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TOP STORIES
Iran is continuing to behave as an exporter of terrorism
and still sponsors militant activity, U.S. Defense Secretary James
Mattis said in London on Friday. Asked about comments Mattis made in
2012 that the three primary threats the United States faced were
"Iran, Iran, Iran," Mattis told reporters that Iran's
behavior had not changed in the years since. "At the time when I
spoke about Iran I was a commander of US central command and that
(Iran) was the primary exporter of terrorism, frankly, it was the
primary state sponsor of terrorism and it continues that kind of
behavior today," Mattis said.
Gulf ministers meeting in Riyadh on Thursday condemned
what they termed Iran's support for "terrorist gangs" in
Bahrain and urged Tehran to stop fueling "sectarian
conflicts". In a statement issued at the end of a meeting in
Riyadh, the ministers of the Arab states of the Gulf expressed
"condemnation of the provocative and irresponsible statements,
and acts of aggression by the Iranian regime towards the kingdom of
Bahrain". They also deplored Tehran's "support to terrorist
gangs" and accused it of "fueling sectarian strife to harm
national unity in the kingdom". The ministerial council urged
Iran to "abandon politics that lead to nourishing sectarian and
confessional conflicts, and to stop forming and supporting groups and
militias that fuel these conflicts in Arab states."
A 21-year-old man has been sentenced to death by Iranian
authorities for "insulting Islam" through messages he sent
on an instant messenger app. Human rights lawyers claim that Sina
Dehghan, who was just 19 when he sent the messages, was tricked into
signing his own death warrant after being persuaded to confess to the
breach of Islamic law with the promise of release if he did so. But
after obtaining a confession, prosecutors dropped the agreement and
sentenced Dehghan to death in January this year, according to the
Centre for Human Rights in Iran. The content of the messages, said to
have been sent using the Line app, is unknown. A source told CHRI:
"During his interrogation, Sina was told that if he signed a
confession and repented, he would be pardoned and let go.
NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC MISSILE
PROGRAM
Sanctions on Iran are not enough to stop the country's
illicit ballistic missile program, according to senior State
Department officials, who said on Thursday that a new package of
sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic would not halt the country's
missile development. The Trump administration announced earlier this
month a large package of sanctions targeting Iran, Syria, and North
Korea for their efforts to transfer illicit materials and technology.
The sanctions, which targeted 30 entities in 10 separate countries,
target a range of actors found to be complicit in the transfer
"of sensitive items to Iran's ballistic missile program,"
according to the State Department. The latest sanctions come as Iran
continues to provide missile technology and support to terror
organizations across the Middle East, including Hezbollah. Iran also
continues to trade nuclear and missile technology with North Korea,
which was also hit with sanctions under the most recent designations.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
United States President Donald Trump's administration
has warned Iran again over its financial and material support of
Houthis in Yemen and reiterated the danger the militias are posing to
international waters over the control of the Bab-el-Mandeb strait.
The warnings came Army General Joseph Votel told the House Armed
Services Committee on Wednesday that the US does not want Yemen to be
used as a sanctuary for attacks against the US. The Bab el-Mandeb
Strait connects the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, a strategic passage
for world trade. "I am extraordinarily concerned about another
contested maritime chokepoint in the region," Votel said,
referring to tensions with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz.
CONGRESSIONAL ACTION
A bipartisan group of US lawmakers is demanding that
President Donald Trump seek the approval of Congress before
escalating US involvement in Yemen's civil war. Four House members
are collecting signatures on a letter to the president amid growing
signs that the White House and the Pentagon want to more directly
take on the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. The United States has been
selling bombs and weapons to the Saudi-led coalition since its March
2015 intervention, but the Trump administration is reportedly
considering helping Saudi and Emirati forces capture the Red Sea port
of Hodeida. "Engaging our military against Yemen's Houthis when
no direct threat to the United States exists and without prior
congressional authorization would violate the separation of powers
clearly delineated in the constitution," reads a draft letter to
Trump obtained by Al-Monitor. "For this reason, we write to
request that the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) provide, without
delay, any legal justification that it would cite if the
administration intends to engage in direct hostilities against
Yemen's Houthis without seeking congressional authorization."
BUSINESS RISK
With the sanctions squabble escalating between Iran and
the US, New Delhi is instructing Indian firms to go slow on the
proposed projects in Chabahar Free Trade Zone lest their financial
transactions and technology imports from the rest of the world get
caught in the crossfire. The first message from the Ministry of
External Affairs has been conveyed to the Department of Fertilisers
to instruct state-run Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF) -
which had been directed last November to shortlist the Iranian joint
venture partner and firm up the feasibility report for the urea
project - to suspend further actions. The MEA has told the Department
of Fertilisers that it "must wait for some time before taking
any further decision". It said that it would subsequently
clarify India's stand on Iran, including the possibility of funding
the project.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
India is inching closer to establishing its presence
near the Persian Gulf with billionaires Gautam Adani and the Essar
group's Ruia brothers flagging interest in managing terminals at
Iran's Chabahar port, which India first agreed to develop 14 years ago,
according to people with knowledge of the matter. Adani Ports &
Special Economic Zone Ltd., operator of India's largest port, and
Essar Ports Ltd. are among companies that have expressed an interest
in managing and operating two terminals at Chabahar, said the people,
asking not to be identified discussing confidential matters. India
Ports Global Ltd., the company mandated to drive India's investments
in overseas ports, on March 17 invited firms to express interest if
they want to be considered for a strategic partnership
Iranian sovereign fund IFIC is targeting investments in
the healthcare and high-tech sectors in the hope of improving the
lives of Iranians, Vahid Sharif, an investment manager at the fund,
said on Thursday. The Iran Foreign Investment Company, set up in 1997
as a holding company to manage the state's assets and investments
overseas, has around $5 billion under management, Sharif said.
Revenues come from company dividends, and its mandate is to reinvest
these in new opportunities abroad. It is currently invested in 22
companies including banks, financial and credit institutions, mining
and other industries. Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the
Global Sovereign Wealth Forum in London, Sharif said IFIC was
focusing on opportunities in the healthcare industry -- such as
pharmaceuticals to tackle cancer and Alzheimer's -- and innovative
high-tech industries.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called upon
the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council to "not mistake friends for
enemies" in a statement released after a Wednesday Arab summit.
The GCC should attend to common threats, said spokesman Bahram
Qassemi, stressing that, "The Islamic Republic of Iran has upon
many occasions reiterated that it does not need interfere with the
internal affairs of other countries." Iran stays steadfastly
committed to good neighborliness and respect for the sovereignty of
its neighbors, Qassemi said. He expressed deep sorrow that "some
Arab leaders instead of attending to the most important afflictions
of the region... go astray and fail to recognize friends from
enemies."
SYRIA CONFLICT
Mustafa Zahrani, head of strategic affairs at the
Institute for Political and International Studies of the Iranian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, revealed that his country does not have
a strategy to get out of the war in Syria. He added that Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad will turn his back on Iran and ally with
Russia because Moscow can challenge and stand up to the United
States. In an article published by the "Iranian diplomat"
website of Sadegh Kharrazi, Iran's former ambassador to the UN,
Zahrani disclosed that "Syria will side with whoever can keep
Bashar al-Assad in power, and in this equation, the Russians were
more supportive. Although Iran has played a great role in the field,
in terms of air cover and international privileges, Russia has the
upper hand. Assad will turn his back on Iran and shake hands with
Russia.
HUMAN RIGHTS
A little over a week after reformist
members of Parliament asked Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to
attend to a spate of arrests ahead of the country's upcoming
elections, the president asked for the same thing from his interior
minister. In his first cabinet meeting after the Iranian New Year on
March 21, 2017, Rouhani publicly asked for an explanation from
Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli for the "suspicious
arrests of a number of media activists on the eve of the
elections," and asked him to prevent "security violations."
The arrests of several activists and journalists since January have
not been confirmed or denied by any authority in the country.
"It is necessary to guarantee the security of all the people...
and prevent unlawful actions by institutions that have no right to
interfere in the elections," said Rouhani while addressing his
cabinet on March 26.
Sixty-four kolbar, Kurdish cross-border porters,
"the poorest among Iran's most poor Kurds," lost their
lives in 2016, according to a new report. "[I]n 2016 alone, 42
Kolber workers were directly shot dead, 30 were injured, and 22
drowned or died of hypothermia and other causes," stated the Kurdistan
Human Rights Network (KHRN) in their annual report on the kolbar
published Thursday. The kolbar are semi-legal porters who carry
goods on their backs, across the mountains from the Kurdistan Region
to Iran. The France-based KHRN described the kolbar as one of the
most forgotten groups, "the most abandoned section of the
Iranian society. They are the poorest among Iran's most poor
Kurds." According to the KHRN, many young Kurds have recently
taken up the heavy packs on the dangerous routes because of rising
poverty rates as a deepening financial crisis in Iran has hit hard
the already impoverished Kurdish regions.
Iran has banned some of its women players from billiard
sports competitions for a year for violating the Islamic codes of
conduct at a tournament in China, sporting authorities announced. The
Disciplinary Committee of Bowling, Billiard and Boxing Federation did
not reveal the nature of the alleged offences, saying it would name
the transgressors later. "Women sent to China Open (billiard)
competitions will be banned from all domestic and foreign
competitions for one year for violating the Islamic code," it
said late on Thursday, according to the ISNA and Tasnim news
agencies. The category of billiard sports includes billiards, pool and
snooker. Since the 1979 revolution, Iran has required women to wear
the Islamic headscarf in public. The Islamic code also forbids women
touching, dancing or singing with men outside their families.
DOMESTIC POLITICS
Addressing a gathering of young elites from Iran's
northern province of Gilan on Thursday evening, President Rouhani
referred to unemployment as a "heavy burden" his
administration is carrying. Rouhani said he had told Leader of the
Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei immediately after
taking the office following the 2013 presidential election that the
major problem the administration had to deal with was job creation
for the youth, which is more important than the nuclear negotiations
or the foreign policy issues. He further expressed the confidence
that concerted action and unity in the new Iranian year will help his
cabinet implement job creation plans and reduce unemployment. His
comments came after Ayatollah Khamenei named the new Iranian calendar
year, which began on March 21, as the "Year of Economy of
Resistance: Production and Employment."
Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is one of the most
unique players on Iran's political stage - an unpredictable figure
who is no stranger to political U-turns. On Feb. 11, he officially
announced that he would not back any candidate in the May 19
presidential elections. Yet, Ahmadinejad, who was president from 2005
until 2013, has become one of the most active campaigners - even more
so than some of the candidates actually running in the race - and he
is vigorously supporting his former deputy Hamid Baghaei, who
announced his candidacy just days after Ahmadinejad's announcement.
Indeed, the conservative former president's activities have not been
what could be called stable.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
While many of Iran's citizens have suffered all of the
hardships of a failing economy, in a land of increasing unemployment
and low pay, the ruling mullahs lead the lives of past emperors,
living in absolute luxury, with billions they have made off the backs
of the Iranian people, now insulating them from the crumbling nation
they reside over. Beggars wander the streets of Iran in droves, drug
addicts with nothing to live for litter the thoroughfares, while the
homeless find shelter where they can, some known to have taken up
residence living under bridges, or in the sewerage canals that run
alongside the country's highways. But as recently as 2016, photographs
shot by renowned photographer Saeed Gholamhoseini, and published in
the Shahrvand Daily, have depicted many of these hapless vagrants
sleeping in empty graves in Hahriar, a town about 20 kilometres (12
miles) from Tehran, the nation's capital, images that shocked the
nation.
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