TOP STORIES
Iran's crude oil exports have dropped in April to their
lowest daily level this year, tanker data showed and industry
sources said, suggesting buyers are curbing purchases before
Washington clamps down further on Iranian shipments as expected next
month. The United States reimposed sanctions on Iran in
November after pulling out of a 2015 nuclear accord between Tehran
and six world powers. Those sanctions have already more than halved
Iranian oil exports, the country's main source of revenue.
Iran's lawmakers on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a
bill labeling U.S. forces in the Middle East as terrorist, a day
after the U.S. terrorism designation for Iran's Revolutionary Guard
formally took effect, state TV reported. Defense Minister Gen. Amir
Hatami introduced the bill authorizing the government to act firmly
in response to "terrorist actions" by U.S. forces. It
demands authorities use "legal, political and diplomatic"
measures to neutralize the American move, without elaborating.
Iranian authorities have a new target in their bid to
calm the country's economic turmoil: meat-market manipulators. During
the two-week celebration of the Persian New Year that ended April 5,
Iranians found that putting food on their tables is far more
expensive than before. The price of veal and beef increased 67% last
year, while mutton had jumped 52% and chicken had become 63% more
expensive, the Central Bank of Iran said.
UANI IN THE NEWS
This was a very good move, a very important move, the
first time that part of a government has been named a terrorist
organization. But the IRGC deserves it. They are a terrorist
organization. They have the blood of hundreds of Americans on their
hands, more than 600 Americans that they or the people they trained
killed in Iraq, the Khobar Towers and a lot of other terrorist
places.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
Turkey expects the United States to extend a waiver
granted to Ankara to continue oil purchases from Iran without
violating U.S. sanctions, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim
Kalin said on Tuesday. The U.S. reimposed sanctions in November
on exports of Iranian oil after President Donald Trump unilaterally
pulled out of a 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and six world
powers. Washington is pressuring Iran to curtail its nuclear program
and stop backing militant proxies across the Middle East.
Iran has shut around a dozen oil wells in its oil-rich
southwestern Khuzestan province because of massive floods, the
semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Wednesday, leading to a
drop of up to 20,000 barrels per day in crude production.
Iran's worst flooding in 70 years, which started on March 19, has
killed at least 76 people, forced more than 220,000 into emergency
shelters and caused an estimated $2.5 billion in damage to roads,
bridges, homes and farmland.
With about two weeks left to the expiry of the US waiver
on imports of Iranian crude oil, concerns are growing about whether
the six-month exemption will be extended. South Korean officials have
been trying to convince Washington to extend the waiver, but say
there has been no clear response. "Seoul and Washington had
shared an understanding of extending the exemption on Iranian oil
imports, but the US stance has changed recently," a senior
official at South Korea's Foreign Ministry said on April 12.
TERRORISM & EXTREMISM
Statements by the leader of Iran's Ansar-e Hezbollah
organization on training armed radical groups, including al-Qaeda in
Bosnia under cover from the Iranian Red Crescent, have sparked
widespread controversy in Tehran. The Red Crescent announced Tuesday
it will sue Said Qassemi for his remarks, according to Iranian media.
Ansar-e Hezbollah is classified as a hardline group formed mainly of
IRGC leaders from the Iran-Iraq war.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
The Gulf state of Bahrain Tuesday jailed 138 people and
revoked their citizenship for plotting to form a "terror"
group with links to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the public
prosecutor said. The verdict was swiftly condemned by the Bahraini
opposition, while human rights group Amnesty International decried
the "mockery of justice" and "mass arbitrary
denaturalization."
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
Iranian lawmakers approved a measure Tuesday designating U.S.
forces in the Middle East as terrorists, The Associated Press
reported. The bill, which was overwhelmingly approved by the
Iranian parliament, comes a day after the U.S.'s terrorism
designation for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officially
took effect, the news service noted.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
In the week that the Trump administration labelled
Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organisation, volunteers from
the elite force showed a different side as they pitched up in rural
Khuzestan province to provide aid to victims of the recent floods.
Abbas Parsaei, who runs a medical facility in the city of Mashhad,
travelled more than 1,000km across Iran to the stricken village of
Dehlavieh, joining dozens of other volunteers from the guards to dig
trenches and deliver supplies to families in need.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
The Iranian parliament (Majles) has approved new
regulations that will impose further restrictions on Iran's strictly
controlled media ahead of parliamentary elections slated to be held
on February 21, 2020. The regulations, which are part of the bill to
amend the election law, defines new punishments for those who might
ignore or undermine them. The punishments particularly target the
media and election administrators, Iranian media reported on Tuesday
April 16.
Sadaf Khadem, who on Saturday became the first Iranian
woman to contest an official boxing bout, has cancelled her return to
Tehran after an arrest warrant was issued for her there, her
representative said on Wednesday. An arrest warrant was also
issued against Mahyar Monshipour, the Iranian-born former boxing
world champion who set up the bout in western France and was planning
to travel back to Iran with Khadem this week, the representative,
Clara Dallay, told Reuters.
A supervisory body affiliated with Iran's Ministry of
Culture and Islamic Guidance has imposed a sudden ban on "Rahman
1400," a satirical movie that has achieved extraordinary
box office success in the past few weeks. The decision was made after
the ministry found the movie in breach of common censorship
rules that include strict script-vetting procedures.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Syria and Iran said Tuesday the United States is waging
"economic terrorism" against countries that have different
opinions and should pursue its aims through diplomacy instead. Syrian
state news agency SANA quoted President Bashar Assad as saying the
Trump administration's decision to designate Iran's Revolutionary
Guard a terrorist organization was an "irresponsible move."
Assad spoke at a meeting with Iran's visiting Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif, who said the U.S. move was "stupid."
The representative of the Lebanese Hezbollah in Iran
says a significant number of young Lebanese are currently in Iran,
helping relief operations for the flood-stricken people. Speaking to
the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)-run Tasnin news agency,
Sheik Mo'ein Daqiq said on Tuesday that the Secretary-General of Hezbollah,
Hassan Nasrallah, has called upon all young Lebanese and members of
the armed group to join Iranian Armed forces, "jihadi"
elements, and Iranian Red Crescent to help the flood-hit Iranians.
Since 2005, the US has supplied the Lebanese army with
over $2.3 billion in assistance The United States on Tuesday
delivered radios, night vision devices, and other equipment worth
$14.3 million to the Lebanese army in an ongoing military aid effort
aimed at supporting Beirut's armed forces against Iran-backed
Hezbollah. Photos of the delivery were posted to the US Embassy in
Beirut's Twitter page.
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif visited
Damascus on Tuesday ahead of a fresh round of talks next week in
Kazakhstan towards ending Syria's eight-year civil war. Iran and
Russia are key allies of the Damascus regime, and along with rebel
backer, Turkey, have sponsored the so-called Astana negotiations
track to end the conflict. Kazakhstan is to host a fresh round of
talks on April 25-26 in its capital, last month renamed from Astana
to Nur-Sultan.
Syrian Minister of Transport Ali Hammoud met with
Chinese Ambassador to Syria Qi Qianjin in Damascus on April 10.
Hammoud stressed the importance of his country's incorporation
into Beijing's One Belt, One Road initiative - an ambitious plan to
recreate the modern-day analogue of the Silk Road. Hammond invited
Chinese investors to participate in commercial projects on Syrian
soil, including the City of Marine Industries, to be established on
the coast between Latakia and Tartus; the development of international
transport routes; and the launch of railroad projects
in rural Damascus.
GULF STATES, YEMEN & IRAN
Yemen's parliament on Tuesday referred a draft bill to
designate Houthi rebels as a "terrorist group" to a higher
committee for revision. Members of the Parliament loyal to President
Abdrabu Mansur Hadi held their first session on Saturday for the
first time in four years. The session was held in the town of Sayoun
in Hadramawt province because Houthi rebels control the capital
Sanaa.
Ninety per cent of Qatari funds to the EU were channeled
to Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated projects, two French authors have
confirmed, supporting claims made since the summer of 2017 by Saudi
Arabia and the UAE. One of the authors-prominent investigative journalist
George Malbrunot-spoke to Gulf News about his new book Qatar Papers:
How the State Finances Islam in France and Europe.
MISCELLANEOUS
The Instagram accounts of at least three commanders of
the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iran's Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were suspended on Tuesday, only a day after
the US officially designated it as a foreign terrorist organization.
The accounts that were suspended included those of Major-General
Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, Major-General
Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander-in-chief of the IRGC, and
Brigadier-General Mohammed Pakpour, the commander of the IRGC Ground
Forces.
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