Monday, January 30, 2017

Eye on Iran: Iran Promises Proportional Response for Donald Trump's Immigration Ban


   EYE ON IRAN
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Iran vowed Saturday to respond to President Donald Trump's suspension of U.S. visas for citizens of seven countries including the Islamic Republic, as the president's new executive order tripped up travelers across the Middle East. Iran's Foreign Ministry, in a statement carried by the official Islamic Republic News Agency, called Mr. Trump's immigration ban "an obvious insult to the Islamic world and especially the great Iranian nation" and warned it would be a "gift to the extremists and their supporters." The statement promised proportionate legal, consular and political consequences, but it didn't say what those would be.

Two days after moving to block the entry of citizens of seven majority Muslim countries, President Donald Trump's talks with two Gulf Arab leaders contained no public mention of the ban. The focus, instead, was on anti-terrorism efforts and confronting a mutual foe: Iran. Trump spoke by phone on Sunday with Saudi Arabia's King Salman, whose country is home to Islam's holiest shrines, as well as Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed. The call with the Saudi monarch lasted more than an hour, according to a senior Saudi person who spoke on condition of anonymity. In addition to fighting terrorism, they agreed to tackle Iran's "destabilizing regional activities," the White House said. The remarks shed more light on Trump's Middle East policy by signaling he wants to improve ties with the Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab monarchies that felt shunned by the U.S. under the Obama administration, which focused on clinching a nuclear deal with Iran. The new U.S. president, however, stopped short of repeating his earlier vows to repeal the accord, saying he agreed with the Saudi king on "the importance of rigorously enforcing" it, according to the Trump administration.

Two juvenile offenders were executed in Kerman (southeastern Iran) and Tabriz (northwestern Iran) prisons. This is in addition to the more than 70 people who have been executed since the beginning of 2017. Iran Human Rights calls for international reactions to the wave of executions and in particular juvenile executions in Iran... The Iranian authorities lead the world in the most executions of minors, despite the revisions made to the Islamic Penal Code and that child executions violate Iran's international obligations.

U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS

Iran said on Saturday it would stop U.S. citizens entering the country in retaliation to Washington's visa ban against Tehran and six other majority-Muslim countries announced by new U.S. President Donald Trump. "While respecting the American people and distinguishing between them and the hostile policies of the U.S. government, Iran will implement the principle of reciprocity until the offensive U.S. limitations against Iranian nationals are lifted," a Foreign Ministry statement said. "The restrictions against travel by Muslims to America... are an open affront against the Muslim world and the Iranian nation in particular and will be known as a great gift to extremists," said the statement, carried by state media.

But there is little doubt that the demand for information will be a challenge for Iran, which sends far more people to the United States each year, around 35,000, than any other country on the list. While Iran willingly allows its citizens to travel to the United States, it is ideologically opposed to sharing information with Washington. But if it does not, many of its citizens will be cut off from visiting relatives who are among the estimated one million Iranian-Americans living in America. The visa ban will provide an early indication of where relations between Tehran and the Trump administration are headed, one analyst said. "Trump will regard the Iranian reaction as a test," said Farshad Ghorbanpour, who is close to the government of President Hassan Rouhani. "If Iran doesn't comply, they won't do so either on other issues. We will see in 30 days."

Austria has shut its door to about 300 non-Muslim Iranians hoping to use the country as a way station before establishing new homes in the United States, The Associated Press has learned. The action is an early ripple effect of U.S. President Donald Trump's effort to clamp down on refugee admissions. Under a 27-year-old program originally approved by Congress to help Jews in the former Soviet Union, Austria had been serving until recently as a conduit for Iranian Jews, Christians and Baha'i, who were at risk in their home country and eligible to resettle in the United States. Iran has banned the Baha'i religion, which was founded in 1844 by a Persian nobleman considered a prophet by followers. U.S. officials had been interviewing the candidates in Austria because they cannot do so in Iran. But the United States suspended the so-called "Iranian Lautenberg Program" in recent days, according to Austrian officials, who in turn stopped Iranians from reaching their territory. It's unclear when the program might restart.

Duke University professor and Iranian dissident Mohsen Kadivar left his home in North Carolina 10 days ago to attend a fellowship program in Germany. Now, stranded in Berlin as a result of new U.S. immigration rules, the longstanding critic of Iran's ruling clerical establishment does not know whether or when he can rejoin his wife and two children in the United States... Kadivar, once an active participant in Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution who later fell foul of its leaders, told Reuters from Berlin he was concerned about his family and career in America.

The Iranian government is to stop using the US dollar in its official statements, according to a report in the local English-language daily the Financial Tribune. The decision was announced by Central Bank of Iran governor Valiollah Seif during a television interview on the evening of January 29 and, according to the paper, is due to take effect from the start of the new fiscal year on 21 March. It will affect all official financial and foreign exchange reports... This leaves open the question of what Iran will use to replace the dollar. Seif said in the television interview that "we have to set a currency as the basis of financial reporting that has better stability and greater application in our foreign trade," according to the Financial Tribune. He added that Iran has the option of "selecting a basket of currencies or choosing the currency that plays the biggest part in foreign trade". That suggests that the euro could be a logical alternative for the dollar. However, the decision to drop the dollar could prove to be complicated for Iran, given that its most important export is oil which is priced in dollars.

As Iranians woke on Saturday to the news that none of them would be able to enter the United States for at least 90 days, on the orders of President Trump, panic reigned. They were turned back from flights to the United States in Tehran and in the major transfer hubs of Istanbul and Dubai. Some of those who arrived in the United States after midnight, when the decree went into effect, were held or deported, rights groups and airline representatives said. No one, not passengers, airline representatives or even United States border control officials, seemed to know how to interpret the executive order that went into effect at midnight on Friday. Under the new policy, refugees, immigrants and almost anyone from seven countries deemed to be hotbeds of terrorism are banned from the United States for 90 days, pending a review of policies.

Iran's foreign minister has described Donald Trump's decision to ban entry to the US from seven Muslim-majority countries as "a gift to extremists". Javad Zarif said on his Twitter account that the Islamic Republic would no longer issue visas to US nationals, in retaliation to an executive order that "will be recorded in history as a great gift to extremists and their supporters". Mr Trump's executive order bars people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the US for 90 days. This "shows the baselessness of US claims of friendship with the Iranian people", said Mr Zarif... The ban is a blow to Hassan Rouhani, Iran's centrist president, who had promised during his 2013 election campaign to "bring back dignity to the Iranian passport".

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday it was no time to build walls between nations and criticized steps towards cancelling world trade agreements, without naming new U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump on Wednesday ordered the construction of a U.S.-Mexican border wall, a major promise during his election campaign, as part of a package of measures to curb illegal immigration. "Today is not the time to erect walls between nations. They have forgotten that the Berlin wall fell years ago," Rouhani said in a speech carried live on Iranian state television. "To annul world trade accords does not help their economy and does not serve the development and blooming of the world economy," Rouhani told a tourism conference in Tehran. "This is the day for the world to get closer through trade."

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

France's foreign minister travels to Iran on Monday, seeking to reaffirm Europe's commitment to the nuclear deal that U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to annul... "Jean-Marc Ayrault is going to underline the importance that all sides which backed the deal strictly respect their commitments," Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal told a daily briefing... "That the Iranians have been destabilized by Trump's election and statements is certain and I think they must be worried," a French diplomatic source said. "But developing commercial ties strengthens the moderates in Iran. We want to reinforce them to show the population that the deal is good for them because the radicals won't be able to say that they have got nothing from it."

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi has released details on the agenda of French FM Jean-Marc Ayrault during his official visit to Tehran on Monday. Bahram Ghasemi noted that the French Foreign Minister heading a high-ranking political delegation accompanied by representatives from economic enterprises is scheduled for an official visit to Iran on Monday evening. "Foreign ministers of Iran and France will convene a joint economic and trade commission's meeting on Tuesday," Ghasemi said, adding that taking part in the economic commission's meeting is among the main programs of Ayrault's visit to Tehran. There is the possibility that the two sides sign a number of documents at the end of the meeting, he added... Ayrault is accompanied by representatives from 60 French companies, directors of Middles East and African affairs at Foreign Ministry, managers of entrepreneurship and international economic institutions, officials in charge of Iranian affairs at Foreign Ministry, heads of Department of Treasury Office, and a number of governmental officials and media persons.

SANCTIONS RELIEF

Lukoil, Russia's No.2 oil producer, hopes to reach a decision on developing two new oilfields in Iran and wants to expand its operations further in the Middle East this year, a senior executive said on Sunday. Lukoil is talking with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) on taking part in development of the Abe Timur and Mansuri fields in central-western Iran, said Gati al-Jebouri, vice president and head of upstream operations in the Middle East. "We are in active discussions with them with respect to budget cost structure, and subsequently we will start negotiations on contractual terms if the development plans that we proposed are accepted and agreed by the Iranian party," Jebouri told reporters on Sunday. Lukoil signed several memorandum of understanding with NIOC last year, and "had site visits and have done significant amount of analysis as to how we potentially can develop the project," he said.

REGIONAL DESTABILIZATION

The air force of the United Arab Emirates shot down an Iranian-made drone in Yemen, state news agency WAM reported on Saturday, quoting a Yemeni military officer. The UAE is a member of a mostly Gulf Arab military coalition led by Saudi Arabia that is backing Yemen's internationally recognized government in a nearly two-year war against the Iran-allied Houthi group. It appeared to be the first time the coalition had accused the Houthis of deploying drones made by their regional arch-rival Iran. "Yemeni forces ... spotted preparation to launch the plane from atop a light transport vehicle and coordinated and communicated with the UAE air force operating in Yemen, which did its part in dealing with the plane, destroying it with an air-to-land missile," WAM quoted the officer saying.

DOMESTIC POLITICS

Iran's new charter of rights outlining freedoms of speech, protest and fair trials does not apply to the detention of opposition leaders and dual nationals, the bill's architect says. The Charter of Citizens' Rights, released last month by the office of President Hassan Rouhani, embodies freedoms including the right to trial in open court without arbitrary detention. But Elham Aminzadeh, special assistant to Rouhani on citizens' rights, told AFP in an interview that the bill has no power over the judiciary or Parliament, and only covers the civil service and other parts of the executive. "I cannot put an article in this charter for the judiciary or legislative," said Aminzadeh, who spent three years compiling the document. Asked about the continued house arrest without trial of opposition leaders since anti-government protests in 2009, she said: "It is not very related to the executive or administrative power. It is something else. I cannot answer to this." On the trials of dual nationals, who have recently been jailed in closed-door courts, Aminzadeh said: "Security prisoners have a special process inside the judiciary. We cannot say anything about special security prisoners.

The final death toll in the deadly collapse of a burning building in the Iranian capital is 26, including 16 firefighters, Iran's semi-official ILNA news agency reported Friday. Hassan Abbasi, public relations director of the Tehran Emergency Center, told the state-run IRNA news agency that 235 were wounded at the Plasco building fire and collapse in Tehran on Thursday. "Tehran Emergency Center has provided outpatient and recovery treatment for 180 injured and 55 others have been taken to Tehran hospitals," he said.

OPINION & ANALYSIS

President Trump's travel ban on Iranians is a gift to the Islamic republic and its hard-line rulers. It will not deter terrorism on U.S. soil. Not a single terrorist involved in the 9/11 attacks or other fatal terrorist attacks in the United States since then has been of Iranian origin. Instead, Trump's policy is a collective punishment of a diverse and changing nationality, and will ironically serve the purposes of Iran's hard-line rulers. Who are the Iranians who will be harmed by this policy? I have been helping Iranian refugees reach safety for more than a decade. A recent case is that of Reza, his wife and their 3-year-old daughter. Reza, whose full name I cannot use for security reasons, is a victim of torture at the hands of Iranian Revolutionary Guards at Tehran's notorious Kahrizak prison. Reza fled to Turkey in 2013, and after years waiting, he and his family were recently approved for resettlement in the United States. He hoped to arrive sometime this year, once security vetting by U.S. agencies was complete. His hopes are shattered. He and his family are suddenly rendered effectively stateless and homeless, with nowhere to turn. Instead of welcoming a regime opponent to the United States, we are effectively throwing Reza and his family back into the treacherous hands of Iranian Revolutionary Guards. The Iranian refugees who have settled in the United States over the past decade are chiefly victims of the regime's harsh crackdowns, including students, journalists, women's rights activists and lawyers. These are the Iranians who have vocally and ferociously opposed the Islamic republic.






Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please email press@uani.com.

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons.  UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.

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