UANI

Did You Know? "In March 2006, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, 'Iran has been the country that has been in many ways a kind of central banker for terrorism in important regions like Lebanon through Hezbollah in the Middle East, in the Palestinian Territories, and we have deep concerns about what Iran is doing in the south of Iraq,'" according to the Council on Foreign Relations. http://bit.ly/aXHnz9

Top Stories

Times: "Iran began manufacturing a higher grade of enriched uranium today in defiance of the international community, raising fears that it was heading towards nuclear breakout." http://bit.ly/b3Voki
 
AP: "U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates wants to see the United Nations slap sanctions on Iran in 'weeks, not months.'  Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters Tuesday that Gate 'clearly thinks time is of the essence.'" http://nyti.ms/cH5zU0
 
NYT: "Brushing aside international calls for stricter sanctions against it, Iran said Tuesday it had begun enriching uranium for use in a medical reactor to a higher level of purity, raising the stakes again in its dispute with the United States and other countries over its nuclear program." http://nyti.ms/9UlI8W
 

Nuclear Program

AP: "The head of the Iran's atomic agency says it will not enrich uranium to a higher level if the West provides fuel for the Tehran research reactor." http://nyti.ms/dtMZKu
 
Reuters: "With their paths through the Internet increasingly blocked by government filters, Nooshin and her fellow Iranian opposition-supporters say their information on planned protests now comes in emails.  They say they don't know who sends them." http://nyti.ms/d4F4FB
 
Bloomberg: "Iran, OPEC's second-largest crude producer, has at least three supertankers idling in the Persian Gulf, as oil prices decline five weeks before the group's next meeting, vessel-tracking data show." http://bit.ly/byiYpM

Human Rights

LAT: "Given the Tehran government's recent history of Internet censorship and the vital role of social media and texting to the opposition movement, the disruption seems less than coincidental as Thursday's 22 Bahman holiday is expected to be an occasion of massive anti-regime protests." http://bit.ly/9fCdTD
 
WSJ: "Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, criticized protesters as agents of foreign powers ahead of antigovernment demonstrations planned for Thursday, setting the stage for clashes that analysts say pose big risks for both sides." http://bit.ly/cL47eW

Opinion

Gerald F. Seib in WSJ: "This is to be a week of testing on Iran: testing of the Iranian government, of the international will to oppose that government and of the delicate balancing act that is American policy.  The force bringing all these tests to the surface is the calendar. Feb. 11-Thursday-is a giant day in Iranian life, the anniversary of the 1979 revolution that brought the Islamic government to power." http://bit.ly/a41zRd
 
Meir Javedanfar in The Guardian: "Iran's nuclear program was started under the Shah. He wanted the bomb to transform Iran into a Middle East superpower. For many Iranians, however, the real need for nuclear armament was most keenly felt after Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers and civilians during the eight-year war between the two countries in the 1980s." http://bit.ly/at7SEE
 
Samira J. Simone in CNN: "As the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution approaches this week, with the promise of mass protests from Iran's growing opposition movement, it's tempting to compare the upheaval with unrest that ultimately toppled the shah of Iran.  While there are striking similarities between the movements separated by decades of Islamic rule, experts say there are even stronger differences that make what lies ahead for the current movement extremely challenging." http://bit.ly/d4cL2n

News Analysis