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TOP STORIES
Syrian militiamen paid by Iran have seen their salaries
slashed. Projects Iran promised to help Syria's ailing economy have
stalled. Even employees of Hezbollah, the Lebanese group that has
long served as Iran's closest Arab ally, say they have missed
paychecks and lost other perks. Iran's financial crisis, exacerbated
by American sanctions, appears to be undermining its support for
militant groups and political allies who bolster Iranian influence in
Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere.
A Syrian war monitoring group says an Israeli airstrike
the night before killed seven Iranian and Iranian-backed fighters in
northern Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
said on Thursday that the airstrike targeted an Iranian weapons depot
and also wounded several other fighters. Syrian state media said the
country's air defenses responded to an "Israeli air
aggression" targeting positions in an industrial area northeast
of the city of Aleppo city, causing material damage only.
It was a quiet day in January, and many oil traders were
still on holiday, when two sources in the industry called to alert me
to something unusual - a supertanker that had gone off radar for two
weeks appeared off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and was
pumping out fuel oil to two smaller vessels. The sources said it
appeared that the supertanker was selling Iranian oil in violation of
U.S. sanctions. If confirmed, the sale would shine a rare light on
how traders and shippers were evading the sanctions.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
Stanley Black & Decker Inc. and Chinese
subsidiary Jiangsu Guoqiang Tools Co. agreed to pay roughly $1.9
million to settle allegations they violated U.S. sanctions against
Iran, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. The settlement between
Stanley and the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets
Control is the fifth enforcement action by the agency this year.
Iran welcomed on Thursday a Luxembourg court's decision
to refuse to reinforce a U.S. ruling that would have helped families
of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks claim Iranian assets held by
a Luxembourg-based clearing house. The court ruled on Wednesday
that there were no grounds in international law to uphold in
Luxembourg a 2012 U.S. court decision to strip Iran of sovereign
immunity. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said
the decision showed the world still had courts that adopt independent
decisions.
Japan has extended state-backed insurance to cover
imports of oil from Iran, potentially allowing the country's refiners
to continue loading crude cargoes from the Middle Eastern nation, a
government official told Reuters on Thursday. The rollover of
the insurance was approved by parliament on Wednesday and takes
effect from April for one year, the official said.
Rare wildlife and dramatic canyons attracted a steady
stream of travelers to Mina Fatemi Sadr's hotel on Iran's Qeshm
island each Persian New Year holiday. Then it got its biggest break
courtesy of Donald Trump. His decision in May to reimpose
U.S. sanctions led to a collapse in the rial currency
that's sapped Iranians' spending power, forcing many to abandon the idea
of expensive overseas trips.
The United States will redraw government maps consistent
with Washington's decision to recognize Israel's sovereignty over the
Golan Heights. The move comes days after U.S. President Donald Trump
signed a proclamation Monday officially granting U.S. recognition of
the Golan Heights as Israeli territory. VOA's State Department
correspondent Nike Ching sat down Wednesday with Brian Hook, the
State Department's special representative for Iran, to discuss U.S.
actions affecting Israel and Iran.
This past week, at the annual conference for the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Sen. Ted Cruz
(R-TX) spoke of the danger of a nuclear Iran and steps the United
States could take to quell this threat: Iran and the threat of a
nuclear Iran, I believe is the gravest national security threat
facing the United States. And the gravest threat facing Israel. We
need to be using maximum pressure...You know right now in the
administration there are debates about what maximum pressure means.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo laid out the
basis for "The Trump Doctrine" in the November/December
2018 issue of Foreign Affairs: "Both on the campaign trail and
in office, President Trump has been clear about the need for bold
American leadership to put the United States' security interests
first." Consider how President Trump approaches Iran in contrast
to how he handles North Korea, in an AP report of March 22.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
Iran's state-run news agency says 10 people have died
from tainted alcohol in northwestern Azarbaijan province while 240
were hospitalized. IRNA says the alcohol poisoning took place over
the past six weeks in the city of Tabriz. Hodjat Pourfathi, an official
with the Health Ministry, is quoted as saying three of the victims
were blinded and several were in a coma. He says the fatalities are
likely to rise.
The northern Great Plains isn't the only place dealing
with unprecedented flooding at the moment. A series of deadly
drenchings is continuing in Iran, just days after the country's
celebration of Nowruz - the Iranian new year.
Hardest-hit was Shiraz, a city of 1.8 million about 100 miles inland,
east of the Persian Gulf. It has a Mediterranean
climate, averaging 1.91 inches of rain in March, according
to the World Meteorological Organization.
President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday inspected damage
caused by flash floods in northern Iran and promised compensation to
all those affected as the nationwide death toll reached
30. Rouhani, accused by critics of mishandling the crisis, took
several ministers with him to Golestan Province, whose governor was
dismissed on Saturday amid public outrage over his absence from work.
He had been abroad when the disaster hit.
After coming under criticism, President Hassan Rouhani
on Wednesday inspected damage caused by flash floods in northern Iran
and promised compensation to all those affected as the nationwide
death toll reached 30. Rouhani, accused by critics of mishandling the
crisis, took several ministers with him to Golestan Province, whose
governor was dismissed on Saturday amid public outrage over his
absence from work. He had been abroad when the disaster hit.
Managing and controlling the government's cash resources
has long been a major challenge to the implementation of budget laws
and oversight of the government's receipts and payments from and to a
diverse number of state and nonstate agencies and entities in Iran.
Fragmented government banking arrangements, coupled with various
loopholes in the relevant laws, have prevented the Ministry of
Economic Affairs and Finance of Iran's Treasury Unit
from improving budget control and the quality of fiscal
information.
IRAQ & IRAN
Iranian president Hassan Rouhani made a historic
three-day visit to Iraq in mid-March aimed at a new chapter in
strategic relations between Iraq and Iran. In a series of meetings
with a cross-section of Iraqi politicians and religious leaders he
sought to cement an Iran-Iraq alliance that is meant to project
Iran's power in the region after the defeat of the Islamic State. In
Iraq one method Iran will use to undermine and even supplant U.S.
policy is local Shi'ite paramilitary groups, one of which was
sanctioned by the Treasury department in March.
A month ago, on February 25, Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif appeared to resign from his position.
However, since then he has not only remained at his post but has
grown in stature. This was particularly a result of his handling of
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to Iraq. Reports now indicate that
he is the point-man for Iran's quest to create a new chapter and
strategic bond with Iraq. Zarif arrived in Iraq in March to prepare
for a historic three-day visit by Rouhani.
CYBERWARFARE
Microsoft took control of 99 websites that it said
Iranian hackers had used to try to steal sensitive information from
targets in the United States, according to court documents unsealed
Wednesday. By taking over the sites, Microsoft can stop future
cyberattacks and monitor how previously infected computers were
compromised, the company said. The hackers "specifically
directed" their attacks on people in Washington, Microsoft said
in the filing.
MISCELLANEOUS
London-based network Iran International did not breach
broadcasting rules by giving airtime to a separatist spokesman after
an attack on the Iranian city of Ahvaz, which killed at least 25
people including a four-year-old child, British regulators ruled. The
regulator Ofcom found that material in the report was "justified
by the context" in which it was broadcast.
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