|
TOP STORIES
Iran would not accept any alteration to its nuclear
deal with world powers if Donald Trump pursues his campaign pledge to
derail the accord, a senior Iranian politician has said. However,
Tehran is open to the possibility of "strategic co-operation"
with the US in the Middle East, Sadegh Kharrazi, leader of the
moderate Neday-e Azadi and a relative of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
Iran's supreme leader, told the FT at the weekend. "The
internationally backed nuclear accord cannot be restructured with the
change of one individual, and Iran would not accept any changes under
any conditions," Mr Kharrazi said in an interview. "This is
Iran's policy and there will be no setback." Mr Kharrazi said he
was not speaking on behalf of the Islamic Republic. However, as a member
of its inner circle, his mixture of warnings and offer of an olive
branch is likely to reflect the general mood in the political
hierarchy following Mr Trump's presidential victory.
The EU on Monday urged all parties to the landmark
Iran nuclear accord to stick to their commitments after US
President-elect Donald Trump said he might ditch the deal. European
Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels said the deal signed last
year with Iran by the United States, three EU powers as well as
Russia and China must be respected as the bloc seeks to expand
economic and other ties. "The upholding of commitments by all
sides is a necessary condition to continue rebuilding trust and allow
for continued, steady and gradual improvement in relations between
the European Union, its member States and Iran," the ministers
said in their conclusions. The EU welcomed the fact that the US
government was now issuing licences for the export of commercial
passenger aircraft and related parts and services to Iran and said it
hoped they would continue. Such sales "will be an important
signal" for the deal's implementation and contribute to a safer
commercial aviation environment, the ministers said... The EU said it
is committed to lifting nuclear-related economic and financial
sanctions against Iran while engaging with banks and other economic
operators "to promote growth in trade and investment." It
said it "remains concerned" with the human rights
situation, especially over the frequent use of the death penalty, and
underlined the need for equal rights for women and minorities. The
EU, voicing concern about Iran's missile programme, urged Tehran to
refrain from ballistic missile tests and urged Iran to "to use
its influence on the Syrian regime" of President Bashar al-Assad
to end attacks on civilians.
Walid Phares, one of Donald Trump's foreign policy
advisers, says the President-elect is going to demand changes to the
Iran nuclear agreement. During the campaign, Trump said the Iran deal
was one of the worst agreements ever negotiated. In a USA Today op-ed
in September of 2015 Trump said, "When I am elected president, I
will renegotiate with Iran." Republican members of Congress have
sharply criticized the deal since it was announced in 2014.
"Ripping up is maybe a too strong of word, he's gonna take that
agreement, it's been done before in international context, and then
review it," Phares said on BBC radio Thursday. "He will
take the agreement, review it, send it to Congress, demand from the
Iranians to restore few issues or change few issues, and there will
be a discussion. It could be a tense discussion but the agreement as
is right now -- $750 billion to the Iranian regime without receiving
much in return and increasing intervention in four countries -- that
is not going to be accepted by a Trump administration," he
added.
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
President Obama's signature nuclear deal with Iran
could be put in peril when President-elect Donald Trump takes office
in January, nuclear policy experts and lobbyists say. After Trump's
election on Tuesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani rushed to tell
his Cabinet that the deal "cannot be overturned by one
government's decision." But both supporters and opponents of the
agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),
say that Republicans in control of the White House and Congress could
take immediate steps to undermine the deal. "They have a lot of
options for how they want to undo the deal. They have two houses of
Congress and a compliant president," said Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, who
specializes in nonproliferation deals at the Middlebury Institute of
International Studies at Monterey... "If you wanted to be out of
the deal 30 days after the inauguration, then you just declare [Iran]
is in noncompliance," Lewis said. "Literally on Day One, he
could assert noncompliance and the clock starts ticking."
Advocates of the nuclear deal with Iran are convinced
the pact is in mortal danger following Republican Donald Trump's
upset election. Deal skeptics on Capitol Hill have already prepared a
raft of bills that have a far better chance of making it into law
with the threat of a White House veto now out of the way. But the
president-elect himself can just as easily send what he's called a
"disastrous" deal to the dustbin of history by simply
refusing to sign off on sanctions relief. "That's why I find it
so hard to believe that the deal survives," said Richard Nephew,
a former State Department sanctions official who now heads the
program on Economic Statecraft, Sanctions and Energy Markets at
Columbia University. "At some point, [Trump] will have to make
an affirmative decision to support its implementation." ...
"As much as I hear people say, 'Well, [Trump] won't kill the
deal on Day One,' can anyone seriously think that he's going to allow
his Treasury secretary or his secretary of state to issue those
waivers?" Nephew told Al-Monitor. "And think about who
those people will be. Can anyone seriously think they're going to do
it?"
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump should not scrap a
nuclear deal between Iran and world powers but should take the nation
to task for its "destabilizing activities" in the Middle
East, said a former senior Saudi official... "I don't think he
should scrap it. It's been worked on for many years and the general
consensus in the world, not just the United States, is that it has
achieved an objective, which is a 15-year hiatus in the program that
Iran embarked on to develop nuclear weapons," Prince Turki
al-Faisal, a former Saudi intelligence chief and ex-ambassador to Washington
and London said on Thursday. "To scrap that willy-nilly as it
were will have ramifications, and I don't know if something else can
be put in its place to guarantee that Iran will not go that route if
the agreement is scrapped," he said at a think-tank event in
Washington. Prince Turki said he would like to see if the deal could
become a "stepping stone" to a more permanent program
"to prevent proliferation through the establishment of a zone
free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East."
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami says that President-elect
Donald Trump should apologize to the Iranian people for calling them
terrorists during his campaign. The senior religious scholar, in a
Friday sermon broadcast live on state radio, said Trump should
"respectfully apologize to the nation." Khatami warned
Trump about confronting Iran, saying he should know better than to
play with "the tail of the lion." The cleric said that
Tehran had successfully foiled and frustrated several of Trump's
White House predecessors.
CONGRESSIONAL ACTION
The House is preparing to debate legislation that aims
to block U.S. financing for Boeing Co.'s sale of $25 billion worth of
planes to Iran, a key committee announced Thursday. President Obama
could veto the legislation if Congress sends it to him. But the bill
represents the latest salvo from lawmakers opposed to the nuclear
deal negotiated with Iran, which President-elect Donald Trump has
criticized and said he would overturn. The bill from Rep. Bill
Huizenga, R-Mich., would prohibit U.S. banks from financing the plane
sale and would revoke any Treasury Department approval of the sale
granted before the legislation is approved. The bill would
"prohibit the secretary of the Treasury from authorizing certain
transactions by a U.S. financial institution in connection with the
export or re-export of a commercial passenger aircraft to the
Islamic Republic of Iran." "I am extremely concerned that
by relaxing the rules, the Obama administration has allowed American
companies to be complicit in weaponizing the Iranian regime,"
Huizenga told USA TODAY. The bill "prevents the leaders of the
Iranian regime from having access to the U.S. financial system."
The House Rules Committee announced Thursday that it would meet
Monday to set the terms for how the bill is debated on the House
floor.
The House is also expected to tackle a ten-year
extension of the expiring Iran Sanctions Act, or ISA, which forms the
bedrock of existing U.S. sanctions against Tehran's nuclear and missile
activities. Though the White House maintains the law is unnecessary,
lawmakers in both parties fear without it they will lose the power to
"snap back" sanctions on Iran should it commit an egregious
violation of the nuclear pact struck last year. There are three
proposals to extend the sanctions, including one that would
strengthen punishment against Iran's ballistic missile activities,
cyber threats and espionage, and another tying a sanctions extension
to increased military aid to Israel. But the House intends to vote on
an unchanged version of the sanctions act, making it difficult for
the Senate to switch gears in the short session. The only remaining
hurdle is whether the White House will veto it - an option they have
not yet ruled out.
Congress still has some unfinished business before
closing shop for the year, even as the focus shifts to the agenda of
President-elect Donald Trump and unified Republican control of
Congress and the White House in 2017... The clock is ticking for
Congress to renew a decades-old law that allows the United States to
hit companies with economic sanctions for doing business with Iran.
Congress first passed the Iran Sanctions Act in 1996 and has extended
it several times since then. The law is to expire at the end of the
year and there is strong bipartisan support for legislation that
would extend it by another decade. It's on the House schedule this
week.
REGIONAL DESTABILIZATION
Hussein Sheikh al-Islam, the advisor to the Iranian
foreign affairs minister, said Iranian missiles are not only
manufactured in Syria but in other countries in the region as well.
He said Iran expanded its missiles' production outside its borders
due to the "increasing Israeli threats in the region."
Although he did not reveal much about the production Iranian
missiles, he said Iraq is one of the countries where ballistic
missiles are produced. His statements come two days after the Iranian
chief of staff said that manufacturing ballistic missiles has been
carried out in Aleppo during the past years.
Iran's top general said the Islamic Republic set up a
missile factory in Syria which transferred supplies to Hezbollah to
use in the 2006 war against Israel. "Iran established the
missile industry for Syria in Aleppo in the past years and produced
missiles and they were used during the 33-day war against
Israel," Iran's semi-official Fars news agency quoted General
Mohammad Hossein Bagher as saying.
Eleven Arab countries have sent a letter of complaint
to the United Nations voicing their concerns of Iran's continuous
expansion of their policies in the region, Al Arabiya News channel
reported. The letter condemned Iran's role in Yemen and their support
and training of Houthi militias, as well as the smuggling of arms to
them. The Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco,
Sudan and Yemen sent the letter to Peter Thomson, the president of
the UN General Assembly 71st session, and was distributed to UN state
members. The letter comes in response to the false allegations which
the Iranian delegation made on September 26 during the general debate
of the UN General Assembly. The letter voiced concerns of Iran's
calls for a revolution, adding that Iran sponsors terrorism in
Lebanon, Syria and Yemen and supports terrorist cells and groups in
Bahrain, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other countries.
MILITARY MATTERS
Russia and Iran are in talks over an arms deal worth
around $10 billion that would see Moscow deliver T-90 tanks,
artillery systems, planes and helicopters to Tehran, a senior Russian
senator said on Monday, the RIA news agency reported. Viktor Ozerov,
head of the defense and security committee in the Russian upper house
of parliament, or Federation Council, told reporters talks on the
potential deal were under way during a parliamentary visit to Iran,
RIA said.
Iran's state TV is reporting that Iran and China have
signed an agreement to hold joint military drills and cooperate in
fighting terrorism. Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Hossein Dehghan
signed the agreement Monday along with his Chinese counterpart Chang Wanquan.
In addition to the joint military training exercises, the report said
that Iran and China seek to "create a collective movement to
confront this threat" of terrorism. The two nations have
upgraded their military ties in recent years, with each country's
naval ships visiting the other's ports.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
Wärtsilä and Industrial Development & Renovation
Organization of Iran (IDRO), the largest industrial corporation in
Iran have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on October 29th.
The MoU was signed in connection to the President of Finland Mr.
Sauli Niinistö's recent visit to Iran. With this agreement, both
parties agree to cooperate on the development of decentralized power
generation in Iran, including power plant operations and maintenance
services and related liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure.
Wärtsilä will provide relevant expertise and resources to support
IDRO in its objective to improve the infrastructure and develop the
Iranian industry. In a second phase this cooperation will be extended
to the marine sector and the Iranian shipping industry... "With
this agreement, Wärtsilä is showing its commitment to support the
development of the Iranian industry and power generation sector, on
the basis of a mutually beneficial relationship," says Javier
Cavada, President of Wärtsilä Energy Solutions.
WPP, the world's largest communications services
group, has signed an affiliation agreement with PPG, the leader in
digital marketing in Iran, which operates more than 15 top digital
services companies in the country. This agreement will give WPP and
its clients access, on an exclusive basis, to the most effective
digital marketing channels in the Iranian market and provides PPG
with access to a huge amount of knowledge through connections with
the world leader in marketing communications. PPG employs more than
200 people and comprises several leading Iranian digital businesses,
including Anetwork, ADRO, RASANEX, ADAD, DMC, and a host of other
leading content, technology, data, mobile and digital consultancy
businesses.
Iran boosted oil output at three western fields faster
than it expected as rival OPEC producer Saudi Arabia called for a
collective output cut later this month to help rebalance the market.
Output at the fields west of the Karoun River, near Iran's border
with Iraq, rose to about 250,000 barrels per day from 65,000 barrels
in 2013, the Oil Ministry's news service Shana reported Sunday, citing
President Hassan Rouhani at a ceremony to formally open the project.
Iran had expected to reach that output target by the end of the year,
Mohsen Ghamsari, director for international affairs at the National
Iranian Oil Co., said in September... "Oil production west of
Karoun must reach one million barrels per day," Rouhani said,
referring to the North Azadegan, Yadavaran and Yaran fields.
"This is a realistic goal, and we need investment and
technology."
Iranian investors are pouring money into Kish island
in the Gulf, hoping its white sand beaches, coral reefs and more
relaxed Islamic rules, could make it a major tourism destination.
From the pristine beaches of Kish, it is only 200 kilometres (120
miles) across the water to Dubai -- and it is the booming city
state's tens of thousands of wealthy expats that the investors are
hoping to lure... Still, even though Islamic rules are less strict on
Kish, they are still in force -- creating a major obstacle for
investors hoping to attract Western expats for short breaks from Dubai.
There are no bars or clubs -- or any alcohol at all -- while men and
women must use separate beaches, splitting up families.
HUMAN RIGHTS
A WOMAN has laid bare the brutal punishment she
reportedly received at the hands of authorities after she was caught
attending a party with boys and drinking alcohol. The 28-year-old
Iranian woman received 80 lashes after an Iranian court found her
guilty of the offences more than two years after she attended a party
in the second biggest city of Mashhad. Masih Alinejad, a former
journalist who administers the Facebook page My Stealthy Freedom,
posted an interview with the unnamed woman who suffered shocking
injuries after her ordeal. Posting under the #NoToLashes, Alinejad's
post goes into detail how the woman was initially arrested for
consuming alcohol at a party, something which is strictly forbidden
in Iran.
23 people have been executed during the last six days
in Iran... Six prisoners were executed in Iran yesterday. One
prisoner was hanged publicly in the village of Chelmeh near the city
of Mashhad (northeastern Iran) reported the Iranian media.
DOMESTIC POLITICS
Then in her late 20s and rebounding from a string of
broken relationships, Fahimeh Azadi moved alone into an apartment in
working-class southern Tehran. Her very presence, she recalled, was
"a walking challenge to the men." Azadi had joined a
growing number of women in Iran who are electing to remain single,
defying their parents' expectations and the strict conventions of the
Islamic Republic.
Tehran officials shut schools on Monday as the first
of the winter's heavy pollution hit the Iranian capital. A blanket of
choking brown-white smog descended on the city on Sunday, blocking
out the view of the mountains that line its northern edge and leading
many of its 14 million residents to retreat indoors or don face masks
in the street. The level of the deadliest PM2.5 particles hit 156 on
Monday -- more than three times the level considered safe by the World
Health Organisation. "Kindergartens and primary schools are
closed on Monday in Tehran and most of the cities of the
province," the Ministry of Education announced, according to
official agency Irna. Officials extended traffic restrictions that
alternate cars with odd and even licence plates in two central parts
of the city, and deployed ambulances to wait in the busiest and
dirtiest areas.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly called the
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the so-called Iran
nuclear deal, "the worst deal ever negotiated" and a
"disaster." He's right. Far from creating the most robust
monitoring regime, Secretary of State John Kerry's deal set a new
precedent for lax inspection standards. Not only did it fall short of
the bar President Obama had established, it also fell short of past
international precedent established with the dismantlement of South
Africa's and Libya's nuclear program. Rather than ratify the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s Additional Protocol,
Iranian negotiators promised only to abide by it. The last time that
happened, the Iranian government walked away from its restrictions as
soon as they had achieved what they wanted, and bragged about it...
Trump is right: The JCPOA is flawed and does little to restrain or
prevent Iran's military nuclear ambitions. But that does not mean he
should walk away. Rather, he can interpret the deal with such
inflexibility as to force Iran to walk away. He can be ready with
sanctions and, if necessary, other elements of coercion to punish
Iran for its noncompliance. And, if he truly wishes to put America
first, he will call out every European and Asian firm that seeks for
its own short term gain to pump resources into Iran's infrastructure
of terrorism by doing business with Revolutionary Guards-affiliated
companies. At the same time, he can move to undercut Iran's ability
to conduct terrorism by seizing accounts, restricting dollar access
by reversing Obama's tendentious Treasury Department interpretations,
and ordering the US Navy to hold its ground rather than
"depressurize the Persian Gulf," as former Defense
Secretary Chuck Hagel sought.
President Barack Obama's signature foreign policy
achievement, the Iran nuclear deal, is in trouble. On Wednesday, the
International Atomic Energy Agency noted that Iran had exceeded its
allowed stockpile of "heavy water," a substance used to
cool plutonium reactors, for the second time since the agreement went
into effect. When this happened in February, the Obama administration
lent a hand, agreeing to purchase the excess material to get Iran
back into compliance. This time around, it's resorting to semantics.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner says the non-compliance was not
a "violation" of the agreement, which would in theory
trigger a process to re-impose sanctions. He said the Iranians were
working quickly with other parties to resolve the issue. If Hillary Clinton
had won the election, the excess heavy water would likely remain in
the non-compliance category. But Donald Trump will be the next
president, and he has promised to enforce the 2015 deal with vigor.
His campaign's Israel advisory committee released a statement this
month saying: "The U.S. must counteract Iran's ongoing
violations of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action regarding Iran's
quest for nuclear weapons and their noncompliance with past and
present sanctions." The statement also promised that Trump would
implement new sanctions to check Iranian threats to its neighbors and
continued proliferation. Republicans on Thursday told me that Iran's
most recent violations would receive more scrutiny from a Trump
administration than from the current one.
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment