Eye on Iran: Shell Resumes Iranian Oil Purchases

Join UANI               Top Stories Reuters: "Royal Dutch Shell has resumed purchases of Iranian crude, becoming the second major oil firm after Total to restart trade with Tehran after the lifting of sanctions, trading sources said and ship tracking data showed. Shell declined to comment. According to shipping data, Shell fixed Suezmax tanker Delta Hellas to bring 130,000 tonnes of Iranian crude from Kharg Island on July 8 to continental Europe. Trading sources said the cargo would unload in Rotterdam. Shell repaid its outstanding debt to Iran from the pre-sanction times earlier this year." http://t.uani.com/1PHK3eI Reuters: "A senior U.S. senator said on Tuesday he would like to pass legislation to extend expiring sanctions on Iran and enable Congress to quickly enact new ones if necessary over the country's ballistic missile tests. The Iran Sanctions Act, which imposed nuclear, missile and terrorism sanctions on Iran, expires at the end of 2016, and both Democrats and Republicans in Congress support extending it. But Senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, acknowledged that lawmakers have not yet unified behind a proposal that would attract enough votes to pass and become law. 'Members have different views,' he said at a roundtable discussion with reporters... Senator Bob Corker, the committee's Republican chairman, has said he is working on legislation with Cardin that he hopes will attract strong bipartisan support. That measure has not yet been unveiled and aides said they had no more information about when it might be introduced." http://t.uani.com/1Xae35e AP: "Iran said Tuesday it would not grant visas to three U.S. congressmen opposed to the nuclear deal, calling their request to monitor the accord a 'publicity stunt.' The three Republican lawmakers - Reps. Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey, Mike Pompeo of Kansas and Lee Zeldin of New York - all voted against the deal and are part of a GOP backlash against the pact negotiated by Democratic President Barack Obama's administration. The accord limited Iran's ability to enrich uranium in exchange for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions. Iran's Foreign Ministry said in a letter it refused the request over 'the completely inappropriate way you have demanded to visit Iran and interfere in what is of no relevance to (your) official functions.' 'Despite what you seem to presume, (members) of the U.S. Congress do not get to dictate the policies of other countries,' the letter read. The congressmen asked in February to observe Iran's parliamentary elections, see 'American hostages' and visit three nuclear facilities. Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency also said they wanted to discuss Iran's brief detention of 10 U.S. Navy sailors in January. LoBiondo said it was 'deeply disappointing, though not surprising' that Iran denied 'our legitimate request with insults and deflections.' Pompeo said he still wanted Iran to grant him a visa, even though the country continues to 'act as a rogue and hostile nation.' Zeldin, meanwhile, said Iran's response 'spits in the face of the freedom-loving world.'" http://t.uani.com/1UEwCuV U.S.-Iran Relations Fox News: "The Iranian regime has banned the sale of a video-game that gives players a first-person perspective of the 1979 Iranian revolution. '1979 Revolution: Black Friday', which was created by an Iranian-born game designer and his wife and released back in April to acclaim for its historically accurate depiction of the Iranian revolution, has been banned by officials in Tehran for being 'Anti-Iranian' and 'pro-American propaganda.' Navid Khonsari -- a former Rockstar Games designer who helped develop the popular 'Grand Theft Auto' series says they will look for another way to get the games to the masses. 'We've been aggressive. We are trying to combat the censorship,' Khonsari tells FoxNews.com. 'It's quite simple. We tried to portray a truthful account of what happened.'" http://t.uani.com/1PhlIab Business Risk Reuters: "Iran said on Wednesday it had stopped exports of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to Japan, but there were other customers available to buy the Islamic republic's LPG, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported. The report did not give a reason but difficulties for shippers in obtaining insurance have continued to hamper Iranian LPG exports despite the lifting of international sanctions. 'Our LPG exports to Japan have stopped ... At the present, insurance issues and supplying of LPG carriers have been almost resolved,' Mehr quoted the head of the Association of Petrochemical Industry Corporations (APIC) Ahmad Mahdavi as saying... 'One major obstacle facing LPG exports has been supplying of ships ... Since the removal of sanctions, some buyers of Iran's LPG have managed to receive the product through their own LPG carriers,' he said." http://t.uani.com/1PHKZzQ Sanctions Relief Reuters: "Indian refiners have turned to State Bank of India and Germany-based bank Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG (EIH) to speed payment of billions of Iranian oil dues they still owe to Tehran, after delays in another money route. Refiners in India, Iran's top oil buyer after China, last month resumed settling their back debt of about $6.6 billion after the lifting earlier this year of some of the sanctions against Tehran had opened up oil trade and banking channels. The first payments were handled in May by state-run Union Bank of India via Turkey's Halkbank, which had previously handled payments before tougher European sanctions were put in place in February 2013... So far this month, MRPL and IOC have cleared about $330 million through EIH, the refinery and government sources said. Essar Oil, however, Iran's biggest Indian client with about $3 billion in debt, has settled only $100 million, they said." http://t.uani.com/1th5o57 Bloomberg: "Iran will seek international investors for a $3 billion refinery project in the country's south as the Persian Gulf nation looks to boost sales of its oil and natural gas products in Asia. The refining complex on Iran's Persian Gulf coast will seek to raise as much as 80 percent of the capital needed from international partners or financiers, Alireza Sadeghabadi, managing director of Siraf Refineries Infrastructure Co., said in an interview in Tehran. Siraf will issue a tender in two to three months to invite potential investors and partners, with companies and lenders in Japan and South Korea showing interest, he said." http://t.uani.com/1UEx1NQ Syria Conflict AFP: "Syria's defense minister is to hold Tehran talks with his Iranian and Russian counterparts Thursday as government forces press an offensive against the ISIS group, state media said. Moscow has sent warplanes and special forces in support of President Bashar Assad's government, while Tehran has deployed military advisers and trained and equipped pro-government militias. The visit by Syria's General Fahd Jassem al-Freij comes as the Damascus government steps up its campaign against both ISIS and rebel fighters in second city Aleppo it charges are in cahoots with Al-Qaeda. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu travels to Tehran after Moscow pledged to step up its air strikes against rebel forces in and around Aleppo, accusing rebels of failing to deliver on a February ceasefire pledge to break ranks with Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate Al-Nusra Front. The talks are being held at the invitation of Iran's General Hossein Dehghan, the state IRNA news agency said." http://t.uani.com/1XEbHMM Iraq Crisis Long War Journal: "Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's Qods Force, serves as an official advisor to the Iraqi government, the foreign minister confirmed yesterday. Soleimani and Qods Force have provided advice and support for the Popular Mobilization Forces and its component militias. While hosting reporters in the Iraqi Embassy in Amman, Foreign Minister Ibrahim Jafari defended Soleimani's role in bolstering sectarian militias that have often acted outside of the law in Iraq as they battle the Islamic State. 'Qassem Soleimani provides military advice on Iraqi soil, and this is with the complete awareness of our government.' Jafari said. He also noted that 'terrorists from 100 countries are in the ranks of DAISH,' the pejorative term for the Islamic State. 'Baghdad is fighting DAISH on behalf of all the countries in the world,' Jafari continued, implying that Soleimani's role in Iraq should be welcomed by all." http://t.uani.com/1WEKRn2 Human Rights BBC: "In Iran, homosexuality is banned and punishable by execution under its strict code of sharia, or Islamic law. In a country dominated by the religious class, being gay is taboo, and especially among the establishment. One Iranian gay cleric, who conducted gay weddings in secret, was forced to flee the country, and has been threatened with death." http://t.uani.com/1Uf2yaq Domestic Politics AFP: "Iran international goalkeeper Sosha Makani has been suspended for six months for 'inappropriate' conduct, including the wearing of what media have dubbed 'SpongeBob trousers', ISNA news agency reported on Wednesday. The Iranian football federation's morality committee cited Makani's clothing as one of the reasons for handing out the punishment. 'Among the matters reviewed was Sosha Makani's unconventional and inappropriate clothing,' it said about the 29-year-old, who played for Persepolis in the Iranian first division last season." http://t.uani.com/1th4WDQ Opinion & Analysis David Ignatius in WashPost: "One of the mysteries of Campaign 2016 is why the Iran nuclear deal has vanished as an issue. But a new book reveals some startling details about how the diplomacy with Tehran began in secret, long before reformers took power there, and the crucial role played by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. The diplomatic narrative is laid out in 'Alter Egos,' by New York Times White House correspondent Mark Landler. He's the first to disclose the full extent of the Omani 'back channel' to Iran that opened in 2009 through a colorful fixer named Salem ben Nasser al-Ismaily. Landler's account shows how early and extensively Clinton and her State Department staff were involved in the Iran talks, despite her initial wariness. And in a campaign in which Donald Trump often advocates a blunderbuss approach to foreign affairs, this story is a reminder that breakthroughs often come via strange and invisible pathways - ones that, in this case, the administration sometimes sought to obscure. The Ismaily contacts began in May 2009, just four months after President Obama had taken office, when Dennis Ross, a top adviser to then-Secretary Clinton, met the 51-year-old Omani at the State Department. At that first meeting, the Omani surprised the Americans with 'an offer by Iran to negotiate' about the nuclear program, writes Landler. Obama had already sent a secret letter to Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proposing negotiations but had received a diffident response. 'Ismaily assured Ross he could bring the Iranians to the table' and that Oman would be 'an ideal venue for secret negotiations.' Both promises turned out to be true. First, though, came the uproar of the Iranian presidential election in 2009 and the brutal suppression of the 'Green Revolution.' Some critics have argued that Obama's eagerness for a diplomatic opening to Iran blunted the U.S. response to the stolen victory by hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad... John Kerry was jumping into the Omani channel even before he became secretary of state. He got to know Ismaily during the hiker negotiations and made several visits to Oman in 2011 and early 2012. Kerry also met the Omani intermediary in London, Rome and Washington. 'In his zeal to jump-start the negotiations, Kerry passed several messages to the Iranians through Ismaily,' according to Landler. One of these messages may have been crucial: Kerry, still a senator and thus not formally speaking for the administration, suggested that under a nuclear agreement, the Iranians would be able to enrich uranium - Tehran's baseline demand. 'In some ways Kerry and his enthusiastic Omani go-between were merely cutting to the chase,' writes Landler. More secret meetings through the Omani channel followed in 2012 with Clinton's top aides, Deputy Secretary Bill Burns and Deputy Chief of Staff Jake Sullivan. Then, in 2013, the train began to accelerate with Kerry's appointment as secretary of state and Hassan Rouhani's election as president of Iran. By the end of that year, an interim nuclear agreement had been reached." http://t.uani.com/1rcYR9u Con Coughlin in The Daily Telegraph: "But as soon as the campaign to liberate Fallujah got under way, its civilian inhabitants suddenly found themselves confronting another, equally terrifying threat: Iran's vengeful Shia militias... Reports suggest more than 300 Sunni civilians have been executed by Shia militias after they seized control of a Sunni suburb on the northern edge of Fallujah earlier this week. Video footage shows survivors being treated in hospital after savage beatings from Shia militiamen armed with spades and batons. Some Sunnis claim they were made to drink their own urine when they asked for water. Rather than celebrating their liberation from Isil, the remaining inhabitants of Fallujah now find themselves caught on the horns of an awful dilemma. Either they risk execution by Isil fighters as they try to escape, or they risk execution by Shia militiamen if they offer to surrender... It also demonstrates that, for all the hype surrounding Barack Obama's deal with Iran over its controversial nuclear programme, Tehran is continuing its attempts to undermine Western efforts to bring some semblance of stability to the Middle East. The Shia militias currently terrorising the Sunni population of Fallujah are trained, equipped, funded and directed by Iran. Their conduct is certainly profoundly embarrassing for the Obama administration which argued that, after crippling economic sanctions against Iran were lifted in January, the West could look forward to improved relations with Tehran. Instead, the opposite has been the case, as this week's publication of the US State Department's annual report on global terrorism clearly demonstrates. Rather than seeing Iran improve its behaviour in the wake of the nuclear deal, the report starkly concludes that Tehran remains 'the foremost state sponsor of terrorism ... providing a range of support, including financial, training and equipment to groups around the world.' ... In short, Iran is as bad as Isil when it comes to the mistreatment of civilians, whether in Yemen or the suburbs of Fallujah. And if the West is really serious about defeating Isil, then it needs to understand it will have to do so without the support of Iran and its brutal Shia proxies." http://t.uani.com/1ZxKKHU         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. 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