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TOP STORIES
Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said on
Thursday its ballistic missile programme would accelerate despite U.S.
and European Union pressure to suspend it, the semi-official Tasnim news
agency reported. In a significant U.S. policy shift on Oct. 13, President
Donald Trump disavowed Iran's compliance with a landmark 2015 nuclear
deal and unveiled a more aggressive approach to the Islamic Republic over
its missile development activity. "Iran's ballistic missile
programme will expand and it will continue with more speed in reaction to
Trump's hostile approach towards this revolutionary organisation (the
Guards)," the IRGC said in a statement published by Tasnim.
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley urged the U.N. Security Council
on Wednesday to adopt the Trump administration's comprehensive approach
to Iran and address all aspects of its "destructive conduct" -
not just the 2015 nuclear deal. She told the council that Iran "has
repeatedly thumbed its nose" at council resolutions aimed at
addressing Iranian support for terrorism and regional conflicts and has
illegally supplied weapons to Yemen and Hezbollah militants in Syria and
Lebanon.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran would not
move first to abandon the nuclear deal with world powers, his first
statement since U.S. President Donald Trump called the pact into question
last week. "We won't rip up the nuclear deal, as long as the other
side doesn't," Khamenei, the highest authority in Iran, said in a
public address on Wednesday.
UANI IN THE NEWS
Former U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk is stepping out of retirement to
criticize a Naperville telecommunications company he says is doing
business in Iran. Coriant, which develops software for voice, data and
mobile networks and also has headquarters in Munich, is listed as an
exhibitor at the Iran Telecom Innovations Show this week in Tehran. Kirk
says he's concerned because the conference appears to be supported by the
Iranian Communications Regulatory Authority, which remains subject to
significant U.S. sanctions... Kirk... recently joined the board of United
Against Nuclear Iran, which aims to stop economic and financial support
of Iran by businesses until the Iranian regime "verifiably abandons
its drive for nuclear weapons."
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
Israel is wasting no time in trying to translate Donald
Trump's call for a tougher approach to Iran into action.
President Trump's decertification of the Iran nuclear deal
is kicking up a mini-panic in Europe. The Continent's leaders warn that
Mr. Trump's move could undermine trans-Atlantic relations, and that no
U.S. President can unilaterally walk away from the deal. But Europe was
overdue for a moment of truth on Iran, and Mr. Trump is providing one.
Europeans embraced the deal even before the final agreement was signed in
2015. Business trips to Tehran started under the pre-2015 interim
agreement...
Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone
conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss
the Iran nuclear program, the Kremlin said on Wednesday. In a phone call,
held on the initiative of the Israeli side, the two leaders also
discussed the situation in Syria and the referendum in Iraq's Kurdistan,
the Kremlin said in a statement.
NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC-MISSILE PROGRAMS
German security officials have accused the Iranian regime of
pursuing its goal to build missiles armed with nuclear warheads, the
Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel reported. "Despite the nuclear
agreement [reached with world powers in July 2015], Iran has not given up
its illegal activities in Germany. The mullah regime also made efforts
this year to obtain material from [German] firms for its nuclear program
and the construction of missiles, said security sources," Der
Tagesspiegel wrote on Friday.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards pledged to enhance the nation's
missile program in defiance of U.S. President Donald Trump, whose
hardened stance last week included new sanctions on the elite security
force. The missile program will be expanded "at greater speed,"
the Guards said in a statement carried by the Tasnim news agency on
Thursday. Trump's "hostile stance" toward Iran reflects the
inability of the U.S. and Israel to shift the balance of power in the
region, and their "anger" at the Guards' role, it said.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
The United States accused Iran on Wednesday of violating
several United Nations Security Council resolutions, saying it would no
longer "turn a blind eye" and asking the 15-member council of
Tehran's behavior: "where's the outrage?" U.S. President Donald
Trump struck a blow on Friday against a 2015 Iran nuclear deal when he
refused to formally certify that Tehran is complying with the accord
curbing its nuclear program, even though international inspectors say it
is. "Judging Iran by the narrow confines of the nuclear deal misses
the true nature of the threat. Iran must be judged in totality of its
aggressive, destabilizing, and unlawful behavior. To do otherwise would
be foolish," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told
the Security Council.
The Trump administration escalated a bitter confrontation
with Iran on Wednesday, demanding that the United Nations Security
Council punish the Iranian government for what the American ambassador
called its "outlaw behavior" across the Middle East. "The
United States will not turn a blind eye to these violations," the
United Nations ambassador, Nikki R. Haley, told a Security Council
meeting that had been meant to focus on developments in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ms. Haley used her speaking time instead to
deliver a critique of Iran. Her remarks were among the most strident
denunciations Ms. Haley has made of Iran since she became President
Trump's ambassador in January.
Iran's supreme leader has said his country will not take
heed of "rants and whoppers of a foul-throated US president",
in a speech that also made clear that Tehran will not be the first to
violate the nuclear deal... "The US is the agent of the international
Zionism, it was the US that created Daesh [Arabic acronym for Islamic
State] and Takfiri movements [Iran's terminology for Sunni extremist
groups]." Khamenei said the US was infuriated by Iran's role in
fighting Isis.
CONGRESS & IRAN
A United States Congress decision on the Iran nuclear deal
could clarify Washington's stance on the international accord and lead to
a positive outcome for Total and its planned $5 billion Iranian gas
project, its CEO said on Wednesday. Congress has two months to
decide whether to reinstate sanctions on Iran after U.S. President Donald
Trump last week refused to formally certify that Tehran was complying
with the nuclear agreement hailed by his predecessor Barack Obama as key
to stopping Iran from building nuclear weapons... Total was the first
Western oil major to sign a deal with Iran to develop phase 11 of Iran's
South Pars, the world's largest gas field. A decision to reinstate
sanctions on Iran could jeopardise the project. Pouyanne has said
Total would withdraw from Iran if obliged by law.
BUSINESS RISK
Iran might appear to be increasingly isolated on the global
stage but the country's deputy oil minister said Tuesday that it is on
the verge of signing deals with major global oil and gas companies.
Speaking in London, Amir Hossein Zamaninia said Iran was currently
negotiating with more than 15 companies from Europe, Russia and Asia to
conclude contracts that will open the country to massive oil and gas
exploration, development and production. "These are not
overambitious figures and expectations," he told the 'Oil and Money'
conference in the U.K. capital. "Our policy is to be able to manage
and finalize at least 10 contracts by the end of the Iranian year (March
2018)." He said Iran had so far signed "memorandums of
understanding" (investment intentions) for 28 different projects
with companies including Total, Eni and Shell, Russian firms Rosneft and
Lukoil, and China's Sinopec and China National Petroleum (CNPC), among others.
Iran's oil and gas development deal with Total is perhaps the most
noteworthy.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
Renewable energy is booming in Iran, where
installed capacity is expected to grow at least sevenfold over the next
five years, despite U.S. President Donald Trump's more confrontational
attitude towards Tehran. Iran's latest deal was signed on Tuesday, when
Norway's Saga Energy concluded a $2.9 billion (£2.2 billion) deal to
build solar power plants in the oil-producing country.
EXTREMISM
US President Donald Trump's strategy to
neutralize Iran's destabilizing activities in the region includes curbing
its support for terrorist organizations and militants in the Middle East
and Afghanistan, a US official told Asharq Al-Awsat. Speaking on condition
of anonymity, a senior official at the US State Department said that the
strategy included four key elements or objectives. He pointed out that
the first strategic goal is "to neutralize the destabilizing
activities by Iran, especially its support for terrorism and insurgents,
with a focus on its activities in the Middle East in particular and also
in Afghanistan"... Trump's new strategy - according to the US
official - includes putting an end to Iran's subversive activities in
Syria and its support for terrorism through groups such as
"Hezbollah", Hamas, the Taliban and Iraqi Shi'ite factions,
noting that Tehran was seeking to fuel ethnic and sectarian strife in
Iraq.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Iranians are such pathological liars that they delude
themselves into believing their own falsehoods. They claim that they are
a regional power, yet they avoid any face-to-face confrontation with
their opponents. After being bitterly defeated by Iraqis, Imam Khomeini
made the claim that he was forced to drink poison. In fact, he died two
years after the setback. A general of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards
Corps (IRGC) stated about a week ago that if the United States were to
designate the IRGC a terrorist group, Iranians would have no option but
to treat Americans as they had treated ISIS fighters. The statement
clearly smacks of self-delusion, for Iran has started believing that its
forces had defeated and expelled ISIS from Iraq and Syria and not Iraqis,
with support from the US-led coalition forces.
SYRIA CONFLICT
Iran's military chief warned Israel against breaching Syrian
airspace and territory on a visit to Damascus on Wednesday, raising
tensions with Israel as it voices deep concern over Tehran's influence in
Syria. General Mohammad Baqeri pledged to increase cooperation with
Syria's military to fight Israel and insurgents, Iranian and Syrian state
media said.
Iran's military chief of staff indicated Wednesday that
Tehran would not tolerate violations of Syrian sovereignty by Israel and
vowed that the two countries would jointly fight against Syria's enemies.
His comments came after Israel on Monday struck an anti-aircraft battery
inside Syria, which followed the firing of a Syrian missile at Israeli
planes on reconnaissance flights over Lebanon.
IRAQ CRISIS
The State Department on Tuesday declined to criticize the
Iraqi central government for partnering with Iran in a fight against an
ethnic minority seeking to separate from the rest of the country.
"We're not taking sides," State Department spokeswoman Heather
Nauert told reporters on Tuesday. The neutral U.S. stance is
controversial because the Kurdish Iraqis who are seeking independence
from Baghdad have been critical partners in the fight against the Islamic
State.
A few days after the Trump administration announced a new,
get-tough approach to Iran, one of that country's top military commanders
and the armed Shiite militias he supports played a key role in the
seizure of an important Iraqi city from the U.S.-backed Kurds, according
to Iraqi, Kurdish and American officials. Former U.S. national security
officials told NBC News the Iranian-brokered seizure of oil-rich Kirkuk
by the Iraqi government and its militia partners, which heightens the
risk of civil war, amounts to an embarrassing strategic blow to the U.S.
at the hands of Iran.
Today, the Islamic State controls just three percent of Iraq
after controlling one-third of the country two years ago, but American
officials say an old nemesis in the region continues to stoke tensions
inside the country, creating another immediate challenge once ISIS is
defeated. After the fall of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and the
evacuation of Kurdish fighters, the U.S. military must figure out how to
keep Iraq from breaking apart while also preventing Iran from turning its
neighbor into a proxy state. "Nearly every threat to peace and
security in the Middle East is connected to Iran's outlaw behavior,"
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Wednesday. The
Shia-led government in Baghdad welcomed Iran's help when ISIS swept through
Iraqi cities three years ago. Now Iran is flexing its muscle in Iraq,
putting the U.S. in the middle of a potential three-way civil war
involving Shias, Sunnis and Kurds.
GULF STATES & IRAN
The Political Coordinator of the Saudi Mission in the United
Nations, spokeswoman Manal Hassan Radwan, in her speech on Wednesday,
during a meeting of the Security Council on the Middle East that Iran has
taken advantage of lifting sanctions to destabilize the region. Saudi
Arabia's delegate at the United Nations also spoke on the kingdom's
position on Palestine, Syria and Trump's recent decision on the Iranian
nuclear deal. On Palestine, Saudi Arabia said that Israeli occupation's
settlement expansion impedes the peace process and that Israeli measures
of Israeli occupation in Palestine must be addressed. With the Syrian
file, Radwan said: "We welcome cooperation between Washington and
Jordan to reduce the escalation of southern Syria".
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia emphasised its full support for
any measures and sanctions that would limit Iran's aggressive moves and
interference in the countries of the region, Saudi Press Agency, SPA,
reported on Wednesday. The kingdom regretted Iran's misuse of the
economic benefits of lifting the sanctions after the nuclear agreement
and its use to continue destabilising the region and developing its
ballistic missile programme and support for terrorism in the region,
including Hezbollah, Houthi militias in Yemen and armed militias in
Syria. This came in a statement today by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at
the United Nations in response to the report of the Special Rapporteur on
the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of
human rights as part of the work of the Committee on Humanitarian, Social
and Cultural Rights. The statement was delivered by the Deputy Head of
the Permanent Mission of the kingdom to the United Nations Dr. Khalid
Manzlawi.
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