Thursday Iran Talking Points

from LobeLog: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for September 30th, 2010:

The Washington Post: Thomas Erdbrink reports that sanctions imposed against Iran by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have resulted in the Iranian rial dropping in value against the U.S. dollar (by 15 percent) and the Euro since Sunday. With hard currency scarce and exchange rates on the rise, the government will receive more rials for its petrodollars to boost its income. This in turn may lead to inflation. The UAE is one of the largest finance and trading hubs in the Middle East and has been under pressure from the U.S. to impose sanctions on Iran.

The Wall Street Journal: The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies’ Mark Dubowitz and Benjamin Weinthal repeat their warnings that European firms, specifically in Germany and Switzerland, continue to do business with Iran. They say that a Swiss firm continues to provide equipment to an Iranian engineering firm and that Swiss and German companies continue to sign energy deals with the Islamic Republic. “Neither [the Swiss firm that signed a gas contract with Iran] nor any other company has been sanctioned by the U.S. Senior Obama Administration officials have told us that they are ‘very, very close’ to a decision on which firms will face penalties under U.S. law,” say Dubowitz and Weinthal. They conclude with a warning that, “The German Chancellor Angela Merkel should be held to the promises she made, including to the U.S Congress and Israeli Knesset, to stop Iran’s nuclear drive. The same goes for the rest of Europe.”

The New York Times: John Markoff and David Sanger write there may be a Biblical reference built into the code of the Stuxnet virus, which appears to have been designed to infect computers related to Iran’s nuclear program. The reference is to “the Book of Esther, the Old Testament tale in which the Jews pre-empt a Persian plot to destroy them.” Neither the Israelis nor the U.S., which both have robust cyber-warfare programs, have claimed involvement. No matter the origins, the virus serves Western interests by “ramp[ing] up psychological pressure,” observes one unnamed former U.S. intelligence official. The reporters cite a slew of troubles Iran has encountered with its nuclear program: “[S]omething — perhaps the worm or some other form of sabotage, bad parts or a dearth of skilled technicians — is indeed slowing Iran’s advance.”

Foreign Policy: Barbara Slavin interviews former Congressman and elder statesman Lee Hamilton, who is stepping down from his role as director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Hamilton will continue to advise President Obama on foreign policy and intelligence matters. He noted the President ignored his pleas to pursue the Turkish-Brazilian-brokered fuel swap agreement, which Hamilton said “wasn’t too different from what we had suggested” to Iran the previous fall. He added the U.S. “should have tried to build on the positive aspects of it” and thought the deal would come back up in future negotiations. Though currently favoring engagement and opposed to military strikes, Hamilton told Slavin: “A year from now I don’t know how I’ll feel.”

Author: Ali Gharib

Visit Lobelog.com for the latest news analysis and commentary from Ali Gharib and Inter Press News Service's Washington bureau chief Jim Lobe.

5 thoughts on “Thursday Iran Talking Points”

  1. Before you go praising Lee Hamilton, you may wish to read this:

    Here is a scathing letter written by Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-NY) to his former colleague, Lee Hamilton, due to the WWC’s giving an undeserved award to the Turkish Foreign Minister in June:
    http://ackerman.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=186

    The well-known writer Claudia Rosett takes the Wilson Center to task (“What Kind of Washington Fools Would Honor Turkey’s Foreign Minister?”):
    http://pajamasmedia.com/claudiarosett/what-kind-o

    A Wilson family descendant, Donald Wilson Bush, blasts the Wilson Center – twice (“Pawn for the Wrong President,” and “Presidential Legacy for Sale”):
    http://usaarmenianlife.com/PawnForTheWrongPresidehttp://usaarmenianlife.com/PresLegacyforSale.html

  2. Finally, an expose of the Wilson Center by myself (“The Woodrow Wilson Center Desecrates Its Namesake’s Legacy And Violates Its Congressional Mandate”) that kicked off the criticisms above:
    http://www.countercurrents.org/boyajian060510.htm

    Incidentally, you will be hearing more about the WWC and Mr. Hamilton soon. Lee Hamilton has been serving as president of the Wilson Center, he has also been on the board of BAE Systems, Inc., (a major donor to the WWC), Carbon Motors, and the Albright-Stonebridge group (headed by Madeline Albright and Sandy Berger).

  3. So, how is the War on Terror (Islam) going? Our great "victory" in Iraq is phoney; we couldn't even turn our backs long enough to exit. We are slowly getting our butts whipped in Afghanistan, because quite frankly every citizen there rightly hates our guts unless they are corrupt. We are trearting our Pakistan hosts like our enemies. We are making enemies in Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, and probably other small Islamic countries that are out of public view. Is this not enough? Not for the Zionist bastards. They want destruction upon Iran, Syria, Lebanon.
    How do we get out of this slow annihilation of our own country? An old barroom tale is of a guy and his buddy going into a bar and the guy's buddy starts trying to pick a fight with a whole lot of strangers. To save himself, the guy has to be the first one to punch his buddy in the mouth.

  4. I forgot an important point of the barroom tale – actually the guy had to punch his buddy in the mouth to save BOTH of them from getting really hurt.

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