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TOP STORIES
Iran's national oil company said Monday that it has
offered 50 oil and gas fields to international bidders, the first time it
has done so since last year's landmark nuclear deal with world powers...
Iran's Oil Ministry announced Sunday it will invite foreign companies to
bid for oil and gas projects for the first time. On Monday, the ministry
released details, saying this would include 29 oil fields and 21 gas
fields. The ministry has said foreign companies should submit their
applications by Nov. 19, and that successful companies would be announced
on Dec. 7.
A U.S. Navy destroyer was targeted on Saturday in a failed
missile attack from territory in Yemen controlled by Iran-aligned Houthi
rebels, the third such incident in the past week, U.S. officials said.
Multiple surface-to-surface missiles were fired at the USS Mason sailing
in international waters in the Red Sea but the warship used on-board
countermeasures to defend itself and was not hit, one defense official
said, citing initial information. The latest attack could provoke further
retaliation by the U.S. military, which launched cruise missiles on
Thursday against three coastal radar sites in Houthi-controlled areas in
Yemen in response to the two previous failed missile firings against the
Mason. "The Mason once again appears to have come under attack in
the Red Sea, again from coastal defense cruise missiles fired from the
coast of Yemen," Admiral John Richardson, U.S. chief of naval
operations, said during a ship christening in Baltimore on Saturday.
Iran has rejected remarks by US Secretary of State John
Kerry that its policies in Syria and Yemen are blocking efforts to
encourage banks to do business with it. In an interview published Friday,
Kerry told Foreign Affairs magazine that Iranian support for Syrian President
Bashar Al-Assad, Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and Yemen's Huthi rebels
made it "very difficult" to help Iran improve its banking
system and business practices. "Mr Kerry's comments are totally
unacceptable," Iran's deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told
state television on Sunday night. "We are surprised. During the
nuclear negotiations, we clearly said that questions of security,
defence, ballistic missiles and our regional policies were not negotiable
and are not linked to the nuclear talks," he said. "It is
unacceptable that Mr Kerry is today talking of new conditions." ...
Kerry told Foreign Affairs that the US was meeting its commitments under
the deal. "We've lifted all the sanctions that we agreed to lift.
But there are other problems," he said. "We could help on
technology and certain other things. But it's very difficult when Iran is
engaged in Yemen and supporting Assad and supporting Hezbollah and firing
missiles that people deem to be threatening and so forth. That hugely
complicates efforts to move forward rapidly."
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
Hard-liners in Iran posted a video online Monday showing a
detained Iranian-American businessman for the first time since his arrest
in the country a year ago, a taunting challenge to the United States in
the wake of the nuclear deal with Tehran. The minute-long video featuring
Siamak Namazi, dubbed over with what sounded like a dramatic film score,
highlighted recent tensions between the Islamic Republic and the U.S. It
also comes as hard-liners in Iran's security forces continue to target
dual nationals and anyone with Western ties after the nuclear deal
negotiated by the moderate administration of President Hassan Rouhani.
The montage of clips includes an Iranian drone flying over a U.S.
aircraft carrier and American sailors on their knees after being briefly
detained by Iran in January. It shows Namazi's U.S. passport, his United
Arab Emirates ID card and a clip of him in a conference room, his arms
raised at his sides. At the end of the video, it shows a still image of
U.S. Rep. Ed Royce, a California Republican who chairs the House's
Foreign Affairs Committee. It quotes a statement by Royce from last year
describing Namazi's arrest as "latest show of contempt for
America." ... It wasn't clear why hard-liners chose to release the
video, which was posted online Monday by Iran's state-run Mizan judicial
news agency. However, it comes as Namazi, who earlier advocated for
closer ties between Iran and the U.S., faces his one-year anniversary of
being detained in Iran.
US plane manufacturer Boeing has reached an agreement with
an American bank to provide financing for Iran's purchase of airliners in
cooperation with a Japanese bank, an informed source announced. The
informed source at Iran's government said according to an agreement
between Boeing and a US bank, the purchase of the civil aircraft will be
financed via a Japanese bank.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
The Iranian government has invited a prestigious group of
international investors that includes the Heinz Family Office, Capital
Group and Fidelity to visit the country following the relaxation of trade
barriers between Iran and the west in January. The 20-20 Investment
Association, a group of influential investors overseeing $7tn of assets,
received the invitation from Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian president, after
the implementation of a landmark nuclear agreement between the country
and six leading powers at the start of the year. James Donald, head of
emerging markets at Lazard Asset Management, the US fund company that
oversees $174bn of assets, and a board member of the 20-20 association,
said the invitation reflected the Iranian government's desire to attract
more foreign investors... Mr Donald said: "The group at this stage
has not accepted the invitation. An awful lot of large government pension
plans have restrictions on Iranian investments and [on] any company that
does business in Iran. There is talk of [the remaining sanctions being
removed]. I think there would have to be a federal law change [for banks
and asset managers to move en masse into the Iranian market]."
Iran is ramping up efforts to woo foreign investment in an
energy industry stunted by years of sanctions, with a request for
companies to submit documents to pre-qualify as bidders to develop the
country's oil and natural gas fields. State-run National Iranian Oil Co.
will solicit documents from international companies starting Monday,
according to an announcement posted on the website of Shana, the oil
ministry's news service. Interested companies will have until Nov. 19 to
submit their qualifications, and the government will publish a list of
eligible bidders on Dec. 7, according to Shana. The announcement marks an
acceleration in Iran's effort to rejuvenate its energy industry since
economic sanctions were eased in January.
The country may tender the first field, the South Azadegan
deposit, to international companies as early as November, NIOC Managing
Director Kardor said. Total SA of France had been developing a technical
program for development of the field after signing a data-sharing
agreement with Iran earlier this year, Kardor said. NIOC signed 10
agreements giving foreign companies access to data on its fields with the
aim of bringing in partners to boost output, he said. Total is also in
the running to develop Iran's South Pars 11 gas development, Kardor said.
A first oil development agreement with an international company could be
signed by March for South Azadegan, he said.
HUMAN RIGHTS
A group of Iranian lawmakers has written an open letter to
the head of the judiciary calling for the release of Narges Mohammadi, an
activist sentenced to 10 years in prison. Mohammadi, 44, has campaigned
against the death penalty and was awarded the City of Paris medal earlier
this year for her work on women's rights. Arrested in May last year, the
mother-of-two was sentenced in April to a total of 16 years in prison on
various charges, including "forming and managing an illegal
group". In the letter published by Iranian media on Sunday, the
lawmakers call on Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, the head of the judiciary,
"to apply the clemency and mercy of the Islamic republic" and
reunite her with her children. They also highlight Mohammadi's medical
problems including "muscular paralysis". Among the signatories
were parliamentary vice president Ali Motahari and several female MPs.
Iranian media says authorities have detained 11 members of
a "modeling and decadence network." The semi-official Tasnim
news agency said Sunday that the network was involved in producing and
publishing pornographic pictures on social media. It said authorities
shuttered three underground studios used for the purpose. The report said
the 11 people detained were "key elements" of the network,
which was active in the southeastern city of Zahedan.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
We've even gone beyond it in efforts to try to make sure
that banks that are reluctant to do business [in Iran] for various
reasons will do business. We've lifted all the sanctions that we agreed
to lift. But there are other problems. We need to help Iran recognize
that it has some challenges internally it has to deal with relative to
its own banking system, to its own business practices, its
transparency... But it's very difficult when Iran is engaged in Yemen and
supporting Assad and supporting Hezbollah and firing missiles that people
deem to be threatening and so forth. That hugely complicates efforts to
move forward rapidly. I think the supreme leader is, unfortunately,
extremely suspicious of the West and us. And that puts internal pressures
on the political system. That's unfortunate. But over time, my hope is
that Iran will rejoin the community of nations in constructive ways to
try to make the region more stable and bring peace to places that need
it.
The big beneficiary of the war is Iran. It provides the
rebels diplomatic support and limited military assistance. In return, it
bogs down the Saudis, Emiratis and its other Gulf enemies in a quagmire
in Yemen that is expensive in lives and treasure, when oil prices are
depressing their economies at home. Tehran is all too happy to fight to
the last Yemeni... The Iranians would be delighted to see America get
even more bogged down in another war in the Middle East.
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