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TOP STORIES
A disagreement between the Central Bank of Iran
and factions of the government, backed by lawmakers, over
profits from foreign exchange sales has now taken the form of a
pending amendment to the country's annual budget law. If passed by
the Guardian Council, the amendment - which calls on the central bank
to pay a significant sum to the government as tax - will increase
money supply and exacerbate inflation. It could also negatively
impact foreign exchange rates, ultimately hurting average Iranians
the most.
The Trump administration is
using the former embassy of Iran as the newest backdrop for its
campaign to isolate the government in Tehran. A highly produced video
recorded by the State Department outside the old embassy in
Washington seeks to draw a contrast between how the two countries
have behaved since the Iranian Revolution four decades years ago. Yet
it could also open up the administration to the criticism that it is
exploiting a diplomatic facility and Iranian asset for propaganda.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
said on Wednesday that tensions between Tehran and Washington were at
"a maximum" rarely seen in the decades-long contentious
relations of the two countries. Animosity between Washington and
Tehran - bitter foes since Iran's 1979 revolution - has intensified
since May when U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from an
international nuclear deal with Tehran and reimposed sanctions lifted
under the accord.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
Iran's exports of crude oil were higher than expected in
January and are at least holding steady this month, according to
tanker data and industry sources, as some customers have increased
purchases due to waivers from U.S. sanctions. Shipments are averaging
1.25 million barrels per day (bpd) in February, Refinitiv Eikon data
showed and a source at a company that tracks Iranian exports said.
They were between 1.1 and 1.3 million bpd in January, higher than
first thought.
TERRORISM & EXTREMISM
Iran said Tuesday that at least
three Pakistani citizens were among the assailants responsible for
killing 27 members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on a bus
last week, including the driver of the explosives-laden car that
rammed the vehicle. The Feb. 13 bombing in a restive southeast
region along the Pakistan border was one of the deadliest attacks in
years to strike Iran. At least 13 people were wounded and the bus was
destroyed, according to Iranian news websites.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
A group of Iranians attacked a
morality police van in Tehran last week after two young women were
detained for "improperly" wearing a compulsory headscarf,
according to state-owned Iranian media and activists. Officers fired
shots into the air to disperse the crowd of people who tore off one
of the doors of the vehicle, according to a report by the state-owned
IRNA news agency about the February 15 incident.
Videos published on Twitter
today showed Iranians in the city of Andimeshk tearing down a large
billboard portraying Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces who were
killed in Syria. The Iranians are seen cheering and celebrating as
the billboard falls to the ground in the videos. The action was seen
as protest against Iran's involvement in the Syrian civil war.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
Richard Grenell, U.S. ambassador
to Germany, has been tapped to lead a new White House global
initiative to encourage the legalization of homosexuality in dozens
of nations where it remains a crime to be gay. Grenell, 52, is
the most prominent openly gay member of the Trump administration and
lives in Berlin with his partner Matt Lashley. His new
role, reported by NBC, was revealed before a Berlin meeting
Tuesday between U.S. embassy officials and LGBT activists from throughout
the continent.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
In yet another milestone on
Tehran's path to becoming a self-sustaining regional power, Iranian
state news announced the Iranian Navy has commissioned its first
homemade submarine. The new Fateh-class vessel was unveiled by
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani late last week, at a ceremony held
at the Bandar Abbas naval base. Iranian Defence Minister Brigadier
General Amir Hatami noted that "The Fateh
("conqueror") submarine is completely homegrown and has
been designed and developed by capable experts of the Marine
Industries [Organization] of the Defence Ministry and enjoys [the]
world's modern technologies."
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
The trial has begun for Iranian
President Hassan Rouhani's brother and close confidante, who faces
corruption allegations brought by hard-liners who dominate the
country's judiciary. The semi-official ISNA news agency reported that
Hossein Fereidoun, who was on the team that negotiated Iran's 2015
nuclear agreement with world powers, went on trial Tuesday with four
other defendants. They are charged with financial misconduct dating
back to 2016.
Under Article 89 of
the Iranian Constitution, an impeachment motion against a sitting
president requires signatures from one-third of lawmakers to
officially go before parliament. With 290 parliament members
currently serving in a parliament dominated by pro-government
moderates and Reformists, that goal might seem to be far-fetched and
unrealistic.
Many experts on the Middle
East never thought they'd see the day when the foreign ministers
of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates would be
sitting collegially with the prime minister of Israel. Yet in Warsaw
last week, Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo managed to convene such a remarkable gathering for the
"purpose of promoting peace in the Middle East" and to
respond to the ongoing, illicit activities of Iran's Islamist regime.
Iranian news outlets were busy
"censoring", or "rephrasing" the latest comments
made by the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei. During a meeting with hand-picked people from the province
of Eastern Azarbaijan, northwest Iran, Khamenei had initially said on
Monday, February 18, "The enemy's ballyhoo should not dishearten
the [Iranian] authorities".
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Hezbollah's growing role in the Lebanese government
worries the United States, the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon said during
a meeting with Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri on Tuesday, according to
the U.S. embassy. The armed Shi'ite group, which is backed by Iran
and listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, controls
three of the 30 ministries in Hariri's new cabinet, the largest
number it has ever held. They include the Health Ministry, which has
the fourth-largest budget in the state.
GULF STATES, YEMEN & IRAN
Four people died and 12 were injured when Houthi rebels
shelled a public market in Al Mutaiyna in southern Hodeidah on
Tuesday. "The Houthis hit the market with three mortar shells
that killed four civilians including two children," a medical
source told The National. "The injured were transferred to the
public hospital in the district of Al Khokha to be treated but six
were taken to Aden because their conditions were very serious."
Qatar is a hospitable base for the Muslim Brotherhood
and many of the world's most virulent Islamists, a senior member of
prominent Washington-based think tank Security Studies Group said in
an opinion article published in the Washington Times. "Qatar has
been the Brotherhood's most hospitable base of
operations...Brotherhood Islamism would soon emerge as Qatar's
de-facto state ideology, as the ruling al-Thani family welcomed the
Islamists with lavish funding, the highest state honors, and the
establishment of new Islamist institutions that would seek to
indoctrinate thousands," the senior vice president for strategic
operations, David Reaboi, wrote.
IRAQ & IRAN
It is exactly the withdrawal of
the 2,000 US soldiers from their current positions in Syria and
Jordan - an operation that continues at considerable speed - which is
creating significant strategic space for Iran. President Trump also
claims he wants to keep an indefinite amount of US soldiers in Iraq,
just to control Iranian movements and developments towards the Syrian
border with Iraq.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Jordanian Lower House Speaker
Atef Tarawneh called Monday on Iranian authorities to release three
Jordanians, who have been held by Tehran for two months now on
charges of entering the country's territorial waters "by
mistake" when they were on a fishing trip off the UAE. Tarawneh
raised the case of the three detained Jordanians during a meeting
with Iranian Ambassador to Jordan Mojtaba Ferdosipour, urging Iranian
authorities to take a "positive step" towards ensuring
their quick release.
The 40th anniversary of Iran's
1979 revolution this month predictably showcased the mix of
breast-beating and victimhood that so characterises the theocratic
nationalists who rule the Islamic Republic. Even Hassan Rouhani, the
pragmatic president now more beholden to the regime's hardliners
after President Donald Trump last year pulled the US out of the
nuclear deal struck with Iran in 2015, has lent full-throated voice
to the jingoistic chorus.
CYBERWARFARE
Iran and China have been
carrying out increasingly more aggressive cyberattacks in recent
months, The New York Times reported Monday. Dozens
of U.S. entities - including banks, businesses
and government agencies - have been targeted in what
experts have attributed as an Iranian hacking
campaign, multiple sources told the Times.
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