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TOP STORIES
An important cog in the global financial system has
succumbed to pressure from the Trump administration and severed ties
with Iranian banks. Belgian-based Swift, whose messaging service connects
more than 11,000 financial institutions as they transfer money around
the world, said it was disconnecting from Iranian banks after the
United States announced sanctions against 50 of the country's
financial firms on Monday.
The United States snapped sanctions back in place on
Monday to choke Iran's oil and shipping industries, while temporarily
allowing top customers such as China and India to keep buying crude
from the Islamic Republic.
The European Union has so far failed to find a country
to host a special mechanism to trade with Iran and beat newly
reimposed U.S. sanctions, three diplomats said, as governments fear
being targeted by U.S. counter measures.
UANI IN THE NEWS
Sterner sanctions are going to be needed, and it's great
to be with you. The waivers that have been issued today by the
administration need to be one-time, non-renewable, and, after that,
obviously stronger sanctions come into effect. Also, we have to see
what SWIFT is going to undertake.
A New York-based advocacy group, United Against Nuclear
Iran, said the administration "caved" in its decision to
grant waivers. "Whatever happened to maximum pressure," the
group tweeted. "They caved. Big time."
The pressure group United Against Nuclear Iran, led in
part by former Senator Joe Lieberman, lashed about the waivers,
tweeting on Friday that the administration had "caved."
The pressure group United Against Nuclear Iran, which is
led in part by former Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., objected to the
waivers Friday, saying on Twitter that the administration had
"caved."
Organizations that have supported the Trump
administration's moves on Iran also have expressed caution with the
new concessions, another sign of mounting frustration among those who
expected the White House to get tough with Tehran. "The
implementation of a maximum pressure, full economic blockade on Iran
is the only way to force the regime to change its malignant
behavior," United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) Chairman Sen. Joe
Lieberman and CEO Amb. Mark Wallace said in a statement. "This
campaign should include action by SWIFT to disconnect Iranian banks
and no repeat of these oil waivers after 180 days. Anything else will
continue allowing the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism to
fund its global terror campaign."
Some leading Iran hawks appeared to agree with the
administration's approach. "We are encouraged that these waivers
will only be temporary and one-time," said United Against a
Nuclear Iran, a prominent group that was harshly critical of the
nuclear deal and the sanctions relief it brought.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
As US President Donald Trump reimposes sweeping
sanctions on Iran on Monday, all eyes are again on the precarious
future of a landmark international deal meant to curb Tehran's
nuclear programme. One place that could feel the ramifications of
Trump's decision is an unassuming lab complex near the Austrian town
of Seibersdorf -- at first sight a world away from geopolitical
manoeuvering over Tehran's nuclear programme.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
Yesterday, the Trump administration reimposed sanctions
on Iran's oil, gas, shipping and banking industries with more on the
way. EU states have announced their displeasure while vowing to
circumvent existing financial channels "allowing European
exporters and importers to pursue legitimate trade". Iran is
demanding European guarantees of business as usual. Theirs is a faint
hope. Few international corporations will risk defying Washington's
diktats.
The Trump administration reintroduced punitive measures
Monday against Iran's all-important energy and shipping sectors.
Although Iran and the other parties to the 2015 nuclear deal (France,
Germany, the U.K., the European Union, China and Russia) remain
committed, fear of violating the sanctions and losing access to the
world's biggest economy has forced major multinationals in and
outside the U.S. to forgo lucrative projects in Iran.
The Trump administration called it the biggest sanctions
action the United States had ever undertaken against Iran. Iran's
president called it an act of "economic war" and said his
country would win. The package of severe economic penalties imposed
against Iran on Monday by the United States is the most significant
part of President Trump's decision last May to abandon the Iranian
nuclear agreement of 2015, which he has described as a disaster.
White House national security adviser John Bolton on
Monday warned that there are even more Iran sanctions planned, saying
the Trump administration is not "simply going to be
content" with the level that existed under former President
Obama.
In his latest statements regarding the reimposition of
US sanctions, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani struck a defiant tone.
But he left the door open for future talks with the United States
despite the fact that such a process would only occur in the distant
future.
Iran's leaders lashed out at Washington on Monday as the
Trump administration raised economic sanctions to their maximum
level, saying the latest punitive actions called for countermeasures
to pressure the U.S. in return.
The United Nations should hold the United States
accountable for re-imposing sanctions on Monday to choke off Iran's
oil and shipping industry, measures that defy a U.N. Security Council
resolution, Iran's U.N. ambassador wrote in a letter to
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
At the same time U.S. President Donald Trump has ramped
up sanctions on Iran, he's signaled his willingness to meet the
country's leaders to hash out a new nuclear accord. Israel's United
Nations envoy wants him to hold off.
Theresa May today slammed Donald Trump for unleashing
the US's 'toughest ever' sanctions regime on Iran.
The reimposition of sanctions against Iran on Monday has
ushered in what is likely to be a protracted period of heated
rhetoric and standoff, as the Trump administration threatened more
pressure and Tehran warned that it can ramp up its nuclear program
again, Middle East experts said.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
As the U.S. prepares to resume nuclear negotiations with
North Korea this week, both sides are hardening their positions,
dimming hopes for a compromise. North Korea says it has made enough
concessions on nuclear disarmament and has grown more strident in its
demands for the U.S. to reciprocate. Last week, Pyongyang threatened
to resume building up its nuclear forces if the U.S. doesn't remove
sanctions or provide other ways to improve relations.
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan compared US
President Donald Trump to Satan and encouraged Iranians to resist
American "plots" against Iran, during a visit to Tehran,
according to a report by the semi-official Islamic Republic News
Agency. "The Christians say that Satan is a liar, and every day they
keep a count of Trump's lies," Farrakhan said at a meeting with
Mohsen Rezaee, a conservative politician who is secretary of Iran's
Expediency Discernment Council, a body that advises Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reacted as expected on
Monday to the reimposition of U.S. sanctions, saying that "unfair
sanctions are against the law, U.N. resolutions and international
accords. Therefore, we will proudly break the sanctions." He's
wrong about international law because the U.S. is merely reimposing
American sanctions. Barack Obama never submitted the Iran nuclear
deal to the U.S. Senate as a treaty, so President Trump can withdraw
from it as he wishes. But no doubt Mr. Rouhani believes Iran can
evade sanctions and wait out the Trump Presidency.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Iran's telecommunications minister accused Israel on
Monday of a new cyber attack on its telecommunications
infrastructure, and vowed to respond with legal action. This followed
comments from another official last week that Iran had uncovered a
new generation of Stuxnet, a virus which was used against the
country's nuclear program more than a decade ago.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
The United Arab Emirates does not expect a material
impact on its economy from the United States' latest sanctions on
Iran, the UAE's central bank governor said on Tuesday. The two
Iranian banks operating in the UAE have minimal operations dealing
with Iranians in the UAE, the governor Mubarak Rashed al-Mansoori
said at a conference in Abu Dhabi.
Iran has condemned Bahrain over the jailing for life of
a Shiite opposition leader, accusing Manama of wanting to
"intensify its suppression" of dissent.
IRAQ & IRAN
Iraq will continue to have access to the energy it needs
from Iran to generate and supply electricity, Brian Hook, the special
representative for Iran at the U.S. State Department, said Monday on
a media conference call. "Iraq has been granted an
exemption" to the energy sanctions the U.S. has reimposed on
Iran, Hook said, without providing details.
TURKEY & IRAN
Turkey foreign minister criticized on Tuesday the U.S.
renewal of sanctions on Iran's oil and shipping industries, saying it
was dangerous to isolate Iran and unfair to punish its people,
Anadolu news agency reported.
MISCELLANEOUS
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan led chants of
"death to America" on Sunday and derided American
conceptions of democracy and freedom during a visit to Iran, planned
as a show of support for the regime ahead of the re-implementation of
U.S. sanctions. Farrakhan, a notorious anti-Semite who has been
embraced by prominent liberal activists and lawmakers, railed against
American policymakers for harassing the Iranian people and siding
with Saudi Arabia in its proxy war with Iran in Yemen.
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