|
|
|
Join UANI
Top
Stories
Reuters: "U.S. President Barack Obama
arrived in Riyadh on Wednesday to meet Saudi Arabia's King Salman ahead
of a summit with other Gulf Arab leaders on Thursday and with regional
tensions with Iran likely to be high on the agenda. Obama comes to the
world's top oil exporter for a fourth and likely last time as president
hoping to reassure it and other Gulf allies of Washington's commitment
to their security, and to seek ways to reduce sectarian tensions in the
region... The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) groups Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Oman which are
ruled mostly by Sunni Muslim monarchies, with the exception of Oman.
They see Shi'ite Iran as a threat to their security and say its
involvement in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen has fueled conflict and
deepened sectarian divisions. That tension surfaced again on Wednesday
when Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei attacked Riyadh's
attempts to isolate its ally, Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, in a series
of fiery Tweets. 'Hezbollah is shining in the Muslim world. It doesn't
matter if a corrupt, dependent and hollow government with the use of
petrodollars condemns it in a statement. To hell with it,' he wrote.
The White House shares the view of Gulf Arab states that Tehran plays a
destabilizing role, but has said it hopes to bring them and Iran to
develop a 'cold peace' in which their rivalry does not further inflame
smoldering Middle East tensions. Greeting Obama in an ornate room in a
Riyadh palace, King Salman said he was pleased the American president
was visiting and Obama thanked him for hosting the summit. Before Obama
met King Salman, in an ornate room in a Riyadh palace, U.S. Defense
Secretary Ash Carter had talks with his Gulf Arab counterparts on ways
of countering Iranian influence and fighting the Islamic State group,
hours before President Barack Obama arrived in Saudi Arabia. They
agreed on joint cooperation toward improving Gulf missile defense,
special forces and maritime security, but no new deals were announced.
The GCC secretary general said the bloc and the United States would
stage joint maritime patrols to stop weapons smuggling to Iran.
American officials said these were already taking place and did not
represent a new step." http://t.uani.com/1U6EaIq
AP: "U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry and Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reported some
progress Tuesday on Iranian complaints that it's not getting the
sanctions relief it deserves under last year's landmark nuclear deal.
After meeting for more than 2 1/2 hours behind closed doors, the
ministers emerged saying they agreed to meet again Friday on the
sidelines of a high-level U.N. ceremony to sign the climate change
agreement... Iran says it is locked out of the international financial system
and that the U.S. isn't fulfilling its obligations under the agreement.
The White House, Treasury and the State Department have all said the
U.S. has done what is required, but U.S. officials say the Obama
administration is considering easing or formally clarifying financial
restrictions that prevent U.S. dollars from being used in transactions
that enable business with Iran. The officials have ruled out granting
Iran access to the U.S. financial system or direct access to the
dollar, but they have left the door open to other steps to encourage
trade that is now legal under the nuclear deal. Kerry told reporters
that he and Zarif are working to make sure the nuclear agreement 'is
implemented in exactly the way that it is meant to be, and that all the
parties ... get the benefits that they are supposed to get out of the
agreement.' 'We worked on a number of key things today. We made some
progress on it,' Kerry said. 'We agreed to meet on Friday ... to sort
of solidify what we talked about today.' Zarif said they focused on how
to implement the deal 'to make sure that we will draw the benefits that
Iran is entitled to.'" http://t.uani.com/1SkvRUG
Reuters: "Iran faces a struggle to
increase oil exports because many of its tankers are tied up storing
crude, some are not seaworthy, and foreign shipowners remain reluctant
to carry its cargoes... Iran has 55-60 oil tankers in its fleet, a
senior Iranian government official told Reuters. He declined to say how
many were being used to store unsold cargoes, but industry sources said
25-27 tankers were parked in sea lanes close to terminals including
Assaluyeh and Kharg Island for this purpose. Asked how many tankers
were not seaworthy and needed to go to dry docks for refits to meet
international shipping standards, the senior official said: 'Around 20
large tankers ... need to be modernized.' ... This means foreign ships
are needed for a big export push to Europe and elsewhere, said the
industry sources, as Iran looks to meet its target of reaching
pre-sanctions sales levels this year. But many owners, who are not
short of business in a booming tanker market, are unwilling to take
Iranian cargoes. The main reason is that some U.S. restrictions on
Tehran remain in place and prohibit any trade in dollars or the
involvement of U.S. firms including banks - a major hurdle for the oil
and tanker trades, which are priced in dollars... Paddy Rodgers, chief
executive of leading international oil tanker company Euronav, said at
present there was 'no great urgency to do business in Iran'. 'There is
not a premium to do business in Iran and there is plenty of other
business - the markets are busy, rates are good. So there is no stress
on wanting to do it,' he told Reuters. 'I don't really want to set up a
euro bank account in Dubai in order to trade with Iran - that would
crazy.' Michele White, general counsel with INTERTANKO, an association
which represents the majority of the world's tanker fleet, said: 'We
have witnessed a reluctance by our members generally to return to
Iranian trade given the prohibition on use of the U.S. financial system
- essentially no U.S. dollars.' The senior Iranian government official,
who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter,
acknowledged his country was finding it difficult to hire foreign
tankers... Two other sources with other leading oil tanker operators
echoed the concerns of Rodgers and White, and said they were not doing
Iran deals at the moment. One of the two sources said with a new U.S.
president to take office in January, tanker owners were unsure whether
there could be any change to the nuclear deal Washington and other
world powers agreed with Iran which led to the end of sanctions. 'It
does not appeal to them to take on the risk and the uncertainty of the
U.S. connection and future U.S. political policy that would come into
play,' said the source, who declined to be named, citing sensitivity
over potential Iranian trade. Gavin Simmonds, of the UK Chamber of
Shipping trade association, said of the U.S. presidential timing and
the global oil oversupply: 'Iran is rejoining the market at the worst
possible time.'" http://t.uani.com/1QmLaKj
GCC
Summit
Reuters: "U.S. Defense Secretary Ash
Carter and his Gulf Arab counterparts met in Riyadh on Wednesday to
discuss ways to counter Iranian influence and fight the Islamic State
group, hours before President Barack Obama arrived in Saudi Arabia...
Obama and Carter will seek to reassure the GCC, which groups Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, that
Washington still shares their interests and will continue to ensure
their security, U.S. officials have said. In part, Carter aims to do so
by helping them build up their cyber, special operations and maritime
capabilities, which U.S. defense officials see as more effective in
countering Iran than their historical big spending on air power. Carter
and the GCC defense ministers agreed to cooperate in building the GCC
states' joint missile defense systems, and in developing special
forces, the bloc's Secretary General Abdullatif al-Zayani said, but no
new arms deals were announced... U.S. Army Lieutenant General Sean
MacFarland, head of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State,
briefed the group on the campaign, and the commander of U.S. forces in
the Middle East General Joseph Votel briefed the group on Iran's
activities in the region." http://t.uani.com/20X6VIm
Reuters: "Gulf Cooperation Council
(GCC) countries and the United States have agreed to carry out joint
patrols to stop any Iranian arms shipments reaching Yemen, the bloc's
secretary general, Abdullatif al-Zayani, said on Wednesday. Zayani was
speaking at a news conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter
after a meeting between Carter and his counterparts from the GCC, which
includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates
and Oman." http://t.uani.com/1MI24IM
U.S.-Iran
Relations
Bloomberg: "Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif said international banks remain wary of U.S.
regulations and need 'reassurances' that they can resume business with
his nation even after its nuclear deal with world powers. Zarif,
speaking in New York ahead of a Tuesday meeting with U.S. Secretary of
State John Kerry, said talks with his counterpart were necessary to
follow up on the implementation of the agreement on the U.S. side. The
deal's aim 'was to not have the U.S. intervene in Iran's relations with
most other countries,' the Iranian Students' News Agency cited Zarif as
saying. 'We should prevent past U.S. regulations from being obstacles
to most financial institutions in Europe and Asia having banking
relations with Iran.' Iranian central bank Governor Valiollah Seif
voiced similar sentiments last week, telling Bloomberg Television that
the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control should issue
guidelines encouraging European banks to be more receptive to Iran...
Iran has been unable to tap as much as $100 billion of its assets held
abroad and has gotten 'almost nothing' from the nuclear accord, which
was implemented on Jan. 16, Seif said in the interview. 'One of the
needs that we definitely have goes back to converting currencies to pay
our suppliers,' he said. 'It requires having access to the U.S.
financial system.'" http://t.uani.com/1pgKr7s
Sanctions
Relief
AFP: "Iran's purchase of 118
Airbus passenger aircraft is in its final stages and the deal could be
completed as soon as next week, the French transport minister said
Monday in Tehran. Alain Vidalies told reporters that the contract,
initially valued at $25 billion, is subject to approval from the US
government's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and talks are
planned next week. The deal would be by far the biggest commercial
contract signed since Iran and world powers implemented an agreement on
Tehran's nuclear programme that saw crippling sanctions lifted in
January. 'We are in a very advanced stage of negotiations since the
meetings should be held next week to finalise the decision,' said
Vidalies, who arrived Sunday on the first Air France flight to Iran in
eight years. OFAC must approve the deal, which Iranian officials say is
worth nearer $10 billion, because more than 10 percent of components in
the Airbus planes are of American origin, Vidalies said at a press
conference with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Akhoundi. Iran agreed to
buy the medium- and long-haul aircraft when President Hassan Rouhani
visited France in January, just days after the nuclear deal lifted
sanctions." http://t.uani.com/23JIdAA
Reuters: "TMK, Russia's largest maker
of steel pipes for the oil and gas industry said on Wednesday it was
tendering for contracts in Iran in an effort to increase its exports...
'We are taking part in several tenders in Iran, expecting good
results,' TMK's head of strategy Vladimir Shmatovich told a media
conference call." http://t.uani.com/1Nlc8r1
AP: "Iran's parliament approved a
$97 billion budget for the current year, the official IRNA news agency
reported Tuesday. The figure - compared to the budget the previous
year, which was $72 billion - reflects Iran's hopes for its economy
following a landmark nuclear deal with the world powers. The report
said the new budget assumes an average oil price $40 a barrel and
exports of 2.25 million barrels per day. Iran says it has increased its
crude export to 2.1 million barrels per day, almost double the
production levels before the nuclear deal went into effect in
January... According to media reports, the bill has a five percent
increase for the defense budget." http://t.uani.com/1qZiTVv
Syria
Conflict
Reuters: "Iran's army chief said on
Wednesday the forces it had deployed in Syria in the first such
operation abroad since the 1979 revolution were volunteers working
under Revolutionary Guards supervision, and the regular army was not
directly involved. The Islamic Republic announced this month that it
had sent commandos from the army's Brigade 65 to Syria as advisers,
suggesting it was using its regular army as well as forces from the
elite Revolutionary Guards to help President Bashar al-Assad's forces
in the country's civil war. Iran is Assad's main regional ally and has
provided military and economic support for his conflict with rebel
groups and Islamic State militants. 'Some volunteers have been sent to
Syria, under the supervision of the related organization, and among
them there might be some of the Brigade 65 forces,' armed forces chief
Ataollah Salehi was quoted by the Tasnim news agency as saying. 'The
army has no responsibility in the military advice given to Syria,'
Salehi added." http://t.uani.com/240bpjk
Domestic
Politics
Reuters: "Iran's president criticized
the use of thousands of undercover morality police in Tehran to report
on young women who are not wearing a full Islamic hijab or those who
play loud music in their cars. Some 7,000 men and women officers began
reporting such violations in Tehran, Iran's capital, on Monday. The
head of police said the officers were not authorized to arrest anyone;
they can only send reports of violations by text messages to police
headquarters. Asked about the undercover morality police, President
Hassan Rouhani said such decisions should not be made by the government
and he would keep his promise to preserve citizens' freedom. 'Our first
duty is to respect people's dignity and personality. God has bestowed
dignity to all human beings and this dignity precedes religion,'
Rouhani was quoted as saying by the news agency ISNA on Wednesday.
Iranian police are part of the armed forces and supervised by Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but the government has a say in their
policies through the Interior Ministry. The morality police in Iran
usually detain women on the street for wearing bright clothes, a loose
hijab or make-up, and men for 'unacceptable' hair and clothing styles.
They have sealed off barber shops for giving Western haircuts and cafes
in which boys and girls were not observing Islamic law." http://t.uani.com/1YGP3Qc
|
|
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