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WSJ: "The Obama administration is
buying 32 tons of heavy water, a key component in atomic-weapons
development, from Iran in an effort to safeguard its landmark nuclear
agreement with the country, according to senior American officials. The
Department of Energy's impending purchase was driven by U.S. concerns
that Iran doesn't have the capacity yet to quickly reduce its stockpile
of the material as required under the July nuclear deal, according to
these officials. Under the accord, Iran must keep its load of heavy
water to below 130 tons during the initial years of the deal, and under
90 tons later. But U.S. officials said Iran has been struggling to find
buyers for the material on the international market and that its
stockpile is at risk of rising above that level. Under the accord, Iran
must keep its load of heavy water to below 130 tons during the initial
years of the deal, and under 90 tons later. But U.S. officials said
Iran has been struggling to find buyers for the material on the
international market and that its stockpile is at risk of rising above
that level. The U.S. hopes its initial purchase will give other
countries the confidence to purchase Iran's heavy water in the coming
years. The deal, estimated at $8.6 million, is expected to be formally
signed by U.S. and Iranian officials Friday morning in Vienna. 'The
idea is: Okay, we tested it, it's perfectly good heavy water. It meets
spec. We'll buy a little of this,' U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz
said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. 'That will be a
statement to the world: You want to buy heavy water from Iran, you can
buy heavy water from Iran. It's been done. Even the United States did
it.' ... Critics of the Obama administration's nuclear agreement,
including on Capitol Hill, have raised concerns about the heavy-water
purchase. The chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, Rep.
Ed Royce (R., Calif.), wrote Mr. Moniz on April 18 to seek clarity on
the terms of the deal. He specifically asked how the U.S. would pay for
the heavy water and what guarantees the administration had that the
funds wouldn't be used by Tehran to fund its military or terrorist
groups. 'What assurances can you provide that U.S. taxpayer funds that
Iran receives through this purchase will not be used to fund Iran's
nuclear program...or Tehran's destabilizing activities in Iraq, Syria
Lebanon and elsewhere?' Mr. Royce wrote... Some nuclear experts said
the U.S. move comes close to subsidizing Iran's nuclear program in a
bid to keep the agreement alive. They said Tehran's production of heavy
water will remain a concern, especially when the constraints on its
nuclear program are lifted after 10 to 15 years as part of the
agreement. 'We shouldn't be paying them for something they shouldn't be
producing in the first place,' said David Albright, head of the
Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington think
tank." http://t.uani.com/1TmMl0X
NBC: "The U.S. continues to have
'serious concerns' about Iran's behavior even after the watershed
nuclear deal last year, President Barack Obama said Thursday during
meeting hosted by Tehran's arch-rival Saudi Arabia. While the agreement
signed on July 14 had helped 'cut off every single one of Iran's
pathways to a nuclear weapon,' illegal Iranian arms shipments,
ballistic missile tests, and 'destabilizing acts' were a continued
worry for the U.S. and its allies, the president said. Obama was
speaking in Saudi Arabia where he was conducting talks with the Gulf
Cooperation Council - which also includes Oman, the United Arab
Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait - to coordinate better on conflicts
across the region. He said that how to deal with Iran was still proving
to be the 'biggest area where there's been tactical differences' with
the GCC... 'What I've said to them is we have to have a dual track,' he
told reporters, referring to his discussions with the Gulf leaders. 'We
have to be effective in our defenses and hold Iran to account where it
is acting in ways that are contrary to international rules and norms,
but we also have to have the capacity to enter into a dialogue.' He
said mistrust has grown 'in part because of Iranian provocations' but
added that dialogue did not equate to the U.S. giving Iran an easy
ride... Before Obama departed Riyadh for London later on Thursday,
Saudi Arabia's King Salman called the meeting 'a constructive and
fruitful summit.'" http://t.uani.com/23NOyLp
WSJ: "Leaders of the United
Against Nuclear Iran advocacy group said the summit offered the U.S. an
opportunity to hold Iran accountable for its destabilizing actions and
to strengthen relations with Gulf states. 'One of the most important
things that can come out of the meetings in Riyadh on Thursday is
renewed confidence among our longtime allies in the Gulf Arab countries
in our leadership and American leadership,' said Joseph Lieberman, a
former U.S. senator and chairman of United Against Nuclear Iran.
'Clearly, they thought we were not listening to them at all as the
Iranian nuclear agreement and negotiations went forward, and that shook
them.'" http://t.uani.com/1r3WZ3B
NYT: "With the completion of the
nuclear deal with Iran and the opening of its market, European
businesses expected a trade bonanza. But three months after the lifting
of many sanctions against Iran, there is growing frustration among
European politicians, diplomats and businesspeople over the inability
to complete dozens of energy, aviation and construction deals with the
Iranians. The main obstacle, the Europeans say, is their ally, and the
driving force behind the historic nuclear agreement, the United States.
Wary of running afoul of new sanctions imposed by Washington over
Iran's missile program and accusations that Iran sponsors terrorism,
European banks are refusing to finance any of the deals, effectively
perpetuating Iran's isolation from the global financial system.
Europeans also point to new American visa regulations that make it more
difficult for them to enter the United States if they have traveled to
Iran. Those financial and travel restrictions, they say, make it nearly
impossible to reach agreements with their Iranian counterparts. The
hurdles set up by the United States, Europeans say, are also
infuriating the Iranian leadership and undermining what they understood
to be one of the main goals of the nuclear deal, which was to draw Iran
out of its international isolation. 'Europe is being taken hostage by
American policy,' said Marietje Schaake, the vice president of the
European Parliament's Delegation for Relations With the United States.
'We negotiated the nuclear deal together, but now the U.S. is
obstructing its execution.' From the Iranian perspective, the American
obstacles are jeopardizing the fulfillment of the nuclear agreement and
empowering the country's hard-liners. 'The question is, now that the
nuclear sanctions are lifted, what status quo will emerge when it comes
to doing business with Iran?' said Cyrus Razzaghi, the chief executive
officer of Ara Enterprise, a Tehran-based consultancy. 'Now everything
is ambiguous. If the situation doesn't change for the better - banking,
more deals - for Iran this will be a growing risk for the deal.' During
a recent meeting with Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of Italy, Iran's
supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, complained that there had been
'no tangible results' from the nuclear agreement. 'The Americans,' the
ayatollah said, according to his website, 'are frightening other
countries from cooperating with Iran.'" http://t.uani.com/1SViGJ7
Nuclear
& Ballistic Missile Program
Fox
News: "While
President Obama was preparing to head to Saudi Arabia earlier this
week, Iran launched a new long-range rocket but it did not accomplish
the rogue nation's goal of putting a satellite into orbit, a U.S.
official confirmed to Fox News on Thursday. The Pentagon is concerned
the components Iran uses to put a missile into space are the same ones
used for an potential long-range strike against the West in the future.
Last month the secretive regime reportedly tested missiles featuring
the phrase 'Israel must be wiped out' scrawled on them in Hebrew. Iran
has launched a series of rockets into orbit within the past year. The
State Department claims such launches do not violate the nuclear deal
signed with the U.S. and other Western nations, but are 'inconsistent'
with U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231, which was tied to the
nuclear deal when it went into effect. The resolution states Iran
cannot 'undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed
to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using
such ballistic missile technology.' 'If it's true, and we're talking
about a ballistic missile launch or the testing of ballistic missile
technologies, that's obviously of concern to us,' State Dept. spokesman
John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday. The vehicle launched on Tuesday
was a Simorgh rocket, The Washington Free Beacon reports. In 2010,
then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad first unveiled the rocket to
the public." http://t.uani.com/1SVn7nk
U.S.-Iran
Relations
Reuters: "U.S. sanctions relief will
be on the agenda when the Iranian and U.S. foreign ministers meet on
Friday amid Tehran's complaints it has been slow to benefit from last
year's Iran nuclear deal, the U.S. State Department said... U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad
Javad Zarif plan to sit down in New York on Friday, their second
meeting this week. 'I fully expect that they will continue to talk
about the sanctions relief process and the degree to which banks,
foreign and domestic, as well as institutions, foreign and domestic,
are evaluating their options under the JCPOA,' State Department
spokesman John Kirby told reporters at his daily briefing." http://t.uani.com/1Sgp4Pd
AP: "Secretary of State John
Kerry and his Iranian counterpart will meet Friday for a second time
this week over complaints from Iran that it's not getting the sanctions
relief it deserves under last year's nuclear deal. The meeting drew
concern from Republicans who said Kerry should not announce changes to
U.S. sanctions that go beyond what Iran is entitled to. U.S. officials
said the Republican concern is misplaced and denied speculation, fueled
in part by comments Kerry himself made earlier this week, that any
changes are coming. But the officials said Kerry, who met with Zarif at
the United Nations on Tuesday, would likely remind Iranian officials
and foreign banks and businesses that certain once-prohibited
transactions with Iran are now allowed under U.S. law. 'They will
continue to talk about the sanctions relief process, and the degree to
which banks, foreign and domestic, as well as institutions foreign and
domestic, are evaluating their options under the (nuclear deal) and the
degree to which they have before them a sufficient level of
understanding to make decisions with respect to sanctions relief,'
State Department spokesman John Kirby said... Zarif complained this
week that the administration has not been 'proactive' in explaining the
sanctions relief to international banks and that as result, Iran
remains locked out of the international financial system. That is
disputed by Washington, which notes it has dispatched officials to
explain to banks and other businesses what is legal. 'We would argue
that we have been active in trying to explain the components of the
(nuclear deal),' Kirby said. 'What we absolutely are not trying to do
is become an obstacle in any way of foreign banks and institutions
working with Iran through the sanctions relief process and doing
legitimate business with Iran.' Still, U.S. officials say they are
willing to consider additional steps. One official stressed, though,
that there is only so much the United States can do. That official
noted that Tehran's continuing suspect behavior, particularly with
missile tests, may be more responsible for international reluctance to
do business with Iran than the remaining U.S. sanctions." http://t.uani.com/1MMJwHe
Reuters: "Iran has denounced as
'theft' a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that almost $2 billion in frozen
Iranian assets must be paid to American families of those killed in
attacks blamed on the Islamic Republic, state television reported. The
ruling was handed down on Wednesday as U.S. President Barack Obama
visited Iran's regional rival Saudi Arabia, hoping to reduce Gulf
states' fears over Iranian influence in the region. 'This is totally
rejected. It is theft ... it is like stealing Iran's money and we
condemn it,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari was quoted
as saying. 'The decision is incompatible with international laws.' The
court found that the U.S. Congress had not usurped the authority of the
courts by passing a law in 2012 stating that the frozen funds should go
toward satisfying a $2.65 billion judgment against Iran won by the
families in a U.S. federal court in 2007. The ruling would affect,
among others, the families of 241 U.S. soldiers killed in truck bomb
attacks on a U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut in October 1983...
'The (U.S. court) ruling again displayed America's hostility towards
Iran ... and proved that America cannot be trusted,' Jaber Ansari
said." http://t.uani.com/1SAiGVh
Al-Monitor: "Iran's Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei defended Lebanese group Hezbollah after it was
condemned in the closing statement of the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation (OIC) summit in Istanbul. During a speech to the Islamic
Students Association April 19, Khamenei said, 'See what they did
against the devout youth in Palestine and Lebanon? How many real and
propaganda threats have they made against Hezbollah of Lebanon? Yet
Hezbollah of Lebanon is showing its brave [face] in the world of
Islam.' Referring to the OIC statement, which Iranian officials accused
of being heavily influenced by Iran's regional rival Saudi Arabia,
Khamenei said, 'The dependent, corrupt, hollow and empty government, in
a statement with petrodollars, condemns Hezbollah. So what? What
importance does it have? Hezbollah is shining like the sun. Hezbollah
is a source of pride for Muslims.' ... Khamenei also warned his young
audience about America's 'soft war' against the country, saying, 'Right
now with the issue of the youth, there is a comprehensive soft war
between the Islamic Republic of Iran on one side and America and
Zionists and their followers on the other side.' Khamenei said that
young Iranian students should consider themselves the officers of this
war and warned them, 'Westerners, especially America, want the Iranian
youth to be without faith, cowardly, unmotivated, inactive, hopeless,
optimistic toward the enemy and pessimistic toward their own
commanders.'" http://t.uani.com/1poK8Yi
Congressional
Action
Al-Monitor: "Congressional Republicans
appear to be hurtling toward a showdown over Iran's access to the US
dollar with little or no support from Democrats, potentially dooming
their legislative efforts to block further concessions to Tehran. House
Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., on April 19
unilaterally introduced legislation that would prohibit the Obama
administration from allowing the US dollar to be used to facilitate
trade transactions. Royce has so far failed to secure the endorsement
of his Democratic colleague, Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., even as the
Republican leadership's blessing suggests a House vote could come soon.
'We cannot grant Iran access to the US dollar in any form,' House
Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in an April 19 press
release endorsing the Royce bill. 'Iran supports terrorism around the
globe, continues to test ballistic missiles, and commits egregious
human rights abuses against the Iranian people. Iran shouldn't get
relief simply because they agreed in word to a flawed nuclear deal.
House Republicans are concerned with Iran's destabilizing behavior and
any potential access to the US dollar. I commend Chairman Royce for
introducing this important legislation.' And a spokesman for House
Leader Paul Ryan, R-Wis., wrote a blog post April 18 endorsing Iran
legislation using the same language as Royce." http://t.uani.com/1poJyK3
Business
Risk
DW: "While non-US banks are not
generally forbidden from doing business with Iran, major problems
remain. Chief among them is how to handle transactions in US dollars,
the world's most important currency. Banks from Germany and other
countries 'need to continue to ensure they do not clear' such
transactions with Iran 'through US financial institutions', since US
banks are not allowed to do business with Iran, according to the US
Treasury. That means, according to the Association of German Banks,
that payments in US dollars with business partners in Iran cannot be
done via SWIFT. European banks are afraid of falling foul of these
rules, pointing to the almost $1.5 billion that Commerzbank agreed to
pay a year ago for violating US sanctions. The German bank's yearly
profit was halved by that fine. For similar sanctions-related
infractions, French bank BNP Paribas was slapped with a much larger
$8.8 billion fine in June 2014. For banks, it's extremely complicated
to make sure that a business partner is not incriminated in some way or
another. 'There's a lack of company registers and also renowned law
firms who could confirm information with a legal opinion,' a
spokesperson from the Association of German Banks told DW. 'It remains
a challenge to identify a person beyond a doubt and make sure they
don't act as dummies for blacklisted individuals.'" http://t.uani.com/1Syw0WZ
Trend: "The European insurance
companies still are cautious regarding the cooperation with Iran, Akbar
Kamijani, Vice-President of Central Bank of Iran said. He made the
remarks in a meeting with a German trade delegation in Tehran April 20,
Mehr news agency reported. The resistance of the European insurance
companies in cooperation with Iran is 'beyond the expectations,'
Kamijani said... Kamijani further referred to talks with various
European insurance companies including Sace from Italy,
Oesterreichische Kontrollbank from Austria and French Coface as well as
the issue of clearing the debts as the achievements of the CBI after
removal of the sanctions last January." http://t.uani.com/1Wh8jov
Al-Monitor: "Meanwhile, it is not just
Rouhani's political opponents and some economists who say the JCPOA has
benefited no one. Some important Iranian private sector representatives
share that view. Business magnate Asadollah Asgaroladi told the local
media outlet Farheekhtegan, 'Before the JCPOA, everyone would find a
way to make financial transactions with foreign countries. It was not
possible to do this directly and most transactions were made through
Dubai. But since the JCPOA, no monetary exchange has been made - not
even once. Also, nothing has been done to help the nongovernmental
sector carry out its transactions after the deal.' Pedram Soltani, the
vice president of Iran's Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and
Agriculture, shares this view. Soltani told Farheekhtegan, 'We work mainly
in Asia, and in this regard trade is being done more or less in the
same manner as it was done before. However, trading with Europe and
some regional countries is still very difficult. New banks are
gradually being introduced and currency exchange is being done, but at
a very slow pace.' Soltani added, 'Except for a select few countries
such as China, India and South Korea, with which we have reconnected
through SWIFT, the rest have yet to connect their financial system to
Iran.' ... So is Iran still not reconnected to SWIFT? The banks that
were actively trading even during the sanctions era continue to
maintain their business. However, nothing has so far changed for the
bigger banks. The CBI is correct in saying that the reconnection
process has been physically established. However, no major foreign bank
has decided to engage with Iran yet." http://t.uani.com/1Wh5aoI
Sanctions
Relief
Mehr
(Iran):
"South African President Jacob Zuma heading a high-ranking
political-economic delegation will visit Iran on Saturday. Jacob Zuma
will pay a visit to Tehran on April 23 at the invitation of Iranian
President Hassan Rouhani. He will be officially welcomed by President
Rouhani on Sunday. The two sides are scheduled to sign a number of
economic and trade MoUs, followed by a luncheon hosted by President
Rouhani. Zuma is also expected to hold meetings with other Iranian
senior officials, and leave for Isfahan on Monday to visit this
historical city. A 180-strong delegation is accompanying the South
African President on this visit. The delegation comprises of six
ministers and around 80-100 businessmen. This is the first time the
President of South Africa will visit the Islamic Republic, although
late Nelson Mandela had visited Tehran before and after his
presidency." http://t.uani.com/1VLCNQA
Yonhap: "South Korean companies are briskly
moving to tap into Iran's fast-growing construction and consumer
markets, regarding the Iranian boom as a breakthrough to their
prolonged business slump amid the global economic slowdown. Local
business executives expect that President Park Geun-hye's visit to Iran
slated for May 1-3, as well as the dispatch of a large-scale business
delegation to Tehran, will provide fresh momentum to their inroads into
Iran, which is in the midst of rebuilding its infrastructure following
the lifting of Western sanctions. The construction sector was quick to
move as major builders are eyeing large-scale deals with Iran. Hyundai
Engineering & Construction Co. is pushing to secure a US$500
million contract to build a hospital and medical facilities, a project
initiated by Iran's welfare ministry. GS Engineering & Construction
Co. and Daelim Industrial Co. have sent their staff in preparation for
more deals. Trade firms have also been rushing to Iran. SK Networks,
which handled about 14 percent of Iran-bound exports last year,
increased the number of its local staff from nine to 13, with a plan to
expand its business. Shipyards are among those keenly interested in
business deals with Iran. Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., a major
shipyard here, is reportedly in talks with Iran's state-run shipper
IRISL on a deal to build three container ships for an estimated $350
million. From May 1-3, President Park is to visit Iran for a summit
with her Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani. The president is likely to
be accompanied by more than 200 businesspeople from such areas as
construction, energy, finance, shipping and steel. Her visit, the first
of its kind by a South Korean president since the two sides established
diplomatic relations in 1962, comes as Iran has been emerging as a high-potential
market after years of international sanctions were lifted in January...
The list of companies joining the delegation has not been finalized but
the number will likely grow to over 300, industry sources said. It
would be more than three times larger than a similar delegation led by
the commerce minister who visited Iran in late February. According to
media reports, high-ranking officials from such large business groups
as SK, Hanjin and KT Corp. have already expressed their wish to join as
they are seeking deals in each of their interested areas including
energy, airline and telecom." http://t.uani.com/1YKFhwv
Bloomberg: "Iranian bond sales will double
in value this year as the Islamic Republic encourages more companies to
issue debt to deepen its capital markets, according to a senior
official at the Tehran Stock Exchange. Thirty new offerings with a
combined value of $10 billion are expected by March 2017, Rouhollah
Hosseini Moghaddam, the vice president for issues and members at the
exchange, said in an interview. Eight sales took place during the last
Iranian year, worth a total $5 billion. 'Our debt market is going to
expand significantly this year,' the executive said from his Tehran
office. The government will sell bonds to fund its infrastructure
projects, and 'once the new budget is ratified another oil ministry
bond issue can be finalized,' he said... The jump in bond sales follows
two issues by the National Iranian Oil Company for the South Pars gas
field and the West Karoun oil field. The offerings, which had a
combined value of $1.5 billion, received $5 billion of orders last
month. 'If it wasn't unprecedented, it was certainly rare,' said Mona
Hajialiasghar, the chief operating officer of Tehran-based Kardan
Investment Bank. 'The NIOC issues have taken the debt market into a new
phase on the way to making the market mature, much bigger, more
transparent and more competitive.'" http://t.uani.com/1SAoEFx
Fars
(Iran):
"Vice-President of the Central Bank of Iran Akbar Kamijani called
for the expansion of banking cooperation with Germany. In a meeting with
members of a Bavarian delegation including business and industry
officials in Tehran on Wednesday, Kamijani said the US-led sanctions
against Iran also meant financial loss to its European banking
partners, adding that in the post-sanction era, the two sides should
catch up with the lost opportunities in trade and economy. He called on
Germany to support banking transactions and noted that cooperation
talks with the insurance company Hermes is still underway. The German
officials, for their part, said the main issue now is not the sanctions
but stopping damage to their own banks because of the threat of US
punishments if they deal with Iran. They said removal of sanctions is a
time-consuming process, and the priority is boosting cooperation
between the two-countries' small businesses. In relevant news, Managing
Director of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Mine of Schwaben in
Bayern Peter Saalfrank said Germany is ready for cooperation with Iran
in areas of environment and renewable energies." http://t.uani.com/26jqQoY
Human
Rights
Guardian: "Activists have raised
concerns about the health of two prisoners held in Iran on political
grounds - an award-winning physicist with cancer and a blogger who has
been on hunger strike for nearly a month. In an episode that highlights
Iranian authorities' denial of crucial medical care to prisoners of
conscience, physicist Omid Kokabee, 34, had surgery on Wednesday to
remove his right kidney, taken out after repeated warnings about his
condition were ignored during five years of his imprisonment. In a
separate case, Hossein Ronaghi, a 30-year-old blogger with one
functioning kidney, is believed to be in a critical condition as he
continues to refuse food and water in protest at his imprisonment.
Kokabee and Ronaghi are among hundreds of prisoners held in Iranian
jails on political grounds or because of their beliefs or civil
activities. Kokabee, a laser physicist with University of Texas, was
arrested in Tehran in 2011 after, activists say, he refused to
collaborate with Iranian authorities on military projects... 'Denying a
prisoner necessary medical care is both cruel and unlawful,' said Sarah
Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. 'Iranian
authorities should ensure that Kokabee will have access to adequate
medical care, which in his case is likely to be outside prison.' 'Iran
has a dismal record of providing prisoners, especially those convicted
of politically motivated charges, access to necessary medical
treatment,' she said... Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the New
York-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI),
echoed Whitson by saying that 'the continued endangerment of Kokabee's
life is tantamount to torture'... Other political prisoners in poor
health include the human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, one of at
least 18 female prisoners of conscience currently held in Iran." http://t.uani.com/1T39EKG
LAT: "On the last day of her short
life, Setayesh Qoreishi - a 6-year-old Afghan refugee - stepped out of
her family's home in the Tehran suburbs to buy an ice cream. She didn't
return. Police records say she was kidnapped by a teenage Iranian
neighbor who raped and stabbed the girl to death, and then attempted to
dispose of her body by drowning it in a tub full of acid. When
Setayesh's body did not dissolve, the boy began to panic. He called a
neighbor, who called his parents. They alerted police, who took the boy
into custody. The brutality of the April 9 incident shocked Afghans,
who have complained for years about facing violence and injustice in
Iran, where millions live as refugees. And it has also fueled outrage
among Iranians who have been unable to comprehend the cruelty of her
killer... For a rare moment, Afghans in the Islamic Republic and many
of their Iranian hosts were emotionally united. As the news of
Setayesh's killing spread, it shined a spotlight on the discrimination
and abuse Afghan refugees say they face daily, though it goes almost
unnoticed by the Iranian public." http://t.uani.com/1TmPy0F
Domestic
Politics
Al-Monitor: "Facing growing criticism as
pressure mounts to deliver tangible results from the lifting of
sanctions, President Hassan Rouhani defended the nuclear deal between
Iran and the six world powers in an April 19 speech. 'When the
administration took over, Islamophobia and Iranphobia were at a peak
and the country was facing sanctions,' Rouhani said, reminding the
crowd the conditions in Iran when he took over from hard-line president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. 'Inflation, economic downturn, unemployment and
lack of stability in the markets created numerous doubts in the public
about the future of the country and the economy.' To those who have
criticized the nuclear deal, Rouhani said, 'It is interesting to me
that some want to say that the Iranian nation and the negotiators were
not victorious and it was the Americans and Zionists who were
victorious.' He said that the nuclear deal has had many achievements,
saying that no one could have imagined that all the United Nations
Security Council resolutions against Iran would at once be 'thrown into
the trash bin of history.' ... Indirectly addressing criticism from the
head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali
Jafari, Rouhani said, 'For those who question what the nuclear deal has
achieved, it must be said that the nuclear deal recorded a political
and legal honor for the history of Iran.' ... In one of his most blunt
assessments of Iran's economic situation before the nuclear deal,
Rouhani said, 'The sale of Iran's oil was cut in half [of pre-sanctions
levels], the traffic to Iran's ports was essentially sanctioned,
Iranian banks had no links to the world's banks, conditions were such
that we had returned to the 19th century, all the transactions were
conducted through money exchange houses and the banking and insurance channels
were closed to us.' Rouhani said that because of sanctions, the export
of Iran's oil had fallen to 1 million barrels a day, but that now it
exceeds 2 million barrels a day... Rouhani asked for patience in seeing
the economic results of the nuclear deal, saying, 'Reconstruction and
modernization after ruin takes time. Today the obstacles for
entrepreneurs and investors have been resolved but ... only three
months have passed since the implementation of the nuclear deal, but
some people think it's been 30 years.'" http://t.uani.com/1SyrAPN
Opinion
& Analysis
Dominic
Dudley in Forbes: "If
there's one thing that's essential when investing in Iran, it's doing
your homework on any prospective business partner. A lot of sanctions
were lifted in January, but many remain in place. Among the US and EU
measures still being enforced are those targeting the Iranian
Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) and other companies and individuals
accused of human rights abuses, terrorist links and more besides. Most
US firms are still excluded from dealing with Iran, but the market is
opening up for companies from Europe and Asia. If they end up doing
business with anyone on a blacklist they could face large fines or
worse, so it's important to know who owns and runs a company. But in
Iran that's not always easy, especially if you're dealing with a
privately-owned firm. 'There is a culture of ambiguity generally in
Iran,' says Bijan Khajehpour, a senior associate at consultancy firm
Menas Associates. 'This is part of our culture. We are not transparent
about ownership structures, about financial statements and so on. So
don't expect you can very easily find out to whom a company belongs.'
Business owners in Iran may not be used to the sort of due diligence
processes that Western companies have to insist on, and they could
resist attempts to find out the relevant information. At best, that
could delay things. At worst, it could make a deal impossible. 'Due
diligence is challenging in Iran and part of it is cultural, especially
in an environment where people are not used to a very thorough sort of
due diligence that for example Western global companies now do,' says
Rouzbeh Pirouz of Tehran-based investment firm Turquoise Partners.
'It's very difficult to do for non-listed companies or companies where
there's less public information available if they are not being cooperative.'
Things are slightly easier when dealing with companies on the Tehran
Stock Exchange (TSE), but not by much. The TSE publishes a list of
shareholders in all quoted companies, as long as they have a stake of
at least 1%. The list is updated quarterly, but what it can't tell you
is if the people are the ultimate shareholders or if they are, in
reality, merely representing other people. Another way of discovering
something about the shareholding structure is to look at a company's
board of directors, says Khajehpour. 'The [TSE] database is reliable,
but it only shows you the immediate layer of shareholders and that's
the problem. There are always other layers behind the first layer,' he
says. 'In Iran you can only get on a board if you are a shareholder. So
one way of finding some footprint is looking at the board composition
and see who the different board members represent inside the company.
But still those second and third layers are the challenging parts.' So
what should a business do if it wants to do a deal in Iran? Speaking at
the Iranian Trade Conference in London on April 11, Nigel Kushner,
chief executive of London-based W Legal, suggested five steps that any
company could and should take. The first step is to ask your
prospective Iranian partner or client for a list of its directors and
shareholders. Then carry out some screening checks on those people. You
should also ask the Iranian firm to get an authorised director to sign
a declaration confirming that the information they have given you is
correct and that they'll notify you if anything changes. Kushner says
you should also ask the Iranian firm to sign another declaration
confirming that they do not have any directors or shareholders subject
to US or EU sanctions. (Kushner was talking to a largely UK audience;
the advice could probably be extended to cover any other sanctions that
might be relevant to a company thinking of going into Iran.) The final
step, according to Kushner, is to conduct some deeper due diligence.
That might require hiring a law firm or corporate investigators or
similar. If you get any feedback that sets off alarm bells, such as
links between the company and a person that is subject to sanctions,
then you'll need to find out more about how much that person owns, what
control they exert over the company and what the legal implications of
that are." http://t.uani.com/1WK6SQ4
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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
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