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TOP STORIES
Iran's ambitious agenda for its oil-and-gas industry is
running up against the caution of big energy companies. At a major
energy conference here, Iranian officials said French oil giant Total
SA's commitment of $1 billion toward a gas project this month marked
a new chapter in the country's energy business since the end of
Western sanctions. Iranian officials promised 10 contracts like it in
the next year and said they were seeking $92 billion in foreign
investment to raise oil production by a third and gas exports by
15-fold by 2021
Following a pause in executions during
the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, executions in Iran have
dramatically increased since Saturday July 1. In the past twelve
days, Iran Human Rights has reported on 56 executions carried out in
Iran. 31 of the 56 prisoners were reportedly hanged on drug related
charges. Only seven of the 56 executions were reported by official
Iranian sources, including the Judiciary and state-run media.
Iranian state television is reporting that an Iranian
cancer researcher who was denied entry to the U.S. has returned to
Tehran. Images aired on state television Thursday showing Mohsen
Dehnavi's return confirmed that he was the same man who previously
headed a student branch of volunteer paramilitary militia. An earlier
report in the semi-official Fars news agency said Dehnavi was
appointed the head of the student Basij force at Iran's Sharif University
in September 2007. The Basij is a volunteer militia that is linked to
Iran's Revolutionary Guard. He later served on the unsuccessful 2013
presidential campaign of a prominent hard-liner, former nuclear
negotiator, Saeed Jalili.
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
Iran and the European Union have launched their first
joint project aimed at strengthening bilateral nuclear safety
cooperation on the eve of the second anniversary of Tehran's nuclear
deal with six world powers. At a Wednesday meeting in Tehran, the EU
delegation, headed by Oliver Luyckx, the director of the EU nuclear
safety unit, and the Iranian side led by Hojjatollah Salehi, the
director of Iran's nuclear safety center, officially announced the
start of the 2.5-million-euro project. The project was signed in
April within the framework of the 2015 nuclear deal, called the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). It is part of a
five-million-euro package approved in 2016 with regard to Iran-EU
cooperation on nuclear safety. Under the agreement, Tehran-EU nuclear
safety cooperation will last for a period of three and a half years.
One of its key objectives is to enhance Iran's nuclear safety
capabilities in different spheres including, the establishment of a
nuclear safety center as foreseen in the JCPOA.
NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC MISSILE PROGRAM
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, who was
in Tehran on Tuesday for talks Iranian deputy ministers Abbas Araqchi
and Majid Takht-Ravanchi, has said that Moscow categorically
disagrees with the U.S. claims that Iran's missile program contravenes
the UN Security Council resolution endorsing the July 2015 nuclear
deal between Iran and great powers. The resolution 2231, adopted
immediately after the conclusion of the nuclear deal, calls upon Iran
"not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles
designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including
launches using such ballistic missile technology." Under
the nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action (JCPOA) Iran only accepted limits to its nuclear program not
its missile defense program. "Neither JCPOA nor SC Res prohibits
Iran from missiles not designed for nuke warheads," Zarif wrote
in March 2016.
CONGRESSIONAL ACTION
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives
introduced a new version of a Russia and Iran sanctions bill on
Wednesday, hoping to send a message to President Donald Trump to
maintain a strong line against Moscow. Seeking to force
Republican House leaders to allow a vote, Democrats on the House
Foreign Affairs Committee introduced legislation unchanged from what
passed the Senate by 98-2 on June 15 but has been stalled ever since.
While the new bill is identical to what the Senate passed, it
will be labeled as House legislation to avoid a procedural issue that
prompted House Republican leaders to send the measure back to the
Senate. However, there was no sign of support from Trump's
fellow Republicans, who control majorities in both the House and the
Senate and control what legislation comes up for a vote. AshLee
Strong, a spokeswoman for Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan,
dismissed the Democrats' action as "grandstanding."
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson must declare Iran
non-compliant with the nuclear agreement in order to avoid
"rewarding Iran's belligerence," according to a group of
Republican senators. "We believe that a change in that policy is
long overdue," Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton and three
colleagues wrote to Tillerson in a letter Tuesday. "In light of
Iran's malign actions since the signing of the [nuclear deal], the
only reasonable conclusion is that the full suspension of U.S.
sanctions is not in the vital national security interests of the
United States and that Iran has consistently violated the terms of
the [nuclear deal]." If Tillerson were to follow their advice,
that would represent a significant step towards scrapping the
international agreement that former President Barack Obama and his
administration negotiated with Iran and other western powers.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
Finland-based Wartsila will provide engineering and
equipment for two baseload power plants to Iranian energy companies
Baran Niroo Beshel Company and Tamin Niroo Saam Company. Wartsila is
a leading provider of complete life-cycle marine and energy solutions
and services to customers globally. Wartsila will supply the first
decentralised power plants of its kind to Iran to support power
generation in its transition towards more flexible and smarter
technologies, said a statement from the company.
Iran Railways says it has signed a preliminary agreement
with Italy's state railway to construct two high-speed links in Iran.
Four memoranda of understanding worth some $1.36 billion were
announced July 11. They refer to the construction of high-speed railways
between Qom and Arak and the capital, Tehran, and Isfahan. They also
include co-operation agreements between Iranian and Italian
universities. Iran is looking to revive its aging infrastructure
following the lifting of international sanctions under the 2015
nuclear agreement. In April 2015, Iran signed an $8 million deal with
the French company AREP to modernize three train stations, in Tehran,
Qom and Mashhad.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Rouhani said on Wednesday, as a diplomatic crisis
persists in the Gulf. "Iran and Oman have for years had
fraternal relations and the best must be made of these good relations
to reinforce them," Rouhani said as he met Oman's foreign
minister. The Iranian government's website reported Foreign Minister
Yussef Bin Alawi as replying: "Omani leaders believe our ties
should be developed." The remarks come after Saudi Arabia, the
United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt last month severed ties with
Qatar, accusing it of backing extremism and being too close to
Riyadh's arch-rival Tehran. They imposed a series of isolation
measures on Qatar including cutting air, land and maritime links to
the small gas-rich emirate. Oman, which has maintained ties with
Qatar, took part this week in a string of Kuwaiti and US-led talks towards
resolving the crisis.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
The fight to eject the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria
(ISIS) from Mosul - the terror group's last stronghold in Iraq - has
demonstrated that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's government can be
a proven counterterrorism partner in rolling back ISIS gains. Beyond
this immediate goal, the Trump administration must turn its attention
to three key governance issues that will determine Baghdad's future
beginning the day after it reclaimed Iraq's second largest city:
Stanching Iranian influence at the highest levels of government;
Restraining powerful Shiite militias, also known as Popular
Mobilization Units (PMUs); and Empowering Sunni elements within the
Iraqi security architecture. Failing to curb Iranian meddling risks
replanting the seeds that gave rise to the ISIS onslaught.
Every 90 days, the State Department must certify whether
Iran is complying with the nuclear deal that former President Barack
Obama struck with the Tehran tyranny in 2015. Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson is approaching one of these 90-day deadlines. Instead of
rubber-stamping re-certification, as his predecessor John Kerry did
regardless of Iran's behavior, Tillerson should finally do something
the U.S. government hasn't been doing for years. He should tell the
truth about Iran's flagrant noncompliance with the deal, thus opening
the way for Congress to impose sanctions against the rogue regime.
This is what four Republican senators - Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Ted Cruz,
R-Texas, Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and David Perdue, R-Ga. - urged him to
do this week.
Last week the Iranian authorities arranged a rare
international visit to one of the country's most infamous places of
detention - Evin Prison in Tehran. This visit wasn't arranged for an
international prison expert or a human rights body. It was for
representatives of over forty foreign diplomatic missions from
Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. The UK had a representative
there. The foreign delegates were shown around some limited areas of
the prison, and there was a roundtable discussion, held outdoors in a
lush garden. There are photos in circulation and you can see various
countries' flags perched on al fresco tables, the Union Jack amongst
them. By the standards of diplomatic meetings, it all looks rather
idyllic. But what was it all for? For the Iranian authorities it was
very clearly a PR exercise.
Iran has opened the door - just a crack - to provide a
glimpse of life in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, home to many of
the country's highest-profile political prisoners. Foreign
ambassadors for 45 countries visited Evin last week, an attempt,
"to rebut the false human rights claims made by some western
governments and media, including on our prison conditions,"
according to Kazem Gharib Abadi, deputy of foreign affairs for the
High Council for Human Rights which arranged the visit. Following the
visit, Tasnim News Agency, which is close to hardliners in Iran,
claimed several ambassadors were "astonished" by the
quality of this prison. Less astonishing is the fact that none of the
political prisoners serving sentences there after seriously flawed
trials participated in meetings with any of the foreign diplomats.
Nor was the topic of due process rights even reported to have been
discussed in the visit
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