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Iran's biggest cargo line looks at London IPO; thwarted so far |
Reuters
Iran's top cargo shipping company has held meetings in London to
discuss a possible listing on the London Stock Exchange, but has so
far been thwarted by U.S. sanctions that still scare banks off
Iranian business, four Iranian and two Western sources said. Islamic
Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) was removed from
international sanctions blacklists last year and after years of
isolation aims to raise funds to modernize its fleet. It has already
placed an order for new ships estimated to be worth $626 million. A
flotation on the LSE would make it the first Iranian company to list
on Britain's main exchange since the Islamic revolution in 1979. But
the difficulty in achieving such a landmark shows how far Tehran
still remains from its goal of integrating fully with the global economic
mainstream, since its 2015 deal with world powers to lift
international sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear program.
UN Rights Monitor Highlights Political
Repression, Abuse, Executions In Iran | Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty (RFE/RL)
Reformists in Iran are under pressure, detainees face torture and
abuse, and people are being executed at an "alarming" rate,
a UN monitor studying human rights in the tightly controlled country
says. The bleak picture presented to the UN Human Rights Council on
March 13 comes ahead of a May 19 presidential election in Iran.
"All reports indicate a high level of control over citizens and
that democratic space is severely limited," Asma Jahangir, the
UN special rapporteur for Iran, told the council in Geneva. Jahangir
did not refer directly to the election, but she noted that three
opposition figures who publicly challenged the official results of
Iran's 2009 presidential election -- former Prime Minister Mir
Hossein Musavi; his wife, university professor Zahra Rahnavard; and
reformist cleric Mehdi Karrubi -- have been kept under house arrest
for nearly six years without being formally charged.
Iran sets up underground rocket factories in
Lebanon - report | Times of Israel
Iran has established rocket factories in Lebanon that are under the
full control of the Hezbollah terror group, a top Iranian general
told a Kuwaiti newspaper. Citing one of the deputy heads of the
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the al-Jarida newspaper reported
Monday that Iran in recent months has established factories for
manufacturing both rockets and firearms in Lebanon. The newspaper did
not say which of IRGC chief Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari's deputies
made the assertion. The report came just days after Iran's Defense
Minister Hossein Dehghan, a former brigadier general in the IRGC,
said Hezbollah is now capable of producing rockets that can hit any
part of Israel. Dehghan offered no details of the new capabilities.
U.S.-IRAN
RELATIONS
Zarif
says Ahmadinejad's letter to Trump out of 'diplomatic etiquette' |
Tehran Times
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has implicitly chided
former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for writing a letter to U.S.
President Donald Trump, saying it was out of "diplomatic"
etiquette. "The nature of diplomatic work requires certain
etiquettes in the area to be observed," ILNA news agency quoted
the top diplomat as saying on Tuesday. In making the comments, Zarif
was hinting at Ahmadinejad who published an open letter in both
English and Farsi to Trump, lauding the American leader for what he
called "truthfully describing the U.S. political system and
electoral structure as corrupt". Ahmadinejad was Iran's
president for two consecutive terms from 2005 to 2013, during which
Iran faced serious political and economic challenges inside the
country as well as the international arena. The lengthy letter also
criticized Trump for his planned visa ban on seven countries,
including Iran, saying "the contemporary U.S. belongs to all
nations". He acknowledged, however, the immigration of some 1
million people of Iranian descent to the U.S.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
Iran to keep oil cap at 3.8 mln barrels a day in
second half 2017 | Reuters
Iran will keep
its oil production cap at 3.8 million barrels per day in the second
half of 2017, the country's oil minister said on Tuesday, provided
other OPEC members stick to the output level they agreed in November.
"If OPEC members stay committed to the agreement (on freezing
output), Iran will produce 3.8 million BPD of oil in (the) second
half of the current year," Bijan Namdar Zanganeh was quoted as
saying by state news agency IRNA. The Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed on Nov. 30 to cut output by 1.2
million bpd to 32.5 million bpd for the first six months of 2017, in
addition to 558,000 bpd of cuts agreed to by independent producers
such as Russia, Oman and Mexico.
Infrastructures prepared for Iran-Russia all-out
economic ties | Tehran Times
Iranian
Communications and Information Technology Minister Mahmoud Vaezi in a
Monday meeting with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak in Moscow
announced that the required infrastructure to expand all-out economic
ties between the two countries have been prepared, IRNA reported.
Vaezi, who leads the Iranian side of Iran-Russia Joint Economic
Committee, referred to the 29 MOUs signed between the two sides in
the committee, hoping that mutual trade will witness increase after
establishing a customs green channel between the two sides and also
banking relations will improve. The Iranian minister expressed
content about the 80-percent annual rise in mutual trade balance
during the current Iranian calendar year (ending March 20) but called
for more efforts to be done in this regard. Novak, leading the
Russian side of the joint committee, in his turn, hoped that
implementation of accorded MOUs will develop the common relations
between Iran and Russia in the intended fields.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Diplomatic strides as Iran's Rouhani sends
Kuwait's ruler a letter | Reuters
Iran's President
Hassan Rouhani sent a letter on Monday to Kuwait's ruler, Emir Sheikh
Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, state media reported, a further sign that
the two might be trying to defuse tensions between the Islamic
Republic and the Gulf Arab states. Predominantly Shi'ite Iran and the
Sunni Arab-dominated Gulf countries, notably Saudi Arabia, support
opposing sides in conflicts in Syria and Yemen but, in January,
Kuwait's foreign minister paid a rare visit to Tehran. He delivered a
message from the emir to Rouhani, describing a "basis of
dialogue" between Gulf Arab states and Iran. Iran's state news
agency IRNA said Rouhani replied to the message in the letter
delivered by Iran's ambassador on Monday.
Why Iran-Turkey tension won't spiral out of
control | Al Monitor
Relations
between Iran and Turkey have long displayed a sinusoidal cycle, with
ups and downs. On Feb. 13, speaking at the International Peace
Institute in Bahrain, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan added
fuel to the fire of the regional conflict between Tehran and Ankara
by saying, "There are those who are working to divide Iraq.
There is a sectarian and ethnic struggle there because of the
question of Persian nationalism. ... We also have to prevent this in
Syria and do what is necessary together with the Gulf [states],
because we cannot just sit back - and will not sit back - in the face
of oppression." A few days later, on Feb. 19, Turkish Foreign
Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said at the Munich Security Conference,
"Iran is trying to turn Syria and Iraq into two Shiite states,"
adding, "This has to be stopped. Security and stability in the
region can only be secured then." Both comments were criticized
by Iran
EXTREMISM
Rejecting
Purim parallel, Iran speaker tells Netanyahu to 'read the Torah' |
Times of Israel
Iran's parliament speaker on Sunday rejected Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's comparison of the ancient Persians who sought the
annihilation of the Jews in the Purim story to modern-day Iran,
advising the Israeli premier to study history and the Jewish Bible.
In an address to parliament on Sunday, which coincided with the Purim
holiday, Iranian Speaker Ali Larijani said in Tehran that
"apparently, [Netanyahu] is neither acquainted with history, nor
has read the Torah," according to Iranian media reports.
Larijani said that Netanyahu "has distorted the Iranians'
pre-Islam historical era and attempted to misrepresent events. Of
course, nothing more than presenting such lies is expected from a
wicked Zionist," he said, according to the semi-official Fars
News Agency.
Iran: Israel showed it masterminds Syria war |
Press TV
Iran says the Israeli prime minister "clearly" showed in
his recent remarks opposing Iranian counterterror contribution to
Syria that Tel Aviv is behind the ongoing war in the Arab country.
Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani made the remarks on Sunday,
concerning a Friday conversation between Israeli premier Benjamin
Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Netanyahu
reportedly expressed "Israel's strong opposition to the presence
of Iranian forces" north of Israel "in the context of the
talks on a settlement of any kind." Iran has been lending
advisory support to the Syrian military in its battle against
foreign-backed militancy, while avoiding any direct military
involvement in the conflict. "Netanyahu laid the conditions for
peace in Syria," Larijani told the parliament session in Tehran.
"He clearly stated that the Zionist regime is behind the war in
Syria."
MILITARY MATTERS
Iran: Domestic Weapons Production up 69 Percent
| American Enterprise Institute
The end of many
military sanctions on Iran in the wake of the implementation of the
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and Tehran's ability to
purchase sophisticated, off-the-shelf weapons systems (even if the
timeline of sanctions expiration may impact delivery dates) has not
led the Islamic Republic to abandon let alone scale down its
investment in its domestic armament industry. In the excerpted
article, Defense Minister Hossein Dehqan brags at a ribbon cutting
for new production lines that Iran's domestic armament industry has
increased production by 69 percent over the past three years. This
suggests that Iran has used some of the hard currency windfall in the
form of new investment and unfrozen assets since negotiations began
for the Joint Plan of Action (the temporary agreement which predated
the JCPOA) to bolster its military industries. While Dehqan bragged
about 115 new products, the five main achievements he noted in other
articles surrounding his appearance and speech included the Fajr 5
guided rocket, the Misaq 33 shoulder-launched rocket system, a 40- mm
grenade-launcher system, the Masaf 5.56 x 445mm -caliber gun and a
new pistol.
HUMAN RIGHTS
British
mum held prisoner in Iran is 'virtually unable to walk' as she
suffers severe weight and hair loss | Mirror
The health of a British mum locked up in an Iranian prison on
"secret charges" is rapidly deteriorating as she suffers
dramatic weight and hair loss and is left "virtually unable to
walk", her family have said. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 38, a
British-Iranian citizen, was detained as she was trying to return to
Britain with her daughter Gabriella after visiting family in Iran
last April. Since then she has been held as a political prisoner and
sentenced to five years behind bars for charges which have not been
made public. The charity worker was accused of plotting to topple the
Iranian regime and an appeal made to lower her sentence was rejected
in January. Now Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's sister-in-law Rebecca Jones,
who lives in Cardiff, said that while her brother Richard's wife was
no longer being kept in high security, she was starting to suffer
physically.
Iran arrests journalist shortly after release:
judiciary | AFP
Iran has arrested a reformist journalist after he was released from
custody, a prosecutor in Tehran confirmed today. Ehsan Mazandarani,
who runs the reformist daily Farhikhtegan, was initially detained in
late 2015 and sentenced last April to seven years for "acting
against national security". "The arrest of this convict on
security charges is in line with the continuation and completion of
his previous sentence," Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari
Dolatabadi told the judiciary-linked Mizan Online website today.
Mazandarani was temporarily released in October for health concerns
after a hunger strike but was required to return to prison following
treatment. His re-arrest yesterday comes after he was reportedly
released in February when unofficial sources suggested that his
sentence had been reduced to less than two years.
Son of Iranian opposition leader sentenced to
six months in jail | Reuters
The son of a
detained Iranian opposition leader has been sentenced to six months
in jail, his brother said on Monday, after releasing an open letter
from his father demanding to be put on trial after years of his house
arrest. Mehdi Karroubi, a former speaker of parliament, has been
under house arrest since 2011 with his fellow presidential contender
Mir Hussein Mousavi after denouncing the results of 2009 election as
rigged, and calling for street protests. His son, Mohammad Hossein
Karroubi, was accused of publishing propaganda against the state over
the letter to President Hassan Rouhani in which Karroubi said:
"I want you to ask the despotic regime to grant me a public
trial."
UN Investigator: Iran Makes Some Progress on
Rights But Still Persecutes | Voice of America
A U.N. investigator presenting her first report on Iran's human
rights record says Iranian leaders have made some progress, but must
do more to stop what she calls the "persecution" of Iranian
people. In an exclusive interview with VOA Persian in Geneva on
Monday, U.N. special rapporteur on Iran's human rights situation Asma
Jahangir credited Iran for boosting engagement with her office.
"They are now responding to our communications more and more,
which was not the case earlier," she said. Jahangir, an independent
Pakistani rights activist who took up her post last November, spoke
to VOA on the day she presented her first Iran report to the
Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council. "Iran gave extensive
comments to my report (covering the second half of 2016) - whether I
agreed with those comments is not the point. But at least there were
the comments, and I learned a lot from them."
OPINION &
ANALYSIS
Iran: Who Are Our Enemies? | Michael Rubin with
The American Enterprise Institute
Almost every week since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran's clerical
leadership have presided over Friday prayer sermons and rallies in
which they encouraged chants of 'Death to America.' After more than
three decades of such behavior, many Western diplomats and
politicians have become inured to it, and many suggest it is just pro
forma and should not be taken as a true expression of the Iranian
leadership's attitudes toward the United States or the West. In an
address excerpted here to prominent officials and citizens in Qom,
Iran's main clerical center, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addressed
the notion of enmity and argued that the United States, alongside
Great Britain, Israel, and the international elite should be
considered Iran's true enemies.
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