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TOP STORIES
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley
slammed the Security Council on Thursday for failing to take any
action against Iran, which she said had "repeatedly and
deliberately violated" sanctions imposed by the body. "The
Security Council has failed to even take minimal steps to respond to
these violations," Haley told a council briefing on Iran.
"We must ... show Iran that we will not tolerate their egregious
flaunting of U.N. resolutions." Most U.N. sanctions were lifted
18 months ago under a deal Iran made with key world powers to curb
its nuclear program. But Iran is still subject to an arms embargo and
other restrictions, which are not technically part of the nuclear
agreement. U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman briefed the
council on Thursday on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' third
six-monthly report on the implementation of the remaining sanctions
and restrictions, enshrined in resolution 2231.
U.N. and European Union diplomats pushed back against
U.S. criticism of Iran and declared Tehran to be in full compliance
with its nuclear agreement in a Security Council meeting on Thursday.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres praised Iran for its
"full and effective" compliance in his third biannual
report on the implementation of the nuclear deal, which was signed by
Tehran and world powers in July 2015. The report raised concerns
about Iran's testing of ballistic missiles but noted the Security
Council couldn't agree on whether this was a violation of a U.N.
resolution known as 2231 because the text "called on" Iran
rather than "demanded" it cease ballistic missile
activities.
A jury in New York on Thursday found that the U.S.
government may seize a Manhattan office building from a nonprofit
foundation accused of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. The jury
in a Manhattan federal court said the Alavi Foundation, majority
owner of an office tower at 650 Fifth Avenue, knew that its partner
and the building's minority owner, Assa Corp, was a front for Iran,
and helped conceal the fact. Jurors said the government had proven
that the property was involved in or traceable to money laundering.
The government wanted to seize the 36-story building, which could be
worth nearly $1 billion, to benefit people with legal judgments against
Iran relating to bombings and other attacks. "In this trial, 650
Fifth Avenue's secret was laid bare for all to see," said Acting
U.S. Attorney Joon Kim in Manhattan, whose office represented the
government. "On behalf of all of our clients, we are extremely
pleased with the decision and the verdict handed down today,"
said James Bernard, a lawyer for the judgment holders.
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
Iran's Majlis (parliament) Speaker Ali Larijani has
slammed the US president's "empty rhetoric" against the
2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers, noting that
the idea of scrapping the deal is not in Washington's interest
Speaking at a Thursday press conference in the South Korean capital
city of Seoul, Larijani said, "The nuclear deal is an international
agreement. Iran has agreed with the P5+1 (group of world powers) at
the international level and [the deal] has been passed by the [UN]
Security Council." During his presidential campaign, US
President Donald Trump had promised to ditch the nuclear accord which
he referred to as a "disaster" and "the worst deal
ever negotiated."
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
The speaker of Iran's Parliament has expressed disbelief
at the Trump administration's travel ban for citizens from six
countries, including Iran, saying his country has led the fight
against terrorism in the Middle East. The new US policy will ban all
arrivals from Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Yemen and Somalia for 90
days, if the new arrivals have no relationship with a person or
entity in the United States. Ali Larijani is one of the first Iranian
officials to speak about the "watered-down" version of US
President Donald Trump's travel ban, which is scheduled to take
effect at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday after a ruling by the US Supreme
Court. "At the time when Iraq was being overrun by Daesh, by
ISIS, did the United States make the slightest move in defense of it?
Or was it the Iranian nation that rendered aid to the Iraqi nation
and Iraq government?" Larijani told CNN in an exclusive
interview.
Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi
criticized a recent report by the US State Department on Tehran's
role in human trafficking, saying that unilateral policies
implemented by Washington and its allies have contributed to the
spread of this phenomenon. "The root causes of human trafficking
lie in unilateral, interventionist and aggressive policies as well as
the wars of attrition, terrorism and ethnic cleansing in which the
military and security forces of America and some of its allies are involved,"
a statement published by Iran's foreign ministry quoted Qassemi as
saying on Wednesday. The US State Department released on Tuesday its
annual report on global human trafficking, which said that the
Iranian government "does not fully meet the minimum standards
for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant
efforts to do so."
Reacting to a recent human trafficking report by the
U.S., Iran said on Wednesday that Washington and its allies are the
"root causes" of the phenomenon. "The root causes of
human trafficking lie in unilateral, interventionist and aggressive
policies as well as the wars of attrition, terrorism and ethnic
cleansing in which the military and security forces of America and
some of its allies are involved," a note carried on the official
website of Iran's foreign ministry quoted spokesman Bahram Qassemi as
saying on Wednesday. The comments follow a report evaluating the U.S.
Department of State's annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report on
June Tuesday. The report places Iran, alongside with China, Russia,
North Korea and Syria among others, on "Tier 3", which the
report says are "The governments of countries that do not fully
meet the TVPA's (the Trafficking Victims Protection Act) minimum
standards and are not making significant efforts to do so."
CONGRESSIONAL ACTION
The Senate on Thursday fixed a popular measure that
would slap economic sanctions on Russia and Iran, yet a long-awaited
House vote won't come until after Donald Trump meets for the first
time as president with Russian leader Vladimir Putin Sen. Bob Corker
of Tennessee, the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee, said the necessary repairs have been made to the legislation,
a step the Senate approved by voice vote, and the next move is the
House's to make. "We've done what we need to do," Corker
said. "The ball's in their court." The technical changes
that had stalled the bill in the House came as Republicans dismissed
Democratic complaints that the delay was at the behest of the Trump
administration and intended to weaken the legislation Tempers flared
among lawmakers over the lull, with each side blaming the other as
lawmakers were poised to leave Washington for their weeklong July 4th
recess.
BUSINESS RISK
Iran's crude oil exports in July are set to fall 7
percent from this month's three-month high, mainly due to a decline
in exports to Europe, a person with knowledge of the Middle Eastern
country's tanker loading schedule said. The OPEC member has been raising
oil production to recoup market share lost under Western sanctions to
regional rivals such as Saudi Arabia. Its exports last year also
showed a similar decline in July before recovering sharply from
August Overall oil output was hovering at more than 3.9 million
barrels per day (bpd) and is expected to reach 4 million bpd by March
2018, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said this month. Crude oil loadings
from Iranian ports, excluding condensate from gas fields, will total
1.93 million bpd next month, with 2 million barrels of them being put
into storage on tankers, according to the source.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
In the space of 18 months, Iran has set about what
amounts to a complete overhaul of its aviation sector. Since most
international sanctions were lifted on the country in January 2016,
its airlines have placed orders for more than 300 new aircraft and
options for a further 50 planes. To put that in context, these orders
are twice as large as the entire fleet of planes currently being
flown by the country's 17 commercial airlines.
Telepizza, the largest non-U.S.-based pizza delivery
company in the world by number of stores, today announces further
expansion, with the opening of its first Iranian store in Marzdaran
Boulevar, Theran, and a further two stores set to open by the end of
the month. Telepizza signed a masterfranchise agreement with Momenin
Investment Group last year; MIG will be investing €100 million in the
next ten years. The Theran store opening marks the start of the
latest phase of Telepizza's ambitious global expansion plans,
becoming the first International QSR brand to enter the Iranian
market and with 1,421 stores globally. Telepizza plans to build on
this successful first launch with a further seven stores due to open
in Theran by the end of 2017 and 200 stores across Iran planned in
the next 10 years.
SYRIA CONFLICT
Iran's state news agency quoted a representative of
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday as saying
Islamic State's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was "definitely
dead". "Terrorist Baghdadi is definitely dead," IRNA
quoted cleric Ali Shirazi, representative to the Quds Force, as
saying, without elaborating. IRNA later updated the news item,
omitting the quote on Baghdadi's death. The Quds Force is in charge
of operations outside Iran's borders by the country's elite Revolutionary
Guard Corps. Iranian Foreign Ministry officials were not available to
comment on the report of Baghdadi's death. The secretive Islamic
State leader has frequently been reported killed or wounded since he
declared a caliphate to rule over all Muslims from a mosque in Mosul
in 2014, after his fighters seized large areas of northern Iraq.
Russia said on June 17 its forces might have killed Baghdadi in an
air strike in Syria. Washington said on Thursday it had no
information to corroborate such reports. Iraqi officials have also
been skeptical in recent weeks.
SAUDI-IRAN TENSIONS
Iranian state TV said on Thursday seven Iranian
fishermen detained by Saudi Arabia's coastguard over a year ago had
been returned to the country amid heightened tension between the
regional rivals. "Seven Iranian fishermen who were arrested by
Saudi Arabia' border security guards over a year ago have been
returned to the country," state television reported without
elaborating. The circumstances of the fishermen being detained were
not clear. Saudi authorities could not immediately be reached for
comment and the release was not mentioned in the Saudi media. Iran's
Foreign Ministry declined to comment beyond confirming the release.
Shi'ite dominated Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia accuse each other of
fomenting tension in the Middle East, where the two arch rivals back
opposite sides in conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
DOMESTIC POLITICS
In response to a new US administration that has stated
its goal to work toward regime change in Tehran, Iran's parliament
has introduced new legislation to increase the country's military
budget by $540 million. Iran's parliament seeks to increase the
military budget for the IRGC in response to the new policies of the
Trump administration. Iranian parliamentarian Kazem Jalali, the
president of the Majlis Research Center, said June 28 that the
proposed bill is primarily in response to "America's aggressive
behavior in the region and its hostile policies against Iran."
According to Jalali, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
would be given approximately half of this additional budget for its
missile program. The Quds Force, which is responsible for operations
outside of Iran's borders and operates under the IRGC, would receive
the other half. Iran's overall military budget is approximately $14
billion. Approximately half of that budget is allocated to the IRGC.
Various estimates have put the IRGC's overall budget from $7 billion
to $8 billion, depending on how the total nonbudgetary income is
added.
In its latest plenary meeting June 23, the Financial
Action Task Force (FATF) extended a temporary suspension of
countermeasures against Iran for another year. The FATF, however,
stated on its website that it will keep monitoring progress in the
implementation of its action plan in Iran's banking system. While
President Hassan Rouhani's administration had sought a permanent
lifting of the group's sanctions, pro-Reform media still hailed the
decision as a positive signal to foreign investors observing Iran's developments.
While hailed by pro-Reform media outlets, the FATF's decision to
extend its temporary suspension of countermeasures on Iran has
provided ammunition for hard-liners in Tehran. The
intergovernmental body, comprised of 35 member jurisdictions and two
regional organizations, avoided coupling Iran with North Korea on its
so-called blacklist. But it could have helped Iranian moderates push
back hard-liners at home had it met a stronger commitment to the
spirit of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), critics
argue in Tehran.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
The headlines out of Syria are eye-catching: There are
signs the Assad government may be planning another chemical attack.
American pilots have struck forces threatening our allies and shot
down a Syrian plane and Iranian-made drones. The probability of
direct military confrontation between the U.S. and Russia has risen.
Yet the coverage of these incidents and the tactical responses that
have been suggested obscure the broader story: The slow-moving
campaign against Islamic State is finally nearing its conclusion-yet
major, long-range strategic issues remain unresolved...Start with
Iran. Tehran is trying to cement an arc of control from its own
territory, through Baghdad-controlled Iraq and Mr. Assad's Syria, to
Hezbollah-dominated Lebanon. This would set the stage for the
region's next potential conflict: Iran's Shiite coalition versus a
Saudi-led Sunni alliance. The U.S.-led coalition, enhanced as
suggested above, needs to thwart Iran's ambitions as ISIS falls.
War and poverty have scattered Afghans across the globe
like pieces of shrapnel. Millions of Afghans came of age in refugee
camps in Pakistan and Iran or as workers in the Persian Gulf nations.
The migration continues. The past few years have added a new lethal
geography to the Afghan tragedy: the battlefields of President Bashar
al-Assad's Syria. Two years ago, Abdol Amin, 19, left his home in the
Foladi Valley in Bamyan, one of Afghanistan's poorest provinces, to
find work in Iran. Two million undocumented Afghans and a million
Afghans with refugee status already lived in Iran. His sister and
brother-in-law lived in Isfahan. He hoped to improve on his life of
subsistence farming in impoverished Bamyan. Two-thirds of the
population in Bamyan Province lives on less than $25 a month. The
intense poverty and the absence of opportunity forces thousands of
young Afghans from Bamyan to travel illegally to Iran in search of
work. Many, like Mr. Amin, end up fighting other's people's wars.
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