apply all efforts to prevent it.' According to the report, he said both Iran and Russia would work in 'extensive cooperation' to prevent any military action against Syria. Rouhani also called such military action an 'open violation' of international laws." http://t.uani.com/18n0129 Reuters: "Iran's Revolutionary Guards chief said a U.S. military attack on Syria would lead to the 'imminent destruction' of Israel and would prove a 'second Vietnam' for America, according to an Iranian news agency. ... Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said in an interview late on Wednesday with the Tasnim news agency that a U.S. strike on Syria would not help Israel. 'An attack on Syria will mean the imminent destruction of Israel,' Jafari said, according to Tasnim." http://t.uani.com/18ndLtG Reuters: "A U.N. nuclear agency report that Iran has boosted its uranium enrichment capacity led to a renewed a call on Wednesday in the U.S. Congress for tighter sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program. The International Atomic Energy Agency's quarterly report - the first since relative moderate Hassan Rouhani won Iran's June presidential election - said Iran has installed about 1,000 advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges and is set to test them. 'This IAEA report makes clear that Iran continues to rapidly expand its nuclear weapons program and underscores the urgency of Congress passing new Iran sanctions legislation into law,' Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement." http://t.uani.com/19PTFvi UANI Corporate Campaigns Algemeiner: "New York City's Warwick Hotel will not count the Iranian delegation among its guests during this year's United Nations General Assembly, breaking a controversial two-year run of playing host to the Islamic State's official representatives. United Against a Nuclear Iran, an advocacy group that works to persuade companies against doing business with Iran in an effort to dissuade the country from pursuing its ambition to obtain nuclear weapons, has lobbied the hotel in past years to have the delegation refused accommodation, and said on Tuesday it was pleased by the news. 'This year, the Warwick made the right decision. Any hotel that hosts [Iranian President Hassan] Rouhani and the Iranian delegation will be putting profit above principle, and subjecting its guests and the New York community to great inconvenience,' UANI CEO, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace said in a statement." http://t.uani.com/19PCsSA Finweek: "New York-based lobby group against Iran, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which has been calling for Sasol and MTN to stop doing business in Iran for quite some time, applauded Sasol for ending its business in the Islamic republic. UANI Spokesperson Nathan Carleton told Finweek in an email that this was the right decision, adding, 'We hope that Sasol considered the views of the American people in this matter, particularly those in the state of Louisiana, where they plan to do extensive business. Sasol had to make a choice: do business in Iran, or do business in the US.' Portfolio Manager at Vestact Byron Lotter says that it was a simple situation-especially considering that the energy and chemical company was investing as much as its market cap equivalent in North America's Louisiana-Sasol had to make the choice between the US and Iran. 'The US relations with Sasol are core to its future,' Lotter told Finweek, adding that he did not think that Sasol's relations with the US were in any way becoming sour." http://t.uani.com/1dtmra0 South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County on Sunday hosted a special briefing in West Palm Beach on 'Preventing a Nuclear-Armed Iran.' Bob Feferman, the Midwest coordinator for the advocacy group, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), was featured speaker. Feferman began his address by lauding Florida, saying the Sunshine State'"has led the way on state divestment from Iran and Sudan since 2007,' with 'strong support' from the Jewish Community Relations Councils of Greater Miami, Palm Beach and South Palm Beach County, Broward County, and Tampa, as well as the ADL, Sudan Divestment Task Force and the interfaith community across the state. 'Your state has led the nation in efforts to stop a nuclear Iran,' he said. ... Feferman said UANI urges that more pressure be put on companies doing business with Iran and proposes a full economic blockade of the Iranian Regime. 'Either [companies] choose to do business in Iran - or in the U.S. - not both,' he said." http://t.uani.com/192phg4 Nuclear Program & Sanctions NY Times: "In their first report since a new Iranian president took office, international nuclear inspectors said Wednesday that Iran was slowing its accumulation of uranium that could be quickly turned into fuel for an atomic bomb. The new report also disclosed that Iran had agreed to hold a new round of talks with the inspectors next month to discuss outstanding issues, including what the West sees as military aspects of Iran's nuclear program. The last such meeting, in May, ended with no agreement on how to proceed. But the quarterly report by the International Atomic Energy Agency also detailed how Iran is expanding its installation of a new generation of advanced equipment for the purification of uranium, which can fuel nuclear reactors or atomic bombs. Iran has long insisted that its program is entirely peaceful, which the West disputes." http://t.uani.com/14Gpnur Bloomberg: "Iran's interest in better relations with the West is likely to keep nuclear talks on track even if the U.S. and allies attack Iranian ally Syria to punish it for using chemical weapons, analysts said. ... The proposed strikes against Syria, denounced by Iranian leaders, may delay that process without derailing it. The U.S. has warned it's ready to use force against Iran, too, to stop it obtaining atomic weapons. Rohani, whose mandate for economic revival requires an easing of the tensions, will probably win out over any hardliners advocating anti-Western policies in solidarity with Syria, said Volker Perthes, director of the Berlin-based German Institute for International and Security Affairs, which advises Chancellor Angela Merkel's government. 'Strikes would make Iran see that the U.S. is serious about red lines,' Perthes said in a phone interview. While there'll be protests from Iran, 'the pragmatists will win the day by saying "Look, we don't like the U.S. but we have to deal with them."'" http://t.uani.com/1427Zlk Syria Conflict Eli Lake in the Daily Beast: "For more than a year, as President Obama has considered the options for military intervention in Syria, the specter of an Iranian retaliation has weighed heavily on the White House. Recent U.S. intelligence assessments are not entirely comforting, but one silver lining is that for now the government's analysts do not expect Iran to attempt terrorist attacks outside the Middle East or Afghanistan in the event of limited U.S. air strikes on Syria, according to U.S. officials who spoke with The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity. Although Iran as recently as 2011 plotted a terrorist attack in Washington, D.C., a statement Wednesday from the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,  hinted that Iran would focus retaliation inside the Middle East. After meeting with members of Iran's new cabinet, Khamenei said American 'threats and possible intervention in Syria are a disaster for the region and if such an act is done, certainly, the Americans will sustain damage like when they interfered in Iraq and Afghanistan.'" http://t.uani.com/1a1R3Or    Human Rights AP: "The United States on Wednesday repeated its call for Tehran to help three Americans - Robert Levinson, Amir Hekmati and Saeed Abedini - return to their families after lengthy detentions in Iran. The State Department said in a statement that the U.S. is "respectfully" requesting the assistance from Iran's new president, Hasan Rouhani, who is seen as more moderate than his predecessor. Previous requests made to former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used slightly harsher rhetoric. 'President Rouhani has shared in his speeches and interviews over the past few months his hope and vision to improve the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran's relationship with the world,' the statement said in the latest plea for the release of the three." http://t.uani.com/12OShaf Domestic Politics AP: "Iran's state TV is reporting the country has appointed its first ever Foreign Ministry spokeswoman. The Thursday report quotes Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying Marzieh Afkham has been appointed spokesperson for the country's diplomatic apparatus. Afkham has been working in the ministry for nearly 30 years and was head of its public relations department under former reformist President Mohammad Khatami." http://t.uani.com/17omQnb Foreign Affairs Terrorism Reuters: "Nigeria charged two citizens on Wednesday with assisting an Iranian militant cell in planning possible attacks on Israeli targets, accusing one of traveling to Tehran and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to receive cash and of knowing about spying on Israeli interests. The two, Abdullahi Mustapha Berende and Saheed Oluremi Adewumi, were arrested in February and are accused of being members of a 'high-profile terrorist network.' Iran did not respond to the accusations. Mr. Berende is accused of traveling to Iran to help with "material assistance and terrorist training" and of knowing about spying on two Israeli targets in Lagos but failing to alert the police. The charges also say he took $30,000 to carry out operations." http://t.uani.com/1dpKlCk Opinion & Analysis Joseph Menn in Reuters: "If the United States attacks Syria, it will be the first time it strikes a country that is capable of waging retaliatory cyberspace attacks on American targets. The risk is heightened by Syria's alliance with Iran, which has built up its cyber capability in the past three years, and already gives the country technical and other support. If Iran stood with Syria in any fray with the United States that would significantly increase the cyber threat, security experts said. Organized cyber attacks have already been carried out by the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA), a hacking group loyal to the government of President Bashar al-Assad. It has disrupted the websites of U.S. media and Internet companies and is now threatening to step up such hacking if Washington bombs Damascus. 'It's likely that the Syrian Electronic Army does something in response, perhaps with some assistance from Iranian-related groups,' said former White House cybersecurity and counter terror advisor Richard Clarke. Little is known about the hackers behind the Syrian Electronic Army, and there is no evidence that the group is capable of destructive attacks on critical infrastructure. However, former U.S. National Security Agency director Michael Hayden told Reuters that the SEA 'sounds like an Iranian proxy,' and it could have much greater ability than it has displayed." http://t.uani.com/19PSFXW   Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons.  UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.