Thursday, August 25, 2016

Eye on Iran: Iran Vessels Harassed U.S. Destroyer Near Persian Gulf, Navy Says






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WSJ: "Four ships from Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps harassed a U.S. destroyer near the Persian Gulf in what the U.S. Navy called an 'unsafe and unprofessional' interaction. The USS Nitze, an Arleigh-Burke class guided-missile destroyer, was transiting international waters near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday when the four Iranian vessels approached at high speed and failed to respond to 12 separate radio communications, according to Cdr. William Urban, a spokesman for the U.S. Fifth Fleet. The USS Nitze blew its whistle in five short blasts on three occasions-signaling the Iranian vessels were on a dangerous course-and fired off 10 flares in the direction of the approaching ships before altering course to avoid a potential collision, Cmdr. Urban said. As two of the Iranian vessels came within 300 yards of the destroyer, the quartet finally slowed speed and motored away from the U.S. ship, according to Cmdr. Urban, who characterized the interaction as a dangerous, harassing situation that could have led to further escalation. The USS Nitze was transiting the waters with the USS Mason, another guided-missile destroyer. The incident was one of many interactions between Iranian and American ships in and around the Persian Gulf in recent months. But it was one of few the U.S. Navy has deemed unsafe or unprofessional. According to a U.S. defense official, the Navy deemed about 10% of the hundreds of interactions between Iranian and American ships unsafe or unprofessional in 2015 and the first half of 2016. The official said the number of interactions-both safe and unsafe-has increased this year compared with 2015." http://t.uani.com/2biXi5w

AP: "The Obama administration said Wednesday it paid $1.3 billion in interest to Iran in January to resolve a decades-old dispute over an undelivered military sale, two days after allowing $400 million in cash to fly to Tehran. State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau says the U.S. couldn't say more about the Jan. 19 payments because of diplomatic sensitivities. They involved 13 separate payments of $99,999,999.99 and final payment of about $10 million. There was no explanation for the Treasury Department keeping the individual transactions under $100 million. The money settles a dispute over a $400 million payment made in the 1970s by the U.S.-backed shah's government for military equipment. The equipment was never delivered because of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew the shah and ended diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Iran. On Jan. 17, the administration paid Iran the account's $400 million principal in pallets of euros, Swiss francs and other foreign currency, raising questions about the unusual payment. The $1.3 billion covers what Iran and the U.S. agreed would be the interest on the $400 million over the decades. The deal has faced increased scrutiny since the administration's acknowledgment this month that it used the money as leverage to ensure the release of four American prisoners. Republican critics accuse the administration of paying a 'ransom.'" http://t.uani.com/2biAPbU

WSJ: "Iran's comeback as a crude-oil exporter appears to have stalled seven months after Western sanctions over its nuclear program were lifted, casting fresh uncertainty over the country's willingness to cooperate with other producers on output. Iran's production levels have taken on heightened significance in recent weeks as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries gets ready for talks next month on oil output. Iran has previously refused to consider joining fellow OPEC members in action to lift crude prices by curbing output until its exports and production reach presanctions levels. But the country's ability to reach pre-sanctions levels above 4 million barrels a day are now in question. Iran's crude-oil production stands at 3.85 million barrels a day in August, the country's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said Saturday, little changed from above 3.8 million barrels a day he cited in June. That is up from less than 3 million barrels a day from before sanctions were lifted in January but short of the country's stated goals... Iran's crude-oil exports have also plateaued after nearly doubling from January to May.  Mohsen Ghamsari, the head of oil marketing at the National Iranian Oil Co, told state media last week that the country was still short of pre-sanctions exports by 200,000 barrels a day... Iran has faced two significant obstacles in its quest to return to pre-sanctions production levels: a lack of foreign investment and its own unwillingness to undercut rivals on pricing. Lingering American sanctions on Iran over terrorism, human rights and weapons continue to make it difficult for Iran to do business with European crude-oil buyers, whom the Islamic Republic had been counting on to lift its exports. The American sanctions ban dollar transactions with Iran, requiring European companies with U.S. business to go to great legal lengths to do deals there." http://t.uani.com/2biJDsr

U.S.-Iran Relations

AP: "Iran's naval forces will warn or confront any foreign ship entering the country's territorial waters, the Iranian defense minister said Thursday, remarks that came after an incident this week involving a U.S. warship. The semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted Gen. Hosein Dehghan as saying that 'if any foreign vessel enters our waters, we warn them, and if it's an invasion, we confront.' He added that Iranian boats patrol to monitor traffic and foreign vessels in its territorial waters." http://t.uani.com/2biCApg

BBC: "It has the production values of a Hollywood blockbuster and the heightened emotion of a Bollywood musical, but the message couldn't be more anti-American. An extraordinary eight-minute music video/revenge fantasy called 'We are standing to last drop of blood' has been regularly shown on on Iran's national TV this month and set social media buzzing. The film shows patriotic youths magically destroying an American invasion fleet which has targeted an idyllic Iranian seaside town and its peaceful nuclear power plant. When the civilians come under unprovoked attack the Iranian heroes unite to use the power of their national flag to create a tsunami that destroys the US ships and aircraft. It ends with the idyllic seaside town and peaceful nuclear power plant returned to tranquillity. Subtle it is not... The clip, produced by Sureh Film Club, is affiliated to the state-owned Islamic Propagation Organisation, whose chairman is appointed by Iran's supreme leader." http://t.uani.com/2bRPFTj

Business Risk

AP: "An Iranian state-run daily is reporting that authorities in Tehran have detained a Greek national they accuse of embezzling money from smuggled oil and selling three oil tankers for $100 million. The report on Thursday in the IRAN newspaper suggests the Greek national was involved in smuggling Iranian crude oil while economic sanctions were imposed over the country's contested nuclear program. Those sanctions under then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad greatly restricted where Iranian oil could be sold in the global market. The newspaper said the unnamed Greek national was detained three weeks after arriving at Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport due to a 'special trick' by investigators." http://t.uani.com/2bJ8J6z

Sanctions Relief

Reuters: "South Korea's finance minister said on Thursday his country will start trading with Iran using the euro on Aug. 29. 'It will be implemented from next Monday,' Yoo Il-ho told reporters in Seoul, referring to a decision which will allow trade between the two nations to be settled in the euro. The move 'will greatly resolve obstacles that stood in the way of facilitating investment and trading with Iran,' Yoo said, and added that KEB Hana Bank, Shinhan Bank and Woori Bank have been selected as settlement banks. Up till now, South Korea's purchases of Iranian oil and payments for construction projects in Iran have been settled in the won, restricting business activities even after the lifting of Western sanctions against the Middle Eastern country." http://t.uani.com/2bYILgO

Foreign Affairs

Reuters: "Iran and Ecuador on Wednesday discussed ways that the two countries can strengthen oil prices as Iran signals it may support joint efforts by exporters to prop up flagging crude... 'We have held conversations on strengthening our position in oil markets,' Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said through an interpreter after a meeting with Ecuador's President Rafael Correa. Zarif added that the two countries have agreed to continue talks within the framework of OPEC, without providing further details. Ecuador Foreign Minister Guillaume Long said they discussed establishing a common position with regards to strengthening oil prices." http://t.uani.com/2biAZjj

Extremism

Long War Journal: "A retired Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander who was deployed to Syria gave a lengthy interview to a hardline media outlet last week about IRGC operations in the country. Serving with the Afghan Fatemiyoun Division, Brigadier General Mohammad Ali Falaki highly praised the militia. The commander describes the array of IRGC-backed forces fighting in Syria and the Middle East as a unified army - apparently with the ultimate goal of destroying Israel... Falaki also restated the goal for the destruction of Israel. 'Forming the first nucleus of the liberation army has the objective that, God willing, we will not have anything called Israel in 23 years,' he stated. Supreme Leader Khamenei claimed in 2015 that Israel would not exist in 25 years. Falaki boasted that Iranian-led units are already by Israel's border and that 'the Fatemiyoun brothers have established the basis for this fight.'" http://t.uani.com/2biYYMi

Domestic Politics

Al-Monitor: "Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafar Dowlatabadi announced Aug. 16 that Iran had arrested another dual national in the country. According to Dowlatabadi, the individual had links to British intelligence and was 'active in the economic field.' Dowlatabadi did not share any other information about who the person is or when the arrest took place. On Aug. 23, conservative website Nasim Online published a thinly sourced article claiming that the arrestee's name is Abdol Rasul Dori Esfahani, a member of the Iranian nuclear negotiation team. According to the article, Dori Esfahani was in charge of banking affairs during the nuclear talks and was arrested for selling economic information to foreign countries... In its original article, Nasim reported that rumors about the arrest of a member of the nuclear negotiation team had been circulating on social media for days. According to Nasim, Dori Esfahani had used his access to financial institutions in Iran to pass information to American and British officials, for which he allegedly received 7,500 British pounds ($10,000) a month. He also was alleged to have been linked to the exorbitant salaries scandal in Iran. After the publication of the first Nasim article, various Iranian meida outlets cited a source at the Foreign Ministry as denying any individual involved with the implementation of the nuclear deal had been arrested." http://t.uani.com/2bqFBA6

Opinion & Analysis

Eli Lake in Bloomberg: "One of the great hypotheticals of Barack Obama's presidency involves the Iranian uprising that began on June 12, 2009, after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was announced the winner of contested presidential elections. What if the president had done more to help the protesters when the regime appeared to be teetering? It's well known he was slow to react. Obama publicly downplayed the prospect of real change at first, saying the candidates whom hundreds of thousands of Iranians were risking their lives to support did not represent fundamental change. When he finally did speak out, he couldn't bring himself to say the election was stolen: 'The world is watching and inspired by their participation, regardless of what the ultimate outcome of the election was.' But Obama wasn't just reluctant to show solidarity in 2009, he feared the demonstrations would sabotage his secret outreach to Iran. In his new book, 'The Iran Wars,' Wall Street Journal reporter Jay Solomon uncovers new details on how far Obama went to avoid helping Iran's green movement. Behind the scenes, Obama overruled advisers who wanted to do what America had done at similar transitions from dictatorship to democracy, and signal America's support. Solomon reports that Obama ordered the CIA to sever contacts it had with the green movement's supporters. 'The Agency has contingency plans for supporting democratic uprisings anywhere in the world. This includes providing dissidents with communications, money, and in extreme cases even arms,' Solomon writes. 'But in this case the White House ordered it to stand down.' ... But it's striking the lengths to which Obama went to make good on his word. As Solomon reports, Obama ended U.S. programs to document Iranian human rights abuses. He wrote personal letters to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei assuring him the U.S. was not trying to overthrow him. Obama repeatedly stressed his respect for the regime in his statements marking Iran's annual Nowruz celebration. His quest to engage the mullahs seems to have influenced Obama's decision-making on other issues too. When he walked away from his red line against Syria's use of chemical weapons in 2013, Solomon reports, both U.S. and Iranian officials had told him that nuclear negotiations would be halted if he intervened against Bashar al-Assad." http://t.uani.com/2biDMJq
       

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

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