Reuters: China’s Iranian crude oil imports expanded 36 percent in May from a year ago to the second highest on record, customs data showed on Monday, and imports in the first five months of 2014 gained nearly 50 percent over the same year-ago period. China, Tehran’s largest oil client, has since late 2013 been stepping up purchases from the OPEC country.
China’s May Iran crude imports up 36%, 2nd highest on record
Iran rejects U.S. action in Iraq, ISIL tightens Syria border grip
Reuters: Iran’s supreme leader accused the United States on Sunday of trying to retake control of Iraq by exploiting sectarian rivalries, as Sunni insurgents drove towards Baghdad from new strongholds along the Syrian border. Speaking in Cairo, Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States wanted Iraqis to find a leadership that would represent all the country’s communities.
Iran could outsource its nuclear-weapons program to North Korea
Wall Street Journal: As the Iran nuclear talks grind toward a soft July 20 deadline in Vienna, U.S. negotiators and their partners seem oblivious to a loophole that could render any agreement meaningless. Tehran could outsource the completion of a bomb to its longtime ally, North Korea. As a venue for secretly completing and testing a nuclear bomb, North Korea would be ideal.
Embattled Nouri al-Maliki ‘will not go quietly,’ foes and friends say
Washington Post: Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani did not directly mention Maliki, but he called for the creation of a government that has “broad national support,” a clear reference to Maliki’s failure to win the confidence of the country’s Sunnis during his eight years in office. The message was delivered by his representative Ahmed al-Safi in the holy city of Karbala.
Khamenei says Iran strongly opposes US intervention in Iraq
Reuters: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed strong opposition on Sunday to intervention in Iraq by the United States or anyone else, saying Iraqis themselves could bring an end to violence there, the official IRNA news agency reported. “We are strongly opposed to U.S. and other (countries’) intervention in Iraq,” IRNA quoted Khamenei as saying.
Fox in the henhouse: Obama’s newest middle-east mistake
American Thinker: With our typical lack of foresight, we have sanctioned that Iran send its special black-ops forces to protect Baghdad. How conveniently we have “forgotten” that on Baghdad’s western flank, a kilometer north of the Baghdad International Airport, sits Camp “Liberty,” where some 3,000 Iranian refugee opponents of the Tehran regime reside.
Iran won’t let women watch the world cup
The Daily Beast: Fans are experiencing further obstacles to watching the sports they love. Cinema owners had hoped to arrange screenings for this year’s World Cup games. But General Ahmadi Moghadam, commander of Iran’s Security Forces, announced that football matches would not be shown in cinemas to mixed audiences. It would only be tolerated if men and women watched games in separate halls.
Iran rejects ‘excessive demands’ in nuclear talks with six powers
Reuters: Iran told six big powers on Friday it would not accept their “excessive demands” after the latest talks on lifting sanctions against Tehran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear work yielded no breakthrough, with a deadline for a deal just a month away. U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman said it was Iran that would need to shift its position.
Iran says Obama remarks show U.S. not serious in fighting terrorism
Reuters: President Barack Obama’s plan to send advisers to Iraq to help Baghdad counter Sunni Islamist militants shows the United States is not serious about fighting terrorism, an Iranian official was quoted by official media as saying on Friday. Obama on Thursday offered up to 300 Americans to help coordinate the fight against ISIL. But he held off granting a request for air strikes from the Shi’ite-led government.
Freedom of information still flouted a year after Rouhani’s election
Reporters Without Borders: Reporters Without Borders condemns the lack of progress for freedom of information and the unacceptable conditions in which journalists and netizens are still detained a year after the moderate conservative Hassan Rouhani’s election as Iran’s president on 14 June 2013. Iran is ranked 173rd out of 180 countries in the 2014 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.
