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TOP STORIES
The Iranian-backed hackers who
stole personal data on Australian lawmakers earlier this year are the
same group that attacked the British Parliament in 2017, according to
new research by a cybersecurity firm that sheds light on Iran's
campaign of cyberespionage against its adversaries. A report by Los
Angeles-based Resecurity, obtained exclusively by NBC News, says the
Feb. 8 hack of the Australian Parliament "is a part of a
multi-year cyberespionage campaign" by an Iranian-backed hacking
group they call Iridium.
The Lebanese group Hezbollah condemned on Friday the
British government's decision to list it as a terrorist organization,
saying the move showed "servile obedience" to the United
States. The heavily armed Shi'ite group, which is backed by Iran,
said in a statement it was a "resistance movement against
Israeli occupation" and described the British move as an
"insult to the feelings, sympathies and will of the Lebanese
people that consider Hezbollah a major political and popular
force".
After an influential politician
close to Iran's Supreme Leader said February 28 that Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei has not expressed any view on financial legislation demanded
by an international watchdog, signs emerged that the top leader has
indeed created a new hurdle for the passage of two bills. The
Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has long demanded that
Iran should strengthen its legal framework to guard against money
laundering and financing terrorism.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
The biggest players in
Iranian banking have joined forces in an effort to empower an ailing
banking system that has long suffered from a slew of major issues -
including a hefty credit crunch. There is no shortage of potential
pitfalls and challenges, but the blockchain-enabled platform they
have established - and its native gold-backed cryptocurrency - may
prove a crucial source of cash and public trust in a not too distant
future.
The fundamentals of the oil
market have changed significantly over the decades since the
inception of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Although the cartel's oil production has increased over the past
couple of years, sharper increases in production by non-OPEC members
have weakened the organization's position. Fracking technology in the
U.S. and the shale revolution that it drove has diminished the
relative strength of OPEC. It is this decline that has created the
environment for cooperation between Russia and Saudi Arabia.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
Even as President Donald Trump
held his second meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in
Hanoi to try to advance a North Korea nuclear deal, the Trump
administration mocked as basically irrelevant Iranian Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif's surprise resignation and return to
the job this week, in a sign of how remote the prospects seem
for the United States ever getting to the negotiating table with
Iran.
A senior Iranian Revolutionary
Guards commander has threatened to "break America, Israel and
Saudi Arabia" and vowed that Tehran will "never lay
down" its weapons. Brigadier General Hossein Salami, deputy head
of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reportedly made the
threats during a speech on February 19 just days after a deadly
suicide car bombing killed 27 members of the organization.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
The quick reversal of the
surprise resignation of Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's smooth-talking
foreign minister who brokered the 2015 nuclear deal, has calmed a
brewing crisis in Tehran, but only temporarily. Domestic critics of
Zarif's engagement with Washington and the West may have cheered his
threatened retreat. However, a precipitous decline in Iran's stock
exchange, rumors of a walkout within the ranks of the Foreign
Ministry, and an impromptu public defense from Iran's president
underscored that the theocracy could ill afford a public rupture
within the regime at a time of epic U.S. economic pressure
There seems to have been a shift
in how the Iranian government publicly reacts to pressure under the
presidency of Hassan Rouhani. Whenever Tehran used to encounter
serious international pressure, it would tactically and temporarily
tone down its provocative and aggressive rhetoric in public in order
to deter the threat. Simultaneously, Tehran would covertly ratchet up
its asymmetrical warfare and support for proxies and militias in
order to achieve its hegemonic ambitions.
In an unprecedented move, an
ultra-conservative website run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards
Corps (IRGC) has published an interview with former Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, marking the first time state media has given the
former president a platform since his term ended in 2013 amid soured
relations between him and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Eight people were killed and 36
wounded when a bus overturned on Friday on Iran's Qom-Tehran highway,
the semi-official ISNA News Agency reported. The Volvo bus, carrying
44 passengers, was travelling on the key artery from the southeastern
province of Kerman towards Tehran at 7:40 AM when the driver fell
asleep, local officials told ISNA.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Iran is smuggling upgrades for
Hezbollah's rocket arsenal through Syria in suitcases, two recent
reports based on Israeli intelligence reveal. According to these
reports, the upgrades, which are based on satellite navigation
systems (GPS), are meant to improve the rockets' accuracy. The kits
are no bigger than a carry-on suitcase and can thus easily be
smuggled aboard a plane.
Israel's prime minister vowed
Wednesday to prevent Iran from securing a lasting presence in Syria
as he visited Moscow for talks focusing on regional security. For
Benjamin Netanyahu, it's the first trip to Moscow since September's
downing of a Russian warplane by Syrian forces that were responding
to an Israeli air strike. The incident left 15 Russian crew dead and
threatened to derail close security ties between Russia and Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu appears to have lost his touch.Top of Form Bottom
of FormWith just one tweet Netanyahu has managed to help unite Iran's
splintered leaders by offering them the ultimate gift: the threat
of war. Netanyahu's misstep, on the 40th anniversary of Iran's
Islamic revolution, no less, may explain why on Wednesday President
Hassan Rouhani rejected the resignation of Iran's only recently
sidelined foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and welcomed him
back into the fold.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The recent decision by the
British government to finally outlaw all factions of the Hezbollah
terrorist organization is an important, long-overdue step for states
determined to confront escalating Iranian-sponsored terrorism that
has spread to Europe. Until now, the UK, like the rest of the
European Union, had allowed itself to maintain a fiction that
provided a certificate of kashrut to the Shia group's political wing,
while it held some of its instrumentalities and military wing to be
trayf terrorist entities.
CYBERWARFARE
Iran is one of the biggest
threats in cyberspace, according to experts who warn that a global
response is needed to repel its rising wave of cyberattacks on
government and communications infrastructure worldwide. The leading
state sponsor of terror is extending its malign presence online, with
Saudi Arabia among its main targets. Iran's growing digital prowess
is part of its "soft war" strategy to spy on adversaries
and spread its rhetoric.
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