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TOP STORIES
An Iranian-American businessman and his father have
been sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran, a state-run judicial
news agency reported Tuesday, the latest dual nationals imprisoned
since the nuclear deal. The announcement by the Mizan news agency came
a day after it released footage of businessman Siamak Namazi, a sign
of the power still wielded by hard-liners in the Islamic Republic.
The Mizan report said Namazi and his father Baquer Namazi, a former
UNICEF representative who once served as governor of Iran's oil-rich
Khuzestan province under the U.S.-backed shah, were convicted of
"cooperating with the hostile American government." ... The
report also said Nizar Zakka, a U.S. permanent resident from Lebanon,
also received a 10-year prison sentence. His supporters had earlier
told The Associated Press about the sentence, though the Mizan report
was the first official Iranian report of it. The report also said two
others had been convicted as well, without naming them or identifying
their nationalities.
German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt will
travel to Iran with a trade delegation on Friday to meet the
transport and industry minister, his spokesman said on Monday, and an
industry source said Siemens would be going too. Siemens has long
been in negotiations with Iran over an order for track technology and
ICE 3 trains, a model of intercity train in use in Germany. The deal
would be worth more than 2 billion euros ($2.25 billion), industry
sources say. German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel traveled to Iran
at the start of the month and during that trip Siemens got an order
to build parts for 50 locomotives.
Vodafone Group PLC is partnering with an Iranian
internet-service provider to help improve its local networks-the
first big Western firm to jump into Iran after the U.S. moved earlier
this month to make it easier for companies doing business in the
Islamic Republic. The U.K. telecoms carrier said on Tuesday it plans
to assist Iran's HiWEB, a small, privately owned operator, in modernizing
infrastructure and expanding landline and mobile internet services
for personal and business customers. It didn't disclose details,
including any planned investment in the venture. It said it wouldn't
take an equity stake in the project.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
Top U.S. officials are charging that Iran supplied
Yemeni rebels with the missiles that were aimed at a U.S. Navy
warship in several attacks this week. Senate Armed Services Committee
Chairman John McCain, who was briefed by the Pentagon on the three
failed missile attacks on the USS Mason destroyer, said on October 13
that Iran likely provided the missiles. McCain endorsed the
Pentagon's move to retaliate by launching cruise missiles that
destroyed mobile radar sites used by the Huthis to launch their
missiles, which were believed to be C-802 antiship weapons. "The
United States Navy has delivered a strong message" that it won't
tolerate such aggression, McCain said. U.S. State Department
spokesman John Kirby also said this week that the missiles were
"provided by Iran to the Huthi rebels," although he said it
was also possible the Huthis captured some missiles from the Yemeni
government army.
Chief spokesman for Iran's Armed Forces says the
United States is the most important reason behind all the current
problems in the Middle East, stressing that Washington must accept
its strategic mistakes and leave the region. "The root cause of
all the problems in the West Asia region is the US hegemony,"
Deputy Chief of Staff of Iran's Armed Forces Brigadier General
Massoud Jazayeri said on Sunday... "The US presence in the
region is [like] a malignant cancerous tumor and the only way to
treat it is to remove this infected tumor and kick the US out of the
region," Jazayeri added.
An Iranian-American businessman arrested in Iran a
year ago was seen publicly for the first time Monday in a video
posted online by the country's judicial news service, which seemed to
hint that he would be accused of espionage. The video - a montage of
anti-American-themed images that runs one minute, 12-seconds, and is
set to dramatic music - showed the businessman, Siamak Namazi, his
hands raised, along with his United States passport and United Arab
Emirates resident identification... It was not clear when the video,
released by the Mizan News Agency, which is affiliated with Iran's
judiciary, had been made. But the timing roughly coincided with the
first anniversary of Mr. Namazi's arrest in Tehran, suggesting that
formal charges were looming.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) blasted hard-liners in Iran
for releasing a video on Monday featuring a detained Iranian-American
businessman who was arrested last October. The minute-long video
showed Siamak Namazi, his U.S. passport, an ID card and a clip of him
in a conference room with his arms raised, all set to music,
according to The Associated Press... McCain said the video was just
part of a pattern of intimidation against the U.S. by Iran, enabled
by the Obama administration's pursuit of the Iran nuclear deal, which
lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs to its nuclear
program. "The video released by Iranian hard-liners this week
depicting a detained Iranian-American along with footage of the 10
American sailors who were illegally captured in January is just the
latest attempt to intimidate the United States following the signing
of the dangerous Iran Nuclear Deal," he said.
BUSINESS RISK
Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Valiollah
Seif once again lashed out at Washington for not complying with its
undertakings under the last year nuclear deal with Tehran. "The
status quo is not desirable compared with the expectations before the
nuclear deal," Seif said on Saturday. Noting that the European
countries and their banks are interested in cooperation with Iran, he
said "but the US has not completely implemented the undertakings
that it has accepted under the nuclear deal" and the European
banks are lagging in improving relations with their Iranian
counterparts given the concerns they have about the US behavior in
future. Seif asked the US to give necessary assurances to the
European banks to develop relations with their Iranian counterparts.
Iran says technical issues are to blame for the delay
in receiving the airplanes it has purchased from global aviation
giants Airbus and Boeing. Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal
and International Affairs Abbas Araqchi said what was previously
obstructing the delivery of the planes were the related
authorizations by the US Treasury Department which were issued last
month. "The delivery of the planes now depends on the
finalization of negotiations between Iran Air from one side and
Airbus and Boeing from another," Araqchi told Iran's ISNA news
agency. He emphasized that negotiations on plane purchases are
complicated and comprise many technical and legal issues.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
Iran's October crude and condensate exports are set to
hold near five-year highs hit in September, a source with knowledge
of its preliminary tanker schedule said, reflecting Tehran's success
in boosting shipments after Western sanctions were lifted. The No. 3
OPEC producer is producing around 4.5 million barrels per day (bpd)
of crude and ultra light oil condensate, according to local oil
officials, while it has just about doubled its total exports since
sanctions targeting its nuclear program were lifted in January. Iran
is seeking to raise its crude and condensate production to more than
5 million bpd by 2020, with its deputy oil minister saying on Monday
that Iran's output was now almost sufficient to agree to the group
limit planned last month by the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries. Iran's October crude oil and condensate exports
are set at 2.56 million bpd, according to the preliminary tanker
schedule, down from 2.60 million bpd in September. The September
exports - which some sources put as high as 2.8 million bpd - were
the most since mid-2011, and compare with just under 2.5 million bpd
in August.
Iran's economy minister, at a meeting with his
Luxembourgian counterpart, called for providing grounds for
development of bilateral cooperation. Speaking after a meeting on
Monday with the visiting Luxembourg's Economy Minister Etienne
Schneider, Iran's Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Ali
Tayebnia voiced the country's willingness to bolster economic and
financial relations with the European country and deemed the
concentration of international monetary activities in Luxembourg as
an excellent venue for mutual cooperation... Luxembourg's Economy
Minister Etienne Schneider, who is on a three-day visit to Tehran,
said expressed hope to witness a very promising economic cooperation
between the two countries in the future.
Iran says the US Treasury Department has effectively
opened the way for non-American banks and financial institutions to
proceed with dollar-dominated transactions with Iranians. The Central
Bank of Iran (CBI) in an announcement has told the banks across the
country that any failure by non-American banks to provide
dollar-related services to Iranians is "unacceptable" in
light of the US Treasury's recent update on doing business with Iran.
"Providing dollar-related services [to Iranians] will no longer
expose non-American banks to the risks of sanctions provided that
they stay clear of US financial system," the CBI said in its
statement. "Therefore, non-American banks cannot use US sanctions
against Iran as an excuse for refusing to provide dollar-related
services to Iranian individuals and entities."
For the first time since lifted sanctions, Asian
investors will have the chance to gain privileged access to bankable
projects in Iran as the country opens its doors to foreign
investment. MillionaireAsia will organize the inaugural 1st Iran
Investment Summit to be held in Singapore on 26 October 2016 in
collaboration with Basio Consultants & Services Ltd (Hong Kong),
and endorsed by the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Facilitated by His Excellency Javad Ansari, the Iranian Ambassador to
Singapore, an extensive delegation from the country will be heading
to Singapore, led by Keynote Speaker H.E. Dr Valiollah Seif, Central
Bank Governor, Islamic Republic of Iran... Tech will also be an
important subject at the summit with Fintech company and main
sponsor, DasCoin leading the ranks.
Christophe Landais, the chief executive of French
multinational hotel operator Accor Hotels Group, says the company is
pursuing a special mission in Iran and plans to implement various
projects around the country within the next 10 years and perhaps
build 100 hotels during this time. In an interview with ISNA, as
translated by IFP, Landais said the Accor Hotels is serious in making
investment in Iran.
Turkish steel producer Kardemir has shipped 10,000
tons of rail to Iran as part of an €80-million contract to export
140,000 tons of rail, according to the company's CEO Mesut Ugur
Yilmaz. "The company has so far produced 40,000 tons of rail as
per the contract," he was quoted as saying by Turkish newspaper
Hurriyet. Turkey signed the contract with Iran in April to barter
Turkish rail in exchange for Iranian oil to be supplied to Turkish
Petroleum Refineries Company. According to the Minister of Roads and
Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi, Iran needs to build 1,500
kilometers of railroads, for which it needs 1.8 million tons of rails
by 2021.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Every year for the past 34 years, Iran's Education
Evaluation Organization has refused young members of Iran's Baha'i
minority admittance to Iran's institutions of higher education. For
at least the past 20 years, the organization's excuse has been that
applicants have filed an "incomplete dossier." This year,
it is clear that at least 129 of those rejected after successfully
passing the National Iranian University Entrance Exam were Baha'is.
The education ban against Baha'is -- who are Iran's largest religious
minority -- began soon after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Right
after the revolution, authorities shut down Iran's universities. They
did not reopen until December 18, 1982. During this period, which
authorities called the "Cultural Revolution," the new
Islamist government set about "purging" all Baha'is from
future involvement in education.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
When it comes to President Barack Obama's disastrous
nuclear deal with Iran, it has become difficult to keep track of the
troubling new revelations that seem to surface almost daily.
Outrageous, potentially illegal, actions by this administration have
become so commonplace that many Americans have become numb to the recent
news regarding this President's policy toward Iran. We now know the
President authorized a $1.7 billion cash ransom payment to Iran, then
his administration lied about it to Congress. Only President Barack
Obama and supporters of the Iran nuclear deal refuse to accept that
the pallets of cash were a ransom payment, even though it was ransom
by every definition of the word. This endangers every American
overseas by incentivizing kidnappers and encouraging hostage-takers,
and since Iran's release of five US hostages in January, multiple
American citizens have been thrown into Iranian jail cells. Providing
cash to Iran has also allowed the mullahs to circumvent the
international financial system as they shuttle much-needed resources
to their terrorist proxies in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen... Despite all
this, President Obama naively claims the Iran deal is a success. But
with each passing day, it becomes more painfully obvious that this
deal has made our country less secure, and the U.S. taxpayer money
President Obama gave to Iran is being used to support terrorism and
help in the killing of thousands of innocent people in Syria and
elsewhere. Those who support this disastrous nuclear deal should be
haunted daily by these facts.
Iran has a military-industrial complex problem. The
complex is a hulking guild that stands in the way of any Iranian
attempt toward policy moderation. Its visible head is the Islamic
Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), the armed guardians of the Islamist
regime since 1979. As a phenomenon, however, it comes in different
shapes and affects every aspect of life in Iran. Since coming to
power in 2013, the moderate President Hassan Rouhani has cautiously
pushed back against the military-industrial complex but has otherwise
primarily engaged in overtures to co-opt the IRGC leadership for his
vision for the future. Rouhani's pitch, which he defines as a
"win-win" formula, is simple: The IRGC bosses should accept
change and, in return, they will not be excluded from post-sanction
economic opportunities. But IRGC generals remain wary of both Rouhani
and his vision for Iran's future. And they have proven time and again
that they are willing to take on the president and his team if they
feel threatened. To the outside world, the IRGC's undermining of the
elected Rouhani government is readily discernable. From its periodic
war games and firing off missiles as a show of strength, to the IRGC
intelligence arm's willfully arresting Iranian dual nationals to
embarrass the president, the corps barley hides its intention to
expose the limits of Rouhani's power.
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