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TOP STORIES
A proposal the Trump administration is considering to
designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist
organization has stalled over warnings from defense and intelligence
officials that the move could backfire, according to officials
familiar with the matter. "If you do that, there is no way to
escalate, and you would foreclose any possibility of talking to the
Iranians about anything," one of the officials said, speaking on
the condition of anonymity. Momentum behind a possible presidential
order has slowed amid an internal debate that has included concerns
it could undermine the fight against Islamic State, draw opposition
from key allies, torpedo any U.S.-Iran diplomatic prospects, and
complicate enforcement of the Iran nuclear deal, U.S. and European sources
said... The proposal has been in the works for weeks, and was
originally expected to be rolled out this month. But while the idea
remains under consideration, it is unclear when - or even if - an
announcement might be forthcoming, according to the sources, who
spoke on condition of anonymity.
Iran's nuclear chief said Saturday that the country
had asked to buy 950 tonnes of uranium concentrate from Kazakhstan
over the next three years to help develop its civil reactor
programme. The request has been made to the body that oversees the
nuclear deal signed between Iran and world powers in 2015. Ali Akbar
Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, told the ISNA news
agency that the purchase was supposed to happen "within three years".
"650 tonnes will enter the country in two consignments and 300
tonnes will enter Iran in the third year," he said. Salehi said
the final shipment of concentrate, known as yellow cake, would be
turned into uranium hexafluoride gas and sold back to Kazakhstan --
its first international sale of the compound which is used in the
uranium enrichment process... Salehi said Iran has already received
around 382 tonnes of yellow cake, primarily from Russia, since the
nuclear deal came into force in January last year.
Iran launched naval drills at the mouth of the Gulf
and the Indian Ocean on Sunday, a naval commander said, as tensions
with the United States escalated after U.S President Donald Trump put
Tehran "on notice". Since taking office last month, Trump
has pledged to get tough with Iran, warning the Islamic Republic
after its ballistic missile test on Jan. 29 that it was playing with
fire and all U.S. options were on the table. Iran's annual exercises
will be held in the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Oman, the Bab
el-Mandab and northern parts of the Indian Ocean, to train in the
fight against terrorism and piracy, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari
said, according to state media.
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
Iran's official stock of enriched uranium has fallen
by half after large amounts stuck in pipes have been recategorized as
unrecoverable under a process agreed with major powers, the U.N.
atomic watchdog said on Friday. But before that process began last month,
Iran came close to reaching a limit on its uranium stock, one of the
most sensitive aspects of Tehran's nuclear deal, a confidential
report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) obtained by
Reuters made clear... "As of 18 February 2017, the quantity of
Iran's uranium enriched up to 3.67 percent U-235 was 101.7 kg,"
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a quarterly
report on Iran, its first since the inauguration of U.S. President
Donald Trump, a vocal critic of the deal. That was about half the
limit of 202.8 kg, but only after 100 kg of material at one plant
alone was deemed unrecoverable and not included in the calculation.
NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC MISSILE
PROGRAM
In a February 20 interview on Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV,
Palestinian Ambassador to Iran Salah Zawawi warned against what he
called the "Western enterprise" to establish the Greater
Israel and to turn the Arabs into "servants, if not slaves in
our region." "I pray to Allah that Iran will produce 1,000
nuclear bombs," he said, adding that they would not be directed
against Arab or Islamic countries, but "would be used to defend
the Islamic Republic and its principles."
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
Iran's ex-president Mahmud Ahmadinejad published
Sunday an open letter to Donald Trump, welcoming his criticism of the
US political system but taking issue with his visa ban and attitude
to women. Many Iranians see the new US president as cut from the same
cloth as Ahmadinejad, who shocked the establishment with his sudden
rise to power in 2005, combining hardline rhetoric and populist
economic policies to win a powerful following among Iran's lower
classes. At times in the long and rambling letter, published in
English and Farsi on his website, he appears to find a kindred spirit
in Trump. "Your Excellency (Trump) has truthfully described the
US political system and electoral structure as corrupt and
anti-public," he writes. But much of the letter is spent exhorting
Trump to end interventions in the Middle East and ditch the
"arrogance" of past US administrations. Ahmadinejad also
takes issue with Trump's visa ban on seven Muslim-majority countries,
including Iran.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
A high-ranking trade and banking delegation from
Slovakia is scheduled to visit Iran in March 7, 2017, Iran's IRNA
news agency reported. Slovakia's deputy prime minister for
Investments, Peter Pellegrini will head the 40-member delegation of
35 Slovak companies, which are active in the fields of mining
industry, transport, oil and petrochemicals, engineering and
technical services, construction, electronics and IT as well as
finance and banking sectors. The European country's Finance Minister
Peter Kazimír and Economy Minister Peter Ziga will also accompany the
delegation. The Slovak officials would sign a memorandum of
understanding with Iran's Economy and Finance ministry.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Iranian-American dual citizen Reza (Robin) Shahini,
currently serving an 18-year prison sentence in Gorgan Prison (about
190 miles east of Tehran), has gone on hunger strike to protest his
unjust sentence. An informed source also told the Campaign for Human
Rights in Iran that Shahini, who is currently being held in solitary
confinement, has been beaten and repeatedly harassed by prison staff
and inmates. "Reza (Robin) Shahini has been on a wet hunger
strike since Wednesday (February 15, 2017) to protest his conditions
in prison," said the source. "He's protesting the
lack of basic rights, the insulting treatment from prison guards, and
his unfair sentence"
DOMESTIC POLITICS
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has decided to run for
re-election in May, the vice-president for parliamentary affairs said
on Sunday, according to state news agency IRNA. "In recent
weeks, Mr Rouhani has reached a conclusion to take part in the presidential
elections," Hosseinali Amiri told reporters... The conservative
camp has so far failed to settle on an obvious challenger to Rouhani,
who sits atop a relatively unified coalition of moderates and
reformists.
President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday accused his
hardline critics of wanting to deprive Iranians of the basic joys of
life and isolate the country, as an aide said he had decided to run
for a second term, state media reported... "Soon it's the
(Iranian) New Year, so let the people have some joy," Rouhani, who
has advocated greater social freedoms, said in a speech carried live
on state television. "How come crying a lot is halal (allowed
under Islam) and if we laugh it's haram (banned)," Rouhani said,
in an apparent reference to hardliners who control the police and security
bodies and promote an austere interpretation of Islam.
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