Shanghai Cooperative Organization's meeting on September 13 , 2013 - could you imagine a more triumphant setting for both Russia and China after the success to date in diplomatically halting ( with eloquence ) the mad rush to start another War by the West and GCC Countries ? With a shooting entre into War by the US and its so called willing Coalition , the eyes of China and Russia turn to the Iran situation ....

Shanghai Cooperative Organization September 13 , 2013 meeting and strategies -  items of note....


http://dailycaller.com/2013/09/14/report-putin-to-travel-to-iran-for-nuclear-strategy-talks/

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accepted Iran’s invitation to visit Tehran to work out a strategy for the Islamic regime’s nuclear program, Fars News Agency reported Saturday. The West believes the Iranian program is a front for developing nuclear weapons.

Putin, seen by Iran’s clerical establishment as a strong opponent to America and the West — especially after his successful political play on averting a U.S. missile strike on Syria — was approached by Iran to protect the Islamic regime in the face of continued pressure by the West over its illicit nuclear program. Russia and the U.S. reached agreement Saturday to take control of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons arsenal by mid-2014.

Fars, the media outlet run by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said Putin will soon travel to Tehran, although details of the trip have yet to be announced. Fars said Iranian President Hassan Rowhani issued the invitation to Putin on Friday while both leaders were attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Russian president accepted.

“Russia could possibly take new steps in solving the Iranian nuclear dossier,” Rowhani said. “The Russian initiative in relation to the Syrian chemical weapons and the steps taken by the Syrian officials provide this hope that a new war can be averted in the region.”

“Russia looks at Iran like a good neighbor,” Putin was quoted as saying. “I am very happy meeting the new Iranian president and personally congratulate him for his [recent presidential] victory. … We are aware of the opinions on the world’s stage in relation with Iran’s nuclear program; however, we have to also consider that Iran is our neighbor, a good neighbor.”

There were conflicting reports last week that Russia might increase its arms sales to Iran should Syria be attacked, including the delivery of its sophisticated surface-to-air missile system, the S300.

The Russian newspaper Kommersant had reported that Putin had decided to deliver five battalions of the S300s should Iran withdraw its claim of $4 billion in damages due to a breach of an original contract by Russia signed in 2007 worth $800 million.

In September 2010, then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, under pressure by America and the West, signed a decree that banned the delivery of the S300 systems to the Islamic Republic. Iranian leaders, infuriated by this action, then filed a complaint against Russia’s arms export company, Rosoboronexport, with the International Court in Geneva.

Both Russia and Iran have strongly supported Syria’s Bashar Assad, with Iranian leaders warning that any intervention in Syria would cross a red line.

Meanwhile on Saturday, the leader of Iran’s proxy militia group in Iraq, Al-Mukhtar, warned that if America at any time attacks Syria, its forces would attack the oilfields of Saudi Arabia, thereby cutting off the “economic jugular” of the West.

“America’s attack on Syria will be the end of Saudi Arabia because the Saudi leaders promote the Syrian attack,” Wathiq al-Battat said, according to Keyhan newspaper, which is directly supervised by Iran’s supreme leader.

Battat threatened that his group would target the Saudi ports of Abqaiq, Juaymah and Ras Tanura, one of the largest in the world, and that his militants would also attack Saudi gas and oil pipelines, power lines and communication towers.

Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Forces, addressing a forum on Saturday, boasted about the power of the “Resistance Front” [Iran, Syria and Hezbollah] and stated, “In the eyes of the West, Zionists and the reactionary regimes, Syria’s real problem is not the ruling of the minority Alawites [who rule Syria] or the lack of democracy, but the reality is that the West and the reactionary regimes know that the Resistance’s powerful position in the region is indebted to the Syrian government.”

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-03-130913.html

Putin eyes Obama's Iran file
By M K Bhadrakumar

When Kathleen Trola McFarland, the familiar Fox News national security analyst who served in national security posts in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations and was an aide to Henry Kissinger at the White House, wrote that "Vladimir Putin is the one who really deserves the Nobel Peace Prize", she obviously had the Syrian crisis in mind.

McFarland wrote on Tuesday, "In one of the most deft diplomatic maneuvers of all time, Russia's President Putin has saved the world from near-certain disaster."

She went on to narrate how Secretary of State John Kerry's famous gaffe in London took wings and "the off-hand phrase was picked up by Putin, became a Kerry Proposal and ultimately the Obama peace plan..." 

Following up on her train of thought, it is easy to see how by the time this momentous week draws to a close Putin could doubly ensure his claim to a Nobel.

The point is that a major highlight of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's annual summit gathering in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, promises to be an event on Friday on its sidelines - the scheduled "bilateral" meeting between Putin and his Iranian counterpart, newly elected Hassan Rouhani. The Putin-Rouhani meeting in Bishkek is a scheduled one, planned well in advance. Both statesmen are vastly experienced in international diplomacy.

As he winds his way back to his work station in the wooded estate of Novo-Ogaryovo after picking Rouhani's brains, Putin will begin choreographing in the privacy of his thoughts yet another peace plan - Iran.

This will be Putin's first meeting with the newly elected Iranian president. The Rouhani presidency has aroused worldwide interest as presaging a meaningful US-Iran engagement, and Rouhani has been signaling in many ways Tehran's renewed interest in negotiating with the West - through policy pronouncements, cabinet appointments or sheer diplomatic "body language". Rouhani has pledged that the revival of the Iranian economy is his priority for which he would seek a favorable external environment.

The good thing is that the Barack Obama administration realizes the limits of US military power to intimidate or vanquish Iran. Yet, like in the case with Syria, Obama is vacillating and is unable to take the leap of faith. It is a carbon copy of the dilemma he faced over Syria.

War weariness amongst the American public, pressure from the hawkish regional allies and their lobbies in the US, a dangerous regional milieu, an adversary's proven grit to retaliate against aggression, overwhelming international opinion favoring dialogue - all the ingredients are there.

Putin could be sensing already that it is high time that someone helped Obama make up his mind - or rather, to pursue the natural inclinations of his mind.

As in the case of the Russian plan on Syria's chemical weapons, there is a two- to three-year-old Russian blueprint already lying for a starter - an incremental approach of Iran responding to the international community's concerns and the US step-by-step dismantling the sanctions regime and allowing Iran's full integration as a regional power.

The US and Iran are warily probing each other's intentions, and any keen observer of the three-decade old stand-off would sense that the diplomatic idiom is changing. The US no longer opposes Iran's inclusion in any Geneva 2 talks on Syria.

Tehran too has taken a highly nuanced position on the issue of Syria's chemical weapons. It has held a delicate line that, alas, the wily Gulf Arab sheikhs trapped Obama. In an extraordinary interview with Press TV on Wednesday, Iran's savvy Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said,

I think that a number of groups, people inside the United States, and interests outside the United States, wanted to put the president of the US - whom I believe was reluctant to start the war - into a trap, a trap which he had unfortunately laid down for himself; and that was to get him involved in a war in order to address a hypothetical issue of the use of chemical weapons by the government of Syria.

Iran has been quick to express solid support for the Russian plan on Syria's chemical weapons.

Suffice to say, today's meeting in Bishkek between the Russian and Iranian presidents has a regional backdrop. An engagement of the Syrian regime by the Obama administration becomes inevitable once the Russian plan is fleshed out and advances to the implementation stage.

For one thing, the Russian plan simply has to go hand in hand with a Geneva 2 process. Its implementation is going to be a long haul. It took four years for Washington to take out of Germany the US' cold-war era stockpiles of 100,000 chemical weapons stockpile. When the operation began in 1986, a six-year timeline for implementation was envisaged.

That is to say, there is going to be a critical necessity for the established state structures in Syria to be around for a while if only for the implementation of the Russian plan. Put differently, the "regime change" agenda gets pushed to the back burner and whatever democratic transition is possible in the civil war conditions cannot but involve the Syrian regime.

Tehran, no doubt, is keenly watching. Russia's firm stance on Syria during the crisis period since the US began assembling an armada in the Eastern Mediterranean cannot but impress Iran, for which regime change in Damascus also has existential overtones.

This is where it will see that a revival of the strategic partnership with Russia is an imperative. From Iran's viewpoint, it is the Russian connection that would be a "force multiplier" when it begins to negotiate with the "P5+1" (the US, Britain, France, Russia and China plus Germany) format and with the US directly.

Rouhani would weigh in that even as his credibility as a negotiator is rising in Western eyes, his capacity to negotiate significantly gains out of a strengthening of the Iran-Russia relations at this juncture.

Here, it takes two to tango. Looking back, Putin's visit to Iran in 2007, the first by a Kremlin leader since Joseph Stalin's in 1943, had raised high hopes of a historic turn in the bilateral relationship and of a new template in the geopolitics of the vast space the two countries overlap in and around the "Heartland" - Central Asia and the Caspian, Caucasus and the Middle East.

But in the event, these hopes remain unfulfilled. Putin left the Kremlin in 2008. During Dmitry Medvedev's presidency once the Russia-US "reset" appeared and the Iran question became a real-time talking point between the two powers, the calculus of Russian-Iranian ties changed.

Indeed, the pro-Western groups of the Russian elite gained ascendancy in the Kremlin. Soon, a transactional dispute arose over Russia's non-fulfillment of the contract for supply of S-300 missiles to Iran. Russia insisted it acted under the UN sanctions, but Tehran saw the "hidden hand" of the US and Israel. Meanwhile, the steady worsening of the situation around the Iran nuclear issue introduced limits to engaging that country, given the international ramifications.

It stands to reason that unlike Medvedev, perhaps, Putin himself is acutely conscious that Iran is what American geo-strategists would call a "pivotal state".

Interestingly, it didn't cross Putin's mind at all that the former president, Mahmud Ahmedinejad, was already a "lame duck" when they met in the Kremlin in July on the sidelines of the Caspian summit. Putin plunged with gusto into substantive discussions regarding ways to revive and strengthen a Russian-Iranian alliance, including a Russian-built second nuclear power plant in Iran.

Equally, Tehran would have noted the huge shift in the respective Russian approaches to the regime-change agenda in Libya (March 2011) and in Syria today.

Paradoxically, the Rouhani presidency brings Iran much closer to Russia in its "de-ideologized" foreign-policy outlook. Indeed, Russia doesn't view the world through any ideological "East-West" prism. Nor is it enchanted by the ideas of "resistance" and "justice" that fired up Ahmedinejad, but which Rouhani is gradually relegating to the backburner.

It is inconceivable that, like Putin's Russia, which scrupulously avoids the Soviet overreach, Rouhani's Iran also will ever set aside national interests as the paramount consideration in foreign policy even while involved in regional security issues.

Rouhani is also wedded to globalization and neo-liberal policies as Russia is, and both see innovation of the economy as the core objective of national policies. Putin's first priority has always been to work toward an equal partnership with the West, and he never tires of looking for windows of opportunity. The approach of Rouhani, who arrives on American soil in a few days to attend the UN General Assembly session in New York, is much the same.

In sum, both Iran and Russia are in a frame of mind that is conducive to reviving their strategic partnership. The only way Obama can stall a Nobel for Putin seems to be by pre-empting the Kremlin from launching yet another irresistible peace plan. 

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-04-130913.html

China stitches up (SCO) Silk Rd
By Pepe Escobar

While the whole world was terrified by the prospect of the Obama administration bombing Syria, Chinese President Xi Jinping was busy doing the Silk Road.

One has to love that famous Deng Xiaoping dictum; "Always maintain a low profile". This being the second-largest economy in the world, "low profile" always packs a mighty punch. Cue to September 7, in Astana, Kazakhstan's capital, when Xi officially proposed no less than a New Silk Road in co-production with Central Asia.

Xi's official "economic belt along the Silk Road" is a supremely ambitious, Chinese-fueled trans-Eurasian integration mega-project, from the Pacific to the Baltic Sea; a sort of mega free-trade zone. Xi's rationale seems to be unimpeachable; the belt isthe home of "close to 3 billion people and represents the biggest market in the world with unparalleled potential". 

Talk about a "wow" factor. But does that mean that China is taking over all of the Central Asian "stans"? It's not that simple.

A roomful of mirrors 
On Xi's Silk Road trip, the final destination was Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan's capital, for the 13th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). And to cap it all off, nothing less than a graphic reminder of the stakes involved in the New Great Game in Eurasia; a joint meeting on the sidelines of the SCO, featuring Xi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

This is Rouhani's first foreign trip since he took office on August 4. Not an epic like Xi's; only two days in Bishkek. In a preliminary meeting face-to-face with Xi, Rouhani even started speaking "diplomatic Chinese" - as in the upcoming negotiations over the Iranian nuclear dossier leading, hopefully, to a "win-win" situation. Xi emphatically supported Iran's right to a peaceful nuclear program under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Rouhani stressed the Iran-China relationship "bears vital significance for Asia and the sensitive Middle East issue".

And that leads to the common Iran-China-Russia front in relation to Syria. Even before meeting with Putin, Rouhani had agreed with the Russian four-part plan for Syria, which, as Asia Times Online had reported, was brokered between Damascus, Tehran and Moscow (See Al-Qaeda's air force still on stand-by, September 11, 2013). According to the plan, Damascus joins the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW); discloses the location of chemical stockpiles; allows OPCW inspectors access to the sites; and then comes the long process of destroying the stockpiles.

In the nuclear front, Tehran and Moscow remain open for business. Russia will hand operation of Unit 1 of the Bushehr nuclear power plant over to Iran in less than two weeks. And there will be more "cooperation" ahead.

The importance of this triangulation cannot be overstated. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in that Xi-Putin-Rouhani Kyrgyz room. Tehran, Moscow and Beijing are more than ever united on bringing about a new multipolar international order. They share the vision that a victory for the axis of warmongers on Syria will be the prelude for a future war on Iran - and further harassment of both Russia and China.

The God of the market, it's us 
Meanwhile, monster business - and strategic - opportunities beckon in the Eurasian corridor. Xi's Silk Road Economic Belt, with trademark Chinese pragmatism, is all about free trade, connectivity and currency circulation (mostly, of course, in yuan). It's ready to go because there are no more border problems between Russia and Central Asia. It ties up perfectly with China's push to develop its Far West - as in Xinjiang; consider the extra strategic Central Asian support for the development of China's Far West.

Here's an example. At a China-Eurasia Expo in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital, earlier this week, China Telecom and two Hong Kong telecom companies signed seven deals with the governments and companies from Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Russia and Mongolia. Not many people know that Urumqi boasts more than 230 Internet companies; nearly half are connected with neighboring countries. Xinjiang is not only about Han Chinese encroaching on Uyghurs; it's no less than the communications base for the Eurasian corridor - a hub for broadband and cloud computing.

Beijing is already massively investing in new roads and bridges along the Eurasian Land Bridge - another denomination of the New Silk Road. As Asia Times Online has reported, the New Silk Road is all about highways, railways, fiber optics and pipelines - with now the added Chinese push for logistics centers, manufacturing hubs and, inevitably, new townships.

There are plenty of Pipelineistan gambits to implement, and a lot of mineral resources to be exploited. And, crucially - considering the original Silk Road traversed Afghanistan - there's also the prospect of an Afghan revival as a privileged bridge between Central, East and South Asia. Not to mention speeding up China's land access to both Europe and the Middle East.

In China, no major decisions such as this are "spontaneous", but there's a neat softening PR behind it. In Astana, Xi said, "my home, Shaanxi province, is the start of the ancient Silk Road"; and he was "moved" as he reviewed Silk Road history during the trip.

He indulged in sightseeing in Samarkand's fabulous Registan square, flanked by Uzbek President Islam Karimov, and even waxed "poetic", telling Karimov, "this gives us a special feeling. We are far away in distance, but we are also so near to each other in our soul. It is just like time travel." Well, the Timurid empire has finally met its match. It's not that China hadn't done it before; during the Western Han dynasty (206 BC - AD 24), imperial envoy Zhang Qian was dispatched to Central Asia twice to open up China to global trade.

"Poetic" or not, Xi was always on message. All along his Silk Road trip, he left no doubts this is a foreign policy priority for China. China has now established strategic partnerships with all five Central Asian "stans".

The Pipelineistan angle 
Kashagan is your usual Pipelineistan nightmare. Significantly, on 9/11 this week, the North Caspian Operating Co, which runs Kashagan - one of the largest oil fields discovered in the past 40 years, with 35 billion barrels in reserves - said the first oil was finally in sight.

Kashagan is in the northern Caspian Sea. I've been there. Technically, oil extraction is immensely complex; that is certainly the case here. Production should have started in 2005. No less than US$46 billion has been spent by a consortium featuring Italy's ENI, France's Total, Royal Dutch/Shell, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips. Nasty bickering has been the norm. A week ago, Astana finally signed an agreement for China's CNPC to buy the former ConocoPhillips' 8.4% share.

With China stepping in, major hard cash will flow. Beijing is determined to become a major player in the Kazakh energy market. Ideally, Kashagan should be producing 370,000 barrels a day in 2014 and 1.6 million barrels by 2016.

China's strategy in Kazakhstan is basically about oil. But China also badly needs a lot of natural gas. Russia's Gazprom is betting on Beijing's non-stop thirst for gas to facilitate its shift from exporting mainly to Europe. But competition is stiff. And Turkmenistan is a key part of China's equation.

China is already planning expansions for the Central Asia-China pipeline - which it built and paid for. Exports should be up by 2015. In his Silk Road trip, Xi naturally hit Turkmenistan, inaugurating no less than one of the largest gas fields in the world, massive Galkynysh, which began production only three months ago. Most of the gas will flow through - where else - the pipeline to China. China is paying the bill, $8 billion so far, and counting.

Turkmenistan's economy now virtually depends on natural gas exports to China (at 60% of GDP). Beijing's ultimate strategy is to use its Turkmenistan leverage to extract better gas deals from Gazprom.

Kyrgyzstan also features in China's Pipelineistan strategy. Beijing will finance and operate the proposed Kyrgyzstan-China gas pipeline - which will be a key part of the fourth Turkmenistan-China pipeline. Beijing is also building a railroad linking it to with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

Observing all this frenzy, we have to come back to the ultimate adage of the times; while the (Washington) dogs of war bark, the (Chinese) caravan does deals.

Those three evils 
The SCO is also involved in boosting this major transportation route connecting East Asia, West Asia and South Asia, and ultimately the Pacific to the Baltic Sea.

Yet Stalin's legacy lives - as in the demented way he partitioned Central Asia. China will need to shell out a fortune in transportation. Chinese trains are always in trouble traveling on Soviet-era railways. Airline service is dodgy. For instance, there's only one flight every two days between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan (I took it; always crowded, the usual delays, stranded luggage ...)

The SCO was founded 12 years ago, when Uzbekistan joined the members of the original Shanghai Five; China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Turkmenistan preferred its splendid isolation.

The original emphasis was on mutual security. But now the SCO encompasses politics and economics as well. Yet the obsession remains on what the Chinese define as "the three evil forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism. That's code for the Taliban and its offshoots, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. The SCO also tries to fight drug trafficking and arms smuggling.

Again in classic Chinese style, the SCO is spun as fostering "mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diverse civilizations and seeking common development", in an atmosphere of "non-alliance, non-confrontation and not being directed against any third party."

It may go a long way before becoming a sort of Eastern NATO. But it's increasingly carving its territory as a direct counterpunch to NATO - not to mention Washington's Central/South Asian chapter of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) and the push for "color revolutions". The SCO is actively discussing its regional options after Washington's withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014. China and Russia will be deeply involved. Same for Iran - for the moment a SCO observer.

Xi's Silk Road belt, in principle, is not detonating alarm bells in the Kremlin. The Kremlin spin is that Russia and China's economies are complementary - as in China's "sizable financial resources" matching Russia's "technologies, industrial skills and historical relations with the region".

One wonders what the adults in assorted rooms in the Beltway think about all this (assuming they know it's happening). Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton used to wax lyrical about an American-propped New Silk Road. Well, after Xi's trip that sounds like yet another Barack Obama campaign promise. 

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/13/323790/sco-deems-talks-only-key-to-iran-ncase/

SCO members deem dialogue sole solution to Iran nuclear issue: Rouhani

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani talks to the media in Tehran on September 13, 2013, upon his return from the SCO summit in Kyrgyzstan.

Fri Sep 13, 2013 11:30PM GMT

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have unanimously agreed that diplomacy is the only way to resolve the West’s dispute with Iran over its nuclear energy program.

“Participants at the summit demanded the resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue, termed imposition of sanctions as an unacceptable solution and described political dialogue as the only way to break the impasse,” Rouhani told reporters in Tehran on Friday night upon his return from Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek, where a two-day SCO summit was held.

Iran and the P5+1 -- Russia, China, France, Britain, and the United States plus Germany -- have held several rounds of talks on a range of issues, with the main focus being on Tehran’s nuclear energy program.

The two sides wrapped up their latest round of negotiations in April in the Kazakh city of Almaty. An earlier meeting was held in Almaty in February.

The United States, Israel, and some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program. Iran rejects the allegations, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

In addition, the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that the Iranian nuclear program has been diverted toward military objectives.

Rouhani further noted that SCO members also censured any military intervention in Syria, and described political talks between the Damascus government and the opposition as the only solution to the Syrian conflict.

Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since 2011. According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 people have been killed and millions displaced due to the violence.

The SCO is an intergovernmental security organization founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Iran, India, Mongolia, Afghanistan and Pakistan have an observer status at the organization. 

Nuclear talks - related items of note....

http://dailycaller.com/2013/09/15/obama-acknowledges-swapping-letters-with-new-iranian-president/

President Obama acknowledged in an ABC interview Sunday that he has been exchanging letters with Iranian President Hassan Rowhani.

Obama told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he has communicated with Iran’s leaders in “indirect ways.”

“Have you reached out personally to the new president?” Stephanopoulos asked. “I have,” Obama replied, “and– and he’s reached out to me.  We haven’t spoken– directly.  But–”

“Letters,” Stephanopoulos interjected. “Yeah,” Obama replied.

The White House did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller’s request for a copy or characterization of the letters.

But Irannuc.ir – a media outlet that is close to the Iranian intelligence community and has quoted several Iranian authorities over the years on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program — revealed in a piece last week part of a letter sent by Obama to Rowhani.

A source told Irannuc.ir that such a letter was received and that it did not contain anything new. “It seems that sending the letter was more important for the Americans rather than the content of it because realistically the letter did not contain anything more than political pleasantries,” the source said.

“Up until now, two letters from Obama to Iran have been addressed to the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] and the supreme leader responded once by stating that he will consider America’s actions rather than words,” the source said. “However, now the U.S. president has changed to whom he has addressed his letter, which seems to be his main goal.”

The source listed three goals of the new Obama letter: First, the U.S. will consider the recent presidential changes in Iran in its policies. Second, it considers Rowhani a “respectable counterpart inside Iran” and that the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad era is over. And third, Washington wants Rowhani to act as a middleman to “bargain with the supreme leader to accept the West’s position.”

“Of course, the Americans are making a mistake again,” the source said. “Rowhani is part of the system and a force of the leader and such a simple plan to create division won’t deceive him.”

Another source revealed some of the main points of Obama’s letter:

• Obama emphasized that he has heard the message from the Iranian people in the June elections that Rowhani won.

• The American government is ready to reduce sanctions in case of a serious diplomatic push by Iran.

• Positive statements by Iranian officials are important but not enough; in order to show change, Iran must take practical steps to restore international confidence.

• Obama stressed U.S. readiness for direct talks with Iran.

According to Mashregh News, which is run by the Revolutionary Guards, the Iranian response to Obama’s letter has already been sent to Washington. Javad Zarif, the newly appointed foreign minister of the Rowhani administration who prepared the response, told the Obama administration that “the U.S. first needs to change its policies and behavior toward Iran,” Mashregh reported.

As reported last year, Iranian officials revealed the contents of an earlier Obama letter to Khamenei that indicated a deep desire by the U.S. president for dialogue with the radical leaders of Iran. In addition, Iranian officials said that an oral message by Obama was delivered through the Swiss ambassador in Tehran and was even more revealing than the letter delivered to the supreme leader.

Hossein Ebrahimi, the vice chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said that in the meeting between Swiss Ambassador Livia Leu Agosti and Iranian Foreign Ministry officials, Agosti informed the Iranian officials that Obama recognizes Iran’s right of access to and use of nuclear technology.

Ebarhimi also disclosed another important point that the Swiss diplomat delivered: Obama said that “I didn’t want to impose sanctions on your central bank, but I had no options but to approve it since a Congress majority had approved the decision.”

Iran has continuously believed that the Obama administration will not engage the Islamic regime militarily and that it will have no choice but to accept a nuclear-armed Iran.

Meanwhile, Rowhani, who is set to travel to New York to attend the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly this month, has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to Tehran to plan their approach on the Iranian nuclear issue and reduce international pressure on the country. Iranian leaders are emboldened by the recent actions by Putin in standing up to America in the face of a threatened attack on Syria. Russia and the U.S. reached agreement Saturday to take control of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons arsenal by mid-2014.

The Islamic regime is continuing its nuclear program despite multiple U.N. resolutions and sanctions by America and European countries and currently has enough enriched uranium for six nuclear bombs if further enriched.

The regime has been recognized by the U.N. as being one of the worst human rights violators in the world, with daily execution of political prisoners. The Islamic system bars free elections, and anyone speaking against it is designated a “Mohareb” — an enemy of God — and killed without due process.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/13/323691/russia-urges-immediate-iranp51-talks/

Russia urges immediate resumption of Iran-P5+1 talks

Iranian and P5+1 negotiators talk during a meeting in the Kazakh city of Almaty in April 2013.

Fri Sep 13, 2013 11:25AM GMT

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Russia has called for the resumption of negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers on Tehran’s nuclear energy program very soon.

"We feel that the negotiation process would dynamically develop without unnecessary artificial pauses. We believe that the next meeting of the "Six" (the P5+1 group) on Iran should be held as soon as possible," Russian presidential aide, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters on Thursday.

He reaffirmed Moscow’s call for the settlement of Iran's nuclear issue “only through political and diplomatic means,” dismissing a military act as “absolutely inadmissible.”

Ushakov emphasized that “negotiations on Iran have the chance to succeed,” urging both sides to the talks to take positive measures to work out a peaceful solution to the West's standoff with the Islamic Republic over its civilian nuclear work.

Iran and the P5+1-- comprising five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany -- have held several rounds of talks on a range of issues, with the main focus being on Tehran’s nuclear energy program.

The two sides wrapped up their latest round of negotiations in April in the Kazakh city of Almaty. An earlier meeting had been held in Almaty in February.

The US, Israel, and some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program. Iran has categorically rejected the allegation, saying that its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful and in line with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which it is a signatory.

During numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency, no evidence has been ever found showing diversion in the Iranian nuclear energy program toward non-civilian purposes. 

Major Reduction Announced in Iran’s Uranium Stockpile

Nearly Half of 20 Percent Stockpile Used

by Jason Ditz, September 13, 2013

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The “red line” drawn against Iran’s civilian nuclear program by Israel was predicated on the assumption of Iran’s stockpile growing, and while Israeli officials have groused for awhile about a relative lack of growth, the latest announcement reveals a major decrease in the stockpiles size.

According to Iranian officials, their stockpile of highly enriched (20 percent) uranium, some 240 kg at its peak, has been cut nearly in half, down to just 140 kg, by a combination of increased use and decreased production.

Most of Iran’s enrichment program is at 3.5 percent, the level needed for its Bushehr power plant. The 20 percent uranium was an attempt to produce fuel rods for its aging, US-built Tehran Research Reactor (TRR), which provides medical isotopes to the entire nation.

That stockpile had been growing for quite awhile as Iran struggled to figure out how to make those fuel rods, but now that they have gotten the hang of it, the enrichment program seems to be slowly getting reworked back to 3.5 percent, since the fuel rods will likely be all the TRR can ever use in its lifetime.

Ironically, trading with Iran to get them to abandon the 20 percent enrichment as a confidence builder has often been discussed, but the reality is that with the fuel being used legally, the production is likely all but done anyhow.

BRICS standing by Iran , sanctions regime of the West falling away ? 

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/14/323916/india-seeks-to-increase-iran-oil-imports/

India seeks to increase Iran oil imports

File photo shows an Iranian supertanker sailing in international waters.

Sat Sep 14, 2013 12:37PM GMT

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India seeks to increase oil imports from Iran to curtail dollar payouts, despite US-led sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic's energy and financial sectors.

India’s Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram on Saturday said New Dehli is studying to see how much oil imports it can increase from Iran within UN regulations.

On Friday, India’s Oil Secretary Vivek Rae, Commerce Secretary S R Rao and the economic affairs secretary, attended a meeting called by the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Pulok Chatterji to discuss raising crude oil imports from Iran.

India pays for 45 percent of its Iranian oil purchases in Indian rupees. Sources say payments in rupee helps India to save on the foreign exchange outflow. Oil imports have been the biggest factor contributing to a record current account deficit (CAD).

According to Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily, India could save as much as $8.47 billion by importing oil from Iran.

India is among Asia’s major importers of energy and relies on the Islamic Republic of Iran to meet a portion of its energy demands.

At the beginning of 2012, the United States and the European Union imposed new sanctions on Iran’s oil and financial sectors with the goal of preventing other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran.

India won a 180-day waiver from the US sanctions targeting oil trade with Iran.

India’s crude oil imports from Iran increased by 21.1 percent in June 2013 compared to a year earlier. 

and....

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/11/323301/iranoman-pipeline-ready-in-18-months/

Iran-Oman gas pipeline to be completed in 18 months: Envoy

Iranian envoy to Muscat says the Iran-Oman gas pipeline will be completed in 18 months.

Wed Sep 11, 2013 1:3PM GMT

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Iran Ambassador to Oman Ali Akbar Sibouyeh says the pipeline which will carry natural Iranian gas to the Persian Gulf sultanate will be complete within a year and a half.

"The agreement on the gas pipeline dates back to 10 years ago when negotiations over the pipeline started, but the two countries could not finalize it. The main reason for this was failure to agree on the price of the gas to be exported," Sibouyeh said in an exclusive interview with the English-language daily Times of Oman on Wednesday.

The Iranian ambassador said the gas pipeline would be launched in the next 18 months if things go according to the plan.

"The two countries have made much effort over the past 10 months in this regard," Sibouyeh said, adding, "The export of gas to Oman will mark a significant economic development in relations between the two countries," the ambassador added.

He stated that the excess gas, which is estimated to account for 50 percent of the total amount of Iranian gas exports to Oman, will be delivered to Japan, South Korea and India.

Sibouyeh described the trilateral economic cooperation between Iran, Oman, and India as 'strategic' which can play an important role in promoting peace and stability in the Persian Gulf region.

On August 26, Iran and Oman signed an agreement on the export of Iranian gas to the Persian Gulf state. The deal was signed between Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh and his Omani counterpart, Mohammed bin Hamad Al Rumhy, in Tehran.

Under the contract valued at over USD 60 billion, the Islamic Republic will be delivering gas to the Persian Gulf sultanate for 25 years. 

Bushehr to be turned over to Iranian hands for operations shortly....

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/14/323828/russia-to-hand-over-bushehr-plant-to-iran/

Iran to take over Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant soon

Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in southern Iran (file photo)

Sat Sep 14, 2013 6:12AM GMT

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Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant became officially operational and was connected to the national grid in September 2011, generating electricity at 40 percent capacity.

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The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) has announced that Russia is to hand over the operation of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant to Iranian contractors in ten days’ time.

AEOI Head Ali Akbar Salehi said on Friday that the facility is scheduled to be handed over to local contractors on September 24.

He noted the plant’s 14-day test period will come to an end on September 24, adding that the reactor must be functioning at 90 percent capacity and generating at least 900 megawatts of electricity during the two-week period.

However, Salehi underlined, if the output drops below that level, the plant needs to go through another trial period.

The AEOI head stated that the facility has undergone different test operations over the past two years since fuel injection into its core began, adding that this is the final testing period.

“If everything goes well, the power plant will be handed over to the Iranian contractor at the scheduled time (September 24),” Salehi said.

In October 2010, Iran started injecting fuel into the core of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in the southern port city of Bushehr, which is the country’s first nuclear reactor.

On August 29, director of the nuclear facility Hossein Derakhshandeh said the plant had entered the operational phase for “safe and sustainable generation of electricity.”

He added that the plant would enter the industrial operation phase within the next two months, when Iranian technicians assume responsibility for the operations at the facility.

The Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant became officially operational and was connected to Iran’s national grid in September 2011, generating electricity at 40 percent capacity.

The 1,000-megawatt plant, which is operating under the full supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reached its maximum power generation capacity in August 2012.

Iran and Russia have assured the international community that the plant is fully compliant with high-level safety standards and the IAEA safeguards.

The United States, the Israeli regime, and some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.

Iran rejects the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the IAEA, it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.