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Reuters: "An Iranian-born Turkish
businessman has been arrested in Florida on charges that he and others
conspired to conduct hundreds of millions of dollars in financial
transactions for the Iranian government or other entities to evade U.S.
sanctions. Reza Zarrab, 33, was charged in an indictment filed in
federal court in Manhattan along with one of his employees, Kamelia
Jamshidy, and Hossein Najafzadeh, a senior officer at a unit of Bank
Mellat in Iran, U.S. prosecutors said on Monday. Zarrab was arrested on
Saturday in Miami and appeared in federal court there on Monday, where
a federal magistrate judge ordered him detained. Both Jamshidy and
Najafzadeh, who are both Iranian nationals, remained at large... Zarrab
previously attracted attention when he was detained for two months in
Turkey, beginning in 2013, without charges as part of a high-profile corruption
probe. According to the U.S. indictment, Zarrab, a dual citizen of
Turkey and Iran, owned and operated a network of companies in Turkey
and in the United Arab Emirates, including Royal Holding A.S., which
employed Jamshidy. The indictment said Zarrab, Jamshidy and Najafzadeh,
a senior officer at Bank Mellat's Mellat Exchange, conspired to thwart
economic sanctions against Iran by concealing transactions benefiting
Iran's government and Iranian entities. Prosecutors said that from 2010
to 2015, the trio helped Iranian individuals and entities, including
Bank Mellat, one of the largest banks in Iran, evade U.S. sanctions by
conducting financial transactions through Turkish and Emirati
companies. The indictment charges Zarrab, Jamshidy, 29, and Najafzadeh,
65, with engaging in conspiracies to defraud the United States, to
violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, to commit bank
fraud and to commit money laundering." http://t.uani.com/1Ri0zx8
Reuters: "A senior member of Iran's
Revolutionary Guards urged the government on Tuesday to follow its
supreme leader's vision for a self-reliant economy and said the Guards
wanted to play a bigger role to make that happen. Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, Iran's most powerful figure, called for a 'resistance
economy' on Sunday, saying U.S. policies to restrict business with Iran
had undermined any economic benefits of international sanctions being
lifted in January. His comments presented a challenge to President
Hassan Rouhani, the chief architect of last year's nuclear deal that
led to sanctions relief, who has tried since that accord to attract
foreign investment and open Iran's markets. 'The main audience for (Khamenei's
concept of) the resistance economy is the government,' Brigadier
General Masoud Jazayeri, deputy joint chief of staff of the armed
forces was quoted as saying by Fars news agency. Jazayeri is a member
of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a powerful faction
that controls a business empire as well as elite armed forces. Its
economic interests could be threatened by increased competition from
abroad. 'The armed forces are ready to play a significant role in the
resistance economy and implementing the supreme leader's suggestions,'
he said. Jazayeri added that Rouhani should see the Guards'
achievements in creating advanced ballistic missiles as an economic
blueprint and evidence that Iran did not need foreign investment to
succeed. Any increase in the IRGC's economic footprint could make Iran
a riskier market for foreign investors, as many of its members and
front companies remain under U.S. sanctions on Iran's defense
industries and alleged support for what Washington sees as 'acts of terrorism.'"
http://t.uani.com/1RdnZqU
Handelsblatt: "'A lot of companies thought
that after the nuclear deal, the risk of doing business with Iran was
minimal,' said Mark Hibbs, senior associate in Carnegie's Nuclear
Policy Program. 'Many of the sanctions remain in place, however.'
Blocked Hermes credits are another complicating factor, due to unpaid
bills. These are export credit guarantees given by the German government.
Under the guarantees, if exporters' partners don't pay, their business
will be covered. Currently, Iran owes €500 million in unpaid Hermes
bills, Mr. Hibbs said, adding he expects the governments to resolve
this issue but that it is an additional hurdle to business until the
credits are available again. 'That's a separate issue but a direct,
real-time issue, it's more immediate for companies that are interested
in doing business in Iran,' he said. Companies have also found that a
much larger share of the economy is run by the IRGC, Iran's military
security organization, than previously thought, Mr. Hibbs noted. Some
have claimed that as much as 80 percent of the economy is run by
IRGC-related enterprises. Another factor is reporting requirements. German
companies doing business in Iran and in the United States have
disclosure obligations that some of the companies can't meet. They have
to provide details of financial transactions for transparency but many
exporting companies found it 'extremely difficult to get solid
information about creditworthiness and the risks of doing business,'
Mr. Hibbs said. He noted that at a meeting of smaller and mid-sized
companies from Germany, many said they feared negative publicity and
the possible effects on their business. 'If Iran is portrayed as a
rogue state, that could hurt their reputations,' he said. 'As a German
company, we're under no illusions: Regular business will only start
after U.S. banks begin dealing with Iran again,' Martin Herrenknecht,
chief executive of a tunnel drilling company of the same name, told
Handelsblatt. 'Then the German banks follow suit.'" http://t.uani.com/21FlwqL
U.S.-Iran
Relations
IranWire: "Yesterday, Iranian Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sharply criticized the policies of
President Hassan Rouhani in his speech marking the Iranian New Year, or
Nowruz. Speaking in his hometown, the northeastern shrine city of
Mashhad, Khamenei said Rouhani's policies were 'injecting' the American
way of thinking into Iranian society. Earlier, Rouhani had released his
own Nowruz message, in which he had called Iran's parliamentary
elections of February 26, and the relative victory of moderate and
reformist candidates that day, 'JCPOA 2,' -- in other words, a victory
on the scale of last year's nuclear agreement. Borrowing from the
acronym 'Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action' he said, 'it is the same
Joint National Action inside the country that will start with unity,
reconciliation and empathy.' Khamenei objected. 'The American policy
requires that Iranians believe that we are facing a stark choice:
Either compromise with the US, or continue to suffer pressures,' he
said. Without naming names, Khamenei added that there are those who say
that Iran needs 'JCPOA 2, 3 and 4' for the people to live comfortably,
and who wrongly believe that economic problems will only be solved by
negotiations with the US, and by retreating from 'our positions' and 'our
red lines.' Khamenei also criticized the Obama administration, and
expressed dissatisfaction with the implementation of the nuclear deal.
'The American Treasury Secretary,' he said, 'is working day and night
to prevent Iran from benefitting from the results of JCPOA.' Khamenei
also hit out at President Barack Obama's yearly New Year's greetings to
Iranians. 'They sent a Nowruz message and expressed sympathy for us and
for our young people,' Khamenei said, but insisted that the White
House's yearly tradition of Nowruz festivities was an attempt at
'fooling the children.' Khamenei also criticized the Rouhani
government's approach to sanctions. He said that both the consequences
of sanctions and the lifting of sanctions have been blown out of
proportion. He said the nuclear agreement had crossed certain 'red
lines,' and that the US did not keep its promises. 'We can see these
with our own eyes,' he said. 'This is a net loss.' ... As before,
Khamenei called America 'the enemy' and said that this enemy wants the
Islamic Republic to change its nature before it can be left in peace...
Khamenei's speech amounted both to a sharp attack on Rouhani's economic
and foreign policies, and an attempt to dispel any hope of further
negotiations with the US over issues other than Iran's nuclear program.
'America is our enemy for obvious reasons,' he said. 'The US
presidential elections will start in a few months, and the government
will change in nine months. There are no guarantees that the next
government will honor even these few commitments. The American
presidential candidates are now in a competition to malign Iran. When
we say that America is the enemy, some people don't like it, but this
is what enmity is.' He listed 'Iranophobic propaganda,' 'infiltration'
and sanctions as tools used the US uses against Iran." http://t.uani.com/1LDSJB2
Congressional
Action
Al-Monitor: "Senate Republicans have run
out of patience with Iran's defiance of its international obligations,
setting up a possible partisan showdown over new sanctions. Hawkish
lawmakers introduced two bills late last week that take aim at Iran's
ballistic missile program and alleged human rights violations. Both
bills have been endorsed by the Senate leadership, which is evidently
tired of waiting on a long-rumored bipartisan alternative that has so
far failed to materialize. 'Today I have led an effort in the Senate to
introduce legislation that would require the administration to impose
tough, hard-hitting primary and secondary sanctions on every sector of
the Iranian economy that supports Tehran's ballistic missile programs,'
the missile sanctions bill's sponsor, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said
in a statement. 'Tough words alone will not deter the world's worst
state sponsor of terrorism from continuing to develop its ballistic
missile program, and I call on my colleagues in Congress, as well as
the administration, to pass this legislation and impose without delay
the strongest possible sanctions in order to hold Tehran accountable.'
The legislative push comes as the Republican and Democratic leaders of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee continue to try to thread the
needle on efforts to hold Iran to account without imperiling last
year's nuclear deal. Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and ranking member
Ben Cardin, D-Md., issued a joint statement soon after the two bills
were introduced to reaffirm their determination to strike a bipartisan
compromise that can attract enough support to pass the Senate and
overcome a possible presidential veto... Still, Corker is also showing
signs of impatience." http://t.uani.com/1PoWzJc
AP: "House Speaker Paul Ryan
hammered the Obama administration on Monday for the nuclear deal with
Iran, telling America's leading pro-Israel group that the agreement
legitimized Iran's nuclear program instead of dismantling it... 'I
think it was a terrible deal. Worst in our lifetime,' Ryan said. 'Iran
got billions of dollars in sanctions relief, and in exchange for what?
For taking apart some - not all, just some - of its nuclear program.'
GOP lawmakers also have criticized President Barack Obama for failing
to properly punish Iran for repeatedly defying a U.N. ballistic missile
test ban. A group of Republican senators last week introduced
legislation to impose stricter sanctions on every sector of Iran's
economy that supports the country's ballistic missile program. 'I don't
think it's an accident that every few months we hear of Iran launching
yet more ballistic missiles,' Ryan said. He said the United States
needs to shore up its alliance with Israel, which includes countering
Iran's 'aggression in Lebanon, in Yemen and in Syria.'" http://t.uani.com/21FgtGQ
Sanctions
Enforcement
AFP: "Vice President Joe Biden
warned Sunday that the United States is watching Iran 'like a hawk' to
ensure compliance with the landmark nuclear deal... 'The incentives are
aligned for Iran to uphold its side of the deal. We're watching Tehran
like a hawk,' Biden said. 'Under this deal, Iran would never be allowed
to pursue nuclear weapons, never, never, never,' he told the annual
policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC) lobby group. 'If Iran violates the deal, the United States will
act,' Biden pledged." http://t.uani.com/1Rx5RdG
Business
Risk
Bloomberg: "Iran will receive only a
fraction of the $500 billion it needs to modernize its infrastructure
because foreign banks are still unwilling to risk penalties from the
U.S. Treasury, a major domestic construction company said. 'The
projects are there, they are all ready, but the problem is we need more
help from the West,' Maryam Kiaie, business development director at
Tehran-based Rah Shahr International Group, said in an interview. 'I
don't see any big banks coming here in the next five years.' Rah Shahr
is involved in projects worth about $200 billion, including the
master-plan for the second terminal at the $50 billion Imam Khomeini
Airport City project near Tehran, Kiaie said. Plans to develop
free-trade zones, including the expansion of Bandar-e Anzali on the
Caspian Sea to boost Russia's access to Iranian markets, will need approximately
$240 billion... Iranian companies are getting frustrated at the slow
progress in securing overseas financing, despite a flurry of foreign
delegations arriving in Tehran to sign memorandums of understanding,
according to Kiaie. Foreign investors will probably limit their
exposure to small projects of up to $100 million until they become more
confident of the legality of investing in Iran, she said. 'Most of the
transactions and the project valuations are in U.S. dollars, and
European companies don't know how or where to receive this money when
it comes to Iran,' Kiaie said. 'And as soon as a single U.S. dollar
from Iran lands in their bank accounts, it's sanctioned.' The legacy of
punishments on banks found to have dealt with Iran while the country was
subject to sanctions still lingers. As a result, major projects will
take longer to get started, said Joanna Addison, a projects partner at
law firm Herbert Smith Freehills in Doha. While 'every single major
client' is interested in entering Iran, the lack of assurances from the
U.S. Treasury about doing business there is 'creating a lot of
uncertainty,' Addison said in an interview. 'There's an environment of
ambiguity.'" http://t.uani.com/1PoUo8w
Sanctions
Relief
Reuters: "Flagship private shipping
insurance group, the International P&I Club, has raised the default
insurance coverage for tankers transporting Iranian oil to $580 million
per ship from $80 million, the Japan P&I Club said on Tuesday. The
International P&I Club has been unable to extend normal liability
coverage of $7.8 billion per ship to vessels transporting Iranian oil
because the U.S. Treasury Department has left sanctions in place
pertaining to insurance. That has prevented U.S. insurers from
providing coverage... To meet the shortfall in U.S. insurance coverage,
the international P&I Club has created a 'fall-back' of $500
million additional coverage per ship for Iranian oil at no extra cost
to the members, the Japan P&I Club said in a statement. Although
$580 million coverage is still less than 10 percent of the normal
liability coverage, Asian shippers such as China, India and South Korea
and some shippers in Europe may find that enough to transport Iranian
oil, an official with Japan P&I Club said on Tuesday. Japanese
shippers, however, are more risk-averse and may continue to use the
government's special sovereign shipping insurance to import Iranian oil
until normal P&I coverage becomes available again, industry
officials have said." http://t.uani.com/21FegLA
CNBC: "One of Iran's main shipping
companies resumed trading with the West this week after six years, but
the Islamic country is still far from being reaccepted by the
international community, warns an expert. The Azargoun, which belongs
to the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines and can carry 2,500
standard shipping containers, arrived in Hamburg earlier this week. It
marked the reopening of the European Container Line between Iran and
Europe, which was suspended in 2010 due to sanctions imposed by the
U.S. and Europe... 'We are still pretty far away from full
normalization,' Torbjorn Soltvedt, head of MENA at risk consultancy
Verisk Maplecroft, to CNBC via phone. 'What we are seeing is the start
of the reintegration of Iran back into the global economy to some
extent. But at the same time, you are not really seeing any sort of
great influx of investment into Iran yet.' Soltvedt said Verisk
Maplecroft does not expect a mass influx of investment into Iran in the
short term because of risks in the country and the remains of the
sanctions regime... 'The most important part of that is probably the
pretty substantial list of entities that are still blacklisted by the
U.S. government for which secondary sanctions still apply,' explained
Soltvedt. 'For companies looking to invest in Iran it's a really
complex task to try and unravel the web of subsidiaries and associated
companies that are linked to blacklisted companies.'" http://t.uani.com/1S3p40U
Regional
Destabilization
JPost: "General Saeed Qasemi, a
Revolutionary Guards commander and the commander of Ansar Hezbollah, a
paramilitary conservative Islamic group in Iran, has demanded that Iran
annex Bahrain, the Revolutionary Guard-affiliated news agency Tasnim
reported Sunday. Speaking at a forum in the city of Bushehr, Qasemi
urged the annexation of Bahrain to Iran, explaining that 'Bahrain is an
Iranian province that was detached from the Islamic Republic of Iran
due to the Western colonialism.' 'Iran must make efforts to bring
Bahrain back into Iranian territory and transform it into a part of
Bushehr province,' Qasemi further stated. General Qasemi was a senior
commander during the Iran-Iraq war that erupted in September 1980, and
is also considered a crony of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei. Similar declarations regarding the dire need to annex Bahrain
to Iran are recurrently voiced by senior Iranian officials." http://t.uani.com/1UhUOG2
Domestic
Politics
Al-Monitor: "Every year, Iran's Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addresses Iranians from the holy city of
Mashhad for his Nowruz message. He discusses the main issues of the
country, both domestically and internationally, and designates a slogan
for the upcoming year. Khamenei designated this year as the year of the
'Resistance Economy: Action and Implementation.' he 'resistance
economy' is a term that first came into popular use in 2014. In short,
it is an economic policy that stresses a focus on domestic production,
promoting a knowledge-based economy and reducing vulnerability on oil
and gas exports. After the speech, Khamenei's website published '10
fundamental actions for rescuing the country's economy.' The 10 steps,
which were presented in chart form, listed such things as 'resurrect
domestic production, avoid exports that weaken domestic production, not
waste money that enters the country after the nuclear deal, make
sensitive and important sectors [oil, gas, airplane, train and ship
manufacturing] knowledge based, make the transfer of technology a
condition of foreign trade, seriously fight against corruption and give
special attention to medium and small industries.' ... If Rouhani is
not able to improve the economy in the new year, based on Khamenei's speech
and the subsequent commentary, it seems that the pressure on his
administration will be increased dramatically." http://t.uani.com/1UhW0sR
Opinion
& Analysis
WSJ
Editorial:
"The Iranian nuclear deal is barely six months old and already
Tehran has repeatedly tested ballistic missiles capable of delivering
atomic warheads. So it's encouraging to see that U.S. Senate
Republicans have introduced legislation designed to confront Iran on
its belligerent behavior. The Iran Ballistic Missile Sanctions Act of
2016 would impose new sanctions on the Islamic Republic's
ballistic-missile developers. The Senate bill, introduced late last
week by New Hampshire Republican Kelly Ayotte, targets firms that help
Tehran acquire dual-use technologies or otherwise support its missile
program. As the Foundation for Defense of Democracies notes in a recent
report, Tehran's ballistic-missile program is deeply intertwined with
Iran's legitimate economy, including the automotive, energy,
construction and mining industries. Countering the missiles, the FDD
says, requires 'economic sanctions against all sectors involved in
their development.' Ms. Ayotte's unilateral U.S. sanctions are a good
start, since the path to international sanctions is closed for now.
Iranian negotiators succeeded in excluding limits on ballistic missiles
from the nuclear deal itself, but United Nations Security Council
Resolution 2231 'calls upon' Tehran not to build or test missiles for
eight years. Iran has used that weak language as a legal loophole, and
Russia has made it clear that it takes Tehran's side. Russia has a veto
on the Council, and all the Obama Administration has done so far is to
sanction a handful of people and entities in response to an earlier
round of Iranian missile tests. A parallel bill sponsored by Sen. Mark
Kirk and 15 other Republicans, including Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell, targets Iran's destabilizing actions in the region and human-rights
violations at home. The bill would impose U.S. sanctions on any
business in which the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps holds a 25% or
larger stake, as well as the directors of such firms. The bill
specifically targets Mahan Air, an Iranian passenger airline that
provides logistical assistance to the Revolutionary Guards and
Hezbollah in Syria, according to the U.S. Treasury. Mr. Obama will
likely oppose the measures. Maryland's Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat
on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Committee Chairman Bob
Corker of Tennessee said in a joint statement on Friday that they're
working on bipartisan sanctions. The Ayotte-Kirk measures should be the
starting point. Unilateral U.S. sanctions are a weak substitute for
binding international sanctions. But the effort sends a message that
not everyone is as forgiving of the Iranians as Mr. Obama." http://t.uani.com/1T5beQG
WSJ
Editorial:
"Two weeks. That's how long it took the Obama Administration to
back down from its rare decision to sanction a Chinese company for
illicit ties to a rogue regime, in this case telecom giant ZTE scheming
to export U.S. technology to Iran. China's other bad actors-cyberthieves,
weapons proliferators, crooked bankers for North Korea-must be pleased.
The U.S. Commerce Department initially blasted ZTE on March 7 for
acting 'contrary to the national security and foreign policy of the
United States' by designing shell companies 'to illicitly re-export
controlled items to Iran in violation of U.S. export control laws.' As
punishment, U.S. and foreign firms were barred from transferring U.S.
technology to ZTE without a special license that officials promised to
deny. With a significant share of ZTE's supply chain reliant on U.S.
hardware and software, this looked like a penalty with teeth. No
longer. 'As part of the effort to resolve the matter, and based upon
binding commitments that ZTE has made to the U.S. government, Commerce
expects this week to be able to provide temporary relief from some
licensing requirements,' an unnamed senior Commerce official told the
Journal Sunday, crediting ZTE with being 'active' and 'constructive' in
talks. This is some turnabout, especially given some of the questions
raised by the initial U.S. move. Internal ZTE memos released by U.S.
investigators not only detail ZTE work in Iran, Sudan, North Korea,
Syria and Cuba." http://t.uani.com/1RhTBsd
Mehdi
Khalaji in WINEP:
"In his twenty-sixth Nowruz speech in Mashhad, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei reiterated his radical anti-American position and implicitly
criticized Iran's nuclear negotiating team for violating some of his
redlines and giving in to U.S. pressure. He also indirectly criticized
President Hassan Rouhani, who has been referring to Iran's latest
elections as 'JCPOA 2' in order to point out the transformative
implications of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed with the
P5+1 last year. Khamenei characterized such rhetoric as a U.S. plot to
inject the idea of political change into the minds of Iranian elites
and, by extension, the general citizenry. Moreover, his declared motto
for the new Persian year -- 'The Resistance Economy: Initiation and
Action' -- signals that he will make Rouhani's economic agenda a target
for extraordinary scrutiny and criticism from hardliners... While it is
by no means certain that Ayatollah Khamenei will force Iran to stop
complying with the nuclear deal in the near future, his latest speech
could pave the way toward justifying such a move, particularly if
Iranian authorities are already weighing the costs and benefits of
walking away from the JCPOA. First, by directly quoting Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Supreme Leader essentially accused
him -- and, by extension, President Rouhani -- of crossing the regime's
redlines in the negotiations. Second, he argued that the United States
is not complying with the JCPOA, asserted that sanctions would not have
been as harmful as Rouhani and his supporters have claimed, and
declared that the only way to neutralize the sanctions threat is to
avoid compromise with the United States and enhance the resistance economy.
In his view, the ultimate aim of negotiations and agreements is to
transform the Islamic Republic's nature and allow the United States to
impose its will on Iran. To be sure, many of these elements --
vociferously criticizing the notion of compromise with the United
States, accusing Washington of seeking regime change, turning against
Iranian presidents, and calling for a resistance economy -- are nothing
new for Khamenei. Yet his latest accusations show a particularly strong
and vocal distaste for the Rouhani government's efforts on nuclear and
economic issues, which likely means that he will no longer give the
president license to pursue a more conciliatory agenda at home or
abroad. Rouhani frequently uses the term 'JCPOA 2' to refer to change
on nonnuclear issues as a result of his success in the nuclear
negotiations; in fact, he used it a few hours before Khamenei's speech
in his own Nowruz message, referring to last month's elections as
'JCPOA 2.' Such open conflict with the Supreme Leader's positions will
make the lead-up to the June 2017 presidential election very difficult
for Rouhani. Hardliners will interpret Khamenei's speech as another
green light to escalate their attacks on the president, mainly by
intensifying their criticism of the JCPOA, accusing Rouhani's team of
naivete or incompetence in implementing the resistance economy, and
creating various problems for the government in different fields in
order to shrink Rouhani's social power base." http://t.uani.com/1RgJq9i
Saeed
Ghasseminejad in TNI: "The legendary cleric Abbas Vaez Tabasi died this
month after thirty-seven years supervising Astan Quds Razavi-the trust
that maintains the iconic Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad-and as Supreme
Leader Ali Khamenei's representative in the surrounding Khorasan
province. Last week Khamenei appointed Ebrahim Raeesi to replace him in
the former position, and Ahmad Alamolhoda, Raeesi's father-in-law, as
the latter. Both replacements come from the ranks of Iran's most
radical hardliners, and their appointment guarantees that the windfall
from last summer's nuclear deal will primarily benefit the Islamic
Republic's most extreme, reactionary forces... Khamenei's choice for
Tabasi's two replacements are clear signs that while the radicals might
have lost a few seats in last month's parliamentary election, they are
consolidating their grip over crucial levers of Iran's economy and
remain those best poised to reap the bonanza that the nuclear agreement
will soon yield. Those hoping that the deal will embolden moderates in
the Islamic Republic will again be sorely disappointed." http://t.uani.com/1px4Pl8
Shadi
Sadr in HuffPost:
"Last week, while the EU foreign ministers were getting together
to discuss how they can pursue an agreement on trade with Iran, the UN
Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran announced
that almost 1000 people were executed in Iran last year; the highest
number of using death penalty per capita in the World. However, the
astonishing number of executions as well as deterioration of the
situation of journalists, human rights defenders, political prisoners
and Baha'i citizens did not seem to concern the EU diplomats at all. As
the Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, cheered the beginning of the
EU's new journey with Iran towards signing billions of Euros-worth of
deals in a range of sectors, the EU policy on Iran's human rights
shifted dramatically but quietly... The chart below shows how the
number of EU public statements on the situation of human rights in Iran
have plummeted over the past two years. Whereas in 2011 there were 18
public statements over issues such as death penalty, political
prisoners, religious persecution and access to information, this number
has been reduced to only one statement in 2014 on death penalty... One
example amongst many is that in 2011, the EU High Representative
expressed serious concerns over the wave of arrests of Baha'i citizens.
Last month, 24 Baha'i citizens were sentenced to long terms of
imprisonment ranging from 5 to 11 years but the EU chose to remain
silent on this issue. The impact of the policy shift on restrictive
measures has been even worse. Not only one single name has not been
added to the list of human rights sanctions, but also in April 2015,
the EU Council removed the names of two individuals without providing
any reason or justification. More outrageously, European ministries of
foreign affairs which used to ask NGOs like Justice for Iran to submit
proposals to add new names to the list of human rights violators; is
now increasingly asking for the name of those who should be delisted. Therefore,
it is quite feasible that this year in April, when the EU Council is
supposed to revise the human rights sanctions list, many more
perpetrators who have been involved in serious human rights abuses,
will be delisted. It will be coincident with the planned visit of the
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini to Tehran who, unlike her
predecessors, has been completely silent on Iran's human rights
record... While the expedition of financial deals is submerging using
human rights tools, the trust between the EU and the victims and
survivors of violations will become lost unless the EU reaffirms its
stand on promoting universal rules of human rights. Until then, deeply
affected by the confusing and contradictory messages sent by the EU on
human rights those distressing questions about the integrity of the EU
policy on human rights will remain." http://t.uani.com/1ZolVhO
Eman
El-Shenawi in Al Arabiya: "Exclusively-obtained US court documents have
exposed a link between Iran and the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The documents, published this week by pan-Arab newspaper Asharq
al-Awsat, revealed that a New York District Court ordered Iran to pay
more than $10.5 billion in damages to families of people killed in the
attacks and to a group of insurers. According to the newspaper,
'allegations were built on information collected by military men who
conducted interrogations with US detainees on Iranian affiliation with
al-Qaeda.' The evidence from six court documents obtained by the
newspaper points to Iran and Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah as being
involved 'firsthand' in the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed
thousands of US citizens. Judge George Daniels found that Iran had
failed to defend claims that it aided the Sept. 11 hijackers and was
therefore liable for damages tied to the attacks, according to
Bloomberg. Daniels condemned Iran for facilitating the execution of the
terrorist attacks that hit both New York and Washington. The lawsuit
detailed 274 instances of Iran's alleged role in terror-funding and its
cooperation with terror organizations such as al-Qaeda. The trial
revealed that bin Laden, current leader of al-Qaeda Ayman al-Zawahiri,
Hezbollah's Imad Mughniyeh - assassinated in 2008 - and other Iranian
attaches had met in Sudan to establish an alliance supporting
terrorism. Asharq al-Awsat reported that '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 a safe haven to terrorist top leaders after the
September 11 attacks.' The report added that six Iranian individuals
and entities were accused in the case, including Supreme Leader 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. Alongside the individuals, the
administrational bodies among the accused were the Iranian Ministry of
Intelligence, the IRGC and its special operations division, the Quds
Force. The documents revealed that calls supervised by Iranian homeland
security were made with al-Qaeda and that by the mid-1990s 'all Iranian
intelligence heads were in direct contact with al-Qaeda.' A Tunisian
man named Tariq al-Sharabi was mentioned in the court files, stating he
was arrested in Italy during April, 2001 for affiliation with al-Qaeda.
But prior to his arrest, Sharabi was allegedly offered by an 'al-Qaeda
agent' a 'rat route' transfer through Iran. 'The terror travel agent
reassured Sharabi that al-Qaeda is in effective cooperation with
Iranians, and that they have established an off-shoot in Iran which is
taking care of transferring terrorists across borders,' Asharq al-Awsat
reported, citing the court files. Another name mentioned in the
documents was Ramzi bin al-Shibh, believed by the US as being a 'key
facilitator' for the September 11 attacks. Military prosecutors have previously
said Shibh, currently detained in Guantanamo Bay, relayed money and
messages to 9/11 hijackers. The court documents reveal that Shibh had
met Mohamed Atta, one of the ringleaders and hijackers in the attacks
earlier in 2001. 'The two, Shibh and Atta, traveled to Afghanistan
together to present the then alive Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman
al-Zawahiri with a report on operational progress,' Asharq al-Awsat
reported, adding that Shibh made a stop in Iran, while Atta carried on
his way to Afghanistan. In 2012, reports by the US State and Treasury
Departments revealed that Iran had been providing refuge to al-Qaeda
leaders and assisting them both logistically and financially. In
October of that year, the Treasury froze the assets of a key member of
an al-Qaeda network operating in Iran - Adel Radi Saqr al-Wahabi
al-Harbi - for 'supporting terrorist activities in South Asia and the
Middle East.' Simultaneously, the Department of State authorized a
reward of up to $7 million for information leading to the location of
Iran-based senior facilitator and financier Muhsin al-Fadhli and up to
$5 million for information leading to the location of his deputy,
Harbi. Commenting on the recently-obtained court documents, Middle East
political scientist Dr. Joseph A. Kéchichian said Iran's links to
al-Qaeda have long been known by the American intelligence community.
'American intelligence was aware of the fact that several al-Qaeda
leadership level people were in fact going in and out of Iran, and that
some may have even received assistance,' Dr. Kéchichian told Al Arabiya
News on Saturday." http://t.uani.com/25iK7WZ
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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