Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Eye on Iran: Iran-Led Push to Retake Falluja From ISIS Worries U.S.








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NYT: "American commandos are on the front lines in Syria in a new push toward the Islamic State's de facto capital in Raqqa, but in Iraq it is an entirely different story: Iran, not the United States, has become the face of an operation to retake the jihadist stronghold of Falluja from the militant group. On the outskirts of Falluja, tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers, police officers and Shiite militiamen backed by Iran are preparing for an assault on the Sunni city, raising fears of a sectarian blood bath. Iran has placed advisers, including its top spymaster, Qassim Suleimani, on the ground to assist in the operation. The battle over Falluja has evolved into yet another example of how United States and Iranian interests seemingly converge and clash at the same time in Iraq. Both want to defeat the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. But the United States has long believed that Iran's role, which relies on militias accused of sectarian abuses, can make matters worse by angering Sunnis and making them more sympathetic to the militants... In an extraordinary statement on Wednesday, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the world's pre-eminent Shiite religious leader, who lives in Najaf in southern Iraq and is said to be concerned by Iran's growing role in Iraq, urged security forces and militia to restrain themselves and abide by 'the standard behaviors of jihad.'" http://t.uani.com/1Xbp0Ef

NYT: "A leading conservative was re-elected speaker of Iran's Parliament on Tuesday, denying reformists a post they thought they had earned with a big win in February elections. In a mild surprise, an overwhelming majority of Iran's lawmakers chose a conservative candidate, Ali Larijani, who has held the position since 2008. Mr. Larijani, 57, scion of a powerful Iranian family, is not considered a die-hard conservative, as he managed the Parliament's approval last summer of the nuclear agreement with Western powers. Moreover, Mr. Larijani has supported in recent years the government of President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate who was elected on promises of reaching a nuclear deal and loosening Iran's severe restrictions on personal freedoms. Of 276 lawmakers present in the 290-seat house, Mr. Larijani won 237 votes, Iranian state television reported. Mr. Larijani's election was something of a formality. His main reformist opponent, Mohammad Reza Aref - who served as first vice president from 2001 to 2005 under Mohammad Khatami, then the liberal reformist president - withdrew from the race on Monday." http://t.uani.com/1RILXGd

AFP: "Iran's foreign minister kicked off an EU trade drive in Poland on Sunday, in one of Tehran's first moves to drum up business with the West after the lifting of sanctions earlier this year. Javad Zarif is also expected to travel to EU members Finland, Sweden before winding up his trip in Latvia on June 2. 'I'm convinced that our (Warsaw) ambassador's wish for our annual bilateral turnover to reach one billion dollars will come true,' Zarif told a joint press conference with his Polish counterpart Witold Waszczykowski. Annual bilateral trade between Poland and Iran has stood at around just $70 million (62 million euros) in recent years due to international sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme... Travelling with a mostly private sector Iranian business delegation in tow, Zarif is due to attend a Polish-Iranian business forum in Warsaw on Monday. 'We've always felt that Iran was part of the solution, not part of the problem,' said Waszczykowski, a former ambassador to Tehran. 'After years of marginalisation and even ostracism, Iran is coming back to the international stage as an important partner -- an important player that will influence positive global solutions,' Waszczykowski said. Earlier the two ministers signed a memorandum of understanding on bilateral political cooperation." http://t.uani.com/1sYJW4T

Nuclear & Ballistic Missile Program

Sputnik (Russia): "Russia and Iran in the next few weeks plan to solve the tasks needed for the full-scale of operations on the construction of the second and third units of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, Rosatom's press service announced Friday." http://t.uani.com/1Vsw5P5

U.S.-Iran Relations

Reuters: "The United States must do more to assure banks that they can do business with Iran, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday. Iran is struggling to access financing from abroad as many large banks fear breaking the remaining U.S. restrictions, which prohibit trade with Iran in dollars and bar Iranian access to New York's financial system. 'It seems that there is a psychological barrier,' Zarif told reporters during his visit in Helsinki. 'Some European countries, even European banks, continue to be concerned about retribution by the United States. I believe that (in) the United States, they need to go further in order to provide reassurances to the banks that this will not take place.'" http://t.uani.com/1TOKyWf

Business Risk

WSJ: "One of Airbus's biggest deals announced this year, the sale of 118 jetliners to Iran including 12 A380 superjumbos, is yet to be completed. Mr. Brégier said the company was making progress securing the financing and export licenses for the deal, but that more work needed to be done. He remained optimistic the deal would be completed this year." http://t.uani.com/1THXZSl

Sanctions Relief

Reuters: "Asian imports of Iranian oil in April rose by more than 13 percent from a year ago as Tehran vies to recoup market share lost under international sanctions, with shipments into India and South Korea offsetting a big slump in purchases by Japan. The figures are in line with loading data obtained earlier by Reuters and confirm that Iran is regaining market share faster than expected after sanctions were lifted in January. April imports by Iran's biggest buyers would have been higher had Japan not halted loadings in March over shipping insurance concerns that have since been resolved... China imports from Iran fell more than 5 percent to just over 670,000 bpd in April, while India's surged nearly 50 percent to around 390,000 bpd. South Korea's imports rose nearly 90 percent to 237,000 bpd. Japan's shipments fell 72 percent to less than 20,000 bpd." http://t.uani.com/1O1EcAD

FT: "A Norwegian oil and gas company is closing in on a $600m contract with an Iranian petrochemical group for one of the first major gas deals since international sanctions were lifted. The contract will be a joint venture between Hemla Vantage and the Kharg Petrochemical Company, a quasi-privately-owned company, to produce and export liquefied national gas and liquefied petroleum gas by 2017. 'Hemla will secure debt financing and will be 50/50 equity partners with KPC/KGRC [the latter is a sister company of the former],' said Gerhard Ludvigsen, a founding member of Hemla group and director of Hemla Vantage... 'We are inspired that Iran really wants to shift from a traditional player to a modern player. Nobody would believe that Iran could be the first in the world to produce LNG from a floating production vessel (FLNG) in 2017,' he added. The joint venture will purchase 200 million standard cubic feet of flared gas from offshore oilfields near Kharg Island over a period of up to 15 years. In its first phase, the site is projected to produce 500 metric tons of LNG and 200 tons of LPG per year. The FLNG barge, produced in China and ready to be shipped to reach Kharg Island by October, will be leased from Exmar, a Belgian company." http://t.uani.com/1TUXCaO

Reuters: "Indonesia's state oil and gas company PT Pertamina has signed a deal with National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) to buy 600,000 tonnes of refrigerated liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), Pertamina said in a statement on Monday. The first two cargoes of LPG are scheduled to be shipped by NIOC in the fourth quarter of this year, followed by 12 more cargoes in 2017, the statement said. The deal was signed during the Indonesian energy minister's visit to Tehran... Pertamina and NIOC has also agreed to continue their discussion on crude oil supply for the Indonesian company, as well as possible partnership in upstream operations, the statement said." http://t.uani.com/1O1EcjQ

Reuters: "Poland is in talks with Iran over cooperation in the oil and gas sector, which could result in exploration and production contracts for Polish industry, Deputy Energy Minister Michal Kurtyka said on Monday. Polish state-run gas firm PGNiG said last year that it was looking at various options in oil and gas exploration and production in Iran. Polish refiners PKN Orlen and Lotos have also considered buying oil from Iran. 'We are looking forward to cooperation with Iran when it comes to both PGNiG and our oil companies. Talks are being conducted on concrete contracts in exploration and output, but also regarding trade agreements,' Kurtyka told reporters at a Poland-Iran economic forum." http://t.uani.com/1WuJS8W

Reuters: "Iran will soon sign a $3 billion investment deal with Turkish private companies on building a 5,000 megawatt power plant in Iran, Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper on Tuesday cited the Iranian deputy energy minister as saying... Hurriyet reported Husheng Felahetiyan as saying the Turkish energy sector had shown strong interest in Iran after the lifting of sanctions. 'In the coming days we will sign an investment deal with Turkish private sector companies for the construction of a 5,000 megawatt power plant in Iran. The size of this deal is $3 billion,' he was quoted as saying." http://t.uani.com/1Y0PK9f

Reuters: "The Reserve Bank of India has capped weekly dollar purchases by oil refiners to pay off their debts to Iran in order to avoid pressure on the rupee, three sources said on Monday. India is one of the biggest buyers of Iranian crude and built up a payments backlog when Iran was under Western sanctions, with its refiners owing about $6.5 billion to Iran. They have cleared $770 million in euros through Turkey's Halkbank to National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC). State-run Union Bank of India facilitated the payments. The refiners had been holding back 55 percent of payments to Iran after a channel through Halkbank was closed in 2013, although payment of some of those funds was allowed after an initial temporary deal to lift the sanctions. Last week, on the basis of an RBI advisory, India's oil ministry wrote to refiners saying the remaining dues can be settled in three months from May 30 and told companies to ensure demand for foreign exchange is limited to $500 million per week, the sources told Reuters. 'RBI wants to stagger payments to Iran to pre-empt any undue volatility in the domestic forex market,' said one source." http://t.uani.com/1XLZVyd

AP: "An annual art auction in Tehran drew record sales of $7.4 million Friday, a sign of Iran's emerging arts market that buyers hope will be buoyed by the recent nuclear deal with world powers. The sale at Tehran's high-end Azadi Hotel - the former Hyatt near Evin Prison - drew celebrities, collectors and businessmen hoping to walk away with the artworks there. Total sales were 12 percent higher than the previous year, though this year's auction saw only 79 items sold, as opposed to 126 then." http://t.uani.com/1THYbkB

Regional Destabilization

Asharq Al-Awsat: "Exposing regional plans of Iran, a Kurdish official revealed that the Iranian regime has launched its construction of the largest missile and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) base. The center is being established near Sayed Sadiq which belongs to the Sulaymaniyah Governorate located in the Iraqi Kurdistan... The official further revealed that the number of IRGC commanders and officers frequently visiting the location and supervising the construction are being present on a daily basis. Quds Force division had deployed a large number of unit400 members who are assigned with monitoring and dealing with Iran-backed Kurdish forces to the area... 'The IRGC had started since May 7 its construction of a military base in the Syrian Coastal Mountain Range, inside Iraqi Kurdistan,' the official said. 'According to our information, the Iranian regime is working on founding a missile base in the region, given its strategic value. The location influences a majority of its vicinity. Iranian military helicopters consistently hover over the region; meanwhile IRGC soldiers and machines work on construction.'" http://t.uani.com/1P0CABO

Daily Star (Lebanon): "[Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad] Hariri said that he and the Kuwaiti emir agreed that while relations with Iran must be good, its meddling in the region is 'unacceptable.' Referring to his talks with the emir, he said: 'We discussed several issues, particularly at the regional level. We agreed on the need to have a very good relationship with Iran, but its interference is unacceptable." http://t.uani.com/1UavbBI

Daily Star (Lebanon): "Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani said over the weekend that Lebanon would have been affected by the 5-year-old Syrian conflict if it weren't for Iran's efforts. 'If it weren't for the steadfastness of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the fight against takfiris [extremist militants] for the last four years, Daesh [ISIS] would have formed a government in Syria, and the Christians, Sunnis and Shiites in Lebanon would have been affected by the situation in Damascus,' Iranian state media quoted Soleimani as saying Saturday in rare public remarks to members of the Iranian Shura Council." http://t.uani.com/1XbxFq4

Iraq Crisis

Reuters: "Sunni politicians in Iraq condemned on Saturday a visit by Iranian General Qassem Soleimani to Shi'ite paramilitary forces fighting alongside the Iraqi army to drive Islamic State militants out of the Sunni city of Falluja. Three lawmakers from the province of Anbar told Reuters the visit by Iran's al-Quds brigade commander could fuel sectarian tension and cast doubt on Baghdad's assertions that the offensive is an Iraqi-led effort to defeat Islamic State, and not to settle scores with the Sunnis... In recent days, Iranian media published pictures of what they said was a visit by Soleimani to Falluja and a meeting he held with the leaders of the Iraqi coalition of Shi'ite militias known as Popular Mobilization, or Hashid Shaabi. It is the second time Soleimani has appeared in Iraqi conflict zones. About a year ago, witnesses said he was present when Popular Mobilization fighters ousted Islamic State militants from cities north of the capital. An Iraqi government spokesman did not confirm Soleimani's visit and stressed that Iranian advisors are present in Iraq in order to assist in the war on Islamic State (IS) in the same capacity as those of the U.S.-led anti-IS coalition. Member of parliament (MP) Hamid al-Mutlaq rejected that, however. 'We are Iraqis and not Iranians,' he said. 'Would Turkish or Saudi advisers be welcomed to assist in the battle?' he added, drawing a parallel between the three regional powers bordering Iraq -- mainly-Sunni Turkey and Saudi Arabia, and Shi'ite Iran. 'Soleimani's presence is suspicious and a cause for concern; he is absolutely not welcome in the area,' said Falluja parliamentarian Salim Muttar al-Issawi." http://t.uani.com/1WWsNo3

AP: "Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Sunday that Iran must stop meddling in Iraq and that the presence of Iranian military units there is 'unacceptable.' His comments come as thousands of Iraqi Shiite militiamen, soldiers and police, backed by Iran, surround the Sunni city of Fallujah ahead of an operation to retake it from the Islamic State group. Iran says its military advisers in Iraq are there at Baghdad's request to help Iraqi forces fight militants. It has repeatedly rejected Saudi criticisms of its role in Iraq, instead accusing its regional rival of supporting extremism. Al-Jubeir, speaking in a joint press conference with British Foreign Minister Phillip Hammond in Saudi Arabia Sunday, said Iran had sown 'sedition and division in Iraq' through its policies, which he said had provoked sectarianism among Sunnis and Shiites there." http://t.uani.com/25wJvMP

Saudi-Iran Tensions

NYT: "In a sign of further tension between regional rivals, Iran will not allow its citizens to travel to Saudi Arabia for the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca in September, Iran's state television reported on Sunday. The decision, which means that tens of thousands of Iranians cannot make their spiritual journey to the main pilgrimage site of Islam, came after several failed rounds of talks between officials of both countries and on the heels of accusations that Saudi Arabia has started a cyberwar against Iran. Iran's culture minister, Ali Jannati, told state television that 'no pilgrims would be sent to the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina, because of obstacles created by Saudi officials.' In a statement, Iran's Hajj and Pilgrimage organization condemned Saudi Arabia for what it said was a lack of cooperation. 'Too much time has been lost, and it is now too late to organize the pilgrimage,' the organization said, according to the semiofficial Mehr news agency. The Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah accused a visiting Iranian delegation of refusing to sign an agreement resolving issues. 'They will be responsible in front of Allah Almighty and its people for the inability of the Iranian citizens to perform hajj for this year,' the ministry said in a statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency." http://t.uani.com/280uEfH

Human Rights

Reuters: "Iran has given foreign messaging apps a year to move data they hold about Iranian users onto servers inside the country, prompting privacy and security concerns on social media. Iran has some of the strictest controls on internet access in the world and blocks access to social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, although many users are able to access them through widely available software. 'Foreign messaging companies active in the country are required to transfer all data and activity linked to Iranian citizens into the country in order to ensure their continued activity,' Iran's Supreme Council of Cyberspace said in new regulations carried by state news agency IRNA on Sunday. The council, whose members are selected by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, gave social media companies a year to comply, IRNA said, adding that the measures were based on the 'guidelines and concerns of the supreme leader'. The new requirements could affect messaging app Telegram in particular. The cloud-based instant messaging service has gained popularity because of its high level of security and is estimated to have about 20 million users in Iran, which has a total population of about 80 million... Social media users reacted with concern to the planned changes. 'Telegram's data centres are to be moved inside the country so they can delete what they want and arrest who they want,' @Mehrdxd said in a tweet. 'I would stop using #Telegram if the servers are moved inside the country because it would not be safe anymore,' @Gonahkar (Guilty) wrote in a tweet." http://t.uani.com/1Vsv2hU

WashPost: "It happens behind closed doors in Iran all the time: Young people get together to play music, flirt and generally relax, hidden away from hard-liners who definitely would not approve. Mostly, the parties wrap up without incident: the guys cleaning up any incriminating clues, the girls putting their headscarves back on. Then they all go their separate ways. This time, however, someone tipped off authorities that a group of students was throwing a bash to celebrate graduation. More than 30 were taken into custody. Their punishment: 99 lashes each. The report by Iran's Mizan News Agency gave no details about the students, their ages, their school, or when the arrests took place. But it noted that lashings were carried out with almost unprecedented swiftness: within less than 24 hours after officials raided the villa on the outskirts of Qazvin, a small city about 80 miles northwest of Tehran." http://t.uani.com/1PfEgwU

AP: "An online report in Iran says authorities have arrested eight people for producing allegedly 'obscene' music videos. The report by mizanonline.ir, a news outlet of the hard-line Iranian judiciary, is quoting Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi on Saturday as saying that the eight were arrested last week in Tehran. They were not identified by name. The report says the videos they produced were broadcast on an anti-revolutionary TV channel - a likely reference to a foreign-based channel in Farsi." http://t.uani.com/1TUWYdl

Opinion & Analysis

WSJ Editorial: "One of the advertised benefits of the nuclear deal with Iran is that it will gradually soften the regime by empowering more moderate politicians. To judge by last week's leadership election in Iran's Assembly of Experts, moderation isn't what the mullahs have in mind. The 88-member Assembly, which will select the Islamic Republic's next supreme leader, voted Tuesday to make 89-year old Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati its speaker. Mr. Jannati is a hard-liner even by the regime's exacting standards. He subs for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as Tehran's temporary Friday-prayer imam, and his speeches should be instructive for those who rushed to declare February's rigged election to the Assembly of Experts a victory for moderation. On America: 'They are the masters of terrorism world-wide and the teachers of terrorists.' On Jews: 'The Zionists have the appearance of humans, but they aren't humans and have the bearing of pigs and predators. And they have created conditions that have forced peoples everywhere to cry out against them.' On Israel: 'The fall of Israel and its fellow travelers is coming, and soon we will witness this event.' In 1989 he traveled the Muslim world to rally support for the Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa calling for the killing of British novelist Salman Rushdie. In 2003 he called on Iraqis to 'resort to martyrdom operations' against U.S. forces. In 2009 he said he wished someone would 'waste a bullet' on then-Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni 'every time I see that woman's face.' In 2014 he congratulated the faithful on the occasion of Saudi King Abdullah's death. Mr. Jannati will direct the Assembly of Experts for a two-year term, and he has said he will aim to preserve the body's 'revolutionary' mission. His rise means that whoever follows the increasingly frail Mr. Khamenei as Supreme Leader is unlikely to alter the regime's core anti-Western philosophy. In Iran the hard-liners are still in charge." http://t.uani.com/280rYyG

UANI Advisory Board Member Walter Russell Mead in TAI: "Ayatollah Jannati has managed to reach the age of 89 without strapping on an explosive vest to go on a virgin hunt, despite his no doubt keen hunger to experience the martyrdom he encouraged on others. At that age his future influence on Iranian politics may be limited, but if the hardline bloc can get 55 out of 88 votes for its preferred candidate, it seems likely that the next Supreme Leader of the Iranian Revolution will be just as hardline and anti-America as the last two. For those puzzled by the hardline show of strength, it's worth taking a look back at some of the smarter commentary at the time of the Iranian parliamentary elections this winter. The White House echo chamber and the 27 year-old know-nothings that Ben Rhodes has on speed dial were gushing over the 'triumph' of the moderates and spinning it as a big win for the White House policy-but those who looked under the hood saw something different... Bottom line: the much ballyhooed 'triumph of the moderates' was another piece of White House spin, presumably pumped into the national consciousness by those helpful folks at Ploughshares. What's really going on in Iran has almost nothing to do with the happy clappy Beltway talk about peaceable mullahs and the kinder, gentler theocracy they aspire to create. Unfortunately, hardline values are hard wired into the Iranian regime and Iranian foreign policy, and no White House spinmeister can make that grim reality go away." http://t.uani.com/24hE1mB

Ray Takeyh & Reuel Marc Gerecht in WashPost: "The Islamic Republic of Iran held another Holocaust cartoon festival this month, inviting the usual despicable cast of characters. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif assured the New Yorker that although the event would proceed, Iran would ensure that the 'people who have preached racial hatred and violence will not be invited.' Evidently, Zarif believes there are Holocaust deniers who do not harbor 'racial hatred.' As Iranian President Hassan Rouhani once remarked to CNN's Christiane Amanpour, the Holocaust - the question of whether it happened and the dimensions of the slaughter - is really 'a matter for historians and researchers to illuminate.' Crimes against humanity are bad, Rouhani averred, as he quickly glided over the Nazis' anti-Jewish malevolence to similar crimes committed today, leaving no doubt for a Middle Eastern audience that he was talking about Israel. Among Iran's ruling elite, Holocaust denial and the accompanying conspiracies about Jewish power are omnipresent and diverse, but they all have strategic intent. Anti-Semitism is not only central to the regime's identity; it's also inextricably tied to its soft-power propaganda aimed at the larger Muslim world, especially Arabs. Anti-Semitism was part of Iran's inception. The revolution's father, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spent much of his life indulging it. In Khomeini's rendition, the Jews, always untrustworthy in Islamic history, are surrogates of Western imperialism who have displaced Palestinian Muslims and even distorted Islam's scriptural texts. Khomeini's hatred toward Israel exceeded even his disdain for America. The United States was a pernicious, seductive imperial power. But it was America's conduct, not its existence, that the mullahs contested. Israel, on the other hand, was for Khomeini an unlawful entity, irrespective of its actual policies and behavior. No peace compact or negotiated settlement with the aggrieved Palestinians could ameliorate this essential illegitimacy. Israel must be wiped off the map. Since the ayatollah's death, Tehran's efforts to delegitimize the Jewish state have continued, no matter who among the ruling elite has had the upper hand. Whether it's those aligned behind Ali Khamenei (Khomeini's successor), the revolutionary pragmatists backing Rouhani or the Islamic leftists who once rallied behind the reforming president Mohammad Khatami, attitudes toward Israel and the Holocaust have remained constant. For them, Zionism is a racist, exclusionary ideology that should be opposed not just by Muslims but also by all who care about human rights. Iran's propaganda insists that Zionism was imposed on the region by force of arms, sustained by bloodshed and perpetuated by craven U.S. politicians beholden to domestic Jewish groups. Khamenei has gone so far as to claim that to ensure the compliance of U.S. politicians, 'these Zionist capitalists both bribe and threaten them.' Even more: These Jewish American overlords 'have murdered some of their high-ranking and great officials.' Anti-Semitism in Iran is an Orwellian voyage of ideology, where fiery sermons and conferences calling for the annihilation of Israel and denying the Holocaust have become the sanctioned language of the Islamic republic... And the clerical regime's anti-Semitism will grow worse as the rewards of the nuclear deal increase. The mullahs no longer have to worry how the regime's hatred of Jews plays in the West - the buffoonish character of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is gone and sanctions are falling. The U.S.-educated Zarif is adept at handling Western officials and journalists. In his capable hands, Holocaust festivals become yet another reason to support Rouhani's 'moderates.' And Western opprobrium not reinforced with sanctions just affirms the correctness and utility of the mullahs' anti-Jewish worldview. What matters most is the war for Muslim minds, and the clerical regime intends to exploit anti-Semitism for all that it's worth." http://t.uani.com/25ygio5

David Albright in ISIS: "The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed by the P5+1 and Iran imposes a series of restrictions on Iran's stockpile of up to 3.67 percent low enriched uranium (LEU).  One restriction imposes a cap on the amount of uranium that is allowed in Iran.  The agreement allows for exemptions to this cap but these exemptions are intended to be applied to future fuel fabrication efforts.   Iran may now be trying to obtain an exemption for pre-existing LEU that was expected to have been removed from the country or blended down to natural uranium by Implementation Day (January 16, 2016).  The United States and its P5+1 partners should refuse to grant this exemption.  One recent action is that Iran down blended 12 kilograms of up to 3.67 percent LEU to natural uranium." http://t.uani.com/1TF8UMP
       

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

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