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AP:
"Iranian police have arrested three people who appeared in an
online video of young men and women singing and dancing in support of
the country's World Cup football team, the official IRNA news agency
reported Monday. Provincial police chief Col. Rahmatollah Taheri was
quoted as saying the video clip, produced by the London-based Ajam
Band, features scenes from outside and inside Iran, including the city
of Shahroud, where two 23-year-olds appearing in the film and a
26-year-old photographer were arrested. The video shows young people,
including women not wearing the mandatory headscarf, singing and
dancing in support of Iran's national team, interspersed with footage
from matches. They are shown waving Iranian flags and dancing in cars,
streets, homes and public parks. Taheri called the video 'vulgar' and
urged the youth not to take part in such activities. The official said
those arrested have been referred for possible prosecution. In May
police arrested six young Iranian men and women for dancing to Pharrell
Williams' song 'Happy' in an online video, but released them days
later." http://t.uani.com/1nZRj4x
Al-Monitor:
"The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps has said that Iran's
stability today owes to the Iran's defense of its borders during the Iran-Iraq
war in the 1980s. 'The safety of the country today is the result of the
sacred defense,' Major General Mohammad Ali Jaffari said of the
Iran-Iraq war, which started in 1980 when Then-Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein invaded the country. The war lasted until 1988. Jaffari said,
'Today, if many countries know Iran to be an island of stability in an
insecure region, the reason is the eight years of the sacred defense
and the eight months of sedition. We did not permit the enemy to make
the country unstable.' 'Sedition' is the term used by government
officials for the street protests that erupted after the contested 2009
elections... 'Iran's borders are safe,' Jaffari continued. 'No enemy,
including America, would dare invade. The Americans, with the excuse of
9/11, attacked Afghanistan and Iraq, and by surrounding our country,
intended to also invade Iran. But when they saw the readiness of the
people and the armed forces of our country to back the supreme leader
and the sacred Islamic Republic of Iran, they regretted thinking about
attacking our country.'" http://t.uani.com/1lNKu7B
Trend:
"Iran's Industry, Mine, and Trade Minister Mohammad-Reza
Nematzadeh said that his country's economy could not develop without
the cooperation of international companies. 'Once under sanction, a
country cannot absorb foreign cooperation,' Nematzadeh said, Iran's
IRNA News Agency reported on June 24. He expressed hope that the
upcoming nuclear talks between Tehran and the P5+1 group of countries
be fruitful so that Iran finally will be able to absorb more foreign
investments. 'The Industry, Mine, and Trade Ministry has started
negotiations with foreign firms over their possible investment in
Iranian projects,' he added." http://t.uani.com/TrLku8
Sanctions Relief
Reuters:
"Iran is lobbying to get HSBC to process humanitarian trade
transactions that Europe's biggest bank has frozen because of concerns
about potential breaches of international sanctions, sources familiar
with the trades told Reuters... 'HSBC, like other banks, is
increasingly worried about falling foul of any sanctions oversights. It
is just not worth the risks, especially in this climate,' a banking
source, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue,
said... HSBC said it continued to consider humanitarian payments
involving sanctioned countries 'on a case-by-case basis' to ensure they
are in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements, and
otherwise consistent with the bank's policy. 'This review process can
be particularly challenging and therefore can take time to conclude.
Our policy only requires the freezing of these payments where required
under applicable laws and regulations,' HSBC said in a statement issued
in response to Reuters questions... A Western intelligence source said HSBC's
trade finance was 'completely consistent with our understanding and
assessment'. 'It appears that HSBC is very concerned by the apparent
lack of transparency in Iranian activity,' the source said." http://t.uani.com/1ws5BON
Reuters:
"The U.S. Federal Reserve is not involved in clearing payments
made by India to Iran to pay some of its dues for oil bought from the
Middle East country, a U.S. Treasury Department spokeswoman said. The
comment was in response to a June 19 Reuters story citing sources with
knowledge of the matter as saying that India planned to clear some oil
payments to Iran through the United Arab Emirates central bank.
According to the sources, the new payment system includes a step in
which funds would be routed through the Federal Reserve. 'We can
confirm that no U.S. financial institutions, including the U.S. Federal
Reserve Bank, will be or have been involved in this payment
installment,' the spokeswoman for the Department for Terrorism and
Financial Intelligence said." http://t.uani.com/1l6JghF
Trend:
"Italian firms are serious about investing in Iran's water and
power projects. A number of Italian investors met in Tehran with
Abolfazl Koudehi, director of Iran's bureau for foreign investments at
the Organization for Investment, Economic and Technical Assistance of
Iran, Iran's IRNA news agency reported on June 24. The investors
announced readiness to participate in the implementation of projects
across Iran to establish water and power supply lines and build dams
and power plants." http://t.uani.com/1mal4ez
Trend:
"A couple of European companies have participated in a tender for
establishing natural gas storage facilities in Iran. Iran's Natural Gas
Storage Company's Managing Director Masoud Samivand said 34 European
and Iranian companies have participated in the tender, Iran's Mehr news
agency reported on June 24. For the first time, 20-25 year contracts
will be signed with foreign and domestic investors on
Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis in the sector, he added." http://t.uani.com/V9aAa3
Human Rights
IHR:
"Seven prisoners were hanged in the prison of Rasht (Northern
Iran) reported the official website of the Iranian judiciary in Gilan
Province. According to the report all the seven prisoners were
convicted of drug-related charges." http://t.uani.com/1sBzopQ
Opinion &
Analysis
Michael Weiss in
FP: "'There has never been any doubt in my mind
that elements within Iran's security services have facilitated ISIS,'
Col. Derek Harvey told Foreign Policy, referring to the Islamic State
of Iraq and al-Sham, a terrorist network-cum-jihadist army that has now
taken over territory in Syria and Iraq that, when combined, is roughly
the size of Jordan. 'When given opportunities to interdict, or have an
effect, [the Iranians] have refrained.' Harvey, a retired Army
intelligence officer and senior Central Command advisor, was emphatic
that any solution for containing the rising threat of ISIS, an al Qaeda
breakaway group, must foreclose on the possibility of U.S.-Iranian
collusion. His comments were echoed by two other high-ranking U.S.
military officials who served extensively in the Iraq theater in the
last decade and believe that Iran was the principal spoiler for
American-led reconstruction efforts after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
These reminders from Iraq war veterans come at a time when debate rages
in the U.S. policy establishment and commentariat over whether or not
the Obama administration should adopt an 'enemy of my enemy' logic in
Iraq and work with Washington's 30-year foe in Tehran... Yet
American veterans of the decade-long Iraq war and occupation say that
the idea is both preposterous and dangerous. Iran, they maintain, has
long played a double game in Mesopotamia and the Levant, both enabling
Sunni extremists to infiltrate countries such as Iraq, Syria, and
Lebanon and then swooping in as the only safeguard heralded against the
very forces they helped unleash. Another high-ranking retired U.S.
military official, who asked not to be identified by name, told FP:
'Ansar al-Islam, the people who eventually became al Qaeda in Iraq [the
forerunner organization to ISIS] -- where'd they come from? They came
from Iran. They traveled from Iran through Iraqi Kurdistan and then
through Mosul before moving south through Al Sharqat and then Tikrit.'
The official added: 'Iran ran a very subversive campaign against Saddam
long before we got into that country. And we were dealing with those
same lines of communications before we got there. Look what they've
done to the Levant, to Lebanon a couple times over. They're even in
Gaza.' Col. Rick Welch spent roughly seven years in Iraq, and worked
directly under Gen. David Petraeus during the surge and 'Anbar
Awakening' period, acting as a chief U.S. military liaison with both
the Sunni tribes and Shiite militia groups that were integral to
containing what was then a roiling civil war. 'Back when we were
getting intel from Iraqis at every level in our reconciliation program,
they were telling us that Iran was funding any group that could keep
Iraq chaotic,' Welch said. 'They did not want to see democracy in Iraq.
They were keeping us tied down and were preventing the [post-Saddam]
government from functioning in order to create the cover to let them to
get their intelligence assets in place, especially in the south, and
then influence the government piece by piece. That was not
conspiratorial in nature; it was a deeply held conviction and
perception throughout Iraq, and throughout the U.S. military.'" http://t.uani.com/1lmLgqP
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