Eye on Iran: Fury Erupts in Iran over Vast Salaries Paid to Government Officials

Join UANI               Top Stories Guardian: "Revelations that senior Iranian government employees were being paid astronomical salaries have rocked the country and threatened popular support for the president, Hassan Rouhani, amid Iran's continued economic stagnation, little improved by the lifting of international sanctions in January. The revelations, which have sparked widespread anger, have continued to dominate front pages across the country, and even led to the resignation of the head of the state insurance regulator, Mohammad Ebrahim Amin. The scandal first erupted two months ago when a series of payslips surfaced online, which showed a number of top executives at the state insurance company were being paid monthly wages roughly 50 times higher than the lowest government salary. This week, Rouhani instructed his vice-president, Eshaq Jahangiri, to launch an inquiry into the inflated salaries, and other exorbitant payments made to government officials. Rouhani's opponents have sought to capitalise on the scandal to attack the president, who is already under pressure to demonstrate the economic benefits of last year's nuclear deal. In a letter to his vice-president, Rouhani sought to deflect blame to previous administrations for the high salaries." http://t.uani.com/28K9uCJ Reuters: "The chief U.S. agency in charge of implementing sanctions has added staff to help speed up processing applications from businesses hoping to trade with Iran, a U.S. Treasury official said on Thursday. The beefing up of the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control comes as businesses and lawyers say that often the answers they receive from the agency on whether certain trade is allowed in Iran is vague, non-committal and too slow to facilitate fast-moving business decisions... OFAC's acting director, John Smith, said that since the nuclear deal, the agency has received 'hundreds if not into the thousands by this point' of applications from businesses seeking licenses to do trade in Iran. Each of those licenses must be assessed by OFAC staff in accordance with complex and overlapping regulations. 'We are stretched to the limit,' Smith said, speaking at a forum in Washington, D.C. 'We have beefed up our licensing division in substantial ways. We've added more licensing officers. We've just created a new licensing chief to help get licenses out faster.' He did not specify how many new staff, and over what time period, the agency has added... Many applications have to be sent to other U.S. agencies, including the State Department and Commerce Department, for guidance, Smith said, which leads to delayed decisions. 'There are some that are months and they're still waiting,' Smith said. 'Those are the tougher calls, often that involve broader foreign policy issues or that involve complex legal issues.'" http://t.uani.com/1USFJZ4 JPost: "Iran has not altered its posture on the global stage despite, over a year and a half ago, choosing to alter the nature of its controversial nuclear program, a senior White House official said on Thursday. Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, a close confidante of US President Barack Obama and a chief architect behind the sale of last year's landmark nuclear deal with Iran, said the agreement has been fully implemented by Tehran and is widely favored by the Iranian public... 'Many other aspects of Iranian behavior- and US-Iran relations- remain unchanged,' Rhodes said. 'Iran has not ceased its support for terrorist organizations like Hezbollah or its threats toward Israel. Iran has continued to test ballistic missiles. From Iraq to Yemen, Iran has continued to engage in destabilizing support for proxy organizations. 'Despite the diplomacy that has brought Iran into discussions about resolving the Syrian civil war, Iran continues to be one of the chief sponsors of an Assad regime that brutally murders the Syrian people,' he continued. 'In short, Iran's approach to its nuclear program has changed, but thus far, its broader foreign policy- and the nature of its regime- has not.'" http://t.uani.com/21qsbWO Nuclear & Ballistic Missile Program Fars (Iran): "Spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi warned the US and other world powers that Tehran can return its nuclear program to conditions before the July deal much faster than estimated by them. 'Since the beginning, we have foreseen measures for return scenarios and if needed, we are ready to create conditions rapidly that will certainly surprise the other side,' Kamalvandi said on Thursday. 'If we decide to return to the past conditions for the other side's non-compliance to the nuclear deal, naturally, we can have highly good conditions rapidly using advanced centrifuges,' he added." http://t.uani.com/1PwpbBU U.S.-Iran Relations Mehr (Iran): "Tehran's Interim Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Mohammed Emami-Kashani said ominous triangle of Saudi money, Zionist's policy and US power prevents the progress of original Islam. Ayatollah Emami-Kashani who led this week's ritual of Friday Prayers in Tehran noted the Islam that Takfiris and ISIL preach is not the noble and original one. Praising Leader's comments on Islam, he noted that the only person who well describes the Revolution at home and abroad is the Iranian Leader Ayatollah Khamenei; 'He stands at the peak, where he sees all the world and then makes remarks.' ... Emami-Kashani in another part of his sermon in Friday Prayers this week, said the spread of drugs is the US policy, saying 'they (the US policy makers) import terrorism on the one hand and drug on the other hand.'" http://t.uani.com/1tu5cyR Business Risk JPost: "Shurat Hadin - Israel Law Center on Thursday told US aerospace giant Boeing that it will place liens on any of its airplanes slated for Iran if it goes through with an announced sale. The NGO represents hundreds of families of victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism who hold billions of dollars in unsatisfied US court judgments, and it says Iran needs to pay the debts before it can purchase the planes... Shurat Hadin warned the Chicago-based Boeing that the nuclear deal the US signed with Iran, which lifted many sanctions, did not extinguish American judgments held by the terrorism victims it represents, which means they can serve liens on anything Iran purchases. According to Shurat Hadin director Nitsana Darshan- Leitner: 'It is shocking that a company like Boeing would enter into a business deal with the outlaw regime in Tehran.' She noted Iran's support for Hamas and Hezbollah and declared that 'the unsatisfied federal court judgments being held by the victims of Iranian terror amount to many billions of dollars, and these must be paid off.'" http://t.uani.com/1USFuwW Sanctions Relief Platts: "Lukoil is ready to re-enter Iran and is hopeful that the necessary laws will be in place soon, with the terms of the International Petroleum Contracts, or IPCs, likely to be unveiled by October, Chief Executive Vagit Alekperov said Thursday. Iran could also pass a law allowing foreign companies to invest in Iranian projects by the end of the year, the CEO of Russia's second biggest producer added on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. However, Alekperov was quick to point out that until the law is passed no concrete steps would be taken. 'Based on the latest meetings I had in Vienna during OPEC, it is around September or October this year. It is mostly agreed on, according to my information, but there are minor details left. But as a rule, those details are always where the problems hide,' the Lukoil CEO said. Alekperov met with Iran's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh on June 2... Lukoil, which had been a key player in Iran before international sanctions were imposed, has yet to return, unlike some of the other key oil companies such as Total which quickly struck up a deal this year to take Iranian crude. 'We have two memoranda on zones of interests that we're analyzing. At this point we're just analyzing the data. Of course we are interested in returning to the Anaran project that we used to work on with Statoil,' Alekperov said." http://t.uani.com/1OsP6Q6 Ship Technology: "Japan-based ship classification society Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK) has resumed operations in Iran, with the opening of its Tehran Office. ClassNK has also reopened its agreements with the Iranian Classification Society (ICS) and Ports and Maritime Organisation (PMO), Ministry of Roads & Urban Development of Iran. In December 2009, ClassNK opened its Tehran office but shut it down in 2012. ClassNK has decided to reopen its Tehran office in the wake of recent changes in the region. In order to bolster its operations in Iran, the society also signed a deal with ICS in February this year. The deal establishes a framework for surveys and certifications for NK/ICS dual-classed ships. Another deal with PMO, which is the Iranian maritime administration, is expected to be finalised in the coming weeks. After finalising, the deal with PMO will allow ClassNK along with Port & Flag State Control officers to perform statutory surveys and certifications on Iranian-flagged vessels." http://t.uani.com/21oL50d PV Magazine: "As excitement builds around the potential PV market in Iran, German consultancy company Planet in Green agreed a 20 year power purchase agreement for a large-scale PV plant near to Tehran. Iran is opening up to outside investment and the PV market wants to take full advantage of this. European PV companies seem to be the ones taking the first steps in the country, which has huge solar resources and a need for extra power. Planet in Green Projects GmbH is a German consultancy company that specializes in PV projects. The contract that it has concluded with the with Iranian renewable energy organization SUNA is for a 100 MWp close to Iran, which will produce 165 million kWh per annum... Some of the most recent exciting developments include Italian companies agreeing to build 1 GW of solar farms in the country, and German SCHMID Group agreeing with the Industrial Development & Renovation Organization of Iran (IDRO) to develop a state of the art PV manufacturing facility in the country." http://t.uani.com/1UbhPFZ Domestic Politics Al-Monitor: "Abbas Araghchi, whose official title is deputy minister for legal and international affairs at Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is more signficiantly one of Iran's senior nuclear negotiators. While Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif played the lead role in the nuclear talks and received the majority of media coverage, Araghchi and his American and European counterparts played important roles in bringing about the landmark nuclear deal. The English-speaking diplomat, who holds a doctorate from the University of Kent in Britain, has a well-known record as a diplomat in Iran's Foreign Ministry dating back 20 years. However, in a recent interview with an Iranian magazine, a former commander from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has introduced a controversial - and unverified - new aspect to Araghchi's background. According to Javad Mansouri, one of the first commanders of the IRGC, Araghchi is a member of the IRGC's elite Quds Force, which is headed by Gen. Qasem Soleimani and is tasked with military operations outside Iran's borders. Mansouri made the claim in an interview with Iranian magazine Ramz-e-Obour (Password). Mansouri also said that Iran's ambassadors to Iraq, Syria and Lebanon are also members of the Quds Force... That Iran's ambassadors to countries where Iran has a significant military presence would be members of the Quds Force is not necessarily surprising. But that one of Iran's top diplomats would be a member of an organization that is sanctioned by the United States and Europe, and whose members are restricted from travel to certain countries, has caught even some Iranian media outlets by surprise." http://t.uani.com/1XZifFU Foreign Affairs ISNA (Iran): "Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif is most likely to visit the Netherlands in the third leg of his European tour, Iranian sources and French media said. Zaris is visiting France next week following the official invitation of his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault and would meet with French officials, including President Francois Hollande. Zarif is probably visiting Netherlands next week." http://t.uani.com/24VMgou Opinion & Analysis Joseph Braude in Asharq Alawsat: "On May 2, 2011, United States forces entered the upper-class mansion in Abbottabad, Pakistan that was being used as a safe house for Osama Bin Laden. Having shot and killed the Al-Qaeda leader, they proceeded to exploit the compound for any materials that might prove to be of intelligence value. Soldiers retrieved what a senior intelligence official subsequently described to reporters as a 'robust collection of materials' and, later, 'the single largest collection of senior terrorist materials ever.' The U.S. Government described the stash as exceeding a million documents, stored on paper and in 10 hard drives, nearly 100 thumb drives, and data cards - not to mention a vast cache of printed materials. According to President Barack Obama's national security advisor, Thomas Donilon, the material could fill 'a small college library.' A CIA team was designated to analyze the material, with a priority on immediately actionable intelligence but the eventual goal of thoroughly mining the content for as close to a comprehensive understanding of AL-Qaeda as possible. The Administration also promised to make most of the materials available to the public as soon as it was operationally safe and advisable to do so. Yet more than five years after the confiscation of the documents, none but a small fraction of the materials have been released to the public. Former intelligence officers familiar with interagency disputes over the archive assert, moreover, that the modest amount of declassified material was used by the Obama Administration to support a political narrative about Al-Qaeda that is not borne out by the majority of the documents. Among the major discrepancies: Significant evidence of cooperation between Al-Qaeda and the Iranian government. For this special investigation, Asharq Alawsat interviewed former intelligence officers, staff members of the National Security Archive in Washington, and experts on successive U.S. Governments' declassification policies - in addition to scrutinizing more than 250 documents from the Abbottabad compound. Among the key findings of the investigation: Bin Laden described Iran as 'our main artery for funds, personnel, and communication,' and instructed subordinates to 'refrain from attacking Iran and devote your total resources ... to the fight against the crusaders and the apostates.'" http://t.uani.com/1USGpgX         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. 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