Mediaboss Marketing

The White House responded cautiously Friday to claims by an Iranian dissident group alleging that Irans clandestine work on a nuclear weapon has continued unabated by the landmark nuclear deal that Tehran finalized with the Obama administration and five other world powers two years ago.

At a news conference in Washington, members of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) brandished recent satellite imagery and intelligence purportedly derived from informants inside the Iranian military to bolster their claim that the Islamic Regime is still working covertly on what nuclear experts call weaponization: the final station on the path to nuclear weapons.

The engineering unit that is charged and tasked with actually building the bomb in a secret way for the Iranian regime is called the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, said Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of NCRIs Washington office. That unit, whose Persian acronym is SPND, was first exposed by Jafarzadehs group in 2011, and was designated by the State Department in 2014 because U.S. officials said SPND took over some of the activities related to Irans undeclared nuclear program.

Our information shows that their activities have been continuing in full gear, despite the JCPOA, Jafarzadeh said, using the acronym for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which is the formal name for the nuclear deal.

NCRIs startling claim came in the same week that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson certified to Congress that Iran is meeting the terms of the JCPOA but also announced an interagency task force to reevaluate the entire deal, saying the JCPOA is not meeting its objective. President Trump followed that up the next day by saying the Iranians are not living up to the spirit of the agreement.

That prompted a sharp tweet of rebuke from the Iranian foreign minister, an architect of the nuclear deal. Dr. Javad Zarif posted: Well see if US prepared to live up to letter of #JCPOA let alone spirit. So far, it has defied both.

Asked about NCRIs allegation and supporting evidence, Michael Anton, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said only that his colleagues are carefully evaluating the NCRI package against the best intelligence reporting and analysis available to the United States.

NCRIs satellite imagery is focused on the military base at Parchin, a site to which inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency have been granted only limited and tightly controlled access. The photos outline an area in the north of the sprawling base where installations surrounded by berms are visible. According to NCRI officers, the newly constructed site is known internally as Plan 6.

There, the dissident group alleged, a sub-unit of SPND known as METFAZ another Persian acronym for the formal title of the Center for Research and Expansion of Technologies on Explosions and Impact is working with high explosives in ways the NCRI said are identical to the possible military dimension that Western officials long suspected Iran was pursuing with its nuclear program.

Skeptics of NCRI note that it is the political affiliate of an Iranian opposition group, known as MEK, that spent fifteen years on the State Departments list of foreign terror organizations. But many have seen NCRIs disclosures about alleged clandestine nuclear activities or sites in Iran borne out, starting with the groups identification of the theretofore secret installations at Natanz and Arak. Frank Pabian, an adviser on nuclear nonproliferation issues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, was quoted in 2010 as telling the New York Times of the NCRI: Theyre right 90 percent of the time.

To assess the imagery of Plan 6 at Parchin, Fox News consulted a pair of nuclear scientists and arms control analysts who are among the worlds most renowned. David Albright, the trained physicist and former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq, told Fox News the structures visible in the satellite photography are consistent with a facility that makes high explosives; but he noted that Iran has the right to do so under the JCPOA, and that the imagery yielded no outward sign that Iran was also testing high explosives at the site. Still, he believes the IAEA should press for access there. The international inspectors should use authorities under the nuclear deal to go and look at this site, and see what's going on and start to verify a critical part of the nuclear deal, Albright said, namely, those activities involved in the development of nuclear weapons.

Olli Heinonen spent nearly three decades at the IAEA, eventually rising to the level of the number-two official at the agency: deputy director-general. He has traveled to Iran for inspection tours and other business some twenty-five times. He reached a similar assessment about Plan 6, even as both men emphasized the need for more information to make determinative judgments.

We see that the buildings are surrounded by berms; they are a distance from each other. This is a typical design for a site that works with high explosives, Heinonen told FoxNews. I think there are serious questions to be asked [of] the Iranian government. Most likely IAEA should have access to this site.

Neither the IAEA nor the Iranian mission to the United Nations responded to requests for comment.

James Rosen joined Fox News Channel (FNC) in 1999. He currently serves as the chief Washington correspondent and hosts the online show "The Foxhole." His latest book is "A Torch Kept Lit: Great Lives of the Twentieth Century" (Crown Forum, October 4, 2016).

Read more from the original source:
Iran: Group claims regime is 'in full gear' on covert work on nuclear ... - Fox News

Irans Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi has stressed the efficacy of Iranian counter-terrorism work, announcing that Iranian intelligence forces foiled a total of 30 bombing plots in the country last year.

Speaking on Friday, Minister Alavi compared and contrasted the state of security in Iran with that in most other countries.

Whereas people in most countries in the world, especially countries in this region, face a crisis of bombings, assassinations, and insecurity, the nation in the Islamic Republic enjoys lasting security, he said.

Thanks to the alertness of Iranian intelligence forces, there is no such [security] challenge as assassination, explosion, and bombing in the country, Alavi said.

The Iranian intelligence minister said that over the previous year, 30 bombing plots had been learnt about and thwarted in the country. He said only four cases were publicized at the time, however.

Last June, the Intelligence Ministry said it had thwarted a large-scale plot to stage attacks in Irans major cities, including the capital, Tehran.

It also released video footage detailing intelligence operations to track and arrest would-be-attackers in the capital.

In his Friday remarks, Alavi said the Iranian people do not fear death, which he said actsas a powerful deterrent against any form of aggression against the country.

See the article here:
Iran foiled 30 bombing plots last year: Intelligence min. - Press TV

TEHRAN, Iran Iran has announced the final list of candidates for next month's presidential race, which will largely serve as a referendum on the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

President Hassan Rouhani is widely seen as the front-runner, but could face tough competition from hard-line cleric Ebrahim Raisi, who is close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and popular among hard-liners. Former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sought to run but was disqualified.

The following candidates were approved by the Guardian Council, which vets candidates for Iran's elections. Half of its 12 members are clerics appointed by Khamenei, who also makes all final decisions on major policies.

HASSAN ROUHANI

Rouhani, 68, is a moderate elected in 2013 on pledges of greater personal freedoms and improved relations with the West. His government negotiated the 2015 nuclear deal, which saw Iran accept curbs on its nuclear program in exchange for relief from crippling international sanctions.

Since the deal went into effect, Iran has doubled its oil exports and inked multi-billion-dollar aircraft deals with Boeing and Airbus. But critics of the deal say the economic benefits have yet to filter down to ordinary Iranians, creating an opening for Rouhani's hard-line rivals.

Early in his tenure, in 2013, he shared a phone call with then-President Barack Obama, the highest-level exchange between the two countries since Iran's 1979 revolution and the U.S. Embassy hostage crisis.

Rouhani has faced pushback from conservatives and hard-liners, who criticized the nuclear deal as giving too much away and who have blocked many of his Cabinet picks.

___

EBRAHIM RAISI

Raisi, 56, is a hard-line cleric close to Khamenei who has vowed to combat poverty and corruption. He could pose the biggest challenge to Rouhani, especially if he can unify hard-liners.

Last year, Khamenei appointed Raisi as head of the Imam Reza charity foundation, which manages a vast conglomerate of businesses and endowments in Iran. Khamenei called Raisi a "trustworthy and highly experienced" person, causing many to wonder if he might also be a possible successor to the supreme leader himself.

Raisi, who is currently a law professor, previously served as attorney general and deputy judiciary chief. He is a member of the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body that will decide Khamenei's successor, and a prosecutor at a special court that tries clerics.

___

ESHAQ JAHANGIRI

Jahangiri, 60, is a first vice president in Rouhani's government and a fellow moderate.

He was the minister of industries and mines from 1997 to 2005, under reformist President Mohammad Khatami, and before that served as governor of Isfahan Province.

He was close to the late and influential President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, as well as Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force. Soleimani has played a key role in Iran's efforts to bolster President Bashar Assad's forces in Syria and help neighboring Iraq combat the Islamic State group.

___

MOSTAFA HASHEMITABA

Hashemitaba, who served as minister of industry in the 1980s, is a pro-reform figure who previously ran for president in 2001.

Both Jahangiri and Hashemitaba are expected to promote Rouhani. Their candidacies appear to be aimed at providing balance in the face of three hard-line and conservative candidates.

___

MOHAMMAD BAGHER QALIBAF

Qalibaf, 55, the conservative mayor of Tehran, is running for president for the third time, having previously lost to Ahmadinejad in 2005 and Rouhani in 2013.

His candidacy could be marred by January's massive fire at the Plasco building, a historic high-rise in downtown Tehran. The fire caused the building to collapse and killed 26 people, including 16 firefighters.

Qalibaf was Iran's chief of police from 2000 to 2005 and commander of the Revolutionary Guard's air force from 1997 to 2000. He is also a pilot, certified to fly certain Airbus passenger planes.

___

MOSTAFA MIRSALIM

Mirsalim, 69, was shot and wounded during the unrest leading up to the 1979 revolution. He went on to serve as deputy interior minister and police chief. He was the minister of culture for four years under Rafsanjani, a centrist who was president from 1989 to 1997.

Read more:
A look at Iran's presidential candidates - Fox News

A Father's Torment: Iran Took Richard Ratcliffe's Family and He Can't Get Them Back Wall Street Journal (subscription) A Father's Torment: Iran Took Richard Ratcliffe's Family and He Can't Get Them Back. For a year, the British accountant has sought the release of his aid-worker wife, Nazanin, after Iran jailed her for allegedly threatening national security. His ... and more »

Continued here:
A Father's Torment: Iran Took Richard Ratcliffe's Family and He Can't Get Them Back - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Iranian-American groups attempted to deliver another legal blow to President Donald Trumps efforts to keep refugees and immigrants from six mostly Muslim nations out of the U.S.

Those groups, plus about a dozen people, asked a U.S. judge in Washington Friday to block portions of the presidents March 6 executive order and to add that ruling to previous decisions from Maryland and Hawaii federal courts that put parts of his edict on hold nationwide.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan immediately wanted to know what it was those suing wanted from her. What are you asking me to enjoin? the judge asked plaintiffs attorney John Freedman when he stepped to the podium, adding later that she didnt want to grant or deny his clients request, just as an academic exercise.

Freedman called the presidential decree inherently discriminatory, and said Chutkans ruling is needed to protect the the rights of his clients.

A win in Washington would likely boost arguments in support of the prior rulings when a federal appeals court considers the Maryland appeal next month, University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias said.

Theres all kinds of reasons to proceed, he said, explaining that a win gives opponents of the presidents immigration crackdown public and legal momentum and provides reinforcement in the event either the Hawaii or Maryland outcome is overturned. Each of those trial-level courts answer to a different regional federal appeals courts. Divergent appellate outcomes would likely send the cases to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trumps order was his second attempt to halt for 90 days the issuance of visas to travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, while simultaneously stopping refugeesfrom entering the U.S. for 120 days. The prior order, issued Jan. 27, was more broadly written. It was blocked by a San Francisco-based appeals court reviewing a decision in federal court in Seattle.

Attorneys challenging Trump have contended the orders were thinly disguised attempts to bar Muslims from entering the U.S., fulfilling a campaign pledge. Freedman and plaintiffs lawyer Johnathan Smith each cited statements made by the president and his advisers as proof of motive for the order.

Government lawyers have fought to separate those campaign comments from acts taken after the president took office. But that defense has been undercut by the presidents own rhetoric. At a Nashville, Tennessee, rally only hours after the March 15 ruling by a Hawaii judge, Trump called the revised policy a watered-down version of the failed first effort, adding that he still preferred the first.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Chad Readler touted the differences between the first and second executive orders in court, telling Chutkan the revised version was facially neutral with regard to religion. He said the measures were necessary national-security precautions and that courts cant second guess the presidents judgment in protecting the country.

Chutkan, a one-time federal public defender appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2014, is the first judge to consider the legality of the presidents decree since U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga in Alexandria denied a request to block it on March 24.

The most important market news of the day.

Get our markets daily newsletter.

The Washington lawsuit was filed by the Pars Equality Center, a Menlo Park, California-based social and legal-service organization for Iranian-Americans. Among those joining Pars in that case is the Iranian American Bar Association, whose president, attorney Babak Yousefzadeh, was one of two people who testified in support of their bid for an order blocking Trumps decree, at an April 18 proceeding before Chutkan.

The presidents order, Yousefzadeh said, was preventing Iranian medical students from participating in U.S. programs and depriving Iranian Americans from enjoying the same rights as other Americans, including the ability to be visited by relatives from overseas and have them take part in family occasions.

Plaintiffs lawyer Smith argued for the Washington-based Universal Muslim Association of America, which had filed a parallel suit.

The cases are Pars Equality Center v. Trump, 17-cv-255, and Universal Muslim Association of America v. Trump, 17-cv-537, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

More here:
Trump Travel Ban Back in Court as Iran Groups Open New Front - Bloomberg