OIAC Brief on Iran, September 15th 2014

 NCRI News

Former Minister of Science, Research and Technology of the Iranian regime announced the annual departure of 150,000 elites from the country and said: With the migration of the brains, we annually assist other countries with $150 billion.

Reza Faraji- Dana, Rouhani’s first Minister of Science, who was recently impeached  by the regime’s parliament (Majlis) said this in an interview with Jomhouri- Islami , a state-run daily on September 7.

 NCRI News 

More websites that had long been tolerated by the regime will be blocked in near future, an official of the Ministry of Culture responsible for restricting access to media has declared.

The press deputy of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance (also known as Ershad) said the regime will block any news website that have not been registered.

The new wave of blocking of websites that could include thousands of websites comes few days after the Ministry’s Press Deputy declared that all online newspapers are now required to register with the Ministry.

Hossein Entezami said that all news and news sites “will now be responsible for providing the name and address of the owner, and its director” to the Ministry.

 NCRI News 

A British Iranian woman, arrested along with more than a dozen women as they tried to enter a stadium, has been in an Iranian prison for more than two months for trying to watch a men’s volleyball match. Ghoncheh Ghavami, 25, tried to watch the Iranian national men’s team playing against Italy on20 June.

She was released from custody but when she went back to collect her belongings days later, she was arrested a second time and transferred to Tehran’s notorious Evin jail, which is known for holding political prisoners and journalists, Independent reported.

THIS WEEK, President Obama announced his strategy for countering the threat of the Islamic State to the stability of the Middle East and, increasingly, to the US homeland. He offered a combination of tactics, including going on the offense to hunt down Islamic State members and assets, as well as building international coalitions to provide military and humanitarian support and to counter the nihilistic propaganda of the jihadist group. According to the administration, many regional actors will play a part, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Secretary of State John Kerry had even hinted that Iran should be enlisted. That would be a dangerously naive mistake. Draining the swamp in which the Islamic State grows and thrives – radicalized sectarian conflict – requires the United States to challenge, not embrace, Tehran.

(Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday it was “not appropriate” for Iran to join talks on confronting Islamic State militants, as he appeared to play down how fast countries can commit to force or other steps in an emerging coalition.

Kerry met Turkish leaders to try to secure backing for U.S.-led action against Islamic State militants, but Ankara’s reluctance to play a frontline role highlighted the difficulty of building a willing coalition for a complex military campaign in the heart of the Middle East.

Al-Manitor

Remember Iran? The dominant foreign policy issue of the past year has fallen by the wayside as Congress focuses on the rise of the Islamic State (IS). Republicans who just months ago vowed to use every tool at their disposal to force a vote on new sanctions in the Senate have shelved those plans, and even the GOP-controlled House isn’t scheduled to hold a single hearing before the midterm elections. The shift in focus has given President Barack Obama’s negotiating team welcome breathing room as it pursues a nuclear deal in Vienna, even as congressional skeptics fret that Iran will take advantage of the lull in attention.

“The negotiators need the room to work,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations panel on the Near East. “And I think maybe a little bit less pushing and pulling from this angle may help that work be done.”

With Nouri al-Maliki out as prime minister of Iraq, is the country on the verge of entering into a new era of freedom and stability? Will Haider al-Abbadi truly prove to be the leader of a unity government that reaches out to the Sunnis, Kurds, and others who had been shut out by Maliki’s Shia dictatorship? Will the Abbadi government, together with new-found military support from the West, be capable of halting the progress of the Islamic State group and reclaiming Iraq for the Iraqi people?

The answers to all of these questions remain very much in the air, and policymakers must guard themselves against thinking otherwise. The removal of Maliki is a good first step, but it doesn’t guarantee unity. Fighting against the Islamic State group is commendable, but it shouldn’t lead Western powers to think that other threats in the region are diminished in either importance or seriousness.

 Reuters

Wed Sep 3, 2014

DUBAI (Reuters) – Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said Tehran would continue to bypass sanctions after the United States penalised a number of companies for violating sanctions imposed on Iran, mostly in connection with its nuclear programme.

On Friday, the United States imposed a fresh round of curbs on a number of Iranian and foreign companies, banks and airlines. The new measures came just over two weeks before talks between Iran and six world powers on Tehran’s nuclear programme resume in New York.