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Japan will ask travelers from Europe as well as Egypt and Iran to self-quarantine for 14 days after their arrival in an attempt to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday.

The temporary measure from Saturday to the end of April will target all travelers from 38 countries, Abe told a meeting of a government task force on the coronavirus.

During the two-week period, visitors from the targeted countries will be asked not to use public transportation in Japan.

The Foreign Ministry will invalidate visas already issued to people from the 38 countries, also covering the period from Saturday to the end of April.

From Thursday, Japan also strengthened its border controls by imposing an entry ban on people coming from parts of Spain, Switzerland and Italy as well as all of Iceland.

Foreign travelers who have been to the areas within 14 days of arrival in Japan will be refused entry for the time being, Abe said without elaborating.

Given the situation of the spread of infection, we decided we would need to further enhance quarantine for 38 nations, including European countries under the Schengen agreement, Abe said at the Cabinet-level meeting.

Foreign and Japanese travelers coming from the countries will be urged to stay at places designated by a quarantine officer for 14 days and to refrain from using public transportation. There will be no specific enforcement measures.

Countries under the Schengen agreement are Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Other countries subject to quarantine are Andorra, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Ireland, Monaco, Romania, San Marino, the United Kingdom, and Vatican City.

Japan is scrambling to prevent a surge in domestic infections with the Tokyo Olympics roughly four months away. The viral outbreak has led countries around the world to impose travel restrictions, casting a pall over the global economy.

The latest steps mirror those already taken for travelers from China and South Korea, both hit hard by the pandemic.

As the number of cases has topped 200,000 globally, Abe called on Japanese citizens to exercise caution if they plan to go overseas, issuing a Level 1 warning, the lowest, for the rest of the world.

For Iceland and parts of some regions in Italy, Spain and Switzerland, which are subject to the entry ban, Japan has already warned its citizens to avoid all travel by raising the alert to Level 3.

The ban covers the northern Italian regions of Valle dAosta, Trentino-Alto Adige, Fruili-Venezia Giulia and Liguria. Also included are the Swiss cantons of Ticino and Basel-Stadt, along with the Spanish provinces of Madrid and La Rioja as well as Navarre and the Basque Country.

The focus of the outbreak that began in China in December has shifted to Europe, triggering unprecedented steps by the European Union, which promotes the free movement of goods and people. The United States has already restricted travel from the continent.

EU leaders agreed Tuesday to impose a 30-day restriction on nonessential travel to the bloc to limit the spread of the virus. Italy, hit by the largest number of infections after China, has already imposed a nationwide lockdown.

French President Emmanuel Macron has ordered people in France to stay at home for up to 15 days.

COVID-19 has infected more than 71,000 people and killed over 3,330 across Europe, the majority in hard-hit Italy, Spain and France.

The World Health Organization called for bold action to be taken against the pandemic on the continent, the outbreaks new epicenter.

In Japan, the government has called for the scaling back or cancellation of major events, as well as school closures.

Everything from soccer matches and concerts have been affected, while the spring sumo tournament is being held behind closed doors.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has also urged residents to refrain from joining parties at parks during the cherry blossom season.

The Foreign Ministry has detailed its recent steps in English on its website: http://www.mofa.go.jp/ca/fna/page6e_000199.html.

Link:
Japan to ask all travelers arriving from Europe, Egypt and Iran to self-quarantine - The Japan Times

If Irans leaders thought things couldnt get worse, they were wrong. The country faces three simultaneous crises: a public health emergency that is worsening by the hour, tensions with the United States that have once again grown in the past few days, and an economic picture that could go from troubled to dire in a matter of months.

The confluence of a coronavirus pandemic, security threats, and financial troubles has deepened the political systems legitimacy crisis in the wake of last months parliamentary elections that saw the lowestturnoutin the Islamic Republics history. Washington might view this as a validation of its so-called maximum pressure strategy against Tehran, but if it fails to capitalize on this moment to de-escalate tensions and lay the groundwork for a mutually beneficial diplomatic settlement, the leadership in Tehran is likely to become more aggressive in the region, increasing the risk of a conflict that neither side appears to want.

Since the dramaticescalationsof late 2019 and early 2020, which culminated in the killing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Suleimani and Iranian missile strikes on Iraqi bases hosting U.S. forces, both Iran and the United States appeared content to return to their respective corners.

But there has been a steady stream of incidents in Iraq, with at least seven attacks near U.S. diplomatic facilities insideBaghdads Green Zone and U.S. military installations in Iraq throughout January and February. These attacks spiked on March 11 following a barrage of rockets that killed three members of the U.S.-led coalition, including two Americans, and injured more than a dozen others at an Iraqi army base, Camp Taji, north of Baghdad.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper subsequentlyassessedthat Iranian-backed Shiite militia groups were responsible. Secretary of State Mike Pompeowarnedthat those responsible must be held accountable. A day later, the United Statesretaliatedagainst an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia in Iraq, which in turnfiredmore rockets into Camp Taji on March 14 and again on March 17.

This latest moment of peril is playing out against the backdrop of a dramatic COVID-19 outbreak in Iran, which has the third-highestnumberof confirmed cases and fatalities anywhere in the world. The Iranian government was slow inresponding to the outbreak; and when it finally realized its scale and scope, Tehran was hampered by shortages caused by sanctions. Moreover, the government has kept a worryingly tight grip on the information flow to save face, prompting fears that the death tollcurrently listed as 988is probably muchhigherthan the official figures suggest.

With Tehrans initial response being dismissive of the risks of the viruss spread and slow to mobilize against it, the government is now pleading for international assistance. Having already scored several calamitous own goals in recent monthsraising fuel prices with little warning in November 2019, then violently suppressing subsequent protests, and in January downing a Ukrainian civilian airliner in the apparent belief it was an incoming U.S. missilethe governments response to the coronavirus crisis could increase the populations sense that its leadership is incompetent.

Meanwhile, the impact of the rapidly spreading disease and collapse in oil prices will likely present almost unprecedented challenges to an economy that is already beset by government mismanagement and under siege from U.S. sanctions.

One Iranian officialcalculateda drop of 18 percent in trade as a result of the pandemicand that was before Iraq, a key regional trade partner, announced a fullclosureof the two countries common land borders and the price of crude tumbled below $30 per barrel. (While Irans exports have been blocked by the United States since April 2019, it has continued to make sales to China, albeit at sharply reducedlevels.) The combination of reduced regional trade, evaporation of remaining oil revenue, and COVID-19simpacton domestic business could prove catastrophic.

But that doesnt mean that Tehran will bow to U.S. pressure and back down. Indeed, since May 2019, when the Iranian government chose to counter U.S. maximum pressure with a blend of nuclear and regional provocations, the systems hard-liners have contended that high-risk brinkmanship yields greater dividends than restraint.

The coronavirus outbreak has now put more pressure on the leaderships calculus. Feeling besieged and with no obvious diplomatic exit ramp, Iran might conclude that only a confrontation with the United States might change a trajectory thats heading in a very dangerous direction. This isalso the view of Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, whotoldCongress on March 10 that the outbreak probably makes them, in terms of decision-making, more dangerous rather than less dangerous.

With U.S. President Donald Trump focused on the domestic economic and electoral effects of the coronavirus and the Iranian leadership highly reluctant to display any weakness to the United States, neither side is likely in the mood to engage the other.

That would be a missed opportunity. Indeed, both Washington and Tehran have floated ideas that, if acted upon, could break the current vicious cycle. Pompeo hasurgedthe Iranian governmentwhich furloughed tens of thousands of convictsdue to fears of an epidemic in prisonsto free U.S. prisoners and other dual and foreign nationals on humanitarian grounds. The death of any of those inmates from COVID-19 would be a stain Iran might find hard to erase.

Conversely, Iran hasaskedthe International Monetary Fund for emergency funding and a substantiallistof essential equipment ranging from gloves and masks to portable respiration and X-ray machines. If the Trump administration stands in the way of such basic needsby voting against an IMF loan to Iranthe United States would find it hard to overcome the impression that it had acted inhumanely.

The most logical and mutually beneficial outcome would be a two-phased humanitarian de-escalation. Iran would need to first agree to furlough all detained foreigners as the U.S. facilitates the transfer of medicine and medical equipment Iran needs to contain the outbreak and save lives without any sanctions-relateddelays.

In the second phase, the U.S. government could agree not to block the IMF loan to Iran while Tehran freezes its nuclear escalation and reins in its allied groups in Iraq, preventing any further attacks on U.S. forces and assets. This phase could also comprise another prisoner swap, either on par with the one-for-one exchange that happened back inDecemberor, even better, a broader exchange of prisoners. This would be a win-win: putting tensions with Iran on ice, providing Trump with another success in his efforts to free Americans detained abroad, and providing Tehran with some economic reprieve and the means to save lives at home.

Since 2018, when the Trump administration pulled out of the nuclear deal with Iran, Washington and Tehran have been on a collision course pitting unrealistic U.S. demands against Iranian inflexibility. For either side to let a possible diplomatic off-ramp pass by would mean that a dangerous and deadly situation might again take a turn for the worse.

Read more from the original source:
Faced With the Coronavirus, the United States and Iran Must Use Humanitarian Diplomacy to Dial Down Tensions - Foreign Policy

An Iranian national was extradited to Texas after allegedly exporting military sensitive items to Iran between 2007 and 2011, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.

Merdad Ansari, an Iranian citizen and a resident of the United Arab Emirates, arrived in San Antonio, Texas, on Saturday evening, the DOJ said in a statement. Ansari, 38, faces federal charges in connection with an alleged scheme to give military sensitive items to Iranin violation of the Iranian tradeembargo.

Ansari and his co-defendant, Mehrdad Foomanie, who remains a fugitive, were charged in June 2012 with conspiracy to violate the Iranian Transactions Regulations (ITR), conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The ITR prohibits the sale of any goods from the U.S. or by a U.S. citizen to Iran.

The parts thepair allegedly sold or attempted to sell were considered dual-use for military and civilian capability and used for systems like nuclear weapons, missile guidance and development, secure tactical radio communications, offensive electronic warfare, military electronic counter measures and radar warning and surveillance systems, the DOJ said.

As alleged, the defendant helped Iran to develop its weapons programs by obtaining military parts in violation of the Iranian Trade Embargo, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers said in a statement.

FBI San Antonio Division Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs also thanked the government in the former Soviet republic of Georgia for supporting the extradition.

Foomanie allegedly bought or attempted to buy U.S. items and planned to have them shipped to Iran through his Hong Kong, Chinese and Iranian companies.

Between Oct. 9, 2007, and June 15, 2011, the defendants received or attempted to receive more than 105,000 partswith an estimated cost of $2,630,800, according to the Justice Department.

Foomanie and Ansari could face up to45 years in federal prison if convicted on all the charges.

A third co-defendant, Susan Yip, also known as Susan Yeh, who is a citizen of Taiwan, was sentenced to two years in federal prison in October 2012 after pleading guilty to attempting to violate the ITR and helping Foomanie buy items to send to Iran.

Continued here:
Iranian national extradited to Texas after allegedly exporting 'military sensitive items' to Iran | TheHill - The Hill

If you listened closely this week,behind theterrifyingclamor of Covid-19 sweeping across the planet, you mightve heard the sound of war nearly breaking out again between the United States and Iran.

OnWednesday, thebirthday ofassassinatedIranian Gen. Qassim Suleimani, a barrage of rocketsslammed into the Camp Taji airbase north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. The attack killed two Americans and a Briton, while wounding 14 others. A day later, U.S. forces in Iraq hit back, carrying outairstrikesagainst Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia that it blamed for the attack. It isa safe betthat the violence between the United States and Iran will not stop there. Already on Saturday morning, reports emerged of another attack at the same base that wounded three more U.S. service members.

Despite a terrifying pandemic that has overwhelmed entire cities in Iran and now looms over the United States, the crisis between the two countries that began when the Trump administration exited the 2015 Iran nuclear deal shows no sign of abating. The possibility of war in the midst of a global public health crisis is, to put it mildly, outrageous. Iraniansare believed to beamong the most numerous victims ofthe Covid-19pandemic. Their governments decision to risk a conflict at this moment is both mystifying and galling.

ButIrans grim determination to hit back against the United States regardless of its peoples suffering does illustrate an important point. Itputs paid toa majorTrump administration justification for the controversial assassination of Suleimani in a January drone: deterrence.

In the immediate aftermath of Suleimanis killing, Secretary of State Mike PompeotoldCBSs Face the Nation that the entire strategy has been one of deterrence, claiming that the drone strike against the general had sent a decisive message to the Iranian governmentthat would force it to refrain from future acts of aggression.

But if deterrence really was the strategy, its been a resounding failure. Even before this weeks deadly attacks, rockets have continued to periodically rain down on U.S. bases in Iraq, as well as the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. Iran has indicated inpublic statementsthat it plans to take what it views as a full revenge for the killing of Quds Force chief Suleimani at a time of its choosing.The deadly attack on Camp Taji suggests that they are not bluffing.

There is historicalcontext to consider as well. Since the 1979 revolution that brought the current government to power, Iran has shown that it is willing to endure a tremendous amount of punishment to achieve its strategic goals.

During Irans war with Iraq in the 1980s, then-Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini continued to battle Saddam Hussein long after his attempted invasion of Iran had been repelled. Hundreds of thousands on both sides were killed over years of grueling World War I-style trench warfare, all in dogged pursuit ofKhomeinisgoal of forcing the Baathists from power and placing an Iran-friendly government in Baghdad. (The Iranians would have to wait until 2003, when the United States graciously accomplished this goal for them.)

Today, even amid a cataclysmic public health crisis that is said to have killed hundreds of Iranians, including several top political and military leaders, the Iranians show no signof relenting on what they view as their primary geopolitical interests. Their continued attacks on American targets in Iraq suggest that they are pushing forwardtoward their main strategic goal: ejecting American troops from Iraq.

In anarticleabout the recent violence, Afshon Ostovar, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School and author of Vanguard of the Imam: Religion, Politics, and Irans Revolutionary Guards, wrote that the Iranian-backed militia attack on Camp Taji and the U.S. military response fits right into the aims of Kataib Hezbollah and Iran.The attacks by U.S. aircraft helpincreasepublic anger in Iraq against U.S. military activity there andlaythe groundwork for a broaderconfrontation thatmightforce the United States to leave for good.

Iran and its Iraqi allies have more Iraqi deaths and destruction to fuel their effort to expel U.S. forces from the country, Ostovar wrote. They also have cause to respond further, if they wish, in order bait the U.S. into additional aggressive acts on Iraqi soil. Yet, doing so would compel the U.S. to respond in kind, and the cycle of escalation would continue toward certain conflict.

Despite its overwhelming military advantages, that would be a conflict the United States would be poorly positioned to win. The U.S. public is already exhausted and disillusioned with years ofseemingly pointlessfightingin the Middle East. Most Americans arealso anxious over the impact of Covid-19 at home and unlikely to be thrilled with the idea of diverting more resources to fighting another war with no clear end goals.

Unlike Iran, where the government wields authoritarian and sometimes brutal power to quell public dissent, the U.S. is constrainedin its capacity to ignore the wishes of its own people.Thats why U.S. officialslike Pompeo have insistently portrayed Suleimanis killing as a way of tamping down violence in Iraq rather than escalating it. Its a disingenuous claim that is getting harder to defend.

The proxy war between theUnited States and Iranlooks certain to continue. It seems that noteven a global health crisiscan stop it.One thing is clear however: Ordinary Iranians, Iraqis, and Americans can ill-affordthis kind of violence right now.

Even before the devastation wrought by Covid-19, Iran was struggling to cope with the consequences of American sanctions. It is in even worse shape today. The United States under Donald Trump, meanwhile, seems ill-prepared for the social and economic upheaval that will accompany a major pandemic on U.S. soil.It doesnt seem like much to ask that U.S. and Iranian leaders postpone their score-settling until the pandemic threat that facesus allcan be brought under control. But eventhatmodest hopemay be out of reach.

See the original post here:
Amid Coronavirus Chaos, U.S. and Iran Edge Closer to War - The Intercept

The coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China, has now swept through 126 countries, infected close to 170,000 people worldwide, and is responsible for more than 6,400 deaths as of March 15. China is leading the world in the number of confirmed cases and deaths. What many people find shocking is that Italy and Iran are the second- and third-hardest hit nations in this outbreak.

By any common-sense measure, both countries should have much lower numbers of confirmed cases and deaths because they are geographically far from the epicenter of the outbreak. The reason these two countries are suffering the most outside China is mainly due to their close ties with Beijing, primarily through the One Belt and One Road (OBOR) initiative.

OBOR is Beijings foreign policy play disguised as infrastructure investment. Heres how it works: China and country X agree to do an infrastructure project in country X. Country X has to borrow from a Chinese bank to finance the project. A contract is always awarded to Chinese companies, which then bring supplies and Chinese employees to country X to build the project. Clearly, the country that benefits most from this initiative is China.

The OBOR provides new markets and consistent demand for Chinas goods and services, creates employment opportunities for Chinese workers, and gives China access to strategically important locations and natural resources. Beijings real objective is to leverage its newly gained financial power to greatly expand its geopolitical influence as well as its economic and military footing from Asia to Europe and Africa.

While this initiative has worked out well for Chinas strategic interests, it hasnt done the same for participating countries. At least eight countries that signed on the OBOR initiative are so indebted to the Chinese that they had to hand over their strategic assets to China to offset their debt. Despite these worrisome precedents, leaders in both Italy and Iran eagerly signed up to OBOR in 2019, hoping the red capital from Communist China would rescue their nations from economic woes. Now they are paying a dear price for it.

Italys economy has beenstruggling for two decades.It has seen threerecessionsin 10 years. Its unemployment rate stood at10.3 percent, and its youth unemployment rate was 33 percent as of 2018. According toMarco Annunziata of Forbes, the living standards in Italy today are roughly the same as they were 20 years ago because very little growth has occurred.

Italys economic woes are caused by aging industries, ruinous regulations (especially its overly rigidlabor laws), an inefficient banking system, high levels of corruption, and constant political turmoil. From 1946 to 2016, Italy had 65 governments. No matter who was in charge, he lacked resolve to implement serious structural reform and deregulation to boost the economy.

Instead, every one of the 65 governments hoped they could spend their way out of an economic mess. Italys debt burden as a percentage of annual economic activity measured by GDP is at 132 percent as of 2018, the second highest in the EU, only slightly better than Greece.

The most recent political upheaval in Italy took place in May 2018. Weeks after an election, the anti-establishment groups and pro-EU lawmakers failed to produce a new coalition government. The final compromise resulted in a virtually unknown law professor, Giuseppe Conte, becoming the new prime minister.

Like his predecessors, Conte has been unwilling to implement any structural reform. Instead, he sought an easy way out. Almost exactly a year ago in March 2019, against warnings from the EU and the United States, Italy became the first and only G7 country to sign onto OBOR. As part of the deal, Italy opened an array of sectors to Chinese investment, from infrastructure to transportation, including letting Chinese state-owned companies hold a stake in four major Italian ports. The deal gave communist China a foothold in the heart of Europe, but Conte downplayed it as no big deal at all.

Lombardy and Tuscany are the two regions that saw the most Chinese investment. Nearly a year later, the first Wuhan coronavirus infection case in Italy was reported in the Lombardy region on Feb. 21. Today, Italy is experiencing the worst coronavirus outbreak outside China, and Lombardy is the hardest-hit region in the country. As of March 14, Italy reported 24,747 cases and 1,809 deaths. Now the entire country is in lockdown until at least April 3. Its economy is expected tocontract 7.5 percent in the first quarter, opposite what Conte had hoped.

Iran faces some of the worst economic and political challenges it has in decades. The Trump administration re-imposed economic sanctions in 2018, which has worsened an already crumbling economy. In 2019, Irans inflation rate was 40 percent. The regime had to introduce a ration to limit meat consumption last year. Its currency, the rial, has lost 70 percent of its value to U.S. dollars. The overall unemployment rate was 15 percent but between 40 and 50 percent among young people.

Fed up with economic hardship, Iranians took to the streets in late 2017 to 2018 and then again between 2019 and early 2020. Initially, they protested to voice economic grievances about government corruption, but the protests quickly shifted to demands for fundamental political reform. They rejected their governments policy of supporting terrorists in countries like Syria while ignoring economic hardship at home, and called both for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to step down and for death to the Revolutionary Guards, a powerful military force loyal to him.

The Iranian government responded to these protests with an iron fist. In 2019 alone, the Iranian governmentreportedlykilled more than 1,000 protesters, arrested thousands more, and shut down internet nationwide for six days to block news of the crackdown from being shared domestically and internationally.

Facing domestic economic and political challenges and international isolation, Iran has sought out China as an ally against the United States, relying on economic ties and military cooperation with Beijing to fend off U.S.-imposed sanctions. China has been keeping the Iranian regime afloat by purchasing Iranian oil, selling the Iranian regime weapons, and transferring nuclear technologies.

But 2019 was the year Iran officially signed up to OBOR. China sees Iran as a crucial player to this initiative because Iran is not only rich in oil but also lies in a direct path of an ambitious 2,000-mile railroad China wants to build, which will run from western China through Tehran and Turkey into Europe.

Today, Iranian health officials trace the countrys coronavirus outbreak to Qom, a city of a million people. According to the Wall Street Journal, China Railway Engineering Corp. is building a $2.7 billion high-speed rail line through Qom. Chinese technicians have been helping refurbish a nuclear-power plant nearby. Iranian medical professionals suspect either Chinese workers in Qom or an Iranian businessman who travelled to China from Qom caused the spread of the coronavirus in Qom.

But religious leaders and the Iranian government were slow to take action. Religious leaders in Qom refused to cancel Friday prayers until the end of February, which allowed infected pilgrims to quickly spread the virus to other parts of the nation. Although on Feb. 1 the Iranian government banned its airlines from flying to China, it made an exception for Mahan Air, an unofficial airline for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The WSJ reported that Mahan Air had carried out eight flights between Tehran and China between Feb. 1 and Feb. 9 to transfer Chinese and Iranian passengers to their respective home countries. This explains why so many high-level Iranian officials are infected by the coronavirus, including First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri and more than 20 lawmakers. Mohammad Mirmohammadi, an adviser to Khamenei, was the most senior Iranian official who died of the coronavirus as of today.

Iran is now the third-worst hit country in the coronavirus pandemic, with close to 14,000 cases and 724 deaths. Given the secretive nature of the regime, many suspect the actual numbers of cases and deaths are much higher. Ilan Berman, vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council, says, Coronavirus has exacted an even higher political toll on the regime, because it has exposed the countrys ruling clerical elite as incompetent and out-of-touch. He predicts the coronavirus may accomplish what years of actions by the West have failed to achieve: the collapse of Irans clerical authoritarian regime.

Italy and Iran have very different social, economic, and political systems. Yet both nations share something in common: Their leaders refused to implement economic and political reforms in their nations. Instead, they sought close ties with communist China in recent years, selling out their countries and their peoples interests, hoping Beijings red capital would rescue their failing economies. Now their economies are worsening and their people are suffering most in this outbreak all because of these leaders short-sighted and foolish decisions.

Read more:
Iran And Italy Are Paying A Hefty Price For Ties With Communist China - The Federalist