TOP STORIES
Iran deployed two warships off Yemen threatening to
further escalate tensions after the U.S. fired Tomahawk cruise
missiles destroying three coastal radar sites in Houthi-controlled
territory, a U.S. official confirmed to Fox News on Thursday. Iran
sent the ships to the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's most vital
shipping routes, "to protect trade vessels from piracy,"
Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported. Still, analysts
warn the move could ratchet up the danger to U.S. forces in the
region. U.S. intelligence has linked Iran to the funding of Yemen's
Shiite rebels, who have also waged a series of attacks against Saudi
Arabia, a longtime U.S. ally. The U.S. official said the Houthis
indeed fired missiles targeting American ships twice over just four
days. The ships were not hit. The U.S. destroyed the coastal radar
sites early Thursday. Fox News is told one of the Iranian ships
carries the same type of anti-ship missiles the Houthis were
suspected of firing this week, and the other ship carries a
helicopter.
Hours after the US struck three radar installations in
Yemen in response to attempted attacks on a US Navy destroyer,
Pentagon officials made clear they'll hit back again if needed and
Iran moved its own warships into nearby waters. "We want to make
crystal clear if you threaten our forces, if you threaten our ships,
we'll respond," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said Thursday. He
described the missile launches against the USS Mason as "a
response to direct threats to our people, to our ships and we
responded to that threat and we'll respond again."
Russia has completed the delivery of S-300 air defense
missile systems to Iran, RIA news agency quoted Russia's state arms
export agency as saying on Thursday. Russia's agreement to provide
Iran with S-300 has sparked concern in Israel. Moscow canceled the
contract to deliver S-300s to Iran in 2010 under pressure from the West.
CONGRESSIONAL ACTION
President Obama's nuclear deal with Iran might be
making it easier for the rogue regime to fly weapons into Syria, a
group of Republican senators warned. Obama's team agreed to allow
major airplane manufacturers to sell almost 200 airplanes to Iran
Air, an airline that had been under sanction for transporting weapons
on behalf of terrorists. The company may still be doing so, given
that Iran Air planes are flying the supply routes used to send
military supplies to Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. But it's also
possible that other Iranian airlines that remain sanctioned will use
the planes to transport weapons. "To date, we have seen no proof
of a change in the conduct that prompted the initial sanctions on
Iran Air," Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., and four other senators
wrote in a letter to a senior Treasury Department official. "In
fact, we have seen evidence to the contrary. Open source reports have
shown that Iran Air continues to fly from known IRGC bases in Iran to
Syria. While Mahan Air - which remains under U.S. sanctions - has
been the primary airline for sending military supplies and personnel
to Syria, Iran Air has flown dozens of similar routes."
SANCTIONS RELIEF
Bombardier's CEO says that the company was a little
late on chasing opportunities in Iran but should be able to catch up
with its rivals following Canada's lifting of sanctions. "We
started maybe a little bit behind but I'm pretty sure we're going to
be able to catch up now," Alain Bellemare said in an interview.
He said Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion's move earlier this
year to lift sanctions has been useful in helping to gain market
access. With teams on the ground now in Iran, Bellemare said he's not
concerned about winning its share of new orders, although the process
is challenging. The Montreal-based plane and train maker sees
opportunities to sell regional rail services along with regional jets
and CSeries planes as Iranian companies look to modernize.
State-run energy giant Pertamina officially received a
cargo of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from Iran on Thursday, marking
Iran's first shipment as a new supplier of LPG to Indonesia. Pertamina
president director Dwi Soetjipto welcomed the 44,000 metric tons of
LPG transported from Asaluyeh Port in Iran 13 days ago by its VLGC
Pertamina Gas 2 vessel, at Kalbut Port in Situbondo, East Java.
According to him, the LNG shipment from the National Iranian Oil
Company (NIOC) would open up other business development opportunities
between Pertamina and the NIOC, in both the upstream and downstream
sectors. "It marks a new chapter of cooperation between
Pertamina and the NIOC and makes trade cooperation between Indonesia
and Iran more significant," Dwi said in a statement on
Thursday... In addition to the LPG purchase, the two state-run
companies signed an agreement to conduct a preliminary study of two
giant oil fields in Iran, namely Ab-Teymour and Mansouri, which have
an oil reserve of more than 5 billion barrels.
Oil refiner Showa Shell Sekiyu bought 55 percent of
Japan's crude imports from Iran in January-June, said Chief Executive
Officer Tsuyoshi Kameoka. Japan imported 205,871 barrels per day
(bpd) of Iranian oil in the first half of 2016, trade ministry data
showed, meaning Showa Shell's imports during the period would be
around 113,000 bpd.
Ithraa, Oman's inward investment and export promotion
agency and Iran's Trade Promotion Organization recently signed a
memorandum of understanding (MoU) to further broaden mutual
co-operation in trade and investment. The MoU was signed by Dr Ali
bin Masoud al Sunaidy, Oman's Minister of Commerce and Industry and
Eng Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, the Islamic Republic of Iran's Minister
of Industry, Mines and Trade at the recent sixth meeting of the Oman
-Iran Economic Joint Committee held in Tehran... In an effort to
boost maritime trade links between the Sultanate and Iran, senior
management at Ithraa's Bandar Abbas office assisted Oman's National
Ferries Company (NFC) open a sales and service representative office
in the southern Iran city.
IMF President Christine Lagarde has promised to launch
consultations with US authorities to remove barriers on cooperation
between international and Iranian banks. Meeting with Iran's Economy
Minister Ali Tayebnia on the sidelines of the annual World Bank
summit in Washington DC., President of the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde pointed to persistence of certain
barriers to cooperation between major international banks and Iranian
banks asserting "negotiations will be held with US officials to
remove obstacles and expedite bolstering of Iran's ties with
international monetary institutions." She further touched upon
IMF's plan to launch a fresh round of collaborations with Iran saying
"proposals for cooperation will be made to Iran over various
areas like training and exchange of experience and technical
knowledge with other states."
HUMAN RIGHTS
The human rights organisation Redress has called on
the UK government to consider taking Iran to the international court
of justice (ICJ) over the sentencing of a British-Iranian woman to
five years in jail. It comes after a UN-mandated body of human rights
experts found that the ongoing detention of Nazanin
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters
Foundation, was arbitrary and that she was denied a fair trial and
discriminated against as a dual national... The UN working group on
arbitrary detention (WGAD), in response to a claim by Redress, ruled
that the Briton's imprisonment and her separation from her daughter,
who is in the care of her Iranian grandparents, was in breach of the
international covenant on civil and political rights. Redress said on
Thursday that Britain should bring a case against Iran before the ICJ
if it continued to refuse consular access to dual nationals held in
jail... Redress and Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband, Richard, who is
spearheading a campaign for his wife's release, have been critical of
the UK government's muted response to her detention.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
The White House doesn't want Americans to notice, but
the tide of war is not receding in the Middle East. The Navy this
week became part of the hot war in Yemen, with a U.S. warship
launching missiles against radar targets after American vessels were
fired on this week. Just when President Obama promised that American
retreat would bring peace to the region, the region pulls him back
in... But there's more to this story because the Houthis are one of
Iran's regional proxy armies. They are fighting to control Yemen
against a Saudi-led coalition that is trying to restore the former
Sunni Arab government in Sana'a. The U.S. has been quietly backing
the Saudis with intelligence and arms, though the Saudi coalition has
been fighting to a draw with the Houthis, who are supplied by Iran.
The cruise missiles used against the USS Mason are also used by
Hezbollah, another Iran proxy army. Don't expect the White House to
acknowledge this because the ironies here are something to behold.
Mr. Obama is backing the Saudis in Yemen in part to reassure them of
U.S. support after the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal that the Saudis
opposed. Mr. Obama's Iran deal was supposed to moderate Iran's
regional ambitions, so Mr. Obama could play a mediating role between
Tehran and Riyadh. But the nuclear deal has emboldened Iran, and
fortified it with more money, so now the U.S. is being drawn into
what amounts to a proxy war against Iran. Genius.
The inheritors of that imperial Persian tradition are
today's Shi'ite Iranians, and their present-day ambitions for the
Middle East-to deepen their influence across the area-will roil the
already tense region deeply over the next few years. While Iran's
path to nuclear armament has been temporarily stalled by a diplomatic
agreement, the sanctions relief it negotiated as a result is pouring
billions of dollars into its economy. A major part of that money will
be used to increase Iranian control over Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen,
Afghanistan and other fragile regional nations. They will put
increasing pressure on our principal ally, Israel, and continue to
collide with our Sunni allies, notably Saudi Arabia and the Gulf
states. The Iranians will also increase their ability to use
asymmetric weapons such as cyber and terrorism to influence public
opinion and increase their freedom to maneuver. And over time, the
Iranian relationship with Vladimir Putin's Russia will deepen. The
next President of the United States must take a proactive approach to
the Iranian challenge. Simply hoping that our allies and friends in
the region will be able to resist Iran on their own, or with minimal
levels of assistance, will lead to Iranian domination of the
region... The paradox of Iran is that over time, by interacting with
the Iranians, we have the best chance of bringing their young and
dynamic population into a more responsible global position, against
the desires of the aging theocracy. In the meantime, we will need a
robust military and cyber deterrent posture alongside our allies in
this turbulent region. That combination of deterrence and dialogue is
our best hope for improving relations over time.
Iran and the United States are trading jabs-missile
jabs-off the coast of Yemen, in the Sea of Aden. It is a dangerous
game that could escalate. At stake is the main waterway that flows
from Asia and Africa all the way to Europe. Here is the order of events...and
a little background. Yemen is in crisis, torn apart by a civil war
between Saudi-supported established traditional Sunni leadership and
Shiite Houthis backed by Iran. A change in the intensity of the
conflict came two weeks ago when the Houthi attacked an auxiliary
naval ship sailing under a United Emirates flag. The attack took
place off the coast of Yemen, in the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of
East Africa. This is in the area of the enormously strategic Strait
of Bab el Mandeb. Bab el Mandeb links the Gulf of Aden and the Red
Sea. The Red Sea connects the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean
Sea. Whoever controls that strait controls all shipping to
Europe. Yemen sits at the mouth of that strategic strait. Iran,
which already controls many of these areas along the coast Gulf of
Aden, is sponsoring the challenge to take over Yemen to gain total
control of the shipping lane. Get the picture? Iran is not a neighbor
of Yemen or of the Strait of Bab el Mandeb. Iran is situated on the
parallel gulf to the west-the Persian Gulf. But Iran wants more
control in that region and they especially want control of the Strait
of Bab el Mandeb. The United States and the Sunnis, each for their
own reasons, cannot permit Bab el Mandeb to fall into Iranian hands,
which would exponentially increase Tehran's power.
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