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TOP STORIES
In an annual rite of anti-Americanism in Iran, thousands
gathered Thursday at the site of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran to
mark the anniversary of its takeover by student activists in 1979. The
demonstrators brought by buses to the former embassy complex included
young and old, university students, military staff and employees of
state-run companies who voiced opposition to the nuclear deal Iran signed
with the United States and world powers. Many echoed Iran's Supreme
Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has intensified his rhetoric against
the United States in recent days despite Iran's agreement to shelve its
uranium enrichment program, which Western countries had worried could
lead to a nuclear weapon. Almost 1 in every 10 demonstrators at the
former embassy - now widely dubbed a "den of espionage" -
carried placards with Khamenei's words: "We do not trust
America."
Companies doing business with Iran risk U.S. sanctions
unless they take heightened measures to avoid benefiting sanctioned
entities like the Iranian military, according to a State Department
statement provided to THE WEEKLY STANDARD. The warning contradicts
remarks made by Secretary of State John Kerry, which were seen by
supporters and opponents of the administration as significantly
downplaying the risks businesses face. Kerry said Monday that banks could
safely do business in Iran if they applied "no extra due diligence,
just normal due diligence," weeks after Treasury Department Under
Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Adam Szubin told TWS
that banks risked sanctions unless they used a higher, "enhanced
level of due diligence." TWS reported this week that Kerry's comments
sparked criticism that he was misleading banks about sanctions in order
to encourage them to do business with Iran. The State Department
subsequently told TWS that it accepted Szubin's heightened standard as
the U.S. norm. "We expect banks and other businesses to exercise due
diligence in any overseas investment or transaction, tailored to the
particular environment," an official said. "For a high-risk
jurisdiction like Iran, the norm is enhanced due diligence."
Foreign investors have flocked to the country over the
past year and agreed hundreds, if not thousands, of memorandums of
understanding - but not one major contract has been signed. Contracts
have been stuck between foreign companies' concerns that they may risk
their interests in the US by breaching America's non-nuclear sanctions
against Iran, and the tense power struggle between hardliners and
moderates in Tehran itself... While the accord permits banking
activities, including transactions and financial messaging using services
such as Swift, international banks remain wary of dealing with Iranian
institutions out of fear of becoming associated accidentally withthe
Guards' affiliates, many of whom run private companies. Domestic hurdles,
too, are hampering investment. These range from poor infrastructure to
the Islamic establishment's paranoia over infiltration by western states.
The regime fears foreign investors and Iranian dual-nationals, who would
bring money and technology but also western culture - and perhaps plot to
undermine Iran's rulers. That fear has slowed progress in technology
especially, a sector in which the country is struggling to catch up with
the rest of the world.
NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC MISSILE PROGRAM
Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards
Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Hossein Salami warned that if the US
government reneges on the nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers,
known as JCPOA, Iran will "send the deal to Museum". "The
Americans should be aware that if they fail to meet their obligations
under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), we will send the
deal to Museum," Brigadier General Salami said during a massive
demonstration held in Tehran on Thursday to mark the "National Day of
Fight against Global Arrogance". He further emphasized that if
Washington reneges on the agreement, the two sides will "go back to
square one" and the Islamic Republic will activate its
decommissioned centrifuges. In that case, the country not only will
refuse to stop its nuclear program but also develop the activities, the
commander went on to say.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
On the 37th anniversary of the incidents known as the Iran
hostage crisis, most Iranian outlets focused on Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei's speech commemorating the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy
in Tehran, signaling his objection to further negotiations with
Washington... On the Iranian official calendar, the 13th day of the month
of Aban (which this year falls on Nov. 3) is Student Day. Anti-US rallies
have been organized across the country on this day since 1979.
SYRIA CONFLICT
Iran now commands a force of around 25,000 Shi'ite Muslim
militants in Syria, mostly made up of recruits from Afghanistan and
Pakistan, the former head of Israel's domestic intelligence agency has
told a visiting Swiss delegation. Avi Dichter, chair of Israel's foreign
affairs and defense committee, told members of the Swiss parliament the
Iranian-backed force was focused on fighting Sunni rebels opposed to
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, not Islamic State. "This is a
foreign legion of some 25,000 militants, most of whom have come from
Afghanistan and Pakistan," Dichter told the delegation during the
briefing on Wednesday, according to details provided by his office.
"They are fighting in Syria only against the rebels and not against
ISIS."
SAUDI-IRAN TENSIONS
Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency says an undisclosed
number of suspects who stormed Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran early
this year were sentenced to prison terms ranging from three to six
months. Friday's report quotes lawyer Mostafa Shabani as saying that
"some of the defendants were sentenced to six months in prison and
others to three months, and some were acquitted." There is no indication
how many were on trial, how many separate trials had taken place or when
the sentences were handed down.
Old disputes between Saudi Arabia and rival Iran
resurfaced at a meeting of OPEC experts last week, with Riyadh
threatening to raise oil output steeply to bring prices down if Tehran
refuses to limit its supply, OPEC sources say.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
Next week tens of millions of Americans will head to the
polls to vote in the 2016 election, celebrating the time-honored
tradition of our nation's electoral process. This year also marks the
37th anniversary for those Americans who were held hostage in Tehran for
444 days during the 1979 Iranian Hostage Crisis. In this unusual
presidential campaign cycle, we have seen a lack of substantive
discussion about Iran and foreign policy from the candidates. This
oversight comes at the most critical time in decades, with the nuclear
deal well underway despite continued hostile behavior from the Iranian
regime. It is imperative that the Presidential candidates and our
policymakers in Congress understand that the Iranian regime that held my
colleagues and me hostage has not reformed its ways. Nearly four decades
after we were held against our will, subjected to torture and abuse,
denied contact with our families with no idea if or when we would ever
come home, my fellow survivors and I are dismayed to see the same actions
being taken against fellow Americans in Iran today. There have been a
number of dual nationals held on unsubstantiated charges-just like I
was-sentenced to years in Iranian prisons without recourse... The next
President must acknowledge the realities of inner turmoil in Iran, and be
prepared to take a hard line against Khamenei and his regime as they push
the envelope. Regardless of who wins the Iranian elections in March, we
already know the regime holds the power and has no intention of working
diplomatically with the West. The fanciful notion that the nuclear deal
would bring about better relations between our two countries has been
dispelled; a new administration will have the chance to cast a spotlight
on Iran for the bad global actor it is.
The United States and its allies have interdicted five
separate weapons shipments from Iran to the Houthis in Yemen since April
2015-shipments that violate U. N. Security Council resolutions.
According to U.S. Vice Admiral Kevin Donergan, "We know they came
from Iran and we know the destination." The U.S. State Department
has also criticized Iranian arms smuggling to Yemen, including the
provision of missiles to the Houthis. This lethal aid violates an arms
embargo that was imposed as part of U.N. Security Council resolution 2231
implementing the nuclear agreement with Iran and the resolutions it
replaced. It also violates U.N. Security Council resolution 2216, adopted
in April 2015, which imposes an arms embargo against the leadership of
the Houthi rebels. However, no action has been taken at the United
Nations to punish these violations. In a little noticed report released
this summer, the Secretary General raised concern over one Iranian arms
shipment interdicted by the United States but concluded only that the
U.N. was "still reviewing the information provided by the United
States and the Islamic Republic of Iran" and that he would
"provide an update on this arms seizure to the Security Council in
due course." ... Under prior U.N. resolutions, a dedicated U.N.
panel of experts was charged with monitoring the implementation of
sanctions against Iran. This independent panel investigated possible
violations and proposed sanctions designations in response. It played a
valuable role in scrutinizing and publicizing a number of illicit Iranian
arms exports. Unfortunately, in response to Iranian demands, the U.N.
panel on Iran was dissolved when the nuclear agreement took effect at the
beginning of this year. Now, it appears, officially documented reports of
repeated Iranian violations face a dead-end diplomatic process at the United
Nations, in which the absence of consensus among Security Council members
stalls any action.
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