The Washington Post reported that an Iranian state-run newspaper has denounced the detention of its chief editor and 39 other staffers amid a scandal surrounding President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s press adviser. The daily IRAN Farsi appeared in print on Tuesday with half of its front page blank. The paper says it’s a protest over the detentions Monday of chief editor Mossayeb Naeimi and other staffers. It says the detentions “hamper” the paper’s work. The detentions appear linked to a power struggle between Ahmadinejad and his opponents ahead of March parliamentary elections and specifically, to a scandal over the president’s press adviser, Ali Akbar Javanfekr. Javanfekr, who also runs IRAN Farsi, has been sentenced to one year in prison and banned from journalism for three years for publishing material “contrary to Islamic norms.”
The same information agency published the article headlined “U.S., allies hit Iran with new sanctions.” It says that the Obama administration opened a new front Monday in its campaign to squeeze Iran economically by formally designating the country’s entire financial sector a “money laundering concern,” a move intended to discourage companies from doing business with Iranian banks. The unusual measure was unveiled as U.S. officials announced new sanctions against Iran’s oil industry and expanded the growing ranks of Iranian companies and individuals blacklisted from trading with Americans. The White House stopped short of imposing sanctions directly on the Central Bank of Iran, as some U.S. lawmakers have urged.
The same theme was touched by The Los Angeles Times, which published the article subtitled “U.S. slaps Iran with more sanctions.” It says that In an announcement coordinated with Britain and Canada, U.S. officials said they were imposing new punishments aimed at Iran's petrochemical sector and organizations involved in the country's nuclear program or terrorism, such as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and its elite Quds Force. U.S. officials say the Quds Force has a long history of sponsoring terrorist acts abroad, that it supplies arms and training to insurgents who have killed American troops in Iraq and that it carries out covert operations, including assassinations. The most damaging new step will be a move to identify Iran as a source of "primary money-laundering concern." Officials hope the move will prompt many international companies to break off business with Iran for fear of damaging their own reputations.
‘Turkey against action on Syria’ is an article published by the Turkish information agency Hurriyet Daily News. It says that Turkey does not welcome any outside intervention in Syria for the moment, Turkish President Abdullah Gül has said, suggesting that change should instead come from within the country. “We never wanted to see Syria in such a dead end. What needs to be done is clear. We strongly support the decisions taken by the Arab League on Syria,” Gül said in reference to a plan to end the violence and begin enacting reforms. Turkey does not act on the orders of others but is listening to the voice of the Syrian people, Gül said on his way to Britain on November 20. Asked whether he was worried of a civil war in Syria, Gül said, “Of course.”
A large article on Iran's nuclear program was published in this week's issue of Russian magazine The New Times. The authors of the article asked several experts from Norway, France and Israel to comment on the current situation surrounding the problem and its predicted further development. "The question is not whether Iran is going to have a bomb, but when it's going to have it," French expert Bruno Tertre says. According to him, the Israeli sources proving that bomb will be ready by 2012 are more reliable then the US ones, according to which no bomb will be produced until 2014. This means that Iran will become a nuclear country if no one stops it, the expert explains. Pavel Bayev, professor of Oslo University, still doesn't believe that Israel is going to launch a massive military attack on Iran. "There are still other measures that can be taken, so Israel has no need to bombard Iran," the expert says. Israeli expert Mennahem Yakub admits that cyber attacks are useful to damage nuclear laboratories, while they are still being constructed, but says that during the final stages a military attack is necessary to prevent production. This means that Israeli forces may attack the underground nuclear laboratory in Fordu.
