|
TOP STORIES
The United States accused Iran on Thursday of defying a
U.N. Security Council resolution with one ballistic missile test and
two satellite launches since December and urged the council to
"bring back tougher international restrictions" on Tehran.
A 2015 U.N. resolution "called upon" Iran to refrain for up
to eight years from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver
nuclear weapons following an agreement with six world powers.
Families of Americans imprisoned
or missing in Iran faulted the U.S. government on Thursday for not
doing more to bring their loved ones home and called for establishing
a dialogue with Tehran to negotiate their return. At turns embittered
and bewildered, the criticisms of the Obama and Trump administrations
were leveled by relatives of three men whom the United States
considers hostages of the Iranian government.
Iran remains the "long-term destabilizing
factor" in the region, a top US commander said Thursday.
"Their efforts are not limited to the support they provide to
the Houthis in Yemen. They strive to be a regional hegemon and use
malign influence qualitatively and quantitatively, expanding
capabilities, facilitation, and support to multiple proxies to exert
pressure, and threaten other countries in the region," US
Central Command head General Joseph Votel told Congress.
UANI IN THE NEWS
Hezbollah's Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah once
dubbed dividing his group into distinct political and military wings
an "English innovation." Yet, last week, the United Kingdom
decided to end this mainstay of British policy. Shortly after Home
Secretary Sajid Javid announced a total
ban on Hezbollah, Parliament amended the UK's Terrorism Act
2000 to proscribe the group "in its entirety." London's acknowledgment of
Hezbollah's unity aligns British law and policy with the United
States.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that Iran's
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has rejected to lead the 'economic war',
accusing the United States on Wednesday of plotting to use economic
pressure to overthrow the Islamic republic's clerical establishment,
and ruling out the possibility of talks with Washington. "Iran
is in an economic and psychological war with America and its allies.
Their aim is to change the regime but their wish will not come
true," Rouhani said in a speech in the northern province of
Gilan as reported by Reuters.
Iraq's parliament speaker, Mohamed Halbousi, stressed
Monday his country's refusal to be a "platform for war against neighboring
countries," referring to the growing conflict between the United
States and Iran. Halbousi arrived in Tehran on Wednesday, heading a
parliamentary delegation at the invitation of the President of the
Iranian Shura Council Ali Larijani.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
A prominent human rights lawyers was reportedly
convicted this week of charges related to her defense of female
Iranian protesters and faces years in prison. The Associated Press
reports that Nasrin Sotoudeh, 55, was convicted after she defended
Iranian women who protested the country's enforced public uniform of
hijabs and robes.
Reports on social media say that
two women in Kangavar, western Iran have been arrested for removing
their headscarves in public. Hijab or head scarf with all-body cover
is obligatory for women in Iran. But since December 2017 there have
been dozens of incidents when women removed their headscarves in
protest against obligatory hijab. A trend on social media called
"White Wednesdays" has been encouraging women in recent
years to defy the hijab laws.
Three independent labor groups in Iran have demanded a
minimum monthly wage of 70 million rials for the coming Iranian year.
Based on current free market exchange rates, the requested amount
would be equal to approximately $540 monthly. Based on multiple reports
in recent weeks, inflation in Iran is extremely high with essential
goods and specially foodstuff rising at almost double-digit rates
every month.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
U.S. authorities have allowed about a dozen Christian
refugees from Iran into the U.S. after a federal court ordered their
cases reopened, but the fate of hundreds of other Iranian refugees
seeking American visas remains uncertain, lawyers said. The small
group of Iranians arrived in Los Angeles in recent weeks after a
federal judge last year ordered the U.S. government to reconsider
their applications, which had been previously denied.
The wife of a former FBI agent who vanished in Iran in
2007 expressed bitter frustration Thursday about efforts to get her
husband back home. Christine Levinson told a House panel that she
holds Iran responsible for the disappearance of her husband, Robert.
But she also said three American administrations have failed to press
Iran hard enough for his return. "Time and time again, Bob has
been left behind, deprioritized, or seemingly forgotten," she
said in prepared remarks for the hearing on the status of Americans
detained in Iran.
The family members of three
Americans held captive in Iran testified before a congressional
subcommittee on Thursday, asking President Trump and U.S. lawmakers
to do more to free their loved ones. Speaking to
the House Middle East, North Africa and International
Terrorism Subcommittee, Christine Levinson - she's the wife of
retired FBI special agent Robert Levinson - made a personal
appeal to the president to negotiate her husband's release.
Radio Farda's Hannah Kaviani has
interviewed Jonathan Franks the spokesperson for Michael White's
mother, Joanne White. Michael White, 46, has been held since July,
and is the first known American to have been detained in Iran since
Donald Trump became president two years ago. Hannah Kaviani got in touch
with Franks through a crowdfunding campaign trying to raise money for
legal expenses in Iran.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
Iranian naval forces intervened
to repel pirates who attacked an Iranian oil tanker in the Gulf of
Aden, state television reported on Friday. The broadcast said pirates
in 11 speedboats attacked a tanker with a cargo of 150,000 tonnes on
Thursday. It showed naval forces opening fire on speedboats, without
saying whether the footage was from the latest incident. Iran's navy
has extended its reach in recent years, dispatching vessels to the
Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden to protect Iranian ships from
Somali pirates.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
A hard-line cleric once thought to be a possible
successor to Iran's supreme leader was appointed head of the Islamic
Republic's judiciary Thursday, sparking concern from rights activists
over his involvement in the execution of thousands in the 1980s.
Ebrahim Raisi was named to the post in a decree by Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
Iran's former moderate president, Mohammad Khatami has
warned that in the absence of reforms, convincing people to go to
vote in the next elections will be a tough undertaking. Khatami, who
served as president for eight years (1997-2005), was speaking to the
reformist faction of Majles (Iranian parliament) on Wednesday, March
6.
Excluding spending for
state-owned enterprises, the Iranian government's proposed budget for
the coming fiscal year (beginning March 21) is set at 4,700 trillion
rials ($111.9 billion). The education budget, which covers the
expenditures of elementary to upper secondary schools, amounts to 458
trillion rials ($10.9 billion). While public spending has risen by
40% overall in the proposed budget, the educational system's
allocated resources have only increased by 28%.
IRANIAN REGIONAL AGGRESSION
One day after foreign minister
of four Arab countries harshly criticized Iran's policies in the
region, Tehran rejected their claims as "baseless" and
"unconstructive". On Thursday, March 7, on the margins of
the Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo, the representatives of
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain issued a
statement denouncing Iran's "provocative statements and
expressed "deep concern over Iranian sectarian incitement in
Arab countries and its support of terrorist militias."
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
As Iran's parliament debates whether or not to join the
Financial Action Task Force (FATF) - a global organization that
develops policies to combat money laundering - recent developments
indicate such a move on the part of Tehran would be good news for the
state of Israel. Pressure from the FATF recently forced the
Pakistani government to ban a terror-related organization
(Jamat-ud-Dawa) as well as a financial organization with terrorist
links (Falah-e-Insanyat Foundation).
GULF STATES, YEMEN & IRAN
Amid an escalation in attacks by the Houthi militias
against legitimate government positions in southern Hodeidah, the
Iran-backed militants informed UN officials in Sanaa Thursday that
they wanted to maintain their security presence in the city and its
ports, in defiance of the Sweden deal. Informed political sources in
Sanaa said high-ranking officials from the coup government held a
meeting with director of the office of UN envoy to Yemen Martin
Griffiths and Jens Toyberg-Frandzen, deputy of Michael Lollesgaard,
the head of the UN observer mission.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The U.K. government has decided
to provide diplomatic protection to a British-Iranian woman detained
in Iran for nearly three years. The Foreign Office said Friday the
move means Britain formally asserts that Iran has failed to meet its
international obligations in its treatment of Nazanin
Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested in April 2016 on
charges of plotting against the Iranian government. Her family denies
the allegations.
Britain is to give jailed
British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe diplomatic
protection in an attempt to put pressure on Iran to release her.
Foreign minister Jeremy Hunt said resorting to a little-used way for
governments to seek to protection their nationals was unlikely to be
a "magic wand", but might help Zaghari-Ratcliffe's case.
But Iran's ambassador in London said the move "contravenes
international law".
Iran has accused Britain of
breaking international law by taking the rare step of granting
diplomatic protection to a dual British-Iranian mother jailed in
Tehran over spy allegations. UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said on
Friday that London's decision to extend the special status to Nazanin
Zaghari-Ratcliffe was aimed at sending a "very strong
message" to Iran. But Iran's envoy to London said the decision
"contravenes international law".
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment