Eye on Iran: Iran's Supreme Leader Criticizes 'American Sniper'

Join UANI           Top Stories AP: "Iran's supreme leader has criticized the film 'American Sniper,' saying the movie about a U.S. soldier fighting in Iraq encourages violence against Muslims, a state-run newspaper reported Tuesday. The comments by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, published in the daily IRAN Farsi newspaper, come amid renewed criticism of the West by the leader as his country negotiates with world powers over its contested nuclear program... 'The movie Sniper that is made by Hollywood encourages a Christian or non-Muslim youngster to harass and offend the Muslims as far as they could,' the newspaper quoted Khamenei as saying... 'You are seeing what sort of propaganda there are against Muslims in Europe and the U.S.,' he reportedly said." http://t.uani.com/1AzGKhP WashPost: "The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement acknowledged for the first time Monday that the Shiite militia has sent fighters to Iraq, and he urged Arab states throughout the region to set aside sectarian rivalries to confront the threat posed by the Islamic State. In a videotaped speech delivered to followers in Beirut's southern suburbs, Hasan Nasrallah called on the region's traditional American allies to abandon their reliance on the United States and instead align with Hezbollah - and by implication with its sponsor Iran - to defeat the Sunni extremists. 'He who relies on the Americans relies on an illusion. You rely on someone who is stealing from you and conniving against you,' he said." http://t.uani.com/17lm2oo Guardian: "A bulletin from the Expediency Council, a state body chaired by influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has offered rare insight into Iran's strategic thinking over Iraq. The report, from the council's Centre for Strategic Research, entitled Concerns about Iraq and Considerations for the Future, has not been widely publicized. The author, Hassan Ahmadian, is an analyst at the council. One 'positive event of major importance' highlighted by Ahmadian is the west's acceptance of Iranian weapons sales to Iraq insofar as they contribute to the broader struggle against the Islamic State group (Isis), despite a United Nations embargo on Iranian arms exports. But the report also warns that a weakening of Isis will lead the west one again to question Iran's role... Iranian officials have never confirmed the extent of arms supplies. However, a figure of $16bn was given in January by Mehdi Tayeb, head of the Ammar base, a body set up to respond to the alleged 'soft war' of the US against Iran in the wake of unrest after the disputed 2009 presidential election... The Expediency Council bulletin reflects a growing sense in Iran that its role in Iraq is being perceived more favourably. As well as citing a relaxed western attitude towards arms supplies, it finds an increasing regional and global acceptance of the Quds force, the overseas arm of the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard corps). The report points out the western media are less inclined to identify the Quds force's activities as 'terrorism', and that several western officials have requested meetings with its leader General Qassem Suleimani." http://t.uani.com/1vSsejC     Sanctions Relief Reuters: "South Korea's imports of Iranian crude oil edged down in January from a year earlier, meeting international sanction requirements as the shipment was below last year's average at 125,000 barrels per day (bpd). Seoul imported 273,626 tonnes of crude oil from Tehran last month, or 64,699 bpd, compared with 275,169 tonnes a year ago, preliminary customs data from the world's fifth-largest crude oil importer showed on Sunday. Iranian crude shipments in 2014 were 6.2 million tonnes, or 124,497 bpd, down 7.1 percent from the 2013 average of 134,000 bpd, according to the data and Reuters calculations last month... Overall, South Korea imported 11.35 million tonnes of crude last month, or 2.68 million bpd. The total was 7.3 percent higher than the 10.58 million tonnes imported in January of 2014, the customs data showed." http://t.uani.com/1vSr4Vp Trend: "Iran earns 5 trillion rials (about $180 million) from importing Marlboro cigarettes, Iran's deputy industry minister Mojtaba Khosrotaj said... Meanwhile, Iranian Minister of Industries, Mines and Trade Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh has defended decision of issuing license for imports of Marlboro cigarettes... The ministry has issued necessary licenses for importing and producing 12 billion Marlboro cigarettes, according to Iranian media outlets which has triggered objections by Iranian hardliner MPs calling the US firm a 'Zionist company.'" http://t.uani.com/19rSo2k Syrian Conflict Trend: "Two members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were killed by opposition groups in Syria, Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency confirmed on Feb. 15. Abbas Abdoullhi, a senior IRGC member and a person accompanying him - Ali Soltan Moradi were killed during a shootout near the Syria's Kafr Nasej village located in Daraa Governorate by 'Takfiri' groups (Iranian officials refer to armed Syrian opposition groups including the Islamic State (IS) as 'Takfiri') on Feb. 12. The bodies of the two men remain in the possession of the 'terrorist' groups. Abdollahi was one of the IRGC commanders during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988). Some Iranian media outlets introduced him as one of the best Iranian snipers." http://t.uani.com/1E1NuVs Human Rights Guardian: "Human rights activists have urged Iran to halt the imminent execution of a young man convicted of taking up arms against the state when he was under 18. Saman Naseem, now 22, is scheduled to be executed on Thursday after being found guilty of moharebeh (enmity against God) for his alleged membership of PJAK, an armed Kurdish opposition group, and alleged involvement in a gun battle with Iran's Revolutionary Guards near Sardasht, a city in West Azerbaijan province... Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International's deputy director for Middle East and North Africa, called on Iran on Monday to halt the planned execution of Naseem and launch a thorough review of his case. 'Imposing the death penalty on someone who was a child when the alleged crime took place goes against international human rights laws that Iran has committed to respect,' she said." http://t.uani.com/17lvHLF ICHRI: "The Iranian Judiciary and Iran's National Security Council should put an immediate end to four years of extrajudicial house arrest of Green Movement leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi and Zahra Rahnavard, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today. The Campaign also seeks to call attention to the plight of hundreds of prisoners of conscience who remain in Iranian prisons, many of them since the crackdown on the peaceful protests that followed the disputed 2009 presidential election in Iran, with the 'Free Them Now' initiative launched today. 'The effective imprisonment of opposition political candidates for over four years without charge is an obscene miscarriage of justice and a violation of Iranian and international law,' said Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the Campaign." http://t.uani.com/1AzDfIr Domestic Politics RFE/RL: "The spokesman for Iran's judiciary has confirmed that Iranian media remain banned from mentioning former reformist President Mohammad Khatami and publishing his comments, statements, and pictures. Speaking to journalists on February 16, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei said media outlets that violate the ban would be dealt with. He made the comments in response to a question regarding 'a warning to media by Tehran's prosecutor office' not to publish Khatami's name and photographs or cover news related to him. Iranian opposition website Kalame.com reported last month that a judiciary official had summoned newspaper editors and told them not to publish news and information or even photographs of Khatami, who has angered hard-liners over his support for Iran's opposition movement." http://t.uani.com/1zKUlvY AFP: "Iran's parliament has cut by 25 percent projected oil revenues in the draft budget for 2015-2016 to reflect the drop in price on the international market, media reported Monday. The decision was taken by lawmakers as they voted point by point on the draft budget submitted in December and which must be ratified by the end of the Iranian fiscal year on March 20... Between June and late January crude prices plunged 60 percent to around $40 per barrel over concerns of a supply glut before edging higher to around $60. As a result parliament voted to cut by 25 percent oil revenues earmarked in the budget to $18.5 billion but also earmarked an additional $5 billion to restructure the budget should prices rise again, media reported... According to the oil ministry, since January this year Iran has been selling a barrel of oil at an average of $40." http://t.uani.com/1CE0tuo Bloomberg: "To make up for lost growth, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has called for conglomerates controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and conservative religious foundations to give up their tax-exempt status and pull their weight. Although the parliament backs Rouhani, he faces powerful groups including the Guards and Setad, a holding company controlled by the office of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's highest authority. Setad holds large stakes in the telecom and petrochemicals industries, among others. The businesses run by the Guards and the clerics account for about a third of Iran's economy. 'We are trying to tax everyone across the board, but as soon as we touch this or that institution, they make such a stink about it,' Rouhani told business leaders in a 4 January speech. 'Just be aware that in some cases the domestic political lobby is very strong, very strong, more than you think.'" http://t.uani.com/1MtNgdh Press TV (Iran): "Iran's Minister of Petroleum Bijan Namdar Zangeneh has described the current status of Iran's oil industry as 'catastrophic', saying his Ministry of Petroleum lacks adequate funds to even pay the salaries of its staff. Zangeneh told lawmakers in a speech at the Parliament's open session on Monday that the falling international oil prices have drained the MoP revenues to an extent that no cash is currently available for the oil industry's crucial investments." http://t.uani.com/17MGQ9x Foreign Affairs JPost: "Iran's foreign ministry claimed Monday that Israel somehow benefited from the recent ISIS decapitations of Egyptian Christians in Libya. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham told a group of journalists at a weekly press conference that 'this latest act of terror in Libya against Coptic Egyptians serves the Zionist entity.' 'It is important to be aware of the schemes that are causing extremist terror to flourish in the region.'" http://t.uani.com/1vbecsA Opinion & Analysis David Ignatius: "Mistrust between the Obama administration and Benjamin Netanyahu has widened even further in recent days because of U.S. suspicion that the Israeli prime minister has authorized leaks of details about the U.S. nuclear talks with Iran. The decision to reduce the exchange of sensitive information about the Iran talks was prompted by concerns that Netanyahu's office had given Israeli journalists sensitive details of the U.S. position, including a U.S. offer to allow Iran to enrich uranium with 6,500 or more centrifuges as part of a final deal. Obama administration officials believed these reports were misleading because the centrifuge numbers are part of a package that includes the size of the Iranian nuclear stockpile and the type of centrifuges that are allowed to operate. A deal that allowed 500 advanced centrifuges and a large stockpile of enriched uranium might put Iran closer to making a bomb than one that permitted 10,000 older machines and a small stockpile, the administration argues. An initial report Sunday by Israel's Channel 2 news that the administration had cut all communications with Israel about the Iran talks was denied by White House spokesman Alistair Baskey. Sources here said that Philip Gordon, the Middle East director for President Obama's National Security Council, would see Israeli national security adviser Yossi Cohen and other senior officials on Monday. The discussion would include Iran policy, but U.S. officials aren't likely to share the latest information about U.S. strategy in the talks. This latest breach in the U.S.-Israeli relationship began around Jan. 12 with a phone call from Netanyahu. Obama asked the Israeli leader to hold fire diplomatically for several more months while U.S. negotiators explored whether Iran might agree to a deal that, through its technical limits on centrifuges and stockpiles, extended the breakout period that Iran would need to build a bomb to more than a year. But Netanyahu is said to have responded that a year wasn't enough and to have reverted to Israel's hard-line insistence that Iran shouldn't be allowed any centrifuges or enrichment... Then came the alleged leaks about the nuclear talks. On Jan. 31, the Times of Israel reported that an unnamed senior Israeli official had told Channel 10 TV news that the United States was ready to allow more than 7,000 centrifuges and had 'agreed to 80 percent of Iran's demands.' Channel 2 reported that the U.S. offer was 6,500 centrifuges. U.S. officials believed that Netanyahu's office was the source of these reports and concluded that they couldn't be as transparent as before with the Israel leader about the secret talks. Asked for comment, an official in Netanyahu's office said: 'The details of the last round of negotiations are known in Washington, Paris, London, Moscow, Beijing, Berlin and Tehran. It is perplexing that a decision would be made to try to keep those details a secret from Jerusalem when Israel is threatened by Iran with annihilation and its very survival could be threatened by a bad deal.' The Iran issue will come to a head next month. Netanyahu's speech to Congress is scheduled for March 3." http://t.uani.com/1FX9Aaw Ilan Goldenberg & Robert Kaplan in TNI: "What if the nuclear talks with Iran completely break down at some point, as quite a few people in Congress and the Washington policy community seem to want? We believe the results might be more dangerous for Iran, the United States, and the Middle East than an imperfect deal that keeps Iran a healthy distance from a bomb and gives the United States reasonable confidence that it could catch an Iranian attempt to dash to a weapon, without eliminating Iran's nuclear program... Beyond the negative repercussions of a collapse of the talks, the United States and Iran will both bypass a number of historic opportunities.The United States and Iran may not support the same sides or pursue the same long-term objectives in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, but there is an opportunity for some limited cooperation against the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. With the collapse of the talks whatever prospect that might exist for tacit collaboration would rapidly dissipate, hurting both the United States and Iran... Let's be clear: air power alone will not defeat the Islamic State. We cannot defeat the Islamic State, President Bashar al-Assad's forces in Syria, and Iran all at the same time.S ome level of cooperation with Iran, however undeclared, however indirect, and carried out exclusively through back-channels will be necessary. A nuclear agreement would set a favorable context for this. As for Iran's nefarious influence on Iraq that many use as an excuse against cooperation with Tehran to defeat the Islamic State, that reality has obtained ever since the American-led 2003 invasion: for reasons of geographical proximity and history, an Iraq partly subjugated by Iran is an inescapable reality until the Iranian regime itself changes. It was only Saddam Hussein's suffocating, totalitarian rule in Baghdad that kept Iran out of there. There will also be missed opportunities in Afghanistan, where Iran has a long history of opposing the Taliban, and thus can be employed to ease the withdrawal of U. S. forces there. Indeed, in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan - in probably the closest cooperation the United States and Iran have pursued since the Islamic revolution - Iran played a critical role in supporting the agreement that led to the formation of a new Afghan government. In the aftermath of a nuclear agreement, similar cooperation should be a high priority in the service of protecting our troops... In the end, it is unlikely that all of the negative consequences and missed opportunities will come to pass, but some of them certainly will. Do we really want that? Congress should think long and hard before it tries to subvert the Iran nuclear talks. What we're saying is this: Let's wait a bit longer to see what kind of a deal, if any, the Administration manages to strike with Iran. There will be enough time then for Congress and others to act in order to avoid a sell-out of our principles." http://t.uani.com/1CEzpsA         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.