Eye on Iran: Another Iranian American Arrested and Imprisoned in Tehran

Join UANI           Top Stories WashPost: "Iran has arrested another American holding dual citizenship, bringing to four the number of Iranian Americans imprisoned in Tehran after they came under suspicion by hard-line security forces. Siamak Namazi, a businessman based in Dubai who is in his early 40s, was arrested earlier this month when he was visiting a friend in Tehran, according to a family friend who did not want to be identified. It was not clear whether any charges have been brought against him or what authorities might allege he did. Namazi, the son of a former governor in the oil-rich Iranian province of Khuzestan, comes from a prominent Iranian family. Namazi's family came to the United States in 1983 when he was a boy, and he later returned to Iran after graduating from college to serve in the Iranian military. He has consulted on business opportunities in Iran for more than a decade... Iranian Americans such as Namazi are particularly vulnerable to arrest because Iran does not recognize dual nationality. An Iranian official in Vienna for talks on the Syrian war said the arrest of Namazi and other Iranian Americans should not deter other dual nationals from visiting the country." http://t.uani.com/1NFf1PU WSJ: "In the past few weeks, Iranian businessmen with links to foreign companies have been detained, interrogated and warned against wading into economic monopolies controlled by the Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to several businessmen interviewed inside and outside of Iran... People familiar with Mr. Namazi's case said that his detention has sent chills across the business community in Iran and significantly dampened the interest among the diaspora for taking their money back home. 'Everyone is now hitting the pause button,' said an Iranian businessman in London. 'If they don't want the benefit of our knowledge, money and network then that's fine. We will take our business elsewhere.' An Iranian-American banker said he canceled his trip to Tehran this week in light of Mr. Namazi's detention. Another prominent businessman in Tehran, who said he was working to attract foreign investors to Iran, said that he was under surveillance and interrogated weekly by Revolutionary Guard intelligence agents. Several businessmen said a plan to invite so-called young leaders selected by the World Economic Forum on a trip to Iran was approved by President Rouhani and a fund was allocated for the exchange. But the Guards intervened, forcing them to cancel the invitation days ahead of the trip. One businessman said that his contact at Mr. Rouhani's office stopped taking his calls after he was called in for questioning by the Guards. Such developments undermine Mr. Rouhani's claims that Iran has changed in the aftermath of the nuclear deal and now welcomes economic engagement. Analysts say the Islamic Republic will remain a risky market for foreign companies and Iranian-American investors." http://t.uani.com/1KKwdyZ Al-Monitor: "The politics of the Iran deal are back in full swing on Capitol Hill as senators prepare to vote on two nominees tasked with carrying it out. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Oct. 29 heard from Tom Shannon, the would-be replacement for deal negotiator Wendy Sherman as the State Department's No. 3, and Laura Holgate, the proposed envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Both had relatively smooth hearings but were sharply warned that Congress expects them to keep the pressure on Tehran going forward. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., demanded to know what Shannon, currently the department's counselor, planned to do about Iran's recent ballistic missile test and potential future violations. The line of questioning only further confirms that fallout from the deal will be felt for months and years to come. 'In regards to Iran violations [of UN resolutions], I can guarantee you that we will be responding to them,' Shannon said. 'Our success with the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] will only happen if we show a clear willingness to pursue violations elsewhere under other sanctions regimes.' And Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., flatly warned him that Congress would never lift sanctions on Iran without much more outreach from the executive branch." http://t.uani.com/1GB4vK2 Sanctions Relief Reuters: "Asian imports of Iranian oil fell nearly 6 percent from a year earlier in September, as Iran's biggest crude buyers held off from increasing purchases following the landmark agreement on Tehran's disputed nuclear programme in July. Imports by Iran's four biggest buyers - China, India, Japan and South Korea - totalled just over 1 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, 5.9 percent lower than a year earlier, government and tanker-tracking data showed... For the first nine months of 2015, Asian buyers took in almost 1.1 million bpd, down 6.1 percent from a year earlier... Iran's oil loadings for next-month arrivals look to be headed towards a seven-month low in October, down 13 percent from revised September levels, according to tanker data, confirming Tehran has struggled to raise exports despite the optimism over the landmark deal. Condensate loadings have been robust this month, however, as a result of Iran's attractive pricing relative to other suppliers of the natural gas byproduct." http://t.uani.com/1kYjbsK    Press TV (Iran): "Iran says its new format of oil sector contracts requires foreign companies to form partnerships with local firms over the projects they plan to take up in the country. 'In future upstream projects, no foreign company will ever take up a project without a local partner,' Bijan Zangeneh, Iran's oil minister, has been quoted by the media as saying. 'This is meant to add to the abilities of the local companies and facilitate the transfer of technology,' he added." http://t.uani.com/1PZji3e Press TV (Iran): "India's state-owned iron ore pellet producer Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd (KIOCL) has announced that it is preparing to resume exports to Iran after a gap of 10 years. The company had stopped exports to Iran in 2005 after the Supreme Court had asked it to shut down its captive mines in Karnataka's Kudremukh region. Iran has been KIOCL's most important customer for pellets. KIOCL says it will start exports to Iran by shipping one million tons of iron ore pellets per year. The company says it has reached an understanding with London-based Anglo American Plc for an initial import of 500,000 tons of 67.2% Fe grade iron ore from its Brazilian mines, which will be converted into pellets at its plant in Mangaluru on the West Coast. 'We are offering our plant for Iranian buyers under the 'Make in India' program. For the current financial year, we will import half a million ton iron ore with 67.2% Fe content from Anglo American. We will convert it into pellets at our Mangaluru plant and export to Iran,' Malay Chatterjee, the chairman and managing director of KIOCL, told India's Financial Express newspaper." http://t.uani.com/1SdcKgA Terrorism Reuters: "The commander of Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim al-Mukhtar Army militia claimed responsibility on Friday for a deadly rocket attack on a camp holding members of an exiled Iranian opposition group near Baghdad, according to Iran's Fars news agency. About 15 rockets crashed near the camp of the People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) next to Baghdad International Airport on Thursday and killed 23 of its members, a Paris-based spokesman for the group said. 'We warned the members of this terrorist organization to leave Iraq as soon as possible ... If they don't do so, there will more similar attacks,' al-Mukhtar Army commander Wathiq al Battat was quoted as saying by Fars. The Al-Mukhtar Army has said it is supported and funded by Iran's government... The United States urged the Iraqi government to increase security at so-called Camp Liberty and find those responsible for the attack and hold them accountable. The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR also condemned Thursday's attack. 'This is a most deplorable act and I am greatly concerned at the harm ... inflicted on those living at Camp Liberty,' U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said." http://t.uani.com/1WnQ6CK Syria Conflict Reuters: "Iran signaled on Friday that it favored a six-month 'transition' period in Syria followed by elections to decide the fate of President Bashar al-Assad, an apparent concession ahead of the first peace conference Tehran was permitted to attend. Although sources who described the proposal said it amounted to Tehran dropping its insistence on Assad remaining in power, it was not immediately clear whether it would actually include steps that would remove him. Assad's government held an election as recently as last year, which he easily won. His opponents have always rejected any proposal for a transition unless he is removed from power and barred from standing in any election that followed. Nevertheless, a commitment to a defined time limit for a transition would amount to an important new undertaking by Assad's closest ally, providing a potential basis for future diplomacy at a time when Assad's position has been strengthened by Russia's decision to join the war on his side. 'Iran does not insist on keeping Assad in power forever,' Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian, a member of Tehran's delegation at the Syria talks on Friday, was quoted by Iranian media as saying. A senior official from the Middle East familiar with the Iranian position said that could go as far as ending support for Assad after the transition period. 'Talks are all about compromises and Iran is ready to make a compromise by accepting Assad remaining for six months,' the official told Reuters. 'Of course, it will be up to the Syrian people to decide about the country's fate.'" http://t.uani.com/1XEjXZX Reuters: "Any peace plan for Syria allowing President Bashar al-Assad to stand in early elections after a transition period would be 'mad' because he is the root of the problem and holding a nationwide poll is impossible, a Syrian opposition figure said. The commander of a rebel group fighting on the ground echoed the comment. Reuters reported on Thursday that Damascus ally Iran would accept a six-month transition period at the end of which Assad's fate would be decided in elections, according to a Middle East source familiar with Iran's position. 'Who is mad enough to believe that under these circumstances in Syria, anybody can hold elections?' said George Sabra, a member of the main Western-backed Syrian National Coalition. 'Several millions of Syrians are outside Syria, some of them in refugee camps in some countries. Inside Syria there are millions who have left their houses, their lives, seeking safety,' he said. The rebel commander, Ahmed al-Seoud of the 13th Division, said: 'In the shadow of this anarchy there will not be real elections, therefore we reject them absolutely.' The coalition's Sabra rejected the idea that Assad could stand in any early vote, saying that the Syrian leader and his Iranian, Russian and Hezbollah allies had attacked the Syrian population and given rise to hardline insurgents. 'Bashar al-Assad and his regime is the root of the terrorism in Syria,' he said. 'I think what is happening in Vienna these days is a carnival of Middle Eastern states, making statements to meet their interests, not to meet the real problem in Syria.'" http://t.uani.com/1P9FKG0 Human Rights Al Arabiya: "Iran's supreme court this week confirmed the death penalty of a Sunni preacher arrested in 2009, according to Al Arabiya News Channel. The court issued the final verdict for Shahram Ahmadi, who was first charged in 2012, on Oct. 25. Ahmadi, who was a prisoner of conscience, was held in solitary confinement for 33 months in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, before being transferred to Rajai Shahr prison in the nearby city of Karaj. He had been held in two other prisons since his arrest. In 2012, his younger brother, Bahram Ahmadi, was executed, along with five other Sunni preachers." http://t.uani.com/1OcWEVH           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.