|
|
|
Join UANI
Top
Stories
Reuters: "Oil companies looking to steal
a jump on rivals in the race to benefit from Iran's emergence from
Western sanctions risk having tankers left in limbo by international
insurers' continued reluctance to provide cover. While companies jockey
for position after world powers lifted curbs on Tehran's banking,
insurance and shipping sectors last month as part of a nuclear deal with
Iran, international insurers are no nearer to resolving concerns over
U.S. sanctions that remain in place. Lars Lange, secretary general of the
International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI), said insurers faced the
risk of massive fines if they fall foul of existing measures. 'It all
comes back to this basic principle that we have to be very, very careful
with our steps,' Lange told a news conference on Tuesday. 'It is
paramount that we comply with all sanctions.' With measures still in
place from Washington prohibiting U.S. individuals or companies from
trading with Iran, Frederic Denefle, chairman of IUMI's legal and
liability committee, said insurers are still seeking to clarify details
on the parameters of the U.S. sanctions. In recent days, oil companies
have been trying to conclude deals for their first Iranian cargoes. One
tanker, which broker fixtures show has been booked by France's Total, is
on its way to Iran to pick up oil. According to ship-tracking data, the
Atlantas tanker is due to arrive in Iran on Feb 12. Trade houses are also
looking to conclude deals. 'Insurance is the No.1 issue for everyone,'
one tanker industry source said. 'There is still not enough clarity on
where we stand.' ... Third-party liability insurance and pollution cover
for vessels is provided by P&I clubs -- marine insurers owned by
shipping clients and reinsured internationally. The International Group,
which represents the top P&I clubs, recently flagged the potential
for a 'snap back' in sanctions if Iran fails to meet its nuclear
commitments and advised members to include provision for termination of
contracts at short notice." http://t.uani.com/1mg2l8Y
Reuters: "Iran will continue to develop
its missile program and it should not be considered a threat to
neighboring and friendly countries, the semi-official Fars news agency
quoted the head of the army as saying on Thursday. Under a deal reached
between Iran and six major powers in 2015, most international sanctions
imposed on Iran due to its nuclear program were lifted last month.
However, sanctions imposed on its missile program were not lifted.
According to a July 20 United Nations Security Council resolution endorsing
the deal, Iran is still 'called upon' to refrain from work on ballistic
missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons for up to eight years. In
October, Iran violated a United Nations ban by testing a precision-guided
ballistic missile, prompting a U.S. threat to impose more sanctions. In
December, President Hassan Rouhani ordered Iran's missile program to be
expanded. 'Iran's missile capability and its missile program will become
stronger. We do not pay attention and do not implement resolutions against
Iran, and this is not a violation of the nuclear deal,' Fars quoted
commander-in-chief Ataollah Salehi as saying... 'Our missile program is
not a threat against our friends but it is a threat against our enemies.
Israel should understand what it means,' Salehi said." http://t.uani.com/1R5Yx78
Reuters: "A powerful U.S. lawmaker on
Wednesday demanded Secretary of State John Kerry provide an explanation
of a $1.7 billion claim settlement paid to Iran just as Tehran released
American prisoners last month. Republican Ed Royce, chairman of the House
of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote that the timing of
the settlement and the administration's failure to brief Congress 'has
led some to express concern that the payment represents a de facto ransom
for the release of American hostages.' Royce asked Kerry to provide by
Feb. 17 information including lists of all U.S. officials who
participated in negotiations with Iran over the settlement agreement, the
prisoner release and the nuclear agreement announced in July. He also
asked for legal analyses of the dispute, a timeline of negotiations over
the dispute and an explanation of how the interest payment in the
settlement was calculated, among other information. On Jan. 17, the State
Department said the United States and Iran had settled a longstanding
claim at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, releasing to Tehran $400 million
in funds frozen since 1981 plus $1.3 billion in interest. State
Department spokesman John Kirby said Kerry would respond to the
letter." http://t.uani.com/1PWyal9
Nuclear
Program & Agreement
Fars
(Iran):
"Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace
Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said the IRGC doesn't give a
flip about the repeated US demands for restrictions on Iran's missile
defense program and capabilities. 'They keep raising the issue of
sanctions against Iran over its missile program and they expect us to
retreat. Far from it, the IRGC response to the US demands will be
offensive,' Hajizadeh said in Tehran on Saturday. He said the American
attempts to limit Iran's missile power backfired as our Armed Forces
boosted their efforts and made significant progress in defense." http://t.uani.com/1PUrRIi
WT: "The U.S. must do more to track
and block companies that could be aiding the collaboration between Iran
and North Korea on nuclear and military programs, according to a report
published in Washington on Thursday that claims the links between the two
isolated nations is deeper than commonly recognized. The report by the
Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank, was
released just weeks after Pyongyang claimed to have carried out a
successful test of a hydrogen bomb and international sanctions on Iran
are being lifted under the Obama administration-backed nuclear accord
with Tehran. While the foundation's report notes there is 'no proof' of
explicit Tehran-Pyongyang nuclear cooperation, there remain a host of
unanswered questions and fears among some analysts that Iran is
'outsourcing aspects of its nuclear weapons program' to North Korea.
'Signs of military and scientific cooperation between Iran and North
Korea suggest that Pyongyang could have been involved in Tehran's nuclear
and ballistic-missile program, and that state-run trading companies may
have assisted in critical aspects of Iran's illicit nuclear-related
activities,' the foundation's report notes, saying that put more pressure
on the Obama administration to track the suspected linkages. Debate over
the extent of collusion between the two is heated, although evidence of
collaboration has piled up for years. One of the more significant
developments came in November 2010 with the leaking of a classified U.S.
government cable written 10 months earlier that revealed that American
intelligence officials believed Iran had obtained 19 advanced missiles
from North Korea." http://t.uani.com/20bNw4v
U.S.-Iran
Relations
Fars
(Iran): "Chief
of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi
warned that the US is planning to assassinate Islamic Revolution Guards
Corps (IRGC) Quds Force Commander Major General Qassem Soleimani. 'The
Americans are desperate to hit General Soleimani to make them feel better
about themselves,' Firouzabadi told reporters in Tehran on Thursday. He
however maintained that maximum security measures are in place to protect
the Iranian commander from such threats, who knows how to organize his
forces, launch offensives against terrorists, and earn results... Asked
about rumors about his injury or death in Syria spread by the terrorist
groups and the Zionist media, General Soleimani said, 'This is what I
have been looking for in all plains and mountains.'" http://t.uani.com/1nJhKj0
LAT: "The call came in to the rug
store at 10:30 on Wednesday morning: After five days in U.S. customs, the
shop's first batch of carpets imported from Iran were ready for pickup.
Store owner Alex Helmi quickly gathered his employees and told them to
drive to the airport to pick up the shipment: 40 handmade rugs valued at
about $500,000. 'I wanted to cry,' Helmi said. A 2010 embargo on
Iranian-made rugs has meant tough times for sellers such as Helmi, who
found his carpets caught up in a clash of geopolitics and nuclear
brinkmanship. Last summer's landmark international nuclear agreement,
however, paved the way for importing rugs once again in what was once
Iran's largest foreign market... Apart from oil, Persian carpets were the
product that suffered most from the sanctions. Experts say that before
the embargo, the U.S. accounted for one-fifth of Iran's carpet
exports." http://t.uani.com/20bJ2uE
Congressional
Action
Free
Beacon:
"Leading Republican lawmakers are spearheading a new legislative
push that would stop the Obama administration from blocking state-level
efforts to impose new sanctions on Iran, according to a copy of new
legislation obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. The push, which is
led by more than 20 House Republicans, comes in response to Obama
administration efforts to prevent state governments from wading into the
Iran debate. Since the nuclear agreement was implemented, many state
officials have expressed interest in leveling new economic sanctions
against Iran in a bid to stop local governments and business from
re-engaging in business with the Islamic Republic. At least half of all
U.S. states have laws or policies on the books that sanction Iran.
Governors from 15 states co-signed a letter in September expressing their
intent to use state-level sanctions to target Iran. The Obama
administration has expressed outrage about the effort, warning that it
could interfere with and even violate the nuclear agreement. A portion of
the agreement includes language that threatens to block U.S. states from
moving forward with new sanctions. In a bid to protect these state
rights, Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.) and a delegation of other House
lawmakers, have filed legislation to protect governments from legal
attacks brought as a result of their Iran sanctions efforts, according to
information provided to the Free Beacon. 'States such as Florida that
have imposed sanctions against Iran play a vital role in protecting the
security of the American people,' DeSantis said in a statement. 'The
Obama administration's disastrous nuclear deal with Iran was neither
ratified as a treaty nor adopted as statutory law, and therefore cannot
preempt valid state laws. The State Sanctions against Iranian Terrorism
Act will preserve, protect, and enhance the authority of individual
states to pass laws ensuring that their dollars do not flow to the
world's leading state sponsor of terrorism.' The legislation would give
states a greater ability to issue their own sanctions on Iran and limit
the business community's interactions with Iran." http://t.uani.com/1NSeXt9
Sanctions
Relief
Reuters: "Iran and Russia have initialed
contracts worth around $40 billion, including for power-engineering and
railway projects, Russian news agencies quoted Ali Akbar Velayati, top
adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as saying on
Thursday. Velayati, who is wrapping up a visit to Moscow, said he had
discussed some of the projects with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He
said Tehran was interested in obtaining a loan from Russia for Iran's
railways and nuclear power engineering. He said the package of projects
had been signed in the past few months. 'They have been initialed and are
ready for implementation,' Interfax news agency quoted him as
saying." http://t.uani.com/1nPrRUf
Reuters: "Spanish refiner Cepsa will
ship a 1-million barrel cargo of Iranian oil to its refineries, according
to vessel agents' data and market players' information on Wednesday...
According to Reuters shipping data, Cepsa has chartered the suezmax Monte
Toledo which will load at Iran's Kharg Island for delivery to the Spanish
ports of Huelva and Algeciras. Spain and Iran are considering jointly
building an oil refinery in Algeciras. A Cepsa spokeswoman said it was
not the company's policy to give any details about specific commercial
operations, but said the company was open to taking Iranian crude. 'We
will consider it again, as we consider any other crude oil, if it's
profitable,' she said." http://t.uani.com/1UNAjgW
Reuters: "An economic battle is likely
for dominance of the skies over the Gulf after Iran decided to invest $27
billion in an airline fleet capable of taking on the region's
supercarriers. By ordering dozens of long-distance European jets last
month after the lifting of sanctions, Iran is positioning Tehran as a
potential long-term transit point between East and West to rival regional
hubs such as Dubai, air officials and analysts say... The International
Air Transport Association (IATA), a trade association, has predicted
Iran's market will more than treble from 12 million passengers a year
now, mostly domestic flyers, to 44 million by 2034. 'While the airlines
here (in Iran) are rebuilding their capacity, the regional carriers ...
are looking to suck traffic out over the Gulf airports,' Dick Forsberg,
strategy chief at aircraft lessor Avolon, said during the CAPA Iran
Aviation Summit... Already 28 foreign carriers serve Iran and more are
likely to arrive, says CAPA... Parvaresh said Iranair would start flights
to Toronto, home to an estimated 50,000 Canadian Iranians." http://t.uani.com/20taw4p
Terrorism
JPost: "Palestinian Authority security
forces have recently arrested five pro-Iranian operatives in Bethlehem
planning to establish a foothold in the West Bank and carry out attacks
against Israel, Israel Radio cited Palestinian security forces as saying.
According to the sources, the five members of the 'a-Sabrin' organization
had operated in the Gaza Strip over the past years before being arrested
two weeks ago after leaving the coastal Palestinian enclave. The operatives
working under Iranian orders had reportedly received funding in Gaza and
were instructed to carry out terror attacks. The Israel Radio report
cited the organization's leader in Gaza, Hisham Salem, as confirming that
the group operates in the West Bank, adding that it would soon receive
financial and military aide... While Hamas and the Islamic Republic have
faced strained ties since 2011 over their backing of opposing sides in
the Syrian civil war, other Iranian proxy groups have recently been caught
attempting to set up operations in the West Bank. In January, security
forces announced that they had foiled a Hezbollah-controlled suicide
bombing and sniper cell based in the West Bank city of Tulkarm. According
to the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), the terror cell was set up by
the son of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah." http://t.uani.com/1L0cgWw
Syria
Conflict
Fars
(Iran):
"Another Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) war veteran
commander, providing military counseling services to the Syrian forces in
their fight against the foreign-backed Takfiri terrorists, was killed.
Brigadier General Mohsen Qajarian, the commander of Imam Reza Armored
Brigade 1 from Neishabour, Northeastern Iran, was martyred in an attack
by the ISIL Takfiri terrorists while on duty. Brigadier General Qajarian
had been in Syria for sometime offeirng military advice to the Syrian
Army and popular forces in their fight against ISIL. In September 2014,
Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Gholam
Ali Rashid had announced that Iran's military advisors were present in
friendly regional states to provide them with necessary military
recommendations. 'Some of our commanders are in the field to give
military advice to the Iraqi army, Lebanon's Hezbollah and the
Palestinian resistance movement,' Major General Rashid said, addressing a
conference attended by a group of senior military commanders in Tehran."
http://t.uani.com/1TGvaJf
Human
Rights
Guardian: "Authorities in Iran have
arrested a former BBC journalist on the eve of a visit to London by
Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister. Bahman Daroshafaei
was taken to jail on Wednesday after facing a series of interrogations,
according to sources in Tehran. Daroshafaei is of dual Iranian-British
nationality and is a former employee of the BBC's Persian service, which
is loathed by the Iranian establishment. Zarif is due to participate at a
high-profile summit on Syria in London on Thursday, in the first visit to
the UK by an Iranian foreign minister in 12 years. It comes after Britain
and Iran reopened embassies in their respective capitals last August
following the landmark nuclear deal... Daroshafaei, who left BBC Persian
two years ago to return to Iran to work on children's literature, was
active on social media, particularly on issues relating to human rights,
such as the situation of imprisoned journalists and activists. He had
worked for the corporation for five years as a staff journalist...
Another British-Iranian, the businessman Kamal Foroughi, 76, remains in
jail in Iran after he was imprisoned for more than four years." http://t.uani.com/20tisTn
Journalism
Is Not A Crime:
"Iranian journalist Bahman Daroshafaei was arrested in Tehran this
morning. According to an informed source based in the Iranian capital,
the former BBC journalist has been interrogated 40 times over the past
few months. The journalist had reportedly been working as a translator
for Mahi Publishing Company and for an NGO focusing on vulnerable
children and women. Arresting authorities did not present a warrant when
they arrived at Daroshafaei's home early on February 3." http://t.uani.com/1NShKCE
Guardian: "Mohammad, 14, is an Afghan
immigrant who recently joined the flow of refugees arriving in the
holding centre for unaccompanied minors on the Greek island of Lesvos.
Leaving his parents behind in Iran, he crossed the Aegean Sea on an
overcrowded rubber dinghy with 38 other passengers... Afghans account for
the largest proportion of unaccompanied minors arriving in Lesvos. Over
one-third of the 2,248 minors that passed through Lesvos last year hail
from Afghanistan, according the Greek NGO Metadrasi. Most Afghans fleeing
war and economic strife in their homeland have spent time in Iran, which
has hosted the second-largest population of Afghan refugees for over 30
years. But worsening living conditions in Iran are forcing young migrants
like Mohammad to leave even their temporary homeland in search of yet
another one. An estimated 2.3-3 million Afghans now live inside Iran, of
whom 800,000 are children. The first wave of Afghan refugees arrived in
Iran following the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and subsequent
civil war. They had access to public education and opportunities to work.
Some 97% of Afghans lived outside refugee camps, and were integrated into
urban communities. Since the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan and the fall
of the Taliban, Iran began instituting increasingly restrictive laws on
Afghans, including bureaucratic hurdles, limitations on movement,
deportation of minors and separation of families, and reduced access to
education." http://t.uani.com/1TGtLCw
Domestic
Politics
FT: "Iran's bitter power struggle
has moved into the business sector as hardliners try to undermine
high-profile deals agreed since a landmark nuclear agreement came into
force last month. Conservatives, mostly concentrated in the parliament
and media affiliated to the elite Revolutionary Guards, have questioned a
number of contracts signed by the government of president Hassan Rouhani
in the past fortnight, warning that the country's natural and financial
resources are at risk of being looted by western companies... Contracts
signed with French companies including Airbus, Peugeot and Total, during
Mr Rouhani's visit to Paris last week, have also been attacked as harming
the country's national interest... An article published by the hardline
Fars news agency questioned why Iranian assets were being used for French
companies that 'had forgotten the most basic principles of human rights,
notably the safety of human beings, during sanctions'. It also published
a picture of an A380 jetliner with a caption that read: 'At a time when
the aviation fleet is used by less than 5 per cent of the population, and
the country is in recession, there is a question why the government's
first major economic move is to buy Airbus.'" http://t.uani.com/1QIexdp
Opinion
& Analysis
Tony
Badran in Tablet: "The
administration of President Barack Obama seldom missed an opportunity to
insist that the alternative to the Iran nuclear deal was a war with Iran,
a prospect that has now presumably been kicked further down the road.
Middle Easterners are not so lucky: They get to fight their wars with
Iran right now. Where America stands on the question of the wars that
Iran is fueling across the Middle East has been obscured to some extent
by outdated expectations, diplomatic niceties, and deliberate
smoke-screens. But it would be wrong to take pro forma statements about
America's alliances with old friends like Turkey, or Saudi Arabia, or
Israel at anything like face value. The first thing the Obama
Administration did following the recent burning of the Saudi embassy and
consulate in Iran by a state-sponsored mob was not to condemn this
assault on a longtime U.S. ally. Rather, the White House immediately
launched a media campaign pushing the message that the problem was
actually Saudi Arabia, and, as anonymous U.S. officials suggested on
background, maybe it was time to reconsider America's regional alliances.
Yet the president has actually been explicit about his dislike for the
old American order in the Middle East. The 'old order that had been in
place for 50 years, 60 years ... was unsustainable, and was going to
break up at some point.' Obama proclaimed at a DNC event in 2014. The new
order, he added, was not born yet. Earlier that same year, Obama was more
explicit still about his intention to realign the United States away from
its old alliances: 'I think change is always scary. I think there was a
comfort with a United States that was comfortable with an existing order
and the existing alignments, and was an implacable foe of Iran.'
Washington's traditional 'partners in the region,' the president made
clear almost two years ago, were going to have to 'adapt to change.' The
foundation of the new American-approved security framework was the
recognition and respect of what Obama refers to as Iran's 'equities.'
This translated into legitimization of Iranian spheres of influence
throughout the region, especially in Iraq and Syria. For Obama, this
recognition of Iran as a regional pillar worked on several levels,
especially as it was in accord with the president's clearly broadcast
aversion to military intervention. Elevating Iran's regional position
provides the president with the possibility of establishing an
alternative security structure, one that no longer relies on U.S.
military power. Obama has repeatedly described the foundation as well as
purpose of this new structure as establishing 'equilibrium' between 'the
Shiites'-which, for Obama, means Iran-and 'the Sunnis,' primarily meaning
the Saudis. But this was effectively meaningless. In practice, Obama was
looking for Iranian cooperation on key regional issues in order for him
to shrink the American military footprint in the region. However, the
president needed a mechanism that would, in one fell swoop, reduce
tension with Iran and open the door to pursue cooperation in other areas.
This, in short, is the purpose of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Indeed, the administration's sales pitch for the deal encouraged the
promise of closer cooperation on regional affairs. In an interview in
August of last year, Secretary of State John Kerry emphasized precisely
the prospect of regional collaboration with Iran: 'If we can get this
deal done, then we're ready to sit down and talk about the regional
issues, and we may be able to work things in different places.' Yet while
Obama may hope for convergence, Iran has naturally been seizing the
opportunity to leverage U.S. support to advance its own regional
interests, which happen to run squarely against the traditional American
alliance system. Even more fundamentally, Iran is a revolutionary actor,
whose expressed objective is to overturn the existing order and replace
it with Iranian hegemony. True to form, the Iranians used their recent
seizure of the U.S. Navy boats and their crew on the day of the State of
the Union address two weeks ago to underscore this point, both to the
United States and to its traditional regional allies. The newspaper
Kayhan, a mouthpiece for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, ran a telling
headline about the detention of the sailors, describing the episode as,
'the humiliation of the godfather of the Gulf emirates.' The message is
clear: Iran is manhandling America with impunity. Allies and clients of
the United States have been put on notice. Iranian impunity is not a
function of Iran's actual military power vis-à-vis the United States.
Rather, it emanates from the Iranian understanding that Obama wants to
extricate the United States from the region, has no interest in
maintaining the old American order, and is therefore willing to recognize
Iran's position at the head of the regional table. Hence, the
administration has found itself repeatedly acting as Iran's lawyer,
excusing and justifying its behavior, legitimizing its ambitions, and
instead lashing out at old regional allies. These dynamics, which the
administration set up in order to cooperate with Iran, were codified in
the JCPOA and give Iran substantial leverage to determine the terms of
the U.S.-Iranian relationship. Insofar as Obama has made the nuclear deal
and cooperation with Iran his signature, legacy-setting policy, the
United States must act as Iran's advocate in the region, lest the deal
and the promise of cooperation collapse. Sustaining the deal with Iran
and gaining its cooperation in the region therefore requires the United
States to downgrade traditional allies like Israel, Saudi Arabia, and
Turkey, which are in direct conflict with Iran throughout the region, in
Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. Because there is nothing very appealing
to most Americans about the prospect of making a pro-Iranian U-turn in
U.S. foreign policy, Obama has sought cover for this policy with the
conceit of 'fighting extremism,' namely ISIS." http://t.uani.com/1NSip7b
Aaron
David Miller in CNN:
"The problem with dancing with a bear, the late Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin once quipped, is that you can never let go. That
uncomfortable reality is one the United States will be fully familiar
with right now. On Sunday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali
Khamenei honored an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps admiral and four
others for detaining 10 U.S. sailors last month. The sailors were, of
course, quickly released. But Sunday's move underscores just how strained
(and strange) U.S.-Iran ties are right now. In some Republican
presidential candidates' eyes, such provocations are cause enough to tear
up the nuclear agreement. Indeed, in Thursday's debate, two candidates
pledged to do exactly that if elected. But while frustration is
understandable, such pledges are basically empty threats. Why? Because
when the next president is inaugurated, implementation will have been
underway for more than a year. Already, Iran is doing deals with Russia,
Italy, France and China, among others, and nobody is looking for an
international crisis right now. The natural inclination once a thing this
large has settled is to accept it. And the mentality based on my own
diplomatic experience will be to keep it going, not try to sink it. But
while a case can certainly be made that the accord was better than the
alternatives -- war or an Iran with a nuke -- implementation day was also
no cause for unrestrained celebration, either. It's not just that the
deal between the six world powers and Iran damaged relations with
traditional U.S. allies, most prominently Saudi Arabia and Israel (both
are in their different ways, to say the least, imperfect partners). The
problem is that a fundamental shift in the balance of power is taking
place in the region in Iran's favor. For a start, Iran gains access to
frozen assets without having to end its support to the Bashar al-Assad
regime in Syria, stop backing the Shiite rebels in Yemen who are fighting
a proxy war with the Saudis or back off from its support to Lebanese
Hezbollah. More broadly, Iran is rising as Arab states face increasing
challenges to state authority; restive populations and worsening
economies; and, in some cases, fragmentation. Moreover, after nearly four
decades of tension, America's dependence on Iran is actually increasing.
Washington, having gone all-in on the nuclear deal, needs Iran to uphold
its commitments, something critical to the Obama administration's legacy.
In addition, it also needs Iranian assistance in resolving the civil war
in Syria and stabilizing Iraq -- complex issues that may require formal
U.S. recognition of growing Iranian influence. Of course, the flip side
of this, as supporters of the deal point out, is that Iran and the United
States have another channel for communication. They point, for example,
to the speedy resolution of the incident with the captured U.S. Navy
personnel, as well as the prisoner exchange that saw several
American-Iranians released. Yet the U.S. Navy personnel were still used
for propaganda purposes by the Iranian military unit holding them -- and
now by the Supreme Leader on Sunday. Meanwhile, Siamak Namazi, another
U.S.-Iranian dual national, has not been released. And no information has
been given about the fate of Robert Levinson. So moving forward, Iran's
leadership is likely to exploit this channel with the United States
whenever doing so suits its own interests. True, Iranian moderation was
never the goal of the nuclear deal. Unfortunately, the opposite seems to
be occurring. In fact, the strengthening of hard-line elements can be
seen in a variety of recent actions, including the increase in the number
of Iranian military advisers sent to Syria; the disqualification of
thousands of centrists as candidates in the February elections for
Parliament and the Assembly of Experts; the execution of large numbers of
minors; and continued Holocaust denial. All this suggests that Iran's
hard-line leadership never really saw the nuclear agreement as a threat
to the regime's authoritarian and ideological character, but rather as a
way to consolidate its power... For better or perhaps worse, we're now
dancing with a bear and we won't be stopping anytime soon." http://t.uani.com/1L0oleu
Emanuele
Ottolenghi in WSJ:
"Mahan Air is an Iranian passenger airline that also happens to be a
favorite with the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The IRGC
uses Mahan planes to ferry weapons and personnel to aid the Syrian
regime. That's according to the U.S. government, which has repeatedly
committed itself to grounding the airline. Yet Mahan continues to fly the
friendly Middle East skies and is even expanding its operations. Of all
Iranian entities still under U.S. sanctions, Mahan is arguably the most
significant. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned it in October 2011 for
'providing financial, material and technological support to the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF)' and for providing transportation
services to Iran's Lebanese terror proxy, Hezbollah. In October 2012,
Treasury blacklisted 117 Iranian commercial planes, including all of
Mahan's aircraft, because 'Iran used Iran Air and Mahan Air flights
between Tehran and Damascus to send military and crowd control equipment
to the Syrian regime.' The Islamic Republic continued to rely on civilian
aircraft to supply the Assad regime throughout the talks leading to last
year's nuclear deal. A Western intelligence report leaked to Reuters in 2012
confirmed that Mahan was at the center of the IRGC airlift to the Assad
regime. So has a United Nations panel in charge of monitoring
implementation of international sanctions against Iran... Publicly
available tracking information shows the same Mahan planes flying to
commercial destinations within hours of their return from Damascus. An
airline that, according to U.S. Treasury, delivers IRGC arms to Syria
also flies to Gulf Arab states that supposedly oppose Iranian
expansionism. Rather than shrinking due to the carrier's supporting role
in the Syrian civil war, Mahan's international route network is
expanding. It already introduced three flights to Russia last summer and
plans to add new routes to Europe as European sanctions against Iran are
lifted. After last summer's nuclear deal with Tehran, the Obama
administration kept Mahan under sanctions. In Senate testimony shortly
after the accord was signed, Acting Under Secretary of Treasury for
Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Adam Szubin warned that regardless
of the agreement, 'a foreign bank that conducts or facilitates a
significant financial transaction with Iran's Mahan Air . . . will risk
losing its access to the U.S. financial system.' These were empty words.
If the administration were serious, Mahan would be grounded by now.
Instead, its international routes are expanding. Worse, on Jan. 16, the
White House agreed to lift an Interpol red notice against Mahan's chief
executive and a senior manager whom the U.S. Treasury said was
responsible for the airline's sanctions-evasion operations... The fact
that Mahan can fly the IRGC to Damascus and, the next day, use the same
planes to land in Milan, Munich or Stockholm speaks volumes to the lack
of U.S. leverage to enforce sanctions... To restore credibility, Treasury
should take immediate action against those financial institutions that
transact on Mahan's behalf in Asia, Europe and the Gulf, and should slap
heavy fines on European and Asian ground-service companies working with
the airline. To pay for such services, Mahan needs, and likely receives,
access to financial services in the countries in which it flies. The
ground services it hires are indispensable to Mahan's operations. The
airline would be forced to cancel routes if such services were no longer
available." http://t.uani.com/1K0DMZ0
|
|
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.
|
|
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment