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Bloomberg: "European companies flocking
back to Iran are doing so without their favored lenders at their side.
Less than two years after BNP Paribas SA agreed to pay a record $9
billion U.S. fine in part for dealings with Iran, many of the
continent's biggest banks remain unwilling to go anywhere near
Iran-related business for fear that they will run afoul of remaining
U.S. sanctions on the country. That's opened the way for Chinese and
Persian Gulf lenders, as well as European institutions such as Belgium's
KBC Groep NV, to grab a slice of the business of funding companies'
investments in Iran. The reluctance adds a complication for
manufacturers from Airbus Group SE to PSA Group, the maker of Peugeot
cars, as they seek to capitalize on growth in Iran. The funding issue
has become a financial diplomacy hot-spot. In France, the government,
worried that companies may lose exports, has started talks with the
U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control to get a commitment
that banks can do business without incurring legal woes, two people
with knowledge of the matter said. 'Banks want the maximum certainty,'
said Tanguy Coatmellec, a Dubai-based partner at Ernst & Young's
financial-services advisory group. 'A big part of the risk is really
the U.S. political position over the long term. Either financing
methods will be found or these contracts won't be finalized.' France's
Societe Generale SA, Germany's Deutsche Bank AG, Zurich-based Credit
Suisse Group AG, ING Groep NV in the Netherlands and the U.K.'s Standard
Chartered Plc are among the big European banks that say they're
generally not prepared to do business in Iran yet... 'The situation
today is still a bit premature to have a position there,' BNP Paribas
Chief Financial Officer Lars Machenil said Tuesday in a Bloomberg
Television interview when asked about the bank's plans to finance
companies signing deals in Iran. Clarification will be needed over
conditions for financing Iran-related business. he said. Companies 'can
go with their own financing' or seek other ways of funding including
local financing, he said. Societe Generale doesn't plan to restart
activities in Iran given the uncertainties that remain, the bank said
in an e-mailed statement Thursday. 'The differences between European
and American regulations lead to strong operational risks for financial
institutions,' the bank said... Given the size of the fines that the
U.S. has imposed in recent years, large banks with dollar operations
prefer not to re-enter the Iranian market as long as the identity of
the next U.S. president is unclear and given that Republican candidates
threaten to revise the nuclear accord, Ernst & Young's Coatmellec
said. 'It's going to be hard to finance big massive projects, while
small ones could possibly find funding,' he said." http://t.uani.com/1UvtuDf
Times
of Israel:
"Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday that
the United States is the Middle East's main enemy, with the 'Zionist
regime' a close second. Speaking at a meeting in Tehran on Sunday with
the head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Ramadan Abdullah, Khamenei
said that looking at the turmoil in the region in a 'macro' sense, the
US was clearly to blame, with Israel following closely behind. PIJ is
an Islamist terrorist organization. In comments carried by Iranian
websites, some of which were then posted to Khamenei's Twitter page,
the Iranian leader unleashed a series of anti-US and anti-Israel remarks.
Khamenei, said Iran's Mehr News agency, 'reaffirmed that with this
perspective in regional issues, Iran sees the United States as main
enemy with the Zionist regime standing behind it. He pointed to
extensive, unprecedented sanctions of US and its followers against the
Islamic establishment in recent years and dubbed the objective of them
as discouraging Iran from continuing its path; 'but they failed to
achieve their goals and will fail in future as well.'' The ongoing
unrest in the Middle East, Khamenei alleged, is a continuance of the
'war' waged on Iran by US-led Western governments since the Islamic
Revolution in 1979 'and the Palestine issue is the key issue,' Khamenei
tweeted. The Iranian leader said Iran was backing embattled Syrian
President Bashar Assad 'because those standing against Syria are in
fact enemies to core of Islam and serve the interests of the US and
Zionist regime.' In yet another swipe at the US, the Iranian supreme
leader said an 'arrogance front' has tried to portray the unrest in the
region as a power play between Shia and Sunni Islam but that 'clash is
a colonialist, US plot.' The supreme leader further said that
'defending Palestine' was an Iranian duty that also symbolized
'defending Islam,' and vowed to keep supporting the Palestinian
cause." http://t.uani.com/1pY3TWQ
AFP: "The son of the longest-held
civilian hostage in US history slammed the Obama administration today
for abandoning the ex-FBI agent in an Iranian jail. Ex-CIA contractor
and ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson has been missing for nearly a decade.
Now 68, he disappeared in mysterious circumstances in March 2007 during
a visit to the Iranian island of Kish. He was reportedly investigating
cigarette counterfeiting in the region. After Iran released some US
nationals it was holding following last year's international nuclear
deal, his father's fate remains alarming, overlooked by Washington time
and again, his son Dan Levinson wrote in an opinion in the New York
Post. 'The White House and State Department have avoided acknowledging
the basic fact that he is a hostage,' he said. 'When pressed by a
reporter about this, a State Department spokesman spent 3-1/2
excruciating minutes refusing to call him a hostage.' ... 'My father
has appeared in a video pleading for help and in pictures wearing
chains, clearly being held against his will,' Levinson said. 'What
further evidence is needed?' ... The younger Levinson argued on Monday
that if Washington pressed harder, his father would be headed home. 'I
have no doubt that if the administration told Iran there would be no
further negotiations on any other issues until my dad is returned,
Tehran would move quickly to resolve his case,' he wrote. 'But
Washington has shown an unwillingness to do that, and we feel
helpless... My father... is being abandoned.'" http://t.uani.com/1SJlo93
Nuclear
& Ballistic Missile Program
AP: "With sanctions lifted, the
head of Iran's nuclear program came to talk business with Czech
leaders. The Czech Foreign Ministry said the two-day visit by Iran's
vice president and nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, focused on
developing a bilateral nuclear cooperation. The Czechs say that would
contribute to better international control of Iran's nuclear program.
Iran is seeking help from European nations to better its civilian
program. After their meeting on the first day of Salehi's visit on
Monday, Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek said a nuclear energy
cooperation with Iran in particular 'represents a huge opportunity.'
Zaoralek didn't offer details. The Czechs heavily rely on nuclear
energy and plan to build more reactors... With the deal struck, Salehi
said 'a new opportunity is in front of us.' In Prague, Salehi also met
with Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and visited the Institute of
Nuclear Research in Rez, near Prague. Salehi was also scheduled to hold
talks with the industry and trade minister on Monday night, and the
head of the nuclear watchdog on Tuesday." http://t.uani.com/1rcNCOL
Business
Risk
CNBC: "Iran has a message for the
world's financial institutions: We want to do business again.
Representatives of the Iranian government met the week before last with
the Financial Action Task Force, the international body that has
blacklisted the country from the global financial system. It was the
first such meeting in eight years, and Iran's willingness to do so may
signal that it isn't getting as much economic pop from the end of
nuclear sanctions as it hoped it would. The governor of Iran's Central
Bank, Valiollah Seif, disclosed the meeting, which took place in Paris,
during an interview with CNBC. Seif said FATF representatives 'were
surprised by the steps taken by the Iranian banks and financial
institutions,' and 'that they were not aware of the changes we have
made in our banking sector.' ... But a quick change in position from
FATF is highly unlikely. In February, the institution issued the
following statement: 'FATF remains particularly and exceptionally
concerned about Iran's failure to address the risk of terrorist
financing and the serious threat this poses to the integrity of the
international financial system.' It went on to urge nations to take
counter measures against Iran to protect their own banking sectors from
money laundering and and terrorism financing risks emanating from Iran.
FATF warned that if Iran didn't take further steps, it would urge
countries to implement stronger counter measures at its next scheduled
meeting in June." http://t.uani.com/21t2JAD
Sanctions
Relief
Reuters: "Business Secretary Sajid
Javid has postponed a major trade visit to Iran to focus on the future
of Britain's steel industry, a spokesman from the business department
said on Tuesday, as the government tries to save thousands of
steelworkers' jobs. In March, India's Tata group announced plans to
sell its entire UK steel operation, leaving the government battling to
rescue an industry that has been hurt by cheap Chinese imports, soaring
costs and weak demand. 'Given the Business Secretary's focus on the
steel industry, he has decided to postpone his trip to Iran,' the
spokesman said. 'He remains committed to exploring the opportunities
for trade and investment with this emerging market.' ... He had planned
to travel to Tehran this month on what would have been the biggest
British trade delegation to Iran since the lifting of international
sanctions in January." http://t.uani.com/1QQPKke
Reuters: "German deputy Economy
Minister Uwe Beckmeyer said on Tuesday Iran had promised to repay soon
old debts arising from state guarantees for German exports, clearing
the way for fresh guarantees to be issued. 'Iran has now recognised its
old debts and promised me to pay them in the near-term,' Beckmeyer told
Reuters. Iran owes Germany about 500 million euros ($578.90 million)
under so-called Hermes covers, a German government arrangement that
protects German companies if foreign debtors fail to pay." http://t.uani.com/1X6rZw6
Bloomberg: "Caran d'Ache SA, a
century-old Swiss maker of writing instruments, supplied Iranian school
children with pencils before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Now, it's
betting on a partnership with a pistachio exporter to make a comeback
in the country of 77 million. Used by artists including Pablo Picasso,
the maker of colored pencils and pastels reopened for business in Iran
last year... The Swiss company's pens, pencils and colors are sold in
stores of Iran's Daya Group together with a range of other products,
such as Swiss watches. Alliances with large local groups such as Daya,
which operates in businesses ranging from consumer goods to healthcare
and is also an exporter of pistachio nuts, are opening up doors for
companies such as Caran d'Ache... Iran is currently the family-owned
pencil maker's third-largest market in the Middle East and sales growth
of 25 percent is expected in 2016 and the next two years, according to
Chief Executive Officer Jean-Francois de Saussure. The CEO was part of
a business delegation that accompanied Swiss President Johann
Schneider-Ammann on a trip to Tehran in February." http://t.uani.com/1SKLl4E
Iraq
Crisis
WSJ: "Shiite cleric Moqtada
al-Sadr traveled to Iran on Monday, a top aide said, a day after
hundreds of his supporters withdrew from Iraq's fortified International
Zone following protests that paralyzed the government. Ibrahim Al
Jaberi, head of the Sadr office in Baghdad, said the cleric had
departed for Iran Monday, but provided no other details on his
itinerary. The cleric's travel to Iran could provide some indication of
whether Mr. Sadr might turn to Tehran to help resolve the current
standoff with the Iraqi government and smooth over divisions within his
own Shiite community. The protests have surfaced simmering tensions.
Some of Mr. Sadr's supporters are angry not only with government
mismanagement but also with Iran's influence in Iraq. Tehran has funded
and equipped Shiite militias to help combat Islamic State, which now
controls Iraq's second largest city, Mosul. Yet the Iran-backed
militias have become powerful in their own right, on par now with the
country's army. Many of Mr. Sadr's supporters could be heard chanting
anti-Iranian slogans during the weekend protests-chants that are likely
to offend mainstream Iraqi Shiites who consider Iran critical to the
fight against Islamic State. Mr. Sadr's departure came as a spokesman
for Iran's foreign ministry, Hossein Jaberi Ansari, 'expressed Iran's
readiness to use all its links in line with paving the way for Iraqi
talks,' according to an official statement carried by Iran's
state-controlled news agency." http://t.uani.com/1OcNfZI
Human
Rights
World
Affairs: "The
Iranian government is broadcasting a music video made by the Basij
militia recruiting children to fight in Syria's civil war... Iran's
regime has done this before. During the Iran-Iraq War, which killed
around a million people between 1980 and 1988, the Basij recruited
thousands of children to clear minefields. After lengthy cult-like
brainwashing sessions, the poor kids placed plastic keys around their
necks, symbolizing martyrs' permission to enter paradise, and ran ahead
of Iranian ground troops and tanks to remove Iraqi mines by detonating
them with their feet and blowing their small bodies to pieces. Children
have been fighting in wars as long as there have been wars, but shoving
them into the meat grinder in the 21st century is a war crime expressly
prohibited and sometimes even punished by all civilized governments.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague, for instance, convicted
Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo of war crimes in 2012 for
'conscripting and enlisting children under the age of fifteen years and
using them to participate actively in hostilities.'" http://t.uani.com/1QQSVZc
The
Hill: "In
Iran, religious freedom is 'deteriorating,' according to a new
government report. Religious minorities are subject to arrest, torture
and even execution 'based primarily or entirely upon the religion of
the accused,' the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
wrote in a report issued Monday. The population of Iran is 99 percent
Muslim, made up mostly of Shi'a Muslims. According to the report, the
government discriminates against people of other faiths - such as Sunni
Muslims and Christians - who are facing 'increasing religious freedom
abuses.' 'Since President Hassan Rouhani was elected president in 2013,
the number of individuals from religious minority communities who are
in prison because of their beliefs has increased,' the report noted...
In Iran, the report encouraged the Obama administration to 'ensure that
violations of freedom of religion or belief and related human rights
are part of multilateral or bilateral discussions with the Iranian
government whenever possible, and continue to work closely with
European and other allies to apply pressure through a combination of
advocacy, diplomacy, and targeted sanctions.'" http://t.uani.com/1rQQqlE
WashPost: "'I believe Atena is a victim
of the judicial system ... and people who should have supported her,'
Nikahang Kowsar said last summer, after fellow Iranian political
cartoonist Atena Farghadani was sentenced to more than 12 years in
prison for drawing her nation's parliament as animals for her critique
of birth-control laws. Now, less than a year later, Farghadani could
win her release this month, reports Kowsar, now a board member of the
Washington-based Cartoonist Rights Network International, which fights
to protect artists around the world. The Post's Comic Riffs caught up
with Kowsar - who was once jailed in Iran for his work - to talk about
the status of Atena's case." http://t.uani.com/1VId3Vp
ICHRI: "The mother of imprisoned
newspaper columnist Afarin Chitsaz will make a judicial complaint to
protest the beating of her daughter in prison. Maryam Azadpour, who
recently broken her silence on Chitsaz's case, described her daughter's
ordeal in an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights
in Iran. 'They blindfolded my daughter and beat her with a water bottle
to get a confession out of her,' Azadpour told the Campaign. 'The abuse
was not carried out by the main interrogator, who was very respectful
towards her. But in any case, we will pursue this matter with the case
judge.' Political prisoners in Iran are often subjected to isolation,
threats, and intense psychological and physical pressure, in order to
be forced into making false confessions, which are the frequently
broadcast by Iranian state TV to defame individuals and used in court
as evidence to convict them. Arrested on November 2, 2015 by the
Revolutionary Guards' Intelligence Organization, Afarin Chitsaz, a
columnist who wrote for the official daily newspaper of the Rouhani
administration, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for 'collaboration
with foreign governments' and 'assembly and collusion against national
security' in April 2016." http://t.uani.com/1W4vjIy
ICHRI: "Mahmoud Beheshti Langroudi,
a teacher and activist who was sentenced to five years in prison and an
additional four-year suspended prison sentence during a trial that
lasted less than eight minutes, has been on hunger strike since April
20, 2016 in Tehran's Evin Prison to protest 'the tyrannical sentence
issued by the Revolutionary Court,' a source told the International
Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. 'I will go on a hunger strike and
refuse everything except water, tea, sugar and salt until my sentence
is terminated and a public trial is held based on Article 168 of the
Constitution,' wrote Beheshti, a teacher for 25 years, in a statement
published on the Teachers and Workers Rights website (Hoghooghe Moalem
va Karegar) on April 20, 2016. 'If anything bad happens to me during or
after the hunger strike, the responsibility will be with those who are
silent or indifferent towards my demand for justice,' he said. The
source told the Campaign that Langroudi's family is worried because he
has already become extremely weak from undergoing several hunger
strikes in the past year. 'Mr. Beheshti Langroudi has committed no
crime other than trying to improve conditions for students and
teachers,' said the source. 'That's why he has been sentenced to so
many years in prison.' Langroudi was sentenced to five years in prison
in June 2013 for 'colluding against national security' and 'propaganda
against the state' by Judge Abolqasem Salavati of Branch 15 of the
Revolutionary Court. He was also issued the four-year suspended prison
sentence." http://t.uani.com/1SJieSL
Domestic
Politics
AP: "Iran's President Hassan
Rouhani has rallied for more freedom of speech in his country, saying
government critics should not be imprisoned. Rouhani says that 'critics
should not be detained, critics should not be sent to jail.' He spoke
at the annual Tehran International Book Fair on Tuesday. The remarks,
which underscored Rouhani's 2013 election promises of reform in Iran,
came after weekend parliamentary runoff elections in which a
moderate-reformist bloc supporting the president secured the biggest
faction of seats in the 290-seat chamber. But Rouhani also assailed
those whose texts involve 'lying, blaming and weakening the power of
the nation.' In April, Iran's judiciary sentenced four pro-reform
journalists to prison terms ranging from 5 to 10 years after convicting
them on charges of acting against national security." http://t.uani.com/1VIcHhA
Opinion
& Analysis
UANI
Advisory Board Member Michael Singh in Baker Institute: "In Rouhani and his team,
especially Foreign Minister Zarif, US officials face Iranian
counterparts who have proven willing to engage with Washington
transactionally when it is in Iran's interests to do so, in contrast to
their domestic foes for whom anti-Americanism often trumps more
pragmatic considerations. This not only made the conclusion of the
JCPOA and the release of the various American captives possible, but
has led US officials to ponder the possibilities for broader engagement
with Iran. There is scant evidence, however, that such engagement is
'changing' Iran or its policies, or that it should therefore be pursued
by Washington as an end in itself. Nor can US officials afford to
approach engagement with Iran purely transactionally, bearing in mind
that Iranian officials in consenting to engage diplomatically are doing
so to further their own interests, which tend to deviate significantly
from if not stand in stark opposition to those of the United States and
its allies in the region. Given the strategic challenge that Iran poses
to US interests in the Middle East -- in its support for terrorism and
subversive non-state actors, threat to freedom of commerce and
navigation in regional waterways, pursuit of a nuclear weapons
capability, and other destabilizing pursuits -- the American approach
to diplomacy with Iran cannot simply consist of a series of
transactional engagements but should instead be nested in a broader
strategy to counter the challenges posed by Iran and advance a
stabilizing regional agenda. Indeed, the paradox of American engagement
with Iran is that Rouhani's approach, if successful, could result in an
Iran that eventually emerges strengthened but whose regional strategy
is unchanged, in the same way that the US opening to Beijing, for all
of its benefits, also helped facilitate China's transformation into a
highly capable rival. While the US partnership with China was justified
by the more urgent need to confront the Soviet Union, however, the
strategic rationale for empowering Iran is far less clear. Some argue
that doing so would offer a form of balancing and that a more confident
Iran could ultimately result in a more stable region; however, such an
outcome would require Iran to abandon an approach to regional security
which arises not only from external but internal factors, such as the
preeminence of irregular 'revolutionary' institutions like the IRGC
over conventional military institutions. Others argue that the greater
threat is Sunni jihadism, represented by the likes of ISIS,
necessitating cooperation with Iran against a common enemy. This notion,
however, ignores the role that Iran's regional activities -- and the
toppling of Iran's most notable regional rival -- have played in
contributing to the virulent sectarianism that nourishes ISIS." http://t.uani.com/23lWq0U
Dan
Levinson in NYPost:
"Recently, reports have surfaced that the US government is going
out of its way to grant Iran access to the dollar for financial
transactions, which officials had said would not happen as a result of
last summer's nuclear deal. For my family, such a failure by the Obama
administration to stand by its commitments concerning Iran would be
another in a series of failures that are very personal to us, with
life-and-death consequences. My father is Robert Levinson, the
longest-held hostage in US history, who was kidnapped in Iran on March
9, 2007. What incentive does Iran have to send my father home if it is
already being handed everything it wants? I have no doubt that if the
administration told Iran there would be no further negotiations on any
other issues until my dad is returned, Tehran would move quickly to
resolve his case. But Washington has shown an unwillingness to do that,
and we feel helpless. My father appears to be a secondary issue. Last
June, I testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee with
family members of three other Americans held in Iran to press for the
return of our loved ones. In January, my family found out while
watching the news that my father was the only one of those captives not
coming home as part of an exchange. Meanwhile, media have quoted an
Iranian official saying the two sides are close to another deal
involving two Iranian Americans arrested in recent months. Again, my
father, a CIA contractor and ex-FBI agent who was the only one of the
imprisoned Americans acting in service to his country when he was
taken, is being abandoned. We've lost track of how many times he has
been left behind. In the three weeks after the January swap, we went on
a full-court press in the media, asking #WhatAboutBob. During that
time, we did not hear directly from a single administration
official." http://t.uani.com/1Y5byyx
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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