Monday, August 15, 2016

Eye on Iran: Undercover Video Gives Insight Into Controversial 'Prisoner Swap' With Iran








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ABC: "'You want to be careful ... we will be in the same cell' if caught. That is the warning - captured on secret recordings obtained exclusively by ABC News - that 45-year-old Arash Ghahreman gave to the U.S. businessman who he believed was going to provide him with sensitive military technology so it could be smuggled into Iran. In fact, Ghahreman was arrested days later for the export scheme and ultimately sentenced to 6.5 years in prison. But five months after being sentenced, the naturalized U.S. citizen was released as part of the so-called 'prisoner swap' with Iran, and he chose to stay in the United States. Five other Iranian-American inmates and an Iranian national were also freed. And U.S. prosecutors dropped charges against 14 fugitives living overseas - including one of Gharehman's alleged accomplices. President Obama called it 'a reciprocal humanitarian gesture,' after the nuclear deal with Iran and the release of 'several Americans unjustly detained by Iran,' including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and former Marine Corps sergeant Amir Hekmati. Now amid questions over the timing of Iran's release of those four Americans and a $400 million payment to Iran, Ghahreman's case showcases one of the individuals who was released from U.S. custody as part of the deal." http://t.uani.com/2aWct4E

AP: "Iran's semi-official ILNA news agency is reporting that the families of at least 400 people killed fighting in Iranian brigades in Syria have been referred to the Martyr Foundation, which offers financial support to the relatives of those killed fighting for Iran. The Saturday report quotes the head of the Martyr Foundation, Mohammad Ali Shahidi, as saying that Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard announced the number of fighters killed, saying that around half of them were Afghan. It is the first time that an Iranian official has indicated how many people have been killed fighting in Iranian militias in Syria." http://t.uani.com/2b67MWu

AP: "Olympic security personnel questioned a female Iranian volleyball fan Saturday when she showed up for a match holding a large sign that read 'Let Iranian Women Enter Their Stadiums' and wearing a white T-shirt with those same words. Darya Safai, who sat in a front-row courtside seat at Maracanazinho arena and briefly cried during the ordeal 'because it hurts,' said that Olympic officials pushed her to leave the venue but she was determined to stay put. 'They said they didn't want the sign in front of the cameras and they asked us to leave,' said Safai, who was with friends also wearing the T-shirts. 'They even tried to impress me with military people. I think it is a pity they always listen to what the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran says. 'This is not the first time I had this experience but I won't give up because that's what Iranian women do, they keep fighting for their rights.' The International Olympic Committee bans political statements at the games. 'So with all the things that happened here today at Maracanazinho, I stayed inside because it is my right,' she wrote in a text message to The Associated Press. Born in Tehran and now living in Belgium, the 35-year-old Safai is the founder and director of 'Let Iranian Women Enter Their Stadiums!' and an activist against gender discrimination. Women have generally been banned or heavily restricted from attending all-male sports events in Iran." http://t.uani.com/2budodV

Nuclear & Ballistic Missile Program

Free Beacon: "Iran is permitted to pursue the construction of two newly announced nuclear plants under the parameters of last summer's nuclear agreement, Obama administration officials informed the Washington Free Beacon, setting the stage for Tehran to move forward with construction following orders from President Hassan Rouhani. Ali Salehi, Iran's top nuclear official, announced on Thursday that Iran has invested $10 billion into the construction of two new nuclear plants after receiving orders from Rouhani, according to reports in Iran's state-controlled media. A State Department official said to the Free Beacon following the announcement that Iran is allowed to move forward with this venture under the nuclear agreement, which does not prohibit this type of nuclear construction. The [nuclear deal] does not prevent Iran from pursuing new light-water reactors,' a State Department official not authorized to speak on record said to the Free Beacon in response to questions about Iran's latest announcement." http://t.uani.com/2blD6iG

Congressional Action

The Hill: "Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, is pressing the Obama administration for more answers on its transfer of $400 million in cash to Iran. Pompeo plans to send a letter to the Treasury Department on Monday with a series of questions on the transfer to determine whether any laws were violated, he told The Hill. Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Obama administration secretly organized an airlift of $400 million worth of cash to Iran, which coincided with the release of four Americans detained in Iran. Critics say it equated to a 'ransom' payment, which would violate longstanding U.S. policy." http://t.uani.com/2aWciGt

The Hill: "Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) are demanding the Obama administration prove that a $400 million payment to Iran didn't break the law. The two senators sent a letter Friday to Secretary of State John Kerry, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and Attorney General Loretta Lynch to 'inquire about the legality of the payment.' 'The unusual circumstances surrounding the administration's payment of $400 million to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran have raised serious concerns not only about the propriety of the transaction, but about its legality as well,' Cruz and Lee wrote in their letter. Republicans have seized on the details of the January payment - which was made in cash and coincided with the release of U.S. hostages in Iran - to argue it was a 'ransom.' Cruz and Lee said it 'appears' the administration violated U.S. sanctions against Iran. 'If the administration violated the law, then Congress and the American people should be made aware of it so that they can hold the appropriate officials accountable and take whatever steps necessary to strengthen the law and prevent any reoccurrence,' they wrote." http://t.uani.com/2bhEups

Sanctions Relief

Reuters: "South Korea's crude imports from Iran rose further in July to be nearly four times the level of a year ago, and 5.9 percent higher than the previous month, after international sanctions were lifted on Tehran's disputed nuclear programme. Seoul brought in 1.10 million tonnes of Iranian crude oil last month, or 260,910 barrels per day (bpd), 285 percent above the 286,374 tonnes imported a year earlier when sanctions were imposed on Tehran, its customs office data showed on Monday. The world's fifth-largest crude importer shipped in 7.22 million tonnes of crude from the Middle Eastern country in the Janaury-July period of 2016, or 248,616 bpd, versus 3.23 million tonnes in the same period in 2015, according to the data. That was more than double from a year ago." http://t.uani.com/2bhCn56

Reuters: "Hyundai Oilbank Co , South Korea's smallest refiner by capacity, has bought its first Iranian condensate cargoes to prepare for trial runs at a new refining unit in its joint venture with Lotte Chemical, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Friday. Condensate, an ultra-light form of oil, is mainly used to produce chemical feedstock naphtha. Hyundai's plant is one of several to come online across Asia and the Middle East, boosting demand for condensate. Hyundai bought two cargoes of about 1.1 million barrels loading in June and August ahead of the start-up of its new splitter, the sources said. The first cargo arrived last month and the second cargo is expected to arrive in early September along with 1 million barrels of Qatari condensate, they said. Hyundai Oilbank's joint venture with Lotte Chemical, known as Hyundai Chemical, is expected to start trial runs of the new 130,000 barrels-per-day splitter in Daesan on the country's west coast in August-September and to start commercial production in the fourth quarter, a company's spokesman said." http://t.uani.com/2bufWZH

Reuters: "India's July oil imports from Iran rose to their highest in at least five year, climbing to over 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) for the second time in five months, revised tanker arrival data obtained from trade sources show. India, Iran's top oil client after China, shipped in about 523,000 bpd oil in July, an increase of 37 percent from June and more than double from a year ago, the data showed. Iran used to be India's second-biggest oil supplier after Saudi Arabia until 2011, when New Delhi had to cut purchases from Tehran because of western sanctions. India's oil imports from Iran have been consistently rising since the lifting of sanctions earlier this year. In the first four months of this fiscal year, India's imports from Iran have climbed 48 percent more than a year ago to about 420,000 bpd, the data showed. Last month two state refiners Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum lifted oil from Tehran after a gap of years." http://t.uani.com/2bubR7U

Reuters: "Poland is replacing Russian oil with Iranian oil and unsold Urals crude is being redirected to Asia, industry sources told Reuters. Trader Mercuria, once the largest seller of Urals in Poland, is closing down and emptying Russian oil out of its tanks in the port of Gdansk. Mercuria will use a tanker bringing in Iranian oil to transport out its unwanted Urals. Mercuria is sending more than 250,000 tonnes of Urals to Asia via super tanker Atlantas (VLCC), which will arrive in Gdansk with two million barrels of Iranian oil on board, said two industry sources familiar with Mercuria's plan." http://t.uani.com/2aUjq2W

IRNA (Iran): "President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday said that following the nuclear deal between Iran and G5+1 there has been five billion dollars of investment in the Iranian projects. After the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action reached between Iran and G5+1, five billion dollars of clear-cut investments in Iran's projects has been realized, President Rouhani said on Sunday during a meeting with the investors in southwestern province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad. Multilateral regional cooperation enhances the position of country in the world and makes new opportunities for the economy, he said. He noted that the government aims to realize five percent growth during this Iranian calendar year. Iran has a strong nation and a powerful Leader, President Rouhani said, stressing that nobody has the right to disappoint people about the future. The Resistance Economy outlined by the Supreme Leader is a powerful type of economy, he said." http://t.uani.com/2bueBSs

Regional Destabilization

AP: "Kuwait said Sunday its coast guard detained 10 Iranian 'infiltrators,' but an Iranian official described them as fishermen and denied they were detained for violating the border. One of the Iranian men was wounded after refusing coast guard orders to surrender, Kuwait's Interior Ministry said in a statement published by the state-run Kuwait News Agency. The ministry released a photo on its website showing nine of the men on their knees with their hands behind their backs. Sunni-led Gulf countries have long accused Shiite Iran of meddling in regional affairs, primarily in Bahrain and Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been bombing Iranian-allied rebels for more than a year." http://t.uani.com/2b8UuYo

Human Rights

Reuters: "Mehdi Khosravi, an Iranian activist arrested last week in Italy, said on Friday he had been released from jail, following an appeal to the Italian government by the son of the deposed shah. Reza Pahlavi, 55, whose late father was toppled by the 1979 Islamic Revolution, said in a letter to Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Monday that Khosravi risked torture and execution if Italy extradited him as Tehran has demanded. Pahlavi posted the letter on his Twitter account. Khosravi, 37, told Italian newspaper La Repubblica he had been let out of jail in Lecco, northern Italy, five days after police arrested him on an international warrant for alleged corruption. 'These are false and ridiculous accusations to which I will not even respond,' said Khosravi, who says he fled Iran after getting in trouble with authorities for writing about 'democracy, rights and freedom' on his blog. Khosravi has lived as a political refugee in Britain since 2010." http://t.uani.com/2bhC9Lc

BBC: "The husband of a British mother detained in Iran has said the idea she could be involved in trying to overthrow the regime is 'absurd'. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, is due on trial on as yet unspecified charges after being arrested in April. Speaking to the BBC on the couple's seventh wedding anniversary, Richard Ratcliffe, from north London, said his wife was 'a proud and loyal Iranian'. Prime Minister Theresa May raised the case with Iran's president last week. The British-Iranian charity worker was arrested while she was at an airport with her daughter Gabriella while visiting her family on holiday. Iranian officials have previously accused Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe of leading a 'foreign-linked hostile network'. Mr Ratcliffe told the BBC's Caroline Hawley her arrest was 'so absurd', adding: 'The idea that anyone with a baby could be busy overthrowing the regime is obviously nonsense.'" http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-37077128

WashPost: "In 1988, nearly a decade after Iran's Islamic revolution, the country's leader-in-waiting faced a decision. He could stay silent as Iran stepped up a campaign of mass executions, torture and gulag-style imprisonment against perceived internal opponents. Or he could follow his conscience and speak out. Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri chose to take a stand. It came at a high cost. Montazeri was dumped as the hand-picked successor to the revolution's leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He would be declared a foe of the state and placed under house arrest for six years. The executions and purges of the late 1980s in Iran are well known and have been examined in books and reports by rights groups such as Amnesty International. Less clear, however, is what transpired at the highest reaches of power during a pivotal period for Iran and, by extension, for the wider region and Tehran's relations with the West. An audio file that surfaced this week - posted on a website maintained by supporters of Montazeri, who died in 2009 - purports to offer a new glimpse into his last, desperate attempt to limit the killings and roundups." http://t.uani.com/2aXNwEK

Opinion & Analysis

UANI Senior Advisor Barry Rosen in The Daily Telegraph: "Almost 40 years ago I was taken hostage with 51 of my colleagues in Iran and held for 444 days in captivity. Today, international captives are being held again, including the British-Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. She was captured in April when she was visiting family with her two-year old daughter. Information about her condition is scarce. We know she's frail, we know she's weak, and we know she's spent many days in solitary confinement. She is a young mother of British-Iranian citizenship who has dedicated her life to aid and charity work. And, simply because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, she has been taken from her family, and is subject to the brutality of the Iranian prison regime. This week Theresa May took up the case on her first call as Prime Minister with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Sadly, for the plight of all those currently held captive, I have little faith that the Prime Minister's plea will bring them any closer to release. For no matter how much Rouhani wishes to present himself as a moderate to the West, it is not in his power to deliver. Iran is perpetually embroiled in an internal struggle for power, which few people will properly acknowledge. The terrifying fact of the matter is that Rouhani is embroiled in a struggle for influence in his own country, between the Right and the far Right. The President is powerless to act; he is at the mercy of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and the country's revolutionary courts. Truth, international law and human decency never enter the equation. The IRGC and the courts simply have two objectives, and when the time is right, they will stop at nothing to get them." http://t.uani.com/2bhEnJl
       

Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please email Press@UnitedAgainstNuclearIran.com

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons.  UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.

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