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Stories
WashPost: "Boeing could hardly step
into a more sensitive, touchy deal than the imminent agreement to sell
about 100 passenger jets to the Islamic Republic of Iran. With the
sale, Boeing faces unique political risks here in the United States -
with potential blowback among Americans opposed to last year's
agreement to limit Iran's nuclear program and possible snapback of
international sanctions if Iran violates the nuclear pact. Already,
members of Congress are denouncing the deal. House Financial Services
Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.) said institutions that
consider financing the sales 'should ask whether it is in their
long-term interests to profit from doing business with the world's
foremost state sponsor of terrorism. It's not American jobs that are on
the line, but potentially American lives.' In Iran, feelings remain
raw, too. Some Iranian leaders still complain about the 'great Satan'
and question the U.S. commitment to ease trade restrictions as promised
under the nuclear accord. Iran, meanwhile, shows little sign of
once-hoped-for moderation and remains firmly on the opposite side of
the United States in the civil war in Syria." http://t.uani.com/1UANDDQ
WSJ: "Iran is suing the U.S. in
the International Court of Justice, accusing Washington, D.C., of
violating a 1955 treaty by freezing its assets, the United Nations'
main judicial arm said Wednesday. The case, filed Tuesday, follows a
U.S. Supreme Court decision in April that gave victims of alleged
Iran-linked terror attacks the right to collect some $2 billion in
Iranian assets that are frozen in the U.S. Tehran alleges the U.S.
seized assets of Iranian entities that weren't party to judgments and
were immune from enforcement proceedings under the 1955 Treaty of
Amity, Economic Relations and Consular Rights, the ICJ said in a
statement. Iran said U.S. courts had awarded more than $56 billion
worth of damages against it over Tehran's alleged involvement in
terrorist attacks, according to the ICJ... Attacks blamed on Iran
include the 1983 Beirut Marine barracks bombing, in which 241 American
military personnel were killed in Lebanon. Victims of that attack and
others have won U.S. court cases against Iran in recent years, and
sought to collect damages... Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said
Wednesday that his government would pursue the ICJ case until it won
back its assets and received compensation. He rejected allegations of
Iranian involvement in the Beirut bombing. 'American courts have ruled
through illegitimate decrees that these assets must be put at the
disposal of Americans and the families of those who were killed in
Lebanon,' he said, according to the official Islamic Republic News
Agency. 'It's not clear what Americans were doing in Lebanon and what
this issue has to do with Iran.'" http://t.uani.com/2604A5G
AP: "The Obama administration has
met its sanctions relief obligations to Iran under last year's landmark
nuclear deal but is willing to further clarify what is and isn't
allowed in response to renewed Iranian complaints that it's not getting
all the benefits it deserves, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said
on Wednesday. Speaking after meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad
Javad Zarif in Oslo, Kerry said the administration had lived up to both
the letter and the spirit of the agreement and had gone the extra mile
to explain to foreign firms what they are now permitted to do. 'We have
lifted the sanctions we said we would lift and we have completely kept
faith with both the black-and-white print as well as the spirit of this
effort,' Kerry said. 'In fact, I have personally gone beyond the
absolute requirements of the lifting of sanctions to personally engage
with banks and businesses and others who have a natural reluctance
after several years of sanctions to move without fully understanding
what they are allowed to do and what they are not allowed to do.' ... 'I
think there are places where the United States could give confidence
where there is doubt,' Kerry said. 'And, I feel that it is important
for us if we're going to have future dealings (with Iran) or we want to
have a reputation for good faith in negotiations we conduct anywhere.
It's important for us to show good faith in executing this agreement
and I intend to see to it that we do that.'" http://t.uani.com/1XpjwoX
Nuclear
& Ballistic Missile Program
Khamenei.ir: "On Tuesday evening, the
heads of the three branches, government officials and a group of senior
managers of various sectors as well as political, social and cultural
representatives met with the Leader of the Revolution... The Leader of
the Islamic Revolution pointed to the threats by some US presidential
hopefuls to scrap last year's nuclear agreement, known as the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), between Iran and the P5+1 group
of countries, saying the Islamic Republic will strongly respond to any
such move. 'The agenda of the enemy today is to stop or eliminate the
capabilities of the Islamic Republic or at least to prevent their
growth,' Ayatollah Khamenei added... 'Fortunately Iran has the
capability to return to the previous status and we can- if we deem
necessary- obtain 100,000 SWUs in less than a year and a half thanks to
the new generation centrifuges; so the other side should not think our
hands are tied.'" http://t.uani.com/1sGJNm3
Fars
(Iran): "Spokesman
of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi
blasted Washington for raising demands beyond the Vienna nuclear deal
signed by Tehran and the world powers in July, stressing that Iran will
not bow to pressures. Speaking to the state-run TV on Wednesday,
Kamalvandi explained that during the nuclear negotiations, the other
side insisted on using the word 'inventory' in the nuclear deal but
given the Iranian negotiators' familiarity with the word and the legal
obligations that accompany its use (in the text), Tehran opposed their
demand. 'After long discussions, finally the word stockpile which means
the final stocked product, was agreed upon and written in the text (of
the nuclear deal) instead of the word inventory which includes all
enriched materials from the beginning to the end of the enrichment
process,' he added. 'Now, the other side is trying much to interpret
the two words with the same meaning and we have naturally opposed it
and will not accept it,' Kamalvandi said. 'We have not and will not
accept any interpretation beyond the explicit text of the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (nuclear deal),' he underlined." http://t.uani.com/25XXq22
Business
Risk
CSM: "Iran says it has reached a
deal with Boeing to buy passenger planes to update its aging civilian
fleet, state-run Iranian news agencies reported on Tuesday... But the
plan still faces hurdles, including approval by the US government, but
coming in the wake of the Obama administration's agreement last year to
lift sanctions against Iran's nuclear program, it could point to a
growing thaw in relations between the two countries... Some advocacy
groups concerned about Iran's nuclear arsenal have also launched
campaigns criticizing potential business deals. United Against Nuclear
Iran, a New York-based group, for example, has been warning companies
of legal problems in the US if they do business in Iran. But despite
the obstacles, if the Boeing purchase moves forward, it could provide a
key boost for advocates of the nuclear deal who say it is critical to
ensuring warming relations between Iran and the United States and other
Western powers. 'The Boeing deal would be really important,' Cliff
Kupchan, chairman of the Eurasia Group, a Washington-based political
risk consulting firm, told The New York Times. To ensure relations are
warming, he said, 'Iranian elites have to know that the U.S. wants
constructive interaction. If Boeing sells 100 planes to Iran, it would
send exactly the right vibe.'" http://t.uani.com/1Yu3QjO
WT: "Two former U.S. Treasury
officials cast doubt Wednesday on the prospects of a highly touted deal
between Iran and the American aerospace giant Boeing, claiming concerns
about Iranian money laundering and terrorism financing activities are
likely to scuttle the agreement. Boeing Co. officials remained mum
Wednesday after Iranian officials said this week that a milestone deal
was imminent, the biggest by far between a U.S. company and Tehran
since the signing of the landmark nuclear deal last year that lifted
many economic sanctions on Iran. But critics say the deal, strongly
backed by President Obama, has failed to reduce concerns that Iran
remains a vital source of funds and banking services for the world's
leading terrorist groups. 'The risks associated with doing business
with Iran haven't changed,' said Chip Poncy, who headed Treasury's
office of strategic policy for terrorist financing and financial crimes
through 2013. Eric Lorber, a former attorney in Treasury's office of
foreign assets control, said the Boeing deal will likely face the same
problem that has kept a similar deal between Tehran and Airbus,
Boeing's European rival, from getting off the ground for the past seven
months. The Airbus deal to sell more than 100 planes to the Iranians
made headlines in January but 'still hasn't been finalized. And one of
the reasons is that Airbus has had a terribly difficult time finding a
private financial institution to bank the deal,' said Mr. Lorber, who
appeared with Mr. Poncy on a conference call Wednesday arranged by the
Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank whose
scholars were critical of the Iran deal. 'I think Boeing is going to
have a similar challenge,' Mr. Lorber said." http://t.uani.com/24TTFVq
NYT: "A British-Iranian employee
of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, arrested in Iran more than two
months ago for unexplained reasons, has been accused of plotting to
overthrow the government, Iranian news media reported Wednesday. The
detainee, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, is a program coordinator for
the foundation, the independent charitable arm of the Thomson Reuters
news agency. Both the foundation and Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe's British
husband, Richard Ratcliffe, denied the accusations. Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe
was arrested on April 3 in Tehran and taken to the provincial city of
Kerman in southern Iran, according to a statement by the Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Corps provided to the official Islamic Republic
News Agency. Her 2-year-old daughter, Gabriella, who had accompanied
her to Iran for a visit with family, is staying with maternal
grandparents. The child's passport was confiscated by the Iranian
authorities, severely complicating any possibility of reuniting her
with Mr. Ratcliffe." http://t.uani.com/1tt1fdO
Sanctions
Enforcement
Reuters: "A U.S. judge denied bail on
Thursday to the wealthy Turkish gold trader Reza Zarrab on charges he
conspired to violate U.S. sanctions against Iran. U.S. District Judge
Richard Berman in Manhattan said federal prosecutors showed by a
preponderance of the evidence that Zarrab posed a flight risk, and that
no combination of conditions would reasonably assure his appearance at
trial. Zarrab had sought to be released on a $50 million bond, and that
he be held in a Manhattan apartment under 24-hour watch by armed guards
at his expense." http://t.uani.com/1PwcHdt
Sanctions
Relief
Bloomberg: "Iran easily beat
expectations with its speed in boosting oil exports after the lifting
of sanctions. Without an injection of cash and the easing of remaining
trade barriers, the recovery may have run its course. When restrictions
on Iran's oil exports were relieved in January following a nuclear pact
with world powers, analysts from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to Barclays
Plc doubted it could return to previous levels this year. The Persian
Gulf state defied the skeptics with a 25 percent surge in production
and aims to reach an eight-year high of 4 million barrels a day by
year-end. 'They have surprised most market participants with the speed
they've been able to resume production,' said Antoine Halff, a senior
fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University in
New York. 'But to exceed pre-sanctions levels would require investment
and technology and that's a much longer-term proposition.' ... While
oil analysts concede that Iran surpassed their initial forecasts, they
aren't convinced its greater ambitions will be realized soon... Iran
will need billions of dollars of investment and foreign technology to
boost reservoir pressure to expand capacity at its aging wells, which
were already suffering output declines before sanctions took hold,
according to the IEA... 'The big question for the Iranians is: Are they
going to get all the investment they want?' Daniel Yergin, vice
chairman of consulting firm IHS Inc., said in a Bloomberg Television
interview. 'Companies are going to be very cautious about making new
commitments to Iran. No one wants to run afoul of U.S. sanction
law.'" http://t.uani.com/1Ulj9IA
Reuters: "Iran's state airline, which
has just reached an agreement with Boeing Co to purchase new jetliners,
can resume flights in the EU, the European Commission said on
Thursday... While the European Commission, the EU's executive, said
Iranair could resume flights, some of the carrier's aircraft would
remain on the EU's safety blacklist. 'I am happy to announce that we
are now also able to allow most aircraft from Iranair back into
European skies,' said EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc. The
Commission said the decision followed a visit to Iran by the EU
executive in April... Iranair will be allowed to fly all of its planes
in the EU except the Boeing 747-200s, Boeing 747SPs and Fokker 100s,
the Commission said." http://t.uani.com/1Ull6Vj
Reuters: "Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif called on Wednesday for closer business ties with
Germany after talks with his German counterpart Frank-Walter
Steinmeier. 'The presence of German companies and banks in Iran, and
more economic cooperation will help both countries,' Zarif told
reporters before a dinner to break the Ramadan fast with Steinmeier. He
said closer ties between the two countries would also promote peace and
stability in the region. 'No country will be hurt. Iran will be an
advanced country and a very good partner for Germany,' he said." http://t.uani.com/1YuBsh2
AFP: "U.S. aerospace giant Boeing
confirmed Wednesday that it was in talks with Iranian airlines seeking
to buy its airplanes. 'We have been engaged in discussions with Iranian
airlines approved by the USG (U.S. government) about potential
purchases of Boeing commercial passenger airplanes and services,' the
company said in an email to AFP. 'We do not discuss details of ongoing
conversations we are having with customers, and our standard practice
is to let customers announce any agreements that are reached,' it said.
The Iranian news agency Fars reported Tuesday that Iran's minister of
roads and urban development, Abbas Akhoundi, said that Iran had reached
an agreement with Boeing and the details would be announced 'within
(the) next few days'. People close to the U.S. aircraft manufacturer
had said in April that Boeing officials visiting Iran had discussed the
sale of new versions of the 737, 777 and 787 jetliner families." http://t.uani.com/1UXheai
Al-Monitor: "A multibillion-dollar deal
by Boeing to sell civilian airliners to Iran would be a major
financial, diplomatic and psychological breakthrough between the United
States and the Islamic Republic and reverse a decision by the Bill
Clinton administration 23 years ago to block such sales and provide
planes to Saudi Arabia instead. Bruce Riedel, a veteran national
security official in four US administrations, told Al-Monitor that
Boeing and other US aircraft companies were eager to sell to Iran when
Clinton came to office in 1993. Riedel said the companies argued that
such deals would enhance airline safety and undergird a US diplomatic
opening to Iran, the same arguments being used today. But Clinton, said
Riedel, was already committed to a policy of 'dual containment' of Iraq
and Iran that sought to rein in both governments. He was 'eager not to
undermine dual containment but also eager not to have Boeing suffer a
business loss to Airbus,' Riedel said. 'So we came up with the idea
that we could get the Saudis to buy Boeings.' Commerce Secretary Ron
Brown traveled to Riyadh 'to convince the Saudis to buy $6 billion
worth of Boeing airplanes so Boeing would not lobby for an Iran sale.'
The pitch, Riedel said, was 'these are the best airplanes in the world.
If you'll do this, we'll prevent Boeing from selling to Iran. So you
get a two-fer.' ... The Boeing deal, if it goes through, would be 'a
huge change in American policy,' Riedel said." http://t.uani.com/1sHRSa6
Reuters: "Turkey aims to triple trade
with Iran to $30 billion as quickly as possible after the lifting of
economic sanctions made banking transactions with the country easier,
Turkish Customs and Trade Minister Bulent Tufenkci said in an
interview... 'Banking and financial transactions have become easier
(for Turkey) after the sanctions on Iran were softened, already
boosting our business with Iran,' Tufenkci told Reuters in an interview
in Ankara... The Turkish and Iranian central banks have re-opened their
connection on the SWIFT global transaction network, an Iranian economy
official said earlier this month, in a sign of normalizing banking
ties." http://t.uani.com/21ovain
Human
Rights
Reuters: "A United Nations body has
called for the immediate release of prominent Iranian women's rights
activist Bahareh Hedayat and has expressed concern for her health in a
report published on Wednesday by a human rights group. Until her arrest
in 2009 Hedayat had been involved in projects calling for gender
equality and had reported on cases of sexual violence against female
students at universities. She has spent some of her time at Evin prison
in solitary confinement. 'The deprivation of liberty of Bahareh Hedayat
was arbitrary,' the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said in
its report, compiled in May after a request from the New York-based
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI). The report
said Hedayat, who was also arrested and released multiple times from
2006, should be compensated for her time spent in detention. Hedayat
was convicted in 2010 on charges of insulting Iran's Supreme Leader and
president and acting against national security." http://t.uani.com/1tsYcm2
Domestic
Politics
AEI: "Former IRGC Commander Javad
Mansouri discussed the formation of the IRGC Quds Force during an
interview with a reporter from Ramz-e obour, a weekly Iranian
publication. Mansouri appeared to confirm that Abbas Araghchi, a
current deputy foreign minister and former nuclear negotiator, was a
member of the IRGC Quds Force during the interview. The interviewer
asked whether, 'some [diplomats] including Mr. Araghchi had experience
in the Quds Force and the Quds Force actually introduced them to the
Foreign Ministry?' Mansouri replied, 'They are essentially members
there [of the Quds Force]. Now, our current and previous ambassadors to
Iraq are Quds Force members. It is the same for Lebanon and Syria.'
Iranian news outlets subsequently denied Mansouri's comments, citing
anonymous officials in the administration and Foreign Ministry." http://t.uani.com/1UVpnMx
AP: "Iran's Revolutionary Guard
has battled armed members of an insurgent Kurdish group, leading to
fatalities. A report Thursday by Iran's semi-official Fars news agency
quoted Gen. Mohammad Pakpour, the chief of the Guard's ground forces,
as saying the clashes happened Wednesday near Oshnavieh, a
predominantly Kurdish town in Iran's West Azerbaijan province near its
border with Iraq and Turkey. Pakpour did not identify the insurgents.
However, Mohammed Nazif Qadiri, a member of the Democratic Party of
Iranian Kurdistan, told The Associated Press that the fighters belonged
to his organization. Both sides gave conflicting death tolls from the
fighting. Pakpour said the Guard killed 12 insurgents while three of
its members died. Qadiri said the Kurds killed over 12 Guard members,
including a colonel." http://t.uani.com/1YuBaXt
AFP: "Revelations of exorbitant
salaries paid to senior officials have sparked widespread anger in
Iran, threatening to undermine public support for President Hassan
Rouhani as he prepares to run for re-election next year. Rouhani's
government has launched an investigation into public pay following the
reports of executives at the state insurance regulator earning more
than 50 times the base government salary. The president's opponents are
demanding answers on behalf of struggling Iranians who have yet to see
the promised economic benefits of the country's nuclear deal with world
powers. The Iranian parliament's conservative speaker, Ali Larijani,
hammered the message home in the legislature on Tuesday, announcing the
Supreme Audit Court would release a report on the issue next week.
'These excessive salaries have caused anxiety in society,' Larijani
said, responding to a claim from another conservative MP that a senior
health ministry official was earning 2 billion rials ($58,000) a month,
far above the base public sector salary of about $400 a month." http://t.uani.com/1tyhTtk
Opinion
& Analysis
Mark
Dubowitz & Annie Fixler in FP: "Iran's demands are escalating. The supreme leader
is sounding the alarm about American mendacity. An anxious U.S.
secretary of state is practically begging companies to return to Iran.
Cautious banking executives and a distrustful and angry Congress are
pushing back. Welcome to the fallout from the nuclear deal, which
merely signaled the beginning of negotiations with the Islamic
Republic. Last summer's Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was
objectively a very good deal for Tehran: It preserved essential
elements of the country's nuclear infrastructure and placed only
temporary, limited restrictions on its nuclear ambitions, which start
expiring in 2023. In exchange, Iran got the complete dismantlement of
many of the most impactful U.S. and international economic sanctions.
In January, the accord proceeded as scheduled. Iran mothballed some of
its nuclear infrastructure and got the coveted seal of approval from
the International Atomic Energy Agency. Following that, Washington and
the Europeans terminated or suspended a slew of punishing economic sanctions
and even agreed to hand over access to a whopping $100 billion in
blocked Iranian assets. But then President Barack Obama's
administration went even further. After committing to 'actively
encourage' state and local government to lift their own sanctions, the
administration sent letters to all 50 governors urging them to
reconsider all Iran-sanctions measures. Even this was not enough for
the Islamic Republic. 'On paper the United States allows foreign banks
to deal with Iran, but in practice they create Iranophobia so no one
does business with Iran,' thundered Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. This
is the same Iran that, in case anyone has forgotten, remains the
leading state sponsor of terrorism and is still engaged in a wide
variety of sanctionable financial illegalities. These include financing
Hezbollah and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government, paying for
the illicit procurement of parts for its missile program, and
money-laundering and sanctions-evasion schemes to hide these crimes.
Iran has found a way to bully the world into forgetting its bloody
track record." http://t.uani.com/1PwfELb
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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
Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive
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discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please
email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com
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a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a
regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons. UANI is an
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