Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Eye on Iran: Senate GOP Demands Iran Sanctions Vote








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Politico: "Senate Republicans are demanding a vote on new Iran sanctions as part of an unrelated bill. Still miffed that they didn't get an Iran vote as part of a 2013 defense bill, the GOP has rolled sanctions language authored by Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) into its alternative to the Democratic veterans benefits' bill written by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). By calling for the Senate to vote on a substitute written by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Republicans are hoping to force Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) into holding a vote that he has repeatedly spurned in recent months. 'We've been trying for months to get a debate and a vote on the Kirk-Menendez Iran sanctions bill,' Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters Tuesday. 'We'll be discussing it at length on the floor on why we should go forward with that legislation and why we ought to get a vote on it, because it's a very time sensitive matter.'" http://t.uani.com/1jA2w9l

Reuters: "Iraqi officials gave contradictory accounts on Tuesday about whether or not Baghdad had agreed to buy $195 million worth of arms and ammunition from Iran as reported by Reuters, a deal that if confirmed could damage Iraqi-U.S. relations. The Defence Ministry denied any such deal had been done, while a senior Iraqi government lawmaker who heads parliament's security and defence committee said Baghdad had bought 'some light weapons and ammunition' from Tehran... Two contracts seen by Reuters were agreed with the state-owned Iran Electronic Industries for night vision goggles, communications equipment and mortar-guiding devices." http://t.uani.com/1cmJqOR

Free Beacon: "Multiple companies currently exploring new business ventures in Iran are also cashing in on highly lucrative contracts with the U.S. Defense Department, raising questions about whether their dealings with Iran could run afoul of U.S. law. At least 13 major international companies have said in recent weeks that they aim to reenter the Iranian marketplace over the next several months. The companies have received Pentagon contracts totaling well over $107 billion, according to a Washington Free Beacon analysis that tracked DoD contracts awarded since fiscal year 2009... These companies include Boeing and General Electric-which have DoD contracts worth $87 and $12 billion respectively-as well as the Italian oil company Eni, Merck, Safran, Vitol, Bosch Rexroth, Sanofi Pastuer, and AVL... 'The fact that major federal contractors are even considering business with Iran during this interim period demonstrates that we need to be incredibly vigilant in enforcing the existing sanctions,' said Rep Brad Sherman (D., Calif.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. 'And even if their activity is technically not captured by our existing sanctions laws, these companies should know that Congress is watching,' Sherman said. 'We will focus on defense and other federal contractors. And we will make sure that if there are deals that do violate the law, they will be debarred from federal contracting or worse.' Sherman said that Congress' next Iran sanctions bill should 'include a near total ban' on business dealings with Iran. 'If you sell anything to Iran but food or medicine, you are ineligible for a federal contract, grant or other assistance,' he said. 'At some point, you may have to say to these firms, you either do business with us or with them.'" http://t.uani.com/1fTwwZm
    
Sanctions Relief

Reuters: "India is ready to pay $1.5 billion to Iran to clear part of a backlog of payments for shipments of oil following the partial easing of western sanctions on Tehran, Oil Secretary Vivek Rae said on Tuesday. In a Nov. 24 deal with six major powers, Iran won access to $4.2 billion in oil revenue from a number of countries that has been frozen abroad. The funds will be paid in eight transfers on a schedule that started with a $550 million payment by Japan on Feb. 1. South Korea is set to make two payments in March totalling $1 billion, banking sources said on Wednesday, and the next scheduled tranche of oil funds would come on April 10. 'We are ready to make a payment as soon as banking modalities are worked out,' Rae told Reuters. He confirmed a Reuters' report that Iran had sought $1.5 billion from India in back oil payments. The federal finance ministry is working out the banking channel that will be used for the payments, he said." http://t.uani.com/1jA0O7T

Trend: "A major U.S. pharmaceutical company, Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) has signed a contract for the licensed production of medicines in Iran, head of Iran's Drug Importing Union, Nasser Riahi said, ISNA news agency reported on Feb. 25... He also went on to say that a German company has expressed interest to purchase share of Shiraz Serum Company and to participation in the production without unveiling the German company's name. 'The U.S. MSD which is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world wants to manufacture its products under license in Iran,' he said, adding that in order to gain the trust of the Iranian partner, the U.S. company has reduced its product prices by 30 to 40 percent. Riahi remarked that major Swiss-based multinational drug maker Novartis has started production in Iran and signed a contract. A Japanese company also has signed an agreement for the production of medicines in Iran, he added. He remarked that the MSD is the first U.S. drug company which has signed a cooperation contract with Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution." http://t.uani.com/1fGSnHh

Bloomberg: "Group of 110 Chinese investors, traders to arrive in Iran on March 2, official Islamic Republic News Agency reports, citing General Administration of Customs of China." http://t.uani.com/1bLLMM7

Sanctions Enforcement & Impact

AFP: "Pakistan on Tuesday said that work on a pipeline to import gas from Iran cannot proceed because of sanctions imposed by the United Sates and the European Union on Tehran. The Iranian side of the $7.5-billion project is almost complete, but Pakistan has run into repeated problems paying for the 780 kilometre (485 mile) section to be built on its side of the border... Pakistani petroleum minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi told AFP on Tuesday that work on the pipeline could not go ahead because it falls under sanctions imposed by the US and EU. 'The work on the Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project is not possible because of the sanctions imposed by the US and EU,' Abbasi said. 'This project is affected by the sanctions imposed.'" http://t.uani.com/1mB4YOb

Human Rights

IHR: "Yesterday Iran Human Rights (IHR) had warned about scheduled execution of seven prisoners from Rajaishahr prison of Karaj. This morning six people were hanged, three of them publicly at three different spots of Karaj. Iran Human Rights strongly condemns the wave of executions in Iran and calls for the international community to react." http://t.uani.com/1llpYu7

IHR: "Two prisoners were hanged in the prison of Semnan yesterday morning February 24, reported the official website of the Iranian Judiciary in this province. The prisoners were identified as H. N. and A. N. and were both sentenced to death (Qesas; retribution) for murder, said the report." http://t.uani.com/1hfHZ9J

Foreign Affairs

Global Security Newswire: "Senior North Korean and Iranian officials on Monday discussed reviving and expanding bilateral relations, according to an Iranian news report. Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, hosted North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Ri Gil Song for talks in Tehran, where he emphasized his government's commitment to cementing enduring ties with Pyongyang, the state-run Fars News Agency reported." http://t.uani.com/1ekt51B

Opinion & Analysis

David Albright & Serena Kelleher-Vergantini in ISIS: "In December 2013, ISIS published an Imagery Brief showing, with high resolution commercial satellite imagery, that no significant alterations had taken place at the Parchin military site. However, as the February 2014 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran highlighted, recent commercial satellite imagery shows that new activity is taking place at the site... The IAEA asked to visit this military site because it has evidence that at least one building is alleged to have been the location of high explosive tests related to the development of nuclear weapons undertaken prior to 2004. However, after receiving this request, Iran undertook substantial reconstruction and site modifications. Satellite imagery shows that between early 2012 and the summer of 2013 Iran sanitized, demolished portions of, and reconstructed the site in an apparent effort to hide past activities and undermine the IAEA's ability to conduct verification activities. ISIS has monitored developments at the Parchin complex since February 2012 and has catalogued changes at the site. These results are in reports available on the ISIS website. So far, despite repeated requests, Iran has refused to grant access to the site... Some analysts have argued incorrectly that issues like Parchin and alleged military dimensions do not matter. According to their reasoning, these issues are in the past and should be overlooked. These concerns do not appear motivated by disbelief that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons. Only a few non-credible critics argue that position. Instead, these analysts appear motivated by a worry that Iran will never address the IAEA's concerns and that intransigence on the part of Iran will scuttle any long term deal. 'Focus on the present and future, not the past' is their mantra. But what kind of comprehensive solution can be achieved by ignoring the central concern of the crisis-- namely that Iran has misused its nuclear programs to seek nuclear weapons and may do so again? What is the value of a deal if Iran is not willing to admit to its past work on nuclear weapons and allow the IAEA to verify the correctness and completeness of its statements, along with gaining assurance that any such work has stopped? What confidence can be placed in the ability of the IAEA to verify any final deal, if Iran can successfully defy a legitimate IAEA verification request? The answer is simple: that agreement would not provide assurance that Iran is not building nuclear weapons. It would have an impaired verification regime. Iran would feel emboldened to resist future IAEA efforts aimed at ensuring the absence of undeclared nuclear activities and facilities, efforts that will inevitably require visits to military sites. Those who want to forget the past also ignore another key fact. One of the most important lessons of the IAEA's experience in South Africa, North Korea, and Iraq in the early 1990s is that understanding past nuclear activities matters to establishing certainty about the present and future. This realization helped propel a weak, ineffective inspection agency of the 1980s into the powerful verification force it is today. Failure to remember this lesson will condemn us to a comprehensive solution which retains an Iranian nuclear weapons breakout capability and a weak and ineffective inspection regime unable to detect Iranian cheating." http://t.uani.com/1cPK1vI

The National Editorial Board: "In the world of arms deals, $200 million (Dh7.34bn) doesn't buy you much. A few tanks, some mortars and perhaps some ammunition. Yet the deal that Iraq has signed with Iran has political repercussions far beyond the monetary value. Under the terms of a UN embargo, which proscribes Iran's ability to sell weapons to any third party, the deal is probably illegal. But the fact that Iraq doesn't care highlights three aspects of the complicated relationship between the US and the region: the lack of influence of the United States with Baghdad (it is, after all, only two years since its troops left Iraq); the warming ties between Iran and its neighbour; and the repercussions of the sudden warming of relations between the US and Iran. Iran's expanding influence in the region has long been a source of contention in the Arab world and especially among the Gulf states. Despite - indeed, because of - America's toppling of Saddam Hussein and its privileging of the Iraqi Shia community, Iran has been able to wield considerable influence in Baghdad. Few big decisions get made inside the Green Zone these days without Tehran's approval. But selling arms to Iraq takes this relationship to another level. True, America is still Baghdad's top arms supplier. But America is far away. Iran is next door. The warming of ties between the US and Iran, after decades of enmity, as evidenced in the deal over Iran's nuclear programme, has created a culture of normalisation of ties between Iran and the international community. Many feel this normalisation is premature, and indeed the US is concerned by it, but it is clear that the genie has firmly exited the bottle." http://t.uani.com/1ew52bl

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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