Monday, August 28, 2017

Eye on Iran: Nuclear Inspectors Should Have Access to Iran Military Bases: Haley


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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Friday pressed the International Atomic Energy Agency to seek access to Iranian military bases to ensure that they are not concealing activities banned by the 2015 nuclear deal. "I have good confidence in the IAEA, but they are dealing with a country that has a clear history of lying and pursuing covert nuclear programs," Haley told a news conference after returning from a trip to the Vienna-based U.N. agency.


Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Iran is building sites to produce precision-guided missiles in Syria and Lebanon, with the aim of using them against Israel.


The Zionist regime of Israel would not exist in 25 years, Iran's Army Commander Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi said, reminding the enemies that Iran will be the side who decides how to end the war if a military offensive breaks out against the country.

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The sanctions regime was suspended for eight years, it wasn't terminated. So it actually gives a lot of leverage. [Iran's] not going to walk away from this deal because if they walk away from this deal and we don't walk away from the deal, then it means the whole sanction set-up snaps back in. So they have no incentive to walk away from the deal until year eight. Now that's another seven years from now. And what we should be doing, we should be focused much more on what they're doing in the region... The nuclear deal legitimizes a very large Iran nuclear infrastructure.

IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL


A senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says the historic nuclear agreement signed between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries in 2015 allows no inspection of Iran's military sites. No foreign and domestic official and not even unauthorized officials of the Iranian Armed Forces are allowed to inspect Iran's military sites without Ayatollah Khamenei's permission, Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, who advises the Leader on military affairs, said on Sunday. 

NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC-MISSILE PROGRAMS


Ali Akbar Salehi, the director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, has said that a new nuclear project will be launched at Fordow nuclear plant in future days. "The project has to do with stable isotopes and research centers at Fordow, the preliminary stage of which will be launched in next two weeks and the main opening ceremony will be held on April 9, 2018," he told IRIB in an exclusive interview published on Saturday. He also said that many changes have been made to the Fordow nuclear plant whose remarkable part is related to stable isotopes.


Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi says the country will carry out a photon entanglement test within the next few months... He added that Iran had held negotiations with the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) for cooperation in the field of quantum technology.

U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS


It's a common theme in the state-controlled media in Iran: The armed forces are not to be trifled with; they're tough men doing a tough job, defending a country permanently under threat. Nevertheless, it was a shock to some young Iranians when a video appeared featuring a well-known rapper delivering the same message from the deck of a navy frigate. Things like chanting "death to America," burning effigies of Uncle Sam and painting murals of Lady Liberty with a skull as a face lost their impact long ago, particularly among younger Iranians. Forced to adapt or fizzle out, Iran's propaganda machine has sought to embrace the latest trends and technologies to try to tailor messages to the sensibilities of a new generation.

SANCTIONS RELIEF


Exports from Iran's South Pars, the world's largest gas field, rose 12 percent over the past year, its head of customs said on Sunday, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). The field exported about $6.9 billion worth of gas condensate, a 28-percent increase in the value of exports of that product over the same period last year, Ahmad Pourhaydar said. Other exports included methanol, propane and polyethylene, he added. The bulk of its products went to China, Japan, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.


Iran has secured its biggest post credit line deal since the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, (JCPOA), Iran's nuclear deal with world powers, in a deal with South Korea, local media have reported. The $9.4 billion deal between South Korea's Eximbank and Iranian banks was signed in Seoul on August 24.


The Iranian export of crude oil to Russia is to begin next month as per an agreement that will see Tehran paid half in goods and half in cash, the deputy oil minister for international affairs said. "As per the terms of the contract, the National Iranian Oil Company will sell 100,000 barrels per day of crude oil to a state-owned Russian company and receive 50% of the exports value in goods and services, and the other half in euro payments," Amirhossein Zamaninia was also quoted as saying by ILNA. In addition to strengthening ties with Russia in the oil industry, the deal will help build closer bilateral relations in other sectors, Zamaninia noted without elaboration.


Austrian daily Der Standard published an interview with Franz Gasselsberger, the CEO of Austria's Oberbank, who says business with Iran is lucrative for Austria. 'Oberbank proposes financial bridge to Iran,' this is the heading for an entry in Austrian national daily Der Standard on Friday under which is given an interview with Franz Gasselsberger, the CEO of Austria's Oberbank. He told the paper that the framework reached for the contracts of financing projects in Iran has been concluded as positive by the Austrian bank and he believes that "The interest is enormous."


Volkswagen Group's Czech brand, Skoda, will produce a low-cost car for emerging markets like Iran by 2020. The news about the push into the Iranian market comes despite the collapse of cooperation talks with India's Tata Motors, where VW was previously focusing efforts, according to Auto News Europe. Skoda has developed "a series of ideas" for a cheap car that could be used in several low-cost vehicle markets, said Thomas Sedran, VW Group's head of strategy.

TERRORISM


U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley has accused Iran of illegally smuggling arms to its ally Hizballah in Lebanon and sharply criticized the United Nations peacekeeping commander there for being "blind" to the activity. The commander, Major General Michael Beary, has rejected allegations by the United States and Israel that Hizballah is illegally stockpiling arms in the country. With the 10,500-member peacekeeping mission up for renewal next week, Haley has been pushing for a strengthened mandate to stop the flow of weapons to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, next door to Israel, which has long complained of Hezbollah's military activities there.


For three decades, Hezbollah maintained a singular focus as a Lebanese military group fighting Israel. It built a network of bunkers and tunnels near Lebanon's southern border, trained thousands of committed fighters to battle Israel's army and built up an arsenal of rockets capable of striking far across the Jewish state. But as the Middle East has changed, with conflicts often having nothing to do with Israel flaring up around the region, Hezbollah has changed, too. It has rapidly expanded its realm of operations. It has sent legions of fighters to Syria. It has sent trainers to Iraq. It has backed rebels in Yemen. And it has helped organize a battalion of militants from Afghanistan that can fight almost anywhere. As a result, Hezbollah is not just a power unto itself, but is one of the most important instruments in the drive for regional supremacy by its sponsor: Iran.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS


The tiny gas-rich nation of Qatar has been ostracized by its regional Arab neighbors, which accuse it of funding terrorism and being too cozy with Iran. In June, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates cut diplomatic and trade ties, closed their air routes to Qatari aircraft and served the government with a host of demands aimed at fighting terrorism and extremism. Mauritius, Mauritania, Yemen, the Maldives and one of Libya's two warring governments also suspended diplomatic relations. Qatar did little to quell the conflict last week when it announced it was restoring full diplomatic relations with Iran, more than a year after it pulled its ambassador in a show of solidarity with Saudi Arabia, whose embassy and diplomatic missions in Iran were attacked.


Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency is reporting that the Qatari ambassador to Iran is back on the job, ignoring the demands of Arab nations who are trying to isolate the energy-rich country. ISNA reported that Ambassador Ali Hamad Alsulaiti arrived in Tehran on Friday and began working Saturday morning. Qatar pulled its ambassador to Iran in early 2016 in a show of solidarity after attacks on two Saudi Arabian diplomatic posts in Iran following the Saudi execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.

MILITARY MATTERS


Iran's advanced S-300 air defense system, delivered by Russia after years of delay, is now "fully integrated" into the air defense network, a senior Iranian air force commander told the country's state media Sunday. In an interview with the Tasnim news network, Gen. Abolfazl Sepehri Rad, deputy commander of the Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base, said the missile defense system has been stationed across Iran and is ready for "practical operations." The general also said that the Iran has launched research programs to manufacture other air defense systems, and that "good results" have been achieved.

PROXY WARS


Saudi investigations showed that a terror ring of five members linked to the architect of the Khobar tower attack, Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Mughassil, have revealed crucial intel on the arms and drug trafficking industry in the kingdom's eastern province, Qatif. Mughassil was given asylum by Iran for some 19 years-however now is in Saudi custody. According to confessions of the five, arms smuggled into Saudi Arabia and handed over to armed groups in Qatif province came en route Arabian Gulf waters. Weapons were being trafficked in by Iranian vessels, and were under Mughassil's direct supervision.

SAUDI-IRAN TENSIONS


Moqtada al-Sadr, for long the West's public enemy No 1 in Iraq, is now leading attempts to fend off Iranian domination of the Middle East. A decade ago his Mahdi Army, drawn from the country's Shia majority, was ambushing and killing American and British soldiers across southern Iraq while he sought refuge in Iran. The Shia leader recently visited Saudi Arabia, the Sunni Arab world's dominant power, and the UAE, and is about to visit Egypt

HUMAN RIGHTS


An attorney for the founder of a mystical, New Age version of Shiite Islam says an Iranian court has sentenced his client to death. Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabaei tells The Associated Press that the court sentenced Mohammad Ali Taheri to death on charges of founding a cult.. In 2014 the 61-year-old Taheri was sentenced to death on similar charges but an appeals court later rejected the verdict. He has been in jail since 2011, when a court sentenced him to five years in prison for blasphemy.


Together with the International Transport Workers' Federation, Education International has launched a LabourStart global solidarity campaign to seek the immediate and unconditional release of jailed trade unionists Reza Shahabi and Esmail Abdi. Education International (EI) and the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) are particularly concerned about the fate of two Iranian trade unionists. Reza Shahabi and Esmail Abdi have been detained because of their defence of workers' concerns and their trade union rights and civil liberties are being denied.


Ebrahim Yazdi, the prominent Iranian dissident and former foreign minister who was close to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, has died following a long illness... He... helped advise Khomeini during his exile in France. After the 1979 Iranian Revolution deposed the shah, Yazdi returned to Iran to become foreign minister in the transitional government of Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan. Bazargan, Yazdi, and the entire cabinet resigned in November 1979 to protest the occupation of the U.S. Embassy and the hostage-taking of dozens of American diplomats in Tehran, fearing it would ruin Iran's reputation internationally and lead to the country's isolation. He was a founding member and eventual leader of the secular Freedom Movement of Iran, which was banned by the government in 2002... Yazdi... told The New York Times in 2008 that "the political system, basically, is a despotic one."

DOMESTIC POLITICS


Just a couple of weeks into her appointment, the new Iranian vice president's decision to abandon her fashion style for the all-encompassing black chador is raising questions among women in the Islamic Republic - especially after she said President Hassan Rouhani personally asked her to wear the traditional women's garment. Although Laaya Joneidi typically used to wear a hijab - the headscarf that is mandated by law in today's Iran - and a long coat with pants, her switch to the more conservative chador serves as a political statement in and of itself in the Islamic Republic.


The Iranian Football Federation has excluded captain Masoud Shojaei for the soccer World Cup qualifiers against South Korea and Syria but denies it is punishment for playing against an Israeli club... The initial reaction from Deputy Sports Minister Mohammad Reza Davarzani suggested the pair would both be banned for violating the country's "red line." They broke a tradition of the taboo of appearing against Israeli athletes, which Iran interprets as recognition of the Jewish state.

OPINION & ANALYSIS


Qatar's Aug. 23 decision to return its ambassador to Tehran could strengthen Iran's hand in Syria, while further blurring the Sunni-Shiite fault line in the region. No surprise that Qatar's announcement that it aspires to "strengthen bilateral relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran in all fields" has inflamed the crisis in the Gulf... With the reset in ties with Qatar, Iran has now added a second "Sunni" state to its regional network.


For the first time in more than two decades, the Islamic Republic of Iran has a defense minister who is not closely affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). While significant, this appointment does not indicate that Tehran is turning toward moderation either at home or abroad. On Sunday, the Iranian parliament overwhelmingly endorsed Brig. Gen. Amir Hatami, President Hassan Rouhani's nominee for defense minister. Hatami is a senior officer in the country's regular armed forces, known as the Artesh. Despite being a veteran of the Artesh rather than the Guards, Hatami likely has neither has the institutional power - nor willingness - to take the country in a different direction.


While Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu carried to Russian President Vladimir Putin in their meeting in Sochi his opposition for Iran's continued consolidation in Syria, to shore up its sphere of influence from the Gulf to the Mediterranean, the Associated Press revealed that thousands of pro-Iranian fighters continue to advance in the Syrian desert, establishing for Tehran for the first time the precursors of its coveted corridor via Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon to the Mediterranean. Netanyahu is not ignorant of the silent US-Russian consent of Tehran reaping the fruits of its investments in Syria since it intervened there six years ago, by consolidating its geographical control of the corridor dubbed the 'grand prize'. Netanyahu has vowed that Israel is ready to act unilaterally to prevent Iran from making permanent its expanded military presence in Syria. But realistically, he is aligning his country to engage in future deals on Syria, especially in the context of the grand bargain between the US and Russia, and its Iranian dimension in the Arab geography and the regional balance of power.


Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conveyed the extent of Israeli concerns to the Russian leader when he traveled to Putin's summer holiday resort in Sochi last week. He made it clear to Putin that Israel would not tolerate the establishment of a permanent and significant Iranian presence in Syria that includes military bases and missile launcher sites.... Now Iran has an opportunity to establish a new center of influence, not through proxies, as is the case in Gaza, Lebanon or Yemen, but directly by having Iranian forces on the ground. From there, it could establish air force bases, deploy tanks and divisions and amplify, in an unprecedented way, the threat it already poses to the State of Israel. Under these circumstances, Netanyahu is smartly maneuvering between Washington and Moscow. It is still not clear if he can succeed in getting a commitment, from either party, that Iran will not be allowed to stay, but there are other goals that might be attainable.


A high-level Turkish military-diplomatic delegation is expected to visit Tehran soon to "put final touches" to a strategic accord between Ankara and Tehran to help stabilize the Middle East, Iran's Chief of Staff General Muhamad Hussein Baqeri revealed on Monday. Speaking at the end of a visit to the Iran Border Force headquarters, Baqeri said the Turkish team, to be headed by Turkish Chief of Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar, will be a follow-up to Baqeri's "historic" visit to Ankara last week. Almost at the same time, a spokesman for the Turkish military announced that Russia's Army Chief of Staff General Valery Gerasimov would soon lead a high-level delegation to Ankara to discuss tripartite cooperation with Iran, among other things.


News that Iran's and Turkey's governments have reached an accord on Idlib - a Syrian town that is now the focus of American interests - brings relations between two of the largest and most influential states in the Middle East momentarily out of the shadows. Iran and Turkey's rivalry goes back a half-millennium. So what does the recent accord signify, and how will Iran and Turkey's competition influence the region's future?... Tensions have reached the point that Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group believes that Tehran and Ankara are "on a collision course." Left unchecked, he believes that the present dynamics point "toward greater bloodshed, growing instability and greater risks of direct ... military confrontation"... In this context, the Idlib accord looks flimsy and transient. Tehran and Ankara will probably soon turn against each other - and, with renewed vigor, continue their perpetual rivalry.


This September 25, Iraqi Kurdistan will hold its long promised referendum on independence from Baghdad. This move is controversial everywhere except in Kurdistan; yet it presents a defining opportunity for U.S. interests. President Trump should ratify Iraqi Kurdistan's overwhelming desire for independence - a long overdue step toward healing the historical injustice of Sykes Picot and also an opportunity to bring his Safe Zone policy to Iraq to reverse the ISIS genocide of Christians, Yezidis, and Turkomen, many of whom have taken refuge inside Iraqi Kurdistan. Moreover, those two steps would create a buffer against ongoing Iranian efforts to build a land bridge to the Mediterranean.


There is a rich vein of rather dark comedy underlying this little story abut Apple removing Iranian apps from the Apple Store... The amusement there is that Iran itself has significant restrictions on what apps people may use, even which websites they may visit. Which I do indeed find that darkly amusing--the US sanctions expressly allow the sending of VPN software, the very thing which the Iranian regulations try to forbid. So, to have the Telecoms minister complaining about the US sanctions does indeed amuse me.






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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