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TOP STORIES
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News on
Thursday that the United States would step up financial and political
pressure on Iran's theocratic regime as it seeks to "extend
its reach" across the Middle East. "You've seen us now
designate [Iran-backed] militias inside of Iraq [as terror
groups]," Pompeo told "Fox News at Night" host Shannon
Bream. "You've seen us designate senior leaders inside the
[Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps]."
Iran is determined to boost its defense capabilities
despite mounting pressure from the United States and its allies to
curb its ballistic missile program, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei said on Thursday. "We need to take Iran to a point that
enemy understand that they cannot threaten Iran ... America's
sanctions will make Iran self-sufficient," Khamenei said in a
speech broadcast live on state TV. President Donald Trump
withdrew the United States last May from a 2015 nuclear deal between
Iran and six major powers, saying it gave too much away to Iran, and
reimposed far-reaching U.S. sanctions.
Iran's supreme leader branded a European initiative to
protect trade from U.S. sanctions "a joke," saying the
country would have to rely on its own efforts to revive the economy.
"Europeans failed to stand against the U.S." to protect the
2015 nuclear deal, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a live televised
address from the northeastern city of Mashhad to mark the Persian new
year. "They stabbed us in the back and we can't expect them to
do much."
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
France told Iran on Thursday that European efforts to
keep a nuclear deal alive did not mean Tehran had a blank check to
violate the human rights of its citizens, after lawyer Nasrin
Sotoudeh received a long prison sentence. An internationally
renowned human rights lawyer jailed in Iran, Sotoudeh was handed a
new sentence on Monday that her husband said was 38 years in prison
and 148 lashes.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia does not plan to
take on any new business in Iran in 2019, it said in its annual
report on Thursday, citing difficulties in dealing with conflicting
U.S. and European trade policies. "The diverging EU and
U.S. regulatory framework governing business activities in Iran will
be far more complex in the future," Nokia said in its annual
20-F report.
Iran's oil exports have dropped in March to their lowest
daily level this year, according to tanker data and industry sources,
even before Washington formally requires importing countries to
reduce purchases to avoid infringing U.S. sanctions. Shipments
are averaging between 1.0 and 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd) so
far this month, according to Refinitiv Eikon data and three other companies
that track Iranian exports. That's lower than February, when
shipments were at least 1.3 million bpd.
The Trump administration told The National that
it is seeing an impact from its sanctions on Iran in constraining its
estimated annual $700 million budget for the Lebanese militant group
Hezbollah. With US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo making his
first visit to Lebanon on Friday, the US Special Representative for
Iran, Brian Hook, told The National in an exclusive
interview from the State Department, that Washington is determined to
keep up the pressure on Hezbollah.
An Australian man was sentenced to two years in prison
in Washington Thursday for exporting restricted aviation equipment to
Iranian buyers in violation of US restrictions. Seven years after he
was charged, David Levick, 57, from Cherrybrook, Australia, was
ordered to prison after pleading guilty to four counts of violating
the US International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which places
tight restrictions on sales of sensitive equipment to Iran.
Iranian president Hassan Rouhani has returned home
victorious from a three-day visit to Iraq, having secured a
memorandum of understanding with Baghdad that will serve as an
economic lifeline for a country besieged by United States economic
sanctions. Rouhani's visit had coincided with a serious economic
crisis in Iran resulting from sanctions, in addition to the fall of
the local currency and growing unemployment rates.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
France on Thursday called for Iranian human rights
lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh to be released and warned Tehran that its
adherence to a nuclear accord does not give it a blank cheque on
human rights. "We will do all we can to secure the release of
Mrs. Sotoudeh," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told
the upper chamber Senate. "She was condemned under astonishing
conditions," for "defending the rights of women, in
particular those who contest the obligation to wear the Islamic
veil," he added.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
U.S. President Donald Trump's statement in favor of
recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights is
unacceptable, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday,
cited by state TV. "This illegal and unacceptable recognition
does not change the fact that it belongs to Syria," spokesman
Bahram Qasemi said.
What is the Trump administration trying to achieve in
Iran? More than two-and-a-half years after candidate Trump made Iran
a centerpiece of his foreign-policy platform on the presidential
campaign trail, and over a year after Iran emerged as one of his
administration's core international priorities, there is still a
great deal of confusion about what, exactly, the White House is
seeking to accomplish vis-a-vis the Islamic Republic.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
The Pakistan military said in a statement on Thursday
that it had rescued four Iranian soldiers being held captive by a
militant group in the country's restive southwest. The rescue took
place in Chaghi district of Balochistan province, near the Afghan border,
the statement said. "Terrorists of a proscribed organization
were reported to have entered Pakistan from Afghanistan side along
with abducted Iranian soldiers," it said.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Europe
has practically pulled out of the nuclear agreement with Iran, and he
expects only "backstabbing and treason" from Western
European countries. Criticizing Western countries in his annual
speech in Mashad, north-eastern Iran, on the first day of the Iranian
New Year March 21, Khamenei said, "The Europeans have
practically left the JCPOA, because they have not met their commitments."
When US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew
from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in May 2018 and
reinstated harsh sanctions on Iran, many feared that Iran's
tourism sector, which has been continuously growing in recent years,
would take a hit. But while the number of tourists, mainly from
Europe, has declined, the devaluation of the Iranian rial - triggered
by sanctions and exacerbated due to poor management - lured many more
foreign tourists to Iran, especially from neighboring
countries.
At the end of the Iranian year on March 20, inflation
figures heralded a tough time ahead for ordinary Iranians, as price
rises neared 50 percent in the last 12 months. From March 2018 to
March 2019, goods and services became 47.5 percent more expensive, in
what is the worse inflation number in the past five years, Iran
Statistical Center reported on March 21. But what is even more
alarming, inflation for
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has declared the
upcoming Iranian New Year "Pickup in Production." This
means at the very least that future speeches and slogans will have a
heightened focus on the state of the economy, which is currently struggling
in part due to US sanctions that were reimposed after the Donald
Trump administration's withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan
of Action, the nuclear deal signed between Iran and six world powers
in 2015.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
President Trump made new U.S. policy on Thursday, as he
often does these days, with a tweet recognizing Israel's sovereignty
over the Golan Heights on the border with Syria. This time his tweet
was based on more than personal impulse and makes sense for American
and Israeli interests.
French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner has
proposed a clampdown on Zahra Centre France, Anti-Zionist Party, Shia
Federation of France and France Marianne TV in a meeting with
President Emmanuel Macron. Interior Ministry said the groups
sympathise with Hamas through the internet and "the armed wing
of Hezbollah, all listed on the list of terrorist organisations of of
the EU". French police last year seized weapons and detained 11
people in a raid on Zahra Centre France, one of the largest Shiite
centres in Europe, near the northern town of Dunkirk.
US President Donald Trump's recognition of the Golan
Heights appears to have been initially greeted with more anger in
Washington than in the capitals of the Middle East. That is because
the region is recovering from years of conflict and instability, and
Trump's decision regarding the Golan is likely seen within the
context of the rest of his unilateral action, from leaving the Iran
Deal to moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Iran
provides not only resources but also missiles to Houthis, adding that
he hopes pressure on Iran will convince Houthis to return to the
political table, in an exclusive interview with Al Arabiya on Thursday.
During his time in Jerusalem, Pompeo told Al Arabiya: "We're
very hopeful that this pressure will convince the Houthis that they
need to return to the political table, they need to have a
discussion, they cannot win this militarily, and we're determined to
ensure that order is restored in Yemen."
The decades-old
rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran has re-emerged at a difficult
time, with Tehran in economic crisis due to US sanctions. The
recent friction started with a tussle over oil pricing. Riyadh
offered the world cheaper oil to attract consumers facing any
disruption in the Iranian oil supply. The second phase of US
sanctions have had a devastating impact on Iran's oil exports,
shipping and banks, hitting the core of the Iranian economy.
IRAQ & IRAN
As more factions within Iraq's Popular Mobilization
Units (PMU) are being designated as terrorist by the
US administration on account of their close ties with the
Iranian side, Tehran is moving toward pulling the Iraqi file
from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and leaving it
with the Foreign Ministry, local reports say.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Iran has expressed support for the change at top
leadership in Kazakhstan, praising the outgoing president Nursultan
Nazarbayev. "The current changes in the Republic of Kazakhstan
and transfer of power was in the framework of the constitution and for
that reason we support it", the spokesperson of Iran's foreign
ministry Bahram Ghasemi was quoted as saying, by IRNA.
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