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TOP STORIES
The Boeing Company announced a tentative agreement on
Tuesday to sell up to 60 737s to an Iranian airline, a transaction
valued at $6 billion that angered American critics of Iran and
appeared likely to test the Trump administration's avowed hostility
toward that country. Boeing, a leading commercial aerospace company
and a top American exporter, said in a statement that the agreement,
which requires United States government approval, would create about
18,000 American jobs. The company's agreement with Aseman Airlines,
an Iranian carrier described as the nation's third largest, is the
first to be announced by any big American business with Iran since
President Trump took office in January. Boeing announced an agreement
last December to sell 80 commercial aircraft to Iran Air, the
national carrier, a deal valued at $16.6 billion.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday urged Russia
and Iran to prevent Syrian President Bashar Assad from launching
chemical weapons attacks following a deadly chemical attack in Syria.
"While we continue to monitor the terrible situation, it is
clear that this is how Bashar al-Assad operates: with brutal,
unabashed barbarism," Tillerson said in a statement. "Those
who defend and support him, including Russia and Iran, should have no
illusions about Assad or his intentions," Tillerson continued.
"Anyone who uses chemical weapons to attack his own people shows
a fundamental disregard for human decency and must be held
accountable." The top U.S. diplomat urged Iran and Russia to
commit to a peace agreement in the region and to "exercise their
influence" over Assad to prevent future chemical attacks.
A bill to slap new sanctions on Iran has been delayed in
the U.S. Senate due to concerns about Iran's May presidential
election, in which conservative hardliners hope to defeat moderate
President Hassan Rouhani, U.S. lawmakers said on Tuesday. A group of
Democratic and Republican senators introduced the bill in March
seeking to impose tighter U.S. sanctions on Iran over ballistic
missile launches and other non-nuclear activities, echoing a harder
line on Tehran espoused by Republican President Donald Trump. But on
Tuesday, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, Bob Corker, said the bill would not move forward for now.
"We've got a Iran sanctions bill that has a number of
co-sponsors that wasn't able to markup at present because of concerns
about how the European Union might react and (Iranian) elections that
are coming up," Corker said during a hearing on the EU as a U.S.
partner in dealings with Russia.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
The Trump administration is undertaking a critical
review of Obama administration-era policies permitting the sale of
American airplanes to Iran, which have been used in the past to ferry
weapons to terrorists and conduct other illicit activities, according
to U.S. officials familiar with the situation. U.S. airline
manufacturer Boeing announced on Tuesday that it had reached a
memorandum of understanding with Iran guaranteeing the sale of up to
60 planes pending review by the Trump administration. Sources who
spoke to the Washington Free Beacon speculated the latest
announcement, which was announced earlier in the day by Iran, could
be meant to pressure U.S. officials to sign off on the deal. While
the newly installed administration had come under fire earlier this
year for seeming to continue Obama-era policies meant to approve
these sales, U.S. officials now tell the Free Beacon that all past
and future deals are coming under review by the new administration as
part of a larger assessment of the landmark Iran nuclear deal.
BUSINESS RISK
Iran's oil minister dismissed India's decision to cut
oil imports from Tehran in 2017/18 by a fifth as a threat on
Wednesday, in an escalation of a dispute over a giant gas field
contract. Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters last week
that Indian state refiners were going to cut oil imports from Iran,
as New Delhi seeks to put pressure on Tehran to award the Farzad B
gas field to an Indian consortium. "India is one of our good
costumers, but we cannot sign (a) contract under threat," Bijan
Zanganeh was quoted as saying by Iran's ISNA news agency.
"India's cut of oil imports from Iran will not cause any trouble
to us as we have other buyers," he added. Zanganeh said despite
an extension of deadlines, India has not offered an acceptable
proposal for the development of the gas field. "Their proposal
was not profitable to Iran ... We sent (the) Indians a letter and
told them we are keen to continue negotiations, but under sensible
conditions, not under threats."
Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and a former U.S.
attorney general are seeking a "diplomatic solution" to
resolving charges that a prominent Turkish businessman helped Iran
evade U.S. sanctions, a defense lawyer said Tuesday, insisting that
their actions - including meeting Turkey's president - weren't intended
to derail prosecutors."We've acted aboveboard," attorney
Ben Brafman told a Manhattan judge as he explained that he told
prosecutors last month that Giuliani and ex-U.S. Attorney General
Michael Mukasey were going to meet Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, as part of their work on behalf of Reza Zarrab. "Nobody
was trying to hide their involvement."
SANCTIONS RELIEF
Since the signing and implementation of the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action, European businesses have shown great
interest in reentering Iran. Trade between Iran and the EU has
already picked up considerably. Last year, European exports to Iran
amounted to €8.3 billion ($8.9 billion), approximately 28% higher
than the year before. European imports grew by some 345%, amounting
to €5.5 billion ($5.8 billion)-mostly driven by oil shipments from
Iran. But despite the uptick in trade, economic relations between
Iran and the EU are still below pre-sanctions levels. In 2011, before
the imposition of stringent nuclear-related sanctions, including the
previous EU oil embargo, EU exports to Iran amounted to more than €10
billion ($10.7 billion), while imports were as high as almost €18
billion ($19.2 billion), reads an Al-Monitor article. Excerpts
follow: Europeans eager to return to Iran are facing two main
obstacles.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for European and
American Affairs Majid Takht-Ravanchi said on Tuesday that Iran
enjoys great capacities and is willing to expand ties with the
European countries. The nuclear deal has created a good atmosphere to
expand relations, he said during a meeting with Latvian Deputy
Foreign Minister Andrejs Pildegovics in Tehran. Majid Takht-Ravanchi
said that Iran is ready to increase relations with Latvia in various
areas. For his part, Pildegovics said Latvia attaches great
importance to ties with Iran. Pildegovics said that Latvia has
prioritized expansion of ties with Iran in areas of transportation,
energy, technology, agriculture, tourism, education, fishery,
forestry and food industry.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua said on Tuesday that it
was difficult for Pakistan to maintain equal relations with both the
countries, but Pakistan would not go against Iran's interests.
Briefing members of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign
Affairs, who met at the Parliament House - with Awais Ahmad Khan
Leghari in the chair- to discuss the issue of clearance given to
former army chief Gen (r) Raheel Sharif to lead the Saudi-led
41-nation Islamic Military Alliance and Pakistan's relations with
Saudi Arabia and Iran, Tehmina Janjua said that Pakistan was making
efforts to reduce tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. She
informed the Lower House that Pakistan remained committed to its
policy of non-interference in the conflicts of Muslim countries. She
told the committee that the Islamic Military Alliance was against
terrorism, not any country. "Pakistan wants Muslim countries to
stand united against terrorism"
PROXY WARS
Iran sent drones used by Yemen's Houthis to strike Saudi
Arabia via the UAE and Oman, a British intelligence organisation has
revealed. In a report quoted by IranWire, Conflict Armament Research
(CAR), which specialises in tracking armament, said that Iran sent
drones to Yemen via UAE and Omani territories and that the Houthis used
them to hit Saudi missile defence system radars. Tehran supplied the
Houthis with Iranian manufactured Qasef-1 and Ababil-II drones, CAR
added, with specialists examining the remnants of another drone used
to hit the missile defence system radars in Saudi Arabia and
confirming they were manufactured by Iran as well. The drones cost no
more than $10,000, CAR's Tim Michetti noted, however they cause great
losses to Patriot missile defence systems which cost millions of
dollars. Michetti firmly refuted Houthi claims of manufacturing the
drones themselves and denying that they were Iranian. The CAR experts
also confirmed that Iran transported the drones to Dubai and then
Oman and that they were then taken from there by ground into Yemen.
An EU-funded report by the Conflict Armament Research
(CAR) has documented an arms smuggling route from Iran to the Horn of
Africa and Yemen that was used to send light weapons and anti-tank
missiles to Houthi militias. The recent report also found that
Houthis are using "kamikaze" drones sourced from Iran to
attack radar systems on anti-missile batteries operated by the Arab
coalition According to the report, "These findings strengthen a
body of evidence compiled by CAR, which links weapons captured from
Houthi and [former President] Saleh-aligned forces to transfers from
Iranian national stockpiles." CAR has also reported drones being
smuggled without their nose cones or engines, indicating that different
components were being shipped separately. CAR said it had evidence
showing that the Qasef-1 UAV drone was made in Iran and was not of
indigenous design and construction "in contrast to Houthi
statements".
HUMAN RIGHTS
Five Baha'is were arrested at their
homes in the city of Isfahan on March 28, 2017, Simin Fahandej, the
faith's spokesperson at the United Nations in Geneva confirmed to the
Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). The agents, who did not
identify themselves or show a warrant, searched the homes of Ehsan
Eshtiagh, Enayat Naimi, Farzad Homayouni, Soroush Pezeshki and Sohrab
Taghipour and took away some of their personal belongings before
detaining them, said Fahandej. "Unfortunately, we don't know
which authority arrested them or why," she added. "All we
know is that if there were warrants, they did not show them at the
time of the arrests." An informed source told CHRI that the five
were taken to Isfahan Prison, but no information is available on
their current condition. Iranian officials deny prosecuting Baha'is
for their religious beliefs, but the Baha'i community is one of the
most severely persecuted religious minorities in Iran.
DOMESTIC POLITICS
Hengameh Shahidi knew the security agents were coming
for her. An Iranian journalist and activist, she had been tipped off
by contacts close to the government and prepared letters for her
family to post on social media in case of her arrest, which happened
on March 9. In a hand-written letter posted on Instagram two days
later, Shahidi, 41, wrote that her arrest was part of a "project
before the elections for the widespread arrest of political activists
and journalists in order to secure votes for the candidate of their
choice". When Iranians vote for president in May, the election
will not only decide whether pragmatic President Hassan Rouhani can
remain in power, it will also test his ability to protect his own
supporters from a hardline state.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
The Syrian crisis has recently been gaining increasing
attention in the international stage, with the tide turning against
Assad and his main supporter, Iran. As rebels staged surprising
attacks in Damascus recently, social media activists campaigned
through the hashtag #IranOutOfSyria to raise voice against Tehran's
deadly meddling in Syria. Public opinion in the Arab World has been
increasingly against the role played by Iran through its
Revolutionary Guards - the entity behind Tehran's human rights
violations, nuclear program and ballistic missile drive- and a
conglomerate of proxy groups in Syria. There no longer is any doubt
in the Middle East that the main element behind the ongoing
catastrophes caused by the war in Syria is none other than the regime
in Iran. Over 500,000 people killed and 14 million displaced
throughout the country or scattered across the globe has been the end
result to date.
The collapse of the Republican healthcare bill is good
news not only for President Barack Obama's signature domestic
achievement, but also for one of his central foreign policy
accomplishments - the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Two
years ago I argued that the Iran deal would be the foreign policy
equivalent of Obamacare and today that looks more likely than ever.
Both face similar political dynamics and are extraordinarily
complicated to unwind, meaning that in the near term they will most
likely stay in place. However, lack of focus on implementation or
quiet steps by a new administration to actively weaken and undercut
them could result in their long-term collapse. The JCPOA and
Affordable Care Act were both extraordinarily complex and imperfect
agreements because they had to meet the needs of so many stakeholders
and also tackled incredibly complex subject matters.
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