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TOP STORIES
From financing the expansion of
the vast courtyards that lead into the Shiite shrines of the holy
city of Najaf, to ensuring that a Tehran-friendly candidate gets the
job of interior minister, Iran's role in Iraq keeps growing.
President Hassan Rouhani of Iran arrived in Baghdad on Monday for a
visit to a place that his country has shaped in ways big and small
over the past several years.
Hamas released Hisham Salem, head of a-Sabrin, the
terrorist organization affiliated with Iran in the Gaza Strip, along
with other activists who were arrested last week, Palestinian media
reports. Salem released weapons and rockets in his possession to
Hamas. They warned him not to continue his terror in Gaza, according
to a different report.
The Iranian-backed Lebanon's
Hezbollah has called on its supporters to donate money as it suffers
increasing pressure from Western sanctions intended to isolate it
financially. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a
Friday statement that Hezbollah supporters must remain steadfast in
the face of these pressures and said the group's enemies would be
"disappointed."
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
Iran's oil ministry said on
Sunday that it had been receiving revenues from selling oil despite
difficulties caused by U.S. sanctions, denying allegations made by
former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over government mismanagement in
the energy sector. Ahmadinejad said in an interview with Shargh
daily newspaper on Sunday that the government of President Hassan
Rouhani had not received $30 billion of revenues from oil sold in the
last five years.
The trial has started in an
Iranian court for 13 petrochemical industry executives charged with
embezzling 6.6 billion euros ($7.4 billion) in one of the nation's
biggest corruption cases, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency
reported. The defendants, most either chief executives or board
members of Iranian petrochemical producers and exporters, are accused
of "causing a great economic disturbance" by establishing
shell companies overseas to circumvent sanctions...
The Trump administration is
giving Iraq a few more months to continue buying oil and
electricity from neighbouring Iran before the United States
enforces sanctions against Tehran. After years of conflict, Baghdad
now relies heavily on Iran for goods and services. And Iranian President Hassan
Rouhani is visiting Iraq to solidify ties between the neighbours,
trying to convince them to defy the US president.
The head of Iran's Central Bank
has said that subsidized dollars for imports of essential goods,
including medication and food has failed to stem the tide of rising
prices in the country. As the Iranian currency began to devalue one
year ago, the government and the central bank decided to offer the
U.S. dollar at a subsidized, preferential rate of 42,000 rials to
selected importers, in order to keep prices low for working class
Iranians. The dollar is currently trading at more than 130,000 rials
on the open market in Iran.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
A top Iranian diplomat has
rejected Britain's decision to give diplomatic protection to a
British-Iranian woman who has been detained in Iran for nearly three
years, saying it contravenes international law. British officials
have said that Iran has failed to meet international obligations in
its treatment of the woman, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and offered
her diplomatic protection this past week.
A young Iranian couple have been
arrested after a marriage proposal in public, captured on a video
clip that went viral on social media. The police say the pair
offended Islamic mores on public decency but were later released on
bail. The video, which spread on social media last Friday, shows the
young man standing in a heart-shaped ring of flower petals next to
colorful balloons in a mall in the central city of Arak.
It is unfortunate that the
Iranian regime's human rights violations are attracting little
attention from international media outlets. When President Hassan
Rouhani was running for re-election, he famously criticized the human
rights situation in the country and promised to improve it. But,
since he won the election, the president evades discussing it. Based
on the latest developments, a report published by Amnesty
International last month indicated that human rights abuses have
reached a new high.
French President Emmanuel Macron
has named 35 attorneys, including prominent Iranian lawyer and civil
rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh, to give recommendations to the Group
of Seven (G7) nations. Macron, along with a group of human rights
advocates, gathered on February 19 at Elysees Palace in Paris to
discuss potential strategies that the G7 could employ to reduce
violence and discrimination against women.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
Relatives of Americans long held
hostage in Iran gave heartbreaking testimony to members of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday, as U.S. lawmakers look for new
ways to reunite these families and deter the Iranian regime from its
40-year practice of turning innocent people into bargaining chips. A
bipartisan group of senators also introduced a bill called
the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-taking
Accountability Act, named after a former FBI agent who went missing
in Iran in 2007.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
Confirmation from Iran's
judiciary spokesman that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei appointed Ebrahim Raeisi as the new judiciary chief appears
to boost Raeisi's national stature as a possible successor to
Khamenei. It has been only three years since Khamenei, 79, named
Raeisi, 58, head of Astan Qods Razavi, the well-endowed foundation
managing the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, and it has been less than
two years since Raeisi fought a credible campaign and claimed 38% of
votes in the 2017 presidential election as Hassan Rohani won 57% to
gain a second term.
IRGC Qods Force Commander Qassem
Soleimani has received Iran's most prestigious medal of honor, the
Order of Zulfiqar. Fars news agency reported on Sunday March 10 that
The Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has
awarded the medal but did not say when was Soleimani decorated.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Germany has ruled out
designating Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group, as
a terrorist organization, a move likely to cause friction
with the U.S. government after the Trump administration urged
European countries to put pressure on the Iranian regime. The
decision came in the wake of the United Kingdom's declaration last
month that all wings of Hezbollah are banned in the country and are
designated as part of the terror group responsible for destabilizing
the Middle East.
About this time eight years ago,
the people's revolution in Syria broke out. It has become clear since
then that the world has conspired against the Syrians, including the
US administration under Barack Obama, whose first and last concern
was appeasing Iran. Obama's administration had no goal besides
reaching an agreement with Iran on its nuclear programme.
Last month a conference in
Warsaw brought together high ranking officials from 60 countries,
called to discuss the current chaos in the Middle East, and to zero
in on the threat posed to the region by the regime in Tehran.This
year, as Iran observes the 40th year of its
revolution, its geostrategic objectives remain unchanged. But one
other constant that has been in place since the fateful day that a
triumphant Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini left France for Tehran is
Iran's incessant call for the elimination of Israel.
GULF STATES, YEMEN & IRAN
The Saudi-led Arab Coalition fighting in Yemen announced
Saturday that the Houthi militia has committed as many as 41
violations within 24 hours since the cease-fire agreement reached in
Hudaydah. The statement came only hours after the Iranian-backed
militia threatened to escalate the situation in Hudaydah as the group
has intensified attacks against government troops and Arab Coalition
soldiers east and south of the city.
The Human Rights Information and Training Center in
Yemen exposed thousands of violations and crimes committed by the
Iran-backed Houthi militia in Taiz since the start of Yemen's war,
Saudi press agency reported Friday. The report, titled "Taiz -
the longest siege in history," documented thousands of Houthi
violations and crimes from March 21, 2015 to Jan. 31.
IRAQ & IRAN
President Hassan Rouhani's visit
to Iraq this week is a strong message to the United States and its
regional allies that Iran still dominates Baghdad, a key arena for
rising tension between Washington and Tehran. The first Iranian
presidential visit to Iraq since 2013 is also meant to signal to
President Donald Trump's administration that Tehran retains its
influence in much of the region despite U.S. sanctions.
CYBERWARFARE
Citrix is best-known for
software that runs behind the scenes, but a massive data breach is
putting the company front and center. The FBI has warned Citrix
that it believes reports of foreign hackers compromising the
company's internal network, swiping business documents in an apparent
"password spraying" attack where the intruders guessed weak
passwords and then used that early foothold to launch more extensive
attacks.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
North Korea has punched a hole in the web of United
Nations sanctions intended to pressure Pyongyang to give up its
nuclear-weapons programs and long-range missiles, accelerating its
import of petroleum products through illicit ship-to-ship transfers
and stepping up coal exports, according to a report to the U.N.
Security Council by a panel of international experts that is expected
to be issued this week.
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