Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Eye on Iran: U.S., Gulf States Blacklist Afghan Taliban, Iranian Officers for Terrorist Financing



   EYE ON IRAN
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TOP STORIES


A seven-country group set up to combat the international financing of terrorists has blacklisted nine individuals associated with Afghanistan's Taliban, including two Iranian military officers and several men accused of "facilitating Iranian support to bolster the terrorist group."


Bank of Kunlun Co, the key Chinese conduit for transactions with Iran, is set to halt handling payments from the Islamic Republic under pressure of imminent U.S. sanctions against the country, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.


Iran was closer to developing nuclear weapons than previously thought, according to a think tank report issued late Tuesday. A report by the Institute for Science and International Security said that combining new information produced by the Mossad during its January raid on a Tehran warehouse along with satellite imagery "conclusively shows that the Parchin site did house high explosive chambers capable for use in nuclear weapons research and development."

UANI IN THE NEWS


The Beirut Barracks attack is a reminder that Hezbollah, already a formidable foe in the 1980s, is a threat to international security. The only genuine change it has undergone in the last three decades is considerably expanding its global reach.

SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS  
Iran's crude oil exports and production have declined since the May 2018 announcement by the United States that it would withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and reinstate sanctions against Iran. 


Illicit exports of crude oil from Iran to Syria spiked in the first two weeks of October to roughly 150,000 barrels per day (bpd), more than twice the reported high for previous two-week periods this year. The shipments provide a crucial lifeline for the cash-strapped Assad regime, whose persistent evasion of U.S. and EU sanctions has yet to provoke fully effective enforcement measures.


Despite the FATF decision to maintain the status quo, the United States is seeking to compel foreign financial institutions to avoid dealing with Iran's financial sector through the threat and application of sanctions.

TERRORISM & EXTREMISM


Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday that it and Bahrain had added Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and senior officers from its Quds Force to their lists of people and organizations suspected of involvement in terrorism.

PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS


The Iranian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Farhad Meysami, a human rights defender campaigning for women's rights, who is being held in the medical clinic at Evin prison in Tehran against his will to pressure him into ending his hunger strike, said Amnesty International.

IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS


In a fiery speech to parliament October 21, outspoken businessman and pro-reform MP Bahram Parsaei lambasted President Rouhani for suppressing Iran's pre-Islamic history. 


Only one month into the new school year, teachers in Iran have once again staged mass collective action.

RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN


The Trump administration might take limited measures that are not likely to alter the fundamentals of US policy in Lebanon should Hezbollah get the Health Ministry in the new Cabinet formation.


Mossad Director Yossi Cohen warned of Iranian expansionist aspirations in the Middle East in a rare public speech on Monday.


Thirty years ago, three spectacular attacks in Beirut over an 18-month period announced the debut of a potent new force in Lebanon-the Shiite Hezbollah militia- and defined its relationship with the United States for years to come. The October 1983 bombings of Multinational Force bases took the lives of 241 Americans and 58 French.


The US has vowed not to pull out of the conflict until the last Iranian soldier goes home - but that could be trickier than it appears.






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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