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Top Stories
AP:
"Iran's army said Saturday it has deployed a suicide drone for the
first time in massive ongoing military drills near the strategic Strait
of Hormuz at the entrance to the Persian Gulf. Gen. Ahmad Reza
Pourdastan, the army's chief commander of ground forces, described the
unmanned aircraft as a 'mobile bomb,' according to state media, which
said the aerial device is designed to strike air, ground and naval
targets... Iran is believed to have produced its own remotely piloted
suicide drone, the Raad-85, which is designed to crash into targets and
set off its warhead. The six-day military exercise is being carried out
over 527,000 square kilometers (850,000 square miles) near the Strait of
Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which one-fifth of the world's oil supply
passes." http://t.uani.com/1xc51XU
Reuters:
"Iran could become a 'very successful regional power' if Tehran
agrees to a long-term deal to curb its nuclear program, President Barack
Obama said in an interview with NPR News. 'They've got a chance to get
right with the world,' Obama said in the interview, which was taped at
the White House on Dec. 18 and is set to air this week... Obama told NPR
that Iran should seize the chance of a deal that could lift crippling
sanctions. 'Because if they do, there's incredible talent and resources
and sophistication inside of Iran and it would be a very successful
regional power that was also abiding by international norms and
international rules - and that would be good for everybody,' he said...
Obama said he recognized that Iran has 'legitimate defense concerns'
after it 'suffered from a terrible war with Iraq' in the 1980s. But he
criticized Tehran for its 'adventurism, the support of organizations like
Hizbollah, the threats they've directed at Israel.'" http://t.uani.com/13OFmsA
Reuters:
"Iran is to expand what it calls 'smart filtering' of the Internet,
a policy of censoring undesirable content on websites without banning
them completely, as it used to, the government said on Friday. The
Islamic Republic has some of the strictest controls on Internet access in
the world, but its blocks on U.S.-based social media such as Facebook,
Twitter and YouTube are routinely bypassed by tech-savvy Iranians using
virtual private networks (VPNs). Under the new scheme, Tehran could lift
its blanket ban on those sites and, instead, filter their content...
'Presently, the smart filtering plan is implemented only on one social
network in its pilot study phase and this process will continue gradually
until the plan is implemented on all networks,' Communications Minister
Mahmoud Vaezi said, according to official news agency IRNA. He appeared
to be referring to Instagram, the photo-sharing site owned by Facebook,
which is already being filtered, but not blocked. Instagram was initially
available uncensored in Iran but some user accounts were subsequently
blocked, notably @RichkidsofTehran, a page full of photos of young, rich
Iranians flaunting their wealth... 'Implementing the smart filtering
plan, we are trying to block the criminal and unethical contents of the
Internet sites, while the public will be able to use the general contents
of those sites,' Vaezi told a news conference. The policy would be fully
in place by June 2015, he said." http://t.uani.com/1rv3RWz
Nuclear Program & Negotiations
AP:
"President Barack Obama isn't ruling out the possibility the U.S.
could one day reopen an embassy in Iran. Obama was asked in an NPR
interview whether he could envision opening an embassy there during his
final two years in office. Obama replied, 'I never say never,' but said
ties must be restored in steps. Obama says Iran is different from Cuba,
where the U.S. plans to open an embassy. He says Cuba is small and poses
no major threat to the U.S., while Iran is large, has sponsored terrorism
and has sought nuclear capabilities." http://t.uani.com/1HaXxHN
Reuters:
"Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has warned Western
powers to curb their demands on limiting his country's nuclear activities
in order to guarantee a landmark settlement, which he said was 'within
reach'. Iranian newspapers said on Wednesday that Zarif had written
separate letters to his Western counterparts explaining Tehran's position
ahead of the next round of talks in January. 'I am confident that a
comprehensive agreement is within reach,' he wrote, according to the Mehr
news agency. 'But we will firmly resist any humiliating illegitimate
demands.' Zarif said Iran's goal was 'a long-term comprehensive agreement
guaranteeing its right to an exclusively peaceful nuclear programme in return
for full removal of all sanctions.'" http://t.uani.com/1ww5E9x
Military
Matters
AP:
"Iran launched extensive military drills on Thursday, local media
reported, in a show of strength stretching several hundred kilometres
from the Strait of Hormuz to the Gulf of Aden. The exercises are set to
last six days and involve ballistic missile and drone testing, according
to military officials. Close to 13,000 personnel will take part in the
drills, which will be the first time Iran has organised military manuevers
so far from its coastline... The drills will finish with a military
parade on December 30." http://t.uani.com/1HVOoRP
Sanctions
Relief
Reuters:
"Asian imports of Iranian crude climbed above 1 million barrels per
day (bpd) in November, after dropping to a one-year trough below that
level in the previous month, as higher seasonal demand during winter
boosted purchases. Arrivals of Iranian crude over January to November
jumped 19.5 percent on year, led by India that ramped up imports earlier
in 2014 following an easing of Western sanctions over Tehran's disputed
nuclear activities... Imports by Iran's four biggest buyers - China,
India, Japan and South Korea - have averaged 1.11 million bpd over
January-November this year, due to soaring imports by the first two after
the partial easing of sanctions. The four buyers together took in 1.07
million bpd of Iran's crude last month, up 11.1 percent year on year,
government and tanker-tracking data shows." http://t.uani.com/1zMP78y
Trend:
"Western companies are preparing to create their branches in Iran.
The Head of Iran's Presidential Office Mohammad Nahavandian said several
countries have sent trade and political delegations to Iran in the past
few months, the Mehr news agency reported Dec. 28. 'This shows that a
positive atmosphere has been created in western countries about nuclear
talks with Iran,' he explained. 'Cruel international sanctions on Iran
created a gap between the economies of Iran and several countries, so it
takes some time to pave the way for their return,' he added." http://t.uani.com/13OFcRY
Iraq Crisis
FT:
"Thousands of Revolutionary Guards gathered in Tehran on Monday for
the funeral of Brigadier General Hamid Taghavi, the highest ranking
Iranian military official to die in neighbouring Iraq, amid signs of
Iran's increasingly open involvement alongside a US-led coalition
fighting Sunni extremists. The general was the most senior member of
Iran's armed forces to die abroad since the Iran-Iraq war ended 26 years
ago and was known for three decades of intelligence work inside Iraq. A
Revolutionary Guard statement said the 55-year-old was killed in the
Iraqi city of Samarra - site of a Shia shrine and a strategically
important centre considered crucial for protecting Baghdad and preventing
other Shia shrines in Karbala and Najaf from falling to the Islamic State
of Iraq and the Levant, known as Isis." http://t.uani.com/1vmCtFL
WashPost:
"Iranian military involvement has dramatically increased in Iraq
over the past year as Tehran has delivered desperately needed aid to
Baghdad in its fight against Islamic State militants, say U.S., Iraqi and
Iranian sources. In the eyes of Obama administration officials, equally
concerned about the rise of the brutal Islamist group, that's an
acceptable role - for now. Yet as U.S. troops return to a limited mission
in Iraq, American officials remain apprehensive about the potential for
renewed friction with Iran, either directly or via Iranian-backed
militias that once attacked U.S. personnel on a regular basis. A senior
Iranian cleric with close ties to Tehran's leadership, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity to discuss security matters, said that since the
Islamic State's capture of much of northern Iraq in June, Iran has sent
more than 1,000 military advisers to Iraq, as well as elite units, and
has conducted airstrikes and spent more than $1 billion on military
aid... Sheik Jassim al-Saidi, a commander with Kataib Hezbollah, said his
group has more than tripled in size since June, now boasting more than
30,000 combatants. 'Iran never left Iraq,' he said in an interview in a
house next door to his Baghdad mosque, which has turned into a military
base for militia fighters and is packed with crates of weapons. 'This
very close relationship has made Iran support Iraq all they can.'" http://t.uani.com/1EBs0kh
Foreign Affairs
Al-Monitor:
"Ali Larijani, speaker of Iran's parliament, met with religious and
political leaders on a trip to Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, all countries
with which Iran has deep economic, security and political ties. Reformist
Shargh Daily compiled some highlights and quotations from Larijani's trip
using transcripts provided by Iranian news agencies. In Lebanon, Larijani
met with Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. At the meeting,
Nasrallah said, 'The enemy has failed to make the recent conflicts into a
wider Sunni-Shiite war,' adding that the conflict pits 'terrorist groups
against Islamist and people's groups.' Larijani said, 'Now it has become
clear that Iran's position against terrorist groups has been correct from
the beginning.' Larijani also met with Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam
Salam, Defense Minister Sami Mogbel and speaker of parliament Nabih
Berri. He told them that Iran is still ready to offer military support to
Lebanon. The United States has warned Lebanon against accepting such
support from Iran. In a meeting with Secretary-General of Islamic Jihad
Ramadan Abdullah, Larijani said that Iran would continue to support
groups that resist Israel, adding, 'The issue of Palestine is a pivotal
issue for the Islamic Revolution and in addition to political and
financial support, we will support groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad
militarily.' In Syria, where he met with Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad, he said that Iran was willing to 'expand all-out cooperation'
to help Syria establish security. He said that from the beginning, Iran
has stressed that there must be a political solution to Syria's
problems." http://t.uani.com/1HaWTKm
Al Arabiya:
"Recently-released pictures on social media appear to show Iran's
powerful Revolutionary Guards on the border between Israel and Lebanon.
Earlier this month, an Iranian blog released similar photos, claiming
that they were taken in southern Lebanon in late October. The blog was titled
'We are arriving... near the Mother of Corruption, the accursed Israel;
soon we will pass over their bodies, Allah willing,' according to MEMRI,
a U.S.-based site that translates Arabic and Persian media reports, in
addition to several other languages." http://t.uani.com/148WBpk
Opinion &
Analysis
WSJ Editorial:
"Last year's election of Hasan Rouhani as president of Iran was
supposed to inaugurate an era of moderation for the Islamic Republic. Try
telling that to the family of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian. Mr.
Rezaian, the Post's Tehran correspondent and a U.S. citizen, was arrested
with his wife Yeganeh Salehi in late July and held in solitary
confinement, in a bed-less cell, in Tehran's infamous Evin prison.
Iranian authorities have given no reason for his arrest other than to say
it is 'security' related. Ms. Salehi, an Iranian journalist, was released
on bail in October but there is no end in sight for Mr. Rezaian, who is
also reported to be in ill-health. Mr. Rezaian is far from the first Western
reporter cruelly treated by Iranian authorities. Canadian photojournalist
Zahra Kazemi was beaten to death in Evin in 2003. Freelance reporter
Roxana Saberi was held in Evin for more than three months in early 2009.
Maziar Bahari, a Canadian reporter for Newsweek, was imprisoned and
tortured in Evin later that year, during the post-election uprising known
as the Green Revolution. His story is now the subject of Jon Stewart 's
movie 'Rosewater.' Mr. Rezaian's imprisonment is a reminder of how little
has changed in Iran under its new leadership. Apologists for Mr. Rouhani
have argued that there's only so much the president can do; that Mr.
Rezaian is a pawn in a power struggle between the regime's moderates and
hardliners. But that would hardly explain why Mr. Rouhani appointed as
his Justice Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi, previously known for being
deputy intelligence minister when thousands of political prisoners were
killed in the late 1980s. Whatever political considerations went in to
Mr. Rezaian's arrest, they are of cold comfort to him and his family
today. They are also a reminder that a regime that is so capricious in
dealing with foreign reporters cannot be treated as a trustworthy partner
in nuclear negotiations." http://t.uani.com/1zrl1Cc
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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
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