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European Union foreign policy
chief Federica Mogherini said a special purpose vehicle meant to help
companies do business with Iran will be completed by the end of the
year. "I would expect this instrument to be established in the
coming weeks, so before the end of the year, as a way to protect and
promote legitimate business with Iran," Mogherini told reporters
in Brussels after a meeting of foreign affairs ministers. "Work
is advancing well."
Iran has confirmed a recent
ballistic missile test that was condemned by the United States. The
semi-official Fars news agency on Tuesday quoted Gen. Amir Ali
Hajizadeh as saying the test was an "important one."
Hajizadeh, who leads the Revolutionary Guard's aerospace division,
said the American outcry "indicates that the test was very
important to them." The U.S. seized on the missile test to urge
European countries to follow its lead in restoring tough sanctions on
Iran.
Canadian lawmakers and a former
justice minister are urging Justin Trudeau's government to impose new
sanctions against key Iranian officials, citing what they say is a
sharp increase in human rights abuses this year. Irwin Cotler, a
former minister who now leads the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human
Rights, released a report Monday calling for
sanctions against Iranian ministers, judges, prosecutors and
prison chiefs. Lawmakers from Trudeau's Liberal party and its two
chief rivals joined Cotler in calling for so-called Magnitsky law
sanctions.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
China's anger is growing over the arrest of a top
Chinese tech executive wanted by the United States. A Canadian court
on Monday delayed its decision on whether she should be let out on
bail. Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou has been detained in Vancouver since
December 1 and faces extradition to the United States. She's accused
of helping Huawei, one of the world's biggest makers of smartphones
and networking equipment, dodge US sanctions on Iran, according to
Canadian prosecutors.
Exports of Iranian oil have
improved since early November, Iran's president Hassan Rouhani said
in a statement broadcast live on state TV on Tuesday. The United
States imposed sanctions on Iran's oil industry in early November and
U.S. officials have said they want to reduce Iran's oil exports to
zero. Tensions have spiked between Iran and the United States
after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of an international agreement
on Iran's nuclear program in May.
The European Union's foreign
policy chief said on Monday a system to facilitate non-dollar trade
with Iran and circumvent U.S. sanctions could be in place by year's end. The
European Union wants the so-called Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to
help preserve the economic benefits for Iran deriving from the curbs
it placed on its nuclear program under a 2015 deal with world powers,
from which President Donald Trump withdrew the United States in May.
U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry
said on Tuesday he had discussed his country's sanctions against Iran
with Iraqi energy officials, but did not provide details. Perry
spoke at a Baghdad hotel where he was attending a U.S. chamber of
commerce event alongside Iraqi Oil Minister Thamer Ghadhban.
Iran has set the official
selling price (OSP) of its Iranian Light grade for its Asian buyers
at 30 cents above the Platts Oman/Dubai average for January, $1 lower
than the previous month, a price document reviewed by Reuters showed
on Tuesday. The producer has also cut prices for the other three
crude grades it sells to Asia.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
has warned of a 'deluge' of drugs, refugees and attacks on the West
as he lashed out at 'unjust and illegal' US sanctions. Rouhani
threatened on live state television: 'I warn those who impose
sanctions that if Iran's ability to fight drugs and terrorism are
affected ... you will not be safe from a deluge of drugs, asylum
seekers, bombs and terrorism.'
Global pistachio market is
dominated by Iran and the United States who are in stiff competition
to gain a bigger share of the market, said the head of Iran
Pistachio Association on Monday. Mahmoud Abtahi told Iran Daily that
although the US had managed to grab a larger share of the global
pistachio market in recent years, Iran's high quality product had
been able to attract more buyers. He said the annual pistachio
exports of Iran and the US stood at 160,000 tons and 200,000 tons
respectively in recent years.
MISSILE PROGRAM
Commander of the Islamic
Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir
Ali Hajizadeh said Mon. Iran has the ability to build ballistic
missiles with a broader range. Noting that Iran's missiles currently
cover a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles), General Hajizadeh
said, "we have the ability to build missiles with a broader
range... We do not have limitations from a technical perspective or
by conventions with regard to missile range.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
Iran has sentenced two human
rights lawyers to six years in prison and a third to 13 years,
newspapers reported Tuesday. The Arman daily said Ghasem Sholeh-Saadi
and Arash Keikhosravi were sentenced to five years in prison for
taking part in an "illegal gathering" and one year for
"propaganda" against the ruling system. It says they can
appeal the verdict. The two were arrested in August when they took
part in a protest outside parliament calling for free elections. They
were released on bail last week.
Iran has detained an
Australian-based academic on charges of trying to
"infiltrate" Iranian institutions, according to state
media. State news agency IRNA identified the detainee as
population expert Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi who was held as she was
leaving Iran. Hosseini-Chavoshi is affiliated with the Melbourne
School of Population and Global Health.
In an attempt to address
economic issues and root out corruption, Iran's judiciary has handed
out another death sentence and dozens of long prison sentences for
economic charges. According to judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein
Mohseni-Ejei, Iran's Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of Hamid
Bagheri Darmani. He was originally arrested in 2014 and charged with
"corruption on earth," which carries the death
sentence.
Iranian authorities have
reportedly arrested over 100 Christians in the past few days, as they
seek to crack down on conversions and what they claim is
proselytizing by evangelicals. Citing Open Doors UK, a charity that
monitors persecution of Christians around the world, the
Telegraph reported Monday that growing public interest in the
minority faith, which makes up less than 1 percent - or around
350,000 - of the population, has worried the Islamic regime, leading
to to crackdowns on churches and congregants.
Workers at Iran's Ahwaz steel
factory took to the streets on Monday to protest while wearing
Islamic burial clothes in a symbolic gesture of their worsening financial
and psychological conditions. According to local sources, the
protestors walked in Ahwaz streets chanting against the regime until
they reached governmental institutions where they continued to
protest.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
U.S. Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo on December 10 called attention to "innocent Americans
held hostage" by Iran and demanded their release. Monday,
December 10 was Human Rights Day and Pompeo referring to the
international rights day asks to "spare a moment" to
remember the detainees and particularly Robert Levinson who
disappeared in Iran in March 2007.
The State Department is using
Sunday's "International Anti-Corruption Day" as an opening
to criticize what it says is rampant corruption in Iran and name and
shame numerous government officials, including the Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Khamenei. "Today is #AntiCorruptionDay," the
State Department said on Twitter of Sunday's U.N.-sponsored event.
"Sadly, for the Iranian people, their government is full of
corrupt hypocrites. Take Ayatollah Khamenei, who has a tax-free hedge
fund worth billions."
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
Russia and Iran were both set to
send military forces to Venezuela in a show of support to the
socialist Latin American nation, whose embattled economy has been
further damaged by U.S. sanctions. The Russian Defense Ministry announced
Monday that two Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bombers, an Antonov
An-124 heavily military transport aircraft and an Ilyushin Il-62
long-haul plane arrived at the Simón BolÃvar International
Airport in Caracas.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
An adviser to Iran's President
Hassan Rouhani says "changing Iran's Constitution is possible in
theory, except for four principles that emphasize the Islamic and
republican nature of the regime, the guardianship of jurisconsult
(Velayat-e Faqih) and the reliance on people's vote."
Presidential adviser Hesamoddin Ashna made the remarks during a
meeting with students at the University of Tehran on belated
Students' Day, on Sunday December 9 (the actual anniversary was
Thursday December 7), stressing that any "harder struggle" for
reform in Iran would be "costly" for those who have a
problem with the underlying principles.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
The more the tension rises between Israel and its regional foes Iran
and Hezbollah, the more the talk of war becomes louder. This dynamic
has been at play for years; as each side gains more
power, the greater the public fear of war. Yet the possibility
of a real war occurring keeps falling despite all the hot air.
Since Dec. 4, the world has been following Israel's Operation
Northern Shield on its border with Lebanon.
Iran is reducing its activities
in Syria in response to its unpopularity at home, IDF Intelligence
Directorate head Maj.-Gen. Tamir Heiman told the Knesset Foreign
Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday. The price of Iran's
presence in Syria is very controversial in Teheran, and the IDF sees
a trend leading to it being reduced significantly. According to
Heiman, the economic crisis in Iran has grown deeper since
the US renewed sanctions, and oil exports have dropped. Israel
is "determined to keep Iran and Syria away from the Golan
Heights," Heiman said.
IRAQ & IRAN
Former Iraqi Prime Minister
Haidar al-Abadi and president of the Al-Nasr coalition raised
concerns over Iraq's national security. Today marks Iraq's one-year
anniversary on its defeat over ISIS that tightened the noose on the
country in 2014. Al-Abadi expressed his fear that the victory over
ISIS, and the elimination of sectarianism, as well as the country's
hard-fought sovereignty and security, could be sacrificed at the
hands of foreign intervention.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The head of the Islamic Republic
Judiciary has said on Monday that protests in France are part of the
"Islamic awakening" and a development foreseen by Iran's
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. According to Mizan news agency,
Ayatollah Sadegh Amoli Larijani said Khamenei had predicted years ago
that Islamic awakening will not be limited to Muslim countries and
will reach Europe. He did not explain how the protests are related to
Muslims.
The European Union's asylum
office says people from Iran and Turkey are
increasingly applying for international protection throughout the EU.
EASO said Tuesday that "Iran and Turkey have both been amongst
the top five countries of origin over the past few months." It
says that 3,170 Iranians applied for asylum in the EU in October, the
highest number for more than two years. More than one in three
Iranian applicants received protection in the past six months.
CYBERWARFARE
An investigation by Reuters
revealed last month that a Tehran-based agency has quietly fed
propaganda through at least 70 websites to countries throughout the
world. The Iranian dissidents have a primary target of the ayatollahs
misinformation campaign. The National Council of Resistance of Iran
and its affiliate Mujahedin-e Khalq are perhaps the two most lied
about organizations in the world.
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