AP: Iranian authorities have restored blocks on Facebook and Twitter after a “technical glitch” briefly removed filters from the social networks overnight.
Iran restores blocks on Facebook, Twitter
Iran: In letter to Obama, Rouhani offers his views
AP: Iran’s foreign ministry says the letter exchange between Washington and Tehran included White House’s congratulations on the election of Iran’s new moderate-leaning president.
Iranian offer of deal on nuclear program met by doubts
Bloomberg: Iran’s offer to negotiate a deal on its suspected nuclear weapons program with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the five permanent United Nations Security Council members and Germany, is being met with skepticism.
US: no current plans for Obama-Rowhani meeting
AFP: The White House said Monday there were no current plans for President Barack Obama to see Iran’s new president at the UN next week, but did not definitively rule out a meeting.
Judge: Iran-backed company behind NYC office tower
AP: An office tower is subject to forfeiture because revenue from it was secretly funneled to a state-owned Iranian bank in violation of a U.S. trade embargo, a judge ruled Monday. The Iranian government has been designated by the U.S. as a sponsor of international terrorism.
Iranians dial up presence in Syria
Wall Street Journal: At a base near Tehran, Iranian forces are training Shiite militiamen from across the Arab world to do battle in Syria—showing the widening role of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria’s bloody war.
MPs call for ‘probe’ into the massacre at Camp Ashraf
NewsBlaze: The massacres of Iranian dissidents by the al-Maliki government in Iraq, acting as a puppet of Iran continued this month, even though the unarmed people in the camp have been designated “protected persons” by the United Nations.
Syria accord draws Republican skepticism as Obama pushes plan
Bloomberg: Republican lawmakers questioned whether a U.S. agreement with Russia will succeed in eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons as President Barack Obama said the plan will reduce the chances of another poison gas attack.
Rouhani: Iran will accept any elected Syria ruler
AP: Iran’s President Hasan Rouhani says his country will accept anyone as ruler of Syria who is elected by the Syrian people. His remarks reported by the official news agency IRNA are a slight change of emphasis from comments by other Iranian leaders.
Chemical weapons deal wins time for Syria’s Assad but at a cost
Reuters: Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons bargain with Russia and the United States offers another political and military lifeline to the Syrian president, just two years after he was dismissed in Washington as a “dead man walking”.
