Friday, December 15, 2017

Eye on Iran: In First, U.S. Presents Its Evidence Of Iran Weaponry From Yemen





   EYE ON IRAN
Facebook
Twitter
View our videos on YouTube
   





TOP STORIES


The United States on Thursday presented for the first time pieces of what it said were Iranian weapons supplied to the Iran-aligned Houthi militia in Yemen, describing it as conclusive evidence that Tehran was violating U.N. resolutions. 


The United States will work to build an international coalition to "push back" against Iran, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Thursday, as she presented physical evidence she said firmly linked Iran to weapons used in Yemen.


The House passed a bill today that could inhibit the sale of commercial aircraft to Iran, potentially running afoul of the landmark 2015 nuclear accord.

UANI IN THE NEWS


"For months, we've seen Iran disregard international laws and norms by continuing its provocative ballistic missile testing. Now, with the evidence unveiled today by Ambassador Haley, Iran has been caught red-handed flagrantly violating the prohibition on transferring missile technology to third parties-namely the Houthis in Yemen," former Sen. Joe Lieberman, now the chairman of the advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, responded.


UANI Senior Adviser Norman Roule: For months, the U.S., the Saudis and others have complained that Iran has provided advanced weapons technology to the Houthis. The amount of evidence provided today is significant. The fact that the administration is encouraging P5 members to examine the weapons shows the administration's confidence in its narrative.

IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL


Ahead of the Joint Commission for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in Vienna on Dec. 13, Frederica Mogherini, the European Union foreign policy chief who led the talks between Iran and the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, spoke at the European Parliament and rekindled the debate in Iranian media on whether or not the nuclear deal was intended to open the door for other talks. In her comments, Mogherini said the preamble of the nuclear deal says the nuclear agreement "could pave the road toward another interaction or a more constructive engagement in the region and create the framework for that." Mogherini added, "Maybe I am revealing a secret, but that sentence was inserted at Iran's request." She said Iranian negotiators had intended to use the agreement as a mandate to engage with the rest of the world and sideline domestic critics opposed to more engagement.

NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC-MISSILE PROGRAMS


Successive U.S. administrations have warned of Iran's malign influence in the Middle East, but lying in a hangar at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling here is concrete proof that the Iranian regime is exporting arms to sow instability and promote violence throughout the region. In the hangar are three intact Iranian weapon systems and debris from a fourth, recovered from the battlefields of the Middle East that can be directly traced to Tehran.


Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is dismissing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley's claim of evidence she says proves Iran is supporting Yemeni rebels. Zarif likened her presentation Thursday to former Secretary of State Colin Powell's claim in 2003 that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS


The Obama administration pursued a regional policy that sought to reintegrate Iran into the regional and international systems in the hope of stabilizing the Middle East. This policy has attempted to reestablish Iran, as a regional power similar to the pre-1979 period. In fact, this unrealistic desire to set the clock of the Gulf region back to the pre-1979 security architecture was the primary intention behind the negotiation of the 2015 nuclear deal.

SANCTIONS ENFORCEMENT


As Iranian-Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab was telling a New York court about how he devised ways to scuttle sanctions on Iran, shadily documented and hard-to-justify levels of gold trade between Turkey and United Arab Emirates have appeared once again. Before the United States put gold on its list of Iran sanctions, the surge in Turkey's gold exports to Iran and the UAE was a clear indicator of Turkey paying for its oil and natural gas imports with gold. There is no other way to explain how Turkey's gold exports to Iran went from $54 million in 2011 to $6.5 billion in 2012. After the blocking of the SWIFT transfer route in March 2012 meant banks could no longer transfer payments for oil and natural gas, Turkey began depositing its payments into an account Iran opened at Turkey's major public bank, Halkbank.  


Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a Turkish banker accused of taking part in a scheme to help Iran evade U.S. sanctions, plans to testify in his own defense at his trial in New York, his lawyers said Thursday. 

SANCTIONS RELIEF


India's refiners imported nearly half as much crude oil from Iran in November as the month before, ship tracking data showed, cutting purchases to a 21-month low in protest at Tehran's decision to award a giant gas field to a Russian company.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS


A top Israeli politician said he would form a new "anti-Iran axis," together with Saudi Arabia and other Sunni powers, to counter the Iranian threat in the region, if he succeeds embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

MILITARY MATTERS


As the battle against ISIS is winding down in Iraq and Syria, some military leaders and hardliners in Iran call for not only keeping a long-term military presence in both countries but also expand the country's "military advisory missions" to other conflict zones in the region, including Yemen and Palestine, warns reformist Iranian daily Bahar.


Israel has been left abandoned by the United States to deal alone with the Shi'ite Iranian, Russian and Turkish axis.

PROXY WARS


The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Yemen welcomed the UN report on Iran's hostile interventions and support of the Houthi terrorist militias and called for confronting Tehran's threats. They also welcomed the American position announced by the United States Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, and its condemnation of Iran's hostile activities in supporting and arming terrorist groups.

SYRIA CONFLICT


The head of Khatam al-Anbia Construction Base, the main engineering and construction arm of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.), has said that the conglomerate is ready to play a leading role in Syria's reconstruction process, Tasnim News Agency reported.

IRANIAN DOMESTIC ISSUES


As international pressures against Iran increased, including stifling sanctions and an intensified proxy war with Saudi Arabia, the sense of nationalism continued to rise in the country. Regime media-makers began to consciously highlight this sentiment in all their cultural productions after the Green Movement. Although this strategy began in some regime media circles before 2009, it has exponentially intensified since the suppression of the Green Movement. Today, the crescendo of this nationalist turn in the Islamic Republic is clear for all to see.







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.

No comments:

Post a Comment