Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Eye on Iran: Iranian Parliament Labels Entire US Military As Terrorist



   EYE ON IRAN
Facebook
Twitter
View our videos on YouTube
   




TOP STORIES


Iranian lawmakers on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill that labels all U.S. military forces as terrorist, state TV reported, a day after Washington ratcheted up pressure on Tehran by announcing that no country would any longer be exempt from U.S. sanctions if it continues to buy Iranian oil. The bill is a step further from the one last week, when lawmakers approved labelling just U.S. troops in the Middle East as terrorist, in response to the U.S. terrorism designation for Iran's Revolutionary Guard earlier this month.



President Trump wants to exert "maximum pressure" on Iran, which is why he is giving the sanctions screws another firm twist. Any country that imports Iranian oil will soon face U.S. penalties-with no exceptions. Last year seven nations and Taiwan were granted waivers through May 2, giving them time to adjust supply lines. These waivers won't be extended, the State Department said Monday, helping to push the benchmark oil price to $74 a barrel, a nearly six-month high.


The United States on Monday offered a reward of up to $10 million (€8.9 million) for information that would allow the US to disrupt the finances of Lebanon's Shiite militant movement Hezbollah. The State Department said it would give money to anyone who could provide intelligence that allows the United States to disrupt Hezbollah in key ways, including information on Hezbollah's donors, on financial institutions that assist its transactions and on businesses controlled by the movement. The State Department listed three alleged Hezbollah financiers as examples of the activities they are hoping to stop.

NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM



Most of the Democrats running for president are vowing to put the United States back in the Iran nuclear deal that President Trump withdrew from nearly a year ago. "Our intelligence community told us again and again: The #IranDeal was working to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. If Iran continues to abide by the terms of the deal, you bet I will support returning to it," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) recently tweeted.



The Trump administration on Monday took another important step toward unwinding the disastrous Iran deal by ending the waivers that allowed many countries to continue purchasing oil from the terrorist regime, but now President Trump should take the final step to kill it off for good. It's been nearly a year since Trump made the wise decision to announce that the U.S. was leaving the Iran deal negotiated by the Obama administration, but at the same time, he left many avenues open that have allowed the deal to be kept alive so that it could be resurrected by a future Democratic president.

SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS  


Once a major customer, the U.S. hasn't bought oil from Iran for more than 25 years. How, then, can it lead a global movement to stop Iran from selling its chief export? The answer is simple: Any nation continuing to buy Iranian oil will face U.S. sanctions, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said Monday after announcing temporary waivers granted to some nations late last year won't be renewed when they expire on May 2.



Iran said it's holding "intensive" talks with its partners in the region and beyond to contain the fallout from the Trump administration's decision not to renew waivers that let countries buy Iranian oil without facing U.S. sanctions. The Foreign Ministry "is in continuous contact with the relevant domestic entities, and is having intensive consultations with many of its foreign partners including Europeans and neighbors," the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported, citing the ministry's spokesman, Abbas Mousavi.



In tightening sanctions on Iran, the Trump administration moved on Monday to isolate Tehran economically and undercut its power across the Middle East. But the clampdown has complicated relations with China at a particularly sensitive moment. The decision to stop five of Iran's biggest customers from buying its oil was an audacious strike at Tehran's lifeline - one million barrels of oil exports daily, fully half of which go to China. The order was also aimed at India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey, all countries that trade robustly with the United States.



Saudi Arabia's foreign minister on Tuesday welcomed a U.S. decision to end all Iran sanction waivers by May, saying it was a necessary step to halt Tehran's "destabilizing" policy in the region.  "Saudi Arabia fully supports this step taken by the United States as it is necessary to force the Iranian regime to end its policy of destabilizing stability and its support and sponsorship of terrorism around the world," Ibrahim al-Assaf said in comments carried on state media. 


Saudi Arabia will coordinate with other crude producers to ensure that adequate supplies are available and the market "does not go out of balance," Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said, after the U.S. ended waivers for buyers of Iranian oil. The Saudis are closely monitoring oil-market developments after the U.S. announcement regarding export sanctions on Iran, Al-Falih said in a statement. "In the next few weeks, the Kingdom will be consulting closely with other producing countries and key oil consuming nations to ensure a well-balanced and stable oil market, for the benefits of producers and consumers as well as the stability of the world economy."


Oil prices hit a near six-month high Monday as the U.S. government moved to halt all Iranian oil exports, eliminating a key revenue source for the Islamic Republic. West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. oil benchmark, rose 2.7% to $65.70 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange-their highest close since late October. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, advanced 2.9% to $74.04 a barrel on London's Intercontinental Exchange.



Japan expects a limited impact from a U.S. decision to force buyers of Iranian crude oil to stop purchases from next month, trade and industry minister Hiroshige Seko said on Tuesday.  Seko also told reporters at a regular press conference that the Japanese government did not see any need to tap national oil reserves following the U.S. decision by the U.S. The United States on Monday demanded that buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May 1 or face sanctions, a move to choke off Tehran's oil revenues which sent crude prices to six-month highs on fears of a potential supply crunch.


U.S. officials have strongly responded to IRGC Naval Force Commander's threat about closing the strait of Hormuz if Iran cannot ship its oil through the strategic waterway. A senior U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity told reporters in Washington on Monday April 22 that any move by Iran to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz in response to the United States ending waivers for purchases of Iranian oil would be unjustified and unacceptable.


Iraq is ready to boost oil exports by 250,000 barrels a day to compensate for any shortfalls once US sanctions waivers for Iranian oil end, a government official said Monday. The US last year re-imposed tough sanctions against Iran's energy sector but granted select countries six-month waivers to continue importing oil products from Tehran.


Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that the length of new U.S. sanctions on Iran's oil industry will depend "solely on the Islamic Republic of Iran's senior leaders." "The goal remains simple: to deprive the outlaw regime of the funds it has used to destabilize the Middle East for four decades and incentivize Iran to behave like a normal country," Pompeo said at the State Department. He added that the sanctions will divert "well north of $10 billion" away from the Iranian regime.

U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS



The United States is looking to sign a new agreement with Iran that covers its nuclear and missile programs, the country's regional aggression, and the arbitrary detention of foreign nationals, which include Americans, according to US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook. In an interview with Al Arabiya English, Hook said, "That is the kind of deal we need. We are ready to negotiate something like that."



The United States has denied the Iranian regime over $10 billion in revenue and expect that number to increase dramatically, US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook told Al Arabiya English after Washington declared it would start ending waivers to Tehran's oil customers. Hook also said that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates share a lot of the United States' national security goals when it comes to Iran. 



President Trump took aim at former Secretary of State John Kerry after his administration announced it would crack down on Iran's oil exports. The president suggested that Kerry, who has met with Iranian leaders over the Obama-era nuclear deal that Trump scrapped, broke an obscure law banning private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments without permission from the U.S.

MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS



CIA Director Gina Haspel is reorienting the nation's top intelligence agency, shifting its emphasis from counterterrorism to combating nation-state rivals such as Russia and Iran. Increasing investment into "hard targets" is the top priority under her watch, Haspel told Auburn University's national security forum last week. "Our Russia and Iran investment has been strengthened after years of falling behind our justifiably heavy emphasis on counterterrorism in the wake of 9/11," Haspel said in her speech.



In a rare double-up deployment close to Iran, the U.S. Navy currently has two carrier strike groups in the Mediterranean Sea. Just a few days sail from the Arabian Sea, the Stennis and Lincoln carrier strike groups conducted joint exercises last week. The Navy's current posture gives President Trump significantly added means of deterrence and action against Iran. It's a relevant concern in that U.S.-Iran tensions are escalating quickly.

IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS



Iran's first vice president has announced that the government has sent a draft bill to parliament to allow children born to Iranian mothers to obtain citizenship. Currently, children of Iranian fathers can obtain citizenship, while the offspring of women married to non-Iranians cannot receive Iranian passports. Vice president Es'haq Jahangiri in announcing the government's proposal mentioned Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian-born professor who in 2014 became the first woman to win the Fields Medal, the most prestigious international mathematical prize.



The repair bill for flood damage in Iran is expected to be around $2.5bn. Millions of Iranians are rebuilding their lives after devastating floods a month ago. As Al Jazeera's Zein Basravi reports from Lorestan Province, the crisis has come at a bad time for Iran's shrinking economy, hampered by US sanctions.

RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN



Iran has appointed as the next head of its Revolutionary Guards Corps, or IRGC, a veteran fighter who spearheaded a series of policies to develop advanced missiles capable of "annihilating" Israel, an announcement that comes just weeks after the Trump administration designated the entire IRGC as a terrorist entity. Over the weekend, Iran announced that Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami would be promoted as the next head of the IRGC, replacing Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari.



Syria is experiencing a worsening fuel shortage as a result of Western sanctions, bringing some major cities to a near standstill and causing some of the war's worst economic circumstances for President Bashar al-Assad's loyalists. In choking off much of the Syrian government's access to gasoline, diesel and heating oil, U.S. officials and other opponents of the Assad regime are hoping to pressure it to make compromises after eight years of conflict. Mr. Assad has long counted on a significant loyalist faction to support his grip on power, but those people are now coming under severe pressure.

GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN



The US has demanded that Houthis rebels release all the detained followers of Yemen's Bahai faith, after reports they are being mistreated and tortured while in custody. Houthi leaders are indicting dozens of Bahais, including Hamed bin Hayadara, who has been in Houthi detention in Sanaa since 2013. The prominent leader was sentenced to death by a Houthi court for charges of espionage and apostasy in January 2018. Members of the community describe the accusations as "baseless". "We are deeply concerned about credible reports that the Houthis continue to severely mistreat, arbitrarily detain, and torture Bahais in Yemen," US State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said on Monday. "This persistent pattern of vilification, oppression, and mistreatment by the Houthis of Bahais in Yemen must end."



Houthi forces' widespread use of landmines along Yemen's western coast since mid-2017 has killed and injured hundreds of civilians and prevented aid groups from reaching vulnerable communities, Human Rights Watch said today. Yemeni law and the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty ban all use of antipersonnel mines; anti-vehicle mines have been used indiscriminately in violation of the laws of war, posing dangers to civilians long after hostilities have ceased.

OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS    



Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Monday that a new joint security force with Pakistan will be formed to combat militants based along the two countries' shared border. Both Pakistan and Iran have said militant groups operate from the other country's soil, occasionally carrying out deadly cross-border attacks. The agreement comes after Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said Saturday that a group of militants crossed from Iran earlier in the week and attacked Pakistani armed forces in southwestern Baluchistan province, killing 14.







Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please email press@uani.com.

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons.  UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.

No comments:

Post a Comment