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TOP STORIES
Two launch units for anti-tank
guided missiles recovered by a Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen
appear to have been manufactured in Iran during 2016 and 2017,
according to a confidential United Nations report seen by Reuters on
Tuesday. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres does not
specifically state whether the discovery of the units in Yemen was a
violation of a U.N. resolution that took effect in January 2016.
With Israel joining the
prestigious FATF (Financial Action Task Force) on Monday, will it be
able to work with the US to pressure Iran financially at the upcoming
February 17 meeting? Iran already has problems with the FATF with it
being singled out along with North Korea for a line of negative
public statements in recent years and as a high-risk jurisdiction.
U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry
arrived in Baghdad on a trade mission Tuesday urging Iraq to reduce
its energy dependence on Iran and open its own energy sector to
American investment. The visit comes as the U.S. tries to isolate
Iran through sanctions targeting its business and finance sectors.
U.S. President Donald Trump says Iran is not in compliance with the
2015 nuclear accord.
UANI IN THE NEWS
...Iran's December 1 test is a
deliberate provocation to the US, Jordan Steckler, a research
analayst at United Against Nuclear Iran told The National. "At a
time when the EU has continuously struggled to create a mechanism for
continued European trade and investment with Iran, the ballistic
missile tests, as well as Iran's stepped up campaign of
assassinations and terrorist plots on European soil, show that Tehran
has no intentions of moderating its behaviour," he said.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Iranian MP Kazem Jalali said on
Monday that Iran will turn to alternate options if Europe fails to
start actions to save the 2015 nuclear deal, officially called the
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). "European countries
have adopted political position to keep the JCPOA, however, we expect
serious actions and practical will of Europe," he said during a
meeting with Tarja Cronberg, a member of the Executive Board of the
European Leadership Network.
Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's nuclear
chief and former foreign minister, has warned that Iranians are
running out of patience with the European Union's pledge to
maintain trade with Tehran despite ramped-up U.S. sanctions against
its oil and banking sectors. "If we cannot sell our oil and we
don't enjoy financial transactions, then I don't think keeping the
deal will benefit us anymore," Salehi said ahead of a Nov. 27
meeting with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Brussels.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
The chief financial officer of
Chinese tech giant Huawei has been released on bail in Canada,
setting her up for a lengthy legal fight over extradition to the
United States. But the case of Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested in
Vancouver earlier this month, took on a new dimension after US
President Donald Trump suggested he may intervene in the legal saga
if it would help his pursuit of a trade deal with China. Meng's
arrest has stoked tensions between the United States and China, just
as the two sides have been trying to negotiate an end to their
bruising trade war.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul
Mahdi said on Tuesday he would send a delegation to the United States
to seek an exemption from sanctions against Iran that would allow
Baghdad to keep importing gas from Tehran. "The American side is
cooperating with Iraq to find solutions that would remove pressure on
Iraq because the (Iranian) gas is linked to a very sensitive issue
which is electricity," Abdul Mahdi told a news conference.
German exports to Iran soared in
October, a month before the United States re-instated sanctions on
the Islamic Republic to choke its oil and shipping industries, data
seen by Reuters showed on Tuesday. The surge signals willingness
among Germany's small to medium-sized firms, or Mittelstand, to
continue doing business with Iran despite the risk of being
blacklisted by the United States for defying its sanctions.
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul
Mahdi says Baghdad government will send a delegation to the United
States to explore avenues for an exemption from sanctions against
Iran, which would allow the Arab country to keep importing Iranian
gas used to feed its power stations. "The American side is
cooperating with Iraq to find solutions that would remove pressure on
Iraq because the (Iranian) gas is linked to a very sensitive issue,
which is electricity," Abdul Mahdi told a news conference on
Tuesday.
Iran is going to offer its crude
to Asian buyers, to be delivered in January, at US$1 per barrel less
than this month, Reuters reports, citing a pricing document. The
official selling price of Iranian Light crude was set at US$0.30
above the Platts Dubai/Oman average for January. This makes Iranian
Light US$0.30 a barrel cheaper than Saudi Arab Light, with Iranian
Heavy costing US$1.25 less per barrel than the Kingdom's Arab Medium
grade, Reuters calculates.
Earlier this month,
an interim agreement on free trade between Iran and the Eurasian
Economic Union (EAEU) was approved at the regional body's summit in
the Russian city of St. Petersburg. After relevant legal procedures
in Iran are fully carried out, the deal is expected to take effect as
of early 2019. Seen as Iran's biggest ever deal on
free trade with foreign partners, the document is aimed at the
formation of a full-scale free trade zone between Iran and the EAEU
member states, under which the two sides will be decreasing or
removing export-import duties from bilateral trade.
Despite the Trudeau government's efforts to reach out to
the Muslim world, Ottawa has recently found itself in a state of
estrangement from two of the Middle East's most formidable Islamic
states. Over the course of 2018, Saudi Arabia and Iran essentially
recused themselves, albeit in different ways, from normative
engagement with a Canadian government that has never lifted a
legislative finger against either of them. Notably, both took this
turn amidst disputes with Canada related to their human rights
violations involving Canadian residents and citizens. The schism has
highlighted the need for Canada to re-examine its assumptions
regarding national interests and human rights advocacy, as
autocracies become increasingly more muscular and brazen in offending
the human rights sensibilities of Western countries.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
In the middle of December last
year, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned of the
expectation of mass protests and responded by dispatching
special patrols of Basij forces in order to create an atmosphere
of fear and intimidation across the country to prevent any expression
of popular dissent. But popular protests erupted later that month and
turned rapidly into a nationwide uprising that tore down the
wall of oppression.
Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned
Georgian ambassador to Tehran, Ioseb Chakhvashvili, over recent
reports of the Tbilisi government's "disrespect" for some
Iranian passengers, Tasnim news agency resorted on Tuesday. In the
meeting, Iranian Foreign Ministry voiced Tehran's strong opposition
to what it called "the improper behavior" of Georgian
border officers toward some Iranian nationals.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to travel to
New York on December 12 to participate in a UN Security Council
meeting on Iran. During the session, Pompeo will underscore
Washington's "unyielding resolve to address the Iranian regime's
threats to international peace and security through their continued
development and proliferation of ballistic missiles," the State
Department said in a statement.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
Parliament Research Center of
the Iranian legislature says that eleven percent more people have
fallen below poverty line in the Tehran region, as the national
currency rial has lost value. Currently, the poverty line is defined
as a monthly income of around 28 million rials for a family of our,
which only makes about $233 based on the free market exchange rate,
or $480 based on the official exchange rate of the upcoming
government budget.
IRANIAN REGIONAL AGGRESSION
The land across the border from
northern Israel, from the Lebanese shores of the Mediterranean to the
mountains of the Golan Heights in Syria, has become a staging ground
for Iran and its proxies in their confrontation with the West. Iran has
provided the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah with more than
100,000 rockets and missiles and now has begun a "precision
project" to retrofit those weapons with accurate guidance
systems.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
A little over a year ago,
President Donald Trump promised he would recognize Jerusalem as the
capital of Israel and, six months later, he delivered on that
promise by officially moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem. Still, the embassy move is just one of many recent
achievements that have enhanced the U.S.-Israel relationship
under President Trump. Standing up for Israel at the United
Nations, confronting Iran, and empowering the Jewish state to defend
its interests have been successful outcomes of this policy agenda.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
The United States and the
European Union are publicly at odds over whether Iran can play a
constructive role in Yemen peace talks, further splitting the two
allies regarding how best to deal with Tehran. The Donald Trump
administration had asked the UN to reject Iran's request to have a
senior Foreign Ministry official attend this week's talks in Sweden
between President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's government and the Houthi
rebels, Al-Monitor first reported last week.
MISCELLANEOUS
A refugee family has been
awarded $100,000 of taxpayers money after a court ruled they were
mistreated in detention. The asylum seeker family, who fled their
native Iran in 2010 claiming to be in fear for their lives,
sued the Commonwealth over mistreatment they suffered while living in
a number of Australian detention facilities. Last week the New
South Wales Supreme Court officially approved payments to two
siblings now aged 16 and 11, with one amount confidential.
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