Monday, July 1, 2019

Eye on Iran: Iranian Media Say Uranium Stockpile Exceeds 2015 Limits



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Iran's enriched uranium stockpile has passed the 300-kilogram limit set by the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, the semi-official Fars news agency reported Monday. The agency attributed its report to an unnamed source, who said U.N. inspectors had recently weighed Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium. Iran had recently quadrupled its production of low-enriched uranium to be on pace to break one of the deal's terms.


The U.S. special representative for Iran said Friday that European companies have a choice: Do business with the United States or do business with Iran, as Europe announced that a new system to allow trade with Tehran was in place. The comments by Brian Hook came as European countries made a last-ditch effort to prevent Iran from breaching the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal, a move that could add to soaring tensions in the Persian Gulf.


Four civilians were killed and 21 injured in Israeli missile strikes near the Syrian cities of Damascus and Homs, Syrian state media said. The Syrian military responded to missiles launched by Israeli warplanes, the Sana news agency said. Israeli jets targeted military bases from Lebanese airspace at around midnight on Sunday, it reported. Israel's military has not commented. It periodically attacks what it says are threats to Israeli security in Syria.

NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM


Europe has no immediate plans to follow the U.S. and impose sanctions on Iran, even if the regime in Tehran makes good on its threat and breaches a nuclear accord President Trump pulled out from last year, French President Emmanuel Macron said. U.S. officials in recent days have urged Europeans to toughen their stance on Iran after the U.S. administration imposed fresh sanctions on Monday in response to recent oil-tanker attacks, rocket launches and the downing of a U.S. military drone.
   

Iran will soon exceed an enriched uranium limit under its nuclear deal, after remaining signatories to the pact fell short of Tehran's demands to be shielded from U.S. sanctions, the semi-official Fars news agency cited an "informed source" as saying.  Iran's envoy to a meeting of the remaining signatories to the 2015 nuclear accord said on Friday that European countries had offered too little at last-ditch talks to persuade Tehran to back off from its plans to breach limits imposed by the deal.


It is up to Europe to shield Iran from U.S. sanctions and prevent it from further scaling back its compliance with its 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers, Iranian state TV said on Saturday, with only days left on Tehran's ultimatum. Iran's envoy to a meeting of the remaining signatories to the nuclear accord said on Friday that European countries had offered too little at last-ditch talks to persuade Tehran to drop its plan to breach limits imposed by the deal.  

SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS  


The Trump administration's threat to sanction Iran's top diplomat, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, singles out the official European allies have looked to as they try to keep the clerical government in compliance with the 2015 nuclear agreement. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Monday the administration would levy penalties by the end of the week against Mr. Zarif, one of Iran's most recognizable government officials.


OPEC and its allies look set to extend oil supply cuts next week at least until the end of 2019 as Iraq joined top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia on Sunday in endorsing a policy aimed at propping up the price of crude amid a weakening global economy. Iran is the only major OPEC nation yet to have spoken publicly about a need to extend production cuts. Tehran has in the past objected to policies put forward by arch-rival Saudi Arabia, saying Riyadh was too close to Washington. 


Iran's news media was filled with upbeat economic reports last week. Several tankers of oil had been exported to China.


The Iranian foreign minister said on Saturday that Iran would resist any U.S. sanctions, just as it persevered during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war when the forces of the then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein launched a chemical attack on an Iranian town. "We persevered then, and will now," Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted in reference to the chemical attack on Sardasht. "We'll never forget that Western world supported & armed Saddam ... Security Council never condemned his gassing of our people."


Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) should have unity among themselves, Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh was quoted as saying on Monday, adding that Tehran backed cooperation with non-OPEC oil exporter states. "Without unity among members of OPEC, it is meaningless to plan cooperation between OPEC and non-OPEC countries," the Oil Ministry's website SHANA quoted Zanganeh as saying before leaving Tehran to attend an OPEC meeting in Vienna. 


Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh believes "unilateralism" among some OPEC members could ultimately lead to the death of the Middle East-dominated producer group. OPEC is set to debate an extension of oil production cuts when it meets on Monday, before getting the deal endorsed by non-members such as Russia on Tuesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin said over the weekend that the non-OPEC leader had agreed with Saudi Arabia to extend supply cuts by at least six months. 


While the EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini insists that a special mechanism to allow trade with Iran (INSTEX) has become "operational," Iran's permanent representative to the UN says the new device is a car without gas. In a joint press conference after talks with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on June 25, in Brussels, Mogherini had said the Instrument for Trade and Exchanges, INSTEX may soon be ready and operational.


Poor Hassan Rouhani: Iran's president is so inconsequential that the Trump administration didn't even bother to impose sanctions on him. The US has now levied them on supreme leader Ali Khamenei and eight military commanders, and is preparing similar measures against Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. It had already sanctioned Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force, and designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group.

PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS


They had been fasting together for more than two weeks: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman detained in Tehran, who went on a hunger strike in prison, and her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, who was outside the Iranian Embassy in London. On Saturday, the 15th day of their campaign, they suspended the strike demanding Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe's unconditional release. Mr. Ratcliffe told BBC Radio's "Today" program on Saturday that he had talked to his wife on the phone, and that she had told him she would end the hunger strike.


An official with an Iran-backed militia says members of his group comprised the majority of protesters outside the Bahrain embassy in the Iraqi capital that was attacked this week. But he says he doesn't know who stormed the mission. Jaafar al-Husseini, spokesman for the Kataeb Hezbollah, said that storming the embassy was a "natural right for the protesters" to express their anger over Bahrain's hosting of a U.S.-backed conference to promote peace between Arabs and Israelis.

U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS


Iran will not be pressured into negotiations by the United States, but if authorities in Washington act towards it with respect, Tehran will respond accordingly, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday. The two countries have been drawn into starker confrontation since May, when Washington mounted pressure on Tehran by ordering all countries to halt imports of Iranian oil, and the future of Iran's 2015 nuclear pact with world powers hangs in the balance. 


Iran will never succumb to US pressure and if Washington wants talks with Tehran it should show respect, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday. "Iran will never yield to pressure from the United States ... America should try to respect Iran ... if they want to talk to Iran, they should show respect," Zarif said in a speech broadcast live on state TV.


The United States has deployed F-22 stealth fighters to Qatar for the first time, its military said, adding to a buildup of US forces in the Gulf amid tensions with Iran. The Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth fighters have been deployed "to defend American forces and interests", the US Air Forces Central Command said in a statement on Friday.


Americans have never been worthy of negotiations and they never will be, a member of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission said on Sunday, adding that recent US sanctions against Iran show that "American officials are distressed." "America has never been worthy of negotiations and it will not be in the future either," the chairman of the parliament's Nuclear Committee, Mohammad Ebrahim Rezaei, said. The US has "lost its international reputation," he added.


President Obama was dishonest while empowering Iran. President Trump is incoherent while squeezing Iran. Obviously, the latter is better. But can it work in the long term? Trump wisely renounced Obama's non-binding nuclear deal with the mullahs, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Even if its murky terms were followed, the JCPOA would put Iran on a glide path toward becoming a nuclear-weapons power.


"I have two groups of people," President Trump told NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday. "I have doves, and I have hawks." News of a planned foray against Iran, which Trump canceled at T-minus 10 minutes, suggests that he is torn between some advisers who recommend restraint and others who advocate aggression. His next move should be a defensive armed action that promises the benefits of these two approaches.


The crisis over the Iranian downing of an American Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle has cooled somewhat but could flare up at any time. President Trump was right to call off a strike on Iranian facilities, even if his last-minute decision upset the process-oriented Pentagon. It was hardly the first time a president called off a strike just as the military was ready to move: Bill Clinton did exactly the same thing in November 1998, when he called off a missile strike on Iraq. 


Amid the rhetoric exchanged between Iran and the United States over how most key figures do not want a direct conflict, actually one party does - Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Each time President Donald Trump or Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei escalates the crisis, the Guards are that much closer to getting perhaps a contained, limited conflict that would benefit them domestically, as opposed to a total war that would pose a risk to the regime's survival.

IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS


Members of the Iranian Parliament (Majles) have recently tabled motions that can adversely affect President Hassan Rouhani's administration. Most recently, on Sunday June 30, several members of the Parliament called for amending the internal regulations of the Majles in a way that would strengthen the parliament's supervisory role, and give it a better leverage on the administration, Tasnim news agency reported.


The Islamic Republic's Deputy Health Minister says Iran is suffering from a "serious shortage of physicians," since thousands of local doctors have emigrated. Speaking to the state-run Iran Students News Agency (ISNA), Iraj Harirchi disclosed, "For every 1,000 Iranians, there are only 1.6 general practitioners, dentists, and specialists, while the least ratio to meet the country's demands should be 2.5 doctors per 1,000 persons."


After detecting an unusual spike in energy consumption, Iranian authorities seized nearly a thousand computers being used to mine cryptocurrency, according to the country's state media.  Authorities discovered two bitcoin farms operating in abandoned factories in Yazd province, which caused a seven percent spike in the country's power consumption this month. Iran's central bank banned cryptocurrencies last year, citing concerns over money laundering.

CHINA & IRAN


Iran's government has decided to allow Chinese citizens to travel to Iran without a visa, while Iranians still need a visa to enter China. Vali Teymouri, a senior tourism official has announced that the decision was made by President Hassan Rouhani's cabinet, and after due process it will be announced officially. Visa protocol is usually bilateral, whereby two countries reciprocate in asking for visas or allowing free travel for the citizens of their countries. In this case, China has not announced suspension of visa requirement from Iranian citizens.

GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN


A Yemeni military official said Sunday that Houthi militias have been struck with heavy military and economic losses since the US administration imposed new sanctions on their Iranian backers last month. Such challenges have limited their capabilities to mobilize and carry out military operations, the official said. "Recent developments, mainly sanctions imposed on the Iranian regime, put a heavy strain on the Houthi militias," assistant of Chief Service at the Yemeni Defense Ministry's Counseling Departing Lieutenant General Khaled Al Karni told Asharq Al-Awsat.


Saudi Arabia has intercepted two drones launched by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels, a Saudi-led coalition spokesman has said. The first drone targeted the province of Jizan, while the second was aimed at a residential area in Asir province, the coalition said in a statement released by the state-run Saudi Press Agency late on Saturday.


Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group attacked military positions and aircraft hangars at Saudi Arabia's Jizan airport, the group's Al Masirah TV said on Saturday, citing a military spokesman. There was no immediate confirmation from Saudi authorities. The Houthis, who ousted the Saudi-backed internationally recognized government from power in the Yemeni capital Sanaa in late 2014, have stepped up missile and drone attacks on Saudi cities this month.


Thursday's edition of the Wall Street Journal and their exposure of financial loopholes exploited by blacklisted terror suspects shows that when it comes to acting tough on combating extremism, Qatar's money is not where its mouth is. The links between Qatar and top-level blacklisted terrorists have been exposed once more, in revelations that are shocking but not at all surprising. The Gulf emirate has long been criticized for allowing terror financing to flourish within its borders, as well as for assisting terrorist groups abroad. Beyond al-Qaeda, Qatari citizens have been flagged for suspicious financing of Islamic State, Hamas, and al-Qaeda offshoot Jabhat al Nusra - all globally listed terrorist organizations.






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.

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