Thursday, January 28, 2016

Eye on Iran: France Eyes Deals for Airbus, Peugeot, Farming as Iran Visits






Join UANI  
 Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter View our videos on YouTube
   
      
Top Stories

Reuters: "France and Iran hailed a set of business tie-ups and export deals on Thursday including the sale of dozens of Airbus planes and a car factory revamp that re-ignites a decades-old relationship between Tehran and carmaker Peugeot. The deals, some of which were not yet finalised, were announced at a Franco-Iranian business forum attended by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and a host of ministers and business leaders. The visit follows a deal between Iran and the west on the middle-eastern country's nuclear program that resulted in the lifting earlier this month of trade sanctions. With four business arrangements flagged by France's main industry body including the PSA Peugeot Citroen tie-up and a plan to sell over 100 Airbus passenger planes, French Prime Minister Valls said there would also be agreements signed in the areas of health, agriculture and the environment. The deals come despite a background of continued diplomatic tension with France, one of Iran's fiercest critics during the sanctions-lifting talks, and as human rights protests against the visit took place in the French capital. 'Let's forget past differences and start anew,' Rouhani said in a speech to the forum. Exactly what stage the Airbus deal was at remained unclear on Thursday, but French officials said Iran was putting the finishing touches to the deal... Pierre Gattaz, head of France's Medef employers association, said French national railway operator SNCF and aluminum company Fives were also expected to unveil deals. 'Iran's needs are enormous,' Gattaz told reporters. 'Iranians need everything. The country is not starting from scratch, it's got a very educated workforce, a real development potential.'" http://t.uani.com/1RP5pqo

Daily Telegraph: "Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, has marked Holocaust Memorial Day by publishing a Holocaust denying video on his official website. While nations around the world remembered the millions of people who were killed in Auschwitz and other concentration camps, Iran's hardline leader questioned whether the Holocaust 'is a reality or not'. Khamenei's website promotes the video with a banner across its homepage, featuring a montage of images, including one of Adolf Hitler... Khamenei's message comes as President Hassan Rouhani tours Italy and France, attempting to drum up trade and diplomatic links after his country signed a historic deal to limit its nuclear ambitions. Khamenei, who has the final word on high matters of state including last summer's nuclear deal, used his video to call on the 'dear people of Iran' to 'stand up against the ignorance' of the West. In the video, titled Are The Dark Ages Over?, Khamenei says: 'No one in European countries dares to speak about Holocaust. 'While it is not clear whether the core of this matter is a reality or not. Even if it is a reality, it is not clear how it happened.' The video, which features images of Holocaust deniers Roger Garaudy, Robert Faurisson, and David Irving, is just under three minutes long. Khamenei bemoans the fact that 'speaking about Holocaust and expressing doubts about it is considered to be a great sin' in the West. 'If someone does this, they stop, arrest, imprison and sue him,' he says. 'This is while they claim to be the supporters of freedom. This is the ignorance that exists in today's world, we should be awake.' He brands the 'western powers' liars for assisting the 'fake Zionist regime' while saying they are opposed to terrorism and Isil." http://t.uani.com/1KHx4lz

Navy Times: "Iran's supreme leader is hailing his hard-line paramilitary forces as heroes for their arrest of 10 American sailors at gunpoint, but an emerging consensus of U.S. legal experts believe the provocative act was a dangerous violation of international law that has so far gone without repercussions. The U.S. riverine boats had the right to pass expeditiously through Iran's territorial waters under the right of innocent passage without being boarded and arrested so long as they weren't engaged in a military operation such as spying. Pentagon officials have said the riverine boat crews mistakenly entered Iran's waters in the Persian Gulf due to a 'navigation error' while en route to a refueling... Iran did not have the legal standing to arrest the sailors at gunpoint and that demands a U.S. response, said one expert. 'This should be very concerning for the Navy community,' said James Kraska, a maritime law expert at the U.S. Naval War College. 'This says that U.S. vessels don't have innocent passage and that their sovereign immunity is not respected.' ... The U.S. has expressed discontent through diplomatic channels over Iran's handling of the incident, the use of the sailors for propaganda and Iran's flouting of international norms, a State Department official said. 'We have expressed our strong concern to Iran over the incident,' the official said, but declined to go into detail about those concerns, who relayed them or whether Iran could face further repercussions. The legal experts referenced the theU.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which the U.S. abides by and Iran has signed but not ratified. Under it, a warship has 'sovereign immunity' and can transit the territorial waters of another so long as they move 'continuously and expeditiously' and do not conduct any military operations, said Craig Allen, a professor of marine and environmental affairs at the University of Washington School of Law. Iran had the right to query the U.S. assault boats and if they didn't like their answer, they had the right to expel them from their waters. But they didn't have the right to arrest them. 'They can say, You are no longer conducting an innocent passage, get out,' Allen said. 'You expel them - you don't haul them into your port.'" http://t.uani.com/1SdLVMN

U.S.-Iran Relations

Fars (Iran): "Iran's massive military drills in international waters displays that the US attempts to prevent Iran's progress and contain its growing power have been futile, the head of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) intelligence unit said on Wednesday. 'The Americans tried to contain us through UN resolutions. They wanted to undermine our deterrence power,' Hossein Ta'eb said Wednesday, addressing a meeting in the Western city of Kermanshah. After Iran unveiled two deep underground tunnel facilities packed with sophisticated cruise missiles and batteries; after Iran test-fired the long-range Emad missile back in October and January; and after the IRGC and the Army staged massive drills in recent months, 'the United States got the message that Iran's deterrence power is here to stay,' he said. His remarks came after the Iranian Navy forces began the main phase of its massive drills in the Sea of Oman and the Indian Ocean. During the drills on Wednesday, a US Navy warship received a serious warning from several Iranian destroyers to keep away from their zone near the Strait of Hormuz... The USS MONTEREY (CG 61), a TICONDEROGA class cruiser, was sailing near the Strait of Hormuz where the Iranian forces were staging the main phase of the Velayat 94. According to the Iranian Army, the US warship left the region immediately after receiving the warning. Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said the warship seemed to be planning to spy on Iranian vessels and weapons. 'Some still seem to be holding no belief in Iran's naval power; hence they attempt to come close to get informed of our moves and capabilities,' the Admiral said on Wednesday. The incident was the second naval showdown between the United States and Iran in Persian Gulf waters in just two weeks." http://t.uani.com/1RP5Qko

Congressional Action

The Hill: "A bipartisan pair of lawmakers is calling for the Obama administration to provide more 'clarity' about the strategy for implementing the nuclear deal with Iran. Reps. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) and Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) plan to introduce a resolution urging the administration to outline how the U.S. will keep Iran to the terms of the deal, including an affirmation of potentially using military force to prevent the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Under the anticipated resolution, which has not yet been formally introduced, the House 'expresses its concern over the lack of clarity from the administration with regards to its response in the event of minor or incremental violations by Iran of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.' Moulton said Iran's recent ballistic missile tests - which international officials say violated United Nations Security Council resolutions - and ties to terrorism continue to raise concerns about the country's trustworthiness. The freshman Democrat, who voted in support of the deal last year, suggested that the White House should clarify how it would respond to behavior from Iran that it finds objectionable as it works to implement the deal. 'Frankly, if we were satisfied with the administration's response to date, we wouldn't have written the resolution,' Moulton said Wednesday. Ribble, who voted against the accord, said the measure would be a 'pragmatic' recognition that the deal is going into effect and needs to be effectively implemented whether lawmakers originally supported the deal or not. He posited that fellow Republicans would find the resolution's language sufficiently 'tough,' even though virtually all of them opposed the Iran deal. 'We're not taking anything off the table,' Ribble said of potential repercussions for Iran... The House is slated to conduct a do-over vote on legislation when it returns from recess next week that would prevent the Obama administration from lifting sanctions on Iranian entities unless it certifies they aren't affiliated with terrorism or ballistic missile development. Lawmakers were originally slated to pass that bill before Iran was expected to receive sanctions relief, but more than 100 lawmakers missed the vote earlier this month after Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) closed the vote on time to punish tardiness." http://t.uani.com/1KHlgQ4

Al-Monitor: "Democrats who supported President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran say it has already defanged that country's nuclear program, and they want their constituents to know about it. A half-dozen pro-deal lawmakers ranging from liberals to pro-Israel hawks took turns Jan. 27 on the Senate floor touting the deal's early successes and urging critics to help make it stronger. This group effort comes as Republicans highlight recent Iranian actions deemed aggressions, such as the detention of US sailors and a ballistic missile launch. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told Al-Monitor that he and other Democrats 'want to start fighting back against Republicans who want to rewrite the agreement.' 'Republicans continually want this agreement to be about something other than preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,' Murphy said. 'And I don't want us to be sitting around three years from now, with the nuclear agreement having been fully implemented, and the American public thinking the agreement failed simply because Iran is still funding Hezbollah.' According to Murphy, the deal needs a sales pitch, even after its passage, not unlike Obama's health care law. He predicted such an effort could help Democrats in the 2016 presidential election against Republican candidates who have vowed to terminate the deal on their first day in office... Democrats are pushing back by focusing on the progress that has already been made on the nuclear front. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., touted an 'extraordinary victory for diplomacy in taking the specter of a nuclear-armed Iran and evaporating it, eviscerating it, pushing it back at least 15 years.'" http://t.uani.com/1RP5Dhj

Sanctions Enforcement

AP: "France has asked its European Union partners to consider new sanctions on Iran for its recent missile tests, officials have told The Associated Press, even as Paris welcomed the president of the Islamic Republic, which is flush with funds from the lifting of other sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program. The ambiguous signals emerging Wednesday from France came as President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate elected in 2013, signed billions of dollars in business deals on an earlier stop in Italy and met with Pope Francis in the first such Iranian foray into Europe since 1999. France hopes for similarly lucrative deals during Rouhani's two-day visit, along with regional peacemaking efforts as the once-pariah state emerges from decades of isolation. But amid the courting of Iran, two officials from EU nations told AP that the request for new sanctions came shortly after the EU and the U.S. lifted sanctions on Tehran on Jan. 16 in exchange for U.N. certification that Iran had scaled back its nuclear programs. Iran said those programs were peaceful but critics feared it wanted to build nuclear weapons. The two officials said the French request came after the United States had imposed new sanctions on Iran over the firing of a medium-range ballistic missile. A French diplomat who spoke only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk publicly on the topic cited Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius as saying the EU is reviewing the possibility of new sanctions on Iran. He declined to say which nation initiated the process. Disclosure that the French asked for such a review - even if it is ultimately unsuccessful - could complicate Rouhani's low-key visit. About 20 accords between companies and ministries were to be signed Thursday, the French president's office said." http://t.uani.com/1nqirNZ

Sanctions Relief

FT: "PSA Peugeot Citroen became the first western company on Thursday to sign a binding contract with an Iranian group following the lifting of sanctions earlier this year. The French car maker signed a joint venture with Iran Khodro to produce a range of cars, saying it expected to invest €400m over the next five years in developing facilities in the country. Carlos Tavares, the chief executive of PSA, said at a press conference in Paris that the deal 'turns the page on the period of international sanctions' and allows the group and Iran Khodro to start a 'new chapter in their 30-year relationship'... PSA said it had been talking to its Iranian partner for 18 months. Peugeot is the number one foreign brand in Iran, with 30 per cent of the market today. The company sold nearly half a million cars a year before 2012, when sanction forced it to pull out. Iran Khodro continued making Peugeot branded cars, however. PSA will now invest in modernising platforms, particularly in the main Iran Khodro site near Tehran. The investment will also allow for the export of vehicles to the region as well, said Mr Tavares. It will begin by producing 200,000 cars a year in a 50:50 joint venture, producing the Peugeot 208, 2008, and the 301. Vehicle production will start in the second half of 2017. The company also said that the Iranian car market should bounce back to 2011 levels of selling 1.6m cars a year within two years. Sales would reach 2m by 2020, it said." http://t.uani.com/1VupZKI

Reuters: "Low oil prices and the economic and geopolitical scars of years of international sanctions all point to a high risk 'junk' credit rating for Iran when it starts feeling its way back into borrowing markets. With sanctions related to its nuclear program now being lifted, Tehran is expected to start tapping bond markets in the next six to 12 months, to try and breathe new life into the second biggest economy in the Middle East. A credit rating from one of the big three agencies, Standard and Poor's, Moody's or Fitch, while not essential, would help. Ratings are a standard tool investors use to judge how likely they are to get their money back and also to gauge what incentive in terms of interest payments they should expect by comparing countries to others with similar scores. The last time Iran had a rating almost a decade ago it was firmly in 'junk' grade territory at B2 with Moody's and had an equivalent B from Fitch, while the complex politics meant S&P never rated it... Moody's estimates growth will pick up to 4-5 percent this year and one of the few upsides of the sanctions is that Iran's debt as a proportion of annual GDP is only 15-16 percent... But then there are the negatives. Nominal per capita income has dropped to $4,900 from $7,500 pre sanctions, similar to B1 and B3 junk rated Albania and Bosnia, and oil prices at $30 a barrel aren't helping as much as they could either. Fitch said recently it expected Iranian oil and gas production to take years to get back to previous peaks, though it would not comment on any potential sovereign rating. In terms of political stability, corruption and rule of law, Mohammadi at Moody's said Iran was something of a mix of Thailand, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, Mongolia and Indonesia, which on average would also suggest a non-investment rating. 'Political and geopolitical risk would probably be one of the higher risks of Iran,' she said, also highlighting the war of words going on with Saudi Arabia." http://t.uani.com/1QGhsVN

Reuters: "Iranian banks will have to adjust to tougher international regulations and may need to offload non-performing loans into a 'bad bank' to pick up where they left off when sanctions were imposed almost four years ago. The banks will be crucial to deal-making and cash flow as Iran seeks to win business from foreign firms and attract investment to upgrade its infrastructure now that curbs have been lifted on its banking, insurance, shipping and oil sectors. They are expected to be able to link up with international lenders to process transactions within a matter of weeks following a deal with world powers earlier this month curbing Iran's nuclear program. But restrictions preventing U.S. banks dealing with the country will remain in place and Iran's banks will have to contend with a financial world very different from when they were cut off in 2012. 'Isolation of Iran's money market from international markets resulted in the inability of the Iranian banks to coordinate with international developments,' said Ali Sanginian, chief executive of privately owned Amin Investment Bank. 'This has led to these banks severely lacking in the areas of investment quality, capital adequacy, internal control and other safeguarding regulations in comparison to international standards,' said Sanginian, whose institution is Iran's biggest investment bank with more than $1 billion of assets under management. Many of Iran's banks struggled with bad debt during the sanctions era. The situation was compounded by several banks having exposure to the country's property market, which turned sour in 2012 leaving problem loans in the system. Official data showed the ratio of non-performing loans to total loans was 13.4 percent in the Iranian month ending June 21, 2015. Market estimates point to nearly double that figure with the equivalent of $40 billion at the top end of estimates for non-performing loans. 'The biggest issues Iranian banks face is the high level of non-performing loans and the low capital buffers,' said Constantinos Kypreos, senior analyst at ratings agency Moody's Financial Institutions Group. Kypreos said the Iranian banking sector remains undercapitalised with a reported 2014 capital adequacy ratio of 6.8 percent versus a regional average capital adequacy ratio of over 13 to 14 percent. '(With) concerns about the under-reporting of problematic loans, the sector is in need of substantial new capital,' he added... European banks are still cautious though. A senior manager at a large financial institution in Germany said: 'We don't want to be the pioneer. It would still be very complicated for us to do business with Iran because many U.S. sanctions are still in place.' Amin Investment Bank's Sanginian said there was still 'some mistrust' between banks due to in part previous fines imposed by U.S. regulators. 'We even predict that some giant international banks ... will refuse to cooperate with Iranian financial institutions,' he said." http://t.uani.com/1QuTFGz

WSJ: "After a flurry of big deals aimed at revamping Iranian commercial aviation, officials and executives here now face a host of obstacles that could keep many of their biggest ambitions grounded for some time to come. Iranian officials have been eager to court Western buyers for its crude oil and natural gas, but they have signaled that civil aviation is also a priority. Iran has committed to buying more than 100 commercial jets from Airbus Group SE-an order that could top $20 billion at list price-to help replace its aging fleet of jetliners, some bought before the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Tehran has also signed deals this week with a handful of French firms to revamp Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport. But residual financial sanctions, capital restrictions, aging infrastructure, and limits on Iranian flights abroad could all slow growth, Iranian and foreign officials warn... So far, the industry has appeared to be the single biggest beneficiary of the lifting of a set of broad international sanctions against Tehran. Iran Air would gain from any new plane orders... No one is expecting those planes to show up on the tarmac right away. Airbus and rival Boeing Co., whose planes Tehran is also interested in buying, are working through record backlogs, so new planes ordered today might not show up until after 2020. Another obstacle: Most airplane purchasing and finance deals are based in dollars. Executing those deals amid the U.S. banking restrictions would be difficult, especially for nonstate owned airlines. Deputy Transport Minister Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan told an audience of international aviation executives at a conference here this week that Iran's central bank is engaging with the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces sanctions, to address the issue. 'The banking sanctions limit our growth vision,' said Iraj Ronaghi, Vice President of Meraj Air, an independent airline that operates domestic flights and some to neighboring states. Iran was suspended in 2011 from the global aviation-payment system run by the International Air Transport Association. Iran Air's Mr. Parvaresh said the airline is hoping to be readmitted, a move that would make international ticketing easier." http://t.uani.com/20v1AZ0

Bloomberg: "Iranian asset-management firm Turquoise Partners plans to start a $200 million private equity fund with Swiss bank Reyl & Cie's Dubai unit in the first half of the year as the country opens up to foreign investors. The fund will mainly invest in Iranian consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, consumer finance and hospitality companies, which 'can be ramped up and turned around because they're inefficiently managed,' Chairman Rouzbeh Pirouz said in an interview in Tehran on Wednesday. As a joint venture between Turquoise and the Dubai-based entity Reyl Finance, the fund plans to capture 'the value of the consumer market that Iran has to offer,' Pasha Bakhtiar, chief executive officer of Reyl Finance, said by telephone from Dubai on Thursday. The $200 million target will be raised in several rounds, he said. Iran is opening up to foreign investors after the lifting of international sanctions earlier this month ended a decade of isolation. Griffon Capital, a Tehran-based firm set up by a group of international and Iranian investors, said this week it's seeking to raise 100 million euros ($108.8 million) for a new offshore fund specializing in the country's stocks. Turquoise also started an institutional fund with Charlemagne Capital Ltd. to buy Iranian securities earlier this month. That fund, which has raised about $50 million so far from mainly European investors, has gained about 20 percent after investing mainly in consumer and pharmaceutical stocks, Pirouz said." http://t.uani.com/1ZVG6Co

AP: "Several European airlines aim to resume their flights to Iran following a landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, the state-owned IRAN daily reported on Thursday. The newspaper quoted Mohammad Khodakarami, deputy head of Iran's civil aviation authority, as saying British Airways officials visited Tehran on Tuesday to discuss resumption of flights. He did not elaborate. Khodakarami also said both Air France and Dutch flagship KLM have already expressed their readiness to resume flights to Tehran. Air France said last month it would resume flights to Tehran for the first time in more than seven years starting in April. A KLM spokesman said the carrier always looks for opportunities for new destinations but has not yet make a decision about resuming flights that were suspended in 2013. 'At this moment there are no concrete plans to open Tehran. KLM follows the current situation concerning the lifting of sanctions against Iran closely,' spokesman Joost Ruempol said. BA also has not announced any firm plans to return to Iran, though Willie Walsh, the chief executive of its parent International Airlines Group, reportedly told a recent conference the airline is interested in flying to Tehran soon." http://t.uani.com/1PV7P0T

Presidential Visit to Europe

AP: "Italy's culture minister has criticized as 'incomprehensible' the decision to cover up naked statues at a Rome museum where Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was visiting, adding a new twist to the controversy that has dominated Rouhani's deal-making visit to Italy. Culture Minister Dario Franceschini told reporters Wednesday that neither he nor Premier Matteo Renzi were informed about the decision, which was apparently taken by lower-ranking officials in a bid to avoid offending the visiting leader. The cover-up involved the placement of several wooden panels to shield nude statues at Rome's Capitoline Museums, where Rouhani and Renzi held a joint press conference Monday. The measures made headlines across Italy and prompted some politicians to accuse the government of caving into 'cultural submission.' 'I think there easily would have been other ways to not offend an important foreign guest without this incomprehensible choice of covering up the statues,' Franceschini said. He spoke to reporters at the Colosseum, where he gave Rouhani a guided tour before the Iranian delegation left for France. Rouhani, for his part, said the Iranians hadn't requested any such measures by saying 'there were no contacts about this.' But he seemed to appreciate the gesture. 'I know that Italians are a very hospitable people, a people who try to do the most to put their guests at ease and I thank you for this,' he told reporters when asked about the cover-up." http://t.uani.com/1KcWfS1

RFE/RL: "Memes are making the rounds mocking Italy's decision to cover up nude statues at Rome's Capitoline Museum with big white boxes for a visit by Iranian President Hassan Rohani. The decision has caused anger in Italy, where it has been condemned by critics as 'incomprehensible,' 'ridiculous,' and 'submission' to principles that are against Western culture... A photoshopped picture of the Mona Lisa wrapped in the Islamic hijab that is compulsory for women in Iran was being shared on social media ahead of the trip, which follows the lifting of sanctions against the Islamic republic under a landmark deal restricting its nuclear program. 'Preparations by Louvre Museum for Rohani's visit,' reads the tweet. Some Iranians have likened Italy's decision to cover up nude statues to Iran's state censorship, including tough Internet censorship that targets tens of thousands of websites. 'Smart filtering of statues during #Rohani's trip to #Italy,' reads the tweet that includes a photo of the nude statues covered in the page that Iranians see when they try to access banned websites. A photoshopped photo of Rohani posing with Pope Francis under a nude painting was widely circulated... In 2013, a relief carving of a naked man at the UN's headquarters in Geneva was covered up by a large white screen apparently in an effort not to offend Iranian diplomats who were due to take part in talks over Iran's nuclear activities." http://t.uani.com/1Slti7N

Terrorism

JPost: "Hezbollah is expected to start mediating soon between Hamas and Iran in order to reconcile between both parties and bring Hamas, which is financed today buy the Gulf states, back into Tehran's fold. London-based Asharq al-Awsat reported on Thursday that the new mediation comes after Iran failed in its previous attempts to convince Hamas to announce its support for Iran in the Islamic Republic's battle with Saudi Arabia for regional supremacy, in exchange for Iranian financial aid. According to the report, Naim Qassem, the deputy secretary-general of Hezbollah, has invited the deputy chairman of Hamas' political bureau, Mousa Abu Marzouk, to Lebanon to meet senior Iranian officials, including officers in Iran's Revolutionary Guard. The reported meeting is expected to take place after the end of reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fatah that will start in Doha in February." http://t.uani.com/1SdMm9K

Al-Monitor: "As Palestinians hope for a potential windfall of support from Iran's newly restored wealth, some observers are warning them not to hold their breath. Iran has provided financial and military support for some Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip, especially Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, since the early 1990s. But Iran dramatically reduced this support in early 2011, when the factions refused to take sides in the ongoing war in Syria. Now that the crippling sanctions that had been in place against Iran since 1979 were lifted Jan. 16, these groups hope to benefit. However, Tehran's stance on Syria hasn't changed, so observers believe Iran isn't likely to increase its support unless the factions side with Iran - and they don't appear ready to do so. The only Palestinian faction to even comment publicly on the sanctions removal was the pro-Iran Harakat Al-Sabireen ('Movement of Those Who Endure with Patience'), which called the agreement a victory for the nation and a sign of pride and strength. 'Iran's power is the strength of vulnerable people around the world, and all the free people must unite to fight the global arrogance and eliminate the Zionist entity from the land of Palestine,' Harakat Al-Sabireen said in an official statement issued Jan. 17. Ahmed Yousef, a Hamas leader and political adviser to former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, confirmed to Al-Monitor that although the financial and military support Iran provides to the movement's military wing has never stopped, it has been reduced over the past five years, and the movement has especially distanced itself from the Syrian war. He stressed that all Palestinian resistance forces need Iran's financial, political and military support." http://t.uani.com/1TpIBNm

Syria Conflict

Reuters: "Iran said on Thursday it strongly opposed moves by its regional foe Saudi Arabia to allow 'terrorists in a new mask' to sit down for talks between the Syrian government and the opposition. Preparations for Syria peace talks, due in Geneva on Friday, have been beset by difficulties, including a dispute over who should be invited to negotiate with President Bashar al-Assad's government as it claws back territory with help from Russia and Iran. 'Terrorists with a new mask should not sit down at a negotiating table with the representatives of the Syrian authorities,' Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told a news conference during a visit to Russia. 'This is the most important condition.' The Syrian government, aided by Russian air strikes and allied militia including Iranian forces, is gaining ground against rebels in western Syria, this week capturing the town of Sheikh Maskin near the Jordanian border." http://t.uani.com/1lWGXW1

Human Rights

HuffPost: "At least 160 young Iranians are currently awaiting execution and 73 others have been put to death between 2005 and 2015, a chilling new report from Amnesty International says. As the world's leading executioner of offenders under 18 and one of the world's largest users of the death penalty overall, Iran had nearly 700 people executed in the first half of 2015 alone. 'The situation overall is shocking and distressing,' Raha Bahreini, the report's lead researcher, told The WorldPost. 'It is absolutely shocking that the majority of countries in the world have rejected the death penalty, but Iran continues to sentence girls as young as 9 and boys as young as 15 to death.' Among the 73 executed youth was Makwan Moloudzadeh, who was sentenced to death as a 13-year-old and executed eight years later, in 2007. Moloudzadeh was accused of having 'forced male-male anal penetration' with another boy, but withdrew his pre-trial confession in court, saying he had been coerced and tortured into confessing. Two boys who had also accused Moloudzadeh of raping them retracted their accusations, saying they had lied or had been forced to lodge complaints by the police. Iran also hanged Janat Mir, an Afghan boy believed to be 14 or 15 at the time of his execution, in 2014. Mir was executed following an arrest for drug offenses after his friend's house, where he was living, was raided." http://t.uani.com/1Slup7t

RFE/RL: "A woman from the activist group Femen hung from a bridge in Paris on January 28, to protest Iranian President Hassan Rohani's visit to the French capital. With an Iranian flag painted on her chest, the activist staged a mock execution. The group said it was protesting against widespread executions of 'women, feminists and freethinkers' in Iran." http://t.uani.com/1ORNvj1

Foreign Affairs

Al-Monitor: "Despite the rising death toll, with 156 Palestinians killed since Oct. 1, 2015, President Mahmoud Abbas made a point of discussing larger regional conflicts during his Jan. 6 speech in Bethlehem. Abbas exclaimed three separate times, 'We stand with Saudi Arabia' in its clash against Iran. In a wide-ranging interview with Al-Monitor at the Negotiations Affairs Department's office of the PLO, chief negotiator Saeb Erekat adopted a harsh tone against Tehran, saying, 'The Iranians should stop poking their noses into the affairs of others or exporting their revolution.' Ghassan Khatib, former Palestinian minister of labor and director of the Palestinian Authority's government media center... said that Iran's previous support for Hamas 'has led PA officials to think that Iran is a factor contributing to a split in internal Palestinian politics, which is bad for the Palestinian cause.'" http://t.uani.com/207Zwt5

Opinion & Analysis

Giulio Maria Terzi in Politico: "The nuclear agreement between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S.) was a significant development. But there are a number of reasons why it should be considered with more caution than excitement. Is it really a landmark achievement for world peace and security? Many friends of the Iranian people would like to see the country make steps toward freedom, human rights, pluralism and tolerance. Unfortunately the odds are that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action will neither make the Middle East safer nor fundamentally change the nature of the Iranian regime and its conduct in the region. Since signing the agreement in mid-July Tehran has shown a clear lack of interest in changing course. This fact is particularly significant in light of President Hassan Rouhani's visits to Italy and France this week, the first such state visits in a decade. By all accounts, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei only agreed to the nuclear talks because the Iranian economy was suffering under crippling U.S. and EU sanctions, raising the specter of massive uprisings reminiscent of those in 2009. Khamenei took great care to emphasize, even at the beginning of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action's implementation phase, that dialogue and cooperation with the West should not expand to other areas, namely regional security and human rights. The regime has carried out 52 hangings since the beginning of the year, intensifying a pervasive climate of terror and fear. In the almost three years of Rouhani's tenure, more than 2,000 people have been executed, according to a report by Hands Off Cain (an anti-death penalty and torture group), some for political charges... Iran has long led the world in per capita executions, but this is a sharp increase compared to the same period during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The regime has also stepped up its arrests and its judicial abuses against activists, dissidents, minorities and others. Beyond its borders, Tehran has been pouring billions of dollars into support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has dispatched more than 5,000 Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and some 25,000 non-Iranian mercenaries to Syria. The international community has made efforts to bring Iran into the discussion over a political solution to the Syrian civil war and Tehran's refusal to negotiate over the future of the Assad regime makes it clear that Iranian officials are abiding by Khamenei's directive to avoid negotiation. There have been other provocations... It seems quite evident that the nuclear agreement has given the regime added motivation to crack down on Iranian civil society, become more belligerent in the region, and keep Western influence at bay... It is clear that the West will continue to face major strategic challenges from Iran. Hope cannot be a substitute for prudent policy, particularly in dealing with a volatile region like the Middle East or issues like the growth of Islamic extremism. Italy, France and the European Union should not only use Rouhani's visit to explore trading opportunities. First and foremost Rouhani's visit should be a test of his willingness to change Iran's egregious conduct and an opportunity to hold him accountable for his actions. If Iran needs to open up its economy vis-a-vis the EU and the West, the Iranian president should be reminded that unless the regime truly moderates its conduct, the West will have no political appetite for investment or improved relations. The nuclear deal is not the only obvious area in which Iran can demonstrate a real commitment to moderation: releasing political prisoners, safeguarding the rights of citizens, withdrawing support for terrorist groups, retracting hateful propaganda, and ending their meddling in the affairs of other countries are just as important. Until such results are achieved, the narrative of Iranian moderation will remain a fantasy. The West needs a better foundation on which to base moral and politically-effective policies." http://t.uani.com/208767g

Suzanne Maloney in Brookings: "If you want to understand what drove the intense opposition to the nuclear deal with Iran in certain quarters of the American political establishment, as well as across the broader Middle East, all you have to do is look at the photos from Iranian president Hassan Rouhani's inaugural tour of Europe this week. The most notorious shot shows plywood barricades concealing ancient Roman statues, apparently out of concern that their nudity would shock or offend the leader of an Islamic theocracy. The alacrity with which Italian leaders jettisoned their values and historical legacy in hopes of gaining some advantage in Iran's post-sanctions gold rush is precisely what nuclear deal opponents predicted and hoped to forestall. After all, a Europe that would so readily censor the treasures of its own glorious antiquity, in an obsequious gesture that was apparently unbidden by Tehran, is unlikely to jeopardize any budding business to penalize any Iranian infractions of the agreement, or to put pressure on Iran over any of its other objectionable policies... Much of the U.S. unilateral sanctions regime remains intact, and these measures-along with some residual uncertainty about the longevity of the nuclear deal-will restrain the horizons of Iran's economic and geopolitical reintegration into the international community. But for all practical purposes, the Islamic Republic's redemption is complete. So in the wake of this broad normalization, how can the world continue to nudge Tehran toward 'acting like a normal country'? For starters, by restraining the impulse to placate ideological excesses of Iranian politics-or, for that matter, those of its neighbors. The Italian deference to Rouhani is not without precedent: similar measures were taken last year to protect the delicate sensibilities of Abu Dhabi's crown prince. And it was not without foundation-in 1999, photos of a previous Iranian president, Mohammad Khatami, enjoying an Italian state dinner provoked a furor among opponents of his reformist agenda because they revealed wine glasses on the tables. However, there were an infinite number of ways for circumventing these civilizational conflicts without repudiating Italian artistic glory. To avoid a repeat of his Roman fiasco, Khatami simply adapted his future European visits to incorporate a greater number of official breakfast meetings, where abstinence was more easily ensured. Iran's rehabilitation without full-fledged reformation compounds the already urgent challenges of an unstable Middle East. Its reintegration can be a stabilizing force, but only if Tehran reconciles itself to the world, rather than the reverse." http://t.uani.com/1QGAZFx

Daniel Henninger in WSJ: "Some wonder how history will treat Barack Obama's presidency. That depends on who writes the histories. Secretary of State John Kerry's account will fist-pump the Iran nuclear deal as the central foreign-policy event of the Obama presidency, a triumph for Western diplomacy. But news photographs in recent weeks are producing a different history. These photos document the abject humiliation of the West by Iran. Americans who plan to vote in their presidential election should look hard at these photos, because the West's direction after this will turn on the decisions they make. The first photo is of a hallway in Rome's Capitoline Museums, a repository of art dating to Western antiquity. Out of what the government of Italy called 'respect' for the sensibilities of visiting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the museum placed large white boxes over several nude sculptures, including a Venus created in the second century B.C. Then, because Mr. Rouhani will not attend a meal that serves alcohol to anyone, the nominally Italian government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi declined to serve wine. They did so for the same reason that beggars grub change in front of Rome's churches. Freed by the Obama nuclear deal with Iran, Italy's tin-cup businesses signed about a dozen deals with Mr. Rouhani this week, totaling $18 billion. The bowing and scraping to Mr. Rouhani continues this week as France and Germany sign more deals. This is not economic re-normalization. Rather than reform its weak, politically unstable economies, Europe is content to make itself a dependency of the aborning Iranian empire. The second photo of Western submission depicts what appears to be a glee-filled meeting between the president of Iran and the leader of the world's Catholics, Pope Francis, who gave Mr. Rouhani 40 minutes of his time. The Vatican argues this is realpolitik by a pope trying to protect Christians in the Middle East by inducing Iran to play an 'important role' in the peace process. Set aside the 'role' Iran has played in the death of a quarter-million Syrians and the refugees now destabilizing Europe. One still may ask: Why such public and jolly photo-ops with this person? The U.S. State Department's religious-freedom report says in 2014 Iran executed at least 24 individuals for the crime of moharebeh (enmity against God). And surely that understates the total killed. The persecuted in Iran include Bahais, Sunni Muslims, Christians (notably evangelicals), Jews, Yarsanis and even Shia groups. Mr. Rouhani is grinning in this photo because he knows these people can't move Iran's culture out of the 16th century. The third photograph is of 10 sailors from the U.S. Navy who are kneeling in rows, hands on their heads, on the deck of an Iranian boat. The Obama administration hasn't provided an explanation for how this 'deviation' and capture by Iran in the Persian Gulf happened. Instead of outrage over Iran's treatment of the sailors, Sec. Kerry praised the Iranians' 'cooperation and quick response.' Cooperation? Iran humiliated the sailors by making them kneel in the style of an Islamic State execution ceremony and then humiliated the U.S. by releasing that photo. Meeting in a congratulatory ceremony with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members who took the sailors, Iranian supremo Ayatollah Khamenei said, 'This event should be considered God's work.' One is tempted to tip one's hat to the Khamenei-Rouhani strategy team. Iran took the West's measure with its nuclear brinkmanship and the West bent. Some may say the Italians are the Italians, the pope has his reasons, and Barack Obama and John Kerry are just finishing their apology tour. But that understates the long series of political compromises and cultural surrenders that have brought the U.S. and Europe to this point. Italy's repudiation of its own heritage to accommodate Iran's president is a significant symbolic event." http://t.uani.com/1P00nS8

Shirin Ebadi in WashPost: "Last week, the Iranian government released Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and four other international prisoners. This is, of course, wonderful news. But more than 800 Iranians remain behind bars, imprisoned for their political beliefs, their journalism or their human rights work. The current Iranian regime has 'brutally repressed' its civil society. According to the U.N. secretary general, Iran maintains an ongoing 'crackdown' on free expression, with scores of reporters, human rights defenders and activists in jail. Labor leaders, women's rights supporters and representatives of Iran's minority communities are all languishing behind bars. No one is immune - four young people were imprisoned after they put out a YouTube video of themselves dancing to Pharrell's 'Happy.' As a human rights lawyer, I have defended many of these men and women in court. I have seen the sham trials that the state runs. Security forces from the Intelligence Ministry and Revolutionary Guard have long been able to arrest who they want, when they want, for whatever reason. These agencies essentially dictate verdicts to Revolutionary Court judges, who see themselves as a extension of the 'security' system, not independent arbiters of justice and law. As a result, political prisoners and prisoners of conscience are deprived a fair trial. Routinely, I see people convicted on vague charges like 'propaganda against the state' or 'endangering the security of the state.' Almost all are put behind bars for the peaceful expression of their political views, religious beliefs, artistic vision or human rights advocacy. They are being held hostage by security forces against Iranian law and international law. If Iran's rulers can release a handful of Iranian American dual nationals, why can't authorities free the young physicist Omid Kokabee, jailed for refusing to work for Iran's military? What about human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani, student leader and women's rights worker Bahareh Hedayat, journalist Issa Saharkhiz, political activist Saeed Madani or hundreds of others? Why can't authorities free lawyer Narges Mohammadi? Mohammadi is vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, an organization I helped establish. She co-founded the coalition Step by Step to Stop the Death Penalty, and has also worked as an investigative journalist. Mohammadi spoke out for victims of torture such as Sattar Beheshti, and briefed foreign dignitaries such as Catherine Ashton. Are these acts grounds for imprisonment? Apparently so. Six years ago, Mohammadi was sentenced to 11 years in prison. She is currently serving a prison sentence and facing new charges. Upon arrest, political detainees are held in solitary confinement, denied access to their lawyers and family and subjected to physical and psychological torture. All this to produce a confession to 'crimes' that no true judicial system would ever consider crimes. If they fall ill, political prisoners are regularly denied medical treatment. In Mohammadi's case, a medical examiner determined in 2012 that she was unable to serve her sentence as a result of poor health. She was granted furlough only to be returned to prison last year. Now she is suffering from paralysis caused by a neurological disorder and only receiving minimal care. I am overjoyed that Rezaian and three other Iranian American prisoners are now free. But I am incredibly sorry that other prisoners, who possess only Iranian citizenship, remain behind bars.  I hope that some day soon, we witness the release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Iran." http://t.uani.com/20v4fSq

IranWire: "Only somebody like Mohammad Dadkan, the former Persepolis footballer who served as president of the Iranian Football Federation, can get away with making a comment like this live on state television: 'Iranian sports are full of police and Revolutionary Guards commanders. What are they doing in sports? What are they doing in football? Do they want to hold Iranian sports back? If they are good managers, they should go back to their jobs in the barracks.' It may be a controversial statement, but it is true. Revolutionary Guards' transition from barracks to boardrooms began back in the mid-1990s, when they took on management roles in some of the country's most high profile sports. So why have sports in Iran become so inundated by former Revolutionary Guards? What is their agenda? And what kind of influence do they have? Whatever the answers, it is safe to assume that the divisions so prevalent in all aspects of Iranian society -the military, politics, religion - also play a key role in Iran's sports. In fact, the politics of sports holds such sway in Iran that one hardliner drew comparisons between celebrating the nuclear deal and one of last year's biggest football controversies, Tractor Sazi Football Club's 'false victory,' where fans believed their team had won, only to be informed amid celebrations that this was not the case. In Iranian sport, how often are influential figures put in high-ranking sports jobs to do something similar: control the course of events, and public expectations? Below, we look at a few prime examples of the links between Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards and professional sport in Iran." http://t.uani.com/1nRiKSD
       

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.

No comments:

Post a Comment