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TOP STORIES
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.
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