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Eye on Iran will
not be sent on Wednesday, November 21, Thursday, November 22 and
Friday, November 23 in observance of Thanksgiving. It will resume
Monday, November 26.
TOP STORIES
The Trump administration is set
to accuse Iran of violating the international treaty that bars the
use of chemical weapons. The White House notified lawmakers on
Friday that it would declare Iran is violating the 1997 Chemical
Weapons Convention because it has kept the equipment and facilities
needed to produce them, not because it is actively making or using
such weapons. Two senior US officials tell CNN that the charge
will not trigger immediate penalties, but could be used as
justification to file claims against Iran with international
organizations going forward.
European Union foreign ministers
showed cautious support on Monday for possible new economic sanctions
on Iran in a shift of policy after accusations of Iranian attack
plots in France and Denmark, diplomats said. Denmark and France
briefed their EU counterparts at a meeting in Brussels on the alleged
plots and ministers agreed to consider targeted sanctions on Iranians
in response, although no details or names were discussed, five
diplomats told Reuters.
European countries are finding
it difficult to set up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to allow
non-dollar trade with Iran, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
said on Tuesday, according to parliamentary news agency ICANA.
The SPV would act as a clearing house that could be used to help
match Iranian oil and gas exports to purchases of EU goods,
circumventing U.S. sanctions which are based on the global use of the
dollar for oil trading.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
Iran's foreign minister has said
his country will not only survive newly reimposed US sanctions but it
will thrive. The Trump administration announced
sanctions this month covering banking, oil exports and shipping,
aimed at forcing Tehran to stop what the US described as its
"destabilising activities" in the Middle East. Speaking
after meeting the British foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, in
Tehran on Monday, Javad Zarif said: "We are used to pressure and
we are used to resisting pressure..."
The United Arab Emirates is
fully complying with sanctions imposed this month by the United
States on Iran even though it will mean a further drop in trade with
Tehran, a UAE economy ministry official told Reuters on Monday. Abu
Dhabi, the political capital of the UAE federation, has taken a
hawkish stand on Tehran, although Dubai, the country's business hub,
has traditionally been a major trading partner with Iran.
Reuters interviewed dozens of
business owners across Iran and found that hundreds of companies had
suspended production and thousands of workers were being laid off
because of a hostile business climate mainly caused by new US
sanctions. The Iranian rial has fallen to record lows, and
economic activity has slowed dramatically since US President Donald
Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal with Tehran in May.
Iran is reintroducing fuel cards
that will cap petrol purchases in a bid to combat rampant smuggling,
state media reported on Tuesday. Smuggling has boomed in recent
months as the rial has plummeted against the dollar in the face of
the reimposition of crippling US sanctions following Washington's
withdrawal from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between major powers and
Tehran.
Iran will continue to export oil
despite U.S. sanctions, which are part of a psychological war doomed
to failure, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Monday. By
reimposing sanctions on OPEC's third-biggest crude producer,
Washington wants to force Tehran to drop its ballistic missile
programs, further curb its nuclear work and limit its support for
proxy armed groups from Syria to Lebanon and Yemen. "We
will not yield to this pressure, which is part of the psychological
war launched against Iran," Rouhani said in a speech in the city
of Khoy, broadcast live on state television.
Tehran wants to revitalise gold
and copper mines, according to local media. Iran Minerals Production
and Supply Company was cited in the reports. The nation is undergoing
a sudden surge in gold mining since crippling US sanctions were
enforced. Besides boosting mineral production and legalising some
illegal mines, the Iranian government's programme is aimed at
"increasing employment, creating added value for local
communities, and ultimately achieving the goals of a resilient
economy".
Refiners in Japan and South
Korea are looking to resume Iranian oil imports from January after
receiving waivers from U.S. sanctions on Tehran, sources familiar
with the matter said. The unexpected resurgence in Iranian oil
imports due to the waivers has helped push spot prices for Middle
East crude and condensate to their lowest in more than a year.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
Jeremy Hunt has met the
four-year-old daughter of a British mother jailed in Iran on spying
charges as he called for her to be released. The Foreign Secretary
presented Gabriella Zaghari-Ratcliffe with gifts including a John
Lewis art set and a Peppa Pig book as he visited her in Iran. Her
imprisoned mother Nazanin, 39, who is from West Hampstead, North West
London, had also made dolls for Gabriella and one of Mr Hunt's
daughters.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
Iran's judiciary chief said
Monday that government officials must not make accusations of vast
money-laundering operations by powerful institutions, which could be
exploited by the enemy. The criticism followed statements by Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to the Khabar Online news agency last
week in which he said: "Money laundering is a reality in our
country, and a lot of people are benefitting from it."
A change will be
"soon" coming to the current Iranian regime and US policies
would have nothing it, according to an American bimonthly
international affairs magazine. The National Interest claimed that
not the US sanctions, nor the US withdrawal from the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action, known as "the Iran Deal," are
going to bring change to the current Iranian regime.
IRANIAN REGIONAL AGGRESSION
In an exclusive interview with
Al Arabiya, US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook has
stressed that Iran is the largest sponsor of global terrorism and
said that "international banks are afraid to deal with
Tehran". The special envoy spoke on US intentions to accelerate
the path to zero imports of Iranian oil to guarantee a stable oil
market. "Iran evaded sanctions in the past but this time we are
taking a much stronger approach," says Hook as he highlights the
US commitment to maximize economic pressure on Iran.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
The Mossad allegedly provided intelligence to Argentina
which helped successfully thwart a Hezbollah plot to attack Jewish
community centers in Buenos Aires, according to Channel 2. Two
citizens from Argentina were arrested on Thursday because they had suspected
links to Lebanon's Hezbollah, according to Al Jazeera.
Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu said on Monday that Russia alone does not have enough
leverage to get Iran out of Syria. Speaking at the
Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee,
Netanyahu said that Israel has acted in Syria since the downing
of the Russian spy-plane in September. "Our spy-planes
continue to fly and collect information," he said. "From
the information we have, the amount of Iranian weapons transfers to
Hezbollah through Syria has significantly dropped since the downing
of the Russian plane."
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
Saudi Arabia's King Salman urged
the international community on Monday to halt Iran's nuclear and
ballistic missile programs and reiterated the kingdom's support for
U.N. efforts to end the war in Yemen. The king's annual remarks
to the Shura Council, a top governmental advisory body, were his
first public comments since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi
at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, which caused a global
outcry.
In a speech to Saudi
Arabia's Shura Council for the inauguration of its seventh
edition on Monday, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz touched upon
a number of issues, including developmental plans in the kingdom and
combating terrorism in the region. During his speech, King Salman
said that Iran creates chaos and devastation in the region,
interferes in surrounding countries' internal affairs, and insists on
sponsoring terrorism.
IRAQ & IRAN
Weeks after the United States
reimposed sanctions on Iran - even though UN monitors said Iran was
in compliance with the nuclear deal that was signed
under former US President Barack Obama's administration -
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that Iran-Iraq bilateral trade
could increase to $20 billion from its current $12 billion, and he
spoke of expanding economic ties and relations between the two
countries.
The Iraqi presidency denied on Monday reports claiming that
Iraq is playing the role of 'mediator' between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The presidency published on its website a "denial and
clarification" of news published by the media that "Iran offered
negotiations with Saudi Arabia, and that the Iraqi President Barham
Salih proposed to mediate and carry a message to Riyadh from his
Iranian counterpart."
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The Middle East is a tinderbox
where one small event could lead to a catastrophe on the scale of the
first world war, Jeremy Hunt has warned, as he pushed for the release
of the Iranian-British dual national Nazanin
Zaghari-Ratcliffe on his first visit to Iran as foreign
secretary. Hunt's visit to Tehran, the first by a foreign minister
since the US reimposed sanctions on oil exports earlier this month,
included talks to persuade Iran to back a UK-sponsored peace
settlement in Yemen and not to pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal
with the west over Europe's apparent inability to circumvent the US
sanctions.
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