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AP: "Iranians staged an international contest for
cartoons depicting the Holocaust on Saturday but insisted the event was
aimed at criticizing alleged Western double standards regarding free
expression and not at denying the Nazi genocide. The event was nevertheless
likely to shock many around the world and could embarrass Iranian
President Hassan Rouhani and other moderates who have tried to improve
ties with the West following last year's landmark nuclear deal. Iran has
long backed armed groups committed to Israel's destruction and its
leaders have called for it to be wiped off the map. Iran has also
criticized depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, arguing that Western
countries tolerate expression deemed offensive to Islam but not the
questioning or denial of the Holocaust. 'We have never been after denying
of the Holocaust or ridiculing its victims,' contest organizer Masuod
Shojai Tabatabaei said in a speech opening the event. 'If you find a
single design that ridicules victims or denies, we are ready to close the
exhibition,' he said. 'Jews who lost their lives in the Holocaust were
subject to oppression by Nazis.' ... The denial or questioning of the
genocide is widespread in the Middle East, where many believe it has been
used as a pretext for the creation of Israel and to excuse Israel's
actions toward the Palestinians. 'Holocaust means mass killing,'
Tabatabaei said. 'We are witnessing the biggest killings by the Zionist
regime in Gaza and Palestine.'" http://t.uani.com/1WBuvuQ
Press TV
(Iran): "Iranian
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the death of Hezbollah's
military chief will certainly stiffen the Lebanese resistance movement's
determination to fight the Israeli regime and terrorism. In a message to
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday, Zarif
expressed the Islamic Republic's condolences on the killing of Mustafa
Badreddine by the Israeli regime. The Iranian minister said Badreddine
was 'all passion and devotion' in defending the ideals of Islam and the
resistant Lebanese people and in fighting terrorism. In a statement on
Friday, Hezbollah said it is investigating to find out whether a blast
which claimed the life of its top military commander was caused by an
airstrike, missile attack or artillery." http://t.uani.com/1R3YFz3
Reuters: "A rebel onslaught on the town
of Khan Touman near Aleppo last week delivered one of the biggest
battlefield setbacks yet to the coalition of foreign Shi'ite fighters
waging war on behalf of Syrian President Bashar al Assad. Reports put the
death toll among the Iranian, Afghani and Lebanese militiamen as high as
80 in the attack spearheaded by the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. At least
17 of the dead were Iranians, seemingly the highest toll in a battle
outside the Islamic Republic's borders since the Iran-Iraq war. 'Pray for
us, we can't move. There are 83 of us in one room. We're waiting for
artillery backup so we can pull back,' an Iranian fighter wrote in a
WhatsApp message, quoted by state-run Iranian website Jaam-e-Jam. 'God
willing, we are martyred rather than taken prisoner.' Events in Khan
Touman were followed by an even bigger blow to Iran and its allies: news
emerged early Friday of the killing of Hezbollah commander Mustafa
Badreddine, who had been overseeing the Lebanese group's military
operations in Syria... there were concerns among some Iranian officials
and military leaders that the report of heavy casualties could sway public
opinion against Iran's involvement in Syria." http://t.uani.com/23UQVXn
U.S.-Iran
Relations
Press TV
(Iran): "The
Iranian parliament (Majlis) has voted to fast-track debating a bill that
would obligate the government to claim compensation from the United
States for its hostile actions against Iran. Some 181 lawmakers, out of
the 216 present in the Sunday session, voted in favor of urgent
deliberations on the bill that would compel the Islamic Republic's
government to seek damages from Washington in compensation for its
hostile acts against Iran. The cases include the US involvement in the
1953 coup against the government of then democratically-elected prime
minister Mohammad Mosaddeq. The coup consolidated the rule of Mohammad
Reza Pahlavi, then Shah of Iran, for 26 more years and guaranteed the
West's oil interests in Iran. The bill also requires the government to
seek compensation from the US for its support for Iraq's Saddam Hussain
during his invasion of Iran in the 1980s. Under the proposed bill,
Washington should also pay for damage it inflicted on the Islamic
Republic by dipping into Iran's assets frozen in the US banks. Tehran
would be also obliged to claim compensation from the US for supporting or
contributing to the Israeli regime's anti-Iran measures." http://t.uani.com/1TVuZZi
NYT: "In early March, a small group
of private investigators, including two former F.B.I. agents, gathered
for a meal at Old Tbilisi Garden, a restaurant in Greenwich Village that
specializes in Georgian food. It was a somber occasion. Two months
earlier, the United States and Iran had exchanged prisoners, including
several Americans held in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison. Another
American, Robert A. Levinson, long missing in Iran and a friend of those
present, was not part of the deal. Mr. Levinson, a former F.B.I. agent
who became a private investigator, also had another life: as a consultant
for the C.I.A. In March 2007, Mr. Levinson, then 59, disappeared on Kish
Island, in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Iran, while trying to
recruit a fugitive American-born assassin as a C.I.A. source inside Iran.
He was last seen alive in 2010 in a hostage video pleading for help and
in photographs wearing a Guantánamo-style jumpsuit. The images did not
disclose who was holding him. It is not known whether Mr. Levinson, who
was eager to expand his role at the C.I.A. and who apparently decided on
his own to go to Iran, is still alive. The event at Old Tbilisi was held
to observe the ninth anniversary of his disappearance." http://t.uani.com/1srtbyS
Business
Risk
Hindu
(India): "With
less than a week to go for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to
Teheran on May 22, officials are working hard to seal an agreement to
repay $6.5 billion owed to Iran over the years when it was under
sanctions. The effort has run into a brick wall over the reluctance of
European banks to process the payments, officials in the Oil and External
Affairs ministries have told The Hindu. 'We are trying our best to
conclude the agreement during the week,' an official said, adding 'We
would have liked to transfer at least some part of our outstanding dues
to Iran, before the PM's historic visit.' The repayment agreement is
among a slew of announcements India and Iran hope to make during Mr
Modi's first visit to Teheran on May 22-23. While the other agreements
are on track, officials say it is the hunt for the repayment channel to
Iran that is keeping them on tenterhooks, despite several banks including
the Danske bank of Denmark, Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank (EIH) of
Germany, Central Bank of Italy and Halkbank of Turkey having been
identified to carry out the transactions, and the RBI has identified
corresponding banks in India... Finally, say officials, the possibility of
Donald Trump, or a Republican candidate winning the U.S. Presidential
elections later this year is another dampener, as their campaigns have
promised to scrap the nuclear deal with Iran hammered out last year,
possibly revising the lifting of sanctions." http://t.uani.com/1TEITfP
Sanctions
Relief
Reuters: "India has approached Turkey's
Halkbank to faciliate the payment of $6.5 billion to Iran, which it owes
for crude oil imports, Iran's Fars news agency quoted India's ambassador
to Tehran as saying on Saturday. 'The Indian government is seeking to pay
the $6.5 billion debt and is looking to prepare the banking activities.
The receiving bank for this money will be Turkey's Halkbank, and the
money will be paid in euros,' Fars quoted Saurabh Kumar as saying." http://t.uani.com/1XePPFB
Reuters: "South Korea's imports of Iranian
crude oil jumped 67 percent in April from the same month a year earlier,
soaring after international sanctions were lifted on Iran's disputed
nuclear programme. Seoul brought in 863,557 tonnes of Iranian crude oil
last month, or 210,996 barrels per day (bpd), compared with 516,918
tonnes a year ago, the data showed. In the first four months of the year,
the world's fifth-largest crude importer shipped in 3,820,054 tonnes, or
933,367 bpd, of crude from the Middle Eastern country, versus 1,918,056 tonnes
in the same period in 2015, according to the data." http://t.uani.com/1XuhZx0
AFP: "The International Monetary
Fund said Sunday that its second in command was on a two-day visit to
Iran for discussions on economic developments. The Washington-based
lender said First Deputy Managing Director David Lipton would meet with
senior Iranian government officials, private sector representatives and
bankers, as well as academics and students... 'The recent lifting of
economic sanctions is expected to help increase oil production and
exports, and lower costs for trade and financial transactions,' the IMF
wrote in a January 'economic health check' of Iran, adding that its real
GDP growth was projected to accelerate to 4 to 5.5 percent in
2016-17." http://t.uani.com/1OvNzYZ
Extremism
AP: "Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at Iran Sunday for staging a
Holocaust-themed cartoon contest that mocked the Nazi genocide of six
million Jews during World War II and said the Islamic Republic was busy
planning for another one... State Department spokesman Mark Toner,
traveling with Secretary of State John Kerry in Saudi Arabia, said the
United States was concerned the contest could 'be used as a platform for
Holocaust denial and revisionism and egregiously anti-Semitic speech, as
it has in the past.' 'Such offensive speech should be condemned by the
authorities and civil society leaders rather than encouraged. We denounce
any Holocaust denial and trivialization as inflammatory and abhorrent. It
is insulting to the memory of the millions of people who died in the
Holocaust,' Toner said." http://t.uani.com/1TEJi1N
JTA: "The United Nations cultural
agency, UNESCO, condemned a state-sponsored Holocaust-themed cartoon
contest taking place in Iran. The Second International Holocaust Cartoon
Contest opened Saturday and was set to run through the end of May in
Tehran. The top prize is $12,000. 'Such an initiative, which aims at a
mockery of the genocide of the Jewish people, a tragic page of humanity's
history, can only foster hatred and incite to violence, racism and
anger,' Irina Bokova, the director general of the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said over the weekend.
'This contest goes against the universal values of tolerance and respect,
and runs counter to the action led by UNESCO to promote Holocaust
education, to fight anti-Semitism and denial.' Some 150 works from 50
countries are on display in the contest, which is organized by
nongovernmental bodies in Iran with support from the government. Most of
the works criticize Israel for using the Holocaust to distract the
international community from its treatment of the Palestinians. Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday
also criticized the event. 'It is not just its policy of subversion and
aggression in the region; it is the values on which it is based,'
Netanyahu said of Iran. 'It denies and belittles the Holocaust and it is
also preparing another Holocaust. I think that every country in the world
must stand up and fully condemn this.'" http://t.uani.com/1NvAeQv
Terrorism
NYT: "In his more than three-decade
career as a militant operative, Mustafa Amine Badreddine embraced an
array of real and assumed identities - bomber, playboy, commander -
evolving along with Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite organization he helped
to create. He was accused of having helped plan the truck bombing that
killed 241 United States Marines in Beirut in 1983, introducing the world
to the militant guerrilla network that would later become Hezbollah.
Hijackers acting on Mr. Badreddine's behalf repeatedly demanded his
release from a Kuwaiti prison, but he escaped with the help of Saddam
Hussein's 1990 invasion. He built a reputation for partying in the
Lebanese coastal casino town of Jounieh, and was accused of having
plotted far-ranging attacks. They included one of the most brazen
assassinations, that of Lebanon's former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, on
a seaside Beirut boulevard. When Mr. Badreddine, 55, was killed this week
in 'a huge explosion' near Damascus, the Syrian capital, as Hezbollah
confirmed on Friday, he had moved on yet again. Mr. Badreddine was
Hezbollah's top military commander and had been leading its expanding
operation in Syria. That made him central to Hezbollah's most recent
transformation, from a movement built to battle Israeli troops on
Lebanese soil to an expeditionary force attempting to intervene
decisively in a neighboring country. His death, considered its biggest
leadership loss in years, raises many questions central to the Syria war,
the region and the future of Hezbollah, Lebanon's most powerful military
and political organization." http://t.uani.com/24UFaTe
AP: "Former Argentine President
Carlos Menem said Friday he believes his son was killed by the
Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah, which prosecutors also suspect
was behind two 1990s bombings in Buenos Aires. In testimony to a judge
overseeing the investigation of his son's death 21 years ago, Menem said
that then-Foreign Minister Guido Di Tella had told him he heard through
foreign embassies of Hezbollah's alleged involvement. But Menem, who was
president from 1989-1999 and is currently a senator, did not give further
details or any evidence for the claim. Carlos Facundo Menem was 26 when
the helicopter he was piloting crashed on March 15, 1995. Menem and his
ex-wife have long said they believed their son was slain, but had not
previously specified who they thought killed him." http://t.uani.com/1Xuic39
Human
Rights
CNN: "The United States condemned
the 2008 arrests of Baha'i leaders in Iran Saturday and asked the Islamic
Republic to free them. Iran arrested Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin
Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Behrouz Tavakkoli, Vahid Tizfahm,
and Mahvash Sabet. They were all convicted of espionage, insulting
religious sanctities, and propaganda against the Islamic Republic. They
were sentenced to 20 years in prison. 'We join the international
community in condemning their continued imprisonment and calling upon the
Islamic Republic of Iran to release them immediately, along with all
other prisoners of conscience in Iran,' State Department spokesman John
Kirby said in a statement issued on Saturday. 'Furthermore, we call upon
Iranian authorities to uphold their own laws and meet their international
obligations that guarantee freedom of expression, religion, opinion, and
assembly for all citizens,' the statement added." http://t.uani.com/1TSawSz
AFP: "Iran has arrested eight people
for working in 'un-Islamic' online modelling networks, particularly on
Instagram, the head of Tehran's cybercrimes court said on state
television. The arrests were made under a two-year-old sting operation
named 'Spider II', targeting among others models who post photos online
without the hijab covering the hair that is compulsory for women in public
in Iran since its 1979 Islamic revolution. It identified 170 people
running online Instagram pages -- 59 photographers and makeup artists, 58
models, 51 fashion salon managers and designers, and two active
institutions, according to a statement from the special court. 'We found
out that about 20 percent of the (Iranian) Instagram feed is run by the
modelling circle,' Javad Babaei said on state television late Sunday.
They have been 'making and spreading immoral and un-Islamic culture and
promiscuity', he said. Babaei said it was the judiciary's duty to
'confront those who committed these crimes in an organised manner'. In
addition to the eight arrests, criminal cases have been opened against 21
other people, he said. The sting operation has homed in on a database of
over 300 popular Iranian Instagram accounts and connected accounts,
Babaei said." http://t.uani.com/27rsx48
Foreign
Affairs
Bloomberg: "Chancellor Angela Merkel's
government is prepared to invite Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to
Germany in a signal of support for improved ties with the Islamic
republic that would risk angering Israel, according to people familiar
with the deliberations. While the Foreign Ministry favors inviting
Rouhani to Berlin, the government has stopped short of issuing an
invitation amid opposition from members of Merkel's bloc, who warn
against sending the wrong signal to Israel, a German ally. The government
is now weighing an invite, though no date has been set for a prospective
visit, according to the people, who asked not to be named discussing
private discussions... German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a
fellow Social Democrat, raised the possibility of a Rouhani visit to
Europe's biggest economy when he met with the Iranian president in Tehran
in February. But an official invitation can only come from Merkel's
office or Germany's head of state, President Joachim Gauck. At the time,
Norbert Roettgen, the CDU chairman of the parliamentary foreign affairs
committee, told Der Spiegel magazine that 'the symbolism of such a visit
would be both too little and too much.' The nuclear deal 'has not brought
forth a new Iran,' he said. 'Internally, state repression continues.
Externally, Iran continues to pursue offense power plays.' Roettgen's
office didn't immediately respond when contacted Friday." http://t.uani.com/1YvhJvV
Opinion
& Analysis
Seth
Frantzman in JPost:
"Remember the 'Iranian Schindler' who saved Jews during the
Holocaust? That was the gist of the headline of a BBC article from 2012
profiling a book by Fariborz Mokhtari highlighting the role of
Abdol-Hossein Sardari, an Iranian diplomat in Paris who saved Iranian
Jews from the Nazis. Three years later, Iran is once again hosting a
Holocaust denial cartoon contest, even as its diplomats try to wriggle
out of their shameful intolerance by presenting Iran as having saved the
Jews during the Nazi period. How can you save people, and then mock and
degrade their genocide? How can you take credit for doing good, while
mocking mass death and suffering? If you are Iran you can; part of a
carefully orchestrated charade in which the country boasts tolerance for
Jews while trampling on history... To mark International Holocaust
Remembrance Day in January, Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
released a video questioning whether the Holocaust was 'a reality or not,'
featuring Holocaust deniers and claiming the West was 'ignorant' for not
challenging the history of the Holocaust. Iran boasts that it saved Jews
from an event that it also claims didn't happen. When Zarif was
interviewed by The New Yorker in April he was asked about the Holocaust
denial cartoon contest. Realizing it was harming Iran's new image as a
'moderate' country, he claimed the contest was not endorsed by the
government. Then he argued the existence of the contest was akin to the
presence of the Ku Klux Klan in the US. 'Is the government of the US
responsible for the fact that there are racially hateful organizations in
the US? Don't consider Iran a monolith.' Except Iran is a monolith when
it comes to free speech; it wouldn't host a cartoon contest denying the
crimes of the Shah or mocking Islamic suffering. Ishaan Tharoor at The
Washington Post points out that the organizations historically involved
in the cartoon contest, Owj Media and Sarsheshmeh Cultural Center, have
'ties to organs of the Iranian government.' If Iran wanted to pretend the
cartoon contest is akin to the KKK, then its leading officials would all
condemn it and those hosting it would be pariahs. Instead its Fars media
trumpets the contest as challenging the 'West's double-standard [of]
behavior toward freedom of expression as it allows sacrilege of Islamic
sanctities.' No one in Iran can explain how the logical 'revenge' for
being offended by Western sacrilege is bashing Jews. If Iran wants
revenge on the West, then mock the French president, mock Danish cuisine
- why is Iran's response every time it is angry at the US or Europe an
attack against Jewish people and Jewish history?" http://t.uani.com/1VYsEQP
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com
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