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Stories
Times of
Israel: "Iran
is 'closer than ever' to the bomb, and completing it would be 'easier
than putting in a contact lens,' a senior Iranian official was quoted
saying on Thursday. The claim by Hassan Karimpour, an adviser to Iran's
Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani, was reported Thursday in Iranian
media, and quoted on the BBC's Persian language website and Israel's
Hebrew-language Channel 2 TV. Finishing a nuclear bomb would be 'easy to
do, as soon as the spiritual ban on nuclear weapons were lifted,' Channel
2 quoted Karimpour as saying. The Iranian regime has repeatedly vowed
that it is not seeking a nuclear weapon, and spiritual leader Ali
Khamenei has issued fatwas forbidding nuclear weapons. According to Fars
news, Karimpour also said Iran has 14 missile depots, buried between 30
and 500 meters underground, equipped with automatic launchers, and that
any country that dared to attack Iran would be riddled with large numbers
of missiles fired from these depots... A former Iranian president
reportedly admitted last month that the country's nuclear program was
started with the intent of building a nuclear weapon. The reported
comments by Hashemi Rafsanjani to the state-run IRNA news agency marked
the first time a top Iranian official - current or former - had said the
country sought a nuclear weapon." http://t.uani.com/1OqlXCW
AP: "The conclusions of a secret
U.N. nuclear agency document leaked six years ago were explosive. Iran,
it said, had likely worked on developing an atomic bomb. Two years later
the agency went public. It detailed a list of alleged activities based on
'credible' evidence that Tehran did work 'relevant to the development of
a nuclear explosive device.' This week, the bitter debate that for years
pitted Iranian denials against U.S. claims of a cover-up appears set for
an anticlimactic ending, with a final report from the U.N.'s
International Atomic Energy Agency expected to stop short of proving or
disproving the claims. And Washington? It now has opted to let bygones be
bygones as it focuses on curbing Tehran's future weapons-making prowess.
The U.S. has long urged that Iran not only trim its present nuclear
program but also admit to what it says was past nuclear weapons work.
Iran's refusal to address those demands led since 2006 to a series of
U.N. Security Council resolutions and sanctions against Tehran... Tehran
has warned it might renege if the IAEA report is stacked against it - and
Washington now is signaling that it is prepared to shut an eye, even if
the threat is no more than bluster. The long-standing U.S. mantra accused
Iran of 'deception and deceit,' on the weapons issue. As late as
mid-June, Secretary of State John Kerry said the IAEA report must
'resolve our questions about it with specificity' before any
nuclear-related sanctions on Iran are lifted. Just weeks later, however,
Kerry said Washington is not 'fixated on Iran specifically accounting for
what they did at one point in time or another.' Instead, he said the U.S.
is concerned about 'going forward.' ... IAEA chief Yukiya Amano has been
careful to diminish expectations, describing his upcoming report last
week as 'not black and white.' Long before he spoke, Iranian officials
used those exact words, suggesting they already know that the agency's
conclusions won't be damning. But Iran is not taking chances. With only a
day or two remaining before the report's publication, Iranian officials
continue to publicly threaten to hold back on commitments to the July 15
deal if the IAEA's assessment is unfavorable to their country. Two
Western diplomats familiar with the issue say those same threats have been
made in negotiations with IAEA officials." http://t.uani.com/1OzIvPD
WSJ: "A container terminal at Bandar
Abbas, a port city on the Strait of Hormuz, highlights one challenge for
companies hoping to win business in Iran after sanctions on Iran are
eased as part of a nuclear agreement between Tehran and global powers.
Shahid Rajaee, the main container terminal at the port, is operated by
Tidewater Middle East Co., which the U.S. placed under sanctions in 2011
for being owned by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The facility,
according to Congressional testimony by U.S. officials, is responsible
for 90% of Iranian container traffic. The IRGC will remain under
sanctions after the nuclear deal is implemented and its sprawling
business empire means Western companies will have to tread careful to
avoid breaching those sanctions. Tidewater has to relinquish its
ownership of the Bandar Abbas facility, and transfer it to someone not
under sanctions, for transactions at the facility to not be subject to
secondary sanctions, according to the text of the nuclear agreement. 'The
indirect impact of U.S. sanctions on the IRGC remaining in place could be
very broad, in some cases,' said Glen Kelley, a partner at Jacobson
Burton Kelley PLLC who has 14 years of experience advising companies on
matters involving U.S. sanctions. Though the IRGC will remain under U.S.
sanctions, its tentacles across the Iranian economy make it difficult to
avoid, according to data compiled by Dow Jones Risk & Compliance. The
IRGC owns or has stakes in more than 1,000 companies, from banks to
tractor companies, the data show. Dow Jones Risk & Compliance is a
data provider owned by Dow Jones & Co., also the publisher of the
Wall Street Journal." http://t.uani.com/1NisAlr
Nuclear
Program & Agreement
WSJ: "The United Nations atomic
energy arm is unlikely to draw clear conclusions in its report next month
on whether Tehran once had a nuclear weapons program, the agency's chief
suggested on Thursday. Failure to reach a final judgment on whether Iran
was once seeking nuclear weapons know-how appears unlikely to scuttle the
full implementation of July's nuclear accord between Iran and six world
powers. However, it could slow the process of completing the agreement,
which is currently expected early in 2016. At a news conference in
Vienna, International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Yukiya Amano
confirmed he would present his final report on the five-month probe into
Iran's past nuclear work early next week. Diplomats have said they expect
the report to be circulated on Tuesday. It will be discussed by the
IAEA's Board of Governors on December 15. 'As I said in the past, the
assessment...will not be black and white,' Mr. Amano said. 'This is like
a jigsaw puzzle and...we have (a) better understanding now' of Iran's
past actions... Mr. Amano on Thursday said his report will cover all
issues raised in 2011 and will be factual. It will then be up to the
IAEA's board to decide how to respond to it, he said. The key question
for IAEA members is whether to conclude that Iran has provided enough
answers about its past work to close the agency's investigation. U.S.
officials have said that since Iran complied with all the formal steps in
the IAEA probe, there is no reason to block the implementation of July's
nuclear deal and the lifting of sanctions. The agency has confirmed that
Iran complied with its pledges to provide written explanations of its
past work, to hold expert meetings with the IAEA and to provide access to
a key military site. Diplomats familiar with the investigation, however,
say that while Iran formally met its commitments, Tehran provided little
new significant information about its past work. They also say Iran
provided only limited access to key people, documents and sites the
agency had wanted to see. That has deepened concerns of U.S. lawmakers
and other critics of July's deal who believed the probe would sweep
Iran's past work under the carpet." http://t.uani.com/1OqqjcY
Reuters: "The U.N. nuclear watchdog must
provide all the information it possesses with the 'necessary detail' on
whether Iran has in the past carried out work related to nuclear weapons,
France's Foreign Ministry said on Monday. The International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) is due to publish a report this week on the matter, which
could allay remaining concerns on Iran's intentions as part of a deal
between world powers and Tehran. It could provide for a lifting of
sanctions against the Islamic Republic in exchange for restrictions on
its nuclear program - but that could be scuppered if any of the parties,
including France, are not satisfied. A clear verdict that weapons-related
work occurred would make it difficult for the deal to proceed, but
diplomats have said for weeks that they do not expect it to be clear-cut.
France, which was deemed to have had the toughest stance during talks
between the major powers and Iran, was especially concerned during
negotiations that the issue of the past would not be correctly addressed
after a final accord was agreed. 'France will with interest become aware
of this report this week,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said
in a daily news briefing. 'We are expecting that the IAEA provides with
the necessary detail all the information it possesses.'" http://t.uani.com/1IjMsc1
AFP: "Iran said Sunday there would
be no final implementation of a nuclear deal with world powers unless a probe
into allegations of past weapons research is closed. The declaration, by
a top security official, comes after the head of the UN nuclear watchdog
said a report into the possible military dimensions of Iran's activities
would not be 'black and white.' Iran has always denied seeking to develop
an atomic weapons capability, insisting its nuclear programme is for
peaceful energy production and medical purposes only. Referring to the
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the July 14 agreement's official name,
Admiral Ali Shamkhani, said anything short of the watchdog's probe being
closed was unacceptable to Iran. 'Without the closure of the file
regarding past issues, there is no possibility of implementing the
JCPOA,' the official IRNA news agency reported him as saying. Shamkhani
is secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), the
country's highest security body, which was tasked with supervising the
nuclear deal... 'The P5+1 must choose between the JCPOA and leaving open
the so-called PMD file,' he said." http://t.uani.com/1l2d6Mr
U.S.-Iran
Relations
AFP: "Iran's supreme leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Sunday condemned the West's 'double standards'
in a letter to the youth of America and Europe following the Paris
attacks that killed 130 people. 'Anyone who has benefited from affection
and humanity is affected and disturbed by witnessing these scenes --
whether it occurs in France or in Palestine or Iraq or Lebanon or Syria,'
he wrote in the letter, translated into English and French. 'It is
correct that today terrorism is our common worry,' he said, while
condemning the 'contradictory policies' of the United States in
'creating, nurturing and arming Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and their
inauspicious successors'. 'The military invasions of the Islamic world in
recent years -- with countless victims -- are another example of the
contradictory logic of the West,' Khamenei argued. 'The pain that the Islamic
world has suffered in these years from the hypocrisy and duplicity of the
invaders is not less than the pain from the material damage,' he said. So
long as 'double standards dominate Western policies' and 'terrorism... is
divided into good and bad types' and 'governmental interests are given
precedence over human values and ethics, the roots of violence should not
be searched for in other places.'" http://t.uani.com/1Nlkhtt
Sanctions
Relief
AP: "Iran unveiled a new model of
oil contracts Saturday aimed at attracting foreign investment once
sanctions are lifted under a landmark nuclear deal reached earlier this
year, and said U.S. companies would be welcome to participate. The new
Iran Petroleum Contract replaces a previous buyback model, in which
contractors paid to develop and operate an oil field before turning it
over to Iranian authorities. Iran has sweetened the terms, hoping to
bring in $30 billion in new investment. The new contracts last 15-20
years and allow for the full recovery of costs. The older contracts were
shorter term, and investors complained of heavy risks and suffering
losses... Some 50 upstream oil, gas and petrochemical projects are being
introduced during a two-day conference in Tehran that began Saturday.
Iran will pay foreign oil companies larger fees under the new contracts
to provide greater incentives to investors. Oil Minister Bijan Namdar
Zanganeh told the conference that under the new contracts, foreign
investors will be required to form a joint company with an Iranian
partner to carry out exploration, development and production operations.
'To continue to play the role (as a major oil supplier), we hope to enjoy
working with reputable international oil companies under a win-win
situation,' he told the conference... Oil Ministry officials said 137
foreign companies attended Saturday's conference, including Repsol, BP,
Royal Dutch Shell, Total, Technip, Schlumberger, Eni, Enel, Rosneft,
Lukoil, Gazprom, Inpex, Statoil and Daewoo." http://t.uani.com/1lUniXn
Bloomberg: "Total SA, Royal Dutch Shell
Plc and Lukoil PJSC are among international companies that have selected
oil and natural gas deposits to develop in Iran as the holder of the
world's fourth-largest crude reserves presents $30 billion worth of
projects to investors. Total is one of the companies that have been in
the forefront of discussions and Eni SpA is also looking to invest, Oil
Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said. Shell, Total and Lukoil all
specified fields they would be interested in developing in Iran, Ali
Kardor, deputy director of investment and financing at National Iranian
Oil Co. said in an interview in Tehran. 'Many companies are interested.
Europeans are interested, Asian companies are interested,' Zanganeh told
reporters at a conference in Tehran on Saturday. 'Total is interested,
Eni is interested.' ... 'We are interested to come back to Iran when the
sanctions are lifted and if the contracts are interesting,' Stephane
Michel, Total's head of exploration and production in the Middle East
said at the conference. 'We have worked in this country for a long time,
so we know specific fields on which we've worked.' Representatives of
Lukoil and Shell declined to comment at the conference." http://t.uani.com/1TnQj8W
Bloomberg: "Iran, OPEC's fifth-largest
crude producer, has potential to generate more revenue from mining than
it does from crude if the government puts more focus on developing the
metals sector, according to Mojtaba Khosrowtaj, first deputy minister in
charge of trade at Iran's Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade. Metals
such as copper and lead and higher-priced rare earth elements could be
worth 'much more' than the nation's oil industry revenue of about $30
billion, assuming crude at $40 a barrel and exports of 2 million barrels
a day, Khosrowtaj said in an interview. Iran is opening $30 billion of
energy projects and $29 billion of mining deals to investors once
international sanctions are lifted. Iran has more than 3,000 active
mines, mostly privately owned, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The sector is still using equipment developed 15 or 20 years ago because
of lack of funds due to sanctions, Khosrowtaj said. 'We could use new
technologies,' he said. 'Expansion of construction projects in oil and gas
or mining is reliant on banks and insurance companies, and sanctions have
delayed them.'" http://t.uani.com/1NiBdMM
FT: "Italy is poised to send a
large trade delegation to Iran at a time when heightened anti-US rhetoric
in the Islamic Republic is raising doubts about post-sanctions
opportunities for US businesses - potentially opening doors in the $400bn
economy for Tehran's historic European partners. Some 300 delegates from
five sectors - medical, green energy, automobiles, construction and
manufacturing equipment - are scheduled to arrive in Tehran on Saturday
for a three-day visit to meet senior officials and business figures,
Riccardo Monti, president of the Italian Trade Commission, said.
Representatives from Danieli, the steel group, energy company Enel,
agricultural machinery maker CNH Industrial, Telecom Italia and several
banks would be among the delegates, Mr Monti said... Many companies in
the Italian trade delegation had no US interests and were free to do
business with Iran once nuclear sanctions were lifted, said Mr Monti. But
half had US exposure and so were 'more careful and are on a purely
exploratory mission'. Nonetheless, Italian exports to Iran, which
totalled €1.2bn in 2014, could rise to €2bn as soon as next year, he
said." http://t.uani.com/1TnR95H
Press TV
(Iran): "An
Iranian car manufacturer is in talks with Italian automaker Fiat SpA to
produce cars in Iran which is billed as the Middle East's biggest auto
market, a minister says. 'Fiat has announced its readiness for
cooperation with the Iranian automaker and Iran has welcomed it,'
Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh said in
Tehran Sunday on the sidelines of a joint trade forum. About 370 Italian
traders, including representatives of steel group Danieli, energy company
Enel, agricultural machinery maker CNH Industrial, Telecom Italia and
several banks, are currently visiting Iran to discuss business
opportunities. Fiat, which controls Chrysler, and its subsidiary
heavy-truck maker Fiat Industrial SpA halted sales to Iran in 2012
following similar moves by other carmakers under US pressure to cut ties
with Tehran... The minister said Iran was ready to cooperate with Fiat on
production of light and commercial vehicles and buses as well as
gas-fueled engines. 'We are planning to produce 3 million automobiles in
less than 10 years, one-third of which will be exported,' the minister
added... The announcement came as Iran Khodro Managing Director Hashem
Yekke-Zare said his company and PSA Peugeot Citroen had agreed on a 50-50
venture worth 500 million euros for production of cars in Iran." http://t.uani.com/1HA3jam
Press TV
(Iran):
"Daimler AG's commercial vehicles division says it is in talks with
potential partners in Iran to resume production in the country as
sanctions look set to be lifted. Roland Schneider, president and
CEO of Daimler Commercial Vehicles in the Middle East and North Africa,
said the German manufacturer intends to open a representative office in
Iran 'as soon as possible'. 'Iran offers great opportunities for Daimler
Commercial Vehicles, and we are currently preparing to re-enter this
market,' he was reported as saying on Sunday... In August, Iran Khodro
Managing Director Hashem Yekke-Zare said his company and Daimler's
subsidiary Mercedes-Benz would sign a deal 'soon' for production of
luxury cars and commercial vehicles. The German company, he said,
intended to buy 30% of shares in the Iranian Diesel Engine Manufacturing
(IDEM) in Tabriz to build diesel engines. Mercedes-Benz gave up its 30%
stake in IDEM and quit plans to export three-axle trucks to Iran in 2010
in fear of reprisals from the US where Daimler reportedly controls about
40% of the heavy truck market... Another German company, Volkswagen, has
held negotiations with Iran Khodro for production of cars and investment
in Iran, as well as transfer of technology, Yekke-Zare has said." http://t.uani.com/1HA3B12
WSJ: "Despite the international
sanctions that have choked off much of Iran's foreign trade, many German
companies have continued to do business here-legally-in recent years. Now
those companies are likely to be among the first to benefit from the
country's expected reopening, after a U.S.-led deal in July to ease the
sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran's nuclear program. As of last
year, more than 75 German companies had operations in Iran, according to
the Tehran-based German-Iranian Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Most of
them were small, family-owned businesses that make specialty products not
directly covered by the sanctions, often for the health-care,
construction or automotive markets. Those companies-many of which are
privately held-can typically afford to keep a presence here in part
because many have limited ties to the U.S., whose sanctions on Iran are
especially strict. The U.S. often has relatively little leverage over
such companies, experts say. By contrast, many of Germany's publicly
listed multinational companies, including engineering group Siemens AG ,
are listed in the U.S. and have acknowledged they have little choice but
to comply with the U.S. restrictions. 'We never really left the country,'
said Mark Pace, the chief executive and co-owner of Dentaurum GmbH, which
has done business in Iran for decades... Iranians 'are hungry for our
products. They want to have state-of-the-art technology,' said Michael
Hack, director for automotive-business development at Hilger u. Kern
GmbH, a Mannheim-based supplier of pumps, valves and other industrial
equipment that has sold its products in Iran since the 1980s." http://t.uani.com/1YDd23R
Terrorism
Reuters: "Kenyan security forces have
arrested two Kenyan men with links to Iran on suspicion of planning
attacks in the East African nation, the Interior Ministry said on
Saturday... 'The two men, Abubakar Sadiq Louw and Yassin Sambai Juma,
have admitted to conspiring to mount terror attacks against Western
targets in Kenya,' the ministry said. It said their targets included
'hotels in Nairobi frequented by Western tourists and diplomats.' Louw,
69, was a Kenyan passport holder and a prominent figure in Nairobi's
Shi'ite Muslim community, the ministry said in the statement. Suspected
of working on behalf of Iran's elite military Qods Force, Louw recruited
25-year-old Juma from Nairobi, it said. Louw told investigators he had
arranged for Juma to travel to Iran and introduced him to a Qods force
contact, the ministry added... Two Iranian men were sentenced to life in
prison by a Kenyan court in 2013 for planning to carry out bombings a
year earlier in the East African country. The ministry said those two men
also had links to Qods Force." http://t.uani.com/1NDKEwJ
Syria
Conflict
WashPost: "An increasing number of
Iranian soldiers and militiamen appear to be dying in Syria's civil war,
and observers credit media from an unexpected country for revealing the
trend: Iran. A flurry of reports in Iran's official and semiofficial
news outlets about the deaths - including funerals and even a eulogy to a
fallen general by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - have
surprised analysts who monitor the country's tightly controlled media.
The reports, they say, indicate that at least 67 Iranians have been
killed in Syria since the beginning of October. Just a few months ago,
Iranian media said little about the country's military intervention in Syria
to shore up the government. But as Iranian fighters participate in a new
Russian-led offensive against Syrian rebels, Iran's leaders might have a
reason to offer more details of their country's involvement, said Ali
Alfoneh, an Iran expert at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense
of Democracies. 'They are proud of this and they want to show it,' he
said. Since Iranian forces became increasingly involved in the conflict
in 2013, he noted, about 10 fighters were being killed every month, but
the numbers surged after Russia, another ally of Syria's government,
began launching airstrikes at rebels in late September." http://t.uani.com/1Ivt2f5
Reuters: "The commander of foreign
operations by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards has shrugged off reports
of his death or injury in fighting in Syria, an Iranian news agency said
on Monday. Suggestions that General Qassem Soleimani had been hurt or
killed were widespread in recent weeks. The Guards denied them repeatedly
and said they were part of a 'psychological war'. 'This (martyrdom) is
something that I have been seeking in the plains and the mountains,' the
general was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency in comments he
reportedly made at his Tehran office on Monday. Exiled Iranian opposition
group Mujahedin-e-Khalq said on Saturday he had suffered severe shrapnel
wounds on Aleppo's southern front in Syria two weeks ago and had been
hospitalized in Tehran. As commander of the Quds Force, which plays a
leading role in fighting in Iraq and Syria, the general reports directly
to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Once a reclusive figure
directing covert operations abroad, Soleimani now enjoys almost celebrity
status among Shi'ites, with Iraqi fighters and Syrian soldiers posting
selfies with him from the battlefield on social media." http://t.uani.com/1RgMBi8
Human
Rights
Reuters: "Ahead of two key elections in
Iran in February, the Supreme Leader's hard-line allies have cracked down
on activists, journalists and artists to try to tighten their grip on the
country's faction-ridden politics, officials and analysts say. Rights
groups and opposition websites said dozens were summoned by the
intelligence ministry for interrogation and had been detained. The
Iranian government has denied there has been a wave of arrests,
describing the reports as 'baseless'. Some officials and analysts believe
that the aim is to limit pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani's influence
and popularity after his success in reaching a historic nuclear deal with
the six major powers in July that ended over a decade-old stand-off. 'The
hard-liners are wary of Rouhani's influence at home and abroad. They fear
it may harm the balance of power in Iran,' a senior official close to
Rouhani told Reuters on condition of anonymity... Analysts say that
suppressing dissenting voices has been stepped up since September when
the country's most powerful figure Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
warned of 'infiltration' by Iran's enemies... 'Growing prestige at home
and abroad for Rouhani means less authority for Khamenei and it has
always been Khamenei's red line,' said political analyst Hamid
Farahvashian. 'More flexibility in foreign policy, has always led to more
pressure at home in Iran,' he said... Some supporters of Rouhani are
losing patience, fearing now that he might lack the authority to create a
freer society. 'Rouhani blames hard-liners for the limitations but words
are not enough. I still support him because there is no other option,'
said a journalist in Tehran, who asked not to be named. 'His only concern
is the economy and keeping his position.' ... some doubt that Rouhani,
who represented Khamenei on the Supreme National Security Council for
more than two decades, has the stomach to confront the leader and his
hard-line supporters to improve Iran's human rights record. 'He is part
of the establishment. He has gained this status because of the Islamic
republic of Iran. Why should he shoot himself by weakening the system?'
said Farahvashian." http://t.uani.com/1jtRzum
IHR: "According to the Baluchestan
Activists Campaign, five people were hanged at Minab Prison (in Hormozgan
province) on the morning of Tuesday November 24. The prisoners were
reportedly executed for alleged drug related offenses; one of the
prisoners was Kurdish and another was a Pakistani citizen." http://t.uani.com/1lpPLUg
AFP: "A high-profile performance in
Iran by the Tehran Symphony Orchestra was cancelled at the last minute
because it was due to feature female musicians, its furious conductor
said on Sunday. Ali Rahbari said he was told 15 minutes before the
orchestra was scheduled to play at a major sporting event that they could
not. 'The chairs were laid out and everything looked fine,' he said,
referring to the World Wrestling Clubs Cup competition which opened in
the Iranian capital on Thursday. 'But before performing the national
anthem, all of a sudden they announced women cannot play on stage.'
Neither Rahbari or the ISNA news agency, which reported his comments,
detailed who 'they' were. 'I was offended and said it was impossible for
me to accept such an insult,' Rahbari added. 'We either play all together
or we leave'. Efforts to resolve the issue failed. 'It's absolutely
impossible for women to play musical instruments on stage,' Rahbari
quoted organisers of the ceremony as saying. Banned from singing solo in
public since the Islamic revolution of 1979, female Iranian musicians
have repeatedly complained of having been stopped from performing,
particularly outside Tehran. But Thursday's refusal, according to ISNA,
was the first time a performance by the Symphony Orchestra, one of Iran's
oldest, had been cancelled because of its female members. 'They invited
us themselves and yet they disrespected us,' Rahbari said. 'Why shouldn't
they be allowed to perform the national anthem of their country?'" http://t.uani.com/1lpTNMv
Foreign
Affairs
AFP: "Bahrain's foreign ministry has
summoned Iran's envoy and accused Tehran of interfering in its affairs
after remarks by the Islamic republic's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, BNA state news agency said. Iran's acting charge d'affaires
Hameed Shafee Zad was handed an official letter protesting the 'blatant
interference' in Bahrain's internal affairs, BNA reported late Saturday.
Khamenei's remarks 'carry an explicit incitement and reflect a clear
determination to foment discord and fuel tensions in the region,' BNA
quoted foreign ministry undersecretary Abdulla Abdullatif Abdulla as
saying. The protest by the Sunni-ruled kingdom appeared to refer to
remarks posted on Khamenei's Twitter account accusing Bahrain's 'tyrant
minority' of 'desecrating' things sacred to the Shiite majority." http://t.uani.com/1Q8oAZZ
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