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Reuters:
"U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on a visit to Berlin on
Wednesday that the Obama administration planned to fully consult Congress
about ongoing negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.' I
personally believe, as does the president, that Congress has an extremely
important role to play in this and Congress will play a role in this,'
Kerry said in response to a question about whether U.S. lawmakers might
be shut out of the decision-making process. Kerry said a possible
suspension of sanctions against Iran in any nuclear deal 'does not in any
way write Congress out of the process or suggest that in the end Congress
isn't going to have a vote.'" t.uani.com/1wty1ZY
Reuters:
"Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed Western powers
on Tuesday for the rise of Islamic State (IS) insurgents in Iraq and
Syria and said they had no business tampering with the region's
geopolitics. Iran and the United States have been arch-foes for decades
but now share a strategic interest in reversing the territorial gains of
IS that threaten to remake the Middle East map. But cooperation has been
blocked in part by the fact Tehran and Washington back opposing sides in
Syria's civil war, where Islamic State is among rebel forces fighting
President Bashar al-Assad. While Washington opposes Assad, it sees IS as
a bigger threat and is staging air strikes to try to neutralise the al
Qaeda offshoot with the support of Western and Gulf Arab allies".
t.uani.com/1wo7efV
FP:
"Demanding a bigger role in the Iran nuclear negotiations, key
Democrats are beginning to openly criticize the Obama administration for
its plans to avoid an immediate vote on a deal aimed at reining in
Tehran's nuclear program. 'I disagree with the administration's reported
assertion that it does not need to come to Congress at this point during
negotiations with Iran,' said New York's Eliot Engel, the House Foreign
Affairs Committee's top Democrat, in a statement on Tuesday. 'As
negotiations continue on a deal to prevent a nuclear Iran, Congress
cannot be circumvented,' New York's Steve Israel, chairman of the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told Foreign Policy".
t.uani.com/1CVz4SE
Nuclear
Program & Negotiations
Trend:
"Iranian president Hassan Rouhani believes that Iran has already won
the nuclear talks with the P5+1 countries, the Iranian state IRINN TV
reported Oct. 21. 'The fact that our representatives bargain the six
world powers, argue with them and reject their ideas indicates the
political power of Iranian people,' Rouhani said. Rouhani went on to
stress that 'it is a victory for Iranian people.' Rouhani previously said
that Tehran and the P5+1 group of countries will reach a win-win
agreement in nuclear talks.' There is no doubt in Iran's right to enrich
uranium. The whole world has accepted the fact. But we just have
disagreements on details,' Rouhani had said." t.uani.com/1wm2LdI
Trend:
"The Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) Ali Akbar
Salehi said that the country needs 20 new nuclear power plants like the
Bushehr plant.' Bushehr power plant currently produces 7 billion kilowatt
hours of electricity per year,' Salehi said, Iran's ISNA News Agency
reported on October 20.'Some countries have declared their readiness to
construct new nuclear power plants in Iran,' he explained. The Atomic
Energy Organization of Iran's Deputy Director for International Affairs
Behrouz Kamalvandi said on Sept. 15 that Iran plans to start construction
of two new nuclear power plants by the end of the current Iranian
calendar year (March 21)". t.uani.com/1sL02tG
AFP:
"Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said Tuesday he shared with
his US counterpart his country's concerns about the direction of talks
between world powers and Iran on its nuclear programme.In an audio
message released by Yaalon's office after his meeting with Chuck Hagel at
the Pentagon, Yaalon said they also talked about the conflicts in Iraq
and Syria and the US-Israel defence partnership. 'The Iranian issue
indeed worries us,' he said in Hebrew. 'The question of if there will be
an agreement and what kind of agreement worries us. I'm talking about
that here and behind closed doors we express our concerns.' Expert-level
talks between Iran and world powers are to be held in Vienna on Wednesday
and Thursday, according to an Iranian official". t.uani.com/1woekks
Sanctions
Relief
Just Auto:
"Swedish automotive companies need to act faster to take
opportunities of business in Iran says one association with interests in
both countries. Iran has long been regarded as a renegade State, but a
thaw in relations is becoming more evident as talks between Tehran and
the so-called 5+1 group including the US, UK, France, European Union,
Russia and China, continue to look for a solution to the nuclear
question. This week will see yet more talks in Vienna aimed at finding a
way through the impasse and securing the continuation of slight relief to
automotive suppliers to Iran that has given optimism for new business
opportunities".
t.uani.com/1yWzmLv
FT:
"Hassan Rouhani likes to compare Iran's galloping inflation rate to
a wild horse, while reassuring long-suffering citizens that his
government is making progress in taming the problem. Since taking over as
president last year, Mr Rouhani has staked his political reputation on
ending crippling international sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme
and turning around the ailing economy after years of mismanagement by the
previous government of Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad. Reducing spiralling price
rises has been a significant achievement. Inflation has been cut from 40
per cent when he took office to 21 per cent today. 'The government has
tamed the runaway horse of inflation ... There is no doubt the country
has left behind the stagnation,' he told state television this month. Mr
Rouhani has pledged to bring inflation below 20 per cent by the new
fiscal year in March. Iran's economy also grew 4.6 per cent in the three
months to August 22 compared with the same period of 2013, while the
currency market has also been stabilised. But on the streets of the
capital, Tehran, many ordinary Iranians are unconvinced. The worry for Mr
Rouhani's government is that his economic improvements are not feeding
through to the real economy." t.uani.com/1wtzu2v
Human Rights
AFP:
"Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh staged a protest
Tuesday in Tehran against a three-year ban on her and to oppose what she
said was a clampdown on her profession. Sotoudeh, who won the European
parliament's prestigious Sakharov rights prize in 2012, was released from
jail last year halfway through a six-year sentence for 'actions against
national security and committing propaganda against the regime.' Last
month, a court authorised her to return to work but she revealed Sunday
that the decision had been overturned and the lengthy ban imposed".
t.uani.com/1rf1EsF
Foreign Affairs
AFP:
"Shortly after midnight, when a curfew usually shrouds the Iraqi
capital in silence, the thudding sounds of heavy machinegun fire ripped
through the air and echoed across Baghdad. They were not the opening
shots of the much-feared attack by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group,
which has been battling government forces a few kilometres (miles)
outside Baghdad for months. Instead, they were a reminder of another kind
of threat hanging over Iraq -- a rapidly expanding galaxy of Shiite
militias that, while playing a significant part in the fight against IS,
challenge government authority and threaten to perpetuate the country's
brutal sectarian violence". t.uani.com/1nyrZpg
WashPost:
"In recent days, Tehran and Islamabad have summoned each others'
envoys after reports of gunfights and incursions. On Oct. 17, Pakistani
officials claimed that 30 Iranian guards in six vehicles started shooting
at a vehicle carrying members of the Pakistani Frontier Corps, two miles
inside Pakistan's border. One soldier was killed and three others were
wounded. The alleged incident, which Tehran has not directly addressed,
followed an angry warning on Thursday from the second-in-command of
Iran's influential Revolutionary Guards after four of its soldiers were
killed by unknown assailants at a post in Iran's eastern Sistan and
Baluchestan province, which abuts Pakistani Baluchistan. The Iranians
believed the attackers were operating from Pakistani territory. 'We are,
in principle, against intervening in the affairs of any country,' said
Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, 'but if they fail to abide by their
obligations we will have [no choice but] to act.' Pakistani officials
dismissed Iran's allegations, with language similar to what Islamabad
often trots out when accused by neighboring India of tacitly supporting
terrorism there. 'If Iran has evidence that elements from Pakistan are
involved in activities against Iran, they should share it with us,' said
a Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman on Friday. 'Our information is
that these incidents took place inside Iranian territory by Iranians and
that is corroborated by their own accounts. It is not helpful to
externalize problems.'" t.uani.com/1otDW0o
Opinion &
Analysis
UANI Executive
Director David Ibsen in The Jerusalem Post: "Last
week, representatives from European and Iranian businesses, trade
organizations and think tanks gathered in London to plan for the
'post-sanctions' era. Specifically, the 1st Europe-Iran Forum was
convened to facilitate European commercial participation in the Iranian
marketplace. Multi-nationals are no doubt eager to re-invest in the
Iranian economy, and they are looking forward to the day when sanctions
are permanently lifted and commerce may once again start to flow between
Teheran and major European capitals. Yet it would be premature for
European multi-nationals to begin planning for a post-sanctions Iran
while significant European and US sanctions architecture remains in place
and before a comprehensive and sustainable agreement that ensures the
peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program is reached."
t.uani.com/1vML34X
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