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TOP STORIES
Iran's reshuffled economics team
is trying a new tactic to defend the rial against U.S. sanctions --
ordering exporters to sell their foreign-currency earnings on a
government-regulated trading platform. The directive to use the
online platform is meant to steer more foreign currency into the
system, thus aiding government efforts to "deal with the enemy's
hostility," the semi-official Tasnim News reported, citing
Economy Minister Farhad Dejpasand.
Switzerland is close to
launching an initiative to let companies sell food, medicine and
medical devices to Iran using a payments channel that would be the
first such mechanism to win Washington's approval since it reimposed
sanctions against Tehran. Berne's humanitarian supplies plan - which
is the subject of delicate ongoing talks with the US and Iran - comes
as leading EU powers hope within weeks to set up a much-touted
mechanism to finance broader trade with Tehran.
In May, President Donald Trump
announced that the United States would withdraw from the 2015
nuclear agreement, negotiated by the Obama Administration, designed
to keep Iran from developing or acquiring nuclear weapons. As part of
that reversal, the Trump administration reimposed economic sanctions
on Iran. From the start, the US actions stoked tensions and fear
of Iranian retaliation in cyberspace. Now, some see signs that the
pushback has arrived.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Ever since President Hassan Rouhani's government signed
the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with six world
powers in July 2015, little domestic consensus has materialized over
the deal - which has aroused concern, criticism and accusations
from his relentless hard-line rivals. The heated debate over
whether the decision to strike the accord was right has now
resurfaced as conservatives find the government an easier target
following the May 2018 US withdrawal from the agreement.
The head of Iran's Strategic
Council on Foreign relations Kamal Kharrazi has said that if European
special trade arrangements are not implemented "it does not mean
Iran will exit from the JCPOA [nuclear agreement]". A day
earlier, Kharrazi who is also a foreign policy advisor to Iran's
Supreme Leader had said that if Europe does not deliver on its
promises about facilitating trade with Iran, it will
"suffer".
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
India will deposit payments for
crude oil imported from Iran into escrow accounts of five
of their banks held with state-run UCO Bank Ltd. after the two
nations agreed on a payment mechanism to overcome U.S. sanctions,
according to people with knowledge of the matter. Iran will use part
of the deposits for purchasing essential goods from India and to meet
expenditure incurred by its diplomatic missions in the South Asian
nation, the people said, asking not to be identified because the
information isn't public.
Despite the U.S. sanctions, Iran
continues to explore and discover new oil and gas reserves and now
ranks "first in terms of oil and gas reserves in the
world," Iranian media quoted Seyyed Saleh Hendi, head of
exploration at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), as saying.
"Based on our Five-Year Development Plan, we have had good
achievements in exploration of oil and gas reservoirs, so that we now
rank first in terms of oil and gas reserves in the world," Fars
news agency quoted Hendi as saying at a press conference this week.
Iran's airspace remains open to
all international flights, including U.S. airliners, but most
European countries refuse fuel to Iranian planes, an official has
said. "Iran's sky is open to all countries, except Israel,"
head of the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization (CAO) Ali Abedzadeh
said, Press TV reported on Tuesday. Currently, American airplanes are
also passing through the Iranian sky and Iran has not imposed
restrictions on any country, Abedzadeh said.
MISSILE PROGRAM
Iran's top diplomat has argued
that his country's growing missile force was strictly for
defensive purposes and criticized the Israeli head of state for
touting the reach of his offensive weapons. Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammed Javad Zarif took to social media Tuesday to respond to
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit the day prior to
Israel Aerospace Industries, where he bragged that researchers
"are developing offensive missiles here that can reach
anywhere" in the Middle East, as well as "any target."
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali
Khamenei fears increased and growing popular protests in 2019. The
state-run Tasnim News Agency reported that during a meeting with the
families of the so-called "Shrine Defenders" who were
killed in Syria and Iraq, Khamenei accused the US of planning to
"create [disruption] and civil war with the help of sanctions
and counter security measures" and "drag people on the
streets" to protest in Iran.
For the second day in a row,
Iranian authorities on Tuesday detained a number of steel mill
workers after five weeks of protests over delays in salaries. The
factory of the state-owned National Iranian Steel Group in Ahvaz, the
capital of southwestern Khuzestan province, was founded in early
1960s and has nearly 4,000 workers. It was privatized in 2008 but
following financial problems, its ownership returned to a government
bank in 2016.
An Iranian member of parliament
denounced the arrest of several striking workers following weeks of
protests at a steel plant in southwestern Iran, the semi-official
ISNA news agency reported Wednesday. "A number of workers of the
National Steel Group who had work-related complaints were arrested
two days ago," Alireza Mahjoub, head of parliament's labour
faction, said in a speech to lawmakers.
The U.N. General Assembly
adopted a resolution on Monday, condemning Iran's human-rights
violations. The final tally of the Canadian-drafted measure was 84-30
with 67 abstentions. The resolution called on Iran to halt its use of
random detentions and "alarmingly high" executions in
addition to discriminating against women, conveying "serious
concern about ongoing severe limitations and restrictions on the
right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief."
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
Washington is reconsidering its
practice of letting hostile Iranian officials send their children to
U.S. schools because it sees that as unfair to other Iranians, U.S.
Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook says. In an exclusive
interview with VOA Persian at the State Department, Hook noted that
most Iranians are barred from entering the U.S. because of their
government's perceived support of terrorism and other malign
behaviors.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
The newlywed son-in-law of
Iranian President Hassan Rohani has resigned from a senior
institutional appointment two days after starting the job amid
accusations of nepotism against Rohani's already embattled
government. The lightning appointment and exit of 33-year-old Kambiz
Mehdizadeh comes roughly four months after reports said he married
one of Rohani's daughters in August.
One of candidate Donald Trump's
pledges during the 2016 election campaign was to get tougher on Iran.
He slammed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal as a lopsided giveaway to
Tehran, and promised a return of American sanctions on Iran.
President Trump has been true to his word, making 2018 a difficult
year for Iran. Although other countries have stuck with the
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed with Iran, Trump pulled the
United States out of the deal in May and announced that U.S. economic
sanctions on Iran would return in two phases.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Russia, Iran and Turkey,
supporters of the main sides in Syria's complex civil war, on Tuesday
failed to agree on the makeup of a U.N.-sponsored Syrian
Constitutional Committee but called for it to convene early next year
to kick off a viable peace process. In a joint statement read
out by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov after the trio met U.N.
Syria peace envoy Staffan de Mistura in Geneva, they said the new
initiative should be guided "by a sense of compromise and
constructive engagement".
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
The number etched on the bracelet around Mohammed's
wrist gave the 13-year-old soldier comfort as missiles fired from
enemy warplanes shook the earth beneath him. For two years Mohammed
fought with Yemen's Houthi rebels against a military coalition led by
Saudi Arabia and backed by the United States. He says he tortured and
killed people and didn't care whether he lived or died. But if he
died, the bracelet would guarantee his body made it home.
This week the government of Yemen and Houthi rebels made
the most significant advance yet in the quest for peace in Yemen,
which was torn apart by the 2015 Houthi coup. They agreed to a
ceasefire in the strategically important port city of Hodeidah,
through which the vast majority of the country's imports and aid
flow. The truce concluded seven days of constructive talks in the
town of Rimbo, Sweden, which have rightly been heralded as a positive
sign that we are entering the beginning of the end of this terrible
conflict.
The Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah
Al Ahmad, has underlined his country's interest in promoting
collaboration with Iran, IRNA reported on Tuesday. In a meeting with
Iranian ambassador to Kuwait Mohammad Irani, Al-Sabah said, "We
consider Iran as our neighbor and we are interested in developing our
beneficial cooperation with Tehran." Irani submitted his
credentials to the Emir during an official ceremony at Al-Bayan
Palace.
IRAQ & IRAN
Iranian-backed Shia militias
inside Iraq, once viewed by many Iraqis as saviors who helped the
country defeat the Islamic State, are destabilizing Iraq's infant and
fragile government and creating additional tension between Baghdad
and Washington. There was a brief sigh of relief when an Iraqi
government was finally formed in September. It took five months of
wrangling after a national election in May. But the militias, more
commonly known as Hashd al-Shaabi, or Population Mobilization Forces
(PMUs), Iran's major weapon in Iraq, are shattering this tenuous
national unity and becoming a divisive force in a country that just
last month seemed optimistically moving toward reconciliation.
An Iraqi administrative court has annulled former Prime Minister
Haider al-Abadi's decision to remove Faleh al-Fayadh from his posts
as head of the National Security Council and leader of the
Shiite-dominated Popular Mobilization Units (PMU). Abadi
had dismissed Fayadh from his positions on Aug. 30 due to
his involvement with political parties in violation of the Iraqi
Constitution. Abadi sacked Fayadh after he joined a coalition of
parties close to Iran following the May parliamentary elections.
Fayadh's move was a crucial step in costing the US-backed Abadi a
shot at a second term.
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