Iran Focus
London, 2 May – The Supreme Leader of Iran has refused point blank to negotiate Iran’s malign role in the Middle East or its ballistic missile programme, something that Donald Trump wanted to fix under the nuclear deal.
Ali Khamenei instead accused the US Treasury Department of waging an economic war against Iran for the sanctions that have been imposed by the US over the past year, which relate to Iran’s human rights abuses and sponsorship of terrorism among other things.
Iran Focus
London, 2 May – At the beginning of the week, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu was in Tel Aviv to deliver a speech about Iran’s former nuclear weapons program.
He presented evidence to show that before the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was negotiated, Iran has been working on nuclear weapons – not pursuing the civilian nuclear power that it declared.
Although the Israeli Prime Minister was not accusing Iran of still working on the program, he said that it shows the nuclear deal is based on lies and that Iran cannot be trusted.
Iran Focus
London, 1 May – After being indicted on April 19, 2018 for violating export control laws under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), Sadr Emad-Vaez, Pouran Aazad, and Hassan Ali Moshir-Fatemi made their initial appearances in district court.
The defendants were charged in a three-count indictment with the following crimes: conspiracy to violate the IEEPA, in violation of 50 U.S.C. §§ 1701-1705; a substantive violation of the IEEPA, 50 U.S.C. § 1705; and smuggling, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 554(a) and 2. The indictment alleges the defendants engaged in transactions involving the illegal export of goods and services to Iran and financial transactions designed to evade the Iranian Transactions Sanctions Regulations (ITSR).
By Edward Carney
Last week, the US House of Representatives held debate over a bill that would impose new sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran for its longstanding record of human rights violations and hostage-taking. The bill was introduced by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul and quickly acquired 46 co-sponsors, including both Democrats and Republicans.
Notably, as Iran Human Rights Monitor pointed out on Friday, the addition of an amendment by Ted Poe, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, made Resolution 4744 the first potentially binding congressional resolution to include language referring to the massacre of Iranian political prisoners in 1988.
Iran Focus
London, 1 May – In parts of Iran, especially in the oil-rich southwestern province of Khuzestan, sand and dust storms are growing in intensity and frequency.
Residents are being forced to move to cities where the weather conditions are bearable, says Javad Kazem Nasab Albaji, an MP from the Khuzestan capital, Ahvaz. State-run Iran Labor News Agency (ILNA), cites Albaji as blaming “dust particle centers” for the outward migration from his province.
Iran Focus
London, 30 Apr – Iran is currently going through a major economic crisis that is affecting the lives of the Iranian people and the country’s trade. The problems are devastating for many and to make matters worse, the problems have been caused by the corrupt leadership that has been in place for decades.
Iran Focus
London, 27 Apr – The deteriorating economic situation in Iran is a factor that potentially gives the United States leverage in the negotiations over the Iran nuclear deal.
In the past several weeks, the rial, Iran’s currency, has lost 25 per cent of its value against the dollar. Tehran set an official exchange rate of 42,000 rials to the dollar —a move that is not likely to succeed, as market prices of the rial are 60,000 to the dollar.
Iran Focus
London, 27 Apr – A number of reports this week have suggested that the economic crisis in the Islamic Republic of Iran is very much ongoing, in spite of the government’s effort to restrict foreign currency exchanges and otherwise interrupt the collapse in the value of the rial.
Earlier this month, the Iranian national currency fell to an exchange rate of more than 60,000 rials to the dollar, representing about half the value it had maintained last September. The government subsequently set an artificial rate of 42,000 rials to the dollar and banned currency traders from altering it. But EA Worldview reported on Tuesday that such stopgap measures had failed, with a number of exchanges opting to close down instead of adhering to the artificial rate.
By Jubin Katiraie
The future of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is hanging in the balance. Following meetings between United States President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, Iran is feeling the pressure.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also planned a visit to coincide with that of the Europeans. He is apparently attending the United Nations peace conference with other officials from around the world, but it is clear that he is there with regards to the nuclear deal.
Iran Focus
London, 26 Apr – The economic situation in Iran is in a dire state and more than a third of those that are not in employment in the country are university graduates. According to the government’s Planning and Management Organization (PMO), a staggering 42 per cent of the unemployed have a university degree.
