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TOP STORIES
A year ago, Iran seemed on the verge of a new
relationship with the United States and the world. In his address to
the United Nations last fall, President Hassan Rouhani said the
nuclear deal just signed, lifting sanctions and setting limits on
Iran's nuclear program, was a foundation for change. "We were
not solely seeking a nuclear deal," he said. "We want to
suggest a new and constructive way to re-create the international
order." Flash forward a year, and Rouhani's optimism has been
replaced by disappointment and finger-pointing. In his U.N. speech
and a wide-ranging news conference this week, Rouhani bitterly
accused the United States of failing to live up to its obligations
under the nuclear deal. In the eight months since the deal was
implemented, he said, Washington had delayed licenses for business
transactions and blocked Iran's access to banks. "The lack of
compliance ... on the part of the United States in the past several
months represents a flawed approach that should be rectified
forthwith," he said Thursday.
Senior Republican U.S. House of Representatives
lawmakers made clear on Friday they will keep campaigning against
Boeing and Airbus jetliner sales to Iran, despite the Treasury
Department's announcement that it had begun issuing licenses for the
exports. Republican Representatives Pete Roskam and Jeb Hensarling
wrote to Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which oversees
sanctions, demanding more answers about any security implications of
the delivery of aircraft to Iran. "There is little evidence
indicating that Iran Air has indeed stopped transporting weapons,
troops, and cash to terrorist groups and rogue regimes," the
congressmen wrote in a letter, dated Thursday, seen by Reuters. Both
congressmen hold influential financial positions in the House.
Hensarling is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
Roskam is chairman of the tax-writing Ways & Means Committee's
Oversight subcommittee. Airbus and Boeing said on Wednesday they had
received U.S. Treasury approval to begin exporting over 200 jets to
Iran, under a deal struck in January.
Iran's supreme leader has told former hardline
president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad not to stand again in next year's
elections, state media reported on Monday, effectively eliminating a
major challenger to pragmatist incumbent Hassan Rouhani. Ahmadinejad
had not announced any plans to run in the vote scheduled for May, but
has made several speeches in recent months, prompting speculation of
a political comeback. Commentators had suggested the firebrand
populist, who frequently enraged the West with his rhetoric during
his eight years in office, would have given Iran's conservatives
their best chance of regaining power. But the instruction by supreme
leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reported by state news agency IRNA,
effectively destroys his chances of getting the wider backing he
would need to run a successful campaign. "He (Ahmadinejad) came
to me and I told him not to stand as I think it is not in his
interest and that of the country," Khamenei was quoted as
saying. "It will create bipolar opposites and divisions in the
country which I believe is harmful," Khamenei added.
UANI IN THE NEWS
"So far the nuclear deal has been
transactional rather than transformational," says Gary Samore,
who served for four years as President Obama's coordinator for arms
control and weapons of mass destruction. Both the US and Iran have
"major incentives" to keep the deal in force and to avoid
its unraveling, he says. But that doesn't mean it will lead to a
transformation - either in bilateral relations, or in Iranian behavior.
"For Obama, [the deal] allows the US to focus on defeating the
Islamic State on the battlefield" rather than worrying about a
progressing Iranian nuclear program, says Dr. Samore, who spoke in
New York this week at a United Against Nuclear Iran conference. A
deal collapse would "blow up" a "tacit US-Iran
agreement" around the coming battle to retake Mosul from the
Islamic State, he says... The longer-term prospects of both the
nuclear deal and US-Iran relations are less certain, Samore says.
"I don't have much confidence the deal is going to remain in
force for 15 years," he says.
NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC MISSILE
PROGRAM
The head of Iran's atomic energy agency warned Monday
that his country's landmark nuclear deal with five world powers could
be jeopardized by alleged foot-dragging on a pledge of sanctions
relief in exchange for Tehran's commitment to curb key atomic
activities. Ali Akbar Salehi said that "comprehensive and
expeditious removal of all sanctions" outlined in the agreement
"have yet to be met," even though his country is honoring
all its obligations under the pact. Salehi did not blame particular
countries in comments to the International Atomic Energy Agency's
general conference. But other Iranian officials have faulted the
United States for perceived delays in lifting financial sanctions.
Delivering a warning that the agreement could be jeopardized over the
sanctions issue, Salehi said the deal's "durability"
depended on the other side's "reciprocal and full
implementation."
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
The $12 million compound, once a playground for the
Iranian ambassador and guests like Elizabeth Taylor, Andy Warhol and
Richard M. Nixon, now sits empty on Washington's Embassy Row. The
five-story Upper East Side townhouse that served as a consulate was
long ago repurposed as the headquarters of a dealer of old master
paintings. And the seven-bedroom Bethesda, Md., ranch house for
Iranian diplomats is now the home of a family of five. The
properties, and seven others across the United States assessed
altogether at more than $50 million, still belong to the Islamic
Republic of Iran. But for nearly 40 years, the task of maintaining
and putting the properties out for rent has fallen to an unlikely
management company - the State Department.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
The Federal Government has announced it will reopen a
trade office in Iran ahead of Trade Minister Steve Ciobo's visit to
Tehran this week. A business delegation led by Mr Ciobo is expected
to discuss rebuilding trade ties between Australia and Iran after a
very long hiatus. Mr Ciobo said Iran offered significant economic
opportunities for Australia. "There are significant trade
opportunities as Iran re-engages with the world following the easing
of sanctions," he told ABC News breakfast.
MILITARY MATTERS
An Italian navy ship docked in the southern Iranian
port of Bandar Abbas on Saturday in the first official visit by a
Western naval vessel to the country in several years. The Italian
navy said the frigate Euro -- named for a wind that blows across the
Mediterranean from North Africa -- was part of an EU anti-piracy
mission and would remain docked in Iran for three days before
returning to Italy. The Italian navy said the visit comes as part of
the resumption of "historic and excellent relations"
between the two navies. It posted a picture on its Twitter account
showing an Iranian girl handing flowers to an Italian officer in
Bandar Abbas. The last time an Italian naval vessel visited Iran was
the frigate Bersagliere in April 2001. The frigate Euro last visited
in 1999.
REGIONAL DESTABILIZATION
Yemen President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi vowed at the
United Nations on Friday to "extract Yemen from the claws of
Iran" as he accused Tehran of impeding peace by intervening in
the country... "We shall extract Yemen from the claws of Iran, we
shall raise the Yemeni flag over every foot of our precious Yemeni
soil and we will lay the foundation for a just federal state,"
Hadi said in a speech at the annual United Nations gathering of world
leaders... "We tell the whole world in very clear terms that
extremism and sectarian terrorism sponsored by Iran in the region has
created and will create a terrorism counter to that," Hadi said.
Yemen plans to complain to the U.N. Security Council
over what it says are Iran's weapon transfers to Houthi allies
fighting the internationally recognized Yemeni government, the
foreign minister said on Saturday. In an interview with Reuters,
Abdel-Malek al-Mekhlafi also said he hoped a 72-hour humanitarian
ceasefire would take effect "early next week." ...
"There are new weapons coming from Iran," Mekhlafi said in
New York where he was attending the annual U.N. gathering of world
leaders. "It is impossible to hide that weapons-smuggling is
still taking place from Iran. Some of these weapons have been found
on the Saudi-Yemeni border and they are Iranian weapons," he
said. Mekhlafi said his government was in the process of filing a
complaint to the Security Council, with evidence including documents
and pictures.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan pointed to Iran's
"expansionist regional policies, flagrant violations of the
principles of sovereignty and constant interference in the internal
affairs of its neighboring countries." He told the UN General
Assembly's annual ministerial meeting on Saturday that regional
countries hoped last year's nuclear deal between Iran and six major
powers would change Tehran's "hostile approach," but those
hopes were "quickly thwarted." "Iran wasted no time in
continuing its efforts to undermine the security of the region,
through aggressive rhetoric, blatant interference, producing and
arming militias, (and) developing its ballistic missile
program," Al Nahyan said. Iran has been backing Syrian President
Bashar Assad and Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen, and the UAE minister
said its interference in Iraq's internal affairs "has
exacerbated ... division among its people."
SYRIA CONFLICT
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on
Sunday Russia and Iran would become accomplices in war crimes if they
continued to prolong the war in Syria. Describing Russia and Iran as
supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Ayrault called on them
"to take their responsibility by stopping this strategy that
leads to a dead-end." "Otherwise, Russia and Iran will
become accomplices of the war crimes committed in Aleppo," the
minister said in a written statement with reference to the bombings
that struck the Syrian city and killed scores of people.
DOMESTIC POLITICS
The main Kurdish insurgent group in Iran will keep up
its guerrilla campaign against security forces "to protect and
defend" Kurds living there, its deputy leader said, calling the
fight necessary after the Islamic Republic's nuclear deal with world
powers. A string of recent attacks by the Democratic Party of Iranian
Kurdistan mark the end of a 20-year cease-fire between its fighters
and Iran, though Kurdish separatists have agitated for freedom for
decades in the country's northwest... The PDKI's deputy
secretary-general Hassan Sharafi said Iran's "repression"
of Kurds forced it to respond. "We see that they are being
arrested, tortured, interrogated and jailed," he told The
Associated Press in an interview Wednesday in Koya, an Iraqi city
near the Iranian border. "In order to protect and defend these
people, we have decided to have a presence in the area instead of
launching a regular war."
Iranian banks have begun issuing credit cards for the
first time in decades, local media reported on Monday. The report by
several newspapers, including the daily Donya-e-Eqtesad or World of
Economy in Farsi, said the cards will be for domestic use only and do
not involve any sort of partnership with a major international credit
card company. The cards are usable for purchasing products and
services from Iranian online shops as well. The move is aimed at
helping to boost Iran's sanctions-damaged economy. The credit limits
and fee percentages will be fixed by Iran's Central Bank, although
individual banks will be responsible for determining if a customer
qualifies to receive a card.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
Seven years ago, I heard the name of a prominent
Iranian diplomat, Mohammad Javad Zarif, at least 118 times. That was
how many days I spent imprisoned in Iran for doing my job as a
journalist - and how many days I was beaten by an intelligence
officer in the hard-line Revolutionary Guards. He demanded that I
falsely confess to being a C.I.A. agent and invent false stories that
Mr. Zarif had connections to Western intelligence agencies. Rather
than cooperate, I somehow withstood the daily torture. This month Mr.
Zarif, now Iran's foreign minister, has been in New York for the
annual United Nations General Assembly meeting, alongside other
Iranian diplomats and President Hassan Rouhani. Together, they have
tried to give Iran's government a humane face as champions of Middle
East stability, while denying its human rights abuses. Theirs is a
thankless task: They must know they are lying. Iranian diplomats are
caught between their desire to join the modern world and the reality
of the government they represent. They also know their own rights are
at risk if they don't follow the wishes of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
Iran's supreme leader.
Iran caught a break in its efforts to court global
banks in June, when an international task force that sets standards
against money laundering and terrorist financing suspended for one
year its call for countries to take "proactive
countermeasures" to protect their financial systems from illicit
Iranian schemes. In return, Tehran pledged to improve controls to
help counter the financing of terrorism and other illicit financial
conduct rampant within the Iranian financial system. The chances of
Iran implementing the reforms by next June are small, a point likely
to surface this week as Iranian officials continue to meet with other
diplomats on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
The Financial Action Task Force has included Iran on its blacklist
since the list's inception in 2008. By next June, Iran is expected to
show progress on an "action plan" to end illicit financial
conduct, including financing terror groups such as Lebanese
Hezbollah, Iraqi Shia militias, and Iran's own Qods Force. Otherwise,
countermeasures are to be re-imposed. Iran wants to persuade foreign
banks to serve as channels for much-needed investment and trade. But
there may be little progress to show.
Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, has persuaded most
Western elites that he is a moderate worthy of deference. Big-shot
journalists respectfully interview him. Former senior U.S. officials
dine with him. European foreign ministries accommodate his pious
sensibilities. President Barack Obama and his top advisers are no
exception. They too go out of their way not to offend Rouhani,
particularly since he agreed to the nuclear deal in 2015. Last week
at the U.N. General Assembly, Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry
did not call out Iran by name, as they did with Russia, for
supporting the slaughter in Syria. And even though Iran's president
has declined Obama's requests for a face-to-face meeting, the U.S.
president had kind words for Iran in his big speech at the U.N. on
Tuesday. Two people who are not taken in by Rouhani's charms are
Zaher Sahloul and Yahya Basha. They are Syrian-American medical
doctors who have devoted themselves to pleading with diplomats and
world leaders to stop the killing in the place of their birth.
Sahloul traveled to Aleppo in June and July to treat some victims of the
Syrian war. On Tuesday last week, Sahloul and Basha were invited to a
meeting in New York with Rouhani for U.S. Muslim leaders. It was the
second meeting with Rouhani for the two doctors, and they decided to
press Iran's president on his country's support for the man
tormenting their fellow Syrians.
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