Top Stories
Reuters: "Iran has sharply stepped up its use of public executions, hanging 13 men this year, nearly as many as in all of 2010, in an attempt to intimidate its citizens, Amnesty International said on Wednesday. Eight of the hangings have taken place since mid-April, including two juveniles convicted for a rape and murder committed when they were 17, the human rights group said. 'It is deeply disturbing that despite a moratorium on public executions ordered in 2008, the Iranian authorities are once again seeking to intimidate people by such spectacles which not only dehumanize the victim, but brutalize those who witness it,' said Amnesty official Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui. Iran executed at least 252 people last year, 14 in public, Amnesty said. Human rights groups often criticize Iran, saying the Islamic republic has one of the highest execution rates in the world." http://t.uani.com/mf9AgH
WSJ: "The U.S. Treasury on Wednesday proposed regulations that would require U.S. financial institutions to divulge information about foreign bank customers that do business with Iran. U.S. financial institutions that maintain correspondent accounts for foreign banks would have to report to the federal government whether the foreign banks, in turn, maintain correspondent accounts for sanctioned Iranian banks. U.S banks would also have to be able to tell the government whether, in the past 90 days, their foreign banks customers had processed fund transfers in connection with a blacklisted Iranian-linked financial institution or Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Under the proposed regulations, U.S. banks would only have to report such information upon written request from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the U.S. government's financial intelligence unit. Treasury officials could use the reports to impose sanctions on the foreign bank, the most severe being expulsion from the U.S. financial system. The proposed regulations draw from the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010, known as CISADA." http://t.uani.com/iJqY53
Reuters: "The United States is concerned by Turkey's growing trade ties with Iran and has warned Turkish banks against dealing with blacklisted Iranian counterparts, a senior U.S. Treasury official said Wednesday. David Cohen, acting Under-Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said he came to Turkey to 'urge full and robust implementation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1929 against Iran.' Turkey says it is complying with U.N. sanctions imposed last year, aimed at persuading Iran to become more open about its nuclear program to allay suspicions in both the West and Middle East that it is building weapons. Though a member of NATO, Turkey opposed the imposition of this fourth round of U.N. sanctions on fellow Muslim Iran. There are concerns in the West that Turkey could prove a weak link in efforts to throttle the Islamic Republic's access to the global financial system." http://t.uani.com/j04LOg
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
The Australian: "Iran was urged yesterday to reveal more information about a new computer virus that the regime says has hit the country less than a year after its nuclear program was attacked by the Stuxnet cyberworm. Western experts were wary about whether the claim about the so-called Stars virus was a hoax designed for domestic consumption or a genuine attack that could cause harm to other networks across the world. A senior Iranian military official said on Monday Iran had been attacked by an 'espionage virus'. 'The Stars virus has been presented to the laboratory but is still being investigated,' Gholam Reza Jalali, the head of the Iranian military unit in charge of combating sabotage, said. 'No definite and final conclusions have been reached.' John Bassett, a British cyber security expert at the Royal US Institute, said that the recent unrest in the Middle East and North Africa might have prompted Tehran to fabricate or exaggerate the virus to alarm its own people." http://t.uani.com/jsMq5G
FT: "Iran's populist government is backing away from a plan to phase out subsidies on energy and other basic commodities, analysts say. Instead, it is overpaying cash compensation to the poorer members of Iranian society to maintain political support. Official estimates admit that for decades Iran spent $100bn a year on subsidising basic commodities - although the support was widely viewed as unsustainable and distorting supply and demand signals. In December last year, Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, the president, embarked on a parliament-approved plan under which subsidies on energy products and foodstuffs were to be phased out gradually over a five-year period. The plan was backed by all Iranian political groups as well as the International Monetary Fund and was viewed as a much-needed reform to the country's state-dominated economy. However, economic analysts believe the government's populist approach has ended up inflicting a heavier burden on the economy and say that the government is moving away from the initial goal of making prices more realistic. Under the plan, half of the government's savings from the cuts in subsidies were to be redistributed to those who registered to receive financial assistance, regardless of means. Now every man, woman and child can receive IR445,000 ($42.30) a month." http://t.uani.com/me72Gv
Bloomberg: "China invested a total of $570 million in Iran over the past two years ended December 2010, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported, citing figures from China's Council for the Promotion of International Trade. Iran has invested some $38 million in China over the same time period, IRNA said. No details were given in the report on which industries were involved." http://t.uani.com/kY3Vcd
Human Rights
AP: "Yusuf Islam, the British musician formerly known as Cat Stevens, is calling for the release of two American hikers charged with spying in Iran. A video of Islam pleading for Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal to be freed on humanitarian and justice grounds has been posted on YouTube. He says they should be released if there's no clear evidence they're anything other than hikers. Another prominent western Muslim, former boxing champ Muhammad Ali, has written to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei twice on the hikers' behalf." http://t.uani.com/m1pHWh
Foreign Affairs
AFP: "Syria, Iran's main Arab ally, has put Tehran in an uncomfortable position as it has reacted cautiously to a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests there in contrast to its sharp criticism of other Arab regimes. Leaders in the Islamic republic firstly kept silent over the crisis in Syria, which has claimed hundreds of lives, before it tried to minimise the importance of events there. Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said earlier this month that his country was not 'interfering' in Syria. 'The government of Syria is our very good friend... so are the people of Syria... the government and the people of Syria can solve their issue through dialogue,' he said at the time. The unrest in Syria serves 'the objective of the United States, its allies and the Zionist regime (Israel) to break the resistance's forefront,' he added. However, Ahmadinejad conceded that there is 'no alternative but to accept the freedom of the people... and the vote of the majority in Syria and elsewhere.'" http://t.uani.com/kqTAQR
JPost: "The unity agreement between Hamas and Fatah is a 'blessed, positive move,' Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi said Thursday according to the IRNA news agency. Salehi said the move was 'in line with the Palestinian nation's historic objectives' and also praised the new Egyptian government's role in mediating between the two factions. The Iranian foreign minister added that the uniting force between the two groups is 'resistance against the Zionist occupiers,' IRNA reported, as well as unity among the Palestinian people themselves." http://t.uani.com/kKowc0
Opinion & Analysis
Meir Javedanfar in The Guardian: "'This year will be a difficult year. Fasten your seatbelt and put on your iron-clad boots. Soon commotions will be heard.' According to the Tehran-based Javan Online - a publication close to the Revolutionary Guards - this statement was made by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's senior adviser and confidant, Esfandiyar Rahim Meshai, days before the forced resignation of Iran's intelligence minister, Heydar Moslehi, on 17 April. Moslehi resigned after a major dispute with Meshai and Ahmadinejad over who should head the intelligence ministry's bureau of planning and budget. Until now, there is nothing extraordinary about this story, because when it comes to firing ministers, no president can beat Ahmadinejad's record in post-revolution Iran. Ministers have been fired before, such as former intelligence minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei. Others, such as the former foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, were not only fired but humiliated by being dismissed while visiting a foreign country. In fact, Mottaki heard the news of his dismissal from his Senegalese hosts who were informed before he was. When it comes to saying 'You're fired', Ahmadinejad would make Donald Trump and Alan Sugar, the hosts of The Apprentice, look like novices. But what sets the dismissal of the current intelligence minister apart is the reaction of Iran's most powerful man, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei. Much to the shock and surprise of many Iran observers, and quite possibly the president himself, after staying quiet for seven years and not mentioning a word about Ahmadinejad's dismissals in public, Khamenei has suddenly and publicly put his foot down, like never before. He did this not only by reinstating Moslehi to his job but by coming out and chastising Ahmadinejad's decision because he felt 'expediency is being ignored'. Even more surprisingly, Khamenei also stated that: 'I won't allow, as long as I'm alive, an iota of deviation of this massive movement of the nation.' But why now? Where has Khamenei been all these years? What is so special about Moslehi that has brought him to utter such a strong condemnation? How come he didn't say anything when Ali Larijani was forced to resign in November 2007? Larijani is infinitely closer to Khamenei than Moslehi. 'Loose lips sink ships' was the famous British slogan during the second world war. UK citizens were told to be careful about what they said, because the enemy might be listening. Ayatollah Khamenei has the same concern. He did not reinstate Moslehi only because he was becoming concerned about his and Ahmadinejad's growing power - which, as far as some people in Iran's leadership are concerned, is getting out of hand." http://t.uani.com/mm3QYJ
Chuck Freilich in CSM: "The popular uprisings sweeping the Middle East are breathtaking and apparently far from over. After decades of paralysis and ossification, the entire Middle Eastern landscape is changing before our eyes. With the rapidity of events unfolding throughout the region, attention has been diverted from Iran. But Iran has all the same elements that have brought about the uprisings in the Arab world - even more so. Iran's burgeoning young population is as large as anywhere in the region and actually far more educated and involved in globalization and worldwide social and political trends. As with the restless young populations of other parts of the region, Iran's youth suffer from the same dire unemployment, lack of opportunity, and suffocating oppression. Regime change in Iran should be the No.1 priority in the Middle East today and is an issue on which virtually all US allies, in the region and beyond, can agree. Everyone wants to see the Iranian regime go. Change in Iran would transform the region as a whole, on the political, socio-economic, and strategic-military levels. It would, indeed, portend a new Mideast. Instead of continuing to harbor futile hopes of engagement with Tehran, which the Obama administration itself acknowledges will probably not work, what is needed is a US-led effort, both public and behind the scenes, to make the regime crack. Regime change in Iran can only come from within, from its people; it cannot be fomented from the outside, but it can be aided and abetted, nourished, and given the encouragement and support which may make it possible." http://t.uani.com/kTrVe9
Emiliano Alessandri & Ruth Santini in The Brookings Institution: "Both Iran and Turkey have a major stake in how the political landscape in North Africa and the Middle East is reshaped in the months ahead. Tehran and Ankara have developed their own separate narratives on regional events that take credit for providing the political inspiration for the Arab uprisings. Simultaneously, they have aimed to reinterpret reality on the ground to deflect attention away from their own domestic problems. While regional uprisings (with the possible exception of a resurgence of Kurdish separatism) do not necessarily threaten the stability of the Turkish state, Iran is experiencing its own waves of protests. As European and American leaders formulate policies toward North Africa and the Middle East, Iran and Turkey will have to be factored in and engaged in very different ways. This commentary offers a snapshot of Iranian and Turkish perceptions and reactions to the democratic protests in the Arab world, and explores ways in which the United States and the European Union might interact with Tehran and Ankara in channeling the currents of change. In Iran's initial public commentary on the first uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, Iranian leaders portrayed the protests as 'Islamic awakenings' inspired by Iran's 1979 revolution. As events in Libya unfolded, the Iranian narrative shifted away from the protests to criticize the United States and its allies for staging a military intervention, and for being motivated-according to Iranian leaders-primarily by oil interests. Tehran's narrative on Libya pointedly ignored United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution 1973, and the endorsement of the Arab League for the intervention... If ever US leadership was called for, to help chart a new course for the region, it is now. The United States will be blamed no matter what it does; some will claim that it has not intervened sufficiently, others that it has gone too far. Iran is the big prize and a place where US leadership can make a difference. These measures may not succeed in bringing about the desired change in Iran, but the downsides are minimal. How could we explain a failure to even try to take advantage of the opportunity?" http://t.uani.com/lb5o2l
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment