Eye on Iran: Iran: Nuclear Deal by November Deadline Unlikely

Join UANI           Top Stories AP: "Iran's foreign minister said Friday it is unlikely to reach a final nuclear accord with world powers by a November deadline. Parliament's news website quoted Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying that even if a general agreement is reached before the deadline, the two sides will require more time to discuss details. 'Hence, it is unlikely to reach a final conclusion before a four-month span,' he said. Zarif said the talks could 'quickly' reach a conclusion if world powers show 'strong will.' He said the other side has moved cautiously over the past few months but that the negotiations are making progress." http://t.uani.com/Vq6ERN Reuters: "The Idaho wife of an Iranian-American Christian pastor imprisoned in Iran for nearly two years said on Thursday her husband has received death threats from Islamic State militants held in the same detention center. Saeed Abedini, 34, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was sentenced to eight years in prison by an Iranian court last year for undermining national security by setting up home-based Christian churches in his native country from 2000 to 2005. His wife, Naghmeh Abedini, of Boise, Idaho, said threats to his life from lack of healthcare and nutritious food were compounded this week when cell mates told him Sunni Muslim prisoners who have aligned themselves with the Islamic State, formerly known as ISIS, have targeted him for death. It was not clear if the detained militants were Iraqis or Iranians. Abedini relayed the information to his mother, who visited him this week at Rajai Shahr prison, west of the Iranian capital of Tehran, the pastor's wife told Reuters." http://t.uani.com/1pR1Rno Press TV (Iran): "A senior Iranian official commemorates the victory of Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah in Israel's 33-war on Lebanon in 2006, saying the Tel Aviv regime is teetering on the brink of collapse. In a message to Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday marking the anniversary of the resistance movement's triumph, Secretary of Iran's Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei congratulated Hezbollah on its 'great' and 'historic' victory against Israel in the regime's 2006 aggression. 'The Zionist regime [of Israel] is heading towards demise and annihilation, and resistance is the most efficient weapon in the fight against the child-killing occupying tyrants,' added the Iranian official." http://t.uani.com/1t6kQf1     Sanctions Relief FT: "When Hassan Rouhani was sworn in as Iran's president this time last year, he pledged to pursue detente with the international community and bring an end to years of deadlock over the country's nuclear programme, which would lift sanctions and help him rescue an economy in crisis. Twelve months on, a nuclear deal remains elusive and sanctions remain in place. But Iran's business community are still supportive of the centrist cleric. 'We saw nothing but darkness before. Now we see light at the end of tunnel,' says one Iranian businessman, who spoke on condition of anonymity. 'The currency market is stabilised. We have faced no foreign exchange shortage for imports in recent months.' ... The government is now trying to kick-start growth with a new two-year programme to rejuvenate industry, paying off government debts to domestic banks and diverting public savings towards boosting the domestic stock market. The package, officials say, is drafted on the basis of continued sanctions. Masoud Nili, a senior economic adviser to the government and a leading figure in the package's drafting, told the Financial Times that the programme 'will remove obstacles in the way of economic growth, except for sanctions'. 'We know that not all [economic] problems are rooted in sanctions. A major part of the woes are due to domestic inefficiencies,' he says." http://t.uani.com/1t2S8Lb Bloomberg: "Iran plans to finish developing its giant South Pars gas field within three years, regardless of the sanctions on its economy, and is rescheduling a campaign to woo U.S. and European oil companies with investor contracts... Iran must develop shared fields 'with or without sanctions,' Kardor said, without specifying if the country was prepared to do so without foreign help. Iran was planning to introduce what it describes as a flexible and attractive oil contract at an event in London from Nov. 3 to Nov. 5. It has pushed back the date until later that month since the nuclear talks were extended, Kardor said.  The contracts are 'somewhere between a buy-back model and a production sharing agreement' and are designed to encourage long-term investors, he said. Companies won't be allowed to take ownership of reserves, though they will be able to set up joint operating companies with local partners to manage fields, he said. 'We'll get access to technology and foreign investment,' Kardor said. 'They'll be able to stay in the longer term, and access to oil will be provided for them.'" http://t.uani.com/1pgts21 Domestic Politics Al-Monitor: "A year after the election of Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani's preferred candidate, Hassan Rouhani, as president of Iran, Rafsanjani's own chances of being elected chairman of the Assembly of Experts are ever increasing. In response, it appears that conservatives in Iran are trying to attack and weaken Rafsanjani by putting one of his sons on trial. On Aug. 2, the first session of the trial of Mehdi Hashemi - Rafsanjani's second son - was held behind closed doors, presided over by Judge Mohammad Moghiseh. Moghiseh is known for having imposed long prison sentences on journalists, student activists and high ranking Reformists." http://t.uani.com/1AjATcz Al-Monitor: "Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh accused officials from Iran's previous administration of giving $2.7 billion worth of oil and loans to former businessman and billionaire Babak Zanjani with an understanding that revenue from the sale would never be returned to the Oil Ministry. 'Some took [the oil] and did not give the money back, and it was never even agreed for them to give the money back,' Zanganeh said in a television interview. 'They didn't make a mistake. It was intentional. The team of Babak Zanjani that took [the oil] did not want to give back the money.' Zanjani was one of the individuals tasked with selling Iran's oil under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency. Zanjani's connections to banks and businesses overseas helped Iran evade sanctions on its oil and financial sectors." http://t.uani.com/1t2RgGo 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.