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WSJ: "The White House has delayed
its plan to impose new financial sanctions on Iran for its ballistic
missile program, according to U.S. officials, amid growing tensions with
Iran over the nuclear deal struck earlier this year. The officials said
the Obama administration remains committed to combating Iran's missile
program and that sanctions being developed by the U.S. Treasury
Department remain on the table. They also said imposing such penalties
was legal under the landmark nuclear agreement forged between global
powers and Iran in July. U.S. officials offered no definitive timeline
for when the sanctions would be imposed after the decision was made
Wednesday to delay them. At one point, they were scheduled to be
announced Wednesday morning in Washington, according to a notification
the White House sent to Congress. Republican leaders on Thursday accused
the Obama administration of losing its will to challenge Iran after
Tehran countered on Thursday that it would accelerate the development of
its arsenal. 'If the president's announced sanctions ultimately aren't
executed, it would demonstrate a level of fecklessness that even the
president hasn't shown before,' said Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.), a
leading critic of the nuclear deal, in an interview... The White House on
Wednesday morning sent a notification to Congress that the Treasury
Department would announce at 10:30 a.m. new sanctions on nearly a dozen
companies and individuals in Iran, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates
for their alleged role in developing Iran's ballistic missile program.
The sanctions would have been the first imposed on Iran since the nuclear
agreement was reached last July in Vienna. The White House then sent a
second email to congressional offices at 11:12 a.m. stating the sanctions
announcement had been 'delayed for a few hours,' according to a copy of
the communications seen by The Wall Street Journal. In a final White
House email sent just after 10 p.m., officials said the sanctions had
been delayed, and didn't specify when they might go ahead." http://t.uani.com/1muYztb
WSJ: "Leading lawmakers, including
supporters of President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, rapped the
White House for delaying fresh sanctions on Tehran over its missile
program, warning that the move would embolden it to further destabilize
the Middle East. The abrupt reversal by the administration came as
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani publicly ordered his military to
dramatically scale up the country's missile program if the sanctions went
ahead. Senior U.S. officials have told lawmakers the sanctions were
delayed because of evolving diplomatic work between the White House and
the Iranian government... 'I believe in the power of vigorous enforcement
that pushes back on Iran's bad behavior,' Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of
Delaware, a supporter of the nuclear deal, said Friday. 'If we don't do
that, we invite Iran to cheat.' Iranian state media reported American and
Iranian diplomats undertook intensive deliberations in recent days to
discuss the sanctions issue... Critics of the White House accused
President Obama of backing down on his promises to take action in the
face of Iranian provocations such as missile launches. They drew
parallels to Mr. Obama's failure to follow through on threats to launch
military strikes on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in 2013 in
response to its alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians. 'I
fear that pressure from our partners-or threats from the Iranian
government that it will walk away from the deal or threaten the U.S. in
other ways-have caused the administration to rethink imposing sanctions
for Iran's violations of the testing ban,' said Sen. Bob Corker (R.,
Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee... Some former
U.S. officials said they believed the White House's reluctance to impose
the sanctions was driven by a fear of undermining Mr. Rouhani. Hard-line
military and political leaders in Tehran have roundly criticized the
terms of the nuclear agreement negotiated by the Iranian president and
Mr. Zarif. 'Sanctions are construed in Iran by conservatives as evidence
of a U.S. bait-and-switch, getting the nuclear deal but looking for
continued sanctions by other means,' said Vali Nasr, a former Obama
administration official and dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced
International Studies in Washington. 'That perception is damaging to
President Rouhani, who's taking credit for the deal.'" http://t.uani.com/1RZDVOA
NYT: "Iranian protesters ransacked
and set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran on Saturday after Saudi
Arabia executed an outspoken Shiite cleric who had criticized the
kingdom's treatment of its Shiite minority. The cleric, Sheikh Nimr
al-Nimr, was among 47 men executed in Saudi Arabia on terrorism-related
charges, drawing condemnation from Iran and its allies in the region, and
sparking fears that sectarian tensions could rise across the Middle
East... 'It is clear that this barren and irresponsible policy will have
consequences for those endorsing it, and the Saudi government will have
to pay for pursuing this policy,' said Hossein Jaberi-Ansari, a spokesman
for Iran's Foreign Ministry. The state-run Saudi Press Agency reported
late Saturday that the Saudi Foreign Ministry had summoned the Iranian
ambassador to Riyadh to give him 'a statement of protest in severe
language' because of the 'aggressive' statements made by Iran about the
executions. The ministry called them 'blatant interference in the
kingdom's affairs.' The ministry also said it held Iran responsible for
protecting the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, the Saudi Consulate in the city
of Mashhad and their employees, the news agency reported, citing an
unnamed Foreign Ministry official. Protesters tore down a flag from the
Saudi Consulate in Mashhad on Saturday. In Tehran, protesters broke
furniture and smashed windows in an annex to the embassy, a witness who
was reached by telephone said. The protesters also set fire to the room,
said the witness, who would provide only his first name, Abolfazl,
because he had been involved in the protest. The protest turned violent
after participants began throwing fire bombs at the embassy and then
broke into the compound. The police arrived and cleared the embassy grounds
of protesters and extinguished the fire, he said. The semiofficial
Iranian Students' News Agency said the crowd had been chanting 'Death to
the Al Saud family,' which rules Saudi Arabia, before some protesters
entered the embassy and threw papers from the roof. It did not mention
the fire or destruction of embassy property. Pictures of a ransacked
office and flames inside the building that matched the description of the
scene by Abolfazl were widely circulated on social media." http://t.uani.com/1MPe4AZ
Embassy
Attack
NYT: "Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic
ties with Iran on Sunday and gave Iranian diplomats 48 hours to leave the
kingdom, marking a swift escalation in a strategic and sectarian rivalry
that underpins conflicts across the Middle East. The surprise move,
announced in a news conference by Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign
minister, followed harsh criticism by Iranian leaders of the Saudis'
execution of an outspoken Shiite cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, and the
storming of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran by protesters in response. The
cutting of diplomatic ties came at a time when the United States and
others had hoped that even limited cooperation between the two powers
could help end the crushing civil wars in Syria and Yemen while easing
tensions in Iraq, Bahrain, Lebanon and elsewhere. Instead, analysts
feared it would increase sectarian divisions and investment in proxy
wars... Setting off the war of words that finally broke relations was
Saudi Arabia's execution on Saturday of Sheikh Nimr, who had called for
the overthrow of the Saudi royal family and served as a spiritual leader
for protesters from the kingdom's Shiite minority. The Saudi government
accused him of inciting violence and executed him with 46 others, most of
them said to be members of Al Qaeda... Then late Saturday, protesters in
Tehran ransacked the Saudi Embassy, and Iranian leaders turned up the
rhetoric. 'God's hand of retaliation will grip the neck of Saudi
politicians,' Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in
comments reported on his official website... The Saudi Foreign Ministry
responded to Iran's criticism on Sunday by accusing it of 'blind
sectarianism' and of spreading terrorism. Hours later, Mr. Jubeir, the
Saudi foreign minister, announced the ending of diplomatic ties at a news
conference in Riyadh, saying the kingdom would not allow Iran to
undermine its security. 'The history of Iran is full of negative and
hostile interference in Arab countries, always accompanied by ruin,
destruction and the killing of innocent souls,' he said. Analysts said
the split could further destabilize the region." http://t.uani.com/1PG0STy
AP: "Allies of Saudi Arabia
followed the kingdom's lead and began scaling back diplomatic ties to
Iran on Monday after the ransacking of Saudi diplomatic missions in the
Islamic Republic, violence sparked by the Saudi execution of a prominent
opposition Shiite cleric. Sudan and the tiny island kingdom of Bahrain
said they would sever ties with Iran, as Saudi Arabia did late Sunday.
Within hours, the United Arab Emirates announced it would downgrade ties
to Tehran to the level of the charge d'affaires and would only focus on
economic issues. Somalia also issued a statement criticizing Iran...
Bahraini officials have accused Iran of training militants and attempting
to smuggle arms into the country, which hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.
In October, Bahrain ordered the acting Iranian charge d'affaires to leave
within 72 hours and recalled its own ambassador after alleging Iran
sponsored 'subversion' and 'terrorism' and funneled arms to militants.
Sudan's Foreign Ministry announced an 'immediate severing of ties' over
the diplomatic mission attacks. The statement carried by its state-run
news agency said it made the decision in 'solidarity with Saudi Arabia in
the face of Iranian schemes.' The UAE, a country of seven emirates, has a
long trading history with Iran and is home to many ethnic Iranians. It
said it would reduce the number of diplomats in Iran and would recall its
ambassador 'in the light of Iran's continuous interference in the
internal affairs of Gulf and Arab states, which has reached unprecedented
levels.' Somalia also criticized the attack on Saudi diplomatic posts in
Iran as a 'flagrant violation' of international law." http://t.uani.com/1Ov6Jw5
AP: "A person familiar with the
Saudi government's thinking in Washington says the kingdom severed
relations with Iran because 'enough was enough,' adding that Riyadh was
less concerned with how its decision affects diplomatic efforts led by
the United States, including the Syrian peace talks or the Iran nuclear
deal. The person, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss
diplomacy, said Sunday that the Saudi government is tired of what it sees
as Tehran 'thumbing its nose at the West,' including the recent launch of
ballistic missiles, while no one does anything about it. 'Every time Iran
does something, the United States backs off,' the person said. Saudi
Arabia announced it was cutting diplomatic relations with Iran after
protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran. The protests erupted
after Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shiite cleric." http://t.uani.com/1PI4RAZ
Reuters: "Iranian Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, attacking Saudi Arabia for the second straight
day over its execution of a prominent Shi'ite cleric, said on Sunday
politicians in the Sunni kingdom would face divine retribution for his
death. 'The unjustly spilled blood of this oppressed martyr will no doubt
soon show its effect and divine vengeance will befall Saudi politicians,'
state TV reported Khamenei as saying. It said he described the execution
as a 'political error.'" http://t.uani.com/1Z1dKGw
Nuclear
Program & Agreement
Reuters: "The White House expects Iran
to finish work needed to trigger implementation of an international
nuclear deal in the coming weeks, but Washington needs more time to
prepare sanctions over its ballistic missile program, a U.S. official
said on Saturday. The administration had additional diplomatic and
technical work to complete before announcing any new sanctions related to
the missile program, but the delay was not a result of pressure from
Tehran, said deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes. 'We have
additional work that needs to be done before we would announce additional
designations, but this is not something that we would negotiate with the
Iranian government,' Rhodes told reporters in Hawaii, where President
Barack Obama is on vacation... 'I would expect the Iranians to complete
the work necessary to move forward with implementation in the coming weeks,'
Rhodes said. 'We are on track to see the implementation of the Iran deal
move forward.'" http://t.uani.com/1Z13duZ
Washington
Examiner:
"House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer chided the Obama administration
for its decision to delay new Iran sanctions Saturday, in light of a
recent alleged violation. 'I am disappointed that the Administration has
delayed punitive action in response to Iran's recent ballistic missile
tests,' Hoyer, a Maryland Democratic Congressman said in a statement.
Hoyer's criticism made him one of the most senior Democrats to fault
Obama administration on the move and represents an unsual break with the
White House. 'The recent missile tests, along with the firing in
proximity to a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, raise serious
concerns about whether Iran will adhere to the remainder of its
commitments [under the Iran deal],' Hoyer said. 'These recent violations
underscore Iran's readiness to test the will of the international
community, instigated by its hardline elements that want to scuttle the
deal,' he said. 'That challenge must be met with a decisive response.'
... Hoyer voted in favor of the Iran nuclear deal in 2015, but said he
had major reservations." http://t.uani.com/1RZFpIK
WSJ: "The Obama administration is
preparing to impose its first financial sanctions on Iran since it forged
a landmark nuclear agreement in July, presenting a major test for whether
Tehran will stay committed to the deal. The planned action by the
Treasury Department, U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal, is
directed at nearly a dozen companies and individuals in Iran, Hong Kong
and the United Arab Emirates for their alleged role in developing Iran's
ballistic-missile program. Iranian officials have warned the White House
in recent months that any such financial penalties would be viewed by
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a violation of the nuclear
accord... Tension between the U.S. and Iran heated up this week after the
Pentagon rebuked Tehran for testing 'unguided rockets' near an American
aircraft carrier and French warships in the Strait of Hormuz in the
Persian Gulf. U.S. officials said naval vessels from Iran's elite
military unit, the Revolutionary Guard Corps, fired rockets just 1,500
yards from where the USS Harry S. Truman, the USS Bulkeley destroyer and
the French ships were sailing. The incident prompted calls from Congress
for the U.S. to take action. 'The administration continues to turn a
blind eye to Iranian saber rattling...for fear Iran will walk away from
the nuclear deal,' Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed
Services Committee, said Wednesday. The sanctions being prepared by the
Treasury Department relate to two Iran-linked networks alleged to be
involved in developing the country's missile program and include
sanctions on many of the individuals involved... The pending actions
would target U.A.E.-based Mabrooka Trading Co. LLC and its founder,
Hossein Pournaghshband, for allegedly aiding Iranian state companies in
acquiring carbon fiber for Iran's missile program, according to a
Treasury statement reviewed by the Journal. Mr. Pournaghshband also used
a subsidiary in Hong Kong, Anhui Land Group Co., to acquire materials and
financing for a carbon-fiber production line... The Treasury is also
preparing to sanction five Iranian officials working at the country's
Ministry of Defense for Armed Forces Logistics, or MODAFL, and its
subsidiaries for allegedly working on the ballistic-missile program.
Among the reasons for the potential new sanctions are ties the Treasury
is alleging between Iran and North Korea on missile development. This
includes Iran buying components from Pyongyang's state-owned Korea Mining
Development Trading Corp., which is sanctioned by both the U.S. and the
European Union. The U.S. also alleges that Tehran sent technicians to
North Korea over the past two years to jointly work with its defense
industries on the development of an 80-ton rocket booster." http://t.uani.com/1Z11vcY
NYT: "Iran's president denounced the
United States on Thursday for suggesting the possibility of new sanctions
over Iranian missiles, and he ordered his Defense Ministry to respond by
swiftly building more of them... The official Islamic Republic News Agency
said Mr. Rouhani, responding to the American government's 'illegal
intervention in Tehran's right to boost its defensive power,' had
instructed the defense minister, Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan, to 'quickly
and firmly continue with its plans to produce different missiles needed
by the country's armed forces.' The news agency also quoted a Foreign
Ministry spokesman, Hossein Jaber Ansari, as warning the United States
against what he called actions that are 'unilateral, arbitrary and
illegal.' Speaking later on state television's nightly news program,
General Dehghan said he intended to make Iran's missiles more powerful.
'Given the current circumstances in the region and the world, we believe
peace and security can only be achieved through strength,' he said. 'Therefore,
we are going to expand our missiles in terms of range and
accuracy.'" http://t.uani.com/1MPetTZ
Reuters: "A series of Iranian officials
vowed on Friday to expand Tehran's missile capabilities, a challenge to
the United States which has threatened to impose new sanctions even as
the vast bulk of its measures against Iran are due to be lifted under a
nuclear deal. 'As long as the United States supports Israel we will
expand our missile capabilities,' the Revolutionary Guards'
second-in-command, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, was quoted as saying
by the Fars news agency. 'We don't have enough space to store our
missiles. All our depots and underground facilities are full,' he said in
Friday Prayers in Tehran. Defence Minister Hossein Dehqan said Iran would
boost its missile program and had never agreed to restrictions on it.
'Iran's missile capabilities have never been the subject of negotiations
with the Americans and will never be,' he was quoted as saying by Press
TV, an Iranian state channel. The defiant comments are a challenge for
the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama as the United States
and European Union plan to dismantle nearly all international sanctions
against Iran under the breakthrough nuclear agreement reached in
July." http://t.uani.com/22GXoY7
Breitbart: "Former Sen. Joe Lieberman
(I-CT) argued that since the Iran nuclear agreement 'the Iranian regime
has gone out of its way to put its finger in America's eye' on
Wednesday's broadcast of the Fox Business Network's 'Varney & Co.'
Lieberman said that Iran running rocket tests near U.S. ships is 'another
piece of an argument that says that the administration's faith, if you
will, hope, that signing a nuclear deal with Iran would loosen up Iran,
would make Iran more moderate, was not based on fact. In fact, since the
agreement, the Iranian regime has gone out of its way to put its finger
in America's eye.' He added, 'There has to be pressure now on the
administration to make sure that Iran keeps the word that it gave in this
agreement. As bad as the agreement is, Iran made some promises, but
they're not keeping them. The whole investigation that the International
Atomic Energy Agency did, on whether they had potential military
developments of their program. We've settled for an incomplete
investigation. The Iranian testing of nuclear missiles, of ballistic
missiles, contrary to UN resolution, we're kind of turning our eyes away
from that. If we do that, the Iranians are just going to do what I feared
all along they would do, which is to cheat. And they will get the 100 or
$150 billion that they'll use to strengthen themselves and their
terrorist proxies.'" http://t.uani.com/1mA1osr
U.S.-Iran
Relations
NYT: "After two recent Iranian
ballistic missile tests made clear that Tehran had no intention of
obeying a United Nations prohibition on such launches, Obama
administration officials on Wednesday handed Congress a draft list of
fresh sanctions they are preparing against Tehran - to be imposed even as
separate nuclear-related sanctions are lifted in coming weeks. The new
sanctions are designed, administration officials say, to make clear that
the United States remains committed to containing Iran's regional ambitions,
which have so rattled its Arab neighbors. But they are also intended as a
carefully calibrated answer to critics, from Capitol Hill to Saudi
Arabia, who have argued in recent months that President Obama is willing
to overlook almost any Iranian transgression in order to avoid derailing
the nuclear deal he pursued for so many years. There is now almost no
doubt that the nuclear accord will go into effect. But the past few days
have been full of sobering reminders that the grander objective of that deal
- some gradual steps toward an era of wary cooperation, or at least a
cessation of hostilities between Washington and Tehran - remains a long
way away. Just last week, the Republican-led Congress inserted new rules
into the budget signed by Mr. Obama that were clearly intended to
discourage foreigners from doing business with Tehran. Then on Saturday,
the Iranian Navy harassed an American aircraft carrier and a French
frigate in the Strait of Hormuz, launching rockets that passed within
1,500 yards of the U.S.S. Harry S. Truman. It seemed an act somewhere
between recklessness and outright aggression. So much for détente...
Meanwhile, the rockets fired by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps
near the American warships in the heavily trafficked Strait of Hormuz
could inflame tensions, as well, military officials said. The rockets,
Navy officials said, also came dangerously close to commercial ships.
'It's the equivalent of walking onto I-95 and deciding to have a weapons
test,' said Cmdr. Kevin Stephens, a spokesman for the Navy's Fifth
Fleet." http://t.uani.com/1JSXNLF
Reuters: "Unnamed Americans have
contacted Iran for a deal to swap Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian,
convicted and jailed in Iran on spying charges, for other unspecified
detainees, according to a senior Iranian official quoted on Sunday. 'Some
Americans contact us sometimes, asking us to exchange him with other
detainees, but the sentence has not been announced yet,' said judiciary
spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, quoted by Iran's Fars news agency.
Ejei did not specify which detainees could be under consideration nor
give any other details of what the Americans could have in mind for a
swap with Rezaian. But Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani has hinted
at the possibility that Rezaian could be freed in exchange for Iranian
prisoners in the United States. Other Iranian officials have played down
the possibility of such a swap." http://t.uani.com/1PaXNIy
Sanctions
Enforcement
WSJ: "As it puts the squeeze on
Hezbollah, the U.S. is borrowing from the sanctions toolkit it used
against Iran, barring banks from touching the group's funds under threat
of being blocked from the U.S. financial system. A new law gives the U.S.
the power to impose sanctions on foreign financial institutions that
facilitate transactions, or money laundering, on behalf of Hezbollah or
its agents. The law will force those banks to screen for any individuals
and entities linked to Hezbollah but the challenge will be identifying
them, given Hezbollah's use of front companies. The Hezbollah
International Financing Prevention Act of 2015 was signed into law last
month by President Barack Obama. The White House, at the time, trumpeted
its signing of the bill into law, saying it works with Congress to
'maximize the tools available to us to thwart Hezbollah's network at every
turn,' and that the law will target the group's 'financial support
infrastructure.' Banks will have to 'heighten the prioritization of their
Hezbollah-related due diligence,' said Matthew Levitt, a former Treasury
Department official now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy
who wrote a book about Hezbollah's global footprint. 'If they want to
continue doing business in or through the U.S., [foreign banks] need to
ensure they provide no financial services to a designated Hezbollah
entity,' said Mr. Levitt... The law is modeled on 2010 legislation that
significantly tightened the U.S. sanctions regime on Iran. The
Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010,
known as CISADA, gave the U.S. the authority to impose sanctions on
foreign banks for handling certain transactions with sanctioned Iranian
entities, including its banks already under U.S. sanctions." http://t.uani.com/1muXVvM
Human
Rights
IHR: "On Thursday December 31, six
prisoners were reportedly hanged at Tabriz Central Prison (northern Iran)
on drug charges and two young prisoners were reportedly hanged at
Mashhad's Vakilabad Prison (northern Iran) on murder charges. On Saturday
January 2, a prisoner was reportedly hanged at Khorramabad's Parsilon
Prison (central Iran) on drug charges... According to the human rights
group HRANA, the prisoner from Khorramabad is Mehdi Ranjkesh. This
prisoner was able to smuggle out a video message before he was
transferred to solitary confinement and later executed. The video is
available online. In the video Ranjkesh claims he suffers from mental and
physical disabilities, but Iranian authorities denied him medical care
and treatment. Ranjkesh also says that during his time in prison, he has
been helping advocate for an end to the death penalty for drug offenses.
Ranjkesh's execution is the first reported for 2016 in Iran." http://t.uani.com/1Pb5KNT
Al
Arabiya:
"International human rights groups believe that Iran executed over
1,000 people last year - well above the 2014 tally - including preachers
and activists from the Islamic Republic's Sunni minority. Reports
indicate that Iranian authorities put to death more than 753 people in
the first half of 2015 - an average of four executions a day. Amnesty
International stated in July that 'executions in Iran could top one
thousand in 2015.' ... Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations Special
Rapporteur on Iran, stated in late October that Iran had put to death a
'shocking' 753 people during 2014. 'Iran continues to execute more
individuals per capita than any other country in the world,' he added."
http://t.uani.com/1ZKpIqd
Domestic
Politics
RFE/RL: "Iran is marking six years
since tens of thousands of hard-line supporters took to the streets to
show their support for the clerical establishment, countering mass
demonstrations against the results of the country's 2009 presidential
election. Government rallies and ceremonies were being held in Tehran and
throughout the country on December 30 to commemorate the display of
popular support that followed the hotly disputed election result, which
gave hard-line incumbent Mahmud Ahmadinejad a second term as president.
Various events marking the pro-government street rallies that helped put
an end to the reform-minded opposition 'Green Movement' were scheduled
over the course of a few days... Ahmadinejad's successor, Hassan Rohani,
was cast as a relative moderate and rode the promise of reform to victory
in Iran's 2013 presidential election. On December 29, however, he took a
hard-line position on the 2009 events, describing the pro-government
rallies as 'epic' while speaking at the International Conference of
Islamic Unity in Tehran. 'Iran's security today is established under the
supreme leader,' said Rohani, adding that the protests displayed broad
support for Iran's Islamic system of government. Rohani's remarks
provoked angry reactions among activists and social-media users who seek
democracy in Iran." http://t.uani.com/1Rbr5wR
Opinion
& Analysis
Matthew
Levitt in WSJ: "U.S.
backpedaling over sanctions related to Iran's ballistic missile program
just a day after they were reported could send a dangerous signal,
effectively inviting Tehran to test the boundaries of what violations it
can get away with. Iran had threatened retaliation over the planned
sanctions, which would have been the first imposed since the
international deal on its nuclear program was announced in July. The
measures were intended to show Washington's willingness to hold Tehran
accountable for illicit conduct. Iran tested a new ballistic missile in
October. A United Nations panel concluded in December that the Emad
rocket was capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, a violation of U.N.
Security Council Resolution 1929. Tough sanctions targeting elements of
the Iranian defense industry involved in ballistic missile testing and
production remain in place under the nuclear deal, as one U.S. Treasury
official noted in a speech in September. To Iran, it didn't matter that
the measures did not undermine the major sanctions relief it stands to
gain through the nuclear deal or that they were limited to a small number
of individuals and companies. A spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry
called the sanctions 'unilateral, arbitrary and illegal.' President
Hassan Rouhani denounced them and instructed his defense minister to
expedite the ballistic missile program. And U.S. wavering in the face of
such Iranian pushback opens the door to future violations. This is
particularly worrisome because once the nuclear deal is fully
implemented, the U.N. Security Council ban on Iranian ballistic missile
tests will be replaced by weaker language from Security Council
Resolution 2231. That 'calls upon' Tehran not to undertake any ballistic
missiles work designed to deliver nuclear weapons for as long as eight
years... Sanctions also underscore the risks to investors of entering the
Iranian market. So long as Iranian officials engage in illicit conduct
and leverage front companies and cutouts to cover their tracks, doing
business in Iran exposes investors to potential responses from global
financial entities. If the U.S. backs down before implementing any
measures, Iran can see that threatened actions are less a shot across the
bow than a random shot in the dark... By backing off sanctions over
Iran's ballistic missile test-and fairly insignificant sanctions at
that-the Obama administration has left the impression that, contrary to
its repeated pledges, it may not enforce current sanctions or impose new
ones should Tehran violate U.N. Security Council resolutions or the
nuclear deal. Iran's actions to date make clear that its leaders will
interpret such dithering as weakness, and an invitation to further test
the boundaries of their international obligations." http://t.uani.com/1RbvhwP
Lee Smith
in TWS:
"Saturday the French ambassador to the United States Gerard Araud
downplayed the attacks on Saudi Arabia's diplomatic facilities in Iran.
Following the execution of controversial Saudi Shiite cleric Nimr
al-Nimr, Iranian mobs surely backed by the clerical regime set fire to
the Saudi embassy in Tehran, and the kingdom's consulate in Iran's
second-largest city, Mashad. In response to the destruction of diplomatic
missions, the chief of France's diplomatic mission in Washington wrote
that 'Iran was obliged to react. Burning an embassy is spectacular but
not war.' Araud articulated his bizarrely obtuse thesis during a Twitter
exchange with Omri Ceren, the managing director for press at the Israel
Project. Ceren responded by citing an opinion from the International
Court of Justice holding that, 'there is 'no more fundamental
prerequisite' for interstate relations than protecting embassies.'
Violating diplomatic immunity, Ceren continued, is the 'single most
corrosive thing you can do. More corrosive than war because war is
governed by rules.' Araud has recently shown a pattern of rationalizing
Iranian belligerency. In a previous exchange with Ceren, Araud described
an Iranian ballistic missile test as 'posturing.' According to the French
diplomat, Iran is 'a rational country we should handle with firmness and
rationally.' Fine, but if, as Araud contends, Iran is rational, then it
should rationally understand that when a mob controlled by an
authoritarian state is incited or directed to attack an embassy the
action might well warrant a response more firm than a Baudrillardian
tweet like that authored by Araud. Indeed, there's serious testimony
arguing that the violation of diplomatic missions should be regarded as
something rather more than a post-modernist happening. In February 1980,
veteran American diplomat George Kennan told the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee that because of the takeover of the American embassy in Tehran,
'our Government [should] simply acknowledge the existence of the state of
hostility brought about by the behavior of the Iranian Government, and,
having done that, then regard ourselves as at war with that country.' In
other words, torching an embassy might be more than spectacular-it might
indeed be an act of war. As Ceren argued in his exchange with Araud, the
diplomacy prized by the international order cannot be conducted without
protecting the sanctity of embassies. It seems that Araud was later given
access to the same conclusion, perhaps helped by his bosses at the French
foreign ministry. Hence Araud later deleted his tweet, and replaced it
with the statement that 'Burning any embassy, whatever the pretext, is
unacceptable. A gross violation of international law.' ... It seems that
Araud, recognizing Tehran's record of violence against diplomats and
diplomatic missions, was simply acknowledging that this is how the
clerical regime typically operates-by violating the international
community's diplomatic norms. Araud's elaboration of his initial
diplomatic gaffe only underscores the fundamental problem of the
international order, whether it is Paris, Washington or wherever. From
Araud to John Kerry, they all comprehend the nature of the ruling clique
in Tehran. Thus the issue, contrary to Araud's fine distinction, is
neither about analysis nor judgment. Rather, it is about policy, it is
about action, it is about the fact that for 36 years no one has done
anything to stop a regime that acts outside all international norms from
waging terrorist attacks against citizens, soldiers, and of course
diplomats. In effect, Araud was simply paraphrasing the famous words of
the Islamic Republic's founding father-the international order can't do a
damn thing." http://t.uani.com/1MPfFXJ
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