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FT: "Tehran and Beijing are in talks about using a barter system to exchange Iranian oil for Chinese goods and services, as US financial sanctions have blocked China from paying at least $20bn for oil imports. The US sanctions against Iran, which make it extremely difficult to conduct dollar-denominated business, mean that China could owe the oil-rich nation as much as $30bn, according to people familiar with the problem. They said the unpaid oil bills had built up over the past two years and the governments, which are in early-stage talks, were looking at how to 'offset' the debt. Some Iranian officials are growing increasingly angry about the inability of the country's largest oil customers to pay cash, a problem that has contributed to a shortage of hard currency and has hindered the central bank from defending the Iranian rial, which has been sharply devalued over the past month. China and India together buy about one-third of Iran's oil, the country's economic lifeblood. China's oil imports from Iran have risen 49 per cent this year, according to Reuters... China and Iran's bilateral trade totalled $29.3bn last year, up almost 40 per cent from 2009. The two countries this month signed several infrastructure and trade collaboration agreements that would see Chinese companies invest in big infrastructure projects in Iran, while Iran would export large quantities of chrome ore to China, according to local reports." http://t.uani.com/oDEO0S
NYT: "Gunmen riding motorcycles fatally shot an Iranian scientist in front of his house in Tehran on Saturday, Iranian news agencies reported. It appeared to be the latest in a series of attacks that Iranian authorities have called an assassination campaign directed by Israeli, American and British intelligence agencies against the country's nuclear program. The scientist, Darioush Rezai-Nejad, 35, died, and his wife was wounded and taken to a hospital, the news reports said. They also gave varying descriptions of his expertise, with some describing him as an electronics specialist who worked with Iran's Defense Ministry. It was uncertain what role, if any, he played in Iran's nuclear program, which American experts believe is aimed at developing a weapons capacity. Iran denies that it is trying to build a nuclear bomb. According to the semi-official ISNA news agency, Mr. Rezaeinejad was a doctoral student at Khajeh Nasroldeen Toosi University. ISNA quoted Safarali Baratloo, political-security deputy for the Tehran's governor's office, as saying that whether Mr. Rezai-Nejad 'is a nuclear scientist is currently under review and we are not certain.' In earlier reports, several Iranian news outlets identified him as being involved in Iran's nuclear program but later hedged or backed away from that identification." http://t.uani.com/qSO0H0
CNN: "Iran's military shot down a report that it downed a U.S. 'spy drone' flying near its Fordo nuclear enrichment plant in Qom province, according to Fars, the official Iranian news agency. Fars and state-run Press TV both quoted an Iranian lawmaker last week saying that Iranian air defense units of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shot down the drone. The initial report was a mistake caused by a training exercise, an IRGC spokesman told Fars on Friday. 'What caused the mistaken news was the firing, by the forces of the IRGC Air Force, at an aerial training enemy target in the general area of the Province of Qom,' the spokesman said. In fact, he said it could not have happened since it is impossible for an American drone to penetrate Iran's air space 'due to the vigilance of the anti-aircraft forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.'" http://t.uani.com/rdpc6q
Nuclear Program & Sanctions
NYT: "Eight months after he narrowly survived an assassination attempt on the streets of Tehran, Fereydoon Abbasi, the nuclear physicist whom Iran's mullahs have put in charge of the country's Atomic Energy Organization, is presiding over what intelligence officials in several countries describe as an unexpected quickening of Iran's production of nuclear material. The selection of Dr. Abbasi earlier this year was itself a clear message to the West. As a university scientist, he was barred from traveling outside Iran by the United Nations Security Council because of evidence that his main focus was on how to build nuclear weapons, rather than power plants. But in recent weeks he has publicly declared that his country is preparing to triple its production of a type of nuclear fuel that moves it far closer to the ability to produce bomb-grade material in a hurry." http://t.uani.com/nEY4N0
Daily Telegraph: "Darioush Rezainejad's death at the hands of motorcycle-riding gunmen prompted speculation that a violent and covert campaign to slow Iran's development of nuclear materials was again underway... Ali Larijani, the hawkish speaker of the Iranian parliament, was quick to apportion blame. 'The American-Zionist terrorist attack yesterday against one of the country's scientists is yet another sign of the Americans' degree of animosity,' he told MPs. 'American must think carefully about the consequences of such actions.'" http://t.uani.com/oEwzRp
AP: "Iran said the victim of a deadly shooting Saturday was a university student, not a physicist involved in the country's nuclear program as state media had first reported. A mix-up over the victim's name apparently led to the confusion, the English-language Press TV said. Initial reports said a pair of gunmen firing from motorcycles killed 35-year-old Dariush Rezai, a physics professor whose area of expertise was neutron transport. Several news reports, including that by the semiofficial Iran Student News Agency, linked him to the country's nuclear program. But an investigation later determined that the slain man was Darioush Rezaeinejad, an electronics student at Khajeh Nasir Toosi University of Technology in Tehran. The initial reports raised concerns because the attack appeared similar to recent assassinations of Iranian scientists that the government blamed on the U.S. and Israel. The U.S. and Israel and some of their allies accuse Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability under the cover of its civilian atomic energy program." http://t.uani.com/o8YFWN
Reuters: "Iran's foreign minister will visit India in the coming weeks, news agency ISNA quoted an official on Saturday as saying, as the two countries seek a way of ending a standoff over unmet payments for oil exports. Ali Akbar Salehi will hold talks with his Indian counterpart on bilateral and international issues, Mehdi Nabizadeh, Iran's ambassador to India, told ISNA. '(Salehi) will travel to India within the next two months and we hope by that time the problem is resolved for good,' he said. Iran, facing increased isolation internationally, and energy-hungry India have been looking to resolve an impasse triggered in December when the Reserve Bank of India ended a regional clearing mechanism for trade payments to Iran. That move won praise from Washington, which is using sanctions in a bid to get Tehran to halt its nuclear programme." http://t.uani.com/r1jjpd
AP: "An Iranian opposition group says that Tehran's leaders have created a new defense agency to consolidate nuclear weapons research. The Mujahedin-e Khalk, or M-E-K, tells The Associated Press that Iran's defense ministry established the Organization for New Defense Research in March. It's led by a physicist suspected of running the country's nuclear arms development programs... The M-E-K says Iran consolidated its nuclear research efforts because it believes it can continue to deny international inspectors access to sensitive sites. Some previous M-E-K claims about Iran's nuclear program have been confirmed. Others have not." http://t.uani.com/pGTHqx
Commerce
Reuters: "Iran said on Sunday it reached a trilateral agreement with its allies Syria and Iraq to build a pipeline which would boost its gas exports, a senior official was quoted as saying by the media. 'This contract will be signed Monday in the port city of Assalouyeh,' Javad Oji, head of the National Iranian Gas Co. (NIGC) was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency. 'Iran's gas will be transferred to Syria through Iraq, and Syria will then buy 20 to 25 million cubic meter of gas from Iran per day,' the official IRNA news agency quoted Oji as saying. According to Oji, Iran is currently producing 600 million cubic meters of gas per day of which 37 million cubic meters is exported. He estimated that by the completion of the 24 projected phases of the South Pars gas field, production would reach 1.2 billion cubic meters of which 250 million cubic meters will be exported." http://t.uani.com/oVjxz9
Reuters: "Iran retains its position as the second-largest producer in OPEC despite the group's report that Nigeria has now obtained the rank, the students news agency ISNA quoted the country's OPEC governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi as saying on Saturday. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' Annual Statistical Bulletin has put Nigeria ahead of Iran, adding that Iranian experts were examining the report. 'OPEC rationing is based on production, not export, and Iran still holds the second-largest OPEC producer status and no change has happened in this regard,' said Khatibi. Khatibi said Iranian experts had found ambiguities in some of the figures in the OPEC report and thus the experts 'did not confirm Nigeria's export increase'. 'In the report Iran's oil income exceeds that of Nigeria in 2010. Then how would it be possible for Nigeria's oil income to be less than that of Iran despite having boosted its exports?'" http://t.uani.com/r89fRW
Human Rights
Guardian: "A disturbing video of the public execution of three men in Iran has sparked anger among human rights activists. The graphic video, released by Amnesty International on Thursday, showed guards standing on top of buses draping ropes around necks of three convicts sentenced to death by hanging after being convicted of rape. The men were later hanged from an overhead bridge after the vehicles drove away. The executions, which took place on 19 July in the western city of Kermanshah, home to Iran's Kurd minority, attracted significant crowds, including children. Some of the crowds appear to be filming hangings by mobile phones. The video, which was supplied to Amnesty by an Iranian human rights activist, Fazel Hawramy from kurdishblogger.com, highlights the use of public executions, in which officials publicly hang convicts from a large crane or a high place in front of crowds. 'What is so alarming about this video is the apparent normality of the event. Thousands of people are watching as if it were a football match. People are shouting and cheering. But what is most shocking is the participation of children in this barbaric spectacle,' Hawramy said. The release of the video follows human rights groups' alarm over the sharp escalation in capital punishment in Iran... Rebin Rahmani of HRANA, a human rights website, said 450 people in Kermanshah prison, convicted of charges such as rape or drug-trafficking, have been handed down death sentences and are currently awaiting execution." http://t.uani.com/oRa1mQ
Domestic Politics
AFP: "A senior officer of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards was among six soldiers killed in clashes with Kurdish rebels on the border with Iraq, Fars news agency reported on Friday. 'General Assemi of the Qom branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps was killed along with five of his comrades in clashes with terrorist rebels of the PJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan) in the Sardasht area,' the agency said, without giving any further details. Iranian troops launched a major offensive on Saturday against PJAK rebels operating out of rear-bases in neighbouring Iraq." http://t.uani.com/qkagw7 Foreign Affairs
AP: "Iranian forces shelled suspected rebel outposts in Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region, killing two Iraqi civilians, officials said Monday, in the latest in a string of cross-border attacks that have forced hundreds of residents to flee. The artillery fire hit the small Iraqi town of Sidkan, about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the Iraq-Iran frontier, said Sidkan mayor Ahmed Qadir. He added that three residents were wounded in the four hours of shelling. Kurdish border guard Capt. Ahmed Saleh confirmed the casualties. The Iranian attack appeared to target bases of the Iranian Kurdish opposition group PEJAK, which stands for the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan. The group has been involved in sporadic clashes with Iranian forces in recent years and says it is fighting for greater rights in Iran." http://t.uani.com/qcE8ax
AFP: "Iran on Saturday called on Berlin to put on trial the leader of a Kurdish rebel movement, Rahman Haji Ahmadi, who reportedly lives in Germany, the official IRNA news agency reported. Haji Ahmadi's rebels at the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) operate out of bases in neighbouring Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, and have been involved in deadly clashes with Iranian troops for many years. 'The German government should put on trial Rahman Haji Ahmadi, the leader of the terrorist group who lives in Germany,' Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in a phone conversation with his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle, IRNA said. Earlier on Saturday, the foreign ministry summoned German charge d'affaires Bettina Cadenbach to protest at Haji Ahmadi being allowed to live in Germany in what it called 'encouragement for the terrorists to continue their crimes,' ISNA news agency reported." http://t.uani.com/pYy4Uu
AP: "The Israeli swim team has expressed disappointment after an Iranian competitor withdrew from a heat against one of its athletes at the world championships. Mohammed Alirezaei of Iran did not start a heat that also featured Gal Nevo of Israel in the 100-meter breaststroke Sunday. 'Unfortunately, this is what usually happens - it's crazy,' Yitzhak Kramer, the head of the Israeli delegation, told The Associated Press on Monday. 'This competition is about sport, not politics, and you need to separate the two. That's what is supposed to be nice about sport.'" http://t.uani.com/pMOxev
Opinion & Analysis
Meir Javedanfar in The Atlantic: "If Iran's leaders aren't concerned about Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez's cancer, they should be. One look at Chavez is all it takes to see that he is not the same man as before his recently revealed illness. In addition to his own domestic and regional problems, he now has a very serious health issue to deal with. During and after his treatment, when he has the strength to work, he will probably want to spend most of his time dealing with domestic issues, which are the priority for him. His alliance with Iran, a foreign policy lynchpin for both nations, could move further down his priority list. It's unclear to what extent Vice President Elias Jaua and Finance Minister Jorge Giordani, who have been delegated with parts of Chavez's authority, would uphold the alliance. In fact no one is quite sure how popular Iran is with his cabinet. All we know is that Chavez is the biggest champion. The recent U.S. sanctions imposed against Venezuelan oil company PDVSA, punishment for its dealings with Iran, will also complicate the alliance. This is another factor that could reduce the motivation of Venezuelan politicians for maintaining their increasingly costly relationship with Iran. After Chavez's illness, the Iranian government might itself wish to consider whether, when it comes to Latin America, putting all their eggs in one Venezuelan basket was a wise move. Though Iran has close political relations with the governments of Ecuador, Bolivia, and Nicaragua, their bridge, champion, and biggest lobbyist in all these countries has been Hugo Chavez. If it weren't for him, many of them might have already reduced their relations with the Islamic Republic. Iranian diplomats love a good chat, and are excellent at praising and signing agreements. But when it comes to delivering on those agreements, their performance has been not been so good, to say the least. Little in the way of pledged foreign aid, for example, ever manages to come through... For now, the best Iran can hope for in Latin America is a sudden and complete improvement in Chavez's health and his return to full office. For the sake of their Latin American policy and outreach, Iranian leaders should pray that this will be the case. Otherwise, Iran could find its influence in Latin America sink to new lows, perhaps within as little as two years, if not earlier." http://t.uani.com/q9opK2 |
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