Thursday, August 1, 2019

Trump Administration Imposes Sanctions On Iran's Top Diplomat


   EYE ON IRAN
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The Trump administration took the unusual step on Wednesday of placing sanctions on Iran's foreign minister, essentially cutting off the clearest avenue for talks with Iran by punishing the man who negotiated the 2015 nuclear agreement. Senior administration officials described the foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif - an American-educated diplomat who is well connected throughout the United States - as the "propaganda arm" of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.


The United States will renew sanctions waivers for Iranian nuclear programs that allow Russia, China and European countries to continue their civilian nuclear cooperation with Tehran, White House national security adviser John Bolton said on Wednesday.  "I think the idea here is we are watching those nuclear activities very, very closely," Bolton said in an interview on Fox Business Network. "So this is a short 90-day extension," he said. 


The Trump administration is not closing the door to potential nuclear talks with Iran by sanctioning Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who it does not consider a significant decision maker, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.  Earlier, the United States imposed sanctions on Zarif for being the spokesman for Iran's Supreme Leader around the world.

SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS  


Iranian President Hassan Rouhani accused the United States of "childish behavior" and acting out of fear on Thursday after Washington imposed sanctions on Iran's foreign minister amid rising tensions between the two countries. The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, blocking any property or interests he has in the United States. But Zarif said he had none.


The United States has sanctioned Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif because they fear his negotiating skills, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in a tweet early on Thursday. "The peak of stupidity and inconsistency of America's leaders is at a point where they don't recognise Dr. Zarif as being influential in Iran's policy but with the ultimate ignorance they sanction him!" Mousavi wrote. "The Americans have a strong fear of the logic of Dr. Zarif and his negotiating skills."


Iran's crude oil exports last month were either less than two supertankers' worth, or as much as one of the giant vessels every two days, depending on who has the most accurate data. The huge discrepancy between industry experts and analysts on the true volume of Iran's exports shows just how difficult it has become to get accurate figures since the United States ended sanctions waivers for the country's top eight buyers. 


"GitHub blocked my account and they think I'm developing nuclear weapons." That was how one person on the creative forum Medium reacted this week to a controversial move by the United States-based software code-hosting service. On July 25, GitHub began limiting users linked to Iran, and several other countries under US sanctions, access to its services. Elsewhere, the word "ridiculous" appeared several times on a Twitter thread lamenting GitHub's actions. 


The government in sanctions-hit Iran on Wednesday approved a plan to remove zeros from the rial and rename the currency - something its people have long been doing to simplify transactions. "The cabinet today agreed on a bill to eliminate four zeros from the currency and that 'toman' will be our national currency," government spokesman Ali Rabiei told reporters in Tehran. The value of the Iranian rial has hit low after record low since last year.


The United States said Wednesday it was extending waivers for three civilian nuclear projects in Iran, despite Washington's withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear agreement. "This is a short 90 day extension," said White House National Security Advisor John Bolton, a champion of the hawkish policy towards Tehran. "We are watching those nuclear activities very, very closely, they remain under daily scrutiny," he told Fox Business.


In a remarkably prescient move just after the implementation of the nuclear deal with Iran at the beginning of 2016, China signed a massive land lease agreement to establish a huge industrial park in Duqm, which would include a number of multi-billion dollar investments, including the Duqm oil refinery. According to the Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries' chief executive officer, Salem al Huthaili, last week, the US$6 billion Duqm Refinery Project is now more than 25% complete and progress is fast.


Iraqi individuals and companies linked to Iran are smuggling cash out of the country to avoid financial sanctions imposed by the US Treasury. Despite technically being denied access to US dollars by Iraq's central bank, they are exploiting the bank's daily auction of hard currency by employing middlemen to convert Iraqi dinars into dollars. The funds are then transferred out of Iraq using private exchange offices.

PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS


Iranian women are sharing videos of themselves flouting laws forcing them to wear headscarves in public, despite a ruling they could face up to ten years in jail for doing so, a prominent activist said on Wednesday. Masih Alinejad, a U.S.-based Iranian journalist, started a social media campaign in 2014 encouraging women in Iran to share self-portraits without the Islamic veil, which she then shares on her Facebook page, "My Stealthy Freedom."


Rail workers blocked the tracks linking the port of Bandar Abbas in Hormozgan Province by the Persian Gulf to the Iranian capital Tehran for the second consecutive day on Tuesday July 30. The Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) says the rail workers are on strike in protest to the non-payment of their wages for three months. Another strike by Iranian rail workers has been reported in Shazand area on Tuesday where the work force has not been paid for two months.

U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS


President Trump's adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner is visiting Israel and Arab states this week as part of a push invoking the threat from Iran as a reason for Arab governments and other world powers to back a forthcoming peace proposal. As a potential fall release of Trump's peace plan approaches, his envoys are arguing that Iran is a bigger danger to Middle East stability than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that Iran uses the conflict for its own ends.


Germany will not participate in a U.S.-led naval mission to secure the Strait of Hormuz, close to Iran, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Wednesday.  Stressing that Germany wants to avoid a further escalation of tensions in the region, Maas told reporters on a trip to Warsaw that there was no military solution. "Germany will not take part in the sea mission presented and planned by the Untied States," said Maas. 


Predictably, Iran is reacting badly to the announcement that Europe is planning to send a multinational naval force to protect merchant shipping passing through the Strait of Hormuz. "We heard that they intend to send a European fleet to the Persian Gulf which naturally carries a hostile message, is provocative and will increase tensions," said an Iranian government spokesman this week.

IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS


Iran's judiciary has announced numerous prison sentences for a large number of defendants charged with "disrupting the country's economic order." The rulings announced July 30 include prison terms of up to 20 years. In one case, more than a dozen public servants working for a government institution in the northern Gilan province were found guilty of embezzlement and bribery.


Iran's Planning and Budget Organization is seeking to reduce the government budget's direct dependence on oil revenues. Budget deficits, foreign exchange reserve imbalances and extra liquidity were cited in a recent report by the organization as major factors damaging the Iranian economy over the years. The US maximum pressure campaign on Iran's economy has drastically reduced the country's foreign exchange earnings from oil sales.

IRANIAN REGIONAL AGGRESSION


Oil tanker owners are finding a way to reduce the risks of navigating the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important -- and lately most dangerous -- energy chokepoint: vanish from global tracking systems. Copying from Iran's own playbook, at least 20 ships turned off their transponders while passing through the strait this month, tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. Others appear to have slightly altered their routes once inside the Persian Gulf, sailing closer than usual to Saudi Arabia's coast en route to ports in Kuwait or Iraq.

RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN

An amusing coincidence last week resulted in perfect timing. Just as Israel and the United States were conducting a test series of the Israeli-American Arrow-3 missile defense system, intercepting three missiles over Alaska (completed on July 28), Iran tested on July 24 a Shahab-3 missile over a distance of nearly 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) from the south of the country toward an area east of Tehran in the north. Within a week, events in the airspace between Tehran and Alaska encapsulated the essence of the accelerated scientific-technological battle between Israel and Iran.  

GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN


The sumptuous palace in Abu Dhabi was a world away from the shattered homeland he'd left behind. But as the former architect who was now prime minister of Yemen arrived in June for talks with a crucial ally, a more seismic jolt awaited. Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed had come to the United Arab Emirates wanting cash to get his government through the next stage of its four-year war with Iran-backed rebels who control the Yemeni capital and swaths of territory. 


Two separate attacks in Yemen on Thursday, including a missile assault by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement, killed at least 32 people, including police officers and a military commander, officials said. The Houthi movement said it had mounted drone and missile attacks on a military parade in Aden, the seat of the Saudi-backed government, killing the commander and dozens of others.


Iran is prepared for dialogue if Saudi Arabia is also ready, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was quoted as saying on Wednesday.  Tensions have spiked between Iran and Saudi Arabia, arch-rivals for predominance in the Middle East, since Riyadh accused the Islamic Republic of carrying out attacks that damaged six oil tankers in the Gulf. Tehran has denied the allegation.
  

The UAE is "satisfied" with the results of a routine meeting between Emirati and Iranian officials to discuss local maritime matters, the state-run Wam news agency reported. The sit-down on Tuesday between officials from both countries comes at a time of heightened tensions in the region after a string of attacks on tankers and the seizure of British-flagged Stena Impero earlier this month.


Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday the will of the people would prevail in Bahrain after protests there following the execution of two Shi'ite Muslim Bahraini activists over the weekend.  Bahrain accuses mainly Shi'ite Iran of stoking militancy in the kingdom, which Tehran denies. Bahrain, a strategic island where the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet is based, has a Shi'ite Muslim majority population but is ruled by a Sunni Muslim royal family. 

OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS    


There seems to be no limit to how far tensions in the Arabian Gulf can escalate. Over the last two months, ships have been sabotaged, US and Iranian drones shot down, and Saudi Aramco's east-west pipeline attacked by drones. This all culminated in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confiscating the oil tanker Stena Impero, which was sailing under the British flag. This was in direct response to the Royal Navy having taken into custody the Iranian Grace 1 off the coast of Gibraltar on the suspicion that is was transporting oil to Syria in violation of EU sanctions against the war-torn country.






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.

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