03/04/2015
3 April 2015 (RT)* – The US is getting an absolutely incredible deal with Iran, receiving everything it wanted, while the Islamic Republic – after all concessions – was again placed at the mercy of IAEA, according to Hooshang Amirahmadi, President of American-Iranian Council.
**Image: Tehran skyline view from top of Milad Tower | Author: Simisa | Wikimedia Commons
RT: How do you think this deal could change the balance of power in the region?
Hooshang Amirahmadi: It has a long way to go, because the nuclear issue was isolated from other problems that the United States has with Iran, including the Arab-Israeli conflict, the very existence of Israel, terrorism issue, the human rights issue, and so on.
And the Middle East is becoming increasingly more complicated as a place: A lot of failed states around, and many may even follow later on.
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03/04/2015
‘Iran and six world powers reached a deal designed to allay Western fears that Iran seeks to build an atomic bomb and in return lift economic sanctions on Tehran’
**Image: View of the United States Capitol from the United States Supreme Court building. | Author: debaird | Wikimedia Commons
New York, 2 April 2015 (Middle East Eye) –– Experts responded positively to Thursday’s announcement of a framework deal for addressing Iran’s nuclear programme, but it remained unclear whether the agreement would satisfy hard-liners in Washington and Tehran.
“I’m wildly impressed by it,” Jacqueline Shire, a former member of the UN Panel of Experts on Iran, told
Middle East Eye..
“This is Iran saying it is opening the doors and lifting its hood, letting people look inside. But then Iran gets to walk away with dignity intact because they keep an enrichment programme, 6,000 centrifuges is nothing to sneeze at.”
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After eight days of marathon talks in Switzerland, Iran and six world powers reached a framework deal designed to allay Western fears that Iran seeks to build an atomic bomb and in return lift economic sanctions on Tehran.
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03/04/2015
By John Wight*
3 April 2015 (RT)* — The historic framework agreement over Iran’s nuclear program, reached after extensive talks in Lausanne, marks a triumph of sanity amid the insanity responsible for the chaos and carnage across the Middle East.
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**Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel addresses the General Assembly. UN Photo/J Carrier | [Netanyahu showing a cartoon of “Iranian nuclear bomb”]
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This insanity is most clearly represented by Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, whose tireless efforts to drag the US into war with the Islamic Republic have exposed him as a reckless and dangerous extremist, a man with a Manichean worldview that has more in common with a biblical character from the Old Testament than the leader of an advanced economy in the 21st century.
Iran poses no threat to Israel’s existence.
On the contrary, it is Israel that poses a threat to the existence of the Palestinian people, whose oppression at its hands stands as an indictment of the so-called international community and its self-proclaimed status as a champion of human rights and democratic values.
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03/04/2015
3 April 2015 (RT)* — After 18 months of negotiating, Iran has come to a preliminary agreement with China, Russia, France, UK, US and Germany (P5+1) on Tehran’s nuclear program. But what is Iran giving up to seal the deal and how can it benefit in the long run?
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**Main sites of Iran’s nuclear program | Author: Yagasi, translation of the original work by Sémhur | Wikimedia Commons
Uranium enrichment – Iran has agreed to only enrich uranium to 3.67%
What is it? The process of turning uranium found in the ground into nuclear fuel that can be used to create nuclear energy, or potentially a nuclear bomb.
Why is it important? To build a nuclear bomb, uranium needs to be enriched to about 90 percent. The 3.67 percent agreed by Tehran means it would be practically impossible for Iran to build a nuclear weapon, but would allow it to use nuclear material for peaceful purposes.
The outcome: Iran gets to keep its nuclear program, albeit a limited one, while the likes of the US now know it will be much harder for Tehran to build a bomb.
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03/04/2015
By Isadora Wronski*
2 April 2015 (Greenpeace) — Climate science has made it clear that Arctic oil needs to stay in the ground if we want to avoid the worst impacts from global climate change. We know it and we also know that Shell knows it too.
Credit: Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace
Knowingly going ahead with an Arctic oil exploration programme that would threaten this unique northern environment, the livelihoods of the people who depend on it whilst further altering our climate just for the sake of a company’s short term profit is cynical in the extreme. In fact, we think it’s totally unacceptable.
The US government admits there’s a 75% chance that oil drilling in the Chukchi sea will result in a large oil spill at some point.
And to add to that risk factor; Shell is bringing in Transocean, the same company that owned the rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexcio, killing 11 people and causing the biggest marine oil spill of all time.
Taking that risk to try to wring out a few more drops of oil that our climate can’t afford to burn is completely mad. It shows just how far this company is willing to go, unless we stop them.
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03/04/2015
2 April 2015 – Every five years policy-makers and practitioners working in crime prevention and criminal justice gather for the United Nations Crime Congress to help shape the agenda and standards of the UN in this area.*
Source: UNODC
The Thirteenth Crime Congress being held in Doha, Qatar, from 12-19 April 2015 marks the 60th anniversary of these meetings and is set to consider how best to integrate these important areas into the United Nations’ global work in addressing social and economic challenges.
The Crime Congress is the world’s largest and most diverse gathering of Governments, civil society, academia and experts in crime prevention and criminal justice.
For the past six decades the congresses have had an impact on policies and strengthened international cooperation against the global threat of transnational organized crime.
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02/04/2015
By Almigdad Mojalli*
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SANA’A, 1 April 2015 (IRIN) – Yemen’s war continued to escalate on Wednesday, with Saudi-led airstrikes in most major cities and firefights across the country.
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**Photo: Almigdad Mojalli/IRIN | Yemenis queue to buy flour and wheat in the capital Sana’a
Saudi Arabia and its allies are seeking to depose Houthi rebels who claimed control of the capital Sana’a last September.
After another night of heavy bombing on Tuesday, thousands of people scrambled to get out of Sana’a for the relative safety of the countryside.
At petrol stations across the city, residents queued for hours to fill their cars after rumours that the warplanes were targeting vehicles carrying petrol. On Monday, 14 civilians were killed and another 31 wounded after a strike hit a petrol tanker in the central governorate of Ibb.
Many petrol stations had run dry by the afternoon.
“We are waiting to get fuel because we heard that Saudi jet fighters started targeting the gas and fuel vehicles. I am really worried because in that case, people won’t be able to move,” Majid Nassar, 22, explained.
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02/04/2015
By Bill Van Auken*
1 April 2015 — With the launching of the US-backed military intervention in Yemen, virtually the entire Middle East is engulfed by military conflict, a state of affairs that has no precedent, with the possible exception of the two world wars fought in the 20th century.
Source: Socialistworker.org
Washington’s pursuit of policies from one conflict to the next that are seemingly at odds with one another has provoked mounting expressions of concern from major US think tanks and editorial boards—not to mention nominal allies in Europe—over “strategic incoherence.”
To describe as glaring the contradictions that riddle US foreign policy in the Middle East does not do them justice.
In Yemen, the Obama administration has announced its full backing, with the provision of logistical assistance, arms (including cluster bombs) and targeting intelligence, to an intervention spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, the other Sunni oil monarchies and the Egyptian regime of Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
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02/04/2015
1 April 2015 (RT)* – Hundreds of British firms operating abroad may be implicated in severe human rights abuses such as modern slavery, poverty-level wages, beatings, killings and environmental damage, an international NGO warns.
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**The inspection and sale of a slave” | Author: Brantz Mayer | Wikimedia Commons
A report released by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre on Wednesday found that British businesses impact heavily on communities and individuals around the globe.
The NGO’s research suggests UK firms are linked to human rights scandals worldwide, many of which occur in developing nations.
This improper conduct is compounded by “critical weaknesses” in UK regulation that leave victims in foreign states defenseless against firms’ “negligent or reckless” practices, the research found.
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02/04/2015
1 April 2015 – As the Economic and Social Council concluded its three-day segment on boosting integration of the three pillars of sustainable development, the body’s Vice-President said he would work with the United Nations labour agency to follow-up on delegates’ work by launching an international entity to help address the issue of providing employment and decent work to people around the world.
Youth unemployment | Photo: ILO
“I am pleased to inform you that I and the Director-General of ILO are working towards launching a Global Network of Stakeholders on Employment Creation and Decent Work for Sustainable Development,” said Vladimir Drobnjak, Vice-President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).*
“We are holding consultations with the potential members of this network. This network will be Council’s contribution towards addressing this global challenge of monumental proportions.”
Drobnjak said the outcome of this week’s work would serve as an important contribution to ECOSOC’s high-level segment, including the high-level political forum on sustainable development and he stressed his confidence that countries and regions had had an opportunity to learn important lessons from one another regarding the issues at hand.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 