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TOP STORIES
A senior Iranian official has accused European
governments of not being fully committed to implementation of a
nuclear deal with Iran, blaming them for stymieing investment into
the Islamic republic. Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan, deputy transport
minister, told the Financial Times that European financing agencies
were failing to support businesses keen to invest in the oil-rich
country. Export credit agencies were demanding premiums on insurance
that made banks insist on putting "unacceptable" terms in
contracts related to political risk, he said. "Iran will not
accept any clauses in trade agreements which insert political risks
alongside commercial risks," said Mr Kashan, who is involved in
Iran's negotiations over multibillion-dollar deals with Boeing and
Airbus. "This is where European countries are failing to be
committed to the nuclear agreement. One of the main reasons the
signing of contracts in various sectors has been delayed is this
issue."
Republican lawmakers say the Obama administration's
controversial "ransom" paid to Iran earlier this year is
fueling a new wave of harsh sentences being handed down in the
country to Iranian-Americans. "President Obama's cash ransom
payment to Iran makes Americans more vulnerable and encourages
unjustified prison sentences and blatant kidnapping like this,"
Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio told FoxNews.com on Wednesday.
"Senior Justice Department officials warned the White House that
Iran would view the pallets of cash as ransom, but the president
didn't listen, and now Iran is taking more hostages and demanding
more money." Rubio made the comment after Robin Shahini, who had
been living in San Diego, was reportedly sentenced Monday to 18 years
for "collaboration with a hostile government." A week
earlier, Iran announced 10-year prison sentences each for
Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi and his 80-year-old
father, Baquer Namazi.
According to an announcement by Iran Chamber of
Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA), a high ranking
trade delegation headed by Iran's Minister of Foreign Affairs
Mohammad Javad Zarif will leave Tehran for Eastern Europe on November
7. Aiming for development of economic relations and the realization
of post-JCPOA economic goals, the delegation will visit Bulgaria,
Hungary, Slovakia and Czech Republic during November 7 to 11.
NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC MISSILE
PROGRAM
The purity of the heavy water at Iran's Arak nuclear
reactor (aka IR-40) has improved from 75.99 percent to 95.99 percent,
said Presidential Office Director Mohammad Nahavandian. Noting that
Iran has already exported heavy water to the United States and
Russia, the official said plans are made to sell more the product to
other countries, the president's official website reported October
24. "This means an undisputable victory for Iran in attending
the global economy in nuclear energy," he stressed.
Iran's intelligence minister said Tuesday that a
British-Iranian member of its nuclear negotiating team had been
cleared of spying allegations, state media reported. Abdolrasoul
Dorri Esfahani, part of the team that secured a nuclear accord with
world powers last year, was arrested in August and described by a
judiciary spokesman as an "infiltrating spy." But in a
written note to parliament, Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi said
the case had been dropped, the official IRNA news agency reported.
"According to the views of the intelligence ministry's experts,
Mr Dorri Esfahani was not engaged in spying," the note said,
according to deputy speaker Masoud Pezeshkian.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
Secretary of Iran's SNSC Ali Shamkhani said the
Iranian nation will not change its anti-Zionist and anti-American
attitudes over marginal issues... Shamkhani referred to guided plots
to distract attention from cruelty of the Zionist Regime to terrorism
in Islamic countries reiterating "people of Iran would never
alter their anti-Zionist and anti-American positioning with minute
matters."
A U.S. permanent resident who has been imprisoned in
Iran for more than a year says Tehran is demanding a ransom in
exchange for his release. That demand is likely to rekindle
complaints by Republicans that the Obama administration has given an
incentive to Iran to take and hold hostages in return for ransom
payments, by timing out a $400 million cash payment to Iran in
January in order to ensure the release of four hostages... Nizar
Zakka, a Lebanese citizen and permanent resident of the United
States, said through his attorney Tuesday that Iranian officials in
April told him it would take as much as $2 billion to ensure his
release from captivity. In September, Iranian officials lowered that
amount to $4 million, and told him that he was spared the death penalty
but would remain in prison for 10 years until the payments is made.
"I'm a U.S. citizen," Shahini said.
"Let's put pressure on the Iranian government so that it will
not happen to another citizen. Maybe I am Iranian, but I am also
American." He said that once Iranian media outlets announce his
sentencing, he will start a hunger strike. "I won't stop unless
I am free or die," he said. Shahini has converted to
Christianity, according to family members, which could add to his
troubles with the Islamic Republic. His sister, Fatemeh Shahini, a
former nurse who lives in San Diego, said the news of her brother's
sentencing was "a nightmare."
SANCTIONS RELIEF
Iran has held talks with South Korea as it seeks a
return to the international bond market, according to Dr.Shapour
Mohammadi, chairman of Iran's Securities and Exchange Organization
(SEO). Mohammadi said Tehran is keen to return to regional and
international capital markets in the near future, with South Korea
likely to be the first market in which it will offer bonds, according
to a report by the Security and Exchange News Agency. Any issue is
likely to be in the form of Islamic bonds (sukuk). A South Korean
delegation is currently in Iran to discuss financial links between
the two countries. Jeong Eun-bo, vice chairman of South Korea's
Financial Services Commission, has told Mohammadi that his country
will support Iran in the development of its capital markets,
according to the Yonhap News Agency... Any issue of bonds will almost
certainly have to be accompanied by a credit rating from one of the
major agencies. The SEO says that credit ratings agencies are due to
be licensed "soon", but there is no clear timetable for
when that might happen. Any sovereign issue would also pave the way
for corporate issues.
Iran's crude oil exports are set to decline 5 percent
in November to a four-month low, a source with knowledge of its
preliminary tanker schedule said, as low seasonal demand in Europe
takes the edge off its post-sanctions export bonanza. Iran's oil
exports typically hit a low around October or November each year,
reflecting peak refinery maintenance seasons in Europe and in Asia.
Next month, however, shipments to Asia look to be steady to higher as
China's purchases rebound from an October dip to its lowest Iran
imports for the year so far. Overall, OPEC's third-largest producer
has been regaining market share at a faster pace than analysts had
projected since sanctions were lifted in January, with its exports of
crude and condensate hitting a five-year high of 2.60 million barrels
per day (bpd) or more in September... Compared with a year ago,
Tehran's November crude exports are set to rise 156 percent,
according to the source
Iran says it will soon sign six agreements with
international energy giants over the development of its oil sector
projects. Gholam-Reza Manouchehri, the deputy for engineering and
development affairs of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC),
neither specified the companies nor the projects. Nevertheless, he
did indicate that the projects are large scale. Manouchehri further
emphasized that the companies that win oil sector deals in Iran will
have to team up with locals. "The foreign companies will play a
central role in the development of major fields," Manouchehri.
"Still, they will have to use the help of Iranian companies for
their projects". The official also added that Iranian companies
can be only the project leader for the development of small fields
and can to the same effect use the help of foreign enterprises.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Manouchehri said that Iran has so far
signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with 10 companies over the
development of certain oil sector projects. However, he did not
name the companies and the projects for which they have signed the
MoUs.
Iran has signed initial agreements with Germany's
Hermes insurance firm and Swiss Export Risk Insurance (SERV) to
provide cover for transactions with Europe, IRNA news agency says.
The Export Guarantee Fund of Iran (EGFI) signed the agreements in
Lisbon on the sidelines of the annual meeting of Bern Union, an
association of private and state export credit insurers from around
the world, it reported Wednesday. Under the agreement, the Iranian
and European sides will cooperate on "exchange of economic,
trade and banking information, reinsurance coverage, coinsurance, and
training." IRNA quoted EGFI Managing Director Kamal Seyyed-Ali
as saying that European export credit insurers were increasingly
interested in financing projects after the lifting of sanctions on
Iran.
South Africa's MTN Group has started the process of
repatriating profits valued at over $1 billion from its 49% share in
MTN-Irancell, Iran's second-largest mobile network operator. The
situation of MTN-Irancell being part of the wider group of companies
in the Islamic Republic, which earned large sums from its main
pay-as-you-go subscribers has been vexing the company for long. Now,
the telecommunications group expects to complete the transfer process
within the next six months after the lifting of sanctions in its
largest market in the Middle East... "We are pleased to report
that we have commenced the repatriation of cash from
MTN[-Irancell]," executive chairperson, Phuthuma Nhleko,
said on Monday... Neither MTN nor its local subsidiary Irancell named
the bank facilitating the transfer.
It seems that the long discussed issue with Iran's
so-called "Fourth Operator" is coming to a conclusion in
finding a foreign investor. Iranian Net the company that got the
monopoly to establish Iran's national fiber optic network which
would've also enabled high-speed cable internet throughout the country
had officially risen the white flag... According to Tasnim news, head
of investment relations of MTN announced that MTN has a total of $1
billion revenue from Irancell and the loan that MTN gave Irancell.
According to official sources, MTN plans to acquire 49% of the
project as it also posses the same amount of share in Iran's second
largest mobile operator Irancell.
Iran offers Russia's energy company Rosneft to
participate in oil extraction and refining projects in the country,
Iranian Ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanaei told Sputnik Tuesday.
"Rosneft is cooperating directly with the Petroleum Ministry and
the headquarters [for Executing the Order of the Imam (Setad)]... The
headquarters has various projects, and Rosneft may invest and participate
in them," Sanaei said, specifying that these projects include
both oil extraction and its processing.
Paris Ambassador to Tehran François Sénémaud announced
that the French-based satellite provider, Eutelsat, plans to win [a]
contract with Iran to build a satellite for the country. "The
Eutelsat company seeks cooperation with the Iranian Space Agency and
is preparing a draft of its proposals to participate in the tender
for build a satellite," Sénémaud said in a meeting with Iranian
Communications and Information Technology Minister Mahmoud Vaezi in
Tehran on Saturday. He said that Eutelsat and the French
telecommunications operator, Orange, are also in talks with the
Iranian firms to increase mutual cooperation.
Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and
Agriculture (TCCIMA) plans to dispatch a trade delegation headed by
TCCIMA Chairman Masoud Khansari to Germany and Austria on November
20, the official website of TCCIMA announced. The visit will follow invitations
made by the chambers of commerce of Austrian states of Kärnten and
Steiermark and also the economy and industry office of Germany's
Bavaria state in Iran. The Iranian delegates active in the fields of
industrial equipment and machinery, vehicle and related parts,
renewable energies, environmental technology and medical equipment,
will visit their German and Austrian counterparts during their
six-day visit.
A high-ranking trade delegation from Austria's
Vorarlberg Commerce Chamber is to make a trip to Tehran in early
November, the portal of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mine,
and Agriculture (TCCIMA) reported on Monday. The delegation comprised
of Austrian businessmen and industrialists active in various fields
such as house construction, textile, petrochemicals, machineries,
services, and etc., will meet their Iranian counterparts in TCCIMA
building on November 7 to negotiate future cooperation.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The European Parliament in its full session in
Strasbourg Tuesday adopted a resolution on a new EU strategy towards
Iran following the nuclear agreement by 456 votes to 174. The
resolution says that the EU should reset its relations with Iran
through comprehensive, cooperative, critical and constructive
dialogue. It advocates expanding trade with Iran, and calls for
active EU diplomacy to de-escalate tensions between Tehran and
Riyadh. "My report stands for peace, an active diplomatic role
for Europe, and a belief that by identifying common interest where it
exists, that it is possible to build on it," said EP rapporteur
of the report, Richard Howitt from the UK. The resolution notes that
"the Iran nuclear deal was a notable achievement for
multilateral diplomacy, and for European diplomacy in
particular". It also warns that any backsliding by Iran on the
nuclear dela "can lead to the reintroduction of sanctions".
The EP supports the expansion of the EU's trading relations with
Iran, which currently stand at about USD 8 billion, and believe it
should aim towards making the EU Iran's main trading partner.
EXTREMISM
The European Parliament passed a last-minute amendment
to a report on Iran, condemning the Islamic Republic for Holocaust
denial and anti-Israel hate speech. With 590 in favor, 67 against and
36 abstentions, lawmakers at a plenary in Strasbourg, France, on
Tuesday overwhelmingly backed the amendment, put forward by Dutch
Liberal parliamentarian Marietje Schaake, that the house
"Strongly condemns the Iranian regime's repeated calls for the
destruction of Israel and the regime's policy of denying the
Holocaust." Daniel Schwammenthal, director of the AJC
Transatlantic Institute, the AJC's EU office, said that "by
clearly denouncing Tehran's antisemitic policies and threats against
Israel, the European Parliament has corrected, with a wide majority,
one of the report's most glaring shortcomings. We salute Parliament's
principled stand on this critical issue. Unfortunately, another
crucial amendment calling for the immediate release of all political
prisoners and an end to systematic torture and other improvements to
the text were rejected."
Chairman of the Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi
Rafsanjani said on Monday that the fabricated Zionist regime is the
rootcause of terrorism in the Middle East region orchestrated by
western powers. Rafsanjani made the remarks in a meeting with visiting
Austrian parliament vice-speaker Karlheinz Kopf. Rafsanjani said that
nine million Palestinian displaced by the occupying Zionist regime
have unclear fate and that the countries which brought Zionists to
the Middle East region to get rid of their hardliners and backed the
Zionists crimes and atrocities against Palestinian people should take
a decisive measures to stop the humanitarian plight of the
Palestinians.
SYRIA CONFLICT
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) held a
commemoration ceremony in Tehran on Friday for members of the Fatehin
("Conquerors") Special Unit of the Basij paramilitary
killed in combat in Syria. IRGC chief commander Maj. Gen. Mohammad
Ali Jafari praised the Fatehin battalion, reaffirming ongoing plans
to establish these units beyond Tehran province and across the
country. Jafari told the media that he had given a report to the
supreme leader about the expansion of the Fatehin... The Fatehin unit
of Qom province held its first drill in September. The drill's motto
was "the path to Jerusalem goes through Karbala," first
proclaimed by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic
Republic, during the Iran-Iraq war... Mehdi Hadavandi, the commander
of the Fatehin Basij Tehran unit as well as the unit's Syria
operations, said the IRGC has set up "special courses" for
"resistance forces," which include Iranian as well as
proxies, for combat in Iraq and Syria... "Today we are witnessing
the formation of the army of the Master of Time [12th Shiite Imam
Mahdi who will herald the apocalypse] in Syria," proclaimed
Hadavandi earlier this month at a ceremony for Ashura religious
mourning ceremony in Tehran.
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will
travel to Moscow on Friday for three-way talks with his Syrian and
Russian counterparts on the situation in Syria, his ministry said.
Zarif will also hold a one-to-one meeting with Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov, foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi
said late Wednesday.
SAUDI-IRAN TENSIONS
A veteran Christian leader is set to fill Lebanon's
long-vacant presidency in a deal that underlines the ascendancy of
the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement and the diminished role of
Saudi Arabia in the country. It appears all but certain that Michel
Aoun will become president next week under an unlikely proposal
tabled by Sunni leader Saad al-Hariri, whose Saudi-backed coalition
opposed Hezbollah for years. Parliament will likely elect Aoun on
Oct. 31. This will end one element of a paralyzing political crisis:
the 29-month-long presidential vacuum. But it is also creating new
tensions that may disrupt the formation of a new government expected
to be led by Hariri under a deal with Aoun.
HUMAN RIGHTS
The Iranian authorities must immediately and
unconditionally release writer and human rights activist Golrokh
Ebrahimi Iraee, following her arrest today, Amnesty International
urged. Despite the fact that no official summons has been issued,
Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee's home was raided this morning by officials,
who violently broke through her front door before taking her to Evin
Prison in Tehran. It appears that she has been taken to the women's
ward to begin serving her six-year sentence. She has been convicted
of charges including "insulting Islamic sanctities," for
writing an unpublished story about the horrific practice of stoning
in Iran. Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee's husband, Arash Sadeghi, a human
rights activist and prisoner of conscience, has since started a
hunger strike in protest at her imprisonment.
Iran has been shaken by scandalous allegations against
a top Qur'an reciter, who is accused of sexually abusing underage
trainees, in the first case of its kind to cast a spotlight on the
taboo topic. The allegations are unprecedented in the Islamic republic,
where such figures are generally trusted by the public and claims of
this nature are usually kept in the dark, with few victims known to
have ever dared to come forward. In the past week, at least three
male complainants have given separate interviews accusing Saeed
Toosi, a prominent qari (someone who recites Muslims' holy book with
a melodious sound), of sexual misconduct including rape while they
were between the ages of 12 and 13... Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, the
judiciary chief, firmly defended his institution on Monday and, in
comments seen as a warning to the victims, said those who who
cooperated with "hostile media" - a reference to the banned
TV networks - should be punished "so we know who is [loyal] to
the revolution and who is not".
OPINION & ANALYSIS
After missiles fired from the coast of Yemen
(unsuccessfully) targeted a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Red Sea on
Oct. 9 and Oct. 12, U.S. officials unequivocally blamed the Shiite
Houthi rebels that control Yemen's capital. U.S. forces responded to
the attacks on the USS Mason by striking Houthi-held radar sites.
U.S. officials have been more cautious, however, when it comes to
describing Iran's role in the attacks against U.S. vessels and a
another ship operated by the United Arab Emirates. It is natural that
suspicion would fall on Iran: Tehran provides arms to the Houthis,
and along with Hezbollah, its Lebanon-based proxy militia, has
reportedly provided the rebels with training and other assistance.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain has said it's
likely that Iran supplied the missiles that were fired at the USS
Mason. U.S. military officials have equivocated, saying that the
missiles could have been supplied by Iran but might also have been
older models that the Houthis seized from the Yemeni government
arsenal. Why the reticence? These attacks could have killed hundreds
of U.S. sailors and servicemembers. Publicly blaming Iran is a
serious matter. Such a decision would involve three steps.
The next president has an opportunity in the Middle
East to reassure wavering allies, to tell them: "We're back and
we're going to lead again." That sounds like something you might
hear this month in an alternate reality, from the Rubio-Cheney
campaign. After all, President Barack Obama would argue that he is
already leading in the Middle East. But that is a quote from Michael
Morell, a former deputy and acting director of the CIA and an adviser
to Hillary Clinton's campaign. He said this on Tuesday at the Center
for American Progress, a think tank founded by the Clinton campaign
chairman, John Podesta, and headed today by the policy director of the
2008 Clinton campaign, Neera Tanden. Morell, who is likely to be
tapped for a senior post in a Clinton administration, outlined a more
robust role for the U.S. to counter Iran in the Middle East. For
example, Morell said the U.S. should consider a new set of sanctions
against Iran to punish its "malign behavior in the region."
The Obama administration, on the other hand, has opposed efforts from
Congress to impose new sanctions on Iran after the nuclear deal that
lifted many of them... Morell's approach matches the one laid out in
June by Jake Sullivan, Clinton's top national security adviser. He
told the Truman Security Project: "We need to be raising the
costs to Iran for its destabilizing behavior and we need to be
raising the confidence of our Sunni partners."
Ever since the international deal over scaling back
Iran's use of nuclear technology, there's been a lot of talk of a
"thaw" in relations between Tehran and the West. In August,
the then foreign secretary Philip Hammond spoke of a "new phase"
in the relationship during a two-day trip to Iran. It was a historic
visit and one which would have been almost unimaginable a few months
earlier. Hammond was there to formally re-open Britain's embassy
building in Tehran, five years after it was so unceremoniously sacked
by a Union Jack-burning mob in 2011. Within days a new ambassador was
installed in the embassy and perhaps most symbolically of all,
British Airways resumed scheduled Heathrow-Tehran flights. All in
all, a real diplomatic sea change then? Well only up to a point.
Because when it comes to the issue of UK-Iranian dual nationals
jailed in Iran, we seem to be stuck in the dark, pre-nuclear deal
days. Having been the subject of high-profile media campaigns by
their relatives in Britain, the names of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
and Kamal Foroughi are now fairly well known... Boris Johnson and his
Foreign Office colleagues must do a lot more to secure proper justice
for these British nationals. After all, what could be more symbolic
of the entire Anglo-Iranian relationship than the situation of
dual-nationals? If Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Foroughi are an embodiment
of this relationship, then it's actually in a pretty parlous state.
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