Eye on Iran: Iran Sticks to 'Unworkable, Inadequate' Stances in Nuclear Talks: U.S.

Join UANI           Top Stories Reuters: "Iran has stuck to 'unworkable and inadequate' positions in nuclear talks with six world powers despite a looming deadline for a deal to end sanctions against Tehran in exchange for curbs on its atomic programme, a U.S. official said on Saturday. 'We are still very far apart on some issues and obviously on enrichment capacity,' the senior U.S. administration official told reporters hours before Secretary of State John Kerry was due to arrive in Vienna to join the talks with Iran... 'We have made some progress but on some key issues Iran has not moved, from our perspective, from unworkable and inadequate positions that would not in fact assure us that their programme is exclusively peaceful,' the U.S. official said." http://t.uani.com/1qzP1Jq WSJ: "Efforts to open the way to a final nuclear deal between Iran and world powers appeared to fall short after a day of intensive talks between the Iranian foreign minister and his U.S. and European counterparts. With a week left to a deadline for reaching a comprehensive deal, significant gaps remained, European foreign ministers said Sunday... Mr. Zarif met late Sunday with Secretary of State John Kerry, who warned on arrival in the Austrian capital of 'very significant gaps' between the sides. 'Obviously, we have some very significant gaps still. So we need to see if we can make some progress and I really look forward to a very substantive and important set of meetings and dialogues,' Mr. Kerry told reporters as he arrived. 'It is vital to make certain that Iran is not going to develop a nuclear weapon-that their program is peaceful.'" http://t.uani.com/1qY6ZaD AP: "An Iranian court handed jail sentences of eight to 21 years to eight Facebook page administrators, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday. The report said the defendants were convicted of plotting against national security, spreading propaganda against the ruling system and insulting officials. It did not identify the defendants or the Facebook pages. It said that the court issued its verdict against the eight activists, who come from various cities including the capital, in April following several court appearances. They appealed immediately, said IRNA. Facebook is already officially banned in the country, along with other social websites like Twitter and YouTube as well as their mobile apps. However some senior leaders like Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif are active on Twitter, and many Iranians use proxy servers to access banned websites and applications." http://t.uani.com/1mBqPqI     Nuclear Program & Negotiations Reuters: "U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met his Iranian counterpart on Monday for a second day to push for 'critical choices' on Tehran's nuclear programme with both sides complaining that scant progress has been made ahead of a July 20 deadline.  Kerry and Mohammad Javad Zarif met for two hours on Sunday on the sidelines of talks between Iran and six major negotiating powers - the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China - with the deadline for a deal just a week away. In his bilateral meetings with Zarif, Kerry wants to 'gauge Iran's willingness to make the critical choices it needs to make', a senior State Department official said. 'The Secretary will take the time necessary to have that discussion, and that's why they will be meeting again today, to see if progress can be made,' the official said... A senior U.S. official said on Saturday that an extension would be difficult to consider without first seeing 'significant progress on key issues.'" http://t.uani.com/1qa2awY AFP: "Iran's chief negotiator in nuclear talks in Vienna warned Saturday that Tehran is ready to walk away if 'excessive' Western demands cause a failure, eight days before a deadline for a deal. Abbas Araqchi said however that he hoped that the attendance from Sunday of foreign ministers including US Secretary of State John Kerry would help overcome 'deep differences' that remain. 'If we see that the excessive demands (of Western powers) persisting and that a deal is impossible, this is not a drama, we will continue with our nuclear programme,' Araqchi said." http://t.uani.com/1oVvNOD WSJ: "Iran must accept significant limits on its nuclear enrichment activities for upward of 10 years, a senior U.S. official said Saturday... Speaking Saturday evening in the Austrian capital, the U.S. official said a goal in the negotiations is that Iran's future enrichment activities under a nuclear deal would be 'very limited' for a number of years that can be measured in 'double digits.' 'For some period of time, they are going to have to have a very limited, very constrained program that will have inspections, verification, monitoring and a lot of limitations of what they can do,' the official said. 'At the end of that duration, they...will make their own choices.'" http://t.uani.com/1ygQTes Bloomberg: "Iran has for the first time sent President Hassan Rouhani's younger brother as a special observer to the nuclear talks in Vienna, signaling the importance of the final week of negotiations before a July 20 deadline. The presence of Hossein Fereydoun, who also serves as a special adviser to the president, came to light after he was photographed in one of the sessions between Iran and European foreign ministers. Fereydoun's presence was also reported by Iran's state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. 'He's the president's eyes and ears,' Ali Vaez, an Istanbul-based analyst for the International Crisis Group, said in an e-mailed reply to questions." http://t.uani.com/1mBkVWL Reuters: "Iran has taken preparatory action to start up a uranium conversion plant it needs to fulfil an interim nuclear agreement reached with six world powers last year before the accord expires this month, diplomatic sources said... Under the initial accord that runs for six months until July 20, Iran is supposed to convert a large amount of low-enriched uranium gas into an oxide form that would be less suitable for processing into nuclear bomb material. It was one of the terms of the deal that won Tehran some easing of sanctions. To be able to do that, it has been building a facility near the central city of Isfahan for turning the gas into powder. After months of delays, the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in May said the plant's commissioning had begun, but it was still not operating... Because of the conversion plant's delay, the low-grade uranium stockpile has grown to nearly 8.5 tonnes in May from 7.6 tonnes in February, according to IAEA reports." http://t.uani.com/1raSotU Al-Monitor: "The secret US-Iran diplomatic channel that helped advance the interim nuclear deal last year got underway after a message from US President Barack Obama was conveyed to Iran: the United States would be prepared to accept a limited Iranian domestic enrichment program as part of a nuclear agreement in which Iran would take concrete and verifiable steps to assure the world its nuclear program would remain exclusively peaceful. 'Basically it was to inform Iran that we are prepared to accept a limited enrichment program in the context of an otherwise acceptable deal,' former US-Iran negotiator Robert Einhorn told Al-Monitor in an interview July 13. 'It was not a specific quid pro quo.' ... 'I think that the United States has already made a number of very tough choices,' a senior US administration official, speaking not for attribution, told journalists at a briefing in Vienna July 12. In the six-month interim Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA), 'the President of the United States took, I think, a very bold decision to say that we would be open to discussing a very limited enrichment program to meet the practical needs of Iran.'" http://t.uani.com/U44yWR Reuters: "The U.S. Congress will ultimately support an extension of an interim agreement of talks on Iran's nuclear program, lawmakers and congressional aides said, despite calls by Republicans and some Democrats to abandon negotiations and return to tough sanctions to deter Tehran from building a nuclear bomb.  As U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry flies to Vienna for talks this weekend by six world powers and Iran to complete a deal aimed at stopping Tehran from producing weapons-grade uranium, some U.S. lawmakers are losing patience with diplomacy. They want a tougher approach, threatening to impose stiffer sanctions without concessions, beyond what analysts expect Iran would accept. Many Republicans say they fear the White House will concede too much in order to claim a foreign-policy victory. But influential Senate Democrats support extending the talks beyond a July 20 deadline. Since the party controls the Senate, its leaders can block any legislation that might close them down." http://t.uani.com/1q9Xx5R Sanctions Relief Trend: "Iran's gas condensate exports reached 5,784 tons during first quarter of Iran's fiscal year, indicating a 2.4 times increase year to year. The International Energy Agency's monthly reports indicates that Iran's crude oil and gas condensate exports together were 1.11, 1.36 and 1.08 million barrels per day during April, May, and June respectively. Now, Iran's Custom Administration's monthly report covering a period from March 21 to June 22, says that Iran exported 5,784 tons or 522,425 barrels per day of gas condensate during the first quarter of Iran's fiscal year. The figure was about 217, 000 barrels per day during the same period last year. According to the new Custom's report, published on July 14, Iran's gas condensate exports during the first months of fiscal year are 846 tons (229 kbbl per day), 4095 tons (229 kbbl per day (1.11 million bbl per day) and 843 tons (229 kbbl per day) respectively. In addition to the condensate export growth, Iran's liquid petroleum gas (LPG) export experienced a huge increase as well. The Middle Eastern country exported about 509,000 tons of liquefied propane and 320,000 tons of butane during first quarter of fiscal year. Iran's LPG exported almost two-fold more in the first quarter compared to the same period last year. Iran's petrochemical products export value increased from $2.646 to $3.076 billion during the mentioned period. The total non-oil exports of Iran (including gas condensate) reached $11.859 billion, indicating an above 20 percent increase, while the imports $12.386 billion with above 36 percent growth." http://t.uani.com/W3tVJU Iraq Crisis NYT: "A classified military assessment of Iraq's security forces concludes that many units are so deeply infiltrated by either Sunni extremist informants or Shiite personnel backed by Iran that any Americans assigned to advise Baghdad's forces could face risks to their safety, according to United States officials. The report concludes that only about half of Iraq's operational units are capable enough for American commandos to advise them if the White House decides to help roll back the advances made by Sunni militants in northern and western Iraq over the past month. Adding to the administration's dilemma is the assessment's conclusion that Iraqi forces loyal to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki are now heavily dependent on Shiite militias - many of which were trained in Iran - as well as on advisers from Iran's paramilitary Quds Force. Shiite militias fought American troops after the United States invaded Iraq and might again present a danger to American advisers. But without an American-led effort to rebuild Iraq's security forces, there may be no hope of reducing the Iraqi government's dependence on those Iranian-backed militias, officials caution." http://t.uani.com/U9rtjO Times of London: "Iran has stepped up its military presence in Baghdad, sending senior commanders in the Revolutionary Guard and intelligence services to co-ordinate Iraq's response to the mounting crisis. The officers arrived in the Iraqi capital last week and are now leading the counter-offensive against Isis. Among the team in Baghdad, according to an Iranian opposition group, are Abdul Reza Shahlai and Mustafa Abdollahi, who were implicated in a 2011 plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador in Washington." http://t.uani.com/1nnJAtg Human Rights Al-Monitor: "A group of Principlist MPs in the Iranian parliament submitted a proposal for a parliamentary act that would legalize the undertaking of 'enjoining good and forbidding wrong.' This act, proposed on June 23, could curtail personal freedoms by legalizing the act of any individual wishing to intrude into the private lives of others. 'Enjoining good and forbidding wrong' is a ritual Islamic act, which means a Muslim may suggest to others, or order them, to do what is considered proper according to logic and Sharia, or conversely, not to do what is considered inappropriate to Sharia. According to Shiite Muslims, it is also one of the 'ancillaries of the Islamic Faith' (furu ad-din). While authorities encourage all Muslims to engage in this practice, paramilitary Basij or seminary students mostly carry out these acts, which sometimes result in altercations with ordinary citizens." http://t.uani.com/1qY2YD4 IranWire: "Human rights organizations and child protection advocates, including Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, have raised alarm over the rising number of forced marriages among underage girls in Iran. Based on Iranian government statistics, human rights group Justice for Iran reported on July 7 that more than 30,000 girls under the age of 15 were married in 2013. The report also states that marriage for girls under the age of 10 is on the rise. The UN defines forced marriage as a contemporary form of slavery." http://t.uani.com/1tI6qoI 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.