Excerpts: Iran has final say on nuclear enrichment.Israel joins Western
European and other groups of UN December 01, 2013

+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 1 Dec.’13:”Iran has final say on N-enrichment:
Zarif”,Agence France Presse
SUBJECT:’ Iran has final say on nuclear enrichment’

QUOTE:”His(F.M.Zarif) remarks appeared to conflict with the landmark
nuclear deal struck with world powers in Geneva last weekend”

TEHRAN – Iran will decide the level of uranium enrichment in its nuclear
program based on its energy and other civilian needs, Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif said in remarks reported Saturday[20 Nov.].

His remarks appeared to conflict with the landmark nuclear deal struck with
world powers in Geneva last weekend, which states that the enrichment level
must be mutually defined and agreed upon by both sides in further
negotiations.

“Iran will decide the level of enrichment according to its needs for
different purposes,” Zarif said late Friday night, according to the official
IRNA news agency.

“Only details of the enrichment activities are negotiable,” he said,
referring to a final accord with the United States, Britain, France, China
and Russia plus Germany — known as the P5+1 group — that the parties hope to
negotiate within a year.

The interim agreement reached in Geneva set out trust-building measures by
both sides to be implemented in a six-month period, during which
negotiations over the final accord must begin.

Iran agreed to freeze expansion of its nuclear activities — which Western
powers and Israel suspect mask military objectives despite repeated Iranian
denials — and to cap enrichment of above low-level purity, including 20
percent.

Israel and Western powers hope the final accord will drastically scale back
Iran’s enrichment program, which is currently producing the low-enriched
uranium required for electricity and medical isotopes but could be ramped up
to produce the highly enriched uranium which is a key element of a nuclear
weapon. Iran has repeatedly said it will not seek nuclear weapons while
insisting it has the “right” to enrich uranium under the Non-Proliferation
Treaty.

“We have always said we will not allow anyone to determine our needs,” Zarif
was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency. “But we are prepared to
negotiate about it.”

According to the interim deal, the final accord must “involve a mutually
defined enrichment program with mutually agreed parameters consistent with
practical needs.”

But it also calls for limits “on scope and level of enrichment activities,
capacity, where it is carried out, and stocks of enriched uranium, for a
period to be agreed upon.” – AFP

+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 1 Dec.’13:”Report: Israel to Join U.N. Rights
Council”, Agence France Presse

SUBJECT Israel joins Western European and Others Group of U.N.

QUOTE:” ‘The exclusion and marginalization from which Israel has suffered
will start to be removed’ “

FULL TEXT:Israel is to join a United Nations rights body with which it has
been feuding for years, as a member of its European bloc, an Israeli
official said on Sunday[1 Dec.].

Speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, the official confirmed Israeli
membership of the Western European and Others Group (WEOG) in the U.N. Human
Rights Council had been approved and a formal invitation was expected
shortly.

Israel cut all ties with the Geneva-based council in March 2012 after the
body said it would probe how Israeli settlements may be infringing on the
rights of Palestinians.

Israel has come under widespread criticism for increasing construction of
settlements in the occupied West Bank, including in annexed east Jerusalem.

In January, Israel became the first country to refuse to attend a periodic
review of its human rights record, but ended its 18-month boycott in October
when ambassador Eviator Manor appeared before the council to defend his
country's record.

Local press reports said Israel had agreed to renew cooperation with the
council on condition it be accepted as a member of the WEOG.

Israel has accused the UNHRC of routinely singling it at the council's
annual meetings, as well as passing a number of anti-Israel resolutions.

Although geographically located in Asia, hostile Arab and Muslim states have
blocked the Jewish state from joining the Asian group on the 47-member
council, leaving it without representation within any geographic grouping.

"We have finally been admitted as a member of a geographic group (in
Geneva), which means that our relations with the U.N. bodies in Geneva will
be more or less normalized," the Jerusalem Post quoted an unnamed Israeli
official as saying.

"The exclusion and marginalization from which Israel suffered will start to
be removed," the official told the paper.

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Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA