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TOP STORIES
A senior US arms control
official said on Tuesday that Iran's missile program is detribalizing
the Middle East and raising the risk of a "regional arms
race" through the provision of such weapons to armed groups in
Lebanon and Yemen. US President Donald Trump said when he quit a
landmark 2015 deal that lifted international sanctions against Iran
in exchange for limits on its nuclear activities that it failed to
rein in Iran's missile program or curb its regional meddling.
A senior U.S. official says
Washington is monitoring ships involved in clandestine transfers of
Iranian oil and will hold anyone involved in such transfers
responsible for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. "We are
closely tracking ship-to-ship transfers of [Iranian] oil to evade our
oil sanctions," said Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for
Counter Threat Finance and Sanctions David Peyman in an exclusive
interview with VOA Persian recently at the State Department.
Iran's Mahan Air has been forced
to cancel its Paris flights over "sanctions", its customer
services team said Tuesday weeks after Germany banned the airline.
"We have been told that (flights to France) have been
cancelled... as of the first of April," an operator at the
airline's office in Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport told AFP.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Leading Republican senators are
uniting against what they describe as a bid by some elements of the
Trump administration to keep the Iran nuclear deal on life support
via a package of waivers exempting Tehran and its allies from new
sanctions spearheaded by President Donald Trump, according to
multiple conversations with top congressional officials both on and
off the record.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
The United States is extending a
waiver to let energy-hungry Iraq keep buying power from Iran, despite
Washington's campaign of sanctions aimed at curbing Tehran, an
official said. The State Department issued a second three-month
exemption from Iran sanctions for Iraq, mindful not to destabilize
the war-torn country increasingly reliant on Iranian gas and
electricity to cope with chronic blackouts that have triggered
unrest.
There has been yet another
signal from Islamic Republic officials that Tehran does not pin high
hopes on the trade mechanism offered by European powers to help Iran
continue trade, despite U.S. sanctions. The spokesperson of Iran's
foreign ministry, Bahram Ghasemi (Qassemi) told the local Young
Journalists' Club website on March 19 "You should not have hopes
for the trade mechanism to do miracles".
At least two tankers have
ferried Iranian fuel oil to Asia in recent months despite U.S.
sanctions against such shipments, according to a Reuters analysis of
ship-tracking data and port information, as well as interviews with
brokers and traders. The shipments were loaded onto tankers with
documents showing the fuel oil was Iraqi. But three Iraqi oil
industry sources and Prakash Vakkayil, a manager at United Arab
Emirates (UAE) shipping services firm Yacht International Co, said
the papers were forged.
Iran has sent 300,000 barrels of
gas condensate for export from a new phase of South Pars, the world's
largest gas field, Payam Motamed, operator of the South Pars phase 13
project, said on Tuesday, according to the ISNA news agency. Iranian
President Hassan Rouhani formally inaugurated four new phases of
South Pars on Sunday.
TERRORISM & EXTREMISM
An Iranian billionaire football
club investor on trial for financial corruption is using the
opportunity of the public proceeding to criticize the government.
Business tycoon Hossein Hedayati insinuated in court March 18 that he
had information relating to Iran's financing of militant groups in
the region. "They have branded me as an economic troublemaker
for receiving secured loans. I wish I could have talked about the
Resistance Front and ISIS," Hedayati said during the hearing.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
An Iranian dissident has been
sentenced to read three books and re-write them word by word after
calling the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a despot and demanding a national
protest to end this rule. Abulfazl Ghadiani, 74, a founding member of
the banned reformist Mujahedin of Islamic Revolution Organisation has
already served several years behind bars for his fierce criticism of
Iran's Supreme Leader, accusing him of "betraying the Islamic
Revolution's ideals of freedom and justice through his thirst for power
and dictatorial rule".
More than a dozen supporters of
jailed Iranian rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh have gathered
outside Iran's Embassy in Yerevan to call for her release. The
protesters held placards reading slogans such as "We are
standing for Nasrin" and "Nasrin, you are not alone,"
as they held their silent demonstration on March 19. Human rights
activist Arman Gharibian, who was among the protesters, told RFE/RL's
Armenian Service: "We cannot remain indifferent when this kind
of repression against a human rights activist takes place in the
neighboring country."
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
Re-entry into the nuclear deal
with Iran is fast becoming a litmus test for Democrats hoping to
challenge President Donald Trump in 2020. No fewer than five declared
candidates have told Al-Monitor over the past few weeks that they
would rejoin the deal without preconditions should they win the
presidency - as long as Iran continues to live up to its end of the
2015 pact.
Top US diplomat Mike Pompeo
sought Wednesday to bolster a united front against Iran during a
Middle East tour that will include talks with key ally Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu. The US secretary of state kicked off his regional
tour in Kuwait where he met Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah on
the first stop of a trip that will also take him to Israel and
Lebanon.
The US Central Command is
hosting a two-day meeting for defence chiefs of GCC nations, and
Egypt and Jordan, to try to improve defence co-ordination and counter
Iran. The meetings in Tampa, Florida, brought together eight chairmen
of the joint chiefs of staff from the attending states and the US,
and a defence representative from the GCC.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
A right-wing student group in
Iran has called on the country's new Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raeesi
(Raeisi) to indict his predecessor and another senior politician for
being involved in a "land grab" case in the lavish Lavasan
area north of Tehran. The group has asked the Judiciary to hand
Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani and former Parliament Speaker and
ex-Chief Inspector of Khamenei's office, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Nateq
Nouri, maximum sentence in case they are convicted.
Iran's many woes briefly went up
in smoke as Iranians observed a nearly 4,000-year-old Persian
tradition known as the Festival of Fire. The celebration is held on
the last Tuesday night before Nowruz, or the Iranian New Year, which
will be celebrated Thursday. The annual ritual dates back to at least
1700 B.C. and is linked to the Zoroastrian religion. To celebrate,
people light bonfires, set off fireworks and send wish lanterns
floating off into the night sky.
"[Chaharshanbeh Soori] not
only lacks a religious basis, it also brings about harm and misdeed.
It is advised that [the rituals] be refrained from." That's
the text of a fatwa published by the official website of Iran's
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in response to a religious
query about Chaharshanbeh Soori, the ancient Iranian Festival of
Fire held on the eve of the last Wednesday before Nowruz, the start
of the Iranian New Year."
Millions of Iranian viewers had
to spend a Monday night without "90," a wildly popular
soccer show hosted by Adel Ferdowsipour, who is widely believed to
have kept Iranians tuned to a national broadcaster that has been
grappling with a serious audience crisis.
Ferdowsipour's debate-oriented program was starkly
different from conventional Iranian TV shows, breaking away from
common clichés and formalities.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
The Israeli elections are well
underway and the Iranian issue is taking a central part in Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's electoral campaign. Putting Iran on the
agenda helps the prime minister maintain a never-ending security
tension. Thus, the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, also known as the
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), has become a regular
feature in Netanyahu's speeches against his political rivals.
At least two Lebanese assistants to a Syrian businessman
with close ties to Syrian President Bashar Assad were arrested late
Monday in Kuwait over alleged ties to Hezbollah.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed hope that
President Michael Aoun will distance himself from his ally,
Hezbollah, according to a statement from the State Department
Tuesday.
GULF STATES, YEMEN & IRAN
A senior Houthi rebel leader in Yemen said Tuesday that
his group will not give up the key port city of Hodeida, the focus of
months of U.N.-brokered talks with the government. Mohammed Ali
al-Houthi, the head of the rebels' Supreme Revolutionary Committees,
accused his rivals from the internationally-recognized government of
misinterpreting the deal. He says the Houthis have agreed to withdraw
their forces but will remain in control. He said the Saudi-backed
government "couldn't get (the port) by force and they won't
seize it by tricks."
The Yemeni Army has revealed that Houthi militias
managed this week to smuggle ballistic missiles and heavy artillery
to Hodeidah from the northern side of the Red Sea city. "The
missiles and artillery, which have been sent by Iran, have entered
through the ports of Saleef and Ras Issa," the Army said. It
said the militias disassembled the weapons before transferring them
to the two ports.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Morocco's parliament Speaker
Habib el-Malki revealed that Iran's disregard of the regulations of
the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) led to its failure to
attend the 14th session of Parliamentary Union of OIC Member States
(PUIC), which was held in Rabat on March 10-14. Speaking at a press
conference to present the outcomes of the meeting, Malki, who was
elected the President of the PUIC, explained: "Iran did not
respect the rules in force in order to take part in the
meeting."
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