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Human rights activists say a 22-year-old woman whose
execution was delayed while she was pregnant could be hanged within
days in Iran. Zeinab Sekaanvand was convicted of killing her husband,
whom she says beat her for months. Her execution was postponed after
she remarried in prison and conceived a child. Last month she gave
birth to a stillborn baby, putting her at risk of death by hanging as
soon as 13 October. Doctors said the young woman's baby died in her
womb two days before she gave birth as a result of the shock she
suffered after her friend and cellmate was executed. Amnesty International
says Ms Sekaanvand comes from a poor, conservative Iranian-Kurdish
family, and ran away from home aged 15 to marry her first husband,
Hossein Sarmadi. She said she saw marrying him as her only chance for
a better life. But not long after their wedding, she said, he started
beating her regularly and verbally abusing her.
New guidance from the Obama administration offers
reassurance to foreign banks which have been skittish about doing
U.S. dollar transactions with Iran, lawyers and former sanctions
officials said on Monday. The guidance comes after months of
complaints from Tehran, which says that remaining U.S. sanctions have
frightened away trade partners and robbed Iran of the benefits it was
promised under the nuclear deal it concluded with world powers last
year. The guidelines, issued by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office
of Foreign Assets Control on Friday, clarify that non-U.S. banks can
do dollar trades with Iran, provided those transactions don't pass
through financial institutions in the United States... A U.S. Treasury
spokeswoman said on Monday the changes were "intended to clarify
the scope of sanctions lifting" under the nuclear deal, and do
not amount to additional sanctions relief for Iran. But Iran may not
see the new guidance as enough to address the hurdles to doing
business. Hossein Ghazavi, a vice-minister in Iran's economy
ministry, said on Monday the changes still left doubts for banks.
"The problems that existed before are still there," Ghazavi
said, according to the Iranian Students News Agency. "Previously
... non-American financial institutions could not have 100 percent
confidence that while providing brokerage services, creating accounts
or maintaining U.S. dollars for Iranian banks and customers, they
wouldn't face unpredictable risk. This ambiguity has still not been
resolved."
The top commander and clerical representative of the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) external operations wing,
the Qods Force, recently delivered speeches in Tehran and Damascus commemorating
the first anniversary of the death of Brigadier General Hossein
Hamedani, the most senior IRGC commander killed in the Syrian civil
war. IRGC-QF commander Major General Qassem Soleimani delivered a
speech on Oct. 5 in Tehran. Senior IRGC commanders and Iranian
government officials were in attendance. "The problem of the
enemies is the centrality of Syria in the resistance front and
relations with the Islamic Republic," Soleimani said. "We
do not only defend Syria in this country, but we defend Islam and the
Islamic Republic of Iran, as well, because DAESH [pejorative for the
Islamic State] and takfiri groups were not formed for Syria, these
were formed for Iran." Soleimani's statement underscores the
strategic importance of Syria to Tehran. He and other senior
officials justify their involvement in Syria by claiming that the
fight there keeps Iran safe from threats like the Islamic State and
Sunni extremists.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
An NIOC official has announced that Iran has sold a
two-million-barrel cargo of crude oil to Lotos S.A. of Poland.
Executive Director for International Affairs at National Iranian Oil
Company (NIOC) Seyyed Mohsen Ghamsari pointed to negotiations between
NIOC and Grupa Lotos S.A. over inking a long-term oil sale contract
saying "talks have kicked off with the Polish company though no
final agreement has been signed yet." The official emphasized
that so far two million barrels of crude oil have been delivered to
Lotos; "both sides are seeking to seal a long term oil
deal." He deemed Eastern Europe as a new market for Iranian
crude in the post-JCPOA era adding "in addition to Poland, Iran
has so far sold a one-million-barrel cargo to Hungary as well as that
relevant negotiation have begun with other states in Eastern
Europe."
Following two earlier contracts with two Russian oil
companies, Iran has signed a memorandum of cooperation in oil and gas
industry with a third Russian firm. Given the newly-signed agreement,
the number of Russian companies active in Iran's oil and gas
industries has reached a total of three. Previous deals were sealed
with Zarubezhnefta and Lukoil companies while the third one Tatneft,
a Russian vertically integrated oil and gas company with headquarters
in the city of Almetyevsk in the Republic of Tatarstan... on Saturday
morning, NIOC Managing Director Ali Kardor and CEO of Tatneft Nail
Ulfatovich Maganov signed the deal to conduct developmental studies
in Dehloran oil field. The agreement marks the first contract signed
between NIOC and the Russian firm and it mainly deals with increasing
recovery factor of the Iranian field.
National Petrochemical Company (NPC) has signed a
memorandum of understating with Japan's Sojitz for feasibility
studies on construction of a methanol to propylene conversion plant
in Iran. Held at the locality of the NPC in Tehran, the signing
ceremony of the MoU was attended by Managing Director of the NPC
Marziyeh Shahdaei and Masaru Sato, Sojitz's senior representative on
Saturday. Speaking during the ceremony, Marziyeh Shahdaei, who is
also deputy petroleum minister in petrochemical affairs, said the
project is of crucial importance for Iran given the vast gas reserves
it is sitting atop. Sojitz has been active in Iran over 50 years and
is the first foreign company active in Iran's petrochemical sector,
said Sato during the meeting.
TERRORISM
Senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar underlined that
the Palestinian resistance group is seeking to reinvigorate relations
with Iran. "Relations with Iran are acceptable but they should
further enhance and develop," al-Zahar told FNA on Monday.
HUMAN RIGHTS
When Narges Mohammadi's activist husband resolved in
2012 to leave Iran to escape yet another jail sentence connected to
his political activities, she stayed behind with their two children.
"She believed she could be more effective inside the
country," Taghi Rahmani, a political activist who had been in
and out of Iranian prisons for two decades and had a conviction
hanging over his head, said of his wife recently from Paris, where he
has since been joined by their 9-year-old twins. Mohammadi, a leading
rights defender who had also spent time in jail, knew she might be
targeted again. Four years later, the 44-year-old Mohammadi is
languishing in Tehran's Evin prison, where she is serving a combined
16 years for a range of crimes that include allegedly "acting
against national security," membership in a banned organization
that campaigns against the death penalty, and "spreading
propaganda" against the establishment... "[The persecution
of] Mohammadi is [being] used to instill fear among activists and
also to demonstrate [Iran's] disdain for human rights
principles," Rahmani said.
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