|
TOP STORIES
Iran seized a foreign oil tanker in the Persian Gulf,
state television reported on Sunday, the third time Tehran has
reported detaining a tanker in the last month as the United States
applies its campaign of "maximum pressure," sanctions and
diplomatic isolation against the country. Iran's Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Corps detained the tanker on Wednesday along
with the seven members of the ship's foreign crew, according to
official Iranian news agencies, which cited a naval commander.
Iran will take another step to reduce its compliance
with a landmark 2015 nuclear deal, the Iranian foreign minister,
Mohammad Javad Zarif, said on Saturday, according to parliamentary
news agency Icana. Iran has repeatedly said it will reduce its
commitment to the nuclear accord in stages and may even withdraw from
the pact altogether unless the remaining signatories find ways to shield
its economy from US sanctions. Washington pulled out of the deal last
year.
A U.S.-led plan to police the Persian Gulf and Strait of
Hormuz against perceived Iranian aggression will soon gain the
commitment of several ally and partner countries, Defense
Secretary Mark Esper told reporters Saturday. Esper said
representatives from more than 30 countries attended a conference
earlier this week at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Florida to
discuss Operation Sentinel, a coalition of nations meant to safeguard
shipping lanes in the Middle East.
UANI IN THE NEWS
BRODSKY: Iran wants to turn [Houthis] into a proxy in
the Hezbollah-like model its been employing in Lebanon and elsewhere.
The U.S. is on the right side and the maximum pressure campaign is an
opportunity for Iran to come back to the negotiating table and
negotiate a broader deal that would not just cover the nuclear file
but the ballistic missile issue and the arms embargo.
...Jihad al-Binaa has provided Lebanese communities with
wide-ranging services in agriculture, training and construction since
it was founded in 1988 as the development association of Hezbollah,
the Iranian-backed political and military group. "Political ties
are generally fragile," David Daoud, a Hezbollah and Lebanon
research analyst at the advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran,
told Al-Monitor. "Social ties, by contrast, are far more
durable. Once you build those, they're hard to break."
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Iran will leave its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers,
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday, if Tehran's
interests were not protected by other parties to the pact.
"Iran will leave its 2015 nuclear deal with powers if
necessary," Zarif told a news conference broadcast live on state
TV, "calling on Europeans to accelerate their efforts to shield
Iran's economy from U.S. sanctions."
Iran announced plans to take additional steps away from
the 2015 nuclear deal, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad
Zarif said Saturday, in an attempt to win protections from the
Trump administration's sanctions. "The third step in reducing
commitments to [the nuclear deal] will be implemented in the current
situation," Zarif told ICANA, an official Iranian news agency.
He did not specify the nation's next nuclear moves.
The International Atomic Energy Agency must be
unyielding in reporting any failure by Iran to comply with a landmark
nuclear agreement that is gradually unravelling, according to a
leading contender to head the UN's nuclear watchdog. Rafael Grossi,
an Argentine diplomat who is in the running to take over the IAEA
after the death of its previous director-general, Yukiya Amano, in
July, said the agency had to "tell it as it is" and stick
to its mandate of policing compliance with the 2015 deal.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
China and other countries are receiving oil shipments
from a larger number of Iranian tankers than was previously known,
defying sanctions imposed by the United States to choke off Tehran's
main source of income, an investigation by The New York Times has
found. The Times examined the movements of more than 70 Iranian tankers
since May 2, when the American sanctions took full effect.
Iran's foreign minister on Monday lambasted recent U.S.
financial sanctions against him, calling the move a
"failure" for diplomacy amid escalating tensions in the
Persian Gulf. "Imposing sanctions against a foreign minister
means failure" for any efforts at negotiations, Mohammad Javad
Zarif told reporters at a press conference in Tehran, adding that it
also means the side imposing the measures is "opposing
talks." The U.S. administration last week announced sanctions on
Zarif, a month after President Donald Trump had imposed similar
sanctions on Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Reports alleging that fuel tankers appeared to breach
U.S. sanctions against Iran were cited in court filings by a bank as
it sought to seize the ships, accusing the owners of loan default.
The accusations, which led to the the temporary arrest of the vessels
in Singapore late last month, come as the U.S. seeks to isolate the
regime in Tehran by cutting off oil sales, a major source of revenue.
They also underscore how traders and shippers suspected of violating
sanctions can run afoul of their own lenders, not just governments.
Since President Donald Trump issued executive
orders saying he was sanctioning individuals such as Iran's Supreme
Leader Ali Khamenei and Shi'a militia commanders in Iraq, some of
them beholden to Tehran, many analysts have dismissed the moves as
merely "symbolic." Is sanctioning individuals who are
unlikely to travel outside areas where they are protected in the
Middle East a political jab that only agitates America's adversaries?
MISSILE PROGRAM
For the first time since a standoff between the United
States and Iran escalated into attacks on oil tankers, Iran has
conducted a medium-range ballistic missile test. According to U.S.
officials, Iran test-fired a Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile earlier
this week that traveled 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) - distance
enough to hit Saudi Arabia and come close to Israel.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
Nearly 1600 under-fifteen-year-old girls married in the
last Iranian calendar year (ending March 20, 2019), in the province
of Hamadan, western Iran. Furthermore, the local director of the
registry office, Assad Hassanzadeh, disclosed that at least 44
under-fifteen-year-old girls gave birth in the same period. The
Islamic Republic of Iran signed the UN Convention on the Right of the
Child in 1991 and ratified it three years later. Nevertheless,
according to article 1041 of the country's Civil Law, there is no
minimum age for marriage in Iran.
In a telephone conversation with his family, the
Iranian-Swedish scientist and disaster medicine expert, Dr. Ahmad
Reza Jalali (Djalali) has revealed that he has been under pressure to
admit new charges and participate in another "forced confession"
in front of cameras. Speaking to Radio Farda on Saturday, August 3,
Jalali's wife, Vida Mehran Nia disclosed that her husband had been
taken to solitary confinement outside Tehran's notorious prison,
Evin.
Monireh Arabshahi, Yasamin Aryani, and Mojgan Keshavarz,
three women who have been held in Iranian custody since April of this
year for "disrespecting compulsory hijab," have been
sentenced by the Iranian Revolutionary Court to prison terms of at
least 16 years each for disobeying the country's Islamic dress code.
The women were each given five years on charges of "assembly and
collusion to act against national security," one year for
circulating "propaganda against the regime" and ten years
for "encouraging and preparing the grounds for corruption and
prostitution."
An Iranian serving a life sentence on a conviction of
designing a "pornographic" website has fled the country
while on short-term release from prison and has arrived in Canada,
the foreign ministry and Iranian authorities said. "Canada
welcomes the news that Saeed Malekpour has been reunited with his
family in Canada," Canada's foreign ministry spokesman said in a
statement received by AFP. "We have advocated for Mr Malekpour's
release and are pleased that he is now in Canada," the spokesman
said, without elaborating due to privacy considerations.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reportedly
received an invitation to speak with President
Trump at the White House last month,
but Tehran decided against such meeting. Zarif was targeted
by the Trump administration this week, imposing punitive financial
sanctions on him in an effort to further pressure Iran to end its
activities in the Persian Gulf region. The move to penalize Zarif
follows Trump's earlier executive order placing sanctions on Iran's supreme
leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
U.S. foreign policy should be designed with one
constituency in mind: the American public. The public expects
policymakers and lawmakers in Washington to always keep their
interests, not global abstractions, front-of-mind and do what is best
for the country's national security. When decisions are made that
unnecessarily complicate conflict resolution or shut the door on
diplomacy (sanctioning the Iranian foreign minister, to take the most
recent example) the public expects Washington to reassess, think
about the long-term, and correct the mistake.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
Iran said on Sunday that one of its fighter jets had
crashed in the southern province of Bushehr because of technical
problem, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported, adding that two
people onboard the jet were safe. "The fighter jet crashed
due to technical issues in the Tangestan area. Its pilot and co-pilot
are safe," Mehr quoted the governor of Tangestan Abdolhossein
Rafiipour as saying. Tangestan is a county in Iran's Bushehr
province.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
After months of debate and speculation, Iran's
government has officially recognised cryptocurrency mining as an
industry. Crypto miners run powerful "farms" of
computer gear that compete within a global, decentralised computer
network to verify transactions made with cryptocurrencies such
as bitcoin. As approved and notified by the
government, mining cryptocurrencies is legal both inside and outside
metropolises, in addition to free and special trade zones, provided
applicants obtain a permit from the Ministry of Industry, Mine and
Trade.
IRANIAN REGIONAL AGGRESSION
In the short run, at least, President Donald Trump's
beef with Iran has more to do with its aggressive, destabilizing
foreign policy in the Middle East than with its nuclear program,
which, experts agree, is years away from producing even a single
nuclear device. The chief institution responsible for implementing
the political warfare and military aspects of that foreign policy is
the Pasdaran-better known in the West as the Iranian Revolutionary
Guard Corps (IRGC).
Iran seized a foreign oil tanker and its seven crew
members in the Persian Gulf last week, state media reported Sunday,
the third time the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has detained a
ship in less than a month. The Guards said in a statement that they
seized the ship Wednesday night near Farsi Island, north of the
Strait of Hormuz. The official news agency IRNA quoted the Guards as
saying that the ship was carrying 700,000 liters of smuggled Iranian
fuel that had been transferred to it from other ships and were being
transported "to Persian Gulf Arab states."
Iran will no longer turn a blind eye to "maritime
offenses" in the Gulf, its foreign minister said on Monday, a
day after it seized an Iraqi oil tanker there that it accused of
smuggling fuel. Revolutionary Guards seized the tanker and its
seven crew near Iran's Farsi Island north of the Strait of Hormuz,
state media reported, in show of power amid heightened tension with
the West that minister Mohammad Javad Zarif blamed U.S. authorities
for fomenting. "Iran used to forgo some maritime offenses
in ... (the) Gulf but will never close (its) eyes anymore,"
Zarif told a news conference.
Iran is responsible for security in the Persian Gulf and
is acting more vigorously to protect it, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif
said, suggesting that a showdown between his country and Western
powers over crucial shipping lanes could escalate. "We used to
overlook some violations but no longer," Zarif said at a press
conference at the Foreign Ministry in Tehran. Iran has the longest
stretch of coastline with the waterway in the region and is
responsible for its security, he added.
Iraq's oil ministry announced on Sunday it has no
connection with an oil tanker seized by Iran and claimed to be
smuggling oil, Iraqi media reported. Earlier on Sunday, Iran's
Islamic Revolution Guard Corps said that it has seized an oil tanker
smuggling oil in the Persian Gulf. Since then Iran has maintained
silence. According to the Iranian announcement the tanker was
transporting les than 5,000 barrels of diesel. The Iraqi oil ministry
said it "does not export diesel to the international market."
While many Iranians on social media are complaining
about what they believe is Iran's unfair share of the Caspian Sea,
the spokesman for the Islamic Republic of Iran's Foreign Ministry has
dismissed "speculations" about the legal regime of the
Caspian Sea as "untrue." The speculations and criticism of
the Iranian government for compromising "Iran's rights"
started on 29 July, when Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said
at Iran's Parliament (Majles) that the Caspian Legal Regime has been
"finalized."
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Israel's new Arrow 3 anti-missile system has just passed
a major milestone. Not in Israel, but 6,000 miles away in Kodiak,
Alaska. The Arrow 3 test on July 28 comes just days after Israel's
arch-enemy Iran itself tested a new ballistic missile. "Flight
Test Arrow-01 demonstrated the Israeli Arrow Weapon System's ability
to conduct a high altitude hit-to-kill engagement," said the
U.S. Missile Defense Agency announcement.
CHINA & IRAN
The Speaker of Iranian parliament, Ali Larijani, has
once again relished the thought of "looking to East", and
dreaming about a long term "strategic relationship" between
Tehran and Beijing. "Looking to East", and dreaming of a
closer relationship with China and Russia have always been a favorite
refrain for the Islamic Republic's officials, especially when they
find themselves facing outside pressures.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash
says the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia prefer a political
approach to their problems with Iran. Emphasizing continued
cooperation between the two Arab countries, Gargash tweeted on August
2 that the two states believe in a political approach rather than
confrontation with Iran. Meanwhile, the UAE official accused
Qatar of trying to take political advantage of the meeting between
Iranian and UAE coast guard officials which took place on July 30.
The 15th joint
coast guard meeting between Iran and Qatar was held Sunday in Tehran
to develop field cooperation and boost bilateral good-neighborly
relations, according to Iranian media. The Iranian side was headed by
Border Guard Commander Brigadier General Ghasem Rezaei and the Qatari
delegation was headed by Lieutenant Colonel Abdulaziz Ali
al-Mohannadi, assistant director-general of the country's Coasts and
Borders Security, according to IRNA.
Bahrain accused on Sunday Iran and Qatar of plotting to
target its national unity and of promoting sedition and chaos.
Interior Minister General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al-Khalifa said
the Qatari and Iranian interference in the internal affairs of
Bahrain aren't new, but come in different forms. He explained that
Iran relies on fanning the flames of sectarianism to interfere in
Bahrain's internal affairs blatantly, while Qatar seeks to undermine
social cohesion and damage family bonds, which represents an affront
to authentic Arab and Islamic values and customs.
Yemeni Houthi forces launched drone attacks on Saudi
Arabia's King Khalid airbase and Abha and Najran airports, the
Houthis' military spokesman said on Monday. A spokesman for the Saudi-led
coalition fighting the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen said later that
Houthi drones had been intercepted and downed heading in the
direction of civilian airports. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saria
said the attack on Abha airport "hit its targets" and air
traffic was disrupted at both Abha and Najran. All three locations
are in southwest Saudi, near the border with Yemen.
Observers said there was strong coordination between the
Iran-backed Houthis and the jihadist groups of al-Qaeda and the
Islamic State in carrying out simultaneous attacks in Aden in which
at least 49 people were killed. The attacks August 1 also highlighted
Iran's role in enabling the massacre by providing the Houthis with
advanced weapons, observers said. The militants attacked a military
camp in southern Abyan province with rocket-propelled grenades and
automatic rifles around midnight, setting off clashes that lasted
until early morning of August 2. The troops targeted were members of
a force trained by the United Arab Emirates, part of the Saudi-led
coalition fighting the Houthi rebels since 2015.
IRAQ & IRAN
Iran said on Sunday that an oil tanker sized by its
elite forces in the Gulf for smuggling fuel was an Iraqi ship, the
official IRNA news agency reported. "The oil tanker that
was captured on Wednesday for smuggling Iran's fuel to other countries
was an Iraqi ship," IRNA said, quoting Iran's Revolutionary
Guards Corps.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Senior U.S. leaders expressed confidence that they will
be able to convince allies to help protect shipping in the Persian
Gulf area against Iranian threats, but they provided no new details
Sunday on which nations may be willing to participate. Speaking at a
meeting between U.S. and Australian leaders, Defense Secretary Mark
Esper said he has already gotten a good response from allies and some
announcements could be expected soon. And Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo told reporters that a lot of conversations are taking place.
U.S. efforts to build a global coalition to protect
ships passing through the Persian Gulf continue to bear little fruit,
with key ally Australia still undecided about whether to join.
Australia Defence Minister Linda Reynolds, after meeting with U.S. Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper in Sydney, said
Australia was "deeply concerned" about heightened tensions
in the region, and the request made by the U.S. was "a very
serious one, and it is a complex one."
Just over a fortnight ago, Iran had no qualms about
seizing the Stena Impero while the British-flagged vessel
was passing through the Strait of Hormuz. This was a direct result of
Britain's overly friendly overtures towards Iran being interpreted as
weakness. But now that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has taken
residence at 10 Downing Street, the UK now has an opportunity to
change course with Iran. London was an enthusiastic signatory of the
2015 nuclear deal.
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment