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TOP STORIES
Tehran has "significantly
expanded" its missile testing, including a missile that can
reach European countries, the German daily Die Welt reported on
Sunday. The increase in tests marks a doubling of the country's test
missile launches. The regime tested four medium-range and one
short-range missile in 2017, less than half the number of tests in
2018, according to documentation seen by the newspaper.
The United States believes that
the Yemen that emerges from civil war should not contain any
Iranian-backed threat to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a
U.S. State Department official told a conference in Abu Dhabi on
Sunday. The United States is encouraging the Yemeni government,
backed by the Saudi-led coalition, and the Iran-aligned Houthi
movement to fully engage in peace talks taking place in Sweden, said
Timothy Lenderking, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Arabian Gulf
Affairs.
Two large British banks are among those ensnared in the
controversy over Huawei Technologies Co., which escalated over the
weekend after the Chinese government warned Canada it would face
"severe consequences" if it didn't release the Chinese telecommunications
giant's finance chief. Canada this month arrested Meng Wanzhou at the
behest of U.S. authorities, who are seeking her extradition over
allegations she misled banks about Huawei's business dealings with
Iran to skirt international sanctions against that country. Ms. Meng,
46 years old, is in the midst of hearings in Vancouver that are
expected to reconvene Monday and lead to a decision on bail.
UANI IN THE NEWS
Many EU policymakers are deeply
resentful of President Trump's decision to leave the Iran nuclear
deal. This resentment has fueled several shortsighted proposals that
will only harm EU businesses and institutions, says David Ibsen.
David Ibsen is President of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), a
bi-partisan, non-profit advocacy organisation based in the United
States. This approach to Iran, championed by High Representative for
Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Frederica Mogherini, is
increasingly discordant with the direction taken by national
governments in Europe. Foreign ministers in the Council have said
that they will examine imposing sanctions on the Iranian regime,
while the Danish government has called for stronger action.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
The Iranian nuclear saga and its
repercussions are once again taking center stage. Is there anything
left that President Trump might do to the Iranian people after his
complete withdrawal from the Iran deal, renewed sanctions, and
hawkish foreign policy towards Iran? Of course, it goes without
saying that if the financial gains that were promised to Iran in the
aftermath of the nuclear deal are no longer there why would Iran wait
to see any tangible results to come to its doorstep?
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
France and Germany have agreed
to host the special vehicle purpose (SPV), a special payment channel
created by Europe as part of its efforts to keep trade flowing with
Iran in defiance of U.S. sanctions. According to ISNA, the German
magazine Wirtschaftswoche has reported it has been agreed that the
related company be located in France and its director to be chosen
from Germany.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani
said US sanctions were "economic terrorism", as he sought
to foster a united front from visiting regional officials on
Saturday. Addressing parliament speakers from Afghanistan, China,
Pakistan, Russia and Turkey, Rouhani said they had all suffered
economic pressure from the US. "We are facing an all-out assault
which is not only threatening our independence and identity but also
is bent on breaking our longstanding ties," he said.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
said Saturday that U.S. sanctions against Iran will result in an
influx of "drugs, refugees and bombs and assassination" in
the west. Speaking at an anti-terrorism event in Tehran, Rouhani
claimed that "boycotting Iran undermines our ability to
fight drugs and terrorism," according to Iran's Tasnim News
Agency.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
said on Sunday a decision by OPEC and other oil producers on Friday
to cut output was a rebuff for a U.S. "policy of meddling",
the state news agency IRNA reported. OPEC and its Russia-led
allies agreed to slash oil production by more than the market had
expected, after pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to reduce
the price of crude.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei has "ordered" the central bank to boost the
value of rial, the bank's governor said on Saturday, after a
months-long plunge in the currency due to a faltering economy and
U.S. sanctions. The state news agency IRNA quoted governor Abdolnaser
Hemmati as saying Ayatollah Khamenei "ordered the bank at a
recent meeting to increasingly strengthen the national currency and
called for the observance of the independence of the central
bank".
China summoned the US Ambassador
to Beijing on Sunday to protest the detention of an executive of
Chinese electronics giant Huawei in Canada at Washington's behest and
demanded Washington cancel an order for her arrest. The official
Xinhua News Agency said Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng "lodged
solemn representations and strong protests" with Ambassador
Terry Branstad against the detention of Huawei's chief financial
officer, Meng Wanzhou.
MISSILE PROGRAM
Iran has the ability to build
ballistic missiles with a broader range, a senior commander of the
elite Revolutionary Guards said on Monday, according to the
semi-official Fars News agency. Iran's missiles currently cover
a range of 2000 kilometers (1,240 miles) and many "enemy
bases" are within 800 kilometers of the Islamic Republic,
Amirali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guards' airspace
division, was cited as saying.
TERRORISM & EXTREMISM
Iranian security forces have
detained 10 people suspected of links to a suicide car bomb attack
this week that killed at least two policemen, police chief Hossein
Ashtari said on Sunday. "Good clues have been obtained and
hopefully with the public's cooperation ... we will get to the main
leads," Ashtari was quoted by the state news agency IRNA as
saying. More suspects have been identified and are being sought,
Ashtari added. At least 48 people were also injured in Thursday's
suicide car bomb attack by a Sunni militant group on a police
headquarters in the port city of Chabahar in southeast Iran,
according to state media.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
President Hassan Rouhani on
Saturday warned Western countries that they will face a massive
influx of drugs if Iran becomes weakened by U.S. sanctions. Rouhani
spoke in Tehran at a six-nation conference on fighting terrorism
attended by parliament speakers of Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan,
Turkey, China and Russia. In remarks broadcast on state TV, Rouhani
said a weakened Iran would be less able to fight drug trafficking.
"Weakening Iran by sanctions, many will not be safe," he
said. "Those who do not believe us, it is good to look at the
map."
Iran has detained an
Australian-based academic on charges of trying to
"infiltrate" Iranian institutions, according to official
media. Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi was detained as she was leaving
Iran, the state news agency IRNA said. Hosseini-Chavoshi, a
population expert, is affiliated with the Melbourne School of
Population and Global Health, according to the University of
Melbourne's website.
Human Rights Day, marked on
December 10, is a wake-up call for the world as human rights
violations are the order of the day for suppressive regimes around
the globe. The Iranian regime has by far exceeded others in abusing
its own citizens. Although the international committee has been
vigilant in other areas concerning Iranian regime's behavior it has
paid less attention to human rights violations in Iran.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
Members of a "US military
group" who visited Iran were "presumably" spies, the
chairman of the Public Works Commission of Iran's parliament has
said. The group entered Iran to negotiate about obtaining OFAC
permits for selling planes to Iran, Mohammad-Reza Rezaei Kouchi
asserted, without mentioning any date. OFAC, the Office of Foreign
Assets Control, is a financial intelligence and enforcement agency of
the U.S. Treasury Department.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
Iranian naval forces plan to
stage a large-scale drill in the Indian Ocean to boost and put on
display the country's military prowess, according to a senior
commander. The maneuver will be held this winter within the
perimeters of Iran's southern territorial waters and high seas,
Deputy Navy Commander for Coordination Rear Admiral Hamzeh Ali
Kaviani told IRNA on Saturday. The commander added that the Navy's
state-of-the-art equipment, including two Ghadir-class submarines
that recently joined the naval fleet, will take part in the drill.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
Fast-track courts set up in Iran
to fight economic crime have jailed 30 men for up to 20 years each,
the judiciary said on Sunday, as the country faces renewed U.S.
sanctions and a public outcry against profiteering and
corruption. The new Islamic revolutionary courts - whose rulings
cannot be appealed, except for death sentences - were set up in
August after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for
"swift and just" legal action to confront an "economic
war" by foreign enemies.
Iran's influential Guardian
Council (GC) has pressed charges against Tehran's outspoken MP,
Mahmoud Sadeghi, who has accused the council of "financial
corruption", GC's spokesman disclosed on Friday, December 6.
Speaking to Tasnim, a news agency affiliated with the Islamic
Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei maintained,
"The GC is absolutely reluctant to sue anybody, but the MP's
comments are tied to the ruling establishment and the council's
prestige."
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Israeli forces announced on Saturday that they
discovered another Hezbollah tunnel dug from Lebanon, marking the
second cross-border tunnel found since Israel began an operation to
"neutralize" attack passageways dug by the Iranian-backed
group. The finding comes shortly after troops fired at suspected
members of the Lebanese militant group who approached the area where
Israeli Army engineers were working to locate the tunnels.
A Lebanese businessman sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury
for being an important financial supporter of Hezbollah pleaded
guilty on Thursday to charges associated with evading U.S. sanctions
imposed on him, the U.S. Justice Department said. Kassim Tajideen,
63, pleaded guilty to conspiring with at least five other people to
conduct more than $50 million in transactions with U.S. businesses in
violation of the sanctions imposed on him, the department said in a
statement. If his plea agreement is approved by the U.S. District
Court in Washington, Tajideen would serve five years in prison and
pay a $50 million criminal forfeiture in advance of his sentencing,
the department said.
Yemen's Saudi-backed government has proposed reopening
the Houthi-held airport in the capital Sanaa on condition planes are
inspected in the airports of Aden or Sayun which are under its
control, two government officials said yesterday. The Houthis
rejected the proposal floated at UN-sponsored peace talks in Sweden
that are aimed at cementing confidence-building measures that could
lead to a ceasefire to halt air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition and
Houthi missile attacks on Saudi cities.
In February, we
wrote, "Although the Islamic State (IS) is near defeat,
Syria now risks a confrontation among the major regional and world
powers. This turn of events can only be characterized as a
failure of imagination and leadership, requiring an urgent rethink of
the endgame in Syria ... a turnaround in Syria requires a change of
mindset. The final chapters of the battle against IS should
have been a transition of opportunity rather than crisis.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
Saudi Arabia's King Salman has
accused regional rival Iran of meddling in other countries' affairs,
as he addressed a regional summit in Riyadh. "Extremist and
terrorist powers continue to threaten our security in the Gulf and in
the Arab world," the king told the summit of the Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) on December 9. "The Iranian regime is
continuing its hostile policies and continues to intervene in other
nations' internal affairs," he added.
Saudi Arabia's King Salman
opened the annual one-day summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council,
urging fellow member states Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, the UAE and Qatar
to maintain a united front against Iran and terrorism. "This
requires all of us to maintain our countries' gains and to work with
our partners to preserve security and stability in the region and the
world," he said in a speech. King Salman also accused Iran of
"continuing to interfere in the affairs of the countries in the
region".
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