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Reuters:
"In this city's Grand Bazaar, sellers along labyrinthine passageways
hawk carpets, jewelry and souvenir knick-knacks to tourists. Turkish
police believe that until recently, the area around the market also sat
at the center of an audacious, multi-billion-dollar scheme involving
bribery and suspect food shipments to Iran. To date, no one has been
charged. But a recently leaked police report - which contains allegations
of payments to top Turkish government officials including cash stuffed
into shoeboxes - has added fuel to a growing corruption scandal that has
shaken the highest levels of Turkey's political establishment. A review
by Reuters of the report's 299 pages, as well as interviews with currency
and precious metals dealers, offer colorful new details of how what
police call a 'crime organization' allegedly helped Iran exploit a
loophole in the West's sanctions regime that for a time allowed the
Islamic Republic to purchase gold with oil and gas revenues. While the
gold trade was then legal, the police report alleges the purported crime
network bribed officials in part so it could maintain control of the
lucrative business. Then, when the West last July prohibited the gold
trade as a sanctions violation, the police report alleges the network
concocted records of shipments of food at preposterous volumes and prices
to continue giving Iran access to foreign currency... The report presents
a wealthy young businessman of Iranian descent named Reza Zarrab as the
ringleader... To keep the business running smoothly, the report alleges,
Zarrab's network paid bribes to Zafer Caglayan, Turkey's economy
minister; Muammer Guler, the interior minister; Egemen Bagis, the European
Union Affairs minister; and Suleyman Aslan, Halkbank's chief
executive." http://t.uani.com/1ft1spm
NYT:
"The Obama administration's strategy of punishing Russia with
economic sanctions over the Ukraine crisis encountered a new complication
on Monday with word that the Russians are negotiating an $8 billion to
$10 billion energy deal with Iran, another country ostracized by
American-led sanctions, which partly depend on Moscow's cooperation to be
effective. The Russia-Iran energy deal, reported by the Iranian state
news media, is the second significant economic collaboration under
negotiation between the two countries that could undercut the efficacy of
the sanctions on Iran. Those sanctions are widely credited with
successfully pressuring the Iranians in the current talks over their
disputed nuclear program... Under the deal, as reported by Iran's Mehr
News Agency, the Russians would export 500 megawatts of electricity to
Iran and construct new thermal and hydroelectric generating plants and a
transmission network. Mehr said terms of the deal were discussed on
Sunday between Hamid Chitchian, Iran's energy minister, and his Russian
counterpart, Alexander Novak, who was on a state visit to Iran. Mehr
quoted Mr. Chitchian as emphasizing 'the need for further expansion of
economic ties between Tehran and Moscow, particularly in the energy and
commerce spheres.'" http://t.uani.com/1ltlVe2
Reuters:
"The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Monday its chief inspector had
held 'informal' talks in Tehran, ahead of a mid-May deadline for Iran to
answer questions about detonators that could be used to help set off an
atomic explosive device. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which
for years has been investigating suspected nuclear weapon research by
Iran, gave no details about the previously unannounced visit of IAEA
Deputy Director General Tero Varjoranta to the Iranian capital. He went
to Tehran 'at the end of last week for informal talks as part of regular
contacts between the agency and Iran,' IAEA spokesman Serge Gas said in
an email. Gas said IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano would 'provide an
update on developments' in Iran to the U.N. agency's 35-nation board of
governors in a few weeks' time, an apparent reference to a quarterly
report due in May... By May 15, Iran is supposed to provide information
to the IAEA about its need or application for the development of
so-called Exploding Bridge Wire detonators. These fast-functioning
detonators have some non-nuclear uses, but can also help set off an
atomic device." http://t.uani.com/QUunI4
Nuclear
Program & Negotiations
Reuters: "The United Nations atomic agency will visit two uranium
sites in Iran next week, Iranian media reported on Tuesday, part of the
body's efforts to gain greater insight into Tehran's disputed nuclear
program. A senior inspector from the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) will visit the Saghand uranium mine in central Iran and the
Ardakan milling plant, where the ore is separated from other elements,
ISNA news agency reported, quoting Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman of
Iran's atomic energy organization. Fars news agency said the visits would
take place next week... The planned visits to Saghand and Ardakan are
among seven measures the two sides agreed would be carried out by May 15,
as part of a step-by-step process by Iran to provide greater access and
more information to U.N. inspectors. Diplomats and experts say the
measures announced so far have been relatively easy for Iran to agree to
but that it may become increasingly difficult as the U.N. agency presses
for answers to sensitive questions on alleged atomic bomb research."
http://t.uani.com/1jcXhO1
Sanctions
Relief
Trend: "Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh ordered the
ministry officials to officially expel China National Petroleum
Corporation (CNPC) from South Azadegan oilfield's development project.
The oil minister had previously issued a 90 day ultimatum to the Chinese
firm, Iran's IRNA News Agency reported on April 29. On Feb. 18, Iran
issued an ultimatum to CNPC over its continuous delays in developing the
South Azadegan oilfield. At the time, Zanganeh said, 'If this trend
continues, we will expel CNPC from the project.' 'The presence of CNPC in
Iran will depend on changing its behavior within the 90-day ultimatum
which has been given,' Zanganeh said. On April 19, Iran's Tasnim reported
that CNPC is on the verge of quitting Iran's South Azadegan oilfield
development project." http://t.uani.com/1hMGuAL
Trend: "An Italian parliamentary delegation will visit Tehran on May
3 at the invitation of the head of Iran's Parliament National Security
and Foreign Policy Commission, Alaeddin Boroujerdi. The delegation which
headed by the Chairman of Italian Senate's Foreign Affairs Committee Pier
Ferdinando Casini includes 10 members of the Italian Senate's foreign
policy committee, the adviser of Iran's parliament speaker on
International Affairs Hossein Sheikholeslam said, Iran's Tasnim news
agency reported on April 29. Sheikholeslam went on to say that studying
the potentials for boosting mutual relations is the main goal of the
Italian lawmakers' visit. In their 3-day visit, the Italian lawmakers are
scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with the senior Iranian officials,
he added. Earlier on January 3, an Italian parliamentary delegation, also
led by Casini, paid a three-day visit to Iran." http://t.uani.com/1iBQ5uZ
Bloomberg: "Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL)
plans to spend $1.4 billion to expand crude processing at its facility in
western India to meet growing fuel demand in Asia's third-largest
economy. Mangalore Refinery, a unit of India's biggest state-run explorer
Oil & Natural Gas Corp., will raise capacity by 40 percent to 420,000
barrels a day by end-March 2018, Managing Director P.P. Upadhya said in
an interview yesterday... 'With the new units, we can buy 10 million tons
of heavier grades out of 13 million tons of our annual imports,' Upadhya
said. 'We are planning about 2 million metric tons of Latin American
crude in 2014-15 and 4 million tons of Iran Heavy and Norooz and Soroosh
grades, as well as heavier grades of Iraqi crude.'" http://t.uani.com/1tZgNC8
Syria Conflict
Reuters: "Syrian President Bashar al-Assad declared on Monday he
would seek re-election in June, defying calls from his opponents to step
aside and allow a political solution to the country's devastating civil
war. Assad formally submitted his nomination to Syria's constitutional
court to stand in an election which his Western and Arab foes have
dismissed as a parody of democracy. He is the seventh person to put
himself forward for Syria's first multi-candidate presidential vote in
decades, but none of his rivals are expected to mount a serious challenge
to 44 years of Assad family rule. The announcement was made in parliament
by speaker Mohammad al-Laham, who read out Assad's submission. 'I ... Dr
Bashar Hafez al Assad ... wish to nominate myself for the post of
president of the republic, hoping that parliament will endorse it,' it
said." http://t.uani.com/1fMrGy6
Human Rights
AFP: "The payment of 'blood money' spared 358 Iranians from execution
last year, the country's prosecutor general said on Monday. The practice,
made possible under the Islamic sharia law of diya (restitution), allows
a convict to be pardoned by a victim's family if they receive financial
recompense. The 358 cases fell in the last Iranian calendar year, between
March 2013 and March 2014, the Fars news agency quoted prosecutor general
Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie as saying. According to the United Nations,
more than 170 people have been executed in Iran since the beginning of
2014. However, Iranian media have in recent weeks published details of
several capital cases in which blood money spared the killers from
execution." http://t.uani.com/QUxbVy
Domestic
Politics
Bloomberg: "Drawing on a cigarette at his flat in central Tehran,
Araz Alipour counts on one hand his college friends who have chosen to
build a career in Iran. 'Easily 90 percent of them have gone overseas,'
the 29-year-old software developer said, reflecting on a middle-class
flight that has seen many of the nation's best scientists and engineers
leave. 'Of my 45 university classmates, I guess maybe five are left.' ...
Seyyed Hassan Hosseini, deputy chief of Iran's National Elites
Foundation, said on April 20 that over the past two years at least 40
percent of top-performing students in science and engineering left the
Persian Gulf nation. The flood of emigrants has rung alarm bells at the
highest level. President Hassan Rouhani prioritized stemming the tide of
'fleeing brains' during his election campaign last year. As global
companies plot a post-sanctions strategy for Iran amid optimism that
nuclear talks may ease its isolation, they could find their ambitions
thwarted by a skills shortage." http://t.uani.com/1koEQ8G
Al-Monitor: "After media speculation about a possible return to
politics, former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has rejected the idea for
now. 'I do not intend to enter politics,' Ahmadinejad said among a crowd
of supporters in Mashhad last week. 'I will not break my current
silence,' he said, but added, 'This silence does not mean passivity.'
Ahmadinejad, who has become more visible lately, answered some reporters'
questions and shared his ideas on governance, saying, 'All of the world's
problems are because the work is not done for God. This is why corruption
has happened, and happens.' ... The former president also praised Iran's
revolution for relying on 'domestic capacities' and said that Iran's
'Islamic system will provide the setting for the Hidden Imam's world
revolution,' referring to Shiite Islam's twelfth and final leader. He
added that the 'prime goal' of the Islamic Republic of Iran was to start
a movement for the 'beginnings of the emergence of the Hidden Imam.'
Ahmadinejad is currently a member of the Expediency Council. But
high-profile appearances and statements by former officials have fueled
rumors that he is preparing for a larger return to politics." http://t.uani.com/1ltqDZe
Foreign Affairs
Reuters: "A senior British diplomat made a brief visit to Tehran on
Monday for talks with officials on the strained ties between the two
countries and on Iran's nuclear program, Iran's official IRNA news agency
reported. Earlier, IRNA said Tehran and London were looking to restore
full diplomatic ties, all but severed after a 2011 raid on Britain's
embassy in the Iranian capital. Simon Gass is the most senior British
diplomat to visit since the raid, which came after Iranian allegations
that Britain had masterminded mass protests that followed then-President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in 2009. Britain has flatly
denied the accusations. 'There is the likelihood of a rise in the level
of diplomatic ties between Tehran and London,' IRNA quoted foreign
ministry official Majid Takht-Ravanchi as saying. Gass is also London's
representative in six-power nuclear talks with Tehran, and met senior
members of Iran's nuclear negotiation team, IRNA said." http://t.uani.com/1ltuUMk
Trend: "Iran deplored the US and European states for imposing
sanctions on a number of new Russian government officials and business
entities, calling them 'inefficient'. 'We condemn the sanctions; the US
and Europe should be aware that such methods are inefficient and they
shouldn't treat countries from a superiority-seeking position,' Iran's
foreign ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said, the country's Fars
news agency reported on April 29. Afkham described the sanctions as an
inefficient tool and experience which is based on superiority-seeking
outlook and an arrogant morale, and said, 'We believe that crises should
be settled through talks and peaceful ways.'" http://t.uani.com/1jd1TU4
Opinion &
Analysis
Saeed Kamali Dehghan in Guardian: "Tehran University's outspoken
professor, Sadegh Zibakalam, was asked recently in a heated debate on
national radio why he fought to overthrow the Shah and endured two-year
jail sentence. Furious about Zibakalam's views on foreign policy,
especially his support for normalising ties with the US, the hardline MP
Hamid Rasaei sought to embarrass him by reminding the true origins of his
political life - as a political prisoner under the US-backed Shah - and
what he had stood for then. Rasaei said: 'This Zibakalam is different
from the one from before the revolution.' Zibakalam turned the tables on
him. He answered: '[Under the Shah] I went to jail so that we wouldn't
have political prisoners any more. So that we would have free elections.
So that we would have freedom of press. So that Evin could be shut down.'
Thirty-five years since Iranians deposed the late Shah, Tehran's notorious
Evin prison remains open despite post-revolutionary hopes for it to
become a museum displaying the despotic powers of the Savak, Mohammad
Reza Pahlavi's brutal secret police. It is today home to a large group of
people held on political grounds or because of their ethnic or religious
background. They are Iran's prisoners of conscience, some of whom we
identified here last year. Iran's judiciary often blurs reality by
claiming those behind bars in Evin's political wings are held under
security charges, such as vague accusations of 'acting against the
national security' or 'propaganda against the Islamic republic'. 'We
don't have political prisoners in Iran,' Javad Larijani, the head of the
state-run human rights council, has said. Earlier this month, Evin's ward
350 was scene of extreme violence as intelligence officers subjected
inmates to humiliating physical abuse, forcing them to run a gauntlet of
guards armed with batons. Some of them, including the prominent laywer
Abdolfattah Soltani, had their heads shaved in a move activists saw as
intended to hurt their dignity. In solidarity with the prisoners, many
Iranians launched a campaign posting their pictures online with their
heads shaved. Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, has been mute about the
unprecedented use of force in Evin, even though his office met a number
of prisoners' relatives. In fact, Rouhani has maintained a policy of not
publicly addressing human rights issues, some of which have put people
like Zibakalam at odds with the values they fought for at the
establishment of the Islamic republic - which was supposed to be a freer
and fairer country than that ruled over by the Shah. After Rouhani's win
in the election, there was a glimpse of hope as a group of activists,
including the celebrated lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, were released from Evin.
But as we come close to the end of Rouhani's first year in office, that
promise of change has faded. Rouhani might have limited powers but human
rights violations have continued under his presidency, as highlighted by
the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, last month. Iran continues to
execute convicts at staggering rates. Arbitrary detention and unfair
trials are rife. Discrimination against minorities, including Bahais and
homosexuals, mistreatment of political prisoners, and restrictions on
freedom of expression, are common. This week authorities closed down
Ebtekar, the third reformist newspaper to be shut down under Rouhani.
Last week, they arrested Hossein Nouraninejad, a political activist...
There are lessons Rouhani should learn from Mohammad Khatami, who is
often criticised to have done and said too little, too late during his
own reformist presidency. Rouhani should learn Khatami's mistakes, trying
to protect perople's rights while he still has the massive support given
to him during last year's election. It's time he broke his silence on
human rights in Iran." http://t.uani.com/1h9R1Cw
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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
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email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com
United Against Nuclear
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commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a
regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons. UANI is an
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