UANI

Reuters reported that "Iran's foreign minister was quoted on Wednesday as saying that Tehran would not send its enriched uranium abroad for further processing but would consider swapping it for nuclear fuel within its borders.  'Surely we will not send our 3.5 percent fuel abroad but can review swapping it simultaneously with nuclear fuel inside Iran,' Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told the ISNA students' news agency." http://bit.ly/2llC0z
 
The Washington Post reported that "Iran's judiciary is investigating the death of a military doctor who served in a detention center that has come under scrutiny for alleged abuses, including the suspicious deaths of three anti-government demonstrators, Iranian news media reported Tuesday.  A parliamentary committee plans to issue a report soon on the Kahrizak prison, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said. The makeshift detention center was closed in July on the orders of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, because of substandard conditions.  The prison became the focus of a rare investigation into police conduct after the death of Mohsen Rouholamini, the son of a former senior Health Ministry official. Authorities said he and two others died of meningitis, but Rouholamini's father said his son was tortured to death." http://bit.ly/m5iPN
 
AFP reported that "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured a naval vessel on Tuesday, using the backdrop of his country's military power to warn of the threat posed by the nuclear ambitions of arch-foe Iran.  'The threat that Iran poses is very grave for the state of Israel, for peace in the Middle East and the whole world,' Netanyahu said aboard the INS Eilat, a missile ship used recently to intercept a weapons-laden cargo vessel Israel said was ferrying arms from Iran to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia." http://bit.ly/4c2pmM
 
The Wall Street Journal reported that "U.S. and European officials believe the Qom site is designed to process Iran's low-enriched uranium into weapons-grade material. The IAEA said in its new report that Tehran has produced 1.76 tons of low-enriched uranium, enough to produce one or two atomic devices if enriched further.  In the report, the IAEA urged Iran to provide more information on the Qom plant, as well as greater access to Iranian scientists and documents. Without that access, the agency added, the international community can't be certain Tehran isn't developing a much larger clandestine nuclear infrastructure for military applications." http://bit.ly/3L27Md
 
Reuters reported that "Iran faces a 'very short' window to submit its formal response to a U.N.-brokered deal meant to allay suspicions that it seeks to develop nuclear weapons, the U.S. State Department said on Tuesday.  'Frustration is mounting,' State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told a news briefing, noting that Tehran had still not made a formal reply to a proposal drafted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) more than a month ago.  'We're not prepared to actually pronounce that they have rejected the deal because they haven't formally rejected the deal yet,' Kelly said." http://bit.ly/4rsJuS
 
Reuters reported that "Despite his hardline image, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appears to favor a U.N.-drafted nuclear fuel proposal as a way to shore up his own power and legitimacy five months after his disputed re-election.  But he faces stiff opposition from rivals in Iran's political and clerical elite who would hate to see the abrasive leader reap the credit for a breakthrough with the West.  'The president wants the deal to be sealed. He has redoubled efforts to defuse the nuclear dispute with the West,' said a senior Iranian official, who asked not to be named. 'He thinks the deal is in line with Iran's interests.'" http://bit.ly/2vf8jv
 
Politico reported that "Beset by continued internal strife and infighting, Iran does not seem capable of returning a definitive answer on the deal. And with ElBaradei set to retire at the end of the month, its most aggressive advocate and mediator will soon be out of the job. 'Iran can't yet take 'yes' for an answer,' says former weapons inspector George Perkovich of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The 'Iranians also should understand that ElBaradei has helped them, this is his deal, and he's leaving...So I suspect they will soon say, 'yes, but not quite this,' and prolong more.'" http://bit.ly/2PcvTQ
 
The AP reported that "Iranian state television reported Tuesday that five people had been sentenced to death over the unrest that followed the country's disputed presidential election in June. The report quoted a statement by the Justice Department saying that the five were members of terrorist and armed opposition groups. Iran began a trial in August for more than 100 prominent opposition figures and activists over the election protests." http://bit.ly/4mYkGY
 
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board on Wednesday wrote that "In its 30 years, the Islamic Republic has used assassination squads, fatwas, terrorism and hostage-taking as tools of its war with the West. A nearly unbroken string of outrages connects the taking of the U.S. embassy in 1979 to the death sentence demanded for writer Salman Rushdie in 1989 to, more recently, the grabbing of British sailors in 2007. Add to that the detention and trial of Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi earlier this year, the 12-year prison sentence meted last month to Iranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakshsh and, most recently, the charges of espionage leveled against the three American backpackers who stumbled across the Iranian border in July." http://bit.ly/1PMGnT
 
Nir Boms and Shayan Arya wrote in Tuesday's Weekly Standard that "Revolutions are serious business. They require zeal, energy and fervor--all of which need to be maintained. For the past thirty years, the Islamic regime has struggled to keep its revolution alive, and not without success. The latest round of the nuclear deal is no different. It is already presented as another revolutionary victory and it might strengthen the hold of the fragile government in Tehran that desperately seeks legitimacy since its controversial elections last June.  But legitimacy, we should note, is no longer in the hands of IAEA or the International Community. It is in the hands of the Iranian people. Take one recent example. November 4th was the official day of commemorating the overtaking the American Embassy in Tehran. It was designed as a day of anti-American protests. But this year hundreds of thousands of Iranians from Tehran and other major cities poured into the streets to protest something else." http://bit.ly/2AqOSi