Eye on Iran: Iran Nuclear Deal Remains in Doubt

Join UANI           Top Stories WSJ: "Negotiations resume Tuesday in Vienna, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry set to join Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in coming days as both sides test whether a compromise can be reached on the remaining, highly sensitive issues. The talks include Iran, the U.S., the U.K., France, Russia, China and Germany. Western officials have said in recent days that while months of talks have significantly narrowed differences, it isn't yet clear whether Iran's negotiating team has the political space to make further compromises on outstanding issues. 'We're very keen to try to get to a deal, but not a deal at any price,' U.K. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said in Brussels Monday evening. 'There will have to be very significant further movement by the Iranians if we're going to be able to get to a deal.' Mr. Hammond noted some signs 'of a little more flexibility on both sides over the last few weeks' that indicated the participants 'also shouldn't write off the prospects. We will be working right to the wire to try to get a deal, if it's at all possible.'" http://t.uani.com/1Ad3CSM Reuters: "There is no trace of Shenzhen Lanhao Days Electronic Technology Co Ltd at its listed address in the beige and pink-tiled 'Fragrant Villa' apartment complex in this southern Chinese city. The building's managers say they've never heard of it. But a Western intelligence report reviewed by Reuters says Shenzhen Lanhao is one of several companies in China that receives money from Iran through a Chinese bank. Such transfers help to finance international operations of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' elite Quds Force, the report said. The Quds provides arms, aid and training for pro-Iranian militant groups in the Middle East, such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Shi'ite Muslim militias in Iraq. They have also armed and trained government forces in Syria's civil war in violation of a U.N. arms embargo, U.S. and European officials say. Washington designated the Quds a supporter of terrorism in 2007. The European Union sanctioned them in 2011. The report said that the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) holds accounts with the Bank of Kunlun Co Ltd, a China National Petroleum Corp unit." http://t.uani.com/1t1ASow Reuters: "Iran and six major powers have so far not discussed extending negotiations on a nuclear agreement despite the fact that their deadline is a week away, a senior U.S. official said on Monday. 'We have continued to make some progress in the course of these negotiations but we still have gaps to close and we do not yet know if we will be able to do so,' the official told reporters on condition of anonymity. 'Extension (of the negotiations) is not and has not been a subject of negotiations at this point.' ... They say it is possible to agree the outline of a future agreement over the next week, but that the details would need months to work out. A new interim deal may also be possible. The senior U.S. official denied media reports that the United States had given Iran an eight-page proposal at recent talks in Oman, saying: 'There was not a piece of paper that the Iranians walked away with.' Another senior Western diplomat said: 'The negotiations are hardly progressing ... The Iranians are not moving an inch. We're 10 days before the end of talks ... We're still very far apart.'" http://t.uani.com/1xTBmCm     Nuclear Program & Negotiations Reuters: "The United States is disappointed with Iran's failure to engage with a U.N. nuclear agency investigation into suspected atomic bomb research, a U.S. envoy said on Monday. Western officials say Iran must improve cooperation with the long-running International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inquiry as part of a broader diplomatic settlement which Tehran and six world powers aim to reach by a self-imposed Nov. 24 deadline... 'We've been disappointed in their failure thus far to constructively engage on this issue,' Ambassador Laura Kennedy, the U.S. envoy to the Vienna-based IAEA, told reporters. Kennedy said she would convey 'our concerns with Iran's failure to engage substantively with the agency on the possible military dimensions issue' in a statement to the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors, which convenes on Thursday." http://t.uani.com/1AcS6H8 JPost: "Iran sought components in Germany for its nuclear program over the past few months. The German Federal Customs Service's investigative unit (ZKA) reported the efforts, the large German daily Der Tagesspiegel wrote on Sunday. 'We continue to observe criminal nuclear proliferation activity,' ZKA president Norbert Drude said. Iran employs front companies to disguise its illegal purchases, and tried to use them in dozens of cases to obtain sanctioned goods. Iran was successful in some cases. The German government has tried to improve enforcement in its porous system of export control. The country's Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control continues, however, to approve the sale of dual-use technology to Iran. Dual-Use merchandise can be used for military or civilian purposes. The regulatory agency refuses to name the German firms involved in dual-use trade. Iran's regime is well known to German custom agents for violating the country's export law, Der Tagesspiegel reported. In 2012 and 2013, more than two-third of the 264 investigations involved the Islamic Republic, Drude said. He said he expects the proportion to remain the same this year." http://t.uani.com/1t8XMJH AFP: "Speaking as he arrived in Vienna for the negotiations, Mohammad Javad Zarif warned that an accord would only happen if the other side -- the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany -- make no 'excessive demands'. 'If, because of excessive demands ... we don't get a result, then the world will understand that the Islamic Republic sought a solution, a compromise and a constructive agreement and that it will not renounce its rights and the greatness of the nation,' Zarif told Iranian media." http://t.uani.com/1qSeayt LAT: "Yet a chance remains that negotiators will reach an accord, if only because failure would leave problems they desperately need to resolve... 'There still may be a midnight surprise,' said a Western official, suggesting the group still could announce a comprehensive deal around midnight on the 24th, just as its members announced an interim deal to continue negotiations in the final hours of talks last year. He declined to be identified, citing diplomatic sensitivities." http://t.uani.com/1xjKbpf Sanctions Relief Trend: "Iran totally imported 51,967 cars in the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21 - September 22). Hyundai with 24,991 cars was the main exporter of cars to Iran in the mentioned period, Peykhabar News Website reported on Nov. 15. Kia Motors with 9,339 cars, Geely with 5,783 cars, Toyota with 4,528 cars, and Renault with 1,086 cars were the other main exporters of automobiles to Iran." http://t.uani.com/1u1V353 Trend: "Russian Railways OJSC plans to build and electrify the railway from Iran to Azerbaijan and further to Russia, RIA Novosti reported. The chairman of the State Duma Committee (lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia) on transport Evgeniy Moskvichev made the remarks commenting on the issues that will be discussed during the visit of the State Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin on November 16-17." http://t.uani.com/1u1TRyw IRNA (Iran): "Iran's non-oil exports showed a 19-percent increase in terms of volume in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21), it was reported on Sunday. Chairman of the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPOI) Valiollah Afkhami told IRNA that the exported items brought some $27 billion to the country which is eight percent higher than its corresponding period last year... According to Afkhami, Iran exported $7.6 billion worth of petrochemicals, in the same period, up by 18 percent compared to the preceding year." http://t.uani.com/11kOa7Y IRNA (Iran): "Iran exported $7.5b worth gas condensates in the first seven months of the Iranian year started March 21, 2014 said an official on Monday. Deputy Industries, Mines and Trade Minister Valiollah Afkhami-Rad said the figures show a 63-percent increase year-on-year, according to Tuesday's edition of 'Iran Daily'. China and other Asian states were the main destinations of Iranian gas condensate exports." http://t.uani.com/1yPkGds Tasnim (Iran): "The value of trade transactions between Iran and the 28 member states of the European Union in September 2014 has witnessed a 58 percent increase, compared to the same month last year, data released by the Eurostat showed. Trade turnover between Iran and the EU in September 2013 had stood at 445 million euros, and it reached 703 million euros in the same month in 2014, according to a report by the Eurostat. The EU imports from Iran in September reached €112 million, showing a 113 percent increase, compared to the same period last year, in which the figure stood at €48 million. An earlier report released by the Eurostat in October had revealed that the value of Iranian exports to the EU during the first eight months of 2014 increased by 28 percent, compared with the same period last year, reaching €645 million." http://t.uani.com/11oyKjd Human Rights IHR: "A video footage showing the public executions of last Saturday (15. November) in Bandar Abbas has been released by the 'human rights activists news agency' (HRANA). The video shows three prisoners with the noose around their neck being slowly pulled up by a crane. This happens in front of tens of ordinary people. The method has been previously described by Iran Human Rights (IHR) as slow strangulation where the prisoner suffers several minutes before the death occurs due to suffocation. There are several videos of public executions showing that this method is being systematically used by the Iranian authorities. In some cases it takes up to 15 minutes till the prisoner dies." IHR strongly urges the international community to react in order to stop the public executions in Iran. Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the spokesperson of IHR says: 'Besides being a dehumanizing and barbaric punishment, Iranian authorities' method of execution is pure torture. The prisoner dies a slow and painful death in front of the horrified children and adults. The international community must not tolerate such barbaric punishments in a country which is a full member of the United Nations.'" http://t.uani.com/1qSbIIj AP: "An Iranian-British woman has been officially charged over her links to the opposition, not for attending a volleyball match, according to a report by the semi-official ISNA news agency, The report quoted a statement by the Tehran prosecutor's office as saying Ghoncheh Ghavami was active in opposition protests abroad and was in contact with foreign satellite channels including the BBC Farsi service, which was banned by Iran. Ghavami was detained in June after trying to attend a men's volleyball match between Iran and Italy in defiance of hardliners' push for gender-segregation. This is the first time that Iran has officially filed charges against Ghavami. Earlier this month, her lawyer said he had been shown a draft of the verdict sentencing Ghavami, 25, to a year in prison for 'propagating against the ruling system.'" http://t.uani.com/1t8NAAY      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.