Eye on Iran: Iran Dismisses UN Allegations Of Severe Human Rights Abuses

Join UANI           Top Stories Reuters: "Iran on Tuesday dismissed a U.N. investigator's allegations of severe human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic, saying the criticisms were aimed at inciting 'Iranophobia and Islamophobia.' The latest report, by U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Iran Ahmed Shaheed, says executions in Iran have sharply increased since President Hassan Rouhani's election last year. He said torture is used in prisons, the situation of women has deteriorated and religious minorities are still persecuted. Iranian envoy Forouzandeh Vadiati told the U.N. General Assembly's Third Committee, which focuses on human rights, that its discussion of her country was a fruitless annual ritual". http://t.uani.com/1Dt078j WSJ: "The Obama administration and Iran, engaged in direct nuclear negotiations and facing a common threat from Islamic State militants, have moved into an effective state of détente over the past year, according to senior U.S. and Arab officials. The shift could drastically alter the balance of power in the region, and risks alienating key U.S. allies such as Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates who are central to the coalition fighting Islamic State. Sunni Arab leaders view the threat posed by Shiite Iran as equal to or greater than that posed by the Sunni radical group Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. Israel contends the U.S. has weakened the terms of its negotiations with Iran and played down Tehran's destabilizing role in the region". http://t.uani.com/1tfE0PY     Nuclear Program & Negotiations AFP: "Iran's government was forced to deny Tuesday it had already struck a nuclear deal with the West, after a lawmaker accused its negotiators of secretly selling the country short. In a sign of the domestic tension surrounding talks being held abroad with world powers, Iran's foreign ministry threatened to prosecute the member of parliament who said an agreement that breaches the Islamic republic's 'red lines' had been settled. A group of hardline MPs in Tehran have repeatedly warned Iran has already given up too much in talks with the United States and other leading nations under an interim deal that traded curbs on its nuclear programme for limited sanctions relief." http://t.uani.com/136tFgX NYT: "With the deadline of Nov. 24 fast approaching, it is far from clear whether the two camps will agree on a pact that would meet the West's demands to extend the time it would take Iran to make a bomb, and fulfill Iran's demand that it have the nuclear rights other nations enjoy. But American and European officials say they think they have some new leverage: falling oil prices that are adding to Iran's pain at a time its oil revenue has dropped more than half because of sanctions." http://t.uani.com/1zeTs3A Sanctions Relief  Trend: "National Iranian Oil Company's Director of International Affairs Seyyed Mohesen Qamsari said that Iran has started exporting liquid gas (LPG) to European countries.'Iran has started exporting single cargos to certain countries,' he said, Iran's Mehr News Agency reported Oct. 29."Iran is currently exporting all its surplus liquid gas," Qamsari said, adding that the country is facing no problem in this regard. He went on to note that Iran averagely exports 100,000 metric tons of liquid gas per day to different countries. 'South Korea is the main importer of Iran's liquid gas,' the official said, noting that East and Southeast Asian countries are the biggest importers of Iran's liquid gas".  http://t.uani.com/1wCJe9Y Human Rights The Daily Beast: "Long before Reyhanneh Jabbari was executed in Iran this weekend, she was tortured and beaten for months - and then sent to one of Iran's most notorious prisons, one of her lawyers claimed. Her crime? Killing the man who tried to rape her when she was just 19. 'They kept her in a solitary cell where she was chained,' Jabbari's first lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei said in an interview with The Daily Beast. 'They would blindfold her sometimes for days and they beat her face and her head.' Jabbari's execution on Saturday was widely condemned by human groups such as Amnesty International on the grounds that it illustrates how Iran's own legal system is prejudiced against women. (She was initially charged with the crime in 2007.) http://t.uani.com/1wEWav1 Domestic Politics Bloomberg: "Iran's parliament overwhelmingly rejected Hassan Rouhani's nominee to head the science ministry, in a boost to the president's hardline opponents. The president had nominated Mahmoud Nili Ahmadabadi, the chancellor of Tehran University, to run the ministry that oversees Iran's universities, following the impeachment of the previous science minister, Reza Faraji-Dana, on Aug. 20. Faraji-Dana irked hardliners for allowing the return of students and professors expelled from colleges -- some for political activities -- during the rule of Rouhani's predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ali Larijani, the speaker and leader of Iran's Majles, or parliament, said 160 lawmakers voted against the appointment and 79 in favor, in a live broadcast on Iran's state-run Islamic Republic News Network. Rouhani appeared before legislators ahead of the vote to defend his choice, telling lawmakers that 'the people appreciate neither distance, nor, God forbid, stubbornness.'" http://t.uani.com/1wFBcOs Foreign Affairs Washington Post: "Last month, visitors to Bandar Abbas on Iran's southern coast gathered to witness a never-seen-before event: two Chinese warships pulling into port .It could be just the start of a budding naval alliance stretching from the Pacific to the Persian Gulf. Iranian and Chinese commanders last week announced plans for greater maritime cooperation. While the details are vague, it clearly touches ambitions on both sides: Expanding the reach of their warships into faraway seas and new ports of call. And, at the same time, giving a jab at the United States and its preeminent naval power". http://t.uani.com/1yH1H5p Reuters: "Iran accused Turkey on Tuesday of prolonging the three-year conflict in neighboring Syria by insisting on President Bashar al-Assad's overthrow and supporting "terrorist groups" in Syria, the official IRNA news agency reported. Tehran and Ankara back opposing sides in the civil war, which pits rebel forces including radical Sunni Muslim fighters from the Islamic State against Assad, Tehran's closest regional ally. Turkey, which has called for Assad to step down, has been a main transit point for foreign militants crossing into Syria to fight his forces, while Iran has supported him both militarily and politically". http://t.uani.com/13aRILN Opinion & Analysis Sen. Charles S. Robb (D-Va.), U.S.A.F. Gen. Charles Wald (ret.) and Blaise Misztal in The Hill: "A diplomatic agreement still remains the most desirable method for ensuring that Iran's totalitarian regime does not acquire a nuclear weapons capability. But pursuing a deal that does not fully prevent such an outcome, only delays it, could be dangerous for our national security. And doing so without the involvement, and against the considered judgment, of Congress would certainly be dangerous to our nation's already fragile civic health. According to The New York Times, U.S. negotiators are considering how to structure a potential deal with Iran such that lawmakers need not approve it. The motivation for this approach stems from the fact that, since the United States and its international partners inked an interim deal with Iran almost a year ago, Capitol Hill and the White House have been at odds over both the means and ends of the negotiations". http://t.uani.com/1tLUxxV      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 Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons.  UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.