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The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has sought to reassure Israel and its Gulf allies that Iran will never acquire atomic weapons, ahead of the possible renewal of the nuclear deal with Tehran.

When it comes to the most important element, we see eye to eye, Blinken said at a news conference on Sunday with Israels foreign minister, Yair Lapid. We are both committed, both determined, that Iran will never acquire a nuclear weapon.

Blinkens comments came before a meeting with four Arab foreign ministers at an extraordinary summit hosted by Israels prime minister, Naftali Bennett an event that in itself shows how the landscape of Israels relations with some Arab states has been transformed in the past 18 months, driven partly by fears about the imminent end of Irans economic isolation.

The US also sought to reassure the ad hoc alliance that Washington would not agree to Irans demand for the US to lift its designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organisation.

Speaking at the Doha forum in Qatar, Robert Malley, the US special envoy on Iran, said: This is not a deal that is intended to resolve that issue. Many in the region view the IRGC in the same way we view them. I can tell you that the IRGC will remain sanctioned under US law, and our perceptions, our views, our policy towards the IRGC have not changed.

A senior adviser to Irans supreme leader insisted earlier at the same event that the removal of the IRGC from sanctions was a precondition for the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal. Talks on the deal have been under way for nearly a year in Vienna.

The IRGC is the national army and the national army cannot be listed as a terrorist group, said Sayyid Kamal Kharrazi. The real thing is that IRGC is very important for Iran and they are not going to compromise on that.

The IRGC is a centrepiece of the Iranians regimes power base, and its activities in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Syria have, in Irans eyes, been central to reducing the influence of Islamist terrorism, the US, and Gulf monarchies that depend on the US for their power.

The corps has been designated as a terrorist organisation since 2019 and had sanctions imposed upon it in 2017, but its activities across the Middle East have been kept off the table by Iran, which has insisted the agenda focus solely on the terms for Americas return to the nuclear deal.

The US walked out of the deal in 2018, leading Iran in stages to reduce its own commitments under the deal, including expanding its ability to enrich uranium.

Malley said the Biden administration could promise only that the US under its watch would remain in the deal so long as Iran remains in compliance with its terms.

Kharrazi said there were 500 other individuals and institutions subject to US sanctions that had direct impact on Irans relations with the west, and called for the US to take actions on those too.

Kharrazi, a former foreign minister, is the president of Strategic Council on Foreign Relations in Tehran and his views are closely in line with those of the Iranian regime.

Malley refused to be upbeat about a deal, saying: We have been pretty close for some time and that I think that tells you the difficulty of the issues that remain.

Also on Sunday, the EUs coordinator for the nuclear talks met Irans foreign minister and its chief negotiator. Working on closing the remaining gaps in the #ViennaTalks, the EU diplomat Enrique Mora tweeted before his trip. We must conclude this negotiation. Much is at stake.

In the US, Republican and Democrat senators are coming together to form an alliance this week to block any recognition of the IRGC or any lifting of sanctions on the organisation.

In a joint statement last week, the Israeli prime minister and foreign minister said: The IRGC is a terrorist organisation that has murdered thousands of people including Americans. We refuse to believe that the US would remove its designation as a terrorists organisation. The IRGC are Hezbollah in Lebanon, Jihad in Gaza, they are Houthis in Yemen, they are the militias in Iraq. They kill Jews because they are Jews, they kill Christians because they are Christian, and Muslims because they refuse to surrender to them.

Speaking in Israel, Blinken nevertheless defended the principle of trying to revive the Iran nuclear deal, saying: The US believes that a return to full implementation of the deal is the best way to put Irans nuclear programme back in the box that it was in, but has escaped from since the United States withdrew from that agreement.

But whether theres a deal or not, our commitment to the core principle of Iran never acquiring a nuclear weapon is unwavering. And one way or another, we will continue to coordinate closely with our Israeli partners on the way forward.

The Israel summit was also attended by foreign ministers from Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.

Malley revealed that the British have taken on the task of negotiating the release of US dual nationals still held in Iran, including Morad Tabhaz, the tri-national who was not released nearly a fortnight ago along with Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Roxanne Tahbaz, his daughter, has accused the UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, of a betrayal of her family.

When Tahbaz was allowed out on furlough the family complained about the number of armed guards accompanying him. He was subsequently sent back to Evin prison but then moved to a hotel in Tehran after representations by the British and American governments, the Foreign Office said.

Read this article:
Iran will never acquire nuclear weapons, US promises Israel - The Guardian

MPs are to examine why ministers delayed paying a debt to Iran even though they knew the payment was likely to lead to the release of two British-Iranian detainees.

The foreign affairs select committee formally confirmed it was launching an inquiry adding that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori deserved the truth. Both were released a fortnight ago and returned to the UK from Iran after payment of the 400m debt on the understanding the money was used for humanitarian purposes.

The committee chair, Tom Tugendhat, said: After years of imprisonment in extremely difficult circumstances Nazanin and Anoosheh are right to ask for answers. The pair had been held for almost six years and more than four years respectively in Iran.

The Middle East minister, Alistair Burt, has already written to the committee saying he had contacts with Iranian ministers who repeatedly told him that the UK refusal to pay the debt was making the dual nationals release more difficult to secure. He said he argued inside the government that the 400m sum was not a ransom, but an internationally acknowledged debt.

The debt arose out of an upfront payment in 1971 to the UK by the Iranian government under the Shah of Iran for more than 1,700 Chieftain tanks.

Only 175 of the tanks were delivered by the UK despite receiving the Iranian money due to the takeover of Iran by a revolutionary regime in 1979.

Tulip Siddiq, the Labour MP representing Zaghari-Ratcliffe, had called for the select committee inquiry into the Foreign Office handling of the issue. She said: I know that the Foreign Office cannot reasonably be held responsible for the arbitrary detention of its nationals abroad, but it also cannot escape scrutiny and challenge for its clear shortcomings in trying to secure their release particularly from Iran. Other countries including Australia, France, Germany, Canada and the US have had greater success in securing the fair treatment and release of prisoners held for leverage on false charges.

The husband of Nazanin, Richard, and I have known since the start that Nazanins imprisonment was linked to the historic debt we owed to Iran, yet it was only after many years of pressure that this was finally resolved. While in Iran, Nazanin was blindfolded, handcuffed, interrogated and subjected to solitary confinement, sleep deprivation and torture. The government has serious questions to answer about why this was allowed to happen to an innocent British citizen, who was caught as a pawn in a political dispute between two countries.

The inquiry should look at why the deal that the UK and Iran supposedly made in 2021 to resolve the debt and bring Nazanin home collapsed.

Originally posted here:
MPs to examine why UK delayed Iran payment that freed detainees - The Guardian

A German-Iranian dissident facing the threat of the death penalty in Tehran has been allowed to call his family from solitary confinement for the first time in seven months, his family said on Friday.

Jamshid Sharmahd has been kept in isolation at a secret location since he was snatched by Iranian agents while travelling to India in August 2020, his family said.

His family believe a growing public campaign, greater efforts by the German government to secure his release and the near conclusion of talks about resuming the 2015 nuclear deal in Vienna all contributed to persuading the Iranian authorities to let him call his family.

Mr Sharmahd, a US-based critic of the regime, has been accused of involvement in a 2008 mosque bombing in Iran that killed 14 people. He has denied any involvement in the attack but is currently standing trial without independent legal representation.

He has a variety of health problems and has been left with just two teeth, he told his wife in a telephone call lasting a few minutes on his 67th birthday this week.

We dont know if they knocked his teeth out or they fell out because he was not getting any sunlight or vitamins, his US-based daughter Gazelle Sharmahd said.

He told his wife during the short call this week that he had been interrogated daily and forced to sign documents. His family do not know where he is being held and he warned them that if they asked any questions, he would have to put the phone down.

The software engineer complained of high blood pressure, shortness of breath and difficulties walking because of the lack of space to exercise in his tiny cell.

He also said he was not receiving his medicine on time, a similar complaint to other dual-nationals held in Iran. He needs medicine every three hours for Parkinsons disease.

His voice was very, very weak, said his daughter. Im very afraid for my dads health even if they dont give him the death sentence.

Mr Sharmahd built the website for the Kingdom Assembly of Iran or Tondar a US-based group that sought the overthrow of the Iranian regime and replacement with the monarchy.

The group claimed responsibility of the 2008 mosque attack on the website. Iran claims Mr Sharmahd headed its militant wing but his family say he has never been involved in terrorism.

Mr Sharmahd was previously targeted in a 2009 assassination plot at his home in California, but the plot was foiled when a member of the team confessed to police.

An Iranian government agent later pleaded guilty to paying a hitman $32,000 to kill Mr Sharmahd.

His family have pinned their hopes on him being released as a condition of the US resuming the 2015 nuclear deal. The US said this week there were only a small number of issues outstanding before an agreement could be wrapped up.

Some 20 foreign and dual national prisoners including from the US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Sweden and Austria are held in Iran, most detained while visiting family or conducting business. Most have been jailed on national security charges that their governments say are fabricated.

Rights group Amnesty International said Mr Sharmahd was at risk from a grossly unfair trial and had been detained in circumstances akin to enforced disappearance .

Updated: April 01, 2022, 8:11 PM

Read more from the original source:
Dual-national dissident jailed in Iran calls family for first time in months - The National

Russias flagship airline Aeroflot will resume flights to Iran today. The resumption comes nearly one month after Russia suspended Aeroflots

Russias Aeroflot will resume flights to Iran starting from today Photo: Islamic Republic News Agency

Russias flagship airline Aeroflot will resume flights to Iran today.

The resumption comes nearly one month after Russia suspended Aeroflots global operations in response to European countries halting flights to (and over) Russia. Required by international sanctions imposed on Moscow, major aviation lessors were given until March 28 to obtain their aircraft in Russia. Russia had leased over 500 airplanes across all of its airlines. Lessors failed to seize most planes as they were not voluntarily returned and lessors were not allowed into the country. Further, Putin signed a bill in mid-March allowing Russian airlines to re-register foreign aircraft to the domestic registry.

As a result, lessors have been thrust into default. In the medium to long term, the business community in the West is unlikely to lease aircraft to Russia again as companies have recently signaled hesitation to market re-entry. Since most of the worlds major aircraft leasing companies reside in the West, Russia may try to offset the absence of new aircraft by increasing domestic production. However, it wont be sustainable due to a lack of qualified aircraft engineers. Thus, Moscow will also likely pursue commercial deals with China, which has several large aircraft leasing companies.

Wake up smarter with an assessment of the stories that will make headlines in the next 24 hours. DownloadThe Daily Brief.

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Russia's Aeroflot resumes flights to Iran - Foreign Brief

Just when you thought it couldnt get any worse, it does. The Biden administration is working on a plan that would make the world a far more dangerous place.

Its a plot with three steps, all terrible and each arguably worse than the previous one.

Step One is the determination to make a new sweetheart nuclear deal with Iran. There is no good reason, only the fetish to undo everything Donald Trump did.

He wisely scuttled the first bad deal, so President Biden is hellbent on making a new one, and is close to the finish line, meaning Iran could escape sanctions and its oil could hit the world market.

Step Two in the budding disaster is that the White House is letting the butcher of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, broker the talks between America and Iran. As I noted last week, on one hand, Putin is a war criminal raining death and destruction on millions of civilians, and on the other hand, we trust him to make an ironclad deal that blocks the mad mullahs from getting the ultimate weapons of mass destruction.

Oh, and in consideration of Putins efforts for world peace, any construction work Russia does in Iran related to the nuke deal would be exempt from sanctions imposed over Ukraine. As Biden would say, no joke.

If this sounds absolutely insane, get a load of Step Three. The Biden bots are actively considering, as a bonus to the mullahs, removing the terrorist designation of their main military group, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Recall that Trump droned the longtime commander of the Guards elite Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who was responsible for killing and maiming thousands of American soldiers in Iraq. Soleimani had spread terror in the region for decades, yet Biden said during the 2020 campaign he would not have ordered the hit.

His objection is probably relevant to the fact that Iran added the demand about removing the terror label. They figured they were pushing on an open door with the appeaser in chief.

For Biden, hell likely say yes to the demand for the same reason he wants a whole new deal in the first place: Trump. The former president put the terror designation on the Revolutionary Guards in 2019, a year before he eliminated Soleimani.

Reports say all the group must do is pledge to make nice and stop killing Irans enemies across the Middle East and a separate agreement will lift the sanctions blocking its financing, travel, etc., as if its the Chamber of Commerce.

The whole notion is so far off the charts that the Jewish News Syndicate reports that Israeli leaders, already unhappy about the prospect of any deal with Iran, initially refused to believe the White House would even consider giving a free pass to the Revolutionary Guards.

Convinced the proposal is real, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid issued a furious statement denouncing the group as responsible for attacks on American civilians and American forces throughout the Middle East and said it was behind plans to assassinate senior American government officials.

Bennett and Lapid continued: The IRGC were involved in the murder of hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians; they destroyed Lebanon and they are brutally oppressing Iranian civilians. They kill Jews because they are Jews, Christians because they are Christians, and Muslims because they refuse to surrender to them.

Former American diplomats who have advised both Democrats and Republicans in the region agreed the idea stinks.

Dennis Ross tweeted that the concept makes us look naive and, citing the groups recent rocket attacks in Iraq that nearly struck an American consulate, added: For the IRGC, which admitted this week to firing rockets into Erbil, to promise to de-escalate regionally is about as credible as Putin saying Russia would not invade Ukraine.

Ambassador Martin Indyk tweeted that removing the Guards from the terror list would be seen as a betrayal by many US allies who suffered from their brutal terrorism.

Nonetheless, it looks as if Biden wants to give the terrorists a pass in exchange for a vague promise. The White House has said no decision has been reached, which probably means it has but officials wont defend it publicly until the agreement is signed.

There is one potential roadblock to all the madness, and that is the Senate. Because the entire package is new, Senate approval is required.

Many people believe it should be considered a formal treaty, which would require two-thirds support. Instead, Democrats are likely to try to use an end run similar to the one they used in 2015 to get the first deal through.

After a GOP-led filibuster effort failed, 58 to 42, the pact was deemed approved through what one critic called brilliant political subterfuge. That critic, Eric R. Mandel, director of the Middle East Political Information Network, writes in The Hill: So, lets recap: Forty-two senators were able to bind America to an agreement that should have required the votes of 66 senators for a treaty.

If the Senate lets anything like that happen again, it will prove that Bidens love of extremely bad ideas is contagious.

Crime-wise, New York was a tale of good and bad news last week.

Mayor Adams first anti-gun units hit the streets and one team made a big bust two hours into its first tour. A Bronx 20-year-old said to be a gang member was charged with carrying an illegal 9mm pistol after being searched.

Adams called suspect David Chevarria the poster child of the failing system because he previously was arrested three times for gun possession and attempted murder, yet was released on bail.

Its also good news that Gov. Hochul finally joined the fight against Albanys criminal coddlers, saying she will demand big changes, including in the porous bail laws. One item would give judges more discretion, which is a no-brainer.

The bad news came via NYPD statistics showing serious crime through March 13 was up 45% over last year. Remember, too, 2021 saw a dramatic increase over 2020, which saw a big jump over 2019.

So in the third year of a crime wave, the cavalry is coming. Lets hope its not too little, too late to save the city.

Readers spot various meanings from the Times belatedly calling Hunter Bidens e-mails authentic.

Mark Williams writes, The news here is that the Times is signaling they dont want Biden to run in 2024.

Mary Maillis hopes to use the momentum to end the silencing of conservatives, writing: The only way is to do what liberals do. Hold massive demonstrations outside Twitter and Facebook until they stop discriminating against conservatives.

And Thomas McFadden explains the Gray Ladys switch this way: It seems the science has changed!

Read the rest here:
Joe Bidens Iran plan is a total disaster - New York Post