Brief On Iran (BOI), Newsletter July 13th, 2015

The document, marked “secret,” is a message from Mohammad Ali Shahidi, the head of the Iranian Martyrs Foundation, a charitable organization overseen by Iran’s Supreme Guide Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, addressed to the organization’s subsidiary the Yemen Martyrs Foundation.

Informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat the message is a reply to a request by the Quds Force on behalf of the Yemen Martyrs Foundation.

The Quds Force is an elite division of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps involved in various operations outside Iran, including fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Iraq.

The sources say the Quds Force requested the Iranian Martyrs Foundation to increase its financial support for the Houthis to 3.7 million US dollars due to the heavy losses the Houthis have sustained in recent months following Saudi-led airstrikes targeting the group in Yemen.

In the message, Shahrati says the Iranian Martyrs Foundation is ready to meet the requests for support to the families of the Houthis, addressing them as “Ansar Allah,” an alternative moniker for the group.

Retired Army three-star general and former Army Asst. Vice Chief of Staff Jay Garner told Howard Altmanof The Tampa Tribune that the U.S. Administration is taking orders from Tehran not to arm the Kurdish militia in northern Iraq and Syria.

“The Iranians have told the administration not to arm the Kurds. They back the government in Baghdad, which is a puppet government to Iran. Our administration is so immersed in this nuclear deal (with Iran) that I think they will do anything the Iranians tell them to do,” Garner said.

Garner is convinced that the Kurds can defeat Islamic State if they receive the necessary weapons. He claims that if the U.S. would give the Kurds A-10 Thunderbolt IIs and Apache attack helicopters, Javelin and TOW anti-tank weapons, 81 mm mortars, and M113 armored personnel carriers and armored Humvees, they would be able to continue their advances toward Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq.

“They have over 600 miles of frontage,” Garner said. “They have to guard the whole front and all that they have is light infantry.”

The Kurds need anti-tank weapons to eliminate the threat of the truck bombs Islamic State uses. Islamic State now uses three plates of armor to stop RPG’s from destroying their truck bombs that are often packed with thousands of pounds of explosives.

Negotiations between Iran and the P5+1. This past weekend it looked like negotiations were progressing, but Iran has once again upped its demands and is now pushing for the end of UN weapons sanctions.

The deadline for a deal has long since transpired, but negotiators continue to work towards an agreement. Two of the biggest issues holding up a potential Iran nuclear deal are the missile and warms embargoes being placed on Iran. The Iranian government has demanded that these be lifted, but so far Western envoys have refused.Apparently, the Iranian government has argued that the ballistic missiles have nothing to do with the country’s nuclear technology programs, and thus should be lifted. So far, Western officials have balked at the claim and also the demands to lift sanctions. Given on-going concerns with Iran’s military ambitions in the Middle East, and the potential that nuclear technology development could continue in secret even after negotiations are concluded, it’s unlikely that Western powers will budge on this key issue.

BEIRUT – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad signed a law ratifying a $1 billion credit line from top regional ally Iran, Syria’s state news agency SANA said on Wednesday, funds which will help ease economic strains from the costly war.

The agreement was between two state-owned banks, the Syrian Commercial Bank and Export Development Bank of Iran, it said. Syria signed a previous $3.6 billion credit line with Iran in July 2013 which has been used up mostly for oil imports, bankers have said.

The new deal was signed on May 19 and approved by the Syrian parliament on Tuesday, SANA said. The money would be used for funding imports of goods and commodities and implementing projects, it said, without giving details.

Tehran’s financial aid has been seen as pivotal to the Syrian government and the economy, which has more than halved in the four years since the conflict erupted, researchers say.

Iran is believed to have sent dozens of military advisers and President Hassan Rouhani has said Tehran will back Assad “until the end of the road”. Several senior Iranian military figures have been killed in recent months.

The idea that Iran is a partner in the fight against terrorism is not only disingenuous but also absurd. What Zarif is seeking is a leap of faith by his Western readers, who are asked to believe that a country which has been repeatedly identified as the largest state supporter of terrorism in the world will suddenly be altered by an agreement over its nuclear program into an ally against terrorism. He is asking the world to simply trust Iran that this transformation is about to happen.

VIENNA (AP) – As negotiators at Iran nuclear talks labored to make headway, the country’s supreme leader called Saturday for the struggle against the U.S. to continue, in comments suggesting that Tehran’s distrust of Washington will persist no matter what the outcome of the talks.

The negotiations entered their 15th day Saturday with no indications of major progress after three extensions and four target dates for a deal, and diplomats said it remained unclear whether an agreement could be reached by Monday, the latest deadline.

Iran and the U.S. have threatened to walk away unless the other side makes concessions. Although it was unclear whether Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was preparing the ground for the failure of the talks, his comments were likely to add to skepticism over the outcome at the negotiating table.

Iran’s state-run Press TV cited Khamenei as calling the U.S. an “excellent example of arrogance.” It said Khamenei told university students in Tehran to be “prepared to continue the struggle against arrogant powers.”

At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate and US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) asked Defense Secretary Ash Carter:

Who will leave office first, Syrian President Bashar Assad or US President Barack Obama?

The Pentagon chief reportedly answered, “I hope Assad, but I don’t think so.”

Carter’s answer highlights the basic contradiction of the US policy regarding Assad. Over the past four years, the Obama administration has repeatedly said that Assad needs to step down – but has done very little to make that a reality.

“Are you actively discussing ways to remove [Assad] as a part of that political transition?” a journalist asked Obama in November.

“No,” he said.

Recent reports filtering down from Iraq are further confirmation that U.S. President Barack Obama believes Iran and its proxies can play a constructive role in re-establishing security in this war-torn corner of the Middle East and rolling back the advances of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS), the extremist group that has taken large swaths of Iraqi and Syrian territory under its control. According to a Bloomberg scoop, U.S. forces are now sharing base Taqqadum with Iran-backed Shiite militia groups. Although proponents of this approach might argue that Shiite militias are the only viable option to fight I.S., a broader examination proves that such an undertaking is a risky business that will prove detrimental to the goals pursued by a U.S.-led campaign that is now nearing the end of its first year.

From a moral standpoint, it is plain wrong to align oneself with forces that are allegedly involved in crimes against humanity and the torture and murder of innocent civilians, no matter what short-lived gains such a choice might yield. According to reports by the international bodies such as Amnesty International and the U.N., these same forces are responsible for the abduction and brutal murder of Iraqi Sunnis, and have on several accounts proceeded with the looting and burning of Sunni towns after reclaiming them from I.S.

HANOVER, N.H. – Hillary Clinton warned voters here ahead of the Fourth of July weekend that even if President Obama reaches a deal with the Iranian government over its nuclear program, the regime in Tehran will still pose a major threat to the United States.

“I so hope that we are able to get a deal in the next week that puts a lid on Iran’s nuclear weapons program, because that is going to be a singular step in the right direction,” Clinton, the former secretary of state who is now running for president as a Democrat, told about 850 spectators in an outdoor amphitheater on the Dartmouth College campus.

But Clinton, despite her words of encouragement for Obama’s efforts to reach a deal with Iran, did not wholeheartedly endorse the process.

“We don’t know yet. It’s too soon. These things always go down to the wire,” she said.

And she quickly positioned herself in a more neutral way toward the entire process, saying that even if a deal is reached, it will not reduce the need to be vigilant against Tehran.

“But even if we do get such a deal, we will still have major problems from Iran,” she said. “They are the world’s chief sponsor of terrorism. They use proxies like Hezbollah to sow discord and to create insurgencies, to destabilize governments. They are taking more and more control of a number of nations in the region and they pose an existential threat to Israel.”

Tehran (AFP) – US President Barack Obama recently sent a private message to Iran’s leadership via Iraq’s prime minister, an Iranian newspaper reported Monday on the eve of a deadline for a nuclear deal.

Hamshahri, Iran’s highest-circulation daily, citing a lawmaker, said “one of the leaders of a neighbouring country” took the message from Obama to officials in Tehran.

The subject discussed was the nuclear talks between Iran and world powers led by the United States it said, without giving further details on its content.

The newspaper suggested that the message bearer was Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who met Obama on June 8 on the sidelines of a G7 summit in Germany.

Abadi visited Tehran on June 17, meeting Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as well as President Hassan Rouhani.