Daily Report for Tuesday, January 31, 2017
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Report for
Tuesday,
January 31, 2017 Bahman 12, 1395
Highlights, Page 2
News Briefs, Page 3
* Other Stories, Page 3
* Reformist newspaper on Ayrault’s visit. Page 3
* Call for removal of ‘billionaire minister’. Page 4
* No one dares enter Iranian territorial waters. Page 4
* Javan calls for government’s reaction
to “disgraceful French diplomacy”. Page 5
* Foreign policy needs paradigm change. Page 7
Daily Report for Tuesday, January 31, 2017
2 Highlights
The reformist newspaper Etemad writes that visit by French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault is an opportunity for Iran to move closer to France and EU.
(See Page 3)
The hard-line conservative Farsi-language newspaper Javan takes a critical view of visit by French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. It writes that he arrives in Iran as foreign cruisers are simulating an attack on Iran in the Persian Gulf, under the command of the UK Royal navy and with US cooperation. (See Page 5)
The necessity and importance of a major turn in Iran’s foreign policy from the geopolitics of the Middle Eastern terror to the geo-economy of Asian hope is due to the fact that we are currently witnessing incremental, accumulated and contagious crises in the Middle East. (See Page 7)
Daily Report for Tuesday, January 31, 2017
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News Briefs
* State-owned Farsi-language newspaper Iran writes that Deputy Foreign Minister for European and American Affairs Majid Takht Ravanchi stated that Iran currently has
“no plans” for dialogue with the Trump administration. Ravanchi praised Iran’s relationships with European countries, however, and stated, “The level of Iran-Europe relations is greater than normal.”
* Farsi-language reformist newspaper Mardom Salari writes that Tehran police have confiscated cargo of smuggled goods worth 7.6 billion rials. The smuggled goods were being transported from one of Iran’s western cities to Tehran when it was confiscated.
* Farsi-language reformist newspaper Mardom Salari writes that there were 421 deaths due to carbon monoxide poisoning in Iran in the past nine months, up by 32.4% as compared to similar period the previous year.
* Farsi-language reformist newspaper Mardom Salari writes that Tehran police have arrested a gang specialized in forged passports. The gang was based in western part of Tehran city.
* Farsi-language reformist newspaper Etemad writes that Social Security Organization says the ‘private sector’
owes it 14,000 billion tomans.
* Farsi-language news website Aftab News writes that 40 restaurants were closed down in Qom city because they did not have necessary permits.
Other stories
Reformist newspaper on Ayrault’s visit
Farsi-language reformist newspaper Etemad writes that in post-Iranian revolution years, Iran and France relations had their ups and downs. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault’s visit to Iran comes at a time when the relations between Iran and France seem to be improving.
Even though it is said that he is visiting Iran to participate in a joint economic committee, nevertheless his visit could have positive political effects as well.
France may be interested in getting involved in Syrian issues through Iran, given Europe’s cold relations with Russia and not warm enough relations Turkey. Maybe the French want to obtain their desired information from Iran.
The French appear to be worried about President Trump’s future steps regarding JCPOA. President Hollande has reportedly warned Trump against tearing up JCPOA.
With Trump starting to work as American President, both Iran and EU are under pressure, even though the EU had started feeling the pressure earlier than Iran.
With Trump’s new executive directives, Iran and EU have common concerns about America. Trump has approved and encouraged Britain to exit EU, causing serious concern in France and Germany.
The Europeans may be worried that Trump’s actions to fight terrorism may have opposite effect of intensifying the threats of terrorism, more extremism and even conflict in Middle East.
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This could increase threats to Europe in terms of security and immigrations.
Therefore, it seems unlikely that two old allies [France and America] would have cordial and warm relations during four years of Trump administration.
It appears the situation offers opportunities to France, Europe and Iran to increase their cooperation and mutual understanding, then come up with appropriate strategy for cooperation through which they can obtain positive results in the Middle East region.
Call for removal of
‘billionaire minister’
The hard-line Farsi-language newspaper Javan writes that the conservative organization Transparency and Fairness Watch has written a letter to First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri calling on the removal of the Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh.
The letter refers Nematzadeh as a corrupt minister and ‘the billionaire minister’.
The letter specifically mentions that Nematzadeh has told Iran’s Customs Administration to exempt LG from paying fine of 3,000 billion tomans for customs- related violations.
No one dares enter Iranian territorial waters
IRGC Navy Commander RADM
Habibollah Sayyari reacted to the announcement of Exercise United Trident, a naval exercise by U.S., UK, and French forces off the coast of Bahrain scheduled for January 31-February 1.
Sayyari stated, “Anyone who wishes to carry out exercises in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman will not dare to enter [Iranian] territorial waters.”
Also, some IRGC units used “new AK- 103” assault rifles during the IRGC Ground Forces’ “Imam Ali” exercises last week in western Iran. Iran purchased AK- 103s from Russia in August 2016.
Defense Minister IRGC Brig. Gen.
Mohammad Hossein Dehghan stated at the time of the purchase, “Production of light arms has been low in the last ten years due to the prioritization of air and naval projects. This purchase was made due to regional crises.”
IRGC Deputy Commander Brig. Gen.
Hossein Salami has said that Iran is “one of the few countries” that possesses the knowledge to produce ballistic missiles capable of hitting “moving targets.”
Iran has signaled its intention to boost the accuracy of its missiles, likely in an effort to boost their conventional applications. A ballistic missile capable of hitting a moving target could be used to target warships at sea.
Daily Report for Tuesday, January 31, 2017
5 Javan calls for government’s reaction to
“disgraceful French diplomacy”
The Farsi-language conservative newspaper Javan writes in Farsi that the French Foreign Minister Ayrault’s visit to Tehran comes as his country’s navy, in collaboration with those of the US and UK, is currently simulating an invasion of Iran in the Persian Gulf.
This is while the French FM has cunningly taken side with Tehran in the face of the threats uttered by US President Donald Trump against the implementation of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — signed between Iran and P5+1 — and Iranians and said that his trip is aimed at boosting mutual trade and supporting the Iranian pro-government moderate party to emerge victorious in the country’s upcoming presidential elections by glamorizing their achievements in the post-JCPOA era.
The extremely shameful French diplomacy aims to obtain trade concessions from President Rouhani’s administration in return for promises of support for the implementation of the JCPOA and Iran’s incumbent government in May presidential elections.
Trump and the US intelligent agencies are still engaged in a skirmish over Russia’s alleged cyber-attack on the US presidential election and role in the victory of the country’s new president. Israeli officials are also still facing trial in judicial tribunals or have been already jailed for accepting electoral bribes.
In France, presidential hopeful Francois Fillon is being blamed and investigated by financial prosecutors as well as supervisory-electoral committees following claims that his wife was paid about €500,000 over eight years from public funds for a parliamentary assistant’s job she never carried out.
This is while, France is both preparing itself in the Persian Gulf for an attack on Iranian military forces and is adopting a meddlesome as well as benefit-seeking diplomatic approach towards Iran on the verge of its FM’s visit to Tehran.
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The question is how Iran’s foreign ministry, which is counting on France and a number of other European countries to counterbalance Trump’s hostile policies against the JCPOA, is going to respond to France’s shameful, meddlesome and benefit-seeking diplomacy.
Is Rouhani’s administration going to overlook and fail to give an appropriate response to what is blamed and condemned as a crime in the West and other countries? Would there be any reaction to France’s diplomatic impudence from the Iranian government?
Are we expected to witness the same meddlesome behaviors from the countries whose embassies used to lead seditionists following Iran’s presidential elections in 2009?
Are we going to grant other substantial concessions, in addition to the JCPOA itself, to Western states to keep them committed to fulfilling their obligations under the nuclear deal? Are we going to give in to their policies aimed at taking military control of the region? What would be the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s response to France’s diplomatic rudeness?
Daily Report for Tuesday, January 31, 2017
7 Foreign policy needs paradigm change
Iran Review news website. Massoud Mousavi Shafaei. Faculty Member at Tarbiat Modarres University & Political Economy Researcher: Unlike the era of the Cold War, when concentration of power within framework of a bipolar world system was considered as a major feature, we are now witnessing multiple power centers under the present international conditions.
As a result, analysts have been talking about a multipolar system or even a non-polar world system. The main effect of multiplicity of power centers is fluidity of international system and emergence of new conditions for action in various regional environments. This is true because both the ability and determination of traditional big powers (mostly Western) for direct engagement in regional conflicts have decreased so that they are more inclined toward indirect presence in those conflicts and setting the direction for a fluid regional balance of power. For this reason, at the present time, emerging and regional powers have tuned into active actors and are trying under new conditions to boost their power and influence.
Under these circumstances, the dominance of a geo-economic logic and opportunities for cooperation and prosperity, which are embedded in it, have brought relative order and stability to some regions, including East Asia.
On the opposite, the dominance of the geopolitics of terror has brought instability, war and conflict to some other regions, including the Middle East. In the meantime, due to its international role and geographical position, Iran is situated between two regions, which follow two different logics. The first region is Asia in its general sense, which seems to be heading toward geo-economics of hope, with the second region behind the Middle East, which is now engulfed by the geopolitics of terror.
The necessity and importance of a major turn in Iran’s foreign policy from the geopolitics of the Middle Eastern terror to the geo-economy of Asian hope is due to the fact that we are currently witnessing incremental, accumulated and contagious crises in the Middle East.
As a result, talking about any form of cooperation, especially economic cooperation and convergence and establishment of a cooperative regional order under such conditions is more similar to a lame joke. Under these critical conditions, if we
Daily Report for Tuesday, January 31, 2017
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extended the scope of our analysis beyond the Middle East and Southwest Asia, we would see other regions where the framework for cooperation and rivalry has been defined on the basis of a geo-economic logic in such a way that relative order and stability has been maintained in those regions. Therefore, two main arguments can be put forth in this regard:
1. Making an effort to rebuild the regional order in the Middle East within framework of the logic or paradigm of geopolitics and through military and security domination is very difficult, if not impossible. This region is now trapped in all kinds of conflicts that arise from the geopolitics of terror. There are many ethnic and religious conflicts, terrorism, collapse of governments, civil wars, and so forth in the region, which are incremental, accumulated and contagious in nature and depict a picture that foretells endless conflicts. Under the present circumstances, the outlook for the reconstruction of the regional order seems improbable, because neither the big powers have the ability and resolve to build a new order here, nor suitable conditions are in place for establishment of a hegemonic order by a single regional powers, nor there is any promising outlook for creation of a cooperative order.
2. Due to its geographical position, Iran is situated between two regions, which follow two different logics. The first region is Asia in its general sense and with its own geo-economic logic, with the second region being the Middle East, with its own geopolitical logic. We are all aware of difficulties of making a paradigm change in Iran’s foreign policy, but as geopolitical, military and security conflicts escalate in the Middle East and Southwest Asia, the necessity and importance of turning toward Asian geo-economic structures is felt more than before,. It is evident that this paradigm change does not mean that Iran should end its influence in the Middle East, because as a result of geographical and geopolitical realities, Iran’s presence in the Middle East is vital for protecting the country’s national security. The meaning of paradigm change is a subjective and objective development, which would be able to prioritize the country’s spheres of influence (the Middle East, Southwest Asia, Central Asia…) and type of influence (security, military, economic, cultural…) in line with the Islamic Republic’s national interests. In the second step, limited resources of the country must be allocated in an optimal manner, and policies aimed at achieving goals (not just oriented toward fulfilling obligations) be adopted in order to guarantee sustainable security and national prosperity of the country.
