IRAN GROK Daily News – Excerpts from International Media Reports
[Links to full articles were active on the date posted here]
Uranium Enrichment Not Discussed in Iran Deal: Brazil [May 29]
” Iran’s decision to enrich 20 percent its stock of uranium was never part of the negotiations behind the nuclear fuel swap deal Brazil and Turkey struck with Tehran last week, Brazil’s foreign minister said. “That was not part — for many good reasons — because that had not happened,” Celso Amorim told reporters asking how Iran’s recent decision would influence world powers seeking more sanctions to curb Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. “The 20-percent enrichment was not part of the original proposal of the 5+1 (the permanent UN Security Council members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany) and specially the Vienna Group to Iran, which was meant to build confidence,” Amorim said. “Iran, actually, had asked the agency (UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA) to get the 20 percent enriched uranium under the form of fuel rods. It?s a right, assured by the NPT,” he added, referring to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty..” [Complete Report]
Turkish PM Says West Unfair, Insincere in Iran Row: Report [May 29]
” Turkey’s prime minister Saturday accused Western powers of lacking a “fair and sincere” approach on Iran in a mounting row over a nuclear swap deal with Tehran, Anatolia news agency reported. Speaking to Turkish journalists during a visit to Brazil, Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated criticism of the West for staying mum on Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East’s sole if undeclared nuclear power, Anatolia reported. Without naming the Jewish state, he said: “You do not show the same approach here but you stir up the world concerning Iran. I do not see this as a fair, honest and sincere approach.” Turkey and Brazil, both non-permanent members of the UN Security Council, have been in a deepening confrontation with the United States over its dismissal of a nuclear swap deal the two hammered out with Tehran on May 17. Washington insists the Security Council should press ahead with fresh sanctions against the Islamic republic, which the West suspects of seeking to develop an atomic bomb under the guise of nuclear energy production..” [Complete Report]
Pakistan, Iran in Gas Pipeline Agreement [May 29]
“Pakistan and Iran signed an agreement to supply Iranian gas to Pakistan through a $7.5 billion pipeline to be completed in 2014, officials said. Under the 25-year supply agreement, Pakistan will import 750 million cubic feet a day with a provision to increase that to 1 billion cubic feet a day, the Dawn newspaper reported. The imported gas will account for about 20 percent of Pakistan’s current gas production and will be used by the country’s power sector to generate about 5,000 megawatts of electricity, Dawn said. Pakistan’s section of the pipeline project is estimated to cost $1.65 billion. Construction of the pipeline would create jobs, vocational training and development for the impoverished Balochistan and Sindh areas, Pakistan’s Petroleum Minister Naveed Qamar said..” [Complete Report]
Rafsanjani Boosts Pressure on Iran Regime Before Anniversary [May 29]
“Opposition sympathiser and powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has ratcheted up the pressure on the Iranian regime ahead of the first anniversary of the disputed presidential election. The former president’s website has again posted scathing pro-opposition remarks he made last year that criticised both the regime and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei himself. The reappearance of Rafsanjani’s comments comes just days before the June 12 anniversary of the presidential poll that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power and sparked one of the worst internal crises in the Islamic republic’s history. Iran was rocked by widespread and deadly street unrest immediately after Ahmadinejad’s re-election — a result his opponents said had been rigged. Thousands of people were jailed amid a crackdown aimed at stifling the opposition protests. The authorities said 36 people were killed in the weeks after the vote, but the opposition said that at least 72 died..” [Complete Report]
Khamenei to Lead Prayers One Year After Iran Poll [May 29]
“Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is to lead Muslim prayers next Friday, a year after his decisive sermon in support of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election. Khamenei’s address will also mark the 21st anniversary of the death of the Islamic republic’s revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. “This week’s Friday prayer on 14th of Khordad (June 4) which marks the divine departure of the founder of the Islamic republic will be led by the guardian of all Muslims (Khamenei) in the shrine of the late imam” Khomeini, the official IRNA news agency reported. It said Ahmadinejad and Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution which toppled the US-backed shah, would also give addresses. The June 4 address by Khamenei, who succeeded Khomeini as Iran’s supreme guide, will be his first Friday sermon since a June 19 sermon at Tehran University in which he openly defended Ahmadinejad’s re-election..” [Complete Report]
Iran Hardliners Attack News Corp’s Soaps in Farsi [May 29]
“News Corp’s Persian-language channel has infuriated Iran hardliners who accuse the broadcaster of promoting “corruption” in the conservative Islamic society, media reports said on Saturday. News Corp-owned Star broadcaster launched the Farsi1 satellite television channel last summer, airing soaps and sitcoms dubbed into Farsi and targeting a potential 100-million-strong audience in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. “Opinion polls show many viewers of Farsi1 admit that its programmes are corrupting,” the head of Iran’s state-run television Ezatollah Zarghami was quoted as saying by several Tehran newspapers. “However, why people watch this channel is another question,” he added. The leading hardline daily Kayhan on Saturday accused Farsi1 of “promoting dysfunctional families and adultery and portraying unmarried relationships and abortion as normal.” Many Iranians watch satellite television despite it being banned in the Islamic republic, where private TV and radio stations are also forbidden. Dozens of Persian-language satellite channels based abroad beam a daily dose of politics and entertainment to Iran..” [Complete Report]
