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TOP STORIES
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.
UANI IN THE NEWS
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.
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