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NYT: "Defense Secretary Ashton B.
Carter said on Thursday that Iran may have violated international law
when it seized 10 American sailors in the Persian Gulf in January.
'Iran's actions were outrageous, unprofessional and inconsistent with
international law,' Mr. Carter said in a testimony before the Senate
Armed Services Committee. The sailors were detained after veering off
course into Iranian territorial waters near Farsi Island, the home of an
Iranian Navy base, and were freed after about 14 hours. Video footage
released by the Iranian government showed the sailors kneeling at
gunpoint with their hands clasped behind their heads. At the time, the
Obama administration emphasized the sailors' quick release, calling it a
result of the diplomatic channels opened by the nuclear deal struck last
year with Iran. Secretary of State John Kerry, who built a close
relationship during the nuclear talks with his Iranian counterpart,
Mohammad Javad Zarif, thanked Iran for its cooperation... Mr. Carter
initially showed restraint in his remarks about the episode, but two
weeks after the detention, he said he was 'very, very angry' about the
sailors' treatment. On Thursday, Mr. McCain, the chairman of the Armed
Services Committee, pressed Mr. Carter about the administration's
response. 'You've made it quite clear that you're outraged and all that,'
Mr. McCain said. 'But what specifically have you recommended to do in
response to that?' ... According to a Navy spokesman, a report on the
episode was given to Vice Adm. Kevin Donegan, the commander of the Navy's
Fifth Fleet, on Feb. 28. The spokesman said that after the review process
was complete, a redacted version would be released to the public." http://t.uani.com/1XA9hdT
Politico: "Iran may be open for business
following the historic nuclear accord with the West, but for European
companies the road to Tehran still leads through Washington. And this has
European leaders grumbling that the U.S. Treasury Department is blocking
the way for European firms to renew trading ties with Iran. The hype
about the easing of sanctions on Iran covered up a more nuanced reality.
In January, the Obama administration lifted measures focused on the
country's nuclear program, but left in place restrictions designed to
punish Iran for its support of Lebanon's Hezbollah, including most of a
wide-ranging embargo on American business with Tehran that's been in
place since 1995. The EU lifted most of the economic and financial curbs
that it had first imposed on Tehran in 2008 - sanctions that had slashed
EU-Iran trade dramatically. Two months on, European companies say they
are hamstrung by the remaining U.S restrictions. Most notable is a
far-reaching 2011 regulation that prohibits banks from processing any
Iran-related transactions in the United States, which affects any bank
dealing in U.S. dollars. After a decade where several big European banks
got burned by billion-dollar fines for sanctions violations in Washington
and New York, European financial institutions say they're not touching
Iran. That in turn limits the financing options for European companies
looking to trade with Iran. Markus Kerber, the director-general of the
Federation of German Industries, Germany's largest business association,
said in an interview that 'the banks, at the moment, are not going
anywhere near Iran. A sensible bank manager will not even look the
country up on the map.' ... While Iranian leaders are announcing multi-billion-dollar
deals with the likes of Airbus and Peugeot, some officials remain
skeptical of whether some of the billion-dollar announcements that Iran
has made in recent weeks will actually come to fruition. 'Which banks
[are being used]? I don't know how [commercial deals with Iran] will
work, because of the over-compliance of the banks,' said the senior
European official, adding that New York prosecutors are also a threat. 'I
doubt all these figures, which have been waved by the Iranians in front
of the Americans like a red flag.' ... There's another worrisome message
coming out of Treasury, says the European official: 'Beyond the doctrine
of the administration, we can't be assured that the District Attorney of
New York will have the same interpretation of the U.S.sanctions.' ...
Over the last decade, New York prosecutors have been key players in a
string of high-profile Iran-related sanctions settlements in the
financial sector. Many of the banks were not based in the United States,
but they did their business in U.S. dollars, with branches in Manhattan,
and as a result fell under the purview of not just the Justice Department
but also New York authorities... Diplomats and business officials like
Kerber don't expect many major Iran deals to truly be finalized until
after the U.S. presidential election. 'Every sensible businessman in
Germany or in Europe knows ... that you will not rush into the Iranian
market without looking westward,' he said." http://t.uani.com/1Meb9Zk
Asharq
Al-Awsat:
"Evidence against Iran and Hezbollah keep on accumulating on both
being firsthand involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks that reportedly
killed thousands of U.S. citizens. Asharq Al-Awsat has exclusively
attained and published six documents New York courthouse Judge George
Daniels used for the verdict which fines Iran with billions of dollars in
compensation for the families of the victims of the attack. The verdict
also specialized a cut for compensating the insurance companies that bore
fiscal losses due to the 9/11 attacks. George Daniels condemned Iran for
facilitating the execution of the terrorist attacks that affected both
New York and Washington. Documents procured by Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper
emphasize Iran smoothing out the route for al-Qaeda terrorists moving to
campgrounds in Afghanistan for training, which proved necessary for the
9/11 attacks to hit target. Moreover, documents exposed that Hezbollah
alleged minister of defense Imad Mughniyeh- assassinated in 2008- had
visited the perpetrators in October 2000 and had arranged their flight to
Iran with new passports for their assurance before dispatching them for
the attack. Iranian administration had also given orders for border
checkpoints and observatories to stamp the passports of the terrorist
attackers, in a move to facilitate their advance. Al-Qaeda persistently
had a supporting lifeline provided by the Iranian government, which also
provided the terrorist organization- according to the documents- with
both financial backing and safe haven to terrorist top leaders after the
September 11 attacks... The trial revealed that each of Osama bin Laden ,
Ayman al-Zawahiri-current leader of al-Qaeda- ,Mughniyeh and other Iranian
attaches met in Khartoum, Sudan to establish an alliance supporting
terrorism. A courthouse judiciary source, requesting anonymity, revealed
that six people and bodies are accused in the case filed against Iran.
The six comprise, Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei, former Iranian
intelligence minister Ali Fallahian, deputy commander of the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Brig. Gen. Mohammed Baqir tho
al-Qader. Administrational bodies among the accused are the Iranian
Ministry of Intelligence, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
and its special operations division, the Quds Force." http://t.uani.com/1XA7PZ5
Nuclear
& Ballistic Missile Program
Reuters: "Iran will likely escape new United
Nations sanctions, though the U.N. Security Council could issue a public
reprimand for recent launches of what Western officials described as
ballistic missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, diplomats said.
Council diplomats said the case for sanctions was weak, hinging on
interpretation of ambiguous language in a resolution adopted by the
15-member body last July, part of an historic deal to curb Iran's nuclear
work... the Security Council resolution 'calls upon' Iran to refrain for
up to eight years from activity, including launches, related to ballistic
missiles designed with the capability of delivering nuclear weapons...
Britain said the missile launches show Iran's 'blatant disregard' for the
resolution, while France said it was 'a case of non-compliance.' The
United States initially deemed the tests a violation, but has softened
that stance, calling Iran 'in defiance' of the resolution. Russia, which
has Security Council veto power, says Iran has not violated the
resolution. Russia opposes new U.N. sanctions, but acknowledged that if
the missiles were proven capable of carrying a nuclear weapon, it could
be suggested Tehran has not been 'respectful' of the council. 'A call is
different from a ban, so legally you cannot violate a call, you can
comply with a call or you can ignore the call, but you cannot violate a
call,' Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said on Monday. 'The legal
distinction is there.' Laura Rockwood, former chief of the legal
department at the International Atomic Energy Agency and now head of the
Vienna Center for Disarmament and Nonproliferation, said of the U.N.
resolution: 'This was probably a classic case of language negotiated with
constructive ambiguity in mind.'" http://t.uani.com/1RTaVmX
U.S.-Iran
Relations
Free
Beacon: "The
Obama administration is being accused of stalling a congressional
investigation into a purported $1.7 billion taxpayer-funded 'ransom
payment' to Iran in exchange for the release of several U.S. prisoners,
according to documents and information provided to the Washington Free
Beacon by sources familiar with the matter. The administration initially
came under fire from congressional critics in January, when it was
announced that the United States had settled a longstanding legal dispute
with Iran over the breakdown in a decades-old arms sale. Under the terms
of the settlement, Iran was to be paid a $400 million balance and an
additional $1.3 billion in interest from a taxpayer fund maintained by
the Treasury Department, a State Department official confirmed to the
Free Beacon in January... The $1.7 billion payment was announced just
prior to the release of five U.S. prisoners who had been held in Iran,
leading to accusations that the deal is tantamount to a ransom payment.
Iranian officials, at the time, independently described the transaction
as a form of ransom." http://t.uani.com/1RTasB3
Congressional
Action
AP: "A group of Republican senators
on Thursday unveiled legislation that requires the Obama administration
to impose stricter sanctions on every sector of Iran's economy that
supports the country's ballistic missile program. The bill, introduced by
Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., is a reflection of longstanding exasperation
among GOP lawmakers who've complained that President Barack Obama has
failed to properly punish Tehran for repeatedly defying a U.N. ballistic
missile test ban. Ayotte and other Republicans said senior U.S. military
officials are in favor of tougher sanctions. Both Defense Secretary Ash
Carter and Army Gen. Joseph Votel, Obama's choice to be the next U.S.
commander for the Middle East, have told the Senate Armed Services
Committee in the last week that harder hitting sanctions are necessary.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard test-fired two ballistic missiles on March 9
and U.S. officials said the launches were in defiance of the U.N. resolution,
which calls for Tehran not to launch any ballistic missiles capable of
delivering a nuclear weapon... The administration in January announced
sanctions against Tehran for missile firings in late 2015, but
Republicans called those measures tepid and weak. Ayotte's legislation is
supported by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, which suggests the
bill could be taken up quickly. Republicans remain frustrated after they
were unable to scuttle the international accord to check Iran's nuclear
program in exchange for economic sanctions relief. 'Tough words alone
will not deter the world's worst state sponsor of terrorism from
continuing to develop its ballistic missile program,' Ayotte said. The
legislation requires new sanctions against persons who knowingly aid
Iran's missile program and against entities controlled or owned in part
by Iran's primary ballistic missile organizations. The bill also would
mandate a broad reach by requiring the president to issue sanctions on
entire sectors of Iran's economy found to be directly or indirectly
supporting Iran's missile program. Republican senators Marco Rubio of
Florida, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Mark Kirk of Illinois also
are backing the bill." http://t.uani.com/22rF6Jj
Business
Risk
NYT: "When the United States
government punished ZTE of China this month, saying it had done business
with Iran, it released internal company documents that it said detailed
how the electronic equipment maker had done it - and that also suggested
the problem might not be limited to one Chinese company. One document
described how ZTE would set up seemingly independent companies - called
'cut-off companies' - that would sign the deals in other countries. That
could enable it to continue to do business in Iran, North Korea and other
countries placed under American restrictions. In describing the effort,
the document cited as a model - and at times a cautionary tale - a rival
company it called F7. ZTE said F7 had done something similar, though its
business in restricted companies ended up hurting its American ambitions.
The document does not give F7's real name. But the description offered by
ZTE matches a company far larger and more politically sensitive: Huawei
Technologies, its chief rival and a major force in the technology world.
The ZTE document, dated August 2011, suggests that other Chinese
companies could have potential exposure to American export limits. Given
the recent sanctions against ZTE, it also suggests that the issue could
be a continuing one between Chinese and American government
officials." http://t.uani.com/1Me3ha0
Sanctions
Relief
Press TV
(Iran): "The
media in Seoul have reported that Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) is
considering a project to build a subsea pipeline to take natural gas from
Iran to Oman - what would bring Tehran closer to an ambitious plan to become
an exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Pulse news portal reported
that related talks are currently underway between officials from Iran and
South Korea. Project owners and KOGAS could sign either a memorandum of
understanding or a framework agreement in April or May, the report added.
The 400-kilometer pipeline, stretching from Iran to Oman is defined in
two onshore and offshore sections... According to Pulse, the construction
of the subsea pipeline is estimated to cost $1.5 billion." http://t.uani.com/1RoTzUH
Mehr
(Iran):
"Iranian banks have opened more than 480 million euros of credit
through Iran-Europe Commercial Bank (IECB). An amount of 108 million
euros of the total €480 million belongs to Bank of Industry and Mine
while the rest are owned by other banks in the country including Mellat
and Tejarat banks. The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has announced that the
Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) is up
and running and there exist no barriers to opening LCs via SWIFT.
Registered in Hamburg, Germany, the Iran-Europe Commercial Bank (IECB)
owns 40 years of experience playing an active role in Iran's
international financial transactions." http://t.uani.com/1MefGLl
Reuters: "Iran Air could be a buyer of
some A340 planes that Lufthansa no longer needs, the chief executive of
the German airline said on Thursday. Lufthansa has signed a memorandum of
understanding with Iran Air that comprises cooperation on maintenance and
catering, as the country emerges from a period of sanctions... 'We are
looking at whether Iran Air is perhaps a customer to take those planes
from Lufthansa,' Carsten Spohr said after Lufthansa reported annual
results on Thursday." http://t.uani.com/258MU57
Just-Auto: "GAZ Group says it is in
negotiation with Iran to construct a manufacturing plant as the ending of
sanctions opens up the hitherto largely closed country. The Russian maker
of Gazelle light trucks is eyeing Iran after decades of Western-led
economic sanctions led to an aging vehicle parc, which is in serious need
of modernisation. 'Yes, absolutely [we are] in negotiations [although] it
is not easy,' GAZ Group CEO, Vadim Sorokin told just-auto on the
sidelines of today's (15 March) Russian Automotive Forum in Moscow. 'We
would manufacture GAZ buses - it is lucrative for the future. 'They
[Iran] have announced a tender for 17,000 city buses, it is official. They
build their own commercial vehicles, but they are not the latest
state-of-the-art. We seem some potential for ourselves." http://t.uani.com/1S88LlV
Tasnim
(Iran): "A
senior official with Russia's biggest carmaker Avtovaz said Iran could be
a promising export market for the company in 2016 following the
termination of anti-Tehran sanctions. 'Around 50,000 (cars are planned)
to be exported. Of course, it will depend on many factors but we realize
that amid current environment, amid falling domestic market we should
focus on export,' Mikhail Ryabov said Tuesday as cited by the Tass news
agency." http://t.uani.com/1XAbJ4i
Regional
Destabilization
Reuters: "Kuwait is not a 'free-rider'
in U.S.-led campaigns against terrorism and other threats, a senior
Kuwaiti security official said on Thursday, rejecting comments by
President Barack Obama critical of some U.S. allies. Sheikh Thamer
al-Sabah, President of Kuwait's National Security Bureau, was referring
to Obama's remarks to The Atlantic magazine last week in which he said
some states in the Gulf and Europe were 'free-riders' who called for U.S.
action without getting involved themselves... He said Tehran's nuclear
deal with world powers had not diminished Kuwait's concerns over Iran.
These included militant sleeper cells and spies, involvement in regional
conflicts and the safety of the Bushehr nuclear power plant. Kuwait is
the closest major population center to it. 'The security issue from Iran
was always there and I think will always continue. It is not something
new,' he said. 'I salute you for trying your best to work with Iran only
on their nuclear program despite knowing what Iran is doing for Hezbollah
in Lebanon, for other places in the world, for bombings, for hijacking of
aircraft, for assassinations of people,' he added. 'I salute them on how
they can actually sit down and talk about only the nuclear program with
the knowledge they have of how Iran is capable of doing all of these
things. I can't do it.' He voiced concern about Iraq, where
Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias are fighting alongside government forces
against Islamic State." http://t.uani.com/258GaEd
Human
Rights
RSF: "Reporters Without Borders
(RSF) reiterates its concern about the conditions in which journalists
are being detained in Iran, especially Afarine Chitsaz of the daily
newspaper Iran, a young woman arrested at the same time as three other
journalists on 2 November. She was able to make a short phone call after
her arrest but the authorities have provided no official information
about her detention. According to the information obtained by RSF, she is
now being held in isolation in Section 2A of Tehran's Evin prison. The
Revolutionary Guards control this section and subject detainees to a
great deal of pressure, often with the aim of extracting confessions to
be used at their trials. Iran is the world's biggest prison for women
journalists, with four others currently held. The other four - Rihaneh
Tabatabai, Roya Saberi Negad Nobakht, Narges Mohammadi and Atena
Ferghdani - are serving jail terms ranging from one to twelve years and
some some are in poor health." http://t.uani.com/22oKP60
IranWire: "Over the past two days,
several fashion boutiques, hairdressers for women, and film and photography
studios in Iran have found their Instagram pages blocked or 'overlaid.'
Among them are pages belonging to several Iranian fashion models who were
arrested in late January. A large blue frame declaring their images
'blocked' appears in big red letters. Messages displayed on the pages
announce that 'Operation Spider 2' is underway. Next to each frame
appears the 'justification' for blocking the image, and it is the same
for all of them: Article 472 of the Islamic Penal Code prohibits
producing and publishing 'obscene images,' and articles 639 and 743
prohibit inciting others to commit 'immoral acts,' and using cyberspace
for this purpose. At the top of each frame, viewers are informed
authorities have taken the action under the auspices of 'Operation Spider
2.' Under the frame, a further message declares that judiciary officials
have ordered the pages blocked, and that they have opened 'security
cases' to deal with the people behind them. In February, when news first
broke about the arrest of seven Iranian fashion models- Melikaa Zamani,
Niloofar Behboudi, Donya Moghadam, Dana Nik, Shabnam Molavi, Elnaz
Golrokh and Hamid Fadaei-a website affiliated with the Revolutionary
Guards confirmed the news in a short report entitled, 'Earthquake in
Instagram.'" http://t.uani.com/1R47Tyx
Opinion
& Analysis
Valerie
Lincy & Simon Chin in Iran Watch: "This week, the United Nations published some
guidance about a critical part of the nuclear agreement with Iran: the
procurement channel. Sales to Iran of items controlled by the
Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and of non-listed items with nuclear
applications must pass through this channel, following a review by the
newly created Procurement Working Group. The role of this group was
set forth in the nuclear agreement, but little information had been
released about how it will function in practice. The recent guidance - in
the form of two short PowerPoint presentations - comes about two months
after the agreement was officially implemented, with Iran scaling back
parts of its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
Because the deal was implemented faster than initially anticipated by
Western diplomats, restrictions on Iran's nuclear program have been
loosened without the structure necessary to ensure that Iran, as well as
any government or company that wants to engage in business with Iran, is
complying with the remaining - and considerable - constraints... The
procurement channel is just one example of how former restrictions on
Iran's nuclear program were removed faster than new enforcement
structures could be put in place. It is unclear how long it will
take for the United Nations, the new Joint Commission, and individual
states to get the channel up and running-and whether sufficient
information will be publicly released about the channel's operations and
decisions. The implementation of the nuclear deal in January was
hailed as a diplomatic milestone. But the agreement's success in
reining in Iran's nuclear ambitions cannot be known until it has been in
place for some time and its enforcement mechanisms have been
tested." http://t.uani.com/1WvNWlF
Khalaf
Ahmad al-Habtoor in Al Arabiya: "Iran's proxy in Lebanon Hezbollah works hard to
promote itself as the Lebanese resistance against Israeli encroachment
and as a political organization representing all Lebanese citizens. In
reality, it is anything but. It began life as an Iranian arm on the
Mediterranean operating under the pretence of standing against Israel to
justify its terrorist activities against Arab and Western interests.
Hezbollah's concern for Palestinian interests is nothing but a front to
attract recruits. The conflict it unwittingly unleashed with Israel in
2006 with its kidnapping and killing of Israeli soldiers caught its
Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah by surprise. He was later to admit the
if he had known the abductions would result in a full-scale conflict, he
would not have given the orders. Hezbollah's terror operations,
hostage-taking and assassinations going back as far as the 1980s are well
known, but the fact that a US District Judge has ruled that Hezbollah
colluded with the perpetrators of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the
twin towers and the Pentagon is not deemed worthy of front page news in
the United States or Europe. The story has been picked-up by Asharq
Al-Awsat and the Jerusalem Post but has almost been ignored by the
Western media whose governments are actively pursuing lucrative deals
with Tehran now that its coffers overflow with more than $100 billion
following the lifting of sanctions. Given the emotional trauma
experienced by the American people on that fateful day which still haunts
many, especially the victims' loved ones, the relative silence of the
Western media on the case is peculiar - and that is an understatement.
Even stranger is that the US has erased both Iran and Hezbollah from its
terror threat list in spite of overwhelmingly evidence to the contrary.
If the American people were polled as to their knowledge of this, I
predict there would be very few who have any inkling at all. Moreover,
President Barack Obama has displayed his displeasure at measures taken by
Saudi Arabia and other GCC states to brand Hezbollah terrorist, to halt
aid to the Hezbollah infiltrated Lebanese Army and to issue travel
advisories warning citizens not to visit Lebanon. On 15 December 2011,
Judge George Daniels ruled that Iran and Hezbollah materially and
directly colluded with al-Qaeda to attack America on its own soil and,
thus, they are responsible to pay compensation to the families of
victims. He did not pick his findings out of thin air. His judgment
against Iran's supreme leader, its former president Ali Rafsanjani,
Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah was supported by 53 pages
of evidence as well as testimony given by three Iranian defectors, three
members of the 9/11 Commission, CIA operatives and investigative
journalists." http://t.uani.com/1RqNv7M
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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