Iran Focus

London, 4 May - The Iranian security forces have arrested a 15-year-old girl for writing poetry that the security forces claims incites violence.

Ma’edeh Shabaninejad was arrested back in March at the aunt’s house in Ahvaz, where she hid after security guards raided her home and confiscated her poems.

Her father, Sahid, said that Ma’edeh has been allowed to call her mother from jail on a weekly basis and is accused of writing poetry about Iran’s Arab minority that incites violence.

Iran Focus

London, 4 May - Oil prices evened out on Friday, following recent gains, but global supplies remain limited as the market prepares for Donald Trump’s decision on the fate of the 2015 nuclear deal.

On Monday, April 30, Brent crude oil hit a 3-1/2 year closing high of $75.17, but by Friday, this has dropped by 30 cents to $73.32 a barrel. US light crude had also dropped 20 cents to $68.23.

ANZ analysts Daniel Hynes and Soni Kumari wrote: “Rising geopolitical risks have been a big factor behind oil’s strong rise this year. The extent of the rally would have been significantly weaker if not for recent tightness in the market. We expect the market to tighten even further in H2 2018.”

By Edward Carney

It was widely reported on Thursday that Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif had once again reiterated the Islamic Republic’s refusal to enter into new negotiations over the 2015 nuclear program, which US President Donald Trump has long promised to either improve or cancel. Zarif’s latest remarks came less than two weeks before the deadline for the renewal of American sanctions waivers put into place by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Trump has said that if Congress and the European signatories to the deal do not “fix the terrible flaws” in the agreement by May 12, he will allow those waivers to lapse.

Iran Focus

London, 3 May - “Resist, my homeland, there is not much left of you

Soon you will hear in your sky

the sound of smiles and liberation’s call.”

~ Ma’edeh Shabaninejad

Fifteen year-old Ma’edeh Shabaninejad is accused of inciting violence through her poetry about Iran’s Arab minority. She was arrested two months ago at her aunt’s house in the southern city of Ahvaz, where she was hiding. According to her father, Sahid Shabaninejad, security forces had previously raided her own home and confiscated her poems.

Iran Focus

London, 3 May - President Donald Trump has not hidden his disproval of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that was negotiated under the Obama administration. He said during the presidential campaign that he would be scrapping the deal if he became president.

However, since taking office, he has been put under pressure from allies in Europe to continue certifying Iran’s compliance.

The Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act obliges the US President to declare that Iran is complying to the terms of the deal and to confirm that the continuation of the suspension of economic sanctions is essential to ensuring the national security of the United States.

Iran Focus

London, 3 May - A pair of Iranian software developers has created a modified version of Telegram to subvert Iran’s latest attempt to block the instant messaging app.

Amin Sabeti and Nariman Gharib created a version that uses Psiphon software to help Iranians that aren’t already using a circumvention tool or virtual private network (VPN) to evade prying eyes.

The Iranian judiciary ordered that Telegram, which is used by around half of Iran's 82 million people, be blocked on April 30 for its use by protesters in the ongoing uprising against the Mullahs.

Iran Focus

London, 3 May - Air France is cutting a service from Paris to Tehran, operated by its subsidiary Joon, citing poor economic performance over the past two years.

This decision comes as the international community is increasingly uncertain about the future of the 2015 Iranian Nuclear Deal, which Donald Trump is threatening to pull out of on May 12.

A representative from Air France said that the decision was not linked to the political climate, but it does seem like suspicious timing.

By Pooya Stone

On Monday, it was reported that yet another dual national had been arrested in Iran and subjected to unsubstantiated accusations of membership in a foreign “infiltration network.” Mahan Abedin is described as a “security analyst” and the director of the London Center for Terrorism Studies, but much of his professional work has been criticized in the West and by Iranian dissidents for defending and sympathizing with the existing Iranian government. This fact suggests that hardline authorities such as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Intelligence Ministry attach significantly more weight to foreign affiliations than to the actual views espoused by the person with those connections.

Iran Focus

London, 2 May - In less than two weeks, President Trump will announce whether he is going to re-certify the 2015 Iran nuclear deal or not. It is uncertain whether he will once again waiver the sanctions but there has been a lot of speculation.

Trump announced that he wanted to ensure that the deal is strengthened and the loopholes that Iran is taking advantage of are removed. He wants the sunset provisions to be cancelled and he told the other signatories of the deal that Iran’s belligerence across the Middle East and its ballistic missile program must be addressed.

Iran Focus

London, 2 May - As North Korea and South Korea appear to be heading towards peace, it is clear that the political landscape is changing for the better. While most of the world is celebrating this historic breakthrough, Iran would do well to learn from the Korean peace talks, according to political scientist Dr. Majid Rafizadeh.

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh writes in his latest column for Arab News that Iran should learn four key lessons from these talks, if the republic wants peace as much as it says it does. Let’s look at those lessons in detail.

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.