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Iran is accusing U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson of "a brazen interventionist plan" to change the current government that violates international law and the U.N. Charter.

Iran's U.N. Ambassador Gholamali Khoshroo said in a letter to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres circulated Tuesday that Tillerson's comments are also "a flagrant violation" of the 1981 Algiers Accords in which the United States pledged "not to intervene, directly or indirectly, politically or militarily, in Iran's internal affairs."

Tillerson said in a June 14 hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the 2018 State Department budget that U.S. policy is to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons "and work toward support of those elements inside of Iran that would lead to a peaceful transition of that government."

"Those elements are there, certainly as we know," he said.

Kohshroo said Iran expects all countries to condemn "such grotesque policy statements and advise the government of the United States to act responsibly and to adhere to the principles of the (U.N.) Charter and international law."

He noted that Tillerson's comments came weeks after President Hassan Rouhani's re-election to another four-year term and local elections in which 71 percent of the Iranian people participated. Rouhani is a political moderate who defeated a hardline opponent.

"The people of Iran have repeatedly proven that they are the ones to decide their own destiny and thus attempts by the United States to interfere in Iranian domestic affairs will be doomed to failure," Kohshroo said. "They have learned how to stand strong and independent, as demonstrated in the Islamic Revolution of 1979."

He said Tillerson's statement also coincided with the released of newly declassified documents that "further clarified how United States agencies were behind the overthrow of Mohammad Mossadegh, the popular and democratically elected prime minister of Iran on Aug. 19, 1953."

At the June 14 hearing, Tillerson said the Trump administration's Iranian policy is under development.

"But I would tell you that we certainly recognize Iran's continued destabilizing (role) in the region," Tillerson said, citing its payment of foreign fighters, support for Hezbollah extremists, and "their export of militia forces in Syria, in Iraq, in Yemen."

U.S. lawmakers have long sought to hit Iran with more sanctions in order to check its ballistic missile program and rebuke Tehran's continued support for terrorist groups, and on June 15 the Senate approved a sweeping sanctions bill..

The bill imposes mandatory sanctions on people involved in Iran's ballistic missile program and anyone who does business with them. The measure also would apply terrorism sanctions to the country's Revolutionary Guards and enforce an arms embargo. It now goes to the House.

Senators insisted the new Iran sanctions won't undermine or impede enforcement of the landmark nuclear deal that former president Barack Obama and five other key nations reached with Tehran two years ago.

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Iran accuses to US of 'brazen plan' to change its government ...

Under the terms of the deal, Total will invest $1 billion in the first phase of development of part of the South Pars gas field. It will form a partnership with the China National Petroleum Corporation and the Iranian company Petropars.

This is the one that everyone has been waiting for, Homayoun Falakshahi, an analyst at the energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, said of the announcement. This deal very much sets the example.

Mr. Pouyann, a burly former rugby player, seems to have taken a calculated gamble. Iran has vast energy resources the worlds largest proven natural gas reserves and the second-largest trove of oil in the Persian Gulf, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy.

Total is extremely familiar with the slice of South Pars that it will work on, having scoped it out before sanctions made work in Iran impossible for big international companies.

Iranian oil officials are known as tough negotiators, but Mr. Pouyann argues that by being the first of the big international oil companies to sign a major deal with a post-sanctions Iran, he was able to shape much better terms than had been offered in the past.

Being in the lead could also position Total to reap other rewards, possibly including access to the Azadegan oil field, which could become one of the industrys largest projects in the next decade.

Turbulence in the Middle East including tensions between Qatar and other gulf countries, as well as violence in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere has made some companies wary. But Mr. Pouyann sees a strong opportunity for investment.

What the Middle East can offer us is having giant resources at a low cost, he said. You can have a profitable business.

Iran, long on oil and gas, but short on capital and technology, could be the next great energy frontier if global and domestic politics permit. A wide range of international oil companies are circling around it, looking for the right opportunity.

Totals deal is not without risks, however. In particular, the Trump administration, which is reviewing its approach to Iran, could take a harder line against Tehran, discouraging even international companies from investing there.

While Mr. Pouyann cannot rule out new sanctions, he and other potential investors were pleased when the Trump administration reapproved waivers, originally signed by the Obama administration, exempting international companies that invest in Iran from certain United States sanctions.

From Totals point of view, the advantages seem to outweigh the drawbacks.

It is a fairly reasonable risk to take, given what they have been seeing and what they have been hearing, said Richard Nephew, a former sanctions coordinator at the State Department who is now a researcher at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.

Total can count on the backing of the French government, and it has additional protection from the investment of China National Petroleum Corporation, a state-owned company.

And with an annual investment budget of around $17 billion, the $1 billion Total has committed to spend over several years in Iran is relatively small in the grand scheme of things, said Oswald Clint, a senior analyst at Bernstein Research in London.

Pulling off a successful project in Iran will not be easy, and doing business there comes with a broad range of difficulties. Total has spent months preparing for this moment, sending small amounts of euros to Iran, for instance, to test the banking system there. The company has identified small European banks that will furnish its local financing needs, but other companies say that financing large deals remains difficult because most lenders avoid Iran, for fear of running afoul of the United States.

Iran can also be a difficult and opaque place to do business, one where corruption is widespread and where political opposition to foreign investment in Irans natural resources can raise obstacles.

Companies also say they need to take extreme care because of sanctions. Some oil executives said that when traveling to Iran to meet with officials there, for instance, they take only laptops stripped of sophisticated software like encryption programs, and older models of mobile phones, to avoid accidentally violating export controls.

Link:
Total Signs Deal With Iran, Exposing It to Big Risks and Rewards - New York Times

A shooting war between the US and Iran would set off a chain of uncontrollable conflicts.

It is now two years since the signing of the historic nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers. According to the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran has complied fully with the agreement. Yet the enmity between the US and Iran has reached fever pitch under Donald Trump's presidency.

Trump, with his Israeli and Arab allies, has squarely targeted Iran as the main culprit for almost all the problems bedevilling the Middle East. He denounced it as the source of instability and extremism in the region, and put it "on notice".

Some analysts have raised the spectre of a US-Iranian military confrontation. They include former US Middle East envoy Dennis Ross, who recently penned an article in Politico to this effect. While the Trump administration's Middle East policy remains very incoherent, a military engagement with Iran could be disastrous for all sides.

Iran is not an entirely innocent party in the conflicts raging in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Nor can it be dismissed as a source of growing Sunni-Shi'ite sectarian tensions and support for various sub-national groups, ranging from the Lebanese Hezbollah to the Iraqi Mahdi Army. Iran's involvement in these developments is part of a strategy of building a regional security architecture, stretching from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean. This, plus Iran's partnership with a re-assertive Russia, makes US concerns and those of its Arab allies, led by Saudi Arabia, understandable.

However, to blame solely Iran for the growing regional turmoil is to overlook other fundamental issues that darken the Middle East. It would be a gross oversight to ignore the role that the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the flawed US intervention in Afghanistan and invasion of Iraq, and the botched approach to the Syrian crisis have played in opening the space for Iran to extend its strategic reach.

It would equally be tragic to turn a blind eye to the tensions and conflicts that have gripped the Arab world, manifested in the so-called Arab spring popular uprisings, the Saudi Arabian-led Arab efforts to restore the status quo, and the funding that has gone from some Gulf Cooperation Council states, not just Qatar, to Syrian rebels. Some of this funding has ended up in the hands of such extremist groups as the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra, or what is now called Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, and also indirectly to the self-proclaimed Islamic State as anti-Shi'ite and anti-Iran groups.

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The latest move by Saudi Arabia and two of its Gulf council GCC allies the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain plus Egypt, to isolate and punish one of their own, Qatar, on the grounds that the emirate was supporting Islamist terrorism, is a further example of the perpetual conflicts that have struck the Arab landscape. However, Qatar's pursuit of an autonomous regional policy, involving good working relations with Iran, seems to be the main irritant. The Saudi-led demands for lifting the blockade of Qatar included that Qatar downgrade its relations with Iran, close down its Al Jazeera TV network (the only media in the Arab domain that was critical of authoritarian practices in the Arab world) and sever all ties with the Muslim Brotherhood movement and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza.

The Muslim Brotherhood's electoral victory in the 2012 Egyptian elections and its year-long term in government before the military overthrew it shocked the Egyptian establishment and challenged the political legitimacy of the Gulf monarchies to the extent they denounced the movement as a terrorist organisation. No Arab monarchy found the Muslim Brotherhood's rise more challenging than Saudi Arabia, which claims the leadership of the majority Sunni Islam against Iran's championship of the minority Shi'ite Islam. The Saudis and their allies dislike Hamas because it originally grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood, and because of its rule of Gaza, where Qatari humanitarian and reconstruction aid was been critical in making a difference to the lives of the mostly impoverished 2 million inhabitants of the strip under Israeli blockade since 2007.

Qatar rejected the Saudi-led demands as unrealistic and repugnant to its sovereignty. The blockade has already proved counterproductive, as it pushed Qatar further towards Turkey and Iran, which rushed military support and food supplies to the emirate respectively.

Coming on top of all this is the Trump administration's confused and contradictory rhetoric and action. Its lambasting of Iran as the source of all evils in the region belies its confirmation that Iran has honoured the nuclear agreement and the unspoken fact that it has shared the US's fight against Islamic States.

Whatever the final outcome of the US-Iranian hostilities, if it leads to a shooting war it is bound to set off a chain of uncontrollable conflicts in the region. Iran does not possess the military strength and firepower to withstand a sustained attack by the US or, for that matter, Israel, or both. However, it is resourceful enough to make any attack very costly for its perpetrators by engaging in asymmetrical warfare and causing an inferno across the region. A combination of Iranian fierce nationalism and Shi'ite allegiance, as well as regional links, could make such a conflict very expensive and protracted. Russian involvement could widen beyond Syria, where the risk of a major-power confrontation is now also high.

No Arab monarchy found the Muslim Brotherhood's rise in Egypt more challenging than Saudi Arabia.

Amin Saikal is distinguished professor of political science and director of the ANU's Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (the Middle East and Central Asia). He is the author of Iran at the Crossroads (Polity Press, 2016). amin.saikal@anu.edu.au

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Qatar crisis: Iran is not the only catalyst of the Middle East's turmoil - The Canberra Times

Iranian President Hassan Rohani has criticized major dam projects by Turkey on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.

Rohani is demanding that Turkey halt construction of both dams, saying that they were "dangerous" for the entire Middle East.

Rohani made the comments during a conference on sandstorms in Tehran on July 3.

He did not name Turkey but said that multiple dams planned on the two major rivers that flow into Syria and Iraq will have "destructive consequences" and affect many, including Iran.

Turkey's control of the headwaters of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers is controversial in the Middle East.

Critics say decisions made by Turkey have led to water shortages in Syria and Iraq and have contributed to regional instability and wars.

Syrian Kurds in February accused Turkey of cutting off water supplies to the Euphrates River as a form of political pressure.

Activists warn that the dam on the Tigris River at the Turkish village of Ilisu will reduce the water flow to the marshlands of southern Iraq and threaten their existence.

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Iranian President Criticizes Turkey's Dam Projects - RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty

Ali Akbar Velayati (R), senior advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, shakes hands with Christian Masset, secretary general of the French foreign affairs ministry, in Tehran on July 3, 2017. (Photo by Tasnim news agency)

A senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says Iran will resist any plot aimed at weakening or dividing up countries in the Middle East.

Undoubtedly, regional nations will never yield to the demands of extremist movements and their allies and it is better to take steps forthe establishment of regional peace, stability and security through international will, Ali Akbar Velayati, who advises the Leader on international affairs, said in a meeting with Christian Masset, secretary general of the French foreign affairs ministry, in Tehran on Monday.

He urged the European Union and Western countries to take up more independent policies vis-a-vis regional and international issues.

On the West Asian and North African issues, global cooperation and coordination as well as firm determination and will must be establishedto counter extremist, Takfiri and terrorist movements, Velayati said.

He added that some countries are exploiting tensions and crises in the region and are not interested in the establishment of regional peace and stability.

However, Iran has over the past yearsbeen standing up against and resisting all these movements that have disturbed global peace and security, the senior Iranian official said.

In line with its principled and fundamental policy, Iran wants the preservation of the territorial integrity of regional countries, he added.

Velayati also expressed Irans readiness to cooperate with France and other countries seeking to promote global peace and stability.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he pointed to deep-rooted relations between Tehran and Paris and called on the two countries officials to take more serious steps to boost cooperation and remove obstacles in the path to such ties.

Common Iran-France stance on regional issues

The French official, for his part, said Tehran and Paris have common stance on regional issues.

Masset also said the two countries enjoy deep-rooted relations and must use their potential to further expand cooperation.

The French foreign ministry official is visiting Tehran few days after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif traveled to Paris on the third leg of a European tour on Thursday. The top Iranian diplomat held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian and President of the French Senate Gerard Larcher.

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Iran will resist divisive plots in Mideast: Leader's aide - Press TV