Eye on Iran: South Korea to Partially Lift Iran Sanctions

Join UANI           Top Stories Korea Herald: "Some sectors of South Korea's business industry will be allowed to resume trading with Iran as policymakers have decided to partly lift a ban on exports to the Middle Eastern country on March 17. The Finance Ministry said Tuesday that it decided on the policy - restrictive and will apply only for some service industries - following the U.S. administration's recent easing of economic sanctions on Iran for six months between Jan. 20 and July 20 this year. The ministry said the beneficiaries of the coming ban-lift will be the four sectors of construction, telecommunication, medicine and medical service management, and automobiles. 'The service businesses of the four sectors will likely expand, in particular,' said an official who wished to remain anonymous. 'Sectors such as shipbuilding, shipping and harbor facilities will still be subject to the ban as the U.S. continues to monitor Iran's core business segment for its crude oil exports,' he said." http://t.uani.com/O6udM5 WSJ: "Iran's main oil and gas shipping company is set to boost its fleet as sanctions restricting the country's trade with the West ease, the company's head said this week. In a sign of renewed optimism within Iran's battered oil industry the National Iranian Tanker Co., the Middle East's largest tanker operator, has also made contact with European oil and shipping companies to resume business with them, its managing director Ali Akbar Safaei said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. 'We have decided to expand our fleet' for transporting oil, liquefied-natural-gas and petrochemicals, Mr. Safaei said, without providing details. NITC already ships the bulk of Iran's oil exports... Mr. Safaei said the easing of political tensions, as well as the broader market and macroeconomic environment, had driven NITC's decision to add to its fleet. Amid the thaw in relations between the West and Iran, companies from the European Union that had previously stopped doing business with the republic have resumed contact with NITC, Mr. Safaei said. European companies 'involved in the shipping and oil industries, are in negotiations with us,' he said, without naming them. 'They were all sitting on this sofa,' the executive said, speaking at the company's headquarters." http://t.uani.com/1qzbacf Reuters: "Iran has sealed an agreement to export 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Oman, Iran's state news agency IRNA said on Wednesday, in a deal that also involves building a pipeline across the Gulf at a cost of about $1 billion. The accord, signed during Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's first visit to Muscat since his election last year, came out of a memorandum of understanding between the countries in August for the sale of Iranian gas to Oman from 2015, in a 25-year deal valued at around $60 billion... Iran sits on the world's largest gas reserves, according to the latest statistics compiled by BP, but it has been prevented from exporting much of it because of Western sanctions over its contested nuclear program. Oman's state news agency ONA said three agreements were signed between Oman and Iran, one of which was an initial deal on building a gas pipeline linking Iran with Oman. The agency said the accord was signed on Wednesday by an advisor of the Omani oil minister, Saif bin Hamad al-Sulaimani, and the head of the Iranian negotiating team, Sayed Kamali." http://t.uani.com/1lZNlK2       Sanctions Relief Yonhap: "South Korea said Tuesday it will allow transactions with Iran in the service sector starting next week, in a move to expand bilateral trade with the country amid recently eased nuclear tensions in the Middle East. The change will come into effect from next Monday, targeting companies that have either a previous export record with Iran or are engaged in service sector business in domestic markets, according to the finance ministry. A total of 11 types of service sector business will be allowed including management consulting and designing, the ministry added." http://t.uani.com/1fVwZ2u Terrorism Times of Israel: "Hamas and Iran are working to normalize relations following a steep downturn in ties over the past two years, officials on both sides said this week. Iran's parliament spokesman, Ali Larijani, told Lebanese news channel Al-Mayadeen on Sunday that Iran's relations with Hamas have returned to normal. Iran, he said, supports Hamas as a 'resistance organization.' Relations between the Islamic Republic and the Palestinian organization deteriorated following Hamas's decision to abandon its headquarters in Damascus in January 2012, a move Iran considered particularly hurtful to its close ally Syrian President Bashar Assad." http://t.uani.com/O6swhR Syria Conflict Reuters: "Iran hosted a rival version of a 'Friends of Syria' conference on Wednesday, convening lawmakers from allies around the world to push for a diplomatic solution to Syria's civil war and lambaste alleged Western interference... The one-day meeting appeared to mirror a series of 'Friends of Syria' conferences in which Western and Arab nations pledged political and financial support for the rebels and for the millions of Syrians driven from their homes by the war. At the conference in Tehran, attended by legislators from Russia, Algeria, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Cuba and Venezuela, Iran's parliament speaker challenged Syrian rebels to put down their weapons and seek to oust Assad at the ballot box... Another senior Iranian lawmaker, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, criticized U.S. support for Syrian rebel groups, saying this had created 'an army of terrorists' that posed a global threat." http://t.uani.com/1igXlve Human Rights UN: "The United Nations Special Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights in Iran, on summary executions, on torture, and on violence against women expressed alarm today at the ongoing spike in executions in the country; which recently included the hanging of a former child bride amid questionable circumstances. Ms. Farzaneh Moradi, who was reportedly forced into marriage at the age of 15, was hanged on 4 March 2014 in Isfahan Prison after being tried for murdering her husband. She originally confessed to the murder six years ago, but later explained that it was carried out by a man that had persuaded her to confess to the crime, convincing her that a young mother would not be executed. The court reportedly would not allow a revision to her original confession. 'This is yet another truly alarming case which demonstrates the need for an immediate moratorium on the death penalty in the Islamic Republic of Iran,' the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ahmed Shaheed said, stressing serious concern over the provision of due process and fair trial guarantees in this and other cases. 'The Government continues to execute individuals at a staggering rate, despite serious questions about fair trial standards,' the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns, said... At least 176 persons have reportedly been hanged in Iran in 2014 alone, as part of what appears to be a steadily increasing rate since the summer of 2013. Most of these executions were carried out for drug-related offenses, in violation of international legal provisions limiting the permissibility of capital punishment to the 'most serious' crimes." http://t.uani.com/1nmOKMn ICHRI: "Security agents and police verbally and physically assaulted Gonabadi dervishes before arresting them for their protest gathering outside the Judiciary in Tehran, a protesting dervish told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Sadigheh Khalili, who is having difficulty walking after being kicked many times during the protest, said about 300 male and 26 female dervishes were arrested on March 8 and 9. All were released the following day. According to Khalili, prosecutors at Evin prison promised the protesters that they would investigate their demands within a week. At the beginning of the protest gathering the Greater Tehran Police Chief Brigadier General Hossein Sajedinia also promised an investigation by the next day, but instead the protesters were beaten and arrested. The widespread protests by the Gonabadi dervishes stems from their anger at the lack of medical attention to three of their sick imprisoned members (Mostafa Daneshjoo, Hamidreza Moradi and Farshid Karampour) and the illegal transfer of two others (Reza Entesari and Farshid Yadollahi) from Evin to Rajaee Shahr Prison. Majzooban-e Noor website, which carries news about the dervishes, reported on March 8 that 2,000 dervishes were going on hunger strike to defend the rights of their suffering brethren in prison. The gathering of relatives of imprisoned dervishes in front of the Judiciary in Tehran on March 8 and 9 swelled with the participation of relatives of political prisoners and ordinary people." http://t.uani.com/1i80PPV ICHRI: "Iranian authorities arrested a reformist journalist and activist on March 6, one week after he gave a speech criticizing state bodies and authorities. Security forces have transferred Saeed Razavi Faghih, a former member of the Tahkim-e Vahdat student organization's Central Council, to Rajaee Shahr Prison in Karaj. In its statement the Revolutionary Prosecutor's office claimed the arrest was related to an earlier one-year prison sentence for 'security crimes.' On February 27, Razavi Faghih delivered a speech to a gathering of reformists in Hamadan in which he made 'comments against the Council of Guardians, Assembly of Experts, the Majles, and some state leaders.' The state news agency IRNA broadcast the speech." http://t.uani.com/1dUCJaw Domestic Politics WashPost: "A long-smoldering battle over government control of media and culture in Iran is heating up, as opposing political forces fight over where the limits should be drawn on access to information. Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, and his supporters argue that press restrictions should be reduced and that the public should be trusted with greater access to the Internet and television. Hard-line conservatives, meanwhile, believe that such freedom would undermine the country's Islamic rule. The debate intensified last week when Ali Jannati, the minister of culture and Islamic guidance under Rouhani, described as 'ridiculous' many of the policies that Iran has adopted since the revolution of 1979 to control the flow of information, including filters on the Internet. 'We cannot restrict the advance of [such technology] under the pretext of protecting Islamic values,' Jannati said in a meeting with Iran's chamber of commerce." http://t.uani.com/1fVvAJv Opinion & Analysis Independent Editorial: "The evidence that the Lockerbie bomb - which detonated on Flight 103 from London to Washington, killing 270 people - was planted by the Libyans gets thinner and thinner. Soon after the explosion, on 21 December 1988, many assumed that it was a revenge attack for the blowing up of an Iranian commercial flight six months earlier, killing 290 people. Certainly, given the fraught nature of Iranian-US relations in the 1980s, that seemed to make sense. Yet before long there was a screech of brakes in the official investigation and the focus of attention fell on Libya, culminating in the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in the Netherlands in 2001. Jim Swire, father of Flora, one of the victims, went to the trial expecting to see a bad man get his comeuppance, and came away convinced the Libyan was not guilty. Many others who approached with an open mind saw the gaping holes in the prosecution and went away believing that a hideous wrong was done to Mr Megrahi, who died of cancer in 2012 still proclaiming his innocence. The official version of the chemical make-up of the timer fragment has been entirely discredited, as have claims that the bomb could have been put on board in Malta. With news that a former Iranian intelligence officer, Abolghassem Mesbahi, has claimed - indeed, confirmed - that the bombing was ordered by Ayatollah Khomeini 'to copy exactly what happened to the Iranian airbus', and that it was planted in London, the idea that anybody in authority still believes the Libyans were guilty becomes harder to swallow. The fact that their leader, Muammar Gaddafi, desperate to lift international sanctions, seemingly accepted responsibility, or that Mr Megrahi's appeal was unsuccessful, should not let those responsible off the hook." http://t.uani.com/1fyXxFK Con Coughlin in The Daily Telegraph: "It seems a long time ago, that dreadful December night in 1988 when fire and aeroplane debris rained down on the Scottish village of Lockerbie. A generation of Britons has been born unaware of the sense of foreboding we all felt that night, when news broke that a civilian passenger flight had been blown up in mid-air, killing 270 people, by a terrorist bomb concealed in a radio cassette player. It is easy to see why a younger generation finds it hard to understand that we need to be wary of Iran and its nuclear ambitions. But, back in 1988, few people were in doubt about Iran's malign intent towards the West. Even though no conclusive proof could be found to link Tehran directly to the worst terrorist atrocity committed in Britain, few - myself included - were under any illusions that Iran's Islamic republic was the centre of global terrorism. The ayatollahs had made clear their intention to confront the West by all means possible when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran's Islamic revolution, sanctioned the seizure of 52 American diplomats and their staff and held them hostage for 444 days, after the Revolutionary Guards stormed the US embassy in Tehran in 1979. The crisis put paid to President Carter's hopes of re-election, and by the early Eighties the Iranians were intent on inflicting similar embarrassment on his successor, Ronald Reagan. By using their newly created Hizbollah militia in Lebanon, they forced Washington to withdraw American peacekeeping troops from Beirut, after a series of suicide lorry bombs reduced the US embassy and marine barracks to rubble. When this attack failed to end American efforts to broker a peace deal in war-torn Lebanon, they reverted to hostage-taking, targeting American aid workers and journalists. They then turned their attention to other Western nationals such as the British, with John McCarthy and Terry Waite soon falling into their clutches. Syria was involved throughout this anti-Western campaign. By supporting Damascus, Moscow had a rare opportunity to heap humiliation on the US. Then, as now, Syria also enjoyed a close alliance with Tehran based on their mutual hatred of their neighbour, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. So Syria was more than happy to facilitate Iran's terrorist operations in Lebanon while funding its own agenda, which focused on dissident Palestinian bodies, such as Ahmed Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). It is hardly surprising, therefore, that in the aftermath of Lockerbie, investigators should concentrate their efforts on the two states most closely associated with sponsoring international terror - Iran and Syria. To put it bluntly, the Iranians had the motive, while the Syrians had the expertise. After the Americans mistakenly shot down an Iranian civilian Airbus, killing 290 people, Iran felt it had good reason to seek revenge. If the evidence of a former Iranian intelligence officer is to be believed, the revenge attack was authorised by Ayatollah Khomeini, who ordered that the bombing 'must copy exactly what happened to the Airbus'. As Iranian intelligence officers were already working closely with Syrian and Libyan counterparts in Malta on plots to attack the West, once the Ayatollah had authorised retaliation, it was just a question of hiring the right people for the job." http://t.uani.com/1iEJdKA Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons.  UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.