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Reuters:
"Iran and the United States met in Geneva for bilateral talks on
Thursday as international diplomacy intensifies to end a decade-old
dispute over Tehran's atomic activities by a new deadline in late
November. The office of European Union foreign policy chief Catherine
Ashton confirmed Iran and six world powers would hold their first
negotiating round since they failed to meet a July 20 target date for an
agreement in New York on Sept. 18... But Western diplomats say the sides
remain far apart on what a final deal should look like - especially on
the issue of how many enrichment centrifuges Iran can operate - and that
a successful outcome in the negotiations is far from guaranteed." http://t.uani.com/1o0P9zn
AFP:
"Iran is looking forward to improved relations with the European
Union following the appointment of an Italian to be the bloc's next
foreign policy supremo, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said here
Wednesday. Zarif's comments came after talks with Federica Mogherini, the
current Italian foreign minister who will shortly take over from
Britain's Catherine Ashton as the public face of EU relations with the
rest of the world. Zarif said the crisis in Iraq and Syria demonstrated
that the EU and Iran need to work together to address common challenges.
'The same challenges (Iran faces) are before the EU, both as
international security and local and domestic security.' ... Mogherini's
first major goal in her new job will be to wrap up a deal with Iran on
the Islamic state's contested nuclear programme, for which a November
deadline has been said. The Italian minister said her discussions with
Zarif had left her hopeful that could be achieved. 'We have said that an
agreement ought to be reached by November in order to guarantee greater
stability in the region,' Mogherini said." http://t.uani.com/1pN9PAm
Reuters:
"The United Nations nuclear watchdog is expected to issue a report
this week showing little progress is being made in its long-running
investigation into suspected atomic bomb research by Iran, diplomats said
on Wednesday. They said the quarterly International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) report on Iran was likely to confirm, as Reuters reported last
week, that Tehran failed to meet a late August deadline for answering
questions about its atomic activities. Western officials may see the lack
of movement as a setback for broader efforts to end a decade-old dispute
over a nuclear program which Iran says is peaceful but which they fear
may be aimed at developing a nuclear weapons capability. They say Iran
must address the IAEA's concerns if there is to be any chance of success
in parallel diplomatic negotiations with six world powers aimed at
curbing the country's nuclear work in exchange for a gradual ending of
sanctions on Tehran. The IAEA is expected to issue its confidential
report to member states on Thursday or Friday, ahead of a Sept. 15-19
meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors." http://t.uani.com/1psBGzV
Sanctions Relief
Press TV:
"Representatives from more than 20 Czech business companies plan to
visit Iran in mid-September. Czech Deputy Foreign Minister Martin Tlapa
made the announcement after a meeting with Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister
for European and American Affairs Majid Takht-e-Ravanchi in Prague on
Wednesday. Tlapa and Takht-e-Ravanchi discussed different bilateral and
international issues during the meeting and stressed the expansion of
ties between the two countries in political, economic and business
fields. Tlapa further said that transport, engineering and textile firms
have expressed willingness to invest in the Iranian market. The Czech
business mission will visit Iran on September 13-17 and Tlapa will head
the delegation. The visit will be organized by the Czech Chamber of
Commerce." http://t.uani.com/1uBTv47
Tasnim (Iran):
"Iran's Central Bank said the country has received the first two
installments of its blocked assets, which are being returned to Tehran
under a four-month extension of nuclear negotiations with world powers.
The Central Bank announced on Thursday that the two tranches, amounting
to $1 billion combined, have been released and were transferred from its
account in Japan to another account in Oman. The payments are the first
of the $2.8 billion frozen oil revenues that Iran will receive during
four months." http://t.uani.com/1t3MoAp
Sanctions
Enforcement & Impact
Reuters:
"German lender Commerzbank AG is nearing agreement with U.S.
authorities over its dealings with Iran and other countries under U.S.
sanctions, sources familiar with the matter said. The bank is expected to
pay about $650 million to resolve the U.S. probes, one person said. An
announcement could come as soon as next week but is more likely within
the month, the sources said. The sources did not want to be identified
because negotiations are still underway... Commerzbank knowingly banked
for the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, one of the sources said.
The state-sponsored shipping line was designated for economic sanctions
by the U.S. in 2008 for supporting Iran's proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction." http://t.uani.com/1vS42Ms
WSJ:
"Citigroup Inc. agreed to pay about $217,000 to resolve an array of
sanctions violations. The bank's Malaysian trade services unit processed
four export bill collection applications totaling more than $600,000
involving the shipment of goods to Iran, including two applications
involving the Iranian state shipping line, which the U.S. placed under
sanctions in 2008, the U.S. Treasury Department said. Though the bank had
documents related to the bill collections that contained references to
Iran and the shipping line, the Malaysian unit didn't review or screen
the bills of lading, certificates of origin or shipment advice that
contained the references, Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control
said in an enforcement notice." http://t.uani.com/1Aa0JOj
Human Rights
RFE/RL:
"Three UN experts on human rights in Iran, freedom of religion, and
minority issues have urged the government of Iran to stop the destruction
of a Baha'i cemetery by Revolutionary Guards. The Revolutionary Guards
are reported to have put up signs detailing plans to build a cultural and
sports center on the site of the Baha'i cemetery in Shiraz, the capital
of Fars Province. Remains that were disinterred during initial
excavations in April are said to have been placed in a nearby trench.
Heiner Bielefeldt, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion, said in
a statement on September 4 that 'attacks on cemeteries are unacceptable'
and a 'deliberate violation' of religious freedom. The Special Rapporteur
on minority issues, Rita Izsak, urged the government to take concrete
steps to protect Baha'i and other religious minorities in Iran." http://t.uani.com/Z8iIcC
Foreign Affairs
Tasnim (Iran):
"Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali
Khamenei underlined that the terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and the
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have been fabricated by the
West and its regional proxies. 'Although, the Western countries,
particularly the US, claim that they have nothing to do with these groups
(al-Qaeda and ISIL), there is ample evidence suggesting that these
movements have been fabricated by Western powers and their regional
elements,' said Ayatollah Khamenei in a meeting with members of Iran's
Assembly of Experts on Thursday... Ayatollah Khamenei also praised
Palestinian resistance movements for firmly standing up to the Israeli
military during its aggression against the Gaza Strip and described
Palestinians' military achievements against Israel as a 'miracle.' The
Leader added that Palestinians had in fact managed to bring the Zionist
regime, the symbol of Western power in the region, down to its
knees." http://t.uani.com/1rwFFkj
Opinion &
Analysis
Yleem D.S. Poblete
in TNI: "The regime's immediate priority is
influencing or dictating developments in its neighborhood-Iraq, Gaza
strip, Syria, Lebanon and certain Gulf states. However, it is expanding
alliances elsewhere to encircle and threaten perceived enemies, while
mitigating actual or potential costs resulting from its policies. One of
the regions that Iranian officials and agents consider fertile ground and
that the regime has been tilling for some time is the Western Hemisphere.
Iran's first vice president Eshaq Jahangiri recently met with Venezuelan
leader Nicolas Maduro. As many other Iranian leaders have done before in
visits to the Americas, Jahangiri described Iranian-Venezuelan relations
as 'fundamental' and emphasized Tehran's continued willingness to expand
ties at all levels. Venezuela's Ambassador to Tehran told Fars News last
month that Venezuela is prepared to become a hub for Iranian exports to
other Latin American nations. While the specifics may differ, this is not
surprising. The Iranian regime has sought to 'export' its radical
ideology, using all means necessary, since the onset of its Islamist
revolution. Iranian-backed entities, such as The House of Latin America
in Iran, continue to sprout throughout the region with the seemingly benign
aim of 'boosting relations between the Iranian people and those of Latin
America.' However, their true objective appears to be promoting violence
and repression and damaging U.S. interests. The House of Latin America
has hosted Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, a visit to Iran by the son and
daughter of one of the butchers of Latin America, Che Guevara, and has
translated books into Farsi by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Fidel
Castro. In fact, The House of Latin America in Iran recently announced it
will be publishing a compendium of articles and other papers by the
former Cuban dictator and, in conjunction with the 'campaign of
solidarity between Iran and Cuba,' a book on Cuba and international
affairs. The bilateral relations between these pariah states entered a
new phase after a May 2001 visit by Fidel Castro to Iran. During a
meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Castro declared:
'Iran and Cuba, in cooperation with each other, can bring America to its
knees.' For his part, Khamenei affirmed: 'The United States is weak and
extremely vulnerable today...US grandeur can be broken.' International
experts and the U.S. Congress have documented a decades-long systematic
effort to establish clandestine intelligence stations and operatives,
using official Iranian diplomatic facilities, as well as educational,
religious and cultural institutions as cover for their terrorist network.
And U.S. intelligence and military officials have in recent years,
expressed concerns about a growing presence in Latin America,
particularly in Venezuela, of members of Iran's elite Qods Force, which
spearheads Tehran's global terrorist efforts and is involved in the
regime's missile and nuclear activities." http://t.uani.com/1uBUpOc
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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