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TOP STORIES
In a cross-border strike, Iranian intelligence
operatives hunted down and killed the "mastermind" of the
terrorist attacks on two landmarks in Tehran last week, a top official
said. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks at
Iran's Parliament building and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic republic, which killed 17
people. The Iranian official, Mahmoud Alavi, the intelligence
minister, speaking on state television late Saturday night, described
the man who was killed as "the mastermind and commander of the
team" that carried out the assaults. The suspect, whose name was
not revealed, fled the country after the attacks, Mr. Alavi said, and
was captured and killed with "the help of intelligence services
of allied countries."
Western manufacturers are shying away from supplying
equipment for an Iranian port that India is developing for fear the
United States may reimpose sanctions on Tehran, Indian officials say,
dealing a blow to New Delhi's strategic ambitions in the region.
Lying on the Gulf of Oman along the approaches to the Straits of
Hormuz, the port of Chabahar is central to India's hopes to crack open
a transport corridor to Central Asia and Afghanistan that bypasses
arch-rival Pakistan. India committed $500 million to speed
development of the port after sanctions on Iran were lifted following
a deal struck between major powers and Tehran to curb its nuclear
program in 2015.
An Iranian airline that signed a $3 billion contract at
list prices with Boeing Co. is confident the deal won't face a
political backlash in Washington, days after the U.S. Senate voted to
advance a bill that could bring new sanctions against the Islamic
Republic. Aseman Airlines, a private company whose largest owner is
Iran's National Pension Fund, signed a final purchase agreement with
Boeing in Tehran on Saturday for 30 737 Max jets and an option for 30
more, spokesman Amir Reza Mostafavi said in an interview. Boeing will
deliver the first jets in 2022. "We're a commercial company,
like Boeing is a commercial company, and we're operating in an
economic sphere, not a political one," Mostafavi said "In
this area, work is moving forward and things are getting under
way."
SANCTIONS RELIEF
Iran's official IRNA news agency is reporting that the
country's Aseman Airlines has finalized a deal to purchase 60 planes
from the American company Boeing. The Saturday report said that the
planes will be delivered in two batches and the first batch will
consist of 30 737 passenger planes to be delivered in 2019. This is
the second deal between the Chicago-based Boeing and an Iranian
airliner since a landmark nuclear agreement between Iran and world
powers went into practice in 2016. In December Iran Air, the
country's flag carrier, finalized a $16.6 billion deal with Boeing to
purchase 80 passenger planes. In September, Washington granted
permission to Boeing and its European competitor Airbus to sell
billions of dollars worth of aircraft to Iran.
International energy companies including Total, Petronas
and Inpex, have presented technical surveys for the development of
the Azadegan oilfield, an Iranian oil official was quoted as saying
on Saturday. Tehran is looking to ramp up its crude output and with
37 billion barrels of oil, the Azadegan field is Iran's largest,
shared with its neighbor Iraq. It is located in southern Iran, 80 km
west of the Khuzestan provincial city of Ahvaz. The managing director
of Iran's Petroleum Engineering and Development Company was quoted by
Mehr news agency as saying that France's Total, Malaysia's Petronas,
and Japan's Inpex Corp. <1605 .t=""> have offered their surveys
on the field. Noureddin Shahnazizadeh added that some other companies
like Royal Dutch Shell, Italy's oil and gas group Eni, and China
National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) are also interested in the tender for
development of the oilfield.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Iran's Foreign Ministry has urged the Arab nations who
have cut ties to Qatar to negotiate an end to the crisis. Ministry
Spokesman Bahram Ghasemi tells reporters in a weekly news conference:
"These countries should try to settle their differences at the
negotiating table in a positive and comprehensive process." The
diplomatic crisis, the worst since the 1990 invasion of Kuwait by
Iraq and the subsequent Gulf War, has seen Arab nations and others
cut ties to Qatar, which hosts a major U.S. military base and will be
the host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Ghasemi also says of the
countries involved: "They should move toward peace and stability
in the region and we invite them to negotiating and exercising
restraint."
Iran has sent four cargo planes of food to Qatar and
plans to provide 100 tonnes of fruit and vegetable every day, Iranian
officials said, amid concerns of shortages after Qatar's biggest
suppliers severed ties with the import-dependent country. Qatar has
been in talks with Iran and Turkey to secure food and water supplies
after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain cut
links, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism. Qatar says the
allegations are based on lies. "Following the sanctions ... on
Qatar, IranAir has so far transported food and vegetables to this
country by four flights," Shahrokh Noushabadi, head of public
relations at Iran's national airline, was quoted as saying by Fars
news agency. The head of the industries, business and trade
organization in the Fars province was also quoted by the Tasnim news
agency as saying on Sunday the first planes carrying food to Qatar
had flown from the southern city of Shiraz.
The political crisis engulfing Qatar stems from
accusations by its Arab neighbors that it supports terrorism. Qatar
denies the allegations, but its ties with Iran and embrace of various
Islamist groups have brought intense scrutiny, made it a regional
outlier and created enough smoke to suggest a fire...A deal
negotiated recently to release kidnapped members of Qatar's ruling
family has been a source of anxiety for Gulf leaders, particularly in
Saudi Arabia, which views Iran as its top adversary. Qatar reportedly
paid hundreds of millions of dollars to an Iranian-backed Shiite
militia that had kidnapped the 26 hostages on Dec. 16, 2015 from a
desert camp for falcon hunters in southern Iraq.
MILITARY MATTERS
Two Iranian warships will leave for Oman on Sunday,
Iran's navy said, before starting their mission in the open seas.
"An Iranian naval flotilla will depart to Oman on Sunday and
then will go to the north of the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden,"
the public relations of the naval forces of the army said in a
statement published on the Tasnim news agency. Tasnim said the
flotilla included two warships.
IRAQ CRISIS
Iran voiced its opposition on Saturday to an
announcement by Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region that it will
organise a vote on independence later this year. "Iran's
principal position is to support the territorial integrity of
Iraq," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said. "The
Kurdistan region is part of the Iraqi republic and unilateral
decisions outside the national and legal framework, especially the
Iraqi constitution... can only lead to new problems." Iraqi
Kurdish leaders announced on Wednesday that they will organise an
independence referendum on September 25, not only in their
three-province autonomous region but also in other historically
Kurdish-majority areas they have long sought to incorporate in it.
Iran worries about separatism among its own Kurds, most of whom live
in areas along the border with Iraq.
HUMAN RIGHTS
A British toddler turns three today
trapped in Iran after her mother was thrown into prison for espionage
charges. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 38, was arrested out of the
blue at Tehran Airport in April 2016 after visiting the country with
her daughter Gabriella. The British and Iran dual-citizen was accused
of plotting to overthrow the Muslim government which her in-laws have
described as 'complete nonsense'. The project manager for
Thomson Reuters maintains her innocence but is currently serving a
five-year prison sentence in a notorious jail where up until
recently, her toddler daughter also stayed with her. But now as
Gabriella turns three today, she is trapped in Iran and unable to
come back to her home to see her father, a 42-year-old accountant who
lives in West Hampstead, London. Devastating, the family
haven't been together since Nazanin was arrested and jailed in a
court case where she wasn't even allowed to speak to see the charges
made against her, her family said.
DOMESTIC POLITICS
Iran has arrested almost 50 people in connection with
twin attacks on Tehran that killed 17 people last week, officials
said, as security forces stepped up efforts to crack down on
suspected militants. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the
suicide bombings and gun attacks on parliament and the mausoleum of
the Islamic Republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, on
Wednesday. Iran's intelligence minister Mahmoud Alavi said on
Saturday night that 43 suspects had been arrested and operations to
identify and crush more "terrorists cells" were under way.
On Sunday, the head of the justice department in Kordestan province
in western Iran announced more arrests. "Six people who were
certainly connected to Wednesday's terrorist attacks in Tehran were
identified and arrested," Aliakbar Garousi was quoted as saying
by the Fars news agency. Iran also said its security forces killed
the mastermind of the attacks on Saturday.
Iran's official IRNA news agency is reporting that
police have killed four Islamic State group-linked gunmen in the
country's south. The Monday report quotes the chief of police of
Hormozgan province, Gen. Azizollah Maleki, as saying his forces
killed the gunmen Sunday in a shootout near the town of Roudan, 1,200
kilometers (745 miles) southeast of Tehran. Maleki said police
confiscated an IS flag and four machine guns, bullets and some
explosives. He added that two of the four were foreigners. He did not
elaborate. Five IS-linked attackers stormed Iran's parliament and a
shrine to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on
Wednesday, setting off clashes with security forces and killing at
least 17 people and injuring more than 50.
Fighting between rival tribesmen in southern Iran left
22 people dead on Friday night, an Iranian lawmaker was quoted by
ILNA news agency as saying on Saturday. "The incident last night
in Ramhormoz county (in Khuzestan province) is rooted in an old
tribal conflict," the lawmaker, Hedayatollah Khademi, said.
"Unfortunately in last night's clash, advanced military weapons
were used and 22 people were killed," he said. Tribal fighting
is common in southern Iran, where gun battles can break out,
sometimes motivated by notions of traditional tribal justice.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
President Trump is hiring a chief executive for the
Broadcasting Board of Governors, the federal agency that oversees
Voice of America and other media outlets charged with beaming light
and liberty into closed societies world-wide. Politico reports the leading
contender is Michael Pack, a conservative filmmaker and president of
the Claremont Institute. Whoever gets the job faces an uphill battle
to reform an agency that has lost its sense of mission. To get a feel
for the dysfunction, consider Radio Farda, the Persian-language
component of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. With an annual budget
of $117 million, RFE/RL is supposed to serve as a surrogate press in
23 countries across Europe and Asia that restrict media freedom.
Farda is one of its most important broadcasters, intended to give
Iranians a rigorous, fair and morally credible alternative to
propaganda from Tehran.
Almost since the beginning of this millennium, Iran has
been an island of calm amid instability and violence. Afghanistan,
its neighbor to the east, descended into chaos following the
American-led invasion of 2001; Iraq, across its western border,
suffered the same fate after 2003. Eight years later, in 2011, Syria
erupted into civil war. Although Shiite Iran has been involved in the
conflicts that have ensued in all three of those neighbors - sending
men, money and arms to advance the fight against Sunni chauvinists
and their sponsors in the Gulf - its own territory has remained
remarkably untouched. Iran has been a functioning nation state where
the central authorities have enjoyed a monopoly of force and people
out of uniform have been overwhelmingly unarmed. Last year, on a trip
to Europe, the country's reform-minded president, Hassan Rouhani,
boasted that Iran was "the safest, the most stable country"
in the Middle East.
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