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Stories
Fox
News: "Two
days before the anniversary of the landmark nuclear agreement reached
between Iran and six world powers led by the United States, a top U.S.
military commander says Iran has not changed its behavior, as five
Iranian patrol boats took turns shadowing a U.S. Navy warship he was
visiting in the Persian Gulf. Army General Joseph Votel, who leads U.S.
Central Command, said while the deal has frozen Iran's nuclear weapons
program for a time, the activities of Iran's Revolutionary Guard forces
still concern him in the Persian Gulf and beyond. Among those
activities: capturing 10 U.S. Navy sailors at gunpoint when their
vessels drifted into Iranian territorial waters in January. 'Their
general activities that we see out here in the Gulf have not changed as
a result of the [nuclear agreement]... and really as we've seen much
more broadly around the region,' Votel said. He spoke to a small group
of reporters during a visit aboard USS New Orleans (LPD-18) in the Persian
Gulf as the amphibious ship transited the Strait of Hormuz... Votel
said Iran should be taken to task for capturing the Navy sailors before
releasing them a day later. 'I think they should be held accountable
for the way they conducted themselves,' Votel said, but he added that
it was not up to him to determine what that punishment should be...
Appearing before the Senate Armed Service Committee in March, Votel
told lawmakers the United States should 'expose' Iran for the
destabilizing role it was playing in the Middle East. When asked about
those comments Monday aboard USS New Orleans, Votel said: 'Iran has to
be held accountable for the type of influence they are trying to
create, whether it is instability in Yemen, whether it is their backing
of the Syrian regime, who attacks their own people who drops barrel
bombs on them... [and] causing significant refugee problems.'" http://t.uani.com/29PrSWf
AP: "The Iran nuclear accord is
fragile at its one-year anniversary. Upcoming elections in the U.S. and
Iran could yield new leaders determined to derail the deal. The
Mideast's wars pit U.S. and Iranian proxies in conflict, with risks of
escalation. Iran's ballistic missiles are threatening the Middle East,
raising pressure on the United States to respond forcefully. But for
now, the seven-nation nuclear pact is holding. Washington and Tehran
are expanding cooperation beyond any level imaginable back when the Iranians
were edging closer to nuclear weapons capability. And Boeing's recent
announcement of a multibillion-dollar plane deal with Iran Air suggests
some of the agreement's early problems may be working out. 'It really
wasn't long ago that we saw a rapidly expanding nuclear program in
Iran, only months away from having enough weapons-grade uranium to
build 10 to 12 nuclear weapons, and we were on the cusp of
confrontation,' Secretary of State John Kerry said recently. 'We have
changed the strategic equation.' ... After announcing in January that
it would buy more than 100 planes from France-based Airbus, Iran has
struggled to attract big investments. Many multinational banks and
companies are fearful of U.S. prosecution or fines. June's Boeing
announcement, involving dozens of planes and worth as much as $25
billion, could open the floodgates - if it survives challenges from
many of the same Republicans and Democrats who opposed last year's
nuclear deal." http://t.uani.com/29RqQWE
AFP: "Iran's nuclear deal with
world powers is holding a year after it was agreed but more needs to be
done to ensure its full implementation, a top Iranian negotiator said
Wednesday. 'The total process has been relatively satisfactory despite
the difficulties that we see in the implementation,' Hamid Baeidinejad
told a press conference in Tehran for the first anniversary of the
agreement. 'We believe that the deal has not been violated so far and
efforts continue to resolve the remaining issues,' Baeidinejad said...
He said Tehran 'had more expectations on the removal of economic,
banking and financial restrictions, but despite all these deficiencies
there is a feeling of hope inside our country to remove these
obstacles' through more talks... The agreement caused 'great optimism'
in Iran on 'unrelated issues', Baeidinejad said, but those expectations
are 'fortunately being balanced and adjusted to reality.'" http://t.uani.com/29HhOgS
Nuclear
& Ballistic Missile Program
WashPost: "A year ago, the United
States and other world powers reached a historic deal with Iran.
Economic sanctions that had hobbled the Islamic republic's economy and
led to international isolation would be lifted. In return, Iran agreed
to terms that would restrict its nuclear capability, including strict
international monitoring. For many in Iran, the immediate response to
the agreement was jubilation. As a real deal began to take shape over
months of painstaking negotiations, some had taken to the streets to celebrate,
honking car horns and waving Iranian flags. Now, a year after the deal
was reached, things don't look quite so rosy in Iran - and a new poll
points to growing disillusionment at the pace of change the accord was
supposed to bring. The poll, conducted for the Center for International
and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) by the independent polling
organization IranPoll.com in June, shows that right after the deal was
reached on July 14 last year, 76 percent of Iranians approved of it.
More remarkable, almost half - 43 percent - approved of it
strongly.That figure has since dropped to 63 percent, the poll found,
with just 22 percent strongly approving of it." http://t.uani.com/29DIU5K
Reuters: "Iran said on Tuesday it had
reached an agreement with France to take part in a multi-national
nuclear fusion project, a year after it struck a deal with six world
powers to curb its own atomic program. The Fars news agency quoted an
Iranian official as saying there was a 'general agreement' for Iran to
join the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a
project to build a prototype fusion reactor in southern France... Fars
quoted AEOI spokesman Behrouze Kamalvandi as saying: 'Iranian officials
have reached a general agreement with the French side for joint
cooperation on the international nuclear fusion megaproject known as
ITER.' ... Asked to comment on possible Iranian participation, French
foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said: 'France supports the full
and rigorous implementation of the July 14, 2015 nuclear deal ... This
agreement allows the development of nuclear cooperation with
Iran.'" http://t.uani.com/29DG7bT
U.S.-Iran
Relations
WSJ: "The U.S. military has
released photos of Iranian boats that approached two Navy warships
Monday as they transited through the Strait of Hormuz with a special
passenger aboard: Gen. Joe Votel, the head of U.S. Central Command,
which oversees all U.S. forces in the Middle East. The images, which
aren't typically released by the military, were captured by U.S. Navy
personnel aboard the amphibious ship USS New Orleans and the destroyer
USS Stout on Monday during a series of 'interactions' between those two
ships and smaller patrol boats operated by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps, or IRGC. The images show two small patrol boats akin to a
civilian speed boat, and a larger boat known as a Houdong fast attack
craft. Each are typical of the kind of craft the IRGC uses in the
region, sometimes to harass American and other ships transiting through
the strait. Iranian officials in a report in state media confirmed that
speedboats operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy
'escorted' the U.S. warships through the strait, defending the incident
as longstanding practice. The news account, on the website of the
semiofficial FARS news agency, also warned that the small but heavily
armed boats could destroy the American vessels. 'Monitoring foreign
vessels in regions where the IRGC Navy conducts its missions is not a
new thing and it is always done on a routine basis and round the
clock,' Gen. Alireza Tangsiri, the lieutenant commander of the IRGC
navy, said in the report. He emphasized that the IRGC Navy is assigned
to monitor foreign vessels, especially those operated by 'the enemies
of the Islamic Revolution and the Great Satan, the U.S.'" http://t.uani.com/29y9Y51
Congressional
Action
Bloomberg: "Republican lawmakers are
pushing three measures to roll back a nuclear agreement with Iran,
while the Obama administration's lead negotiator for the accord
defended its implementation one year after the deal was struck. Three
bills dealing with the agreement, under which Iran agreed to curtail
its nuclear program in return for an easing of economic sanctions, are
scheduled for a vote this week in the House of Representatives, where
Republicans have a majority. The measures would then go to the Senate,
which may not take them up before September. One of the proposals would
impose new sanctions on Iran over any sponsorship of terrorism or human
rights violations. Another would bar the purchase from the Islamic
Republic of 'heavy water,' a non-radioactive byproduct of both the
manufacturing of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. The third would
block Iran's access to the U.S. financial system, including the use of
the dollar. All three measures have been met with promises of a veto
from the White House." http://t.uani.com/29D1Tl3
FP: "A group of senior House
Democrats, including longtime Iran hawks, are refusing to support a
last-minute Republican push to pass multiple Iran sanctions bills
before the summer recess and dismissing the effort as naked partisan
point-scoring. The resistance effort, led by Democratic Whip Steny
Hoyer, Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Eliot Engel,
Appropriations Committee ranking member Nita Lowey and Rep. Ted Deutch,
the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Middle East subcommittee,
will likely ensure Democratic unity against the measures being pushed
by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. That unity extends to the
White House: a senior State Department official said Tuesday that
President Barack Obama was sure to veto the Republican-backed
legislation." http://t.uani.com/29ydFaG
Business
Risk
Reuters: "A meeting between the
Iranian central bank, the U.S. Treasury and international banks in London
to discuss stalled progress on banks resuming ties with Iran after U.S.
sanctions were lifted in January has been postponed, the British
government said... Asked by a lawmaker in parliament what discussions
he was having with the United States on banking sanctions in order to
encourage more British businesses to invest in Iran, British Foreign
Secretary Philip Hammond said a meeting was due to take place in London
on Tuesday. 'There is a meeting happening this afternoon ... between
the Iranian Central Bank, the United States Treasury and international
banks based in London in an attempt to try to make some progress on
this matter,' Hammond said. A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office later
said the meeting had been postponed and would be re-scheduled. She did
not give a reason for the delay, or say when it would be held
instead." http://t.uani.com/29DDdnf
Sanctions
Relief
WSJ: "Like many Western firms,
Procter & Gamble Co. is eyeing new opportunities in Iran following
the relaxing of trade sanctions earlier this year. But for a Swiss
subsidiary of the U.S. consumer goods giant, Iran already is a very
familiar market. Starting with market research in 2003, and culminating
with more than $100 million in sales in the year ended in mid-2010,
Geneva-based Procter & Gamble International Operations SA's
business in 'Parthia'-an in-house byword for the Middle Eastern
country-was a success story. The operation relied on a legal exception.
Until 2012, foreign subsidiaries of American firms could do business in
Iran, as long as no U.S. passport or green-card holders were involved.
Internal Procter & Gamble International Operations documents
reviewed by The Wall Street Journal provide a rare glimpse into the
careful, behind-the-scenes efforts undertaken on behalf of U.S.
companies to do business legally in Iran several years ago, amid the
sanctions-which have barred trade, with limited exceptions... A P&G
spokeswoman said, 'We are looking to increase the distribution of our
existing brands and expand the portfolio of brands' in Iran, and making
a related hiring effort." http://t.uani.com/29yanEh
Reuters: "Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp
believes Iran will need around 100-150 regional jets over the next ten
years and is aiming to win a chunk of the business for its new
Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ), it said at the Farnborough Airshow on
Wednesday. Spokeswoman Miho Takahashi said the company was researching
the Iranian market, but not in talks over a specific deal." http://t.uani.com/29PoECd
Terrorism
Weekly
Standard: "Al
Qaeda operatives based in Iran worked on chemical and biological
weapons, according to a letter written to Osama bin Laden that is
described in a new book by a top former U.S. intelligence official. The
letter was captured by a U.S. military sensitive site exploitation team
during the raid on bin Laden's Abbottabad headquarters in May 2011. It
is described in Field of Fight, out Tuesday from Lieutenant General
Michael Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and
Michael Ledeen of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. 'One
letter to bin Laden reveals that al Qaeda was working on chemical and
biological weapons in Iran,' Flynn writes. Flynn's claim, if true,
significantly advances what we know about al Qaeda's activity in Iran.
The book was cleared by the intelligence community's classification
review process. And U.S. intelligence sources familiar with the bin
Laden documents tell us the disclosure on al Qaeda's WMD work is
accurate... 'There's a lot of information on Iran in the files and
computer discs captured at the Pakistan hideout of Osama bin Laden,'
Flynn writes in the introduction." http://t.uani.com/29IQKg8
Reuters: "Bahrain has arrested two men
suspected of planting a bomb that killed a Bahraini woman in late June
and of having received training and support from Iran, the interior
ministry said on Tuesday. A ministry statement identified a third
suspect in the blast but said he had fled to Iran, the Middle East's
Shi'ite Muslim power across the Gulf from Sunni Muslim-ruled Bahrain.
The bomb blast occurred on a road as the woman passed in her car in the
village of East Eker, south of the capital Manama, on June 30, the
statement said. Shrapnel hit the car, killing her and injuring her
three children. The statement accused the three men of receiving
training in weapons and explosives from Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
One man traveled to Iran for his training, it said." http://t.uani.com/29CZIxS
Saudi-Iran
Tensions
FT: "Iran has accused Saudi
Arabia of supporting an Iranian opposition group in a bid to undermine
the Islamic Republic, fuelling a war of words between the two regional
superpowers. Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister, claimed
Saudi Arabia was tying its fate to 'terrorists' after Prince Turki
al-Faisal, a former Saudi intelligence chief, took the highly unusual
decision to address a meeting of the Mujahedin Khalq Organisation (MEK)
in Paris over the weekend. The exiled MEK is Iran's most organised
opposition group, although it has little support inside the country. It
was the first time such a high-profile Saudi had publicly attended a
meeting of the group. And although he is not a government official,
Prince Turki's address to the meeting was viewed by Tehran as a
deliberate provocation by the kingdom. 'The presence of the creator of
al-Qaeda and the Taliban [Prince Faisal]...in that meeting...shows
inefficiency and thoughtlessness of such individuals who like [former
Iraqi dictator] Saddam Hussein are tying their fate to that of
terrorists,' Mr Zarif told reporters on Tuesday." http://t.uani.com/29vux6l
Opinion
& Analysis
Paul
Bucal & Ken Hawrey in AEI: "Boeing and Airbus are set to sell nearly 200
aircraft to Iran's state airline, Iran Air, despite indicators that
Tehran is already using the airline's aircraft to support its efforts
in Syria. Since June 2015, 31 airplanes belonging to Iran Air and the
private airline Mahan Air have departed from airports in Iran and
landed in Syria, according to public flight-tracking data from
Flightrader24.com. Tehran appears to have developed an expansive
network of repurposed commercial aircraft to supply its expanding war
effort in Syria. This airlift to Syria is crucial for Iran's operations
in Syria and the rest of the Levant. Supply by sea is slow and
vulnerable to interdiction by Western militaries. ISIS forces continue
to control overland routes from Iraq into Assad-controlled Syria.
Tehran would be unable to conduct this resupply effort without the use
of commercial aircraft due to the Iranian Air Force's limited airlift
capabilities. In 2011 and 2012, the US Treasury Department applied
pressure to this lifeline by sanctioning Iran Air, Mahan Air, and the
cargo airline Yas Air for transporting military equipment to Syria on
behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). However, the
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) committed the US to remove
sanctions on Iran Air, notwithstanding that US Treasury designations
implicated the airline in flying cargo to Syria in support of the IRGC
and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Tehran reinforced its airbridge
to Syria in the latter half of 2015. Both Mahan and Iran Air
dramatically increased the number of flights to Syria following the
intensification of the ground campaign in October and have maintained a
high rate of flights since. The tempo of these tracked flights is
correlated with the intensity of conflict on the ground, making it
unlikely that the airplanes have been carrying exclusively civilian
cargo. Many flights also take off from an airport in southwestern Iran
that serves as the destination of regular flights by cargo aircraft
belonging to Syrian Arab Airlines, suggesting that the airport operates
as a supply hub for airlifts to Syria. The US has several policy
options for applying pressure on this network, including imposing
penalties on businesses that facilitate Mahan Air's flights to Western
Europe. The removal of sanctions from Iran Air also merits serious
reevaluation, as do the impending Airbus and Boeing sales to the
airline. Iran's air route to Syria is a significant vulnerability in
Iran's support to the Assad regime and its other proxies in the Levant.
If the US is serious about pressing Iran to curtail its backing of
Assad and other terrorist proxies in the region, then preventing Tehran
from increasing its ability to maintain its airbridge should be a
priority." http://t.uani.com/29D22VB
Simon
Chin & Valerie Lincy in IranWatch: "The House of Representatives
approved two measures last week aimed at blocking Boeing from selling
commercial aircraft to Iran. The vote comes a few weeks after
Boeing announced a preliminary agreement to sell commercial aircraft to
Iran Air, Iran's national carrier, in a deal worth an estimated $25
billion. Iran Air was removed from the U.S. sanctions blacklist
in January as part of the nuclear deal. Critics of the proposed
sale have cited Iran Air's links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps and the Syrian regime and argued that the Boeing aircraft could
be used to fly weapons into Syria and to support terrorism.
But there is another troubling link that has gone unnoticed in the
current debate: Iran Air's suspected facilitation of ballistic missile
cooperation between Iran and North Korea. According to a 2011 report by
an expert United Nations panel on North Korea, North Korea and Iran
allegedly shared ballistic missile technology with the assistance of
Iran Air: 'Prohibited ballistic missile-related items are suspected to
have been transferred between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
and the Islamic Republic of Iran on regular scheduled flights of Air
Koryo and Iran Air, with trans-shipment through a neighboring third
country.' The unnamed third country that served as a trans-shipment
point was reportedly China, which blocked the official release of the
report. When the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Iran Air in 2011,
it also cited the carrier's transport of missiles and military dual-use
technology using passenger aircraft. While it is unclear to what extent
Iran Air is still supporting Iran's missile-related procurement, there
is no evidence that its behavior has changed... The Iran-North Korea
ballistic missile nexus, cited by the U.N. report in 2011, resurfaced
in the first round of U.S. sanctions after the implementation of the
nuclear agreement in January. The Treasury Department targeted
five Iranian officials affiliated with the Ministry of Defense of Armed
Forces Logistics (MODAFL), which coordinates Iran's ballistic missile
program, and two MODAFL subsidiaries: the Aerospace Industries
Organization (AIO), which oversees missile production; and the Shahid
Hemmat Industrial Group (SHIG), which is responsible for liquid-fueled
missiles... Iran Air, therefore, offers a troubling case. It has
been linked by the United Nations to the facilitation of
missile-related cooperation between Iran and North Korea-activity that
led to the first new U.S. sanctions against Iran after the nuclear
agreement was implemented this year. The U.S. government has not
explained publicly why Iran Air was removed from the U.S. blacklist or
explicitly stated that Iran Air is no longer engaged in the activity
for which it was originally sanctioned. Meanwhile, Iran has
resumed its ballistic missile tests and, as the German intelligence
services report, continues to seek sensitive missile-related technology
overseas, in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Given that Iran's commitment to ballistic missile development is
unchanged, even if the Boeing aircraft to be sold to Iran Air are
intended for civil aviation purposes, there is no guarantee that these
aircraft would not end up supporting Iran's missile program or other
malign activities." http://t.uani.com/29DGy5I
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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