|
|
|
Join UANI
Top
Stories
The
Hill: "President
Obama on Friday criticized Iranian leaders for undermining the 'spirit'
of last year's historic nuclear agreement, even as they stick to the
'letter' of the pact. In comments following the Nuclear Security Summit
in Washington, Obama denied speculation that the United States would
ease rules preventing dollars from being used in financial transactions
with Iran, in order to boost the country's engagement with the rest of
the world. Instead, Obama claimed, that Iran's troubles even after the
lifting of sanctions under the nuclear deal were due to its continued
support of Hezbollah, ballistic missile tests and other aggressive
behavior. 'Iran so far has followed the letter of the agreement, but
the spirit of the agreement involves Iran also sending signals to the
world community and businesses that it is not going to be engaging in a
range of provocative actions that are going to scare businesses off,'
Obama said at a press conference. 'When they launch ballistic missiles
with slogans calling for the destruction of Israel, that makes
businesses nervous.' 'Iran has to understand what every country in the
world understands, which is businesses want to go where they feel safe,
where they don't see massive controversy, where they can be confident
that transactions are going to operate normally,' he added. 'And that's
an adjustment that Iran's going to have to make as well.' ... Earlier
this week, multiple reports indicated that the White House was
considering easing financial rules to let foreign companies use the
dollar to do business with Iran. But on Friday, Obama appeared to shoot
the idea down. 'That's not actually the approach that we're taking,' he
said. 'It is not necessary that we take the approach of them going
through dollar transactions,' he added. 'It is possible for them to
work through European financial institutions as well.' Instead, Obama
said, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and other U.S. officials would help
'provide clarity' to global businesses about what kinds of work they
can do in Iran under current rules." http://t.uani.com/1qjyuiR
Fox
News: "The
crew of a U.S. Navy ship stopped a massive Iranian arms shipment dead
in its tracks, seizing thousands of weapons, AK-47 rifles and
rocket-propelled grenade launchers that were likely headed to Yemen,
the Pentagon announced Monday. The seizure, which unfolded in the
Arabian Sea on March 28, was the third of its kind in recent weeks,
military officials say. Iran has been supporting Houthi rebels in Yemen
in their proxy war against a Saudi-led coalition backed by the United
States. Like Iran, the Houthis are a Shia-led group. The arms shipment
appears to mark the latest provocative action from the Islamic
republic. On Friday, President Obama said Iran was obeying the 'letter'
of its landmark nuclear agreement with the West, but not the 'spirit'
of it. The Navy said the shipment included 1,500 AK-47s, 200
rocket-propelled grenade launchers and 21 .50-caliber machine guns.
After the U.S. seized the weapons stash from the dhow, a traditional
sailing vessel, officials let the crew go. A U.S. official told Fox
News current rules do not allow the U.S. Navy or other western naval
forces to seize the crew in addition to illicit cargo. 'You have to
find a country willing to prosecute,' the official said." http://t.uani.com/1V4bYqo
FT: "European banks are
tentatively re-engaging with Iran as the Middle East's second-largest
economy slowly emerges from a sanctions regime that has kept it in the
financial wilderness for years. Belgium's KBC, Germany's DZ Bank both
confirmed when contacted by the Financial Times that they have started
handling transactions on behalf of European clients doing business in
Iran. Austria's Erste Bank is preparing to do so. However, bigger
European banks remain on the sidelines alongside their US rivals,
scarred by a string of multibillion-dollar fines for earlier sanctions
breaches in Iran. This is causing growing frustration among officials
in Iran and Europe about the slow pace with which Tehran is being
reconnected to the global financial system... the continuation of many
US sanctions relating to other issues, such as facilitating terrorism,
has made many international banks wary of working with Iranian
institutions and individuals. The chairman of one of Europe's biggest
banks said: 'All the lawyers' reports I get continue to say there are
still many sanctions left on Iran. It is difficult to know who you are
dealing with as it has become uncharted territory.' Banks have paid
more than $15bn in fines for breaching sanctions in various countries
over the past five years. The most costly was the $8.9bn penalty for
France's BNP Paribas in 2014... There is growing political pressure on
European banks to support corporate clients seeking to do business in
Iran. Apart from an eagerness to seize opportunities for trade with a
country of 77m people, European politicians also want to support the
moderate government of Iran's President Hassan Rouhani. British prime
minister David Cameron wrote to Barclays in February asking the bank to
explain its refusal to handle a payment on behalf of Molyslip Atlantic,
a British lubricant maker arranging sales in Iran." http://t.uani.com/1N4TnTg
U.S.-Iran
Relations
Fars
(Iran):
"Deputy Chief of Staff of Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud
Jazzayeri warned the US officials that Iran's missile power is a
redline which can no way be encroached. 'The US calculations about the
Islamic Republic and the Iranian nation are fully incorrect,' Jazzayeri
said on Monday. 'The White House should know that defense capacities
and missile power, specially at the present juncture where plots and
threats are galore, is among the Iranian nation's redlines and a backup
for the country's national security and we don't allow anyone to
violate it,' he added. Jazzayeri described as 'ridiculous' US President
Barack Obama's attempts to link facilitated removal of the sanctions
with a halt to Iran's missile program, and said the Americans'
rationale and line of action is based on making vows and breaking
them." http://t.uani.com/1RIrqTf
Congressional
Action
JTA: "The top Democrat handling
foreign relations in the Senate says he will endeavor to get Congress
to reauthorize Iran sanctions before year's end, a key goal of
pro-Israel activists. 'There's general agreement we have to extend the
sanctions against Iran, and we need to do it before they expire at the
end of this year, ' Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat
on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told JTA on Thursday...
Pro-Israel Democrats like Cardin are caught between an Obama
administration that shows little enthusiasm for anything that could be
construed by Iran as a US bid to undercut the deal and Republicans
determined to toughen what they say has been a giveaway to Iran. Cardin
said he can get Democrats behind a simple reauthorization, adding it is
needed to keep in effect sanctions the Obama administration say will
'snap back' should Iran violate the deal. The deal offers sanctions
relief in exchange for rollbacks in Iran's nuclear program. 'Speaking
as the ranking Democrat on the committee, and on behalf of the
Democrats, we could get it done quickly if we were to just do that
part,' he said, meaning a simple reauthorization of the sanctions,
which were passed in 1996 and reauthorized in 2006. The sanctions must
be renewed every 10 years... The Obama administration says
reauthorization is not required and is opposing it for now. 'It is not
necessary to extend the Iran Sanctions Act at this time, as it does not
expire until December 2016,' a senior administration official told JTA.
'Right now we are focused on ensuring that Iran adheres to its nuclear-related
commitments under the JCPOA,' the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action,
the formal name for the Iran deal." http://t.uani.com/1SMaayU
Free
Beacon:
"Congress is investigating whether the Obama administration misled
lawmakers last summer about the extent of concessions granted to Iran
under the nuclear deal, as well as if administration officials have
been quietly rewriting the deal's terms in the aftermath of the
agreement, according to sources and a formal notice sent to the State
Department. The concerns come after statements from top officials last
week suggesting that Iran is set to receive greater weapons and
sanctions relief, moves that the administration had promised Congress
would never take place as White House officials promoted the deal last
summer. 'When multiple officials-including Secretary Kerry, Secretary
Lew, and Ambassador Mull-testify in front of Members of Congress, we
are inclined to believe them,' Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) told the
Washington Free Beacon. 'However, the gap between their promises on the
Iran nuclear deal and today's scary reality continues to widen. We are
now trying to determine whether this was intentional deception on the
part of the administration or new levels of disturbing acquiescence to
the Iranians,' Pompeo said. Congress is believed to be investigating
what insiders described to the Free Beacon as a range of areas in which
administration officials may have understated the breadth of
concessions made to the Islamic Republic when trying to persuade
lawmakers to sign off on the final deal." http://t.uani.com/1W5dgAZ
Sanctions
Enforcement
Bloomberg: "A Turkish-Iranian gold
trader, accused in 2013 of bribing Turkey's cabinet ministers, is
heading to New York from Miami to face charges that he was involved in
a conspiracy to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran. Reza Zarrab waived
his right to a bond hearing in Miami and a judge agreed on Friday to
let him be transferred to New York, according to court records. He's
been in U.S. custody since his arrest in Miami on March 19. No hearing
date has been set in New York. The U.S. accused Zarrab of helping the
Iranian government launder hundreds of millions of dollars to evade
U.S. sanctions. In Turkey, Zarrab was at the center of a bribery,
forgery and gold-smuggling investigation which President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan repeatedly insisted was a coup attempt." http://t.uani.com/1S2sCjC
WSJ: "ZTE Corp.'s board will meet
early next week to replace three of its most senior executives, including
its chief executive, people familiar with the matter said, as the
Chinese telecommunications-equipment maker tries to rebuild its
reputation after being accused of violating of U.S. trade rules... On
Tuesday and Wednesday, the board plans to discuss and approve the
management changes as well as ZTE's 2015 financial results, which were
delayed after the U.S. Commerce Department slapped trade sanctions on
the company last month, alleging it violated rules by exporting
American technological goods to Iran and other nations. As part of a
recent agreement between the U.S. Commerce Department and ZTE to
temporarily remove the sanctions, the Chinese company's executives who
have been involved in the alleged violation must be removed from
management roles, the people said. In a 2011 ZTE internal document
obtained and disclosed last month by the U.S. government, Mr. Tian and
Mr. Qiu were named as executives who were in charge of ZTE's plans for
allegedly circumventing U.S. export rules. The document detailed the
Chinese firm's elaborate plans to set up shell companies to ship goods
to Iran without getting caught by U.S. authorities." http://t.uani.com/225hJmX
Business
Risk
FT: "Saudi Arabia has taken steps
to slow Iran's efforts at increasing oil exports, banning vessels that
transport Iranian crude from entering their waters, according to
traders and shipbrokers. Iran already faces insurance, financing and
legal obstacles despite the lifting of sanctions linked to its oil
industry in January... Since the lifting of sanctions, Iran has managed
to sell only small volumes of crude to Europe, including barrels to
Spain's Cepsa, Total of France and Russia's Litasco. By mid-April, only
about eight tankers will have sailed from Iran's Kharg Island for
Europe, said shipbrokers, with only 12m barrels booked to sail. Iranian
vessels carrying the country's crude are restricted from entering ports
in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, according to a circular sent by a shipping
insurance company to its members in February. The notice said ships
that have called to Iran as one of its last three ports of entry will
also require approval from the Saudi and Bahraini authorities before
entering their waters. Shipbrokers and traders have relayed the same
messages since. Iranian oil executives have expressed their concern
about the message circulating in the market, saying it is only adding
to problems they face in selling their crude... Iran is also yet to
regain access to storage tanks at a key oil transit hub on Egypt's
Mediterranean coast, which is part-owned by Saudi Arabia. Oil tanker
association Intertanko and other industry participants say no formal
notice has been given by Saudi Arabia but uncertainty is making some
charterers less willing to lift Iranian crude. 'It's seen as an unknown
risk,' said one shipbroker. 'No one wants to disrupt their relationship
with the Saudis.' ... last week Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
said Saudi Arabia would not hold output steady unless joined by Iran,
which has said it plans to regain its post-sanctions output level
before agreeing to any freeze. Part of the slow increase in exports to
Europe has been the lack of access for Iran to facilities operated by
the Arab Petroleum Pipeline Company, known as SUMED. Before the
imposition of sanctions Iran used to send crude from the Red Sea to the
Mediterranean on the company's lines. The facility is 50 per cent owned
by Egypt, with Gulf Arab allies Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE
together owning 45 per cent. Some traders believe Saudi is blocking
Iran's access to SUMED, though others have said it is possible a
pre-sanctions contract could be resumed in time." http://t.uani.com/1MNFgXT
Guardian: "Air France is facing a
backlash after instructing female crew to wear trousers during flights
to Iran and to don a 'loose-fitting jacket and headscarf' before
leaving the plane in Tehran. Staff representatives have accused the
airline, which will resume flights to the Iranian capital later this
month, of forcing female staff to wear clothes that are an
'ostentatious religious sign' that goes against French law. Union leaders
said the dress code was an attack on individual freedoms and insisted
the measure had to be voluntary; Air France said the rules were not new
and already applied to cabin crew during stop-overs in Saudi Arabia
where hostesses were required to wear an abaya covering their body. Air
France will begin three daily fights to the Iranian capital on 17
April, eight years after they were stopped following the imposition of
international sanctions against Tehran. These were lifted in January
after Iran agreed to dismantle its nuclear programme. Air France's
clothing advice was contained in an internal note to staff. Christophe
Pillet, of the SNPNC union and a member of the Air France staff
committee, said the instructions had sparked widespread concern. 'Every
day we have calls from worried female cabin crew who say they do not
want to wear the headscarf,' Pillet told AFP. He said airline
management had raised the possibility of penalties against staff who
refused to follow the dress code. Françoise Redolfi, another union
leader, told RFI radio, 'They are forcing us to wear an ostentatious
religious symbol. We have to let the girls choose what they want to
wear. Those that don't want to must be able to say they don't want to
work on those flights.' She added: 'Many female members of flight crews
have told us that it's out of the question they be obliged to wear
headscarves. It's not professional and they see it as an insult to
their dignity.'" http://t.uani.com/25GeiaN
Al-Monitor: "President Hassan Rouhani's
first foreign trip of the Iranian New Year was a two-day trip to
Pakistan, which began March 25. While he was accompanied by a
half-dozen ministers and high-ranking officials, there has been recent
criticism that the trip ended without significant tangible
achievements, prompting officials from the administration to answer
back... While the IRNA article did not reference specific articles that
questioned the outcome of Rouhani's trip, other media did.
'Unfortunately, the achievements of this trip are affected by the
propaganda of Saudi and Zionist stations and websites,' said Rouhani
adviser Hesam al-Din Ashna March 28 in reference to the London-based
BBC Persian article headlined 'Rouhani's fruitless trip to Pakistan.'
The BBC article asserted that despite Rouhani traveling to Pakistan
with a large delegation, he 'returned empty-handed' due to China's
heavy economic influence and American and Saudi objections. The head of
Iran's central bank, the governor of Sistan-Baluchistan province, and
the foreign, interior, industry, energy and health ministers
accompanied Rouhani on the trip." http://t.uani.com/1SwrgOR
Sanctions
Relief
Press
TV (Iran): "Iran
said on Sunday that Germany's auto giant Volkswagen is expected to seal
a deal with an Iranian partner in the near future to invest in the
country's car industry. Iran's Ambassador to Berlin Ali Majedi said
Volkswagen has been looking into the Iranian car industry for the past
year and are closer than ever to a final investment decision. Majedi
said the company's management have been specifically studying the
capabilities of several local carmakers and are now trying to choose
between only two companies. He did not name the companies but some
reports say they could be Kerman Motor and Mammut Group. Volkswagen
announced last September that it is grooming its Skoda brand for the
Iranian market. 'Iran is a very interesting market with great
opportunities,' VW brand R&D chief Heinz-Jakob Neusser said at the
time... Other German automakers including Mercedes have already started
talks to form partnerships with Iran Khodro - the leading Iranian car
giant. The media in Tehran reported in mid-March that a commercial deal
between Iran Khodro and Mercedes is imminent. In January, the German
carmaker said it had signed letters of intent with local partners Iran
Khodro Diesel and Mammut Group to arrange a 'comprehensive re-entry'
into the country. The areas of cooperation include a joint venture for
local production of Mercedes-Benz trucks and powertrain components plus
the establishment of a sales company for Mercedes-Benz trucks and
components, it said then. Daimler also plans to return as a shareholder
in the former engine joint venture Iranian Diesel Engine Manufacturing
Co. (IDEM), based in Tabriz." http://t.uani.com/25GhT91
Fars
(Iran): "Austrian
energy company OMV is ready to resume developing the Cheshmeh Khosh
oilfield in western Iran, a report said on Monday. OMV withdrew from
the field in the Ilam province along with Spain's CEPSA in 2008 when
Iran was hit with the first wave of US-led sanctions. The company also
left the Mehr block in western Iran, where it had struck oil. In
February, Chief Executive Rainer Seele said OMV was evaluating the
opportunities in at least two separate oilfield development projects
without naming them. 'OMV has announced readiness for development of
the Cheshmeh Khosh oilfield,' FNA said on Monday. Seele last year
accompanied other European delegates for a trade visit to Tehran to
attend an industry conference. 'You can find very low-cost fields here,
and therefore I think it's very competitive production that's coming on
stream here in Iran,' Seele told the event. OMV is pushing to boost its
upstream portfolio, with Seele saying the company would use at least
90% of its investments for exploration and production through 2020...
Apart from Mehr and Cheshmeh Khosh projects, OMV had signed initial
contracts for participation in Iran's LNG plans, including annual sales
of 2.2 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas, and developing phase 12
of South Pars gas field." http://t.uani.com/1V49eth
WSJ: "Iran's oil minister on
Sunday said the country's oil exports jumped again in March,
potentially undermining a global deal to limit crude output and raise
prices. Bijan Zanganeh said Iran's oil and gas condensate exports rose
by 250,000 barrels a day in March, to surpass 2 million barrels a day,
according to the oil ministry's official Shana news service. The
remarks were the oil minister's first comments since a report emerged
last week that Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude exporter, would
limit its production only if Iran followed suit." http://t.uani.com/1RzzWaN
Reuters: "India's Iran oil imports
topped 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) in March, highest in at least five
years, as private refiner Reliance Industries resumed purchases after a
multi-year lay-off, preliminary tanker data obtained by Reuters shows.
Indian refiners together imported 506,100 bpd oil from Iran last month,
a jump of about 135 percent from February, the data showed. In March of
last year, the refiners halted imports from Iran to keep shipments
within the parameters of the temporary nuclear deal then in force. The
higher imports by India signals Tehran's success in beginning to regain
market share after the lifting of Western sanctions targeting its
nuclear program. Iran has said it will continue increasing its oil
production and exports until it reaches the market position it held
before the imposition of sanctions. In the fiscal year ended on March
31, Indian refiners shipped in 14.4 percent more oil from Iran at about
251,100 bpd, the data showed. The increase was the largest annual
growth since the 2007/08 fiscal year, according to Reuters data. Essar
Oil was the biggest importer of Iranian oil in March with about 207,400
bpd oil, followed by about 130,000 bpd by Mangalore Refinery and
Petrochemicals Ltd and about 90,600 bpd by Reliance, its first
shipments in about six years... Indian Oil Corp, the country's biggest
refiner and not a regular buyer of Iranian oil, shipped in 2 million
barrels or about 67,000 bpd from Tehran last month." http://t.uani.com/1qjnwcZ
Reuters: "Iran is seeking $2.5 billion
investment to modernize its oil tankers fleet following the lifting of
sanctions against Tehran, managing director of National Iranian Tanker
Company (NITC) was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA on
Saturday... Reuters reported last month that two Chinese firms were
pushing for multi-billion dollar deals with Iran to modernize its
shipping fleet and build a high-speed railway. 'To expand Iran's oil
tanker activities, $2.5 billion will be invested in it,' said Ali Akbar
Safaei, managing director of National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC).
NITC has around 70 tankers but many of them are aging and require valid
insurance, testing, inspection and certification, known as ship
classification, to be able to ply international waters again. Safaei
said that NITC was the first Iranian company that has managed to rent
its ships to foreigners after the lifting of sanctions." http://t.uani.com/1M9uET8
Press
TV (Iran):
"Iran says it has signed a basic agreement with Austria to promote
mutual cooperation with the country in multiple industrial fields. The
agreement that has been reportedly signed on Thursday between the
chambers of commerce of the two countries could have a collected value
of above $2 billion. It comprises eight documents that envisage broader
cooperation in several areas including the automobile sector, the steel
industry, the pharmaceutical field and the engineering services, IRNA
reported. The current level of trade between Iran and Austria stands at
around $300 million. Officials from both countries announced last year
that a serious plan has been devised to boost mutual trade to as high
as $1 billion before 2020." http://t.uani.com/1N4Wzyu
Press
TV (Iran):
"Iran said on Sunday that it had reached an agreement with Austria
to receive payments for sales of oil and condensate to international
clients through the country's third largest bank, Raiffeisen
Zentralbank Österreich AG (RZB). Hossein Yaqoubi-Miab, the director for
international affairs of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), said the CBI
has reached a deal with RZB to open an account to receive euro payments
by international clients for their oil transactions with Iran.
Yaqoubi-Miab said the account will be opened within the next two weeks,
adding that the Austrian bank has announced readiness to create a
similar mechanism for other Iranian banks." http://t.uani.com/1S2GAlB
Mehr
(Iran): "Four
more Iranian banks have been reportedly reconnected to SWIFT, the
global provider of secure financial messaging services. The banks are
all the foreign branches of key Iranian banks which include the Yerevan
branch of Mellat Bank, the Dushanbe branch of Tejarat Bank and the
branches of Melli Bank of Iran in Baku and Baghdad. The media quoted
Hamid Baeidinejad, the Director General for Political and International
Security Affairs of Iran's Foreign Ministry, as announcing that the
banks could now handle a chain of overseas financial transactions.
Baeidinejad emphasized that 26 Iranian banks had so far been
reconnected to SWIFT after the removal of the economic sanctions
against Iran in mid-January." http://t.uani.com/1ouNZm6
Mehr
(Iran):
"Iran's first cargo ship exporting petrochemical products to
Europe after six years of stagnation berthed at Belgian port of Antwerp
late on Sunday. A vessel of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines
(IRISL), the Azargoun, which can carry 2,500 standard shipping
containers, arrived in at its first European stop Hamburg last week and
left the German port for Antwerp after disembarking its Iranian goods
and loaded the cargo to be exported to Iran. Upon its arrival at the
Belgian port of Antwerp, the ship was welcomed by the local authorities
including Kris Adams, the General Manager of DP World Antwerp Holdings.
The captain and the crew were also bestowed gifts to mark the reopening
of shipping routes between Iran and European ports after 6 years. The
same welcoming ceremony was held at the port of Hamburg in mid-March
when the Iranian vessel berthed at its 1st stop." http://t.uani.com/225zzWL
Terrorism
Al-Monitor: "Relations with Iran were
also on the agenda given the February visit of a Hamas delegation to
the Iranian capital that produced an agreement between the two sides to
enter a new era in relations based on new rules. The delegation to
Tehran met Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force, the
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' foreign operations branch.
Soleimani advised the movement to keep its distance from all the chaos
in the region and pledged Iran's continued support, although Abu
Marzouk in a leaked phone call accused Iran of lying about its claims
of supporting the movement. Marzouk's accusation prompted Soleimani to
say at the meeting, 'Iran never lied, and we won't lie. We sent several
ships full of arms to the resistance, [but] some were intercepted. We
won't leave you alone. Whenever there's a new technology that we can
send, we won't hesitate to. This is our duty. Whoever says the contrary
should remember that this is all [taking place] before God's
eyes.'" http://t.uani.com/1RzFGkK
Regional
Destabilization
Reuters: "Bahrain's foreign minister said
on Friday that Gulf Arab states were prepared to confront Iran over its
foreign policy and Tehran should drop its support for Middle East
factions. Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa also played down any
difference with the United States over remarks by U.S. President Barack
Obama last month telling Saudi Arabia and Iran 'to find an effective
way to share the neighborhood'. Ties between Bahrain and Washington
remained strong, he said... 'We send a message to Iran and to all its
followers. We are now serious about confronting it and we have no
hesitation to defend our people, states, interests and brothers in the
region because this is a vital issue for us,' Sheikh Khaled said in an
interview with the Dubai-based al-Arabiya channel. Bahrain accuses Iran
of fomenting unrest in the country and of supplying weapons to Shi'ite
militants behind several bomb attacks on security forces. Iran denies
the charges. Sheikh Khaled said Bahrain and other Gulf Arab states were
ready to turn a new page with Iran if it changed its policies. 'The
main step is that Iran must completely change its foreign policy
towards the countries of the region,' he said. This included Iran
dropping its support for the Lebanese Hezbollah organization and other
groups." http://t.uani.com/1TvBfIR
Human
Rights
Amnesty: "Iranian Kurdish farmer
Yousef Kakehmami, already serving nine years in prison after two unfair
trials, has been sentenced to a further five years in prison after
writing a letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights
situation in Iran." http://t.uani.com/235ascu
Journalism
Is Not a Crime:
"Imprisoned Iranian blogger Hossein Ronaghi-Maleki is in poor
health nearly seven years after his arrest. He has now gone on a hunger
strike to protest prison authorities' refusal to send him to hospital,
making his friends and family fear for his life. First arrested in
December 2009 following Iran's disputed presidential election,
Ronaghi-Maleki was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges including
'spreading propaganda against the regime' and 'insulting the supreme
leader' in connection with articles he had posted on his blog. Last
year, he secured a seven-month medical leave, but he was forced to
return to Tehran's Evin Prison in January. His condition has since
worsened due to medical negligence. Prison authorities have reportedly
denied him medication and repeatedly refused to hospitalize him. On
March 5, he was transferred to an outside clinic, but was returned to
prison after just two hours. Speaking to Journalism Is Not A Crime,
Laleh R, a close friend of the blogger who speaks to him almost every
day, says he began a hunger strike on March 26, 2016. 'He started a
hunger strike because his medication has been withheld from him since
his return to prison. And he is protesting his imprisonment because his
sentencing is illegal according to revised laws,' Laleh says. 'I told
him he would die, as his body can't handle it,' she says. 'His response
was that the status quo is a slow death sentence anyway. A hunger
strike will speed things up, he said, but at least he wouldn't go
without a fight.'" http://t.uani.com/225fIak
ICHRI: "Prisoner of conscience
Hossein Ronaghi Maleki has been on a wet hunger strike since March 26,
2016 to protest being denied medical care for his kidney disease,
according to his mother, Zoleikha Mousavi. 'We had a face-to-face
meeting with Hossein in Evin Prison on March 27. He told us that he had
started a hunger strike and would not stop until they pay attention to
his condition,' Mousavi told the International Campaign for Human
Rights in Iran. 'I'm tired of seeing my son go on hunger strike several
times a year to get medical treatment. I want him free.' 'For the past
seven years, on Mother's Day, my son has been in prison. I beg all the
authorities, the Revolutionary Guards and the Judiciary, to free my
sick son,' she added. 'His kidneys have been having problems for seven
years. The authorities will have to deal with more problems if he stays
in prison like this. It's enough to imprison a young man for seven
years. As a mother I plead with you to free my son. It's enough,' she
said. Political prisoners in Iran are singled out for particularly
harsh treatment, which often includes denial of medical care, in direct
violation of Iran's own laws and prison regulations." http://t.uani.com/1TvynvL
ICHRI: "Rouhie Safajoo, a student
banned from Iranian universities because of her Baha'i faith and
arrested for her online activism, was released on March 27, 2016 on 500
million rials (about $16,500 USD) bail, nearly three weeks after her
arrest. 'We are very happy Rouhie is free,' her sister, Maryam Safajoo,
told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. 'But the real
story is that for the past 37 years [since Iran's 1979 revolution],
Baha'i students have been denied the right to attend university.' 'And
it keeps getting worse. Even when [Baha'i] seek justice by peaceful
means, they get threats and it ends up in their arrest,' she said.
'Rouhie is one of thousands of young Baha'is who have been banned from
getting an education in this country.' Rouhie Safajoo, who lives in
Karaj (12 miles west of Tehran), was arrested on the morning of March
8, 2016 for allegedly 'acting against national security on cyberspace.'
In 2014 and 2015 she had taken Iran's grueling annual university
entrance exam, along with millions of other students, but both times
her results were withheld because of her faith, making it impossible
for her to access higher education. Since receiving her first rejection
she has been actively writing about the daily persecution she and other
Bahai's are forced to endure on her Facebook page... The last public
Facebook post she wrote, on March 5, 2016, was a widely circulated poem
dedicated to the five-year-old son of a Baha'i woman imprisoned for
teaching at a banned online Baha'i university that Rouhie Safajoo had
also attended." http://t.uani.com/1ZZ2lJg
IranWire: "The final verdict against
Azita had been issued by Judge Mohammad Moghiseh of Branch 28 of the
Revolutionary Court, who sentenced her to four years in prison for
teaching at the Baha'i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE), an
underground university run by members of Iran's Baha'i minority, who
are not allowed to pursue higher education in Iran... 'Bashir is five
years and nine months old,' Azita had told me. 'We went to Mr.
Khoda-Bakhshi, the deputy prosecutor, and told him that that our son
had no guardian expect his father and I. We asked him to find a way so
that we did not have to serve our sentences at the same time. Even if
one parent is absent and in prison, it can do irreparable damage to a
child, let alone if both of them are in prison and the child has no
other guardian. Our parents are old and broken-down. They live in a
provincial town and cannot take care of Bashir. The deputy prosecutor
told us that there was no legal recourse unless we were favored with
Islamic compassion.' But they were not favored by Islamic compassion.
On February 28, when Peyman and Bashir went to Evin Prison to visit
Azita, Peyman was unexpectedly arrested by three plainclothes agents
before reaching the visiting hall, and was taken to prison to start his
five-year sentence." http://t.uani.com/1UPBVum
IranWire: "The Iranian government's
plans to create a national or 'halal' Internet isolated from the World
Wide Web have been underway for more than a decade and have been
delayed time and again. Now, with new investments of hundreds of
millions of dollars in the technology sector, Iran has shown major
progress towards going its own way, causing human rights groups to warn
against what they believe will be a threat to users' safety, privacy,
and legitimate access to information... Today, a decade later, Iran's
plans are again on track, according to a new report published this week
by the freedom of expression campaign group Article 19. The report,
Tightening the Net: Iran's National Internet Project, gives in-depth
analysis of Iran's National Internet project, its history and
development, and its consequences for freedom of expression
online." http://t.uani.com/1qpNWK4
Foreign
Affairs
The
Tower:
"Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's scheduled visit to Austria was
canceled at the last minute due Vienna's denial of an Iranian request
to clamp down on demonstrations protesting his visit, two leading
Austrian media outlets reported on Wednesday. Rouhani was set to meet
and sign a number of bilateral agreements with Austrian President Heinz
Fischer on Wednesday and Thursday. Austria's leading newspaper Die
Presse reported that Iran had demanded the cancellation of the planned
demonstrations, which were organized by Stop the Bomb - a coalition
dedicated to preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon - as well
as Kurdish and Jewish groups, last week. However, the Austrian government
refused to comply, citing freedom of assembly. In a follow-up report,
Die Presse wrote that Iran 'dug in its heels' on its demand, while
Andreas Pfeifer, chief of the foreign policy desk at Austria's state
television, added that Iran insisted 'quite fiercely' that the protests
be canceled." http://t.uani.com/1W5mfSR
Reuters: "Pakistan has asked Iran to
investigate the case of a suspected Indian spy who Pakistani
authorities say has confessed to spying against Pakistan from Iran,
according to a copy of an Interior Ministry letter to Iran obtained by
Reuters on Friday. Last month, Pakistan said it had detained the
suspected spy, Kulbhushan Jadhav, in the violence-plagued province of
Baluchistan after he had illegally entered the country from Iran.
Pakistan says Jadhav was working for India's main external intelligence
agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). India has confirmed that
the man was a former Indian navy official but denied the man was a spy.
In video footage aired by the Pakistani government this week, Jadhav
said he had set up an office in Chabahar in southeast Iran in 2003 and
later worked for the Indian agency... The Iranian embassy in Islamabad
issued a statement on the Friday on the 'detention of the Indian agent'
and said unidentified 'elements' were not happy with good ties between
Iran and Pakistan and were trying to undermine them." http://t.uani.com/1qpJAT8
Opinion
& Analysis
UAE
Amb. to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba in WSJ: "Saturday marked one year
since the framework agreement for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action-the nuclear deal with Iran-was announced. At the time, President
Obama said this agreement would make 'the world safer.' And perhaps it
has, but only in the short term and only when it comes to Iran's
nuclear-weapons proliferation. Sadly, behind all the talk of change,
the Iran we have long known-hostile, expansionist, violent-is alive and
well, and as dangerous as ever. We wish it were otherwise. In the
United Arab Emirates, we are seeking ways to coexist with Iran. Perhaps
no country has more to gain from normalized relations with Tehran.
Reducing tensions across the less than 100-mile-wide Arabian Gulf could
help restore full trade ties, energy cooperation and cultural
exchanges, and start a process to resolve a 45-year territorial
dispute. Since the nuclear deal, however, Iran has only doubled down on
its posturing and provocations. In October, November and again in early
March, Iran conducted ballistic-missile tests in violation of United
Nations Security Council resolutions... It is now clear that one year
since the framework for the deal was agreed upon, Iran sees it as an
opportunity to increase hostilities in the region. But instead of
accepting this as an unfortunate reality, the international community
must intensify its actions to check Iran's strategic ambitions. It is
time to shine a bright light on Iran's hostile acts across the region.
At the Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Riyadh later this month, the
U.S., the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman should
reach an agreement on a common mechanism to monitor, expose and curb
Iran's aggression. This should include specific measures to block its
support for the Houthi rebels in Yemen, Hezbollah units in Syria and
Lebanon, and Iranian-linked terrorist cells in Saudi Arabia and
Bahrain. If the carrots of engagement aren't working, we must not be
afraid to bring back the sticks. Recent half measures against Iran's
violations of the ballistic-missile ban are not enough. If the
aggression continues, the U.S. and the global community should make
clear that Iran will face the full range of sanctions and other steps
still available under U.N. resolutions and in the nuclear deal itself.
Iran's destabilizing behavior in the region must stop. Until it does,
our hope for a new Iran should not cloud the reality that the old Iran
is very much still with us-as dangerous and as disruptive as
ever." http://t.uani.com/234R4MV
Eli
Lake in Bloomberg:
"Like most of Washington, I was under the impression that the
nuclear negotiations with Iran ended in July. There was the press
conference in Vienna, the U.N. resolution that lifted the sanctions on
Iran and the fight in Congress that followed. That turns out to have
been wrong. I should have been more suspicious when no one actually had
to sign anything at the end of the negotiations or when the 'deal' was
not submitted to the Senate as a treaty for ratification. And while
it's true that the Iranians have disposed of nuclear material, modified
sites and allowed more monitoring, they also keep haggling over the
terms. Now, according to an Associated Press report, the Obama
administration is considering a rule change to allow some Iranian
businesses to use off shore financial institutions to access U.S.
dollars in currency trades. When the White House sold it to Congress,
senior Treasury officials promised the nuclear agreement would not
allow such dollar transactions, since Iran's financial system has been
repeatedly designated as a concern for money laundering. It was not
part of the 'deal' that was agreed in July, which only lifted nuclear
related sanctions on Iran, but kept in place other sanctions to punish
the country's support for terrorism, human rights abuses and its
ballistic missile program. In a statement Thursday urging the Treasury
department not to go through with the rule change, Democratic House
Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said: 'I want to make clear my concerns that
the Administration had indicated that there would be no further
concessions beyond those specifically negotiated and briefed to
Congress. I do not support granting Iran any new relief without a
corresponding concession.' This is not how the Iranians see it. Over
the last month, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has
complained that the U.S. was not upholding its end of the bargain. He
implied that Iran may have to back out of its own commitments if the
U.S. does not do more to signal to foreign banks and businesses that
it's safe to invest in his country. And that's just the latest example
of a new concession won by Iran. Over the summer, Secretary of State
John Kerry told Congress that the U.N. resolution that ended
international sanctions on Iran's nuclear program would nonetheless
retain language that prohibited Iran from testing ballistic missiles.
And yet a March 28 letter from the U.S. and the European Union to the
U.N. Secretary General this week conspicuously declined to call Iran's
recent ballistic missile tests a 'violation' of that resolution... This
pattern began over the summer when Obama himself assured Congress and
the public that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would
have the ability to inspect any suspicious site that it wanted. The
Iranians countered that their military facilities were off limits. It
turns out they were right. When the IAEA devised a plan to inspect
Iran's Parchin facility, the Iranians refused international inspectors
access and allowed only a ceremonial visit from the agency's director.
The Iranians were allowed to collect their own site samples... But this
misses the point. Despite Obama's 2012 campaign promise, the president
accepted an agreement in July that allowed Iran to keep in place the
industrial-sized nuclear program it had built in defiance of the United
Nations. This gives Iran a loaded gun with which to blackmail the rest
of the world. If more concessions are not granted, then Iran can
always restart its program. In theory, Obama and future
presidents could then re-impose sanctions. But realistically it will be
much harder to persuade America's allies and adversaries to take
drastic steps, particularly as so many other countries are now looking
to reinvest in Iran's economy. After all, it took years to carefully
build the coalition that imposed the sanctions that forced Iran to
negotiate. Iran's leaders seem to understand this. So does the Obama
administration. And the terms of the agreement we thought was completed
in July keep changing to the benefit of Iran." http://t.uani.com/1RXfkv4
Elisa
Catalano Ewers & Ilan Goldenberg in TNI: "We have reached the one-year
mark since Iran and the P5+1 agreed on a set of a parameters that
became the basis for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
While the history books will likely point to July 14, 2015 as the date
both parties signed on the dotted line, those who look closer will
point to April 2, 2015-the day the Lausanne framework enshrined the key
elements of the deal-as the watershed moment when a nuclear deal went
from mere possibility to near-foregone conclusion. So as Lausanne turns
one, where are we? The last year has seen numerous successes. After
Lausanne, the parties were able to finalize a historic agreement that
survived a U.S. Congressional review with surprising levels of support.
Iran has implemented key elements of the agreement with unexpected
speed, and in February the more pragmatic political elements in Iran,
buttressed by the promised sanctions relief of the nuclear deal, made
inroads in the country's parliamentary and Assembly of Experts
elections. On the other side of the ledger, the last year has also been
rife with accusations that the United States was prepared to allow Iran
a free pass on its aggressive non-nuclear-related behaviors in exchange
for preserving the nuclear deal. Pundits speculated-and partners
feared-that U.S. determination to have the JCPOA succeed would result
in concessions that would encourage Iran's most threatening regional
behaviors to advance unchecked, now underwritten by new sanctions
relief. And Iran has often appeared eager to promote that impression in
ways both big and small: live military exercises and drone flights
conducted near and over U.S. and allied naval vessels; repeated illegal
testing of long-range ballistic missiles in contravention of
still-active UN Security Council Resolution provisions; U.S. sailors
taken into Iranian custody (later released); and continued regional
belligerence in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere. It is worth looking at
whether and what the United States has really conceded in the last
year, and whether the U.S. response has actually been appropriate and
responsible. More importantly, at this one-year mark, it is worth
reviewing what opportunities are on the horizon for the United States
to demonstrate that it is not turning a blind eye to Iran's
provocations, and that its response will be strong, appropriate, and
consistent with its interests in the region. America has a balance to
strike-maintaining a firm posture where necessary, but also keeping the
positive momentum of the nuclear deal intact...The nuclear agreement
born in Lausanne was historic. Implementation of the JCPOA thus far has
exceeded expectations, and even skeptics appear to recognize that the
diligence applied to the first months of the process seems to be
working so far. Still, Iran's aptitude for aggressive behaviors towards
its neighborhood and the United States has not changed and is likely to
continue in the year ahead. The challenge will be striking the right
balance. Washington must continue to build on the positive momentum of
the past year to underpin verifiable and thorough implementation of the
nuclear deal. But it must also remain firm and respond to provocative
actions with proportional but meaningful countermeasures that signal to
Iran and the world that there is a price for violating international
norms. Doing less undermines the principle that states are expected to
act responsibly, and feeds the perception that America is willing to
turn a blind eye to Iran's aggressive behavior in order to preserve the
deal. Neither is in the U.S. interest." http://t.uani.com/1qjJ7lO
IHRDC: "IHRDC has released its
latest report entitled Restrictions on Freedom of Expression in the
Islamic Republic of Iran. In this report IHRDC describes the legal
framework within which the Iranian state limits freedom of expression
and imposes censorship. Relying on witness testimony from former
government officials, authors and journalists, this report examines
different aspects of the Iranian government's actions against
individuals whose opinions, beliefs or actions are contrary to what the
state desires or expects. Restrictions on freedom of expression in Iran
are both broad and arbitrary. In addition, changes in the political
climate influence what may be acceptable in the political and cultural
arenas. Isa Saharkhiz, a journalist and a former official with Iran's
Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, likened working as a
journalist in Iran to walking on a minefield, knowing that a wrong step
may harm your career or possibly land you in prison. This report
discusses events that took place in the early years of the Iranian
Revolution as well as those of the recent past... 'The government of
the Islamic Republic of Iran has engineered one of the most repressive
environments on the planet in terms of the right to free speech,' said
Rod Sanjabi, Executive Director of the Iran Human Rights Documentation
Center, adding, 'For decades, journalists, scholars, artists and indeed
all Iranians have been forced to navigate censorship, self-censorship,
and the aggressive and often arbitrary policing of the public space by
a government whose distaste for free speech has long been a matter of
identity. As long as these trends persist, Iran will be poorly
governed.'" http://t.uani.com/1SMaRsc
|
|
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