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WSJ: "The U.S. and its European
partners made a fresh appeal Thursday for European banks and businesses
to invest in Iran, saying they would do more to encourage legitimate
business in the country now that most sanctions are gone. Following a
meeting in Brussels between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry,
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and their
counterparts from France, Germany and the U.K., the governments pledged
to provide more information and assistance to encourage companies to resume
business ties with Tehran. 'We will not stand in the way of permitted
business activity with Iran and we will not stand in the way of
international firms or financial institutions' engaging with Iran, as
long as they follow all applicable laws,' they said in a joint
statement... However, foreign firms-especially European banks-have been
reluctant to start or resume business in Iran because of the risk that
they will run afoul of continued U.S. sanctions on Iran... Thursday's
meeting is the latest effort to tackle the problem... In Thursday's
statement, the governments said the EU and its member states were
exploring various areas of cooperation with Iran, including the use of
exports credits to boost trade, project financing and investment in
Iran." http://t.uani.com/22i5Ag2
Reuters: "European banks are holding
back from business with Iran partly due to worries they might breach
remaining sanctions, despite assurances from U.S. and European
politicians that they can legally resume ties, officials said on
Thursday. International measures against Iran - including banking
restrictions - were lifted in January as part of the deal with world
powers under which Tehran curbed its nuclear programme. But the Islamic
Republic is struggling to access financing from abroad as many large
banks fear breaking the remaining U.S. restrictions, which prohibit
trade with Iran in dollars or Iranian access to New York's financial system.
The banking industry has been left cautious over fines incurred for
sanctions breaches in recent years... Justine Walker, director of
financial crime with the British Bankers' Association (BBA), which
represents the industry, said the session with Kerry and UK officials,
including Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, had enabled bankers to
express their concerns... 'The issue for the European banks is just the
reality of carving out a non-U.S. nexus, which is incredibly complex.
How do you do international business without accessing the major
international payment platform? For banks, it is a pretty complex one.'
Iran's Central Bank Governor Valiollah Seif told the conference there
was fear among banks that even if they received assurances from the
U.S. Treasury, prosecutors and regulators 'might adopt a different and
stricter interpretation of the rules'. 'It is a moral and contractual
obligation of the West to deliver on what they committed themselves in
the JCPOA (nuclear deal), even if it means helping banks with revised
regulations, guidelines and policies... Another worry for banks is the
lack of enough transparency and other risks within Iran's banking
system. In February, FATF, a global group of government
anti-money-laundering agencies, said it remained '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.' BBA's Walker said banks were
monitoring FATF meetings, scheduled in June and October, to see whether
there would be any updated statements on Iran, which 'will be
critical'. 'It is fairly irresponsible for officials to just expect
banks to rush back in without considering these things. That does take
time and due diligence,' she said." http://t.uani.com/1qyAyTl
AP: "An already-imprisoned
prominent human rights activist in Iran has been sentenced to 10 years
in prison in a new trial, a ruling denounced Friday by the United
Nations as it called for her immediate release. Iranian media and
officials have not commented on the sentence for Narges Mohammadi, who
has campaigned against the death penalty and serves as the vice
president of the now-banned Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. A
statement from the center said Mohammadi was sentenced in Tehran's
Revolutionary Court on charges including planning crimes to harm the
security of Iran, spreading propaganda against the government and
forming and managing an illegal group. Mohammadi already is serving a
six-year sentence, which means the new court ruling will extend her
time in prison by four years, supporters say... In a statement, the
office of the U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights said it was
'appalled' by Mohammadi's sentence and said she was denied the
specialized medical care she needs. 'Her sentencing is illustrative of
an increasingly low tolerance for human rights advocacy in Iran,' the
U.N. office said. 'We urge the Iranian authorities to ensure the
immediate release of Ms. Mohammadi and all those detained for merely
exercising their human rights.' Amnesty International said Thursday
that Mohammadi's sentence shows how 'Iran's abusive criminal justice
system is used as a tool of repression.'" http://t.uani.com/1Tjr8s8
Nuclear
& Ballistic Missile Program
Sputnik
(Russia):
"Russia's State Atomic Energy Corporation, Rosatom, will start
work on Iran's Bushehr-2 nuclear power plant by the end of this year
after the construction site preparations are completed. 'We hope that
the Iranian side will identify seismic parameters at the site so we
could start work on several new blocks already before this year is
out,' a source at Rosatom said on Thursday. Russia has already built a
power plant in Bushehr. The agreement for the construction of the
Bushehr nuclear power plant was finalized in 1995, but the project was
delayed several times due to a number of technical and financial
issues. Mahmoud Shoori said that after the construction and launch of
the first stage of the Bushehr plant, Iran realized that it needed at
least two more units and decided to give the job to Russia's Rosatom.
'Our longtime experience of productive cooperation with Russia and the
technological potential Russia demonstrated during the construction of
Bushehr-1 convinced us that we had made the right choice.' Mahmoud
Shoori said." http://t.uani.com/1ODzeEG
Congressional
Action
Free
Beacon: "The
Obama administration will not commit to halting its effort to help Iran
access the U.S. dollar, despite past commitments to do so, according to
a new congressional inquiry obtained by the Washington Free Beacon into
the Treasury Department's refusal to uphold its promises. Leading
senators are threatening to block all consideration of Treasury
Department nominees until the administration ends its bid 'to enable
Iranian access to U.S. dollars' throughout the international financial
system, according to a letter sent Thursday to the Treasury Department
by Sens. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and Mark Kirk (R., Ill.). Potential
Iranian access to the U.S. dollar has caused friction between Congress
and the Obama administration, which initially vowed during negotiations
with Iran that such a move was out of the question... The
administration has been intentionally side-stepping questions about
methods to give Iran backdoor access to the U.S. dollar, according to
senior congressional sources informed of the matter... Kirk and Rubio
initially petitioned the Treasury Department in March to seek firm
assurances that officials would commit to blocking Iranian access to
the U.S. dollar. The Treasury Department, in a May 11 response to Kirk
and Rubio's initial inquiry, declined to address specific questions
regarding efforts to promote Iranian access to the U.S. dollar via
foreign transactions outside the American financial system." http://t.uani.com/1TunVEz
Business
Risk
Reuters: "Iran's efforts to unify its
official exchange rate with the market rate have been stymied by a lack
of progress in re-integrating the country in international capital
markets, central bank governor Valiollah Seif said on Thursday. Iran
has a formal exchange rate set by the central bank and an unofficial
market rate used more freely. Policymakers have said previously that
they planned to unify the two, with the process originally due to start
about six months after the country implemented a deal with major world
powers in January aimed at limiting its nuclear activities in return
for having sanctions lifted. 'It was our expectation...to be able to
connect to the international markets and utilise all the resources available
during a reasonable period of time. But unfortunately it did not happen
as yet as we expected,' Seif told Reuters in an interview on the
sidelines of the Euromoney Iran conference." http://t.uani.com/1TupwtM
ICIS: "Almost six months on from
the widely-heralded lifting of European sanctions on Iran, a snapshot
of views canvassed from sources in a variety of petrochemical markets
suggests that any direct impact from incoming Iranian origin volumes
has been limited, at least so far. While oil imports from Iran are
moving rapidly towards pre-sanctions volumes, according to a Reuters
report, few petrochemical players appear to have been proactively
seeking out Iranian volumes and/or building new business relationships.
However, those that have sought volumes from Iran have found financial,
logistical and uncertainties over quality as barriers to trade due to
ongoing US sanctions, which had already shuttered out any European
companies which might have any foothold in US markets. 'We can't do any
business with Iran, those of us with any US footprint cannot do so,' an
olefins source said. 'We expect there will be some Iranian product in
the future, but not yet because there are still issues with finance,
insurance and vessels,' a glycol trader said. 'Iran stays difficult,
although we all would like to go fast,' an olefins trader added...
Logistics and/or supply chain issues are also proving to be a headache.
Protection and Indemnity (P&I) maritime insurance clubs have tried
to offset the restrictions on the provision of insurance by US
domiciled insurers by offering fall-back cover as an 'interim solution
to facilitate the resurgence of lawful trading with Iran.' 'So far we
have struggled to get any [ship] owners to engage in conversations on
petchems ex [from] Iran citing P&I cover, etc,' a shipbroker said.
'They [Iranian players] have one major issue: their supply chain is
lousy,' a glycol player said." http://t.uani.com/1qyBC9M
Sanctions
Relief
Reuters: "India will on Monday sign a
commercial contract with Iran to build and run a strategic port on
Iran's southern coast, the Indian government said on Friday, to help it
gain a foothold in Iran and win access to central Asia and Afghanistan.
Talks to build the Chabahar port have been on for years but since the
scaling back of Western sanctions against Iran, India has pushed hard
for the project so it doesn't lose out to other such as China, who are
keen to invest. The deal under which India will develop two terminals
and cargo berths at Chabahar, on the Gulf of Oman, will be signed
during a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Iran beginning on
Sunday. Gopal Baglay, a foreign ministry official in charge of Iranian
ties, said India would make an initial investment of more than $200
million in the port, of which India's Exim Bank would provide a credit
line of $150 million. 'The focus of the trip is connectivity and
infrastructure,' he told reporters." http://t.uani.com/1svivPg
TradeWinds: "Post-sanctions Iran is set
to order a large boxship series in China before making an even bigger
move on the tanker side, where outlines of a newbuilding programme for
'dozens' of crude carriers have begun to emerge through negotiations in
China. On the liner side, sources in China close to the talks say
Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and Dalian Shipbuilding
Industry Co (DSIC) are likely to shake hands soon on a six-ship order
for a string of 14,500-teu containerships of DSIC's own new design. No
price has emerged yet. Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) may have stolen
the show when South Korean president Park Geun-hye visited Tehran at
the beginning of this month amid reports of a $350m, three-ship order
for similar-size boxships. But sources say DSIC will win an order twice
that size, and has been in talks with IRISL for months on the deal.
Published reports in March in regional media said DSIC teams had
already made three visits this year to confer with both IRISL and
fellow state-owned National Iranian Tanker Co (NITC)." http://t.uani.com/1TL0ZwE
Human
Rights
Daily
Telegraph: "A
British woman being held captive in Iran has been moved out of solitary
confinement, her husband has said. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, has
reportedly been moved in a communal cell after 45 days in prison. The
British-Iranian national was arrested at Imam Khomeini International
Airport on April 3 while trying to leave the country after visiting her
parents in Tehran. She was separated from her 22-month-old daughter
Gabriella and taken to an unknown jail in Kerman province - where she
was placed in solitary confinement. Mrs Ratcliffe's British husband,
Richard who lives in Hampshire, chose to publicise his wife's plight on
the 37th day of her incarceration, after struggling to get information
from the Iranian authorities. The move was against Foreign Office
advice." http://t.uani.com/1TKZhvj
IHR: "At least 13 prisoners were
hanged in Iran on Tuesday May 17: six prisoners at Yazd Central Prison
(central Iran), six prisoners at Urmia Central Prison (northwestern
Iran), and one prisoner in public in Mashhad (northeastern Iran)...
Fararu, an Iranian news website close to the authorities, reports on
the execution of a prisoner, identified only as 'Hamed', reportedly on
death row on armed robbery charges and hanged in public at 6:45am in a
city square in Mashhad (Razavi Khorasan province). In the pictures
published by Fararu it shows that Hamed was executed in front of
people, including children." http://t.uani.com/1NBSesk
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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