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LAT:
"In its efforts to strike a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama
administration has faced a two-part challenge: forging an agreement in
international negotiations and then selling it at home. Now, with
negotiators in Vienna five days from their deadline, it appears the
second part of the task will be tougher than expected. Many officials of
the six world powers that have been negotiating with Iran predict they
will not complete all aspects of a comprehensive agreement by the Nov. 24
deadline. British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Wednesday became
the first top Western official to publicly acknowledge that the group may
need more time for a deal. If they fail to meet the cutoff date, they may
announce some kind of partial agreement. But they also are likely to seek
time for further talks, officials say. That would leave the White House
seeking congressional support for an extension for the second time in
four months. The administration wouldn't want to disclose full details of
the talks for fear it could undermine the diplomacy and provide
ammunition for critics who worry that a bad deal would allow Iran to gain
bomb-making know-how. 'This would be very messy politically for the
administration,' said Jofi Joseph, who was a White House nuclear
specialist earlier in the Obama administration... Joseph, though a
supporter of the diplomacy, acknowledged that critics would be
strengthened if a final deal isn't apparent. 'There is a persuasive
argument that we've given [the Iranians] a year and if they can't come to
a strategic decision it's hard to say when they'll ever come to that
decision,' he said. 'And unless we go back to more sanctions, we're going
to give the Iranians the illusion that they can string this out
forever.'" http://t.uani.com/14R2mrQ
AFP:
"Iran's nuclear chief on Thursday ruled out further negotiations on
the design of a reactor that the West fears could be used to produce
plutonium for an atomic bomb... It has already promised to make some
modifications to the design of the heavy water reactor to limit plutonium
output. The United States has proposed transforming Arak into a light
water reactor so that it produces far less plutonium, but Tehran has
refused. 'On Arak, we have said we were ready to design it so that the
concerns are lifted. This matter is settled to some extent on the
technical aspect and there is no more room for further negotiations,' Ali
Akbar Salehi was quoted by local media as saying... Salehi reaffirmed
Iran's position that its uranium enrichment capacity must be 190,000 SWU
(Separative Work Units) -- equivalent to 190,000 first-generation
centrifuges -- close to 20 times its current processing ability. The West
wants a drastic reduction in the number of centrifuges. 'We need output
of at least 190,000 SWU within the next eight years' to provide fuel for
a power plant in the southern Gulf port city of Bushehr, and for a
research reactor in Tehran, Salehi said... Salehi, who heads the Atomic
Energy Organisation of Iran, also dismissed the idea of moving fuel
manufactured in Iran abroad. 'It makes no sense to make so much effort
here to produce fuel and then send it overseas to be stored,' he said. He
also said Iran would refuse a 'special' inspection system for its nuclear
sites." http://t.uani.com/1xtfw8Q
Reuters:
"Iran has yet to explain suspected atomic bomb research to the U.N.
nuclear agency, its head said on Thursday, just four days before a
deadline for a comprehensive deal between Iran and six world powers to
end the 12-year-old controversy... Yukiya Amano, director general of the
International Atomic Energy Agency, made clear it was far from satisfied,
saying it was not in a position to provide 'credible assurance' Iran had
no undeclared nuclear material and activities... 'Iran has not provided
any explanations that enable the agency to clarify the outstanding
practical measures,' Amano told the U.N. agency's 35-nation board of
governors. He was referring to information Iran was supposed to have
given the IAEA by late August concerning allegations of explosives tests
and other activity that could indicate preparations for developing
nuclear bombs. 'I call upon Iran to increase its cooperation with the
agency and to provide timely access to all relevant information,
documentation, sites, material and personnel,' Amano said... 'The agency
is ready to accelerate resolution of all outstanding issues,' Amano said.
He would present an assessment to the IAEA board 'once the agency has
established an understanding of the whole picture concerning issues with
possible military dimensions' in Iran." http://t.uani.com/1yX6a3F
Nuclear Program & Negotiations
AP:
"U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Vienna later
Thursday to join high-level nuclear negotiations with Iran as a deadline
for an agreement fast approaches. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki
said Kerry would be going to the Austrian capital from Paris to 'check
in' on the talks. It was not yet determined how long he would stay in
Vienna, leaving open the possibility that he might not remain until
Monday's deadline for a deal. Kerry is to meet with the U.S. negotiating
team in Vienna late Thursday before scheduling meetings with other
participants. 'We do want to get an agreement, but not just any
agreement,' Kerry said Thursday after meeting in Paris with the Saudi and
French foreign ministers. 'We hope that the gaps that exist - and they do
exist - can be closed. We hope we can define the finish line." ...
In Washington on Wednesday, President Barack Obama's nominee to be
Kerry's deputy at the State Department said he believed it would be
difficult to meet the deadline. 'It's not impossible,' said Tony Blinken,
currently Obama's deputy national security adviser. 'It depends entirely
on whether Iran is willing to take steps it must take to convince us, to
convince our partners that its program would be for entirely peaceful
purposes. As we speak, we're not there.'" http://t.uani.com/1ytEq6M
Free Beacon:
"The U.S. Senate is warning the Obama administration that it is
poised to veto a final nuclear deal with the Iranians and impose harsher
sanctions on Tehran, according to a letter sent late Wednesday to
President Obama. Nearly half of the Senate has signed onto a letter
promising to reject a 'weak and dangerous deal' with Iran as final
negotiations in Vienna approach their Nov. 24 deadline. Sens. Marco Rubio
(R., Fla.) and Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) authored the letter. The senators
warn that the Obama administration is close to inking a deal that will
permit Iran to continue the most controversial aspects of its nuclear
program and enable Tehran to build a nuclear weapon in the near future,
according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon
and signed by all 43 Republican senators who backed the Mendendez-Kirk
sanctions legislation killed earlier this year by the White House." http://t.uani.com/1t7Wz6z
Sanctions
Relief
Reuters:
"Iran leased oil storage at Dalian port in China earlier this year
and has made at least two deliveries of crude from there to India and one
to South Korea, according to sources with knowledge of the matter...
Iran's lease of oil storage in China came to light in August when Indian
customs questioned state oil company National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC)
about a cargo of crude for delivery to Mangalore Refinery and
Petrochemicals Ltd, said an Indian government official and industry
source. The vessel carrying the cargo, the Varada Lalima, had appeared to
come from Malaysia, but the loading port was listed as being in Iran, the
two said. 'Then NIOC told customs the vessel had come from Malaysia and
the parcel had been loaded in China where they have storage,' said the
Indian industry source. NIOC has been leasing tanks for oil in the
northeastern port of Dalian since earlier this year, confirmed a
Beijing-based source with direct knowledge of the storage deal. The oil
is held in bonded tanks, and can be sold into China or transhipped, the
Beijing source said. The leases were primarily to serve North Asia, said
the source, adding that at least one delivery had been made to South
Korea." http://t.uani.com/1t7UqYq
Reuters:
"Indian refiners on Thursday paid $400 million to Iran ahead of a
Nov. 24 deadline of the interim deal with six world powers that allows
Tehran to recover part of its overseas frozen oil revenues, two industry
sources privy to the development said. Essar Oil paid about $201 million,
Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd about $154 million, Indian Oil
Corp about $42 million and Hindustan Petroleum about $3 million, said the
sources, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.
With this, India has paid $1.3 billion to Iran in three installments
under the interim deal, which allowed Tehran access to $2.8 billion of
its funds held in foreign banks in addition to $4.2 billion paid between
January and July." http://t.uani.com/11jKl3h
AP:
"An Iranian company on Thursday displayed four brand new U.S.-made
helicopters it purchased through third parties, offering them as proof
that the country could evade international sanctions over its disputed
nuclear program. The display of the R-44 helicopters came during an air
exhibition in Kish Island, in the Persian Gulf. The four-person
helicopters are manufactured by the California-based Robinson Helicopter
Company. Mahmoud Azin, the head of Iran's Helicopters Company, told the
Tasnim news website that the helicopters were purchased at a marked-up
price through 'dealers' and can be used for both training and police air
patrols. His company, which has some 25 helicopters, mainly serves
Iranian oil sites." http://t.uani.com/11jJNdK
Reuters:
"Iran will double its oil exports within two months if sanctions
against it end, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh told official news agency
IRNA... Iran currently exports around 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd)
of oil. At OPEC's June meeting Zanganeh said Iran could increase oil
exports by 500,000 bpd immediately after any lifting of sanctions and
could pump 4 million bpd in less than three months after. 'The countries
in the south of the Persian Gulf are interested in keeping their market
share and a decrease in market share will be difficult,' Zanganeh told
IRNA." http://t.uani.com/1yX5wmF
Human Rights
The Hill:
"The House on Wednesday gave voice vote approval to legislation to
condemn Iran for its 'gross human rights violations.' Passage of the
resolution, H. Res. 754, comes ahead of the Nov. 24 deadline for world
powers to reach a deal with Iran on the country's nuclear weapon. 'I
think it's incumbent upon all of us, as the House is doing, to stand with
the people of Iran who suffer under this theocracy and speak out,' said
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.)." http://t.uani.com/1Anplrk
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