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TOP STORIES
Iran fired a Shahab-3 medium-range missile on Wednesday,
a United States military official said, playing it down by saying
that it did not pose a threat to American or other Western shipping
or military bases in the region. The missile was launched from the
southern coast of Iran and landed east of Tehran, the official said
on Thursday, adding that it flew about 1,100 kilometers, or about 680
miles, and stayed inside Iran for the entire flight.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday he
was willing to go to Iran for talks amid tensions between Tehran and
Washington, but also called on Japan, Britain and other nations to
join a maritime force to guard oil tankers sailing through the Strait
of Hormuz. Asked if he would be willing to go to Tehran, Pompeo
said in an interview with Bloomberg TV: "Sure. If that's the
call, I'd happily go there... I would welcome the chance to speak
directly to the Iranian people."
Somewhere on its journey from the waters off Iran,
around Africa's southern tip and into the Mediterranean, the Grace 1
oil tanker lost the flag under which it sailed and ceased to be
registered to Panama. Iran later claimed it as its own. The ship
carrying 2 million barrels of Iranian crude was seized by British
Royal Marines off Gibraltar, raising tensions in the Gulf where Iran
detained a UK-flagged ship in retaliation.
UANI IN THE NEWS
...According to David Daoud, a research analyst on
Hezbollah and Lebanon at United Against Nuclear Iran, the uptick in
Israeli strikes in the area is because "there has been increased
Hezbollah presence. Recognition of the Golan creates common ground
for different factions to agree upon - the same applies to the
embassy move, and the 'deal of the century," Daoud said, adding
that "Different regional groups or axes that might not otherwise
agree now have something in common."
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
Fines issued by the U.S. regulator enforcing sanctions
compliance have hit a decade high at a time when the Trump
administration is increasingly using sanctions as a foreign policy
tool. About $1.3 billion in total penalties have been issued by the
Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control so far this
year, according to data published by OFAC, which administers and
enforces U.S. economic sanctions. The year-to-date total, from 18
settlements, is already more than 17 times the total issued in all of
2018, when there were seven settlements.
Brazil's top court said Thursday that state oil company
Petrobras must supply fuel to two Iranian vessels that have been
stranded off the coast of Parana state since early June. The decision
confirmed by the Federal Supreme Court upheld a previous ruling by a
local court in the state. Petrobras says it has yet to be notified.
The oil company has argued that it would risk significant fines if it
provided the fuel because the two vessels appear on a U.S. sanctions
list.
China's still importing oil from Iran weeks after the
U.S. imposed sanctions aimed at halting sales of crude from the
Persian Gulf nation. Official customs data on Friday showed China
imported 855,638 tons in June, the equivalent of about 209,000
barrels a day. While that's less than in May and the lowest since
mid-2010, the data adds to speculation that Beijing may risk running
afoul of American sanctions to secure crude supplies from the Islamic
Republic.
The United Arab Emirates projects that its trade with
Iran will plummet by half this year as the Middle East's business and
finance hub is buffeted by the impact of swingeing US sanctions on
the Islamic republic, according to a senior UAE official. Dubai has
traditionally been a centre for Iranian businesses operating offshore
and the UAE's trade with the republic was worth Dh70bn ($19bn) last
year, the official said.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
A recent tweet from Alicia Hernan - whose Twitter
account described her as a wife, mother and lover of peace - did not
mince words about her feelings for President Trump: "That stupid
moron doesn't get that that by creating bad guys, spewing hate filled
words and creating fear of 'others', his message is spreading to
fanatics around the world. Or maybe he does." That March 16 tweet,
directed to a Hawaii congressman, was not the work of an American
voter venting her frustration.
As the relationship between the United States and Iran
becomes increasingly hostile, some students at the University
of Kansas are living in uncertainty, an Iranian student
told the Lawrence Journal-World recently. However, a KU political
scientist thinks the tension will eventually subside without a
physical conflict. But until then, these students may be in an
uncomfortable situation. During the 2018-19 school year, the
university enrolled 46 students from Iran.
President Hassan Rouhani reiterated that his
country was ready for negotiations over the country's nuclear
program but warned Iran would not surrender. "Surrender is not
permissible and our nation and constitution will not allow it but we
have always been ready for just and respectful negotiations,"
Rouhani said at a cabinet meeting July 24. Iran and the five
permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany
signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2015,
ending a decade-long deadlock over Iran's nuclear program.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
On Monday, July 22, Iranian media reported
the arrest of 17 alleged CIA assets, captured around facilities
associated with the country's nuclear program. Some of these
individuals, although unnamed, have already been sentenced to death.
It is not clear whether this group is connected to an alleged CIA spy
ring broken up in June.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
Before Nazilla Akbari can check out the latest offerings
on Twitter or YouTube, she scrolls through an array of icons on her
smartphone, searching for the right workaround to bypass state
censors. It's a cat-and-mouse game that has become second nature in
Iran, where the clerically-led government restricts access to popular
social media sites and where U.S. sanctions create other barriers.
"Every day I struggle for 40 minutes just to get connected to
uncensored internet," Akbari, a 30-year-old software developer,
told The Associated Press.
The point-to-point inflation that reflects the increase
in prices in Iran in comparison with the same time in the previous
year has reached 48 percent, the Iranian Statistical Center reported
on July 24. Meanwhile, the inflation rate in the 12-month period
ending in July 2019 has reached 40.4 percent, the report said. The
point-to-point inflation rate is indicative of the momentum of rise
in prices by comparing the prices of various commodities to prices
during the similar period in the previous year.
In an scathing attack on the Islamic Republic policies,
the most influential Sunni leader in Iran has called upon the
military to stay out of politics and the economy and has demanded a
change in the country's foreign policy. In an interview published July
25 by the official Sunnis information website (Sunni online) Maulana
Abdol Hamid Ismaeel Zahi says, "It is better if military men
return to their original vocation and leave political and economic
fields to the civilians."
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
A top Justice Department official made it
clear Thursday that combating Hezbollah is a top priority for
the department, a move that puts pressure on the terrorist
organization's sponsor, Iran. Principal Deputy Attorney General
John Cronan, who leads the department's team that investigates
Hezbollah financing and narcoterrorism, laid out the government's
efforts and plans for dismantling and neutralizing the Iranian-backed
terrorist group during a conference commemorating the victims of the
Hezbollah bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Argentina 25 years
ago.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
America's allies are looking for peace in Yemen. The big
question is: Will Iran seize this opportunity to end its war in the
Arab world's most desperate land? Yemen, a country perched on the
southern tip of Arabian Peninsula, has more internal refugees than
any other nation on Earth. More than one-quarter of its population
has been forced from their homes by a civil war that pits the
Iran-backed Houthi tribal rebels against Saudi Arabia, the United
Arab Emirates, and other Arab allies of the United States.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The United States is rallying allies to create an
international security force to protect shipping from the threat
posed by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, as the British navy began
escorting UK-flagged ships through the waterway after the
seizure an oil tanker by Iranian forces last week. US Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo said Japan, France, Germany, South Korea, Australia
and other nations had already been approached to join the security
initiative.
Somewhere on its journey from the waters off Iran,
around Africa's southern tip and into the Mediterranean, the Grace 1
oil tanker lost the flag under which it sailed and ceased to be
registered to Panama. Iran later claimed it as its own. The ship
carrying 2 million barrels of Iranian crude was seized by British
Royal Marines off Gibraltar, raising tensions in the Gulf where Iran
detained a UK-flagged ship in retaliation.
The U.K. government is offering British-flagged ships
traveling through the Strait of Hormuz a Royal Navy escort after Iran
seized a British oil tanker in the busy waterway last week. The
Department for Transport said on Thursday that if ships give advance
notice of their plans they will be escorted by frigate HMS Montrose,
either individually or in groups. The escort is not compulsory, and
Britain has limited naval resources in the region.
Iran granted India consular access to 18 Indian crew
members of the detailed British vessel Stena Impero, the Iranian
ambassador to Britain said. "Indian Embassy in Tehran was
granted consular access to meet the 18 Indian crew of the detained
British ship Stena Impero," Hamid Baeidinejad
said. "Similar access is underway to other 5 crew from
other nationalities. Indian embassy has reported to find the crew
being very calm with no sense of panic."
Iran's detention of a UK-flagged tanker presents new
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson with an early leadership test --
does he side with the US "maximum pressure" campaign
against the Islamic republic or back EU efforts to salvage its
nuclear pact. Which way Johnson leans could set the tone for a
complex agenda that includes withdrawing from the European Union and
establishing much closer trade relations with the United States.
The path to improved British-Iranian relations has hit a
new barrier after the high court in London ruled that the UK does not
have to pay at least £20m interest on the £387m it owes
to Iran over the cancelled sale of Chieftain tanks in the
1970s. The debt was seen by Boris Johnson when he was foreign
secretary as critical to the release of Nazanin
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the Iranian-British dual national imprisoned in
Tehran.
Iran has freed nine of 12 Indian crew from a
Panama-flagged tanker seized on July 14, India's foreign ministry
said Friday. Iran had accused the MT Riah ship of smuggling
contraband fuel when it was detained, amid mounting tensions between
the Iranian government and Britain and the US over shipping in the
Strait of Hormuz. The TankerTrackers online oil shipment website
reported that the MT Riah crossed into Iranian waters on July 14 and
stopped transmitting signals shortly after.
The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow shipping route in the
Gulf region, is at the centre of rising tensions after Iran seized a
British-flagged tanker there. Despite its small size, the Strait of
Hormuz is one of the world's most important shipping routes. It is
about 96 miles long and only 21 miles wide at its narrowest point,
with shipping lanes in each direction just two miles wide. Bounded to
the north by Iran and to the south by Oman and the United Arab
Emirates (UAE), the Strait of Hormuz connects the Gulf with the
Arabian Sea.
Confronting the first crisis of his premiership,
Boris Johnson must decide what to do about the Stena Impero, the
British oil tanker being held by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The
regime in Tehran has named its price: the release of the Grace
1, an Iranian ship carrying oil to Syria that was seized by the Royal
Navy off Gibraltar. Johnson must know that such a trade would set a
dangerous precedent. The Iranian supertanker was stopped because it
was contravening European Union sanctions against the genocidal
dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad.
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