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TOP STORIES
Iran has indicted a member of its nuclear negotiating
team who was arrested last year on suspicion of spying, and detained
an Iranian-American on charges of defrauding people under the guise
of helping them emigrate, the Iranian judiciary said on Sunday.
Several Iranian dual nationals from the United States, Britain,
Austria, Canada and France have been detained in the past year and are
being kept behind bars on charges including espionage and
collaborating with hostile governments. Authorities have formally
charged a dual national who had been a member of the negotiating team
that reached a landmark nuclear deal with world powers before being
arrested last year, said judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni
Ejei, quoted by the judiciary's website, Mizan. Announcing the arrest
in August, Mohseni Ejei said the unidentified individual was a
"spy who had infiltrated the nuclear team". Mohseni Ejei
gave no further details about the defendant, but some news reports
said he is Iranian-Canadian. Mohseni Ejei also told reporters that an
unnamed Iranian-American was arrested for defrauding people seeking
U.S. residence of $2.6 million, Mizan reported.
A U.S. Navy surveillance ship had a close encounter
with an Iranian navy frigate in the Middle East, CBS News national
security correspondent David Martin reports. The frigate came within
150 yards of the USNS Invincible on Thursday in the Gulf of Oman,
just south of the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The gulf separates Oman
from southeastern Iran. The encounter was deemed
"unprofessional" but not unsafe because the frigate was on
a parallel course with the Invincible at the point of closest
approach. The Invincible is outfitted with sonar to track submarines
and radar to monitor missile tests.
Iran's hardline former president Mahmud Ahmadinejad
became the latest leader to join Twitter on Sunday, despite having
been instrumental in getting it banned from the country.
Ahmadinejad's first tweet from his personal account was a video in
which he called on people to follow him at @Ahmadinejad1956. "In
the name of God Peace be upon all the freedom loving people of the
world," he wrote in English. Despite the service being blocked
for ordinary citizens, many of Iran's top officials tweet regularly,
including President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad
Javad Zarif. Even the office of supreme leader Ali Khamenei maintains
accounts in several languages. Iranian users -- who get round the
restrictions using privacy software -- were quick to point out the
irony that Twitter was banned following mass protests against
Ahmadinejad's re-election in 2009.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
Last year, when the United States and Iran exchanged
prisoners, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the Tehran
government had also pledged to help in the search for a long-missing
American who had disappeared in Iran in March 2007. To bolster that
promise, Iranian officials secretly informed the Obama administration
that they had received intelligence that the remains of an American
had been buried in Balochistan, a rugged, lawless region in western
Pakistan that borders Afghanistan and Iran. The remains, it was
assumed, were that of the missing man, Robert A. Levinson, a private
investigator and former agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation
who was also a part-time consultant for the Central Intelligence
Agency. But when the Pakistani authorities went to the supposed
burial site, they did not find any remains. American officials
concluded that the report, rather than a gesture of good will, was a
gambit by Iran to further cloud its role in Mr. Levinson's fate.
Today, a decade after Mr. Levinson vanished, the Trump administration
faces a decision about what steps to take, if any, to bring a
resolution of his case.
BUSINESS RISK
Iran's government "understands" French
energy giant Total's caution over investing in the Islamic republic
before Washington clarifies its position on trade with Tehran, the
country's deputy oil minister said Saturday. "Total has
announced that it is awaiting America's final decision with regards
to Iran. We understand Total," said Amir Hossein Zamani Nia,
quoted by state news agency IRNA. "They want to invest five
billion dollars. We are not upset with Total," he said.
"Since a month and a half ago... they have spent more than 20
million dollars" on preparing projects in the Islamic republic.
Nia said that Iran was in negotiations with foreign companies on more
than 25 projects in the oil and gas sector but it would not be held
"hostage" to political demands.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
France is working on plans to issue direct loans to
companies that want to invest in Iran, Finance Minister Michel Sapin
said in a press conference in Tehran. "We are trying to help
these companies," Sapin told reporters at the Ministry of
Finance and Economic Affairs in Tehran at a joint press conference
with his Iranian counterpart, Ali Tayebnia. "They wil be able to
apply for loans, but it's not active yet. We are working on
this." French companies were among the first to return to Iran
after sanctions were eased last year under Tehran's nuclear deal with
six world powers, but officials have said financing issues have
hobbled some big infrastructure projects. France's largest banks have
been reluctant to do business with the oil-rich country because of
remaining U.S. sanctions, and Iran lacks access to major
international lenders.
Iran and neighboring Azerbaijan agreed on Sunday to
work towards completing their portion of a planned freight railway
route from Europe to South Asia, Iranian state media reported. After
talks between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Azeri
counterpart Ilham Aliyev, the two countries signed an accord to link
their rail systems on a trial basis, state news agency IRNA reported.
The planned freight route, called the North-South International
Transport Corridor, aims to connect northern Europe to South Asia by
using the railways of Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia. A shipping service
is to be set up between Iran's Gulf port of Bandar Abbas and Mumbai
in India.
MILITARY MATTERS
Iran's advanced S-300 air defence system, delivered by
Russia following a July 2015 nuclear deal after years of delay, is
now operational, state television reported on Saturday. Iran had been
trying to acquire the system for years to ward off repeated threats
by Israel to bomb its nuclear facilities, but Russia had held off
delivery in line with UN sanctions imposed over the nuclear
programme. "The S-300 air defence system has been tested... in
the presence of government and military officials," the
television said It said that the test at a desert base had seen
several targets, including a ballistic missile and a drone,
intercepted.
SYRIA CONFLICT
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would meet
Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday to voice
opposition to what the Israeli leader charged were Iran's attempts to
establish a permanent military foothold in Syria. "In the
framework of a (future peace agreement) or without one, Iran is
attempting to base itself permanently in Syria - either through a
military presence on the ground or a naval presence - and also
through a gradual attempt to open a front against us on the Golan
Heights," Netanyahu told his cabinet in public remarks on
Sunday. "I will express to President Putin Israel's vigorous
opposition to this possibility," he said.
TERRORISM
Iran is responsible for more than 80% of Israel's
security problems, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday,
quoting one of the country's security agencies. "We are not
deterred, and are also building out strength," he said at a
ceremony in the Foreign Ministry marking 25 years to the bombing of
the embassy in Buenos Aires. "Since the attack in Argentina,
Israel has gotten much stronger."
Bahrain said on Saturday it had uncovered a 54-member
Iranian-linked militant group suspected of involvement in attacks on
security forces, including organising a prison break in January, and
seized automatic weapons. It was one of the biggest security
operations against suspected militants Bahrain blames for an increase
in armed attacks on security forces in the Western-allied kingdom,
where the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based... State news agency BNA on
Saturday quoted the chief prosecutor Ahmed al-Hammadi as saying that
security forces have arrested 25 members and seized 11 pistols and
Kalashnikov rifles in a series of operations, including an attempted
arms smuggling in December. Hammadi also said that an investigation
into the January prison break revealed that a Germany-based leader of
the group had helped organise trips for members from Bahrain to Iran
and Iraq for training, according to BNA. "The investigation
revealed that ... several members (were sent) to Iran and Iraq to
train on the use of explosives and automatic weapons in (Iranian)
Revolutionary Guards camps to prepare them to carry out terrorist
acts inside the country," Hammadi said, according to BNA.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency is reporting
that the country's judiciary has suspended the prison term of the son
of a late dissident cleric. The Saturday report says the six-year
prison term of Ahmad Montazeri, son of Ayatollah Hossein Ali
Montazeri, was suspended after approval by the country's Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei following a request by a top cleric...
A court had sentenced Ahmad Montazeri to prison in November for
publishing a tape recording of his father that condemns the execution
of thousands of prisoners in 1988. He began serving his prison term
in February but soon was released. The late Montazeri, who died in
2009, was an outspoken critic of the country's ruling establishment.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
On February 24, 2017, the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) released its fifth report on Iran's compliance with
United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution 2231 (2015).
UNSCR 2231 codified into international law the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action (JCPOA), an agreement reached between the P5+1 and
Iran in July 2015 aimed at limiting Iran's nuclear program. The
JCPOA was implemented on January 16, 2016, a date known as
Implementation Day. The latest IAEA report again states:
"Since Implementation Day, the Agency has been verifying and
monitoring the implementation by Iran of its nuclear-related
commitments" under the Iran deal. Nowhere in the report
does the IAEA state that Iran is fully compliant with the JCPOA, and
it should not make that judgement. The issue of full compliance
is rightly the responsibility of the Joint Commission and
governments, in particular those in the P5+1. The IAEA report lists
many areas where Iran has met the conditions of the JCPOA's
provisions. However, known verification controversies are not
included in the reporting. Moreover, the report states that the
IAEA is still unable to determine the absence of undeclared nuclear
material and activities in Iran. Although this report contains
more detail in certain areas than previous reports, the IAEA
reporting continues to be too sparse.
On Oct. 23, 2016, during the height of the American
presidential campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump made a promise to
the American people that I hope he can keep. He tweeted, "Well,
Iran has done it again. Taken two of our people and asking for a
fortune for their release. This doesn't happen if I'm president."
He was talking about my father, Baquer Namazi, and my brother, Siamak
Namazi, who had each been sentenced to 10 years in prison days
earlier for allegedly "collaborating with the enemy," the
United States A month into the new administration, I was in Washington
to tell President Trump that I am counting on him to make good on his
word. Both my father and my brother are dual Iranian American
citizens who have committed no crimes. My family had remained silent
for close to a year about this injustice, hoping that Baquer and
Siamak would be quietly released once Iran acknowledged their obvious
innocence. In fact, in private negotiations with the Obama
administration, Iran had actually promised to release Siamak, but
instead arrested my father, too. Our hopes were crushed when, in a
perversion of justice, both were given extraordinary sentences. Their
baseless convictions and the horrific conditions of detention force
me to speak out on their behalf.
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