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Iran's foreign minister said on
Sunday that a European mechanism to trade with Tehran fell short and
that France, Britain and Germany needed to do more to show their
commitment to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. "Instex (the
mechanism) falls short of commitments by the E3 (France, Germany,
Britain) to save the nuclear deal," Mohammad Javad Zarif said at
the Munich Security Conference. "Europe needs to be willing to
get wet if it wants to swim against the dangerous tide of U.S.
unilateralism."
Businesses and government
agencies in the United States have been targeted in aggressive
attacks by Iranian and Chinese hackers who security experts believe
have been energized by President Trump's withdrawal from the Iran
nuclear deal last year and his trade conflicts with China. Recent
Iranian attacks on American banks, businesses and government agencies
have been more extensive than previously reported.
A Dutch company has been
convicted of illegally exporting to Iran gas turbine parts that could
be used in the manufacture of weapons. A court in the southern
province of Limburg convicted Euroturbine BV on Monday of setting up
shell construction companies aimed at avoiding Dutch export license
requirements that were tightened in 2009. The Dutch company was fined
500,000 euros ($565,383) and a Bahrein-based subsidiary 350,000
($395,800).
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence
pressed European countries on Saturday to withdraw from a nuclear
deal between Iran and major powers, and urged them to be wary of
using telecoms equipment supplied by Chinese provider
Huawei. "The time has come for our European partners to
stand with us and with the Iranian people," Pence told the
Munich Security Conference. "The time has come for our European
partners to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal."
European officials brushed off
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's calls during a diplomatic trip to
the continent this week to ratchet up pressure on Iran, saying they
will continue defending the 2015 nuclear deal and stay engaged with
Iran's government. At the annual Munich Security Conference over the
weekend, where world leaders gather to debate issues from the Middle
East to trade, senior European officials met with Iranian Foreign
Minister Javad Zarif. Mr. Zarif on Sunday blasted what he called Mr.
Pence's arrogant demands on European soil for Europeans to pull out
of the deal.
Chancellor Angela Merkel of
Germany delivered a strong rejoinder on Saturday to American demands
that European allies pull out of the Iran nuclear deal and gave a
spirited defense of multilateral institutions in a world increasingly
marked by great-power rivalry. In an uncharacteristically passionate
speech, Ms. Merkel said the nuclear deal was the best way of
influencing Iranian behavior on a range of non-nuclear issues, from
missile development to terrorism.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel
drew lengthy applause Saturday for her spirited defense of a
multilateral approach to global affairs and support for Europe's
decision to stand by a nuclear deal with Iran. U.S. Vice President
Mike Pence was not among the impressed, however, and he doubled down
on American criticism of Europe.
The Iranian foreign minister's
passionate defense of his country's interests at the Munich Security
Conference has made him "a famous person" in China, his
Chinese counterpart told him Tuesday, as the sides met amid efforts
to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif is leading an Iranian delegation to Beijing that
includes parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani and the ministers of
finance and petroleum, as well as the CEO of the country's central
bank.
The Iranian public are on the
brink of abandoning faith in the nuclear deal signed with Europe and
other world powers in 2015, putting pressure on the regime to pull
out of the deal, Iran's foreign minister has said. Speaking at the
Munich security conference, Javad Zarif also accused Israel of
seeking war with Iran and said Europe needed to be prepared to
"get wet if it wants to swim against the dangerous tide of US
unilateralism".
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei on Monday warned his country's government not to be
deceived by European countries that say they want to salvage the 2015
nuclear deal abandoned by U.S. President Donald Trump last
year. The comments by the long-serving hardline cleric
demonstrate the difficulty the elected government of pragmatist
President Hassan Rouhani has in maintaining his policy of keeping
Iran open to the outside world in the face of new U.S.
sanctions.
Divisions between the United
States and Europe over the Iran nuclear deal marked this year's
Munich Security Conference as US Vice President Mike Pence and German
Chancellor Angela Merkel took each other to task. Representing the
Trump administration, Pence rebuked European powers over Iran and
Venezuela in a renewed attack on Washington's traditional allies,
rejecting a call by Germany's chancellor to include Russia in global
cooperation efforts.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
Iran's president on Monday
described U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran as an economic war being
waged on his country and stressed that "economic war is more
difficult than military war." Hassan Rouhani spoke as he
inaugurated the third and final phase of the sprawling Persian Gulf
Star refinery built in the Persian Gulf port city of Bandar Abbas.
Construction of the refinery began in 2006 and it now has the
capacity of 400,000 barrels a day, which amounts to about 20 percent
of Iran's 2.1 million barrels of daily refining capacity.
The U.S. is putting the
full-court sanctions press on Venezuela, while at the same time
vowing to get Iranian oilOpens a New Window. exports to
zero, which on its own is a very ambitious goal. The Trump
administrationOpens a New Window. is trying to nuance oil
sanctions on Iran, while at the same time trying to effect change in
Venezuela by "steeping up" sanctions on disputed President
Nicolas Maduro's key associates. The U.S. is now directly targeting
Venezuela's oil chief and intelligence officials with fresh
sanctions.
When Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif visited Baghdad in January, his entourage
included representatives of more than 50 companies. The trip to Iraq
came at a pivotal time for Iran's economy, only months after the US
reimposed sanctions against Tehran as a result of US President Donald
Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.
MISSILE PROGRAM
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
on Sunday inaugurated a new domestically-built submarine armed with
cruise missiles at a time of rising tensions with its arch-enemy the
United States. "From this moment, the Fateh Submarine joins
Iran's naval force with my order," Rouhani said in a ceremony
broadcast live on the state-run English-language Press TV.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad
Zarif said Iran is investigating reports of a U.S. program to
sabotage its missiles and rockets. The New York Times reported Feb.
13 that President Donald Trump's administration has accelerated a
secret initiative to slip faulty parts and materials into the supply
chain of the Iranian aerospace industry. The newspaper said that two
Iranian attempts to launch satellites have failed in the past month,
part of a pattern going back more than a decade.
In the later days of the
negotiations between the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the
Security Council and Germany) and Iran over the country's nuclear
program, another in a long line of standoffs emerged. Iran's
negotiators argued that since the deal was supposed to eliminate all
nuclear sanctions against Iran, the language against Iran's missile
program in a 2010 Security Council resolution should be stricken when
the Council passes a new resolution endorsing a nuclear deal.
TERRORISM & EXTREMISM
US Vice President Mike Pence
pressed European countries on Saturday to withdraw from a nuclear
deal between Iran and major powers, and urged them to be wary of
using telecoms equipment supplied by Chinese provider Huawei.
"The time has come for our European partners to stand with us
and with the Iranian people," Pence told the 55th Munich
Security Conference. "The time has come for our European
partners to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal."
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
In early January, labor activist
Esmail Bakhshi posted a letter on Instagram saying he had been
tortured in jail, attracting support from tens of thousands of
Iranians online. Bakhshi, who said he was still in pain, also
challenged the intelligence minister, a cleric, to a public debate
about the religious justification for torture. Late last month,
Bakhshi was rearrested.
Iran blocked a German football
broadcast on Friday last week because the referee was a woman.
Iranian state broadcaster IRIB censored a match between Bayern
Munich and Ausburg in the Bundesliga because German referee
Bibiana Steinhaus was officiating. According to Deutsche Welle, the
broadcast was stopped because of the country's strict Islamic laws
which do not allow images of women wearing shorts to be shown on TV.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
Iran's foreign minister on
Sunday accused Israel of looking for war and warned that its actions
and those of the United States were increasing the chances of a clash
in the region. Addressing the Munich Security Conference,
Mohammad Javad Zarif, also criticized the U.S. administration after
Vice President Mike Pence this week called on European powers to
pullout of the nuclear deal with Iran. Zarif urged France, Germany
and Britain to do more to save that accord.
Iranian officials rejected over
the weekend an accusation by US Vice President Mike Pence that it
"openly advocates another Holocaust." Speaking at the
Munich Security Conference in the southern German city on Saturday
after a visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland earlier
in the week, Pence accused Iran of trafficking in "vile
anti-Semitic hatreds and threats of violence," and warned that
"the Iranian regime openly advocates another Holocaust and it
seeks the means to achieve it."
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
Monica E. Witt, a former United
States Air Force intelligence specialist, made her way through the
gleaming doors and majestic lobby of one of Tehran's largest luxury
hotels in 2013, on her way to a conference that was all about bashing
American culture. There, in a crowd filled with fringe academics,
Holocaust deniers and the lover of the terrorist known as Carlos the
Jackal, Ms. Witt at last found herself among people as critical of
her country as she was.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei, wants less oil income diverted to the country's
sovereign wealth fund, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported,
as the economy reels from renewed U.S. sanctions. Khamenei has
instructed parliament to amend the draft budget for the Iranian year
beginning March 21 so 20 percent of oil revenue is paid into the
National Development Fund, versus the originally planned 30 percent,
Tasnim reported, citing lawmaker Nader Qazipour.
To address the shortage of jobs in the country, Iran's government has
banked on the thriving technology sector. Yet, despite the alarming
unemployment rate, fledgling service sector startups have
difficulties with hiring unskilled workers. In this regard,
traditional mentalities and new working conditions should be blamed.
In July 2018, when Habib Afzali and his business partner established
Carno - an on-demand service that allows customers to order
waterless car washes at their locations of choice - they thought
their biggest problem would be to create enough demand to secure a
safe profit margin.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's bureau uploaded to the premier's official YouTube page a
video in which Arab leaders can be heard endorsing Netanyahu's
message that Iran poses the biggest threat to the region during a
discussion at the Warsaw Middle East summit that was held behind
closed doors.
skip - Discreet conversation
between Arab leaders at Warsaw summit
CHINA & IRAN
China wants to deepen
"strategic trust" with Iran, the Chinese government's top
diplomat told Iran's foreign minister on Tuesday, days before Saudi
Arabia's crown prince visits Beijing, underscoring China's difficult
Middle East balancing act. China has traditionally played little
role in Middle East conflicts or diplomacy, despite its reliance on
the region for oil, but it has been trying to raise its profile,
especially in the Arab world.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
Yemen's government and Houthi rebels have agreed on the
first phase of a withdrawal from the key city of Hodeidah, in a deal
the UN described as important progress. The redeployment from Hodeidah
is a critical part of a ceasefire agreed in Sweden in December that
calls on the government and Houthis to move forces away from ports.
The fragile truce deal marks the first step toward ending a
devastating war that has pushed Yemen to the brink of famine.
The commander of Iran's Islamic
Revolutionary Guards criticized Pakistan for providing support to
terrorists who killed 27 personnel in a suicide bomb attack in
southeast Iran this week. Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said
Pakistan's government was sheltering groups behind the Wednesday
attack and "had to be held accountable for the crime," the
semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported. The attack coincided
with a U.S.-led summit in Warsaw focused on rallying support against Iran.
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister
has assailed Iran for initially blaming the kingdom for last week's
attack that killed 27 members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard.
Adel al-Jubeir says the allegations by Iran, as a "chief sponsor
of terrorism," sought to divert the attention of the Iranian
people. Iranian officials had at first said Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates were behind the attack but later said the attack
was planned from "inside Pakistan."
Iran is ready to work with all
of its neighbours to secure peace in the Middle East in the face of
U.S. and Israeli aggression, President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday,
in his latest attempt to weaken ties between regional rival Saudi
Arabia and America. Iran and Saudi Arabia have been fighting
proxy wars for years, backing opposing sides in conflicts in Syria
and Yemen.
The Iran-backed Houthi militias
in Yemen staged over the weekend pro-Tehran rallies in Sanaa and
other regions under their control in a move that was widely condemned
by the legitimate government. The rallies were held in wake of the
Warsaw conference last week that warned of and condemned Iran's
malicious policies in the region. The Houthis sought to stage the
protests in Tehran's defense under the claim of rejecting the
normalization of ties with Israel.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Iran has summoned the Pakistani
ambassador to protest about a suicide bombing that killed 27 of its
elite Revolutionary Guards near the border earlier this week, the
semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday. The Sunni
group Jaish al Adl (Army of Justice), which says it seeks greater
rights and better living conditions for the ethnic minority Baluchis,
claimed responsibility for the attack on Wednesday.
Jordan Monday called on Iran to
release three of its nationals it said had strayed into Iranian
territorial waters in the southern Gulf from the United Arab Emirates
last December. Jordan's parliament speaker Atef al-Tarawneh raised
the case of the three Jordanians in a meeting with Iran's ambassador
to Amman, Mojtaba Ferdosipour, the official news agency Petra said.
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