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TOP STORIES
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday that
Congress's decision to renew US sanctions for 10 years would elicit a
"harsh reaction" and proved the United States was still an
enemy. "America... is our enemy, we have no doubt about this.
The Americans want to put as much pressure on us as they can,"
Rouhani said in a speech to students at Tehran University. The Iran
Sanctions Act passed the US Senate 99-0 last week, after easily
clearing the House of Representatives in November... "If this is
implemented... it would be a blatant and clear breach of the JCPOA
(nuclear agreement) and would face a very harsh reaction from
us," Rouhani said. The actual language in the agreement could be
interpreted in different ways. It calls on the US to "cease the
application of... all nuclear-related sanctions". It does not
specify whether Washington can keep them in reserve for possible use
in the future. At a press conference on Tuesday, conservative
parliament speaker Ali Larijani said parts of the deal were
"rushed". "Some of the sections of the JCPOA should
have been written with more precision to stop differing
interpretations," Larijani said. "I believe Iran should
file a complaint in regard of the Americans' breach of the
JCPOA," he added.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday he
would not let U.S. President-elect Donald Trump rip up a global
nuclear deal, warning of unspecified repercussions if Washington
reneges on the agreement. Trump had said during campaigns for the
White House that he would scrap Iran's pact with world powers - under
which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear program in return for lifted
sanctions - describing it as "the worst deal ever
negotiated". "[Trump] wants to do many things, but none of
his actions would affect us," Rouhani said in a speech at
University of Tehran broadcast live on state television. "Do you
think the he can rip up the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
nuclear deal)? Do you think we and our nation will let him do that?"
But officials who know General Mattis caution that he
views a tough American posture overseas as something to deter war
with potential foes like Iran, not to start one. And although he was
so hawkish on Iran as head of United States Central Command from 2010
to 2013 that the Obama administration cut short his tour, General
Mattis has since said that tearing up the Iran nuclear agreement, as
Mr. Trump has vowed to do, would hurt the United States... Three
years later, General Mattis's hard-line views on Iran have not
softened as he points out the country's "malign influence,"
whether it is shipping weapons to rebels in Yemen or training Shiite
militias bound for Syria or Iraq. "The Iranian regime, in my
mind, is the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in
the Middle East," General Mattis said in April at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
"Iran is not a nation-state; it's a revolutionary cause devoted
to mayhem." Sunni allies in the Persian Gulf, who have
criticized the Obama administration for improving relations with
Shiite-majority Iran, cheered General Mattis's selection.
NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC MISSILE
PROGRAM
Iran's top nuclear official says the head of the U.N.
nuclear watchdog will visit Iran later this month. Ali Akbar Salehi
told state TV on Tuesday that Yukiya Amano of the Vienna-based
International Atomic Energy Agency has expressed interest in visiting
Iran before the end of current year and that "we welcomed
it." This will be Amano's second visit to Tehran in 2016. He
visited Iran in January, when Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers
went into effect.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
Sitting inside his empty travel agency in Los Angeles,
Farhad Besharati expressed concern about the decline of his business.
The majority of his customers are older Persians who come to him when
they want to purchase airline tickets to Iran. But lately, he said,
some are canceling their flights, and fewer people are arranging
trips. Besharati blames recent arrests in his homeland of Iranians
who hold dual citizenship, some of whom have received lengthy prison
sentences... Hope inspired last year by the signing of a nuclear
accord between Iran and the United States and other world powers now
commingles with fear, especially in Los Angeles, home to the largest
Persian community outside Iran. "My business is down 50%,"
said Besharati. "[My customers] are asking what would happen to
them if they go back to Iran. I tell them if they are not active in
politics, they are safe."
SANCTIONS RELIEF
Iran's state-owned shipping company is in advanced
talks with Korean shipyard Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. for a $650
million order of container ships and tankers, people involved in the
talks said, marking Iran's return to the international market after a
decade. The deal may be announced as early as this week and is part
of plans by Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines and Iranian
Offshore Oil Co., a subsidiary of state oil company National Iranian
Oil Co., to spend a total of up to $2.5 billion to modernize their
fleets. A Hyundai Heavy spokesman said Monday that Islamic Republic
of Iran Shipping Lines, or IRISL, was in talks with the shipyard over
a 10-ship order, but gave no details. Iranian shipping companies
haven't modernized their fleets since 2006, when the United Nations
imposed wide-ranging sanctions against Tehran over its
uranium-enrichment program.
Iran will launch after January 2017 its first
new-style tender to develop oil and gas fields since the lifting of
sanctions, an oil official said on Monday, noting that the deadline
to submit pre-qualification documents has been extended until Dec 10.
OPEC's third largest oil producer hopes its new Iran Petroleum
Contracts (IPC), part of an effort to sweeten the terms it offers on
oil development deals, will attract foreign companies and boost
production after years of under-investment. Ali Kardor, managing
director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), said that 50
international oil companies have submitted their documents for the
tender so far. "We will assess the documents for a month and
after that, probably after January, the first oil tender will be held
... for South Azadegan oil field," Kardor said in an interview
with ISNA on Monday. Some analysts said Iran's IPCs do not seem
attractive enough to raise billions of dollars in foreign direct
investment at a time of low oil prices, especially when compared with
neighboring Iraq's new oil contracts that enabled it to boost its
output.
Iran's oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh invited
Brazilian oil companies to take part in Iran's offshore oil and gas
projects, SHANA news agency reported Dec. 4. Zanganeh made the
remarks on the sidelines of a meeting with Brazil's Minister of Mines
and Energy Fernando Coelho Filho in Tehran. The Iranian minister said
that Brazilian companies, in particular Petrobras have very good
experience in exploration and development of oil fields in deep
waters. Iran needs this experience for its oil projects in Caspian
Sea, Zanganeh added.
India is inclined to invest up to $20 billion in Iran,
Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said. While
expressing India's willingness to invest in Iran's southeastern port
of Chabahar, he said his country will make such an investment 'if
conditions are provided', IRNA reported on Saturday. He made the
remarks during Iran-India Business Round Table which was held in New
Delhi on Saturday. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif,
senior managers from Iranian and Indian chambers of commerce, banks,
and other sectors including industry, trade, and science attended the
business forum, IRNA reported on Saturday.
According to a report by IFP, the International
Renewable Energies Conference will be held on December 6-8 with the
support of Iranian Vice-Presidency for Science and Technology. More
than 70 European and Asian reputable firms in the fields of wind,
solar, geothermal and biomass energies will partake in this
conference. These companies are from such countries as Germany,
Denmark, England, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, China, and Norway.
Given the presence of such leading firms as Vestas, nVision, Huawei,
Goldwind, Lahmayer, Turboden and FaroWind, as well as reputable
global investment companies, this conference will use the opportunity
to show Iran's domestic capacities to foreign firms and investors.
The central dealership of Iran's second largest auto
manufacturer, SAIPA, opened in Lebanon on Friday. Senior officials
from both countries attended the inauguration, namely Iranian
Ambassador Mohammad Fathali and SAIPA chief Mahdi Jamali,
Lebanese ministers, politicians and business leaders... In
collaboration with Lebanon's Mecanica Group, SAIPA will offer models
with a competitive edge that have acceptable quality and are
affordable.
The foundation ceremony for the new subsidiary BITZER
Iranian will be held at the Espinas Hotel in Tehran today on Monday,
5 December 2016. BITZER compressors have been well represented in the
Iranian market for decades. Now the long-standing company is
establishing its own subsidiary that reports to its Middle East site
in Dubai.
EXTREMISM
Speaking in a lecture marking the demise anniversary
of the Prophet Muhammad and the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hasan
al-Mujtaba at the Holy Shrine of Imam al-Ridha, Sayyed Ebrahim Raeisi
referred to a truck bombing carried out by Daesh (ISIS/IS) terrorists
at a gas station in the Iraqi village of Shomali in the suburbs of
Hillah on Thursday, which left around 100 people dead, including
dozens of Iranian pilgrims who had completed the Arbaeen pilgrimage,
and said, "We know that in reality, the filthy hands of the
United States, the Zionist regime and the evil Saudi regime were
responsible for this attack in Hillah."
CYBERWARFARE
Recent cyberattacks have frozen an unspecified number
of computers at two government agencies in Saudi Arabia, and security
experts say it is likely that Iran is behind the digital mayhem. The
attacks are believed to have affected thousands of computers at the
Saudi civil aviation and transportation agencies, harkening back to a
devastating Iranian cyberattack in 2012 that nearly crippled the
Saudi state oil company, Aramco... "Since the (U.S.) election
especially, there's been a pretty drastic increase in the amount of
targeting of Saudi and Israeli institutions by hacking groups that we
absolutely know are based out of Iran," said Collin Anderson, an
independent researcher currently writing a report on Iranian cyber
warfare for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Anderson
said "reasonable degrees of evidence" link the hacking to
the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran's most powerful security
and military organization.
TERRORISM
A Kenyan prosecutor says two Iranian nationals and a Kenyan
accused of collecting information to facilitate a terrorist act after
allegedly being found with video footage of the Israeli embassy also
had filmed the office of Kenya's president. Duncan Ondimu on Tuesday
argued against granting bail to the two Iranians, saying they had
filmed restricted government sites. The two were arrested a week ago.
Iran says they are lawyers and were in Kenya representing two other
Iranians jailed for 15 years for terrorism.
SAUDI-IRAN TENSIONS
A Saudi court on Tuesday sentenced 15 people to death
for spying for the kingdom's arch-enemy, Iran, Saudi-owned media
reported, in a ruling that could further stoke tension between the
two rival powers. The Specialised Criminal Court in Riyadh sentenced
15 other suspects to prison terms ranging from six months to 25
years, and acquitted two, the Arabic-language al-Riyadh newspaper
said on its website. The suspects, comprising 30 Saudi Shi'ite
Muslims, one Iranian and an Afghan, were detained in 2013 on charges
of spying for Iran and went on trial in February.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Twelve people involved in the fashion industry in Iran
are reported to have been jailed for "spreading
prostitution" via images posted online. The eight women and four
men were handed sentences of between five months and six years by a
court in Shiraz, a lawyer told the Ilna news agency. They were also banned
from working in fashion and travelling abroad for two years
afterwards, Mahmoud Taravat said... The 12 were convicted of charges
including spreading prostitution and promoting corruption via the
publication of obscene images online, inciting Muslims to corrupt
themselves through putting on fashion shows, and spreading a
"Western-style culture of nudity".
The dual national translator for a prestigious film
festival was prevented from boarding a flight to Germany at Tehran's
Imam Khomeini International Airport and her passport confiscated as
she was leaving the country together with her colleague on November
27. "Nooshafarin Dastoori has been summoned to the Intelligence
Ministry to explain some things," an informed source told the
International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, although it was not
clear what the ministry was seeking. "Everything seemed to be
going well until the last airport checkpoint, when Ms. Dastoori was
prevented from boarding the plain and her passport was taken away. I
know that she was questioned at the security office in the airport
but she was not given a reason why she was not allowed to travel
abroad. They only told her that she had to stay in Iran for the time
being and answer a few questions," said the source. Dastoori, a
German-Iranian national, is an assistant to Anke Leweke, the Iran
Consultant for the Berlin Film Festival. They were in Tehran to
select films, which were confiscated at the airport, according to the
source.
In an interview with the Iran-based news outlet
Parsineh in April last year, an Iranian Baluchi woman relayed some of
the perils of Iran's current civil code. Born in poverty, she said
that she was married off to an Afghan man at the age of 12. After
fathering seven children, her spouse returned to Afghanistan, leaving
her behind with their children - all of whom lack birth certificates.
Fearing deportation, she is now staying in a remote mountain home
with no running water or electricity. Based on Iran's civil code, the
marriage of an Iranian woman to a foreign national is dependent upon
special permission from the Foreign Ministry. In practice, this means
that Iranian women need to get permission to marry non-Iranian
Muslims. Iran's civil code forbids Muslim women from marrying
non-Muslim men. An estimated 70,000 marriages between Iranian women
and Afghan men are not registered with the National Organization for
Civil Registration. Meanwhile, Iran's Interior Ministry has declared
all marriages between Iranian women and Afghan men that took place
after 2001 invalid.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
When he assumes office in January, Donald Trump will
inherit a host of foreign policy problems in the Middle East-from
civil wars to terrorist insurgencies. But of all the antagonists in
the region that he will have to deal with, Iran, an unpredictable foe
with its flag planted in Arab capitals from Beirut to Baghdad, is the
most consequential. For Trump, a successful foreign policy in the
Middle East will hinge on a successful Iran policy. As the new Trump
administration contemplates just what form this policy will take,
there are important lessons it can learn from all of its
predecessors. Since the advent of the Islamic Republic in 1979,
successive administrations-both Republican and Democrat-have wrestled
with the theocratic regime, often making the same assumptions and
often the same mistakes. To avoid this trap, the new team should
absorb the right lessons from this tortured history. The first lesson
is that Iran should be treated as a unitary nation-state and not a
collection of hard-liners and moderates that American policy can
manipulate to its advantage. The entire notion of Iranian
factionalism must be reconsidered in the aftermath of the 2009 revolt,
when the theocratic state purged the reformers from its midst. It is
too facile to suggest that Iran has arrived at the age of internal
consensus, but the rivalries that once divided the clerical state are
less urgent and less acute today. On core issues of regional hegemony
and consolidation of clerical autocracy, the Islamic Republic has
arrived at an agreement as both Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and
President Hassan Rouhani share the same objectives, even though their
tactics may at times differ.
The Trump administration will need to be on its toes
to enforce the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement-and stop the Islamic
Republic's developing chemical and biological weapons programs.
President-elect Donald Trump called the nuclear deal a "lopsided
disgrace" and the "worst deal ever negotiated."
Aggressive enforcement of the deal-assuming Trump does not
scrap the pact-will need to be a top priority. Take the example of
Iran's violations before the ink was even dry on the deal... Putting
aside the disturbing violations of the nuclear and missile
restrictions, the drafters of the nuclear accord overlooked Iran's
continuing determination to build its chemical and biological warfare
capabilities.
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